The short story “The Silk Route” by Giti Chandra was published for the first time in 2020 by Future Fiction within the anthology “Avatar. Contemporary Indian Science Fiction”.
For centuries, the Silk Road has been a trading network from China to Europe. Silk plays an important role in a future where there’s a collaboration between India and China but it’s not the same silk of ancient times. Its fine threads intertwine between past and future.
“The Silk Route” takes its cue from historical roots such as the connections between very distant places that were possible thanks to the silk road, also known as the silk route. Much more recent events are also mentioned, such as an experiment aboard the Chinese Chang’รจ 4 Moon mission. It’s a really short story that offers food for thought by projecting the past and present towards the future.
Silk represents a common thread in past, present, and future communications and collaborations that can offer positive results when different people can work together. Giti Chandra includes the problem of climate change, which can be overcome if that work is done by respecting nature rather than just using it.
Embracing millennia makes “The Silk Route” seem even shorter. It’s not at all easy to create a plot that is a sort of mosaic made up of pieces that are really small fragments in a work that’s just a few pages long. Giti Chandra does this by focusing on some key elements that connect the past, present, and future.
I thought that greater development of those pieces in a much longer work might have given it greater depth. However, the length chosen by the author left only the essential, and perhaps it’s better this way. Giti Chandra also writes poetry so she knows how to focus on meaningful details. The result is that “The Silk Route” can be read in a few minutes and you can immediately start reflecting on the subtle meanings of the intertwining that make it a little gem that in my opinion, you should read. The anthology “Avatar. Contemporary Indian Science Fiction” is available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
