Write India: A Homecoming

The following is a short story penned by me as participation in Write India, a year long short story writing contest where popular authors set guidelines, and one writes and submits the story in accordance to it. You can check out about the contest here:

TOI Write India

This story is submitted as part of the month which is judged by Tuhin Sinha, who has written some amazing books like 'Of Love and Politics' and 'The edge of desire'. You can find his instructions below. Cool? Cool.

Creative Poetry: Birds

Much of humanity's drive through the ages has been through a need to learn and understand the world around us. This has defined, and in some ways restricted who we are, as a species as well. The following poem was my way of feeling out the impact of such defining restrictions, and the ease of living without said chain and ball. Hope you like it.

Tale Share: You've Come Out, and You've Come Out again

We like labeling things. We like binaries. We like our equations simple. So we find it hard to digest that nothing is ever really binary. The colours in this world are in a spectrum, as is gender.

Now, that is a hard concept for people to get in the west itself, which, let's admit, is a tad bit ahead of us in the acceptance of the non "normal" than us. US legalised same sex marriage, did you hear? We Indians on the other hand, are still grappling with the fact that transgender are people. What I wish for a day when I don't hear, "Which bathroom will they use!?"

Anyway, I digress. The point is, when a natural selection of sex itself is hard for us to see as a spectrum, I really don't see much hope for gender identification, which is more of a conscious choice than nature selecting sex organs for us.

I came across this one short story, written by Shikhar Vyas on The Cake, set in this nice world with nice people, who are supportive, and willing to learn, and don't ask if you have sex with yourself if you are an asexual. This, I would like to share with you. You can read the complete article on the Cake's Facebook page, linked above. Here I give you some snippets that stuck with me. Read on.

Creative Poetry: Future Untold

Okay this is one of those small gems that emerge from a night of introspection and loneliness. Either genius, or rationalisation, either way, it makes me smile every time I read it. The basic question being, just because we have found Utopia, does it mean, everything is perfect? Of course, there are many ways to represent this problem - but as I might have mentioned, I used to be sappy. Very sappy.

Like VERY. Seriously. Read it, if you don't believe me.

Creative Poetry: Thumka

Honestly, this one is a mystery. I know where the inspiration came from, because I was reminded, but not the context. Still, a good twist is never a bad idea. Read on.

Creative Poetry: Poetry in Beauty

You know when you see this woman, and you get the breath knocked out of you? When you are mesmerised by her beauty, but when people ask you what you found beautiful, you struggle to describe - because all you can say sounds like poetry? Here's what happened to me.

Creative Poetry: Ecstasy - Soul

There are poems about love, and life, and sex. Then there are poems about the soul, that transcend all things else - and yet, need them to express themselves. This is one of those works.

Creative Fiction: Jilting Aphorisms, Yearning Abstractions.

Where to start... this specific piece is very close to my heart. This is mainly because it is the culmination of one of the biggest phases of change in my writing style. This is perhaps where I came to terms with the relationship between structural rules and the freedom to follow my own rules. It also was a gift, and so designed to bring forth meaning. And lastly, it was also my first attempt to write in the form of children's tales, full with tune and flow. Have a good time with this one, folks.

Creative Fiction: Sex. Trust.

I wonder if the people involved here remember this piece. Again, very different to my normal style of writing because I was experimenting with my form, but still, overwhelming in its symbolism. I can read Freud all over this. And Nietzsche. And a couple of others. Read on.

Creative Poetry: I. You. It.

Oh my. This is a very interesting poem, given the time it was written. So the allusion is quite naked here (see what I did there?), and free for all to see. But here's the thing, it was written before I had any experience in the matter. Which would make this piece juxtaposed with the expectation of intimacy. Read on, have fun. Maybe I will write on the matter again.

Creative Poetry: Sing, Fly, Open Up

We tend to see the world with our own shade of glasses. So we tend to see the beauty that others miss. And often, this blindness to the self causes people to not know how amazing they are - they remain bound by expectations and perceptions. Here is an attempt to shake them of such preconceived chains.

Creative Poetry: Blind Trust

This poem marks my continued experimentation with the form and structure of poetry. The back story is that I had a nightmare, and this poem is all that is left of that dream. Enjoy.

Creative Poetry: That's a Given

Sometimes we all need a guardian angel. And sometimes, once we are better, we try to help others. And when we can't, we try to get help for others the same way we got help ourselves. This is an interesting poem for me personally, because this is where I started exploring narrative styles within poetry. This poem doesn't follow conventional standards of any sort. The attempt was to keep free of all restrictions, and find my own style.

Creative Poetry: A walk in the rain

I love the rain. I love getting drenched to the bone. The sweet tingling sensation when each drop hits your body, the intimacy of your interaction with nature, it all gets to me. So I am usually amazed when people prefer not to. This poem dates back to this one time, when I went out walking in the rain - got drenched, had something hot from a roadside vendor, and returned on the same way, to see a tree hit by lightning and get split in two. I initially wanted to write about the beauty and terror of that moment, and yet got swept away by the flow of this poem, and the result was something else entirely - something based on a very simple act of friendship I got to witness - one that trumped even lightning. Read on.

Creative Fiction: He's and She's

By the looks of it I went through a phase of coming up with scene renderings. A bit on the cheesy side, and by a bit, I mean dollops of cheesy. Read up for your daily dose.

Creative Fiction: The Mouth Organ

You know that one romantic scene set in the autumn, with leaves falling all around a couple, who simply walk towards each other, oblivious of the entire world? Here's my attempt to recreate that. One of the first of my many scene renderings. Read on to enjoy.

Creative Poetry: Eternal in Time

I don't think much needs to be said about this. Other than maybe that I was a very VERY sappy person. Then again, given the context, who wouldn't be?

Creative Poetry: Rain Beats

Here is another example of the romantic influence on my poetry. Don't remember the context, and yet, I like the point I have tried to make here.

Creative Poetry: Angel

Even those who like my poetry for its imagery have complained that I tend to go overboard with the cheesy. Here is one example of that.

Creative Poetry: Seraph and Angel

It seems I borrowed a lot of Greek imagery with my romantic poems back in the day. This is one very good example of this. Give it a read and tell me what you guys think.