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.

Write India: Penance

The fourth author as part of the Write India campaign is Ravi Subramanian. His competition was set in the modern society, and explored extramarital affairs. Read on for the short story I wrote for the same. Do leave feedback in the comments.

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.

H.G. Wells: The Country of the Blind

Imagine a world, a world where everyone was blind. Imagine they had been blind for generations, and had completely lost the concept of sight from their collective memories. Imagine you got there, and were stuck with them. How would you fit into their culture? In a world of the blind, wouldn't the one eyed be king? Here's how HG Wells predicts such a situation will go. My analysis, read below.

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.

Edgar Allen Poe: The Black Cat & The Tell-Tale Heart

Edgar Allen Poe definitely had a thing for all things horrific - murders, evil incarnate cats, and guilt. It has been suggested that this is mainly due to Poe's own miserable life - it is well known he struggled with depression and alcoholism, and it is possible he wrote in this manner as a warning to the reader about his own world view.

Here I read through two of his stories - The Black Cat (1845) and The Tell-Tale Heart (1850), both dealing with murders in their own right, and the way the human psyche deals with the act of murder. To read the stories, click on the links above. For the analysis, read on below.

Edgar Allen Poe: The Oval Portrait

The oval portrait is about a painter who loved his wife, and loved painting over her. What happens when he decides to bring his two loves together, and paint his wife forms a telling narrative on humanity's eternal pursuit for immortality, and our focus on perfection. To read the story itself, click here. To read a brief summary and analysis of the different themes, read on.

Mary Shelley: The Modern Prometheus

To understand the reference to fire, light, and Prometheus, these links can be useful reading. To read Frankenstein, you can get the book on-line here. To understand why the book's subtitle is so significant to the reading of the tale, read on.

Mary Shelley: The Sublime - Romanticism

To understand this motif, I would recommend reading Frankenstein, a free on-line copy of which can be found here. Mary Shelley wrote at the early stages of a literary movement known as Romanticism. We can see shades of romanticism in her novel, as explored below.

Mary Shelley: Introduction

To get a basic understanding of what this section is all about, please read below.

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: Emerald

Green, as it happens is considered to be a sign of life, fertility and at the same time associated with negative connotations such as envy or sickness. So if I were to explore where all the concept of green could go, we would read this poem right here. All yours.

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: Life

Here's a simple exercise. Define life, or describe it, in one word. Not simple is it? Well, how about if I asked you to list all words you think associated itself with life. What all words can you think of that remind you of life when you hear them? Here is an attempt I made at this exercise.

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.