WRITING
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WRITING ✐
Short Stories
Flash Fiction
Articles
A fable for our times
The leopards and the wolves shared the forest. It had always been so.
One day, two wolves noticed the sharp teeth and sharper claws of the leopards, and felt uneasy. The rest of the pack shrugged and walked away. But the two of them said, “Let’s keep our claws and teeth sharp. Just in case.”
Surprise
The room was a jumble of shadows. The moonlight, weakened by its struggle through the smog and the dirty window, cast a hint of silver across the room; highlighting the edge of a chair there and a lamp here.
The sound of the doorknob turning ricocheted around the silent room. The shadows seemed to shrink in response, as if they were afraid of what was coming through the door.
Half Life
I should be dead.
Being hit by a bus going at 100 kilometres an hour should do that to you. Okay, may be not a 100, but it was still going fast enough. But I was still alive, at least I thought I was. I couldn’t be dead because I was standing on the footpath looking at the crowd gathering around the bus.
Smell the roses
The room was big, just a few millimetres shy of being infinite. It had no door. Or windows. Yet it was well-lit. Where the light came from or how it was controlled was anybody’s guess.
However, its size was not the most interesting thing about the room. It was not even the second most interesting thing about the room.
Glove
I named him Glove, since I found him nestled inside a discarded fur glove. Mom said “NO” at first. I pleaded and promised all sorts of things — clean bedroom, good grades, and NO TOYS for Christmas. She seemed unmoved. I guess she had learnt the hard way not to trust a promise made by a man, however young he was. But God had made puppies cute for a reason, and soon Glove was shadowing me around the living room. We played all day — hide and seek, scare the puppy, feed the puppy, clean up after the puppy. By evening, even Mom had started laughing.
Two or three hours into the night, however, we got to know Glove a little better.
Sulochana had earned the name ‘Sticky-fingers’ by the time she was eight. Things, shiny plasticky things, had a way of disappearing whenever she was around.
Her parents tried everything – reasoning, cajoling, threatening and way worse – to correct her. Nothing worked. They resigned themselves to reading about her in the paper one day and hanging their heads in shame. Then, just like that, she stopped. And everyone, including herself, sighed in relief.
Many years later Sulochana nodded off on a hot summer day, hypnotised by the katchak-katchak of the 12.15 to Ernakulam. An hour later, Sticky-fingers opened her eyes, looked around and smiled.
#risk
Rehan was super thrilled. Finally his parents had agreed to take him to the beach.
His parents were just as thrilled. Finally even they would have their 'cute couple on the beach' insta-post. That will show Sushma, thought his mother as she typed ...
#familytime
He wandered through the night gathering the pieces of a freshly shattered heart. Looking up at the sky he wondered if he would ever find someone to love him, just the way he was.
'Tada', whispered God with the hint of an all-knowing smile.
#miracle
Juhu is where a lot of dreams take wing. Today's narialwallah could become tomorrow's Shah Rukh Khan. Or so, Gajanand told himself every morning.
#hope
At one end of the line was home. Where his wife, two children, his mother, brother and uncle waited for him and his hard-earned money.
At the other end of the line was his job. Where his supervisor waited for him with a double-shift, a pay cut and the threat of unemployment.
And his friends wondered why Pyarelal avoided express trains.
#vacation
The residents of The Buckhingham Estate, Upper Juhu slept peacefully every night. After all, Mishra was at the gate 24X7, rain or shine, protecting them and all that they owned.
The only protection Mishra had was his fervent hope that there was someone up there looking out for him.
#faith
Appu knew that one day he would become a great actor, just like his idol Mohanlal. He hung around the shoot all day and most of the night, hoping to pick up a few tricks from his hero.
What Appu did not realise was that he already knew the most important rule of them all: always be aware of the camera.
#talent
"The day after I retire I will sit in this armchair, on a beach and listen to the waves all day", thought James as he clicked Buy.
The ulcer in his stomach, drip-fed by his job, had a less long-term and much more fatal plan.
#never_postpone-happiness
Selvaraj was the most feared moneylender in all of Pollachi. The rumour was that he did not know how to smile.
But then, no one had ever caught him watching reruns of Chota Bheem on his phone.
#secret-pleasure
When he was a boy, Moin made a list of things that he would not bother with. Turning up at school and studying were the first two items on that list.
#regret
The doctors gave Rajesh six months. At the temple, his priest looked up and sighed. On his way out, Rajesh etched his name into the bamboo plant growing outside, and promised himself to come back in six months.
Six months later he did it again. And then again.
#hope
Santosh loved his wife. Every night he would lie in bed, listening patiently while she narrated the plot twists of her current favourite serial.
At the break of dawn every day, Santosh would get up and drop his son at his kickboxing class.
But Santosh, he loved the 8.15 from Kochi to Palaghat more.
#true-love
Once upon a time, Sundar's Pecs were the talk of Kodambakkam. He owed his Mr. Kodambakkam crown to their shape and ability to dance to the tune of 'Chikku Bukku Raile'.
Now they hide behind a well-worn banyan, dreaming of the glory days while unfettered moobs, that have never seen the inside of a gym, prance about in the sun.
#faded-glory
8 lessons I learnt while Beta Testing my retirement.
It hit me one fine day. I had completed 10 years in advertising. A decade of late nights followed by early mornings, cup’o’noodle lunches followed by whisky shot dinners, and 10 years of living with a constant craving to ‘just do nothing’ for a little while.
How I stopped my Mom from becoming a Fake-News-Tsunami on WhatsApp.
I knew things had gotten out of hand when she sent me this message: The cow is the only animal on earth that inhales carbon-dioxide and exhales oxygen.
Unlike said cow, I had to breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide quite forcefully for a few moments while I wondered what to do. This was just one in a series of disturbing messages that I had received from her since she decided to go ‘social’.
That evening I called her up, and our conversation helped me understand three things.
What writers can learn from President Donald Trump: #BeMoreTrump
The list of horrifying things about the 45th President of The United States grows longer each time the news cycle refreshes itself. But every cloud has a silver lining, even if the said cloud is a mushroom shaped, orange tinted, harbinger of doom.
Happily Ever After. And how it almost ruined my life.
We’ve all heard, or read, or seen the syndicated version of this story.
A regular Joe or Jane is stumbling through life. Then he or she discovers a life goal: return ring to lava-spouting mountain / burn everyone in sight with your dragon babies and claim your birthright/ take down a terrorist network using just toothpicks and bubblegum. And after successfully completing said task, Mr. Joe or Ms. Jane would kick back, sip on something cold and live Happily Ever After.
A night away from 'life'.
Trekking up 3000 ft to Kohoj Fort by torchlight
The Kohoj Fort (not Khoj fort, like I kept saying till someone was kind enough to correct me) towers over the tiny village of Vagothe, a hundred or so kilometers from Mumbai. Close enough for a quick weekend getaway, it’s just what you need to stretch your city-cramped legs.