Writing

I moonlight as a contributing writer at Helter Skelter, an online journal focusing on independent and alternative culture in India. The Sunday Guardian did a feature on Helter Skelter in July, 2012 that made a mention of Through Time, a series of articles in which I attempt to chart our journey through time. Rehab for Lovers, my fawning tribute to Wong Kar-wai’s cinema, was featured as the cover of Helter Skelter’s August, 2011 issue.

Entelechy, the campus mouthpiece at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, came out with its 50th edition in April, 2014. As part of the commemorative issue, I was fortunate enough to be asked to contribute an account of my experience as the editor of the magazine.

“The Cigarettewalla” was the fictionalised version of a real life episode in the life of my cigarette vendor. It won a special mention in the Talk Short Fiction Contest and was published in the December 6, 2012 [Pg. 16] issue of Talk — “the intelligent Bangalorean’s must-read weekly”. In January, 2014, an edited version of the story will be published in the online journal, Papercuts. A print edition of the issue — themed Metropolis — will also be available.

“Scenes from a Lonely Dinner” — a poem borne out of my ongoing [and increasingly lost] battle with loneliness [some say solitude] — was featured in November, 2013 in New Writing Vol. 3, an initiative started by Helter Skelter in 2012 to promote emerging writers and poets in India. The theme of Vol. 3 was Strange Love. In August, 2013, the poem was short-listed in the poetry section of the 2013 edition of the Wordweavers Contest as well.

“Bad Nerves”, a rather foul-worded account of near real-life events was one of those stories one writes, and then forgets about. In August, 2013, it received a new lease of life when it made it to the featured writers list in the short story section of the 2013 edition of the Wordweavers Contest.

“Days of Being Wild” — a dreamy take on the summers in India — started off as a single sentence: “In my country, summer is the season of dreams.” In November, 2012, it was selected to be a part of “The Traversal of Lines”, a collection of writings about different cultures, that was brought out by the PageTurners bookstore. An edited version of the essay appeared in the May-June, 2013 issue of the bi-monthly print magazine, Reading Hour.

“Another Chance” — a rather clichéd and dream-inspired story — was described by a dear friend of mine as lacking the all-too-necessary ‘dhaar’. Given that it still made to the shortlist of the November, 2012 edition of the Wordweavers Contest, I am inclined to presume they didn’t set the bar too high.

“Shelf Life” — an unapologetic and a painfully honest confession of my deepest fears — was one of the top ten entries in a short story competition organised by the Desi Writer’s Lounge in August, 2012. These ten stories ‘might’ be published as a forthcoming anthology. Shelf Life was also featured in the fiction section of the summer 2012 issue of the online journal, Papercuts. The theme of the issue was From Pulp to Postmodern: A Tribute.

You’re Mine” was a short story that came to me quite spontaneously while I was spending a lonely summer afternoon in a forgotten and stunted South Delhi park. It was published in February, 2012 by Grey Oak Publishers in Urban Shots - The Love Collection, an anthology of urban love stories.

4 comments:

  1. :) I'm glad you did this. Looking at this list you will see for yourself what I see so clearly.

    PS: The Cigarettewalla ith your name there looks incredibly cool :)

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  2. Replies
    1. It doesn't serve a whole lot of purpose.

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