“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 October, 2014, an edited version of the story was published in the online journal, Papercuts. A print edition of the issue — themed Metropolis — is also available.
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.
“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 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. I was told that these ten stories would be published in a forthcoming anthology, but that never happened. *Sigh*. 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.
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