AnuKathaa

Amar stumbled on the last step of the staircase. Thankfully, he hadn’t let go of his hold on the handrail, and so, there wasn’t any harm done. “Come on,” he chided himself, “You’ve dealt with bigger problems during your office days. This is nothing! Just your ego being hurt a little. Chin up.” In all our lives, sooner or later, there comes a turning point. We change, and then, we can never return to what we were before. For Amar, that point had come this morning. He’d been sitting in the mild morning sun, leisurely turning the newspaper page, sipping his second cup of coffee, when he saw his wife Lata shaking with laughter, looking at something on her phone. “What’s so funny, dear?” he’d asked, not realizing what was in store for him. “Hahaha, nothing really! It’s only this message on our apartment ladies group that sounds so very apt. Just one of our little jokes!” “Quite a joke it must be to make you laugh like that! Tell me, what it says,” he’d insisted; foolishly, as it now turne...

The second short story of the year. The theme was "For Hire". Word Count: 1000. I tried adding in a picture of Srinathji, but there seems to be some problem with loading images on the blog. To see the picture, go to this link  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinathji#/media/File:Sri_nathji.jpg As usual, waiting to know your thoughts on the story!  The loud and urgent knocking on the door reverberated through the small house, startling Meena. As she opened the door, she was even more stupefied seeing the terror-stricken face of her husband Nathuram. “Lord Srinatha, You alone can save me now!” cried Nathuram, as he rushed in and collapsed to a sitting position on the floor, leaning against the wall. “What happened, ji? Why are you so distraught?” “It’s all your fault, Meena! Oh God, what will happen to me now!” wailed Nathuram. Meena’s face fell. She was used to her husband’s caustic tongue, which always found fault with her. Yet, she had never seen him so full of des...

After a hiatus of close to a year, I'm back to writing short stories. This month's prompt: Coalition. Word count: 1200 words exactly. For the umpteenth time, I wonder why I even agreed to come here. For the umpteenth time, I struggle to curb my mind that says, “Because you’re running away...” I step off the train and make my way out with the crowd exiting the Kalburgi railway station. Hugging myself against the early morning chill, I enter the mini-bus that’s going towards the hotel booked for my stay in this small town. The bus isn’t very crowded. It’s a small town, after all. I listen to my co-passengers talk. Simple people, simple lives. But no matter where you live, human life does seem to be the same, with the all-too-familiar pains and the only too rare, occasional joys. By 9 am, I’m in the waiting hall of the ESIC Medical College and Hospital which caters to the health needs of people in this rural belt. Dr. Kumar greets me with a firm handshake. “Good morning, Dr. Ra...

I had completely forgotten about the poetry challenge I'd agreed to under the 12 Poems in 12 months banner. I realized that just 12 hours before it was due for submission on 06-03-2019. I'm no poet and so, was really worried and for the first time, even considered giving up.  But then, inspiration struck, and here's what flowed out....this poem rhymes in some parts and doesn't in others. So, I think it's technically under the genre of Free Verse. According to the website Literary Devices, "Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Such poems are without rhythm and rhyme schemes, do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules, yet still provide artistic expression. In this way, the poet can give his own shape to a poem however he or she desires." Prompt: Red                               ...

This month was especially busy and so, despite having ideas for the prompt, there was absolutely no time to devote to developing them.  So, when deadline day came up, I did something I rarely do - I took a shortcut. I had a story previously written for my blog, but it was a shorter word count. So, I expanded it a bit. And because I wanted to put some effort into the story, I re-wrote the narrative from 3rd person to 1st person and changed the tense from past to present.  Technically, it's a different story but I can't help feeling I didn't do full justice to the purpose of the exercise. Anyway, for all it's worth, here is the story.... Prompt: New Me Word count: 1200 exactly I stretch my legs in the cramped space, mentally berating myself for not booking tickets in the AC Chair Car. This is what happens when you put off travel decisions to the last moment, I chide myself. I wriggle to make myself comfortable in these ordinary seats-meant-for-2-but-allotted-to...

POETRY - the word itself creates a sense of some haunting and beautiful emotion. Many, many years ago, I had, on occasions, written some poems - probably about 3 or 4 pieces. Ever since I started seriously writing - on my blog, and the short stories - I never ever imagined myself writing poetry. I always believed I'm not poetic enough or artistic enough or creative enough or bright enough or sad enough or mad enough to do so. But I hate giving up on a challenge. So, when this year, my South Africa-based writers group came up with a poetry challenge - 12 Poems in 12 Months - I signed up for it. Being preoccupied with things to be done in the real world, I didn't have the mental space to let my imagination soar. So, I did the best thing I could. I thought up a story with a little lesson (like I do with my stories 😊 ) and got it to flow with rhyme and rhythm. So maybe it's more cerebral than emotional. Do read and let me know what you thought of it ....         ...

So 2019 has started. And I decided to embark on a hattrick with yet another year of story-writing with my group of writers from across the world on the 12 Short Stories Writing Challenge. Here's the first story of this new calendar year.                                              *********** Prompt: No one can know      Word count: 1500 exactly *********** “You won’t get far with this group, Ms. Ruhi,” drawled a deep voice. Ruhi turned to look at the speaker, taking in the streaks of grey in his hair and the mocking smile that played about an otherwise grim face. “What makes you say so, Mr. Mukund?” “I’ve been seeing it all these years. People want to attend these training programs only to lend weight to their resume or because they’re forced to by their superiors. No one is really interested in making a serious change.” “Ok, people, time for t...