February 18, 2009

Ascension


The above image is courtesy Jason Evans from The Clarity of Night. He held a story writing competition, with stories inspired by the photograph above. The challenging part was, the story had to be limited to 250 words. I came to know of the contest with only a couple of days left for submission. I could not come up with anything within that time-frame, largely, I suspect, due to the self-limiting belief that I haven't done any story-writing before. So I ardently, if passively, followed the contest and I must say, it was an absolute pleasure.
Weeks later, after the winners have been chosen and applauded, my meandering mind has finally generated something, so here is my take. The first story I've ever written. Try not to be brutal with your comments. Here goes :

The Irony of FILE

"Wherever and whenever we are together, always hold me to your left" she said. “So I wouldn’t interfere with the purpose of your life.”
Did she know that she was contradicting herself? I wouldn't ever know.
But I still sleep on the right side of the bed, alone, smiling at the irony.

We bought exactly identical denims on our shared 18th birthday, to mark our metamorphosis from boys to men.
“18 till we die” we decided. Did we really comprehend those words? I'm not sure.
But I still wear those denims on the day only I grow older every year, alone, smiling at the irony.

One of my earliest memories is one of him sitting pillion on my tricycle, facing backwards.
One day, years later, he introduced me to her, bringing her to me on his bike, seated backwards, so that I could not identify my promised "hot date" from afar and backtrack with nervousness.

They both used to say that too often in life we miss what we have and will have, because we are too busy looking at what we have left behind. And then we used to laugh at the irony. They were both veterans at dyslexia. But was their’s the only kind?

Some people fear the slits at the bottom and the top of the elevator. I fear the invisible crack that runs down the middle, causing the two sides to ascend at different speeds.
I still ride the elevator backwards, alone, smiling at the irony.

Av
P.S. - Just for the record, its EXACTLY 250 words. :D

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Good one boy!!!! Word limits are never a roadblock on your expression...u would express it anyway :-)

spiro-de-noxious said...

abe when u take part in such runs do let me know atlest ..remember baroda ,, syajibaug ,, u me and her and the poem showers .. u wrote 1 poem and me was with 45!!1 eekss


tell me next time



hail gator

Abhishek Behera said...

brilliant! I can't stop saying - woow... woow... oh my god... woooow

Stupidosaur said...

Err...What died?
Hope you didn't!
Blog!
Thats a verb.
Verb is an action word.
They key operative word in there is 'action'.
Show some!
Soon :P