Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Creative Writing IV

Theme: dialogue only

1st: Anku Bharadwaj (Hist Hons. I)

A Salty Love Story



Esmerelda: Tell me Philip, why do you take salt with tea instead of sugar?

Philip: Esi, I mist tell you something. I miss my home a lot. As I come from the coastal areas, I had grown up with the smell of salt in the air. When I take salt with tea I remember the same smell and feel as if I am at home.

E: Oh! You miss your home, that's why you take salt with your tea. You know, Philip, I'm impressed. I would have never tolerated that awful taste even if I would have been in your shoes.

P: Esi, you say things so cutely. My ear can listen to your voice throughout my life. It;s just so beautiful!

E: I am not going to be with you throughout your life.

P: Why can't you be, Esi? I want to spend my whole life with you.

E: Is that a proposal?

P: Esi!

E: Yes!

P: Will you marry me?

E: Oh!

P: Tell me, please...

E: Yes! Yes! I will marry you, Philip.

[After 38 years of their marriage, Philip is on his deathbed]

P: Esi, I wanted to tell you something.

E: Yes, Philip, I'm listening.

P: Esi, my love, today I want to tell you that I had loved you a lot, and will love you even after my death. But there is only one lie I had told you my entire life.

E: What?

P: You know that I take salt with tea.

E: Yes! What about that?

P: You remember that reason I gave you for it? It was a lie.

E: What?

P: I'm telling you, sweetheart. Remember our first date. I was very nervous that day. You were so charming and beautiful. And me? Just not your type. In my nervousness I, instead of asking for sugar, asked for salt and made a fool of myself, Esi. I didn't want to lose you - that's why I hid this truth from you. When you asked for the reason, I just concocted an explanantion. I'm sorry!

E: What!

P: Are you hurt?

E: I...

P:Esi! I loved you, I didn't want to lose you that's why I told the lie. I am sorry....

(He dies)
E: Philip! Philip! (crying) Philip, no one other than you could have loved me that much. You were very much my type! Oh Philip!

[After this incident, Esmerelda also started drinking tea with salt in memory of Philip]





2nd: Koyel Lahiri (Eng Hons III)

“Oh Dada! Where are you headed? This is a one-way only corridor”

“I am headed to my native place. I believe the train is discharging from that platform?”

“No,no! Where have you been living Dada? That platform has been a ghost platform for two years now! No train has left or entered this place since Babu Ram cursed that track while he bled to death.”

“But I have ticket! Look, here, it reads: ’20:00 Platform 9’. I am looking for The Mail Express. Surprised,no? How can man with bag travel with letters? I have contact. Very good friend. He makes phone call, and bus! Done.”

“Dada-wait, what is your name?”

“Babu Ram”

“Babu Ram!”

“Yes. My grandmother gave. She said I was her little babu and that I will have virtue of Ram.”

“Okay, Babu (you don’t mind if I call you just Babu, right?) somebody has led you a dance. NO train comes here, not even the Mail Express, and even if it did, how would you have got a ticket for an illegal ride?”

“Eh? But look! I have-“

“Yes Babu, I see that piece of paper, but you must understand that in today’s day and age, anybody can make any sort of paper! My own brother showed the lawyer a Will that my father had actually not made, and took away my share of the land.”

“I am beginning to get irritated with you. You are not telling me helpful things.”

“Haha, Babu! Truth is seldom helpful, it seems!”

“Are you going to be telling me Philosophy now? Because let me tell you, I have BA in Philosophy, second class. My friends and relatives come to me when they have problem of existence.”

“No,no, Babu, I don’t give anything but occasional love to the occasional urchin.”

“I have no meaning with your love! I have meaning only with my train! It leaves in one hour! I have to be on it!!”

“Babu, do you know anything about why this track is closed?”

“No, because this track is never closed to me!”

“And why is that?”

“Oh dear. What will I do now? You are beginning debate with me. You say you will not let me through-“

“Because, Babu, there is nothing there!”

“-and if I don’t go through, my train will depart without me.”

“Come, Babu. Sit down. I have some nuts.”

“What will I do with your nuts,eh? I have my own.”

“Without a doubt, but sit down anyway.”

“I am sitting. But only because my shoe is hurting.”

“You should do what I do. I wear my skin. Shoes never were my thing.”

“I am sure that is because your mother did not put good habit in you.”

“My mother did not put anything in me. She died at childbirth. But yes, they never felt that people like me needed shoes. I grew up envying covered feet, but now I’m glad my feet never stink.”

“Are you saying I have smelly feet?”

“No, Babu, why should I pass judgment on your feet? I am just talking. It is not everyday that I get to talk to someone, so when I do, I prolong the conversation as much as I can.”

“Uff, this is too much. I refuse to be your prolonging object. I am getting up, and I am going. I have worked hard all my life, and I have promised to go home with earnings, and now I am.”

“Okay, Babuji, go ahead. I have been guarding this place for two years now, and you are the first man I’ve seen in as much time. So go ahead, if you disbelieve me-OH!”

“There. What did I tell you? Train has come, and now I board it for Native place. Grandmother is waiting.”

“Are you wanting water? You are looking quite ill. Goodbye, I go now. And I like you to call my full name next time. Grandmother called me Babu Ram.”


Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Creative Writing Competition III

Theme: Murder/Suicide
Topic: Attempted

Winners:
               1st: Nakashi Chowdhry (Eng Hons II)

Superman’s Sister

Amelia first discovered she could fly when she attempted suicide from her balcony. It’s rather disconcerting, finding oneself floating harmlessly when expecting to end up a nauseatingly gory splatter on the pavement below.
In her room she flipped open a little notebook and on the page with the growing list of failed suicide attempts due to newly discovered powers, she sadly crossed out another: ‘jump’.


               2nd: Swati Daftuar (Eng Hons II)

Never stand with your back to the world, especially on a cliff. You are usually pushed off. Never turn around and face your murder. You will see yourself as they see you. It is not a pretty picture.
Never, and I mean this, kill anyone unless, of course, you really want to. It is a tough job. And always, always have an alibi. Good luck.





Thursday, November 15, 2007

Upcoming Competitions

Caption Competition!

Get a partner (if you like) and come to room 9A on Monday (19th November) at 12.55 p.m. for a caption contest!
You'll be provided with 2-3 cartoons, any one of which you have to caption.
The finalists will be put up on the board where everyone can vote for their favourite caption.



Creative writing competition III

Come to room 9A on Wednesday (21st November) at 12.55 p.m. for the competition.
Participants will be provided with two pictures, on either of which they have to write a story/essay. There will be no word limit this time, but that also implies that the entries cannot be put up on the board so the college can vote.
Get as creative and imaginative as possible!

Creative Writing Competition I

Theme: fairytale
Topic: your take/version
Word limit: 65 



Winner: Indrani Basu (Eng Hons II)

He impulsively kissed her and jerked back immediately, waiting. Seconds ticked by, why did she not stir? Confusion overwhelmed him; he’d been told the story so many times!

Frenzied kissed, but she remained limp, eyes shut. A strangled cry of despair, the Prince walked away dejected.

She opened an eye. Satisfied he had indeed gone, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Ninth one this month.”




Runner up: Harshita Yalamarty (Pol Sci Hons II)

For long, lustrous and tangle free hair! -

She watched as deliriously happy bimbettes slowly swiveled their thick hair, flashing in the sunlight.

Just one hour before a shower! -

She couldn’t take it anymore…every time another impossibly long golden strand… oh, how her heart wept! …

Volume and bounce! –

Now, she had a list ready for the prince’s next visit. Assuming he could climb…

Say goodbye to hair fall! –



Special mention: Akshi (Eng Hons I)

The Ugly Duckling's Swan Song

Beneath the harem’s eye-shadow pink columns, only great beauty and greater dedication to it got noticed.

Amongst fluffy yellow, her gray stood no chance.

Attempts to fit in yet stand out – every chick’s dilemma – failed.

Ugliness was criminal. She escaped to the harem of a drake with paraphilias.

She got used.
He liked killing after…
Hence Swan Song.

Moral: Chicks don’t belong in harems.



Other finalists:

Aavanya Rajasingam (Eng Hons I)

Snow White was in a dilemma as she had had to choose between the prince and the dwarves. (Her vision still blurry after the nap) Clearly she deserved a break, but surely seven was better than one, right? This communication restored relations between her and the queen who confessed to that she had been having an affair with the Prince. And so they lived happily ever after.



Himadri Agarwal

8:08 a.m.: Beeeeeeep!
                   I push the ‘END’ key on keypad…instead of snooze…

9:00 a.m.: Jerk. A bolt. Missed first class. And short of attendance!
                   GOD!
                   Only if Mahima could give a proxy for me…

9:01 a.m.: Sent messages:
                   My fairy godmother,
                   SOS! Proxy, please!!!

9:40 a.m.: I reach for the next class.
                   Missed the first.
                   Got attendance.
                   Clapping.
                   For the Sleeping Beauty, who always misses the first class.


(Do feel free to leave comments) 



For those who participated and didn't make it to the final four: if you want your entry up on the blog, please contact one of the Expressions members.


Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Welcome to the Expressions blog!
Expressions is the literary society of Lady Shri Ram College.

What Expressions has been up to so far:
Poetry workshop conducted by Sampurna Chatterji (September 2007);

The Expressions fest: Rhetorica (October 22-24):
Events that took place -
                 Lexicon (vocabulary competition)
                 Spelling Bee
                 Word Melange (a three-round mix of games)
                 Turncoats (a debate)
                 Word games (Anagrams, Word chains, and Word Ladders);


Expressions Creative Writing Month (November 2007):
Creative Writing Competition I (7 Nov) -
                theme: fairytale
                topic: your take/version
                Winners: Indrani Basu, Eng II (1st)
                Harshita Yalamarty, Pol Sci II (2nd)

Creative Writing Competition II (14 Nov) -
                theme: murder
                topic: attempted muder/suicide.
                Winners: to be announced


UPCOMING EVENTS:

Creative Writing Competition III (21 Nov)

Caption Competition (19 Nov)



UPCOMING POSTS:
Poems by participants of the poetry workshop;
Entries of the participants of the creative writing competitions.