Posted by: Naren on: October 21, 2009
‘Welcome to The Imperial Grand, sir. May I take your coat, Ma’am? I have reserved your usual table by the window, sir.’
‘Thanks, Jim. My son will be joining us, so could you show him to the table?’
The maître d’ nodded his most sincere assent and politely shuffled off with the coats in his hand.
The restaurant [...]
Posted by: Naren on: June 30, 2009
It was the world’s worst break-up. After being a couple for almost seven years, they didn’t know what to do without the other. It was difficult to forget all those good times, and they both did lots of things to try and forget – the guy, for instance, drank cold milk with glucose all night [...]
Posted by: Naren on: June 28, 2009
The village was just as Pillai remembered it. Rust had taken newer meanings and blanch was the new paint. ‘All that will change in a few days’ he said to himself.
‘Aunt, you have to become the village Head’ he said, as soon as he stepped into the house and washed his limbs. All help gasped. [...]
Posted by: Naren on: April 29, 2009
This, my friends, was my second entry to the aforementioned competition:
The courtroom’s doors opened and the case began. The prosecutor brought his herd of witnesses, who all swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help them God, pointed their finger at the defendant, told their stories and left [...]
Posted by: Naren on: April 27, 2009
This is the first of my three entries to a short story writing competition. It’s a work of fiction and any resemblance to any character is purely coincidental. It’s working title was Chauvinistic, My Foot! And I mean it. To those who think they are above copy right rules, I have already sent my entry:
Unearthly [...]
Posted by: Naren on: January 8, 2009
“Why doesn’t the dashed bus come?!”
Like the ticker tape that runs at the bottom of every news channel nowadays, that was the sentence flashing across my mind every few words the bleached septuagenarian uttered. It was a grand morning, a light mist hanging over the dew-frozen earth, the sun’s rays coming in fine lines through [...]
Posted by: Naren on: May 19, 2008
After a rather salty gargle, a hot bath, hot idlies and molaha podi (a famous south Indian hot side dish used for dosas, idlies, etc.) and the eternal struggle to straighten my drooping sock, I reached school just about 3 minutes late. At school, you always knew whether it was a special day, a [...]
Posted by: Naren on: March 29, 2008
It was a sultry day in Chennai, and I was drenched with sweat as I sat alongside my mother and my little baby sister on a bus that seemed to be on an eternal journey to nowhere. The usual hustle and bustle was very much there, with people from different walks of society converging upon [...]
Posted by: Naren on: December 27, 2007
Dear momma,
I have lived all these days listening to all my friends’ shrill, piercing cries. Everyday, I wake up thinking it’s going to be me today, but that just doesn’t happen. It is a bittersweet thing – you feel happy that you are alive and sad as you hear your friends, with whom you spend [...]
Posted by: Naren on: December 24, 2007
Beauty’s beastly products are beauty products. The more beautiful you are, the more you yearn to beautify yourself.
