My Friends of #MyFriendAlexa

Open e-mail Click! Check today's list Click! Who's on the list? Shrug! Pick one Click! What's it about? Shrug! Where's the like button? Click! The twitter share? There! Click! Did I put my #HASHTAG? Oops! Click again! Yaay! One down, Nine to go Hey, what about that comment? Oh yeah, that's there right? Click! Comment…

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Almost Enough!

Eight thirty in the morn surrounded by a thousand cars blowing their horn Packed lunch getting soggy Already! Smartphone beeps Email questioning excel sheets and power point presentations ready Slog, slog Responsibilities come hard, hard Twenty hours a day spent unappreciated Four hours of peace Negated! The minority majority run on artificial Duracell Loans, Card…

Penance

I look out, and see them just standing there, not speaking, accusing, tormenting. The bag with the money, and the gun lies on the bed. The reason and the reason. My head starts pounding. They are still there. The peal grows louder. Only option - apology. Break. Window. Jump.

Atlas Shrugs

A baby is born branded for big things A bright-eyed sapling destined for greatness Does his parents think a second about his wants?   The boy is doused with fuel of high expectations and burned in the bright flame of failure The boy dies and from the ashes rises the wingless phoenix of a bitter…

Mirror, Mirror! – Friday Fictioneers

'Grandmother, what is it?' 'It's a magic mirror, love. It shows what your heart really wants.' 'Really?' 'Well, that's what my grandmother's grandmother told her.' 'Have you taken a peek?' 'But of course, love. Quite the few times.' 'Did it truly show your heart's desire?' 'That's my little secret, love. Do you want to take…

The Cursed Dog! – FFfAW 180

'Bradley!' Rubina calls me by my full name only when I'm in trouble, 'What is that?' I grin and unwrap the delicate packaging. With a flourish, I place the object on top of the table. 'Once again, Bradley! What in the blue hell is that?' 'Glad you asked. It's an 300 year old authentic Chinese Cursed…

Goodbyes – Friday Fictioneers

The crowd gathered on the banks of the holy river was a living, feeling organism in itself. It ebbed and flowed mimicking the dirty brown water and it glowed with spectacle not unlike the river. Some cried, some laughed, some were relieved, some took selfies, and some just stood there taking in the scenes. Most…

Superstitions – FFfAW 179

Professor Mehta turned around and addressed his students, 'This pathway here is forbidden, reserved exclusively for the Gods.' Praful scoffed, 'Yet another superstition! This is ridiculous.' The professor smiled, 'I've always enjoyed your views, Praful. But you do not have to scoff at everything contrarian to your views.' 'Really, Professor? Why load the current generation…

An Interview With My Favorite Author

It was nothing like what I had imagined. I found him rocking forward and backwards on his famous cane chair, a cigarette dangling between his parched lips. The ashtray on the table overflowed with snubbed butts. There were sheets of paper, scrunched into balls, discarded all over the place. I opened one, and read. It…

Car Cemetery – FFfAW 178

'Grandpa, what are cars made of?' Al considered his grandson Ron's question. 'A lot of different stuff, dear. But, mostly steel.' 'What else?' 'Well, the newer car engines are made of aluminium alloy and the windows are made of glass. The tires are made of rubber and the consoles have a lot of plastics and…

Options – Friday Fictioneers

Take any street, it's a microcosm of the entire world. You can find animals and trees, churches and sewers, saints and predators, happy and sad people, running fast, minding their own businesses, not really pausing and looking at others and their plights. So, I know you are not looking at me, eventhough you see me…

PTSD – FFfAW 177

He sat on the bench everyday, not moving, just gazing into the lake for hours together. No wonder I felt uncomfortable. Not just me, the other women of the neighbourhood as well. We talked to our husbands, boyfriends, brothers, and friends about the weird guy who sits for hours near the children's play area. They…

The Boy of Hamelin

Hans sat under a tree, brooding. Passersby muttered their greetings, and he spat back. Misers! He cursed himself for being a cripple. Ten years had passed since that night. He never heard that tune again. Growing up in a children-less town sucked!

Eventuality – Friday Fictioneers

Ria walked through the dilapidated house with a grace that belied her age. She paused by the ornate French windows and smiled ruefully. 'This place was designed by Angelo Del Vecchio. He billed by the minute, you know?' She stepped out to the garden overrun by nettles and weeds. 'I used to host tea parties…

Those Stolen Moments

August 6 8:10 AM 'Well, this is nice. A lovely little break from the madness of everyday.' Kumiko smiled at  Haruto. They walked hand in hand towards the restaurant of the five star hotel for breakfast. 'You look beautiful, Kumiko-chan.' 'And you look handsome, anata!'  Haruto grinned with a boyish charm that made Kumiko's heart skip…

Family – Friday Fictioneers

'Do you like dolls?' Jeannie nodded, her tired blue eyes lighting up for a nanosecond. Joanie took the girl's hand and squeezed it slightly. 'I promise, I'll get you a lot of those cute dolls once we reach the promised land. Ok?' Joanie looked into his eyes, 'Are you sure, Jonny? I've seen promises turn…

OOPS! – FFfAW175

Circle bottom right, fairly innocuous. Hope he doesn't cross the centre, let's see if we can have some fun here! Cross, bottom left! Alright! Circle, middle right. I hope he thinks I'm naive. Cross, middle right. Stupid idiot! You've handed the game to me. Circle, top left. Haha, I win! Cross, top mid! Is he…

Varad’s Opinions

Book Name: Spicy Trail Author: Shipra Trivedi Book Blurb: The intent of this book is to give a brief of 26 different spices in 26 chapters. Each chapter has one spice, its attributes, history, and ayurvedic benefits. Get set go on a spicy trail! Initial Thoughts: What made me pick a book about Indian Spices when…

Ballad of the Boy

There was once a little boy All of one and seven He picked a tattered tome Read it and went to heaven   Days and nights he sat With books around him spread Faraway lands and castles Knights and Musketeers in his head   He laughed and cried and sang Worried and worshipped with them…

Flash In The Pan

Kumar Gaurav, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Vijay Bharadwaj, Chumbawamba, Gracy Singh, Ed Giddins, Vanilla Ice... Raise your hands if you went, 'Oh! I've heard that name somewhere. He/She was this famous so and so, right? Wow, I've totally forgotten about them. Wonder what they are upto now?' at least once. The above names, no offense intended, were…

Architect of Destruction

Give me five and fifty millennia, I will invent the wheel tame fire take baby steps towards evolution and drive magnificent beasts to extinction   Give me five thousand years, I will build cities of opulence and grandeur and pave their streets of hubris with nature and its debris conquer the seven seas create and…

TECHNOLOGY [An Acrostic]

Tooth that is blue, teaching the value of sharing Everyday life made simple, all with a click Countries and continents, a ping away Hours of entertainment blanket Nuggets of wisdom accrued from the videos Online we go, to earn and spend. Is that Love you need? Oh yeah, got it from all four corners of…

One Love [Prompt: Three’s A Crowd]

There was once a man who fell in love with his smartest partner yet a black beauty she of ethereal glow and a smooth body perfect contours in tow   Her knowledge was vast and her voice sweet She gave him what he wanted He thought life was oh-so neat!   His wife hated him…

Lesser of Two Evils

A Donkey and A Buffalo parade before the sheep staking claim to rule   Says the buffalo, Brothers and friends I’m one of you You’ve given me a chance Give me one more I’ll make sure we sheep roar like lions   The donkey shuffles, as uncomfortable as it could ever be Calls the fallacy…

One Too Many

Hey Friend! Are you ok? You seem to be swaying Like a reed in the wind Are you sure You’d head home safe? Seems like You’ve had One too many!   Hell yeah! I’m more than Ok I’m just Floating A feather in the zephyr Asphalt and rubber Whiskey and ice Watch me soar Maybe…

During The Flood

Mike rushed inside and threw his umbrella, which had turned inside out due to the heavy winds, on the floor and started barring the doors and windows. Once that task was completed, he opened the tap in the first floor kitchen, connected a length of rubber hose and placed it inside the inflatable kiddie pool.…

A Moment of Tranquility

The darkness in the sky gave way to the aureate first rays of the sun. The pristine waters of the lake gave birth to languid ripples as they were kissed by the stubborn but gentle breeze. Somewhere in the distance, a songbird sang lilting melodies welcoming the dawn. The Princess looked at the breathtaking vistas…

The Terrarium

Note: This is purely a work of fiction. It is not intended to hurt anyone's beliefs.  The five men walked in through separate entrances into the library of the ancient castle. The cavernous space was dimly lit and it took some time for their eyes to adjust to the light. Following the instructions given to…

Last Item On The List

‘Mom, is the camera rolling? Yeah? Alright, I’ll take it from here. Please don’t disturb me for an hour, ok?’ She closes the door and I look at the camera and grin. ‘Hey, all my wonderful earthling friends… This is your boy Columbus coming live from…well, my bedroom. I’d like to thank all of you…

Cheeseburgery Love

My dad gave me three life rules to live by: 1. Studies come first, 2. Don’t sleep around with random women and 3. Don’t eat meat. The first two were easy, but the third one proved difficult all because of a cheeseburger. Let me explain. I come from a very conservative South Indian family. As…

Roadtrip

She waits with impatience, feet tapping a restless flamenco, in the queue outside the airport for renting a car. The evening sun’s rays scorch her face increasing her annoyance just that little bit more. She whips out her Prada sunglasses and slides it over her aquiline nose, making few heads turn her way. The attendant…

To My Newborn…

I look at you, brown little baby squirming underneath the blanket, and am overcome with an eclectic mix of emotions, ranging from happiness to dread, wonder to melancholy, and from feeling blessed to feeling enraged. You have nothing to do with what I feel right now, but your entry into this accursed world changes everything.…

Varad’s Opinions – PEISKOS by Reema D’Souza

Book Name: Peiskos Author: Reema D'Souza Book Blurb: Peiskos is the feeling one gets when sitting in front of a fireplace enjoying its warmth. We remember pieces of life that seem ordinary but often bring along a sense of warmth. Here are 26 such pieces woven into stories around rare and beautiful words. Initial Thoughts: What…

Golden Record

‘Hello from the children of planet earth’ ‘Go Johnny go, go!’ ‘Ribbit!’ ‘beep beep beepidip beep…’ ‘Muah!’ ‘Hahaha!’ The record rotated at the prescribed speed of 3.6 seconds per rotation. They crowded around it, listening. One grunted, ‘They call themselves homo sapiens.’ His neighbour grunted back, ‘Sapience?’ ‘Sadly none!’

The Prince and The Flautist – #Writephoto

The horizon glowed orange well after the sun had set. The small group of men, well three men and two boys, made steady progress away from the glow and into the night. One of the boys had his hands bound and he stuttered forward between the others, defeated but defiant. The other boy, who brought…

Family Tree

'Gary, what are you doing?' 'I'm digging a hole.' 'Why?' 'You'll see!' 'Gary, you've been sullen ever since Marshall came out. Why don't you talk about it? Get things off your chest.' 'There's nothing to talk about it, Mel! Marshall's lifestyle is his own to make.' 'Oh, Gary! Don't tell me you are homophobic.' 'No!…

Varad’s Opinions – Deal of Death by Sonia Chatterjee

When I started this blog, I never thought I'd be doing a book review. The reason for that being I never considered myself qualified enough to review others' works. Of course, I can give my opinions but as they say Opinions and Reviews are not the same. As a part of the Blogchatter eBook Carnival,…

The Hook Up

She saw him staring at her from her vantage position at the bar counter. She turned, made a nanosecond’s worth of eye contact, flashed a picosecond smile and went back to nursing her gin & tonic. She knew he’d come to her within the next three minutes. He sidled up to her in two. She…

The Wrong Bowl

Inder grinned as the little plant's leaves unfurled. His decades of research had borne fruit at last. This was the first step in growing flora without soil. The nuclear war of '99 had made the whole of earth a radioactive wasteland unfit for vegetation. Without plants, all life forms were at the brink of extinction.…

The Avenue – #writephoto

This place, this beautiful Eden-esque place holds a very important place in my heart. The quaint little avenue over-arched by the trees was where I spent most of my childhood. Unlike most avenues, this one was not infested by traffic. Usually the only vehicles that could be seen here were bicycles being ridden by kids,…

These Boots Are Not Made For Walking

She looks at her tattered boots - their soles kept in place by thumbtacks, the once crimson felt lining resembling the color of rotten flesh, the insoles smelling something putrid, the ruined zippers barely holding the boots around her wasted legs and the aluminium-foil tape wrapped over the toe caps. She knows that she looks…

Spurs

'Blue and yellow, not a great color combination, but it worked.' His hand made languid strokes as he colored the model plane. 'Viola! Now it's done. This was how your old man's machine looked.' 'Wow! I like the colors, Dad. Can you paint my name on the side?' 'You have to earn your spurs, kiddo.…

Fury

She trailed a lazy finger along the contours of his stubble covered chin, ‘Let me tell you a story…’ ‘You know, I didn’t allow you inside my quarters to listen to your stupid story.’ She shrugged her robe off and straddled him, ‘Oh, you better listen!’ He grabbed her hair and pulled her into a…

The Descent – #Writephoto

I feel my mobile phone vibrating under me and wake up with a start. I see the caller name and groan in frustration. The clock on the wall opposite to my bed shows the time as 3 AM. Another early start. My partners will be furious when I go bang on their doors. I do…

The 33 Club

'Welcome to the 2798th meeting of the 33 club. What's today's agenda?' Irma grimaced, 'Same old?' Thirty-two heads nodded solemnly. William Rambo moved amidst them, 'Well? Am I in?' Frederick nodded, 'The poor man's been waiting for years now. I say yes.' 'But, we'll no longer be the 33 Club.' Evelyn scoffed. 'We've been doing…

Decisions!

A steaming cuppa on one hand and his mobile, clutched at an angle so that he could read the emails and also look ahead, on the other - just another 8 AM juggling act as he navigates his way through his fellow corporate zombies. Lately, he'd been feeling an acute sense of burnout. He was…

Lost

He cursed the blithering idiots who were in charge of the empire he built. The word 'imbeciles' came into his mind multiple times. He raged as his wife walked in every night with a different boy-toy. He wept as he saw the drug-addled puddles that were his daughter's eyes. He couldn't remember when he last…

43 Posts and a Conked Laptop – Reflections #AtoZChallenge

My wife, Namratha, was the one who introduced to me to the AtoZ challenge last year. It didn't matter then - I didn't even have a blog. But she did participate and completed it successfully. Somewhere during last year's AtoZ challenge, my blog was born. Wait, what? Yup! See, this was actually supposed to be…

Going Back

  I splash across the muddy trail, without a care about my $20000 Armani suit or my $5000 Berluti shoes. My sons follow me with bewilderment, wondering if a coconut had fallen on their old man's head. David, the eldest one, stops me. 'Pop! My gear is getting ruined. Can't we like dirt bike or…

Home, New Home

Written for FFfAW165 He was perched atop the steel girders, his body full of nervous energy. He watched with fascination at the throng of people bustling about their business. He hopped from one steel girder to another, almost losing his footing. He sighed, things had become very difficult these days. He remembered the days gone…