Me … A Geek … No way!!

Right through childhood, movies fascinated Rahim. He often bunked classes to catch the latest release. As a teenager, when he first submitted his short film for the Sundance Film Festival, he was scoffed at.

He catapulted to the status of a child prodigy, post the screening. Producers flocked to him like bees take to honey.

A business trip took her to a country where Mercedez and BMW were plowed as taxis.
Back home her new i20 seemed way out of league. She began to detest her motherland.

Then one day, on her way back from office, she began to salivate profusely at the sight of pani-poori.

Her love for India resurfaced.

Let me preclude any Wows or kudos because it is a self nomination.
Last week I nominated my blog for the IndiBlogger of the Month under the Original Literature – Short Stories category. You see I think too high of myself.

And in a democratic nation like ours, who decides the winner ?
Of course YOU.

As readers you are entitled to have your opinions. You may like a post or trash it.

If you like what I write, you may vote for me. Even if you choose not to, it is cool. I’ll continue to write stories anyways.

For the contest, one was required to submit five candidate posts and with the help of notmanish I ended up with the following as my entries.

The Opening and the Apprentice
The Miss
Motherhood
Temptation
Sacrifice

So you still think you’ll vote. If yes, then go here. You will however need a Indiblogger id to vote. And of course that happens in a breeze.

Was the sight meant to cause cheer? Perhaps there was another interpretation!
She mused, as she parked her scooter at the usual spot.

She had no reason to be cheerful.
She tramped over them.

Although she had lots weighing on her mind, Monday was staring her in the face.
She was determined to start afresh.

The noise, the commotion, the cheese smell pervading the air made it difficult for him to listen. He leaned over the table in a genuine attempt to hear her. She took the gesture for something only she knew and stormed out.

He vowed to meet prospective brides at any place in the world but McDonald’s

It’s said – When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
And it’s also said - Easier said than done.

On a rather sorry day, she delved into the meaning of the above two.
She screamed that she was tough. Then remembered the second adage.

With her face cupped in her palms, she broke into tears.

[ Pronounced as Jawsh ]

There is a rather pleasant phenomenon doing rounds of Bangalore of late. The city is witnessing a theater fest of sorts and that is resulting in mood swings, of course of the positive kind. Imagine mid-week, after a tiring day at work, you get to watch a class act that lifts your mood instantly. There have been some really high quality plays in the recent past including, but not limited to, Copenhagen, Hamlet – The Clown Prince.

Yesterday evening was another such class act. This time it was a monologue, by the legendary Josh Kornbluth.
At the heart of the act was a pending thesis required to graduate from Princeton. Josh joins Princeton, which he calls a finishing school which produces future world desperates, in 1976 but fails to finish his thesis which is mandatory for graduation. During his initial days on campus he realizes that Science is not his cup of tea and instead decides to study politics under an esteemed faculty. On graduation day, he is given an empty degree case and told that he could complete his thesis whenever it pleased him. Thereon, he begins to kill time, getting busy with worldly affairs until one fine day it dawns upon him that he must get a degree.

The monologue went back and forth in time. There were references to apartheid and historical events, which were showcased to the audience via a projector. George Bush II was portrayed in the right light, you know what I mean!

Quips like ‘I like Helium. It is a noble gas’ and other witty one lines were in abundance in the 70 minute act. The audience were is splits all through. And the play ended on the happy note of Josh getting his degree.

All in all it was a great watch. Highly recommended whenever you get a chance.

On a different note -
Localizing the content (dialogues / vox populi) goes well with the audience. But I find the reference to Bangalore traffic pretty lame in such a case. Of course I’m not offended but tell me one metropolitan, India or abroad, which does not face traffic snarls. The mention of Hema Malini and Madhuri Dixt were well placed but the intended pun on the traffic was … well, cliched. But it seemed that all but me were extremely delighted at the mention.

His gesture of offering me more candies than I paid for made me happy, and I never questioned it. It was a ‘buy one get one free’ offer for me, all through my growing up years.

Yesterday, Manohar kaka, now stooped with age offered me an ice-cream and said -You are still my lucky charm.