Etched into my skin,
Question marks and hazy paths
Simmering within
You stare at me
You're etched in stone
And you tell me I'm alone
There's no way to turn back time
What will be will be,
And so I smile and wait a while,
Que Sera Sera doesnt work for me
And you, fine lines shall see.
For fingerprints wont lead my way
And that is why I stand today
To turn the tide of time
And yes it will be harder than
Perhaps accepting what I can
And let the tide sweep me by
Never pause and wonder why
I never took the wheel
Why was I fate's puppet?
Was that always the deal?
I dont ask for oppurtunity
And I dont ask for fate
And I dont ask that time make haste
Oh, it will be worth the wait.
For life never came at a fortune teller's price
Horoscopes did not life lessons earn
And you will see, it wont be me
But you fine lines, who'll turn.
-Akshara Walia
Hi Guys,
Community for Rajasthan Royals Fans. Please join and enjoy!! Post and keep updated about the activities of your favourite IPL Team!!
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I am undone
And you are gone
I am blurred
And you’re strong
A game
Did we play
So lame
The “stupid” Way
I went
Really,
Nothing it meant?
I saw you today. No, I thought that it was you. Those dark brown eyes, lucid and meek, I looked into them forever you know.
I wondered this is how it must be to see you stand behind the podium and enrapture your audience, hanging on to each of your word. I stared at a guy without any apprehensions for the first time in my life. I stared for so long that his friends began pointing me to him, smirking and mocking at him.
The way he smiled, the way his eyes looked so innocent glistening slightly as if he’d sneezed just a while ago and that had made his eyes water. I wondered what it would be like to hold his hands, soft and warm like yours?
His team won the third prize, he was so happy. I was happy too, I don’t know why.
They were announcing the winners but I was staring at him thinking about you. We won the event you know. Cash prize and all. A big cheer rose amidst the audience. A huge college team had come to cheer for us. They erupted into a-three-cheers-for hoot and that is when I realized I had to go up on stage.
There was a photo session later for the winners. He stood by me you know. My heart was beating aloud since so long, I thought it’d collapse soon and I’d die with your face floating in my eyes.
He smiled and mouthed a congratulations at me. I smiled back, smitten as I’d always been with you. I am sure he must be wondering what happened to the girl who fought with the judging panel for 15 minutes.
You know what? I thought you were dead in me, dying atleast. I swear I didn’t think of you all these years. I am dead beat with work and I really love being this way, you know it. But then I dreamt about you last night and then I see you, well him but you in him.
How I loved you smile baby, he has one just like yours. I saw you slip your hands around my waist and throw me in your rhythm. Every step was planned by you; I just wished to be wrapped around you like a vine, lose my existence and be just you. He was just hanging around me, not sure of his steps. We always made a great pair on the dance floor, didn’t we?
I moved away towards the refreshments as my team mates and friends motioned me. I was following his moves from the corner of my eye. For a while he didn’t seem to care that I left the floor, and then he reappeared by my side just as eerily as the first time.
And then he spoke. A simple “HI!” in somebody else's voice.
I immediately knew it wasn’t you. Nobody can be you in anybody. Nobody can be everything you are, your eyes, your smile, your voice.
The game was over, he was just another boy. I smiled, not replying back and went back to my gang. For the rest of the evening he followed me pretty openly for everybody to witness. One of my guy friends told me he was asking about me, I avoided him completely.
Did I really love you this much? I can’t believe me and my heart, the way they behave when it comes to you. Seriously!
And you are gone
I am blurred
And you’re strong
A game
Did we play
So lame
The “stupid” Way
I went
Really,
Nothing it meant!
http://rex-the-newpoet.livejournal.com/
The door bell shrieked.
The sweat dripped profusely. Her heartbeat raced faster than time. The time had lapsed into submission. She decided, it is better to give up.
She gingerly inched towards the door. Pangs of guilt enveloped the innocence that wanted to scream. The teak monolith glared at her, suppressing a wooden laugh. A knob overturn and it's all over for her.
Scenario 2:
The sweat dripped profusely. Her heartbeat raced faster than time. The time had lapsed into submission. A steely determination still lay somewhere within her inner being.
“That’s it!” Nick exclaimed.
This is Nick for you, forever pompous. Sometimes I wonder whether it is sane of me to seek advice from him. But he’s a close enough buddy and after a few drags together, he actually gets me talking. Considering how he always manages to get swarmed by gals and his life is bereft of any emotional drama - well almost, he is definitely the best man I know to play agony aunt for my... err… non existing personal relationships.
“Look bro, this time the idea better be good” I told him flat on his face. I have had a series of disastrous events insinuated in my life by him as if he was Ekta Kapoor and I, some Saas-Bahu TV Soap which required a TRP hike every now and then.
“Just listen to it and you’ll feel like kissing me” he continued in his pompously, puckering up his lips.
“Fat chance” I laughed out on him, then on my pitiable state. “I’d rather kiss a mule than you” I made a stab at him which I had to regret even before he finished retorting to mine.
“Hey look. This is getting offensive dude. And if you remain stuck in guy circles all the time, in no time you’ll have no other option but to do that” Nick finished smirking, puffing up his chest like a proud lion.
“Ok. Fine. What’s the idea?” I was beginning to feel my face going red, wondering why I ever confided in Nick.
He took his time knowing that I was waiting at his disposal. He slowly exhaled the smoke through his nose, something which always leaves me sick if I try. One has to agree, Nick’s got style. He simultaneously relived the idea he was holding back. “Go for a blind date”
“WHAT?"
Pause.
"I can’t even think of going on a date with someone I know and a B-L-I-N-D D-A-T-E?”
“Exactly, that is why! Even if you blow it, no one comes to know. I’m sure your blind date would be glad to forget it as well. It’s the least risk option you’ve got. Accept it dude, someday you got to get over your fears - school boy fears” he jeered at me once again.
Well yeah! He put it all right. Those were my worst fears. Time and again I have wanted to ask a girl out. I don’t have to say that I didn’t manage to do it in past 24 years.
With days passing over monotonous guy talks, more I thought about Nick’s idea it started making sense to me. I didn't wish to be the guy with a clean past - read failed at arranging love, hence perfect arranged marriage material. I didn't wish to be a Mr.I-have-no-secrets either. I didn't wish to be a stud with a good grades, good job, fat pay check and no girl. I had my commitments towards my raging hormones too.
I decided upon a Blind Date agency called DOVE, brought to my knowledge by Nick. He couldn't have chosen any agency with a worse cliché tagline. Find your true love - go for a Blind Date through Dove, that is what the agency professed. I wondered if along with their ostentatious and audacious promise of true love there came a money return policy.
I filled out the form honestly, keeping all pretensions at bay, going for extremely general qualities in the section meant for my dream date. The only particular trait that I mentioned sheepishly was that I had a special liking for the Chinky Babes. I owe it to the several Korean movies that I saw while still in hostel, when all of my friends used to go out with their dates.
*************
So, I was finally awaiting my blind date in a fairly expensive restaurant. I wanted to put a good first impression after all, because there was hardly any chance of a second date if this one didn’t go well. Still nothing could stop me feeling upbeat about it. Maybe their tagline really got to me. The visuals of my perfect date were running wild in my head - me sipping a vintage wine with a finely dressed up lady - looking into each other eyes – holding hands - yeah - it had to be love at first sight.
Yet after a while it’s just me left to a solitary misery, sipping orange juice minus vodka, for an eternity. I couldn’t stand the gloomy restaurant anymore and decided on taking off my Ray-bans if my date didn’t arrive in another 5 minutes. You see, I was hoping the sunglasses would hide my squinty eyes and accentuate my high bridged nose for my date to notice.
After countless shifty glances towards the entrance and then the folks surrounding me, combing for my date through semi darkness, I took the Ray-bans off and stared at the entrance starkly. Yet, there was to be no sign of my date.
The restaurant was packed by now. And it was well past 1 hour of the stipulated time. I started looking more carefully at the singles occupying the tables. There weren’t many and just two girls. Neither of them fit the description I was told about. She would be wearing a mauve coloured shirt and a white skirt, I was told for identification. And from her details I knew she had straight jet black hair, black eyes and was of north-eastern part of the country. Hence, she was expected to bear resemblance to the Chinky babes. I went up to the reception and confirmed whether I was shown the right table for the rendezvous with the stranger.
As I was returning back to my table, totally dejected , wondering if my date had a look at me and slipped out quietly, I saw a slender figure with jet black shoulder length hair. Solitary and seated diagonally opposite to me in another corner of the restaurant.
( Click here to read rest of the story! )
Posting this here with the kind permission of
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wpbenjamin Caferati's editors are helping curate the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival
We have a bunch of contests, writing-related workshops and participatory events for children and adults at Kala Ghoda this year. For more information and information on how to register, please follow the links below.
All links below the fold..
( Read more... )
Hi Everyone,
We are happy to announce that it has been over six months since LJ announced its localisation plans for India.
We have been making great progress and with help from all of you, we have successfully launched a number of India specific communities. Besides
We would also like you take this opportunity to introduce to you LJ India. LJ India is going to be an active hub, almost the ground zero for all Indian users of LiveJournal, as well as all LiveJournal users interested in India.
Suggest ideas & improvements, ask questions, post queries, garner insights from other LJ users or just find friends with similar interests – LJ India is the community that you should join.
Do join the LJ India community. We look forward to meeting you on LJ India.
If you have any thoughts on how the past six months have been, or thoughts on how to take it forward, do leave a word.
Cheers,
The word “BREAK” – our writing cue for this time – has so many connotations.
The happy ones, like breaking a leg or breaking bread together; and the not-so-happy ones like break downs and broke backs. There are summer-breaks and lunch-breaks, and then are the heart-breaks and break-ins…I could go on, but the idea is simply to write a Haiku, about whichever inflection of it you take heart to.
All entries to be submitted as response to this post; and all responses to a Haiku could be part of that thread.
We’ve all seen this painting before. Scream by Edward Munch. It has been harrowingly engaging for over a century now, not to mention its iconic status in the history of Expressionism.
Now what if this was not intended as a painting? What if Munch was a writer; & here’s the deal – he wrote in a genre you fancy!
That’s your cue. Write in your literary rendering of the Scream – any form, any length.
- Mood:awake
Lets pause a moment - in reflection of the past week's turbulence in our beloved Mumbai, in memory of those who fought with courage for us, and in remembrance of our many friends who'll live in our thoughts forever.
Let’s also pause and think together before we move forward, relentless and determined, towards a better tomorrow, a better India.
Let’s pause awhile to re-live and re-build the nation that we were meant to be, and will be: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7
If you have a poem, song or just a thought, please share with everyone.
Once our judges were through with their ratings, we saw that there were a large number of ties in the top ten, most notably, a four-way tie at first place.
We had made no reference to tied places in the contest conditions. But all our calls for submission focused on the top prize being available to one winner, and the advertising and PR implied this as well.
Contests must have winners, we decided — ties are commonplace for lower positions but on the whole the conventional wisdom is that there needs to be a winner of a contest. For instance, in Olympic boxing both defeated semi-finalists get a bronze medal (they're tied) while the winners of the semi-finals slug it out for gold and silver.
So we applied a simple method to separate the tied results. In every instance of a tie in the Round Two top ten, the Round One scores were factored in to break the tie.
The entries were close enough to still have ties in some of the lower positions, and we're going to let those stand. But yes, now we have an absolute, undisputed winner!
The prize-winners' names are hyperlinked to their LJ pages, so you can drop by to congratulate them. :)
1st
Manisha Anand - Story 232
Rs 19,999
Joint 2nd (therefore equal share of 2nd & 3rd prize — Rs 16,000 + Rs 12,000 = Rs 28,000 / 2 = Rs 14,000 — with no 3rd prize)
Arantxa Bharatiya - Story 121
Rs 14,000
Ajay Krishnan - Story 526
Rs 14,000
Joint 5th (therefore equal share of 5th — Rs 4,000 / 2 = Rs 2,000 — & 6th — LJ Paid account — with no 6th prize)
Rs 2,000 + LJ paid account for one year
amruta patil - Story 95
Rs 2,000 + LJ paid account for one year
7th
Yashodhara Angara - Story 642
LJ paid account for one year
8th
Meena Rukmini Menon - Story 177
LJ paid account for one year
LJ paid account for one year
Sharath Chandra Komarraju - Story 479
LJ paid account for one year
People's Choice Prize
To be announced. (Here's why.)
Rs 10,000 + LJ paid account for one year
(This story will come as a surprise, since it didn't feature in the list of stories eligible for the People's Choice Prize. This story was good. very, very good. All the judges, in both round of judging, enjoyed it very much and rated it so highly that it was in line to receive first prize in the contest. Alas, when Caferati and LiveJournal did a review of the results, we had to admit that it didn't have a connection to the "Journal" theme, and therefore should have been disqualified in fairness to the other participants. However, since the story had got such high marks, and had won the hearts of all the judges, Caferati's editors decided that it should not go unrewarded. So, they are sponsoring a special Jury Prize, on behalf of Caferati, Samit Basu, Anjum Hasan and Anita Roy. And LiveJournal has also decided that excellent writing skills should be recognised, and are adding on a one year paid account for the winner.)
Caferati Editor's Prize:
Madhulika Liddle - Story 442
Rs 4,000 + LJ paid account for one year
And finally, the Winners page on the Quick Tales site is now public. As are all the scores.
Hi All
I have pleasant news, so let me not indulge in pleasant talk :)
The judges have given us the much-awaited, celebrated winners of the Quick-Tales contest, and we are keen on having some pomp-and-show around the annoucements too! So, we'll be letting the news out on the 18th of November, 2008 at Oxford Book Store, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi. We warmly invite all our members to a short-story reading session by Suhel Seth, who will, of course, be reading from the winning entries. The event details are here and we'd like all of you who can make it to register at the soonest!
Also, present to highlight LiveJournal's progress in India and share thoughts on supporting self-publishing through social-media platforms will be Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, Director of Corporate Development, LiveJournal.com.
All of you, who cannot be present, have no cause to despair. We'll be updating you about the event on-the-go. We are hoping that this would be the first of many such off-line meets through which this community will grow and share some beautiful writing in times to come. :)
Just to remind you all, the people's poll is coming to a close tonight as well, and the winner would be announced at the event.
Hoping to see all of you there. :)
Manpreet
Here's wishing you a Happy Diwali / Deepavali, and here's to a great new year.
Awright, awright, we will cease to test your patience. Actually, for those of you who can't wait a second longer, skip the next few paragraphs and look for your Entry ID number in the list of the links towards the end of this post.
( Read on. )
- Location:Cognito
- Mood:
relieved
Kalyani, the protagonist, is struggling with a diagnosis of mental disorder . Her brother Harshit who is a psychiatrist, and her husband Vivek would like her to take medicines. She does not think medicines are a solution for what ails her. Her son Adi has helped her avoid being forcibly medicated, in a crisis, but now he is away for a while, and she has returned home in resignation.
How does Kalyani deal with this situation which is a culmination of what she is, as a person?
How does she find a way out of the maze that is her mind?
For the story before and after, please visit the blog, and do, do give your feedback. Every comment has helped the re writing- and I have done a lot of it.
cheers
kc
http://snapshotsonmycoffeetable.blogspot.c
Lokendra
- Location:jaipur
- Mood: grateful
Profile
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india_writing- india_writing
Page Summary
- scarlet_19 : FINE LINES [+5]
- tshreyu : I hope this is allowed... [+3]
- azuire : Writing Prompts [+1]
- tshreyu : Sweet Surprise [+2]
- pun_princess : YOU in him [+0]
- rex_the_newpoet : poems [+2]
- vyastejas : The Room 102 Story [+2]
- pun_princess : Blind Date [+8]
- zigzackly : Contests and Workshops at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Bombay [+1]
- team_lj_india : LJ India, a hub for all LJ India users [+0]
- sepiaverse : Writing Cue - BREAK - Lets write a HAIKU [+4]
- neerrr : Publication of short-listed stories? [+5]
- sepiaverse : Writing Cue - If SCREAM was not a painting [+3]
- sepiaverse : A Tribute - The Mumbai We Love [+1]
- zigzackly : The results - and a couple of extra prizes! [+18]
- sepiaverse : We have the winners! [+23]
- kanakalata : I can think, but can't write :) [+9]
- zigzackly : Quick Tales - The Short List & The People's Choice Prize Poll [+30]
- snapshots3 : (no subject) [+1]
- lokendrarathore : Help me with my Blog [+2]
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