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One Grain Amongst the Storm

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Category: Such is Life

10Jun
88 comments on “Of Crows and Swans”

Of Crows and Swans

Posted by umashankaron June 10, 2012December 28, 2017in Poems, Such is Life88 Comments

Tumbling tonight in tavernous treks, My breath reeking of Sauvignon Blanc, I have courage enough to read the blogs of whitest crows and blackest swans. “Seven best ways to flag off a blog,” She croaked to soak in a hundred…

Read More Of Crows and Swans

28May
79 comments on “The Northern Planes”

The Northern Planes

Posted by umashankaron May 28, 2012May 15, 2016in Poems, Such is Life79 Comments

  The heat is baking the Northern Planes, Frankly, I am least worried, Father's beyond all heat waves, Mother has receded into her ribs. The summers bring the mangoes too, They now grow on puny trees, Long gone are the…

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14May
96 comments on “The Ghosts of Jamun Trees”

The Ghosts of Jamun Trees

Posted by umashankaron May 14, 2012October 1, 2017in Fiction, Such is Life96 Comments
Jamun Tree Ghosts

Before he died, Karamuva was the best tree climber of the village and the clusters surrounding it.  He loved to clamber up anything green with stalks and leaves, planted to the earth and capable of withstanding human weight. From the…

Read More The Ghosts of Jamun Trees

06May
131 comments on “Truth Alone Triumphs”

Truth Alone Triumphs

Posted by umashankaron May 6, 2012August 18, 2013in Such is Life131 Comments

There was this ordinary man who having found an ordinary job found himself an ordinary girl who became his wife. Man’s parents were miffed as they had queued up several astrologically perfect girls for him to choose from. The man…

Read More Truth Alone Triumphs

01Apr
93 comments on “The Evening That Killed (Part-II)”

The Evening That Killed (Part-II)

Posted by umashankaron April 1, 2012May 9, 2016in Fiction, Such is Life93 Comments

(Read the Part -I Here) Never trust the rains. Not when you have lost a ton of outdoor fun as a child to twisting torrents. Nor if your classmate’s skull was squished like a melon under a passing truck when…

Read More The Evening That Killed (Part-II)

19Mar
48 comments on “Nor Sleep Nor Dream”

Nor Sleep Nor Dream

Posted by umashankaron March 19, 2012December 20, 2017in Poems, Such is Life48 Comments

I slept dreamless on a Sunday noon. Marooned on an isle of lifelessness, spurned by the mattress, night after night, battling slumber's flight, it came as a boon. Life sits heavily on the chest; The incest with the inhaler brings…

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07Mar
48 comments on “The Giggling Gladiator (Part II)”

The Giggling Gladiator (Part II)

Posted by umashankaron March 7, 2012November 5, 2017in Fiction, Such is Life48 Comments
The Vampire of Nut

(Read the 'Part I' here) If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, Nalini came right from Uranus. She was a female form hacked out of the purest permafrost. Everything about her was cold, sharp and angular, the…

Read More The Giggling Gladiator (Part II)

04Mar
30 comments on “The Giggling Gladiator (Part I)”

The Giggling Gladiator (Part I)

Posted by umashankaron March 4, 2012May 15, 2018in Fiction, Such is Life30 Comments

Chhotu is the secret police. Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti. Period. For the incredulous, yes it still exists. Of course, it has a different name. Dare me not to come clean. If I expose him here, he will be soon found floating…

Read More The Giggling Gladiator (Part I)

26Feb
54 comments on “Zinfandel Moments”

Zinfandel Moments

Posted by umashankaron February 26, 2012January 20, 2017in Such is Life54 Comments

The mind is a muddle of Zinfandel. Unlike Coleridge however, no rhymes pour forth. I become an extension of the furniture I am wedged in. So, I can’t tell you about my crush who kissed the neighbourhood clown behind the…

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21Feb
28 comments on “To The Living”

To The Living

Posted by umashankaron February 21, 2012December 20, 2017in Poems, Such is Life28 Comments

You want me to spread my heart on the bed, It’s both broke and cold; I watch my feet as I move ahead, There are cadavers on the floor. What is this they won’t let me peel? A sheet, a…

Read More To The Living

19Feb
17 comments on “For My Eyes Only”

For My Eyes Only

Posted by umashankaron February 19, 2012September 23, 2016in Such is Life17 Comments

We've been old mates, glasses and I! And when I was visited upon by the first installment of friendship, fancy dealerships were not in vogue. The optometrist, who pronounced my fate in terms of twin minus fours, also scribbled the…

Read More For My Eyes Only

11Feb
25 comments on “Ghostwalker”

Ghostwalker

Posted by umashankaron February 11, 2012May 15, 2016in Poems, Such is Life25 Comments

  Standing on the untilled land, The wind sliding past my hairless pate, I proffer water with trembling hands And light the lamp of a withered fate. They said your soul will wail and wander On the breath and the…

Read More Ghostwalker

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Winner of ‘Literature & Personal – Short Stories’ IBA 2013

This blog won the 2013 Indian Blogger Awards - Short Stories

Short Stories

The Vegetable Rice Chef

Three Tamarind Trees

The Bungalow by the Tracks

End of Dusk

The Monk in the Rain

Sam was Sad

Painter of Omens

A Wobbly-legged Boy

The Ghosts of Jamun Trees

Another Day like This

Going Blind

The Evening That Killed

The Giggling Gladiator

Ghazals in English

Lend Me the Assassin

Molten Moons

Afterwards

Wet Charcoal

The Icicled Bosom

Years in the Ash

A Leaf by the Nightfall

Pebbles You May Like

‘Oumuamua

Thus Spake My Father

Hangmen of April

Goodbye, Cynthia Jobin

Haruki Murakami’s Well

The Same Night

The Nightfall of Blogging

The Crusted Slice

Silence of the Scrolls

Unnameable Things

Reading The Forgotten Waltz

Writing is So Long

Fungus on the Filter

Flames and Ashes

A Hole in My Pyjamas

The Slippery Slope

An Owl Reflects

The Last Salute

Truth Alone Triumphs

Zinfandel Moments

Ghostwalker

My son, must I stay?

Fra Lippo Lippi

While I be the Banker

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