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One Grain Amongst the Storm

A Mélange of memoirs, fiction, short stories, verses, book reviews and uncorked angst.

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Tag: Memoirs

01Mar
48 comments on “The Siege of the Bog”

The Siege of the Bog

Posted by umashankaron March 1, 2017October 7, 2017in Such is Life48 Comments
Siege of the Bog Image

It happened when I was eight or nine. What refreshed the memory this past month was the hurried confession of a rookie Australian batsman to his captain, as he scrambled for the loo, “When you need to go to the…

Read More The Siege of the Bog

18Aug
44 comments on “The Same Night”

The Same Night

Posted by umashankaron August 18, 2016November 16, 2016in Such is Life44 Comments

“The same night whitening the same trees. We, of that time, are no longer the same.” ~Pablo Neruda I was young when I first read those lines by Pablo Neruda, from a poem that I still hold as one of…

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01Feb
32 comments on “The Pentagon Down”

The Pentagon Down

Posted by umashankaron February 1, 2015February 3, 2015in Such is Life32 Comments

The commander of the forces of associate provinces barged through the door of my tent two days before the clash of the legions. His chubby face was ashen with nothing less than volcanic fear; his fingers shook like peepal leaves…

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29Oct
39 comments on “Unnameable Things”

Unnameable Things

Posted by umashankaron October 29, 2014June 17, 2016in Such is Life39 Comments

Hailing from a childhood both untainted and unenlightened by television, I have fond memories of the whole bunch of siblings huddled up in the box room that our parents had converted into a common study, which also served as a…

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07Apr
71 comments on “Flames and Ashes”

Flames and Ashes

Posted by umashankaron April 7, 2013August 18, 2013in Such is Life71 Comments

It is a Sunday morning and folks are huddled up in sheets.  The protesting whine of autos whisking the unwilling souls to their workplaces has been lulled for the interregnum. The birds are a riot of notes and I am…

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20Dec
64 comments on “The Indian Shepherd”

The Indian Shepherd

Posted by umashankaron December 20, 2012August 12, 2019in Such is Life64 Comments

In a deal that clicked a couple of years too late for me, Syed would sell the disused Nikon from his studio for a thousand rupees to me. He loaded it with a complimentary black and white roll too, making…

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23Oct
83 comments on “An Owl Reflects”

An Owl Reflects

Posted by umashankaron October 23, 2012September 15, 2013in Photography, Such is Life83 Comments

I was born before I was born. All owls are. True to the species, my fate was chiseled on ancient rocks by comets hurled from alien space. No one could change it after that, not even God. Certainly not father.…

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12Oct
97 comments on “It Happened to a Wobbly-legged Boy”

It Happened to a Wobbly-legged Boy

Posted by umashankaron October 12, 2012February 11, 2016in Fiction97 Comments

Many years ago, when time had still not shriveled my mother, and I was still a shy little boy, I was struck by a bout of measles. The only memory of the suffering that has survived the quicksand of consciousness…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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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