Click on images to read. Text not typed out for copyright reasons.
I wrote this short story for an on-the-spot thing in 2004, it got selected in a national contest and happened to win.
Sigh. I still bask in old glory. Drat it. No new glory!
And please excuse the couple of typos. No editing allowed, you see. Click on images to enlarge to readable size.
4 comments:
Interesting. didn't know you were a published writer! :)
I would love to hear how the story came about.
Arrey, there was lots of press after this story; it was only the second year running; ITC Classmate (their stationery brand) Young Author Contest; one of the reasons why now I know how to handle the press..
One of the things they ask you is What was the inspiration behind this story?. At 16, you really don't have enough insight into anything, least of all your own influences, to know the answer to this. But very crudely put, I suppose I had heard a story around that time, about messages on the radio..but then I had also read Anna Frank's diary..who knows where what came from..
What I remember is the Kashmiri refugees who came asking for chanda to our fairly upmarket colony..their is (was, at least, then,) a refugee camp at Charbagh, near the station. I remember I felt unfathomably sad. I said as much to the panel of judges in this competition; I think they were looking for someone who could feel..maybe I scored there.
I had written about Kashmir, a short story, long ago, older than this..will upload it in a while, I'll probably have to type it out..
One thing that I can't understand is how I picked up this style of writing, Partition literature has this sound to it, this ring. Maybe it's just inescapable..
How it came about in the actual writing was something I know for sure. I was cooking up a story about two little boys and the Berlin Wall (I was very fascinated by it then, had just read something perhaps..) and then I had no names. So much for realism! So I gave up that setting for something closer home!
*Anne Frank.
And Charbagh is in Lucknow.
Yes, it does have that distinct 'partition literature' ring to it, and thats what made me curious. It really is amazing how one pulls out stories.
I think they were looking for someone who could feel - lol, now theres a gem and explains a lot too. [Double Smiley]
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