S : Short Sentences / Stories #AtoZchallenge

In 2015 - 2016, I had joined a Readers' Club in Mumbai. We used to meet once in a month to discuss books. The club is now called Owlery. Some of us were also making efforts, to learn basic nuances of writing. This effort led us to attend a book writing workshop. As part of an exercise there, I wrote a fictional story which I had posted on this blog last year. Also on the WhatsApp group of this Club, a word was shared everyday on which we tried to write short (actually micro) stories. I wrote hundreds of such small sentences or stories - good, bad, ugly. I had posted 45 such sentences / stories, over 15 posts, in 2016 on this blog. Today, I decided to post 10 more of them, which were woven around 10 words shared on that group. I hope my readers will be kind and forgive any mistakes I made then or the ones I am going to make today. I am still learning a really tough task of writing good stories.

Word : Quaff

verb [kwof, kwaf, kwawf]

Meaning: to drink a beverage copiously and with hearty enjoyment

Tale: Old / New

As he quaffed his cherished single malt and puffed a costly cigar, his henchmen beat the young leader of the new street gang to a pulp, But the young man kept laughing instead of crying in pain. Then the sound of a loud desperate cough reverberated in that room. His cigar popped out and blood mixed with that single malt gushed out of his mouth with huge force. The poison had worked. The young man now controlled the entire mafia.

Word : Yom Tov

noun [yuhn tuh v, tuh f]

Meaning : holiday

Tale: Orphan

He is an orphan who doesn't  know what a full stomach means. But comes yom tov, his happiness will know no bounds. That day he will get to eat as much as he wants. He will raid the garbage bin of his rich neighbors and will feast on the leftovers of the day. 

Word: Eldritch

adjective [el-drich]

Meaning: eerie; weird; spooky

Tale: Hinges

It was a moonlit night when they got stranded in the middle of the forest. They saw a flickering light at a distance. Upon reaching the source of the light they found an old cottage. They pushed open the door. The eldritch creaking of the door was accompanied by hooting of the owls and howling of the wolves. They started trembling with fear. The caretaker of the cottage came out and applied some grease on hinges of the door. The door stopped creaking.

Word: Cunctator

noun [kuhngk-tey-ter]

Meaning: a procrastinator; delayer

Tale: Fearless

He never accomplished anything worthwhile. Every job he undertook ended in a disaster. Being a compulsive cunctator he was left behind his peers in the organizational hierarchy. But his fortunes changed one day. He didn't complete his job on time and still earned the top spot in his group. He was told to shoot a man before daybreak, when there would be no witnesses. But he shot him in the broad daylight in front of  hundreds of people. He earned that day, the moniker of Fearless Hitman.

Word: Turpitude

noun[tur-pi-tood, -tyood]

Meaning: vile, shameful, or base character; depravity

Tale: Whose fault

Every night her pimp sold her to the highest bidder. He had to feed his large family. He was a criminal in the eyes of the law.

She slept for money with the worst of the men. Her soul was pure though. But what she was doing, was illegal.

Her father had traded her when she was twelve. He had to provide for his wife's treatment and he had already mortgaged his land. He was accused of human trafficking.

The local moneylender grabbed his land as he couldn't repay his meager loan. The loan shark was the most respected man in the village.

I am not certain which act of turpitude agitates me most.

Word: Botryoidal

adjective [bo-tree-oid-l]

Meaning: having the form of a bunch of grapes

Tale: Obsession

His intestines had spilled out of his stomach and had bunched together in a botryoidal formation. I had never seen something so brutal in my life before. Later, I came to know that he was newly married and was stabbed thirty-six times by his wife's obsessed stalker.

Word : Embonpoint

noun [French ahn-bawn-pwan]

Meaning: excessive plumpness; stoutness

Tale: Attraction

He always got attracted to the women inclined to embonpoint. A strange kind of stirring happened in his heart and blood rushed to his loins, whenever he saw his buxom neighbor. Then one day she acknowledged him. Soon he was in his bedroom. It was a mistake. He was robbed off all his valuables by that attractive cross-dresser. 

Word: Jeremiad

noun[jer-uh-mahy-uh d, -ad]

Meaning: a prolonged lamentation or mournful complaint

Tale: 49 days

His 'shoot and scoot' politics benefited from his caustic jeremiad, targeted at the ruling parties. Media gleefully lapped up his accusations without bothering to verify them. The gullible citizens voted him to power, thinking that he will bring in the change he promised. But when he was faced with the prospect of actually delivering on his promises, he ran away in 49 days.

Word: Trophic

adjective [trof-ik, troh-fik]

Meaning: of or relating to nutrition

Tale: Hallucination

Science can play havoc with human lives sometimes. When DNA cloning was introduced, everyone thought it will help humanity fight many diseases. But they used it to reproduce a carnivorous dinosaur. This has changed the balance of food chain and species at several trophic levels are now endangered. I am riding that dinosaur right now. I am a monster. I need more cocaine. 

Word : Furphy

noun [fur-fee]

Meaning : a false report; rumor

Tale: Political Fiasco

His political career was on the rise when he got caught red handed taking a bribe. He will now be taken to task by his party members. Media reports that he will be the first politician ever to be sentenced for his deeds as agencies have a watertight case against him. I can tell you it is just another furphy. He will never go to jail. No politician ever has. In fact he will emerge as a more powerful and popular leader after this fiasco.

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My last year's challenge post from letter S was a Story about young love, titled 'The Minor Glitch'. Read it here. 

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My theme for this year's #AtoZchallenge is all about writing stories, anecdotes and observations from my life in form of easy to read listicles. You can read the theme reveal post here.