Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Unheard Words, Radical Thoughts - Part 1

The Readers' Club's WhatsApp group, I am part of has changed its name from Literati Bugs to Owlery, as the owner of the group has registered it as a commercial entity. But one thing remains the same - A word of the day is shared and I try to weave a story around it. With this change, I have changed the title of my posts in this series as well, as most of the words shared are unheard of. This post has three such stories I wrote in response to three unheard words shared. Two stories are about radical people and the last one about a not so radical guy.

Vagarious
adjective [vuh-gair-ee-uh s]
erratic; capricious; characterized by vagaries

Tale: Free Spirit

She left a steady job to pursue her passion. Travel gave her a high which nothing else could match. She did petty jobs few months every year and spent all the savings on traveling for rest of the months. Her vagarious lifestyle took her to new places and experiences. She felt settled in life for the first time. She was at home, away from home.

Eristic
adjective [e-ris-tik]
pertaining to controversy or disputation; controversial

Tale: Killers. Who?

He stood trial for an eristic case that took everyone by surprise. It was discussed by all and sundry. It was dissected for hours at end on news channels. The issue at hand had no precedent and it had the potential to divide the society down the middle. His life was endangered too because of the controversial nature of his argument. People baying for his blood had crowded the court premises. The court held him not guilty but as he came out he was lynched to death. He had killed God and surrendered. People laughed at him and told him that he can't kill God. He further said if God can kill people he has every right to kill God. People argued God has no form so he can't kill God. So he claimed that before surrendering he desecrated idols and symbols of all major religions. Now people were not laughing. They wanted to kill him as he had hurt their God.

Spinebash
verb [spahyn-bash]
to rest; loaf

Tale: Resigned to Fate

It was a tough week at work. Everyday was like an uphill trek. On Monday, the review meet was really rigorous. He got the dressing down of his life from his boss. Tuesday was no better when he missed a client's deadline. It was as if he was carrying a backpack filled with bricks on this trek. Wednesday brought the bad news of him missing a great career opportunity. His heart sank and he spent the entire day sulking. On Thursday, he was assigned a new reportee from another team. He hated her, as she had turned down his proposal during college. He usually used to spend his Fridays spinebashing in office. But he got a weekend assignment late Friday evening. On Saturday, he drafted a resignation letter. He drank beer that night and woke up with a hangover on Sunday. As he caught with his friends on Sunday evening, he forgot everything. He is geared up to face Monday again.

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