Friday, October 14, 2016

Unheard Words, Radical Thoughts - Part 5

I had been really busy for last few days, so couldn't post on the blog. But I was finding sometime daily, mostly while traveling from office to home, to write the story for the day on the words received on our Readers' Club's WhatsApp group.

For the three words covered in this post, I tried to use an alternative literary device in one of the stories. I am not sure what impact it creates, but I felt it right to do so.

Mavourneen
noun [muh-voo r-neen, -vawr-, -vohr-]
darling; dear

Tale: Hero/Villain

"My beloved! My mavourneen! I hope this letter still carries my fragrance when you hold it in your hands. It has been months since I went away. I had no choice. And I know my dear, I promised you that I will write to you every Sunday. But I never did. Never could. There was nothing bright to say. Things were gloomy and there was so much desperation around. After months, today the sun shines bright and there is no sound of bullets. Today it looks like the war is ending. When I left Dublin, I had never hurt anyone. But now I am being hailed as a warrior. I murdered thirty soldiers with my bayonet and killed many more with my rifle. They are going to reward me on my return. But to tell you the truth, my dear, I am not proud of this. I can smell the rotting corpses in my dreams. I hear children wailing too. As much as I try, muffling my ears, the wails don't stop. I love you and it is your thoughts that have kept me sane. Hope to see you soon."

She read this letter hundredth time. She could feel his warmth and smell his manliness in it. Her tears had dried up, but the letter was damp with sweat from her palms and tears of all the past occasions when she read it. He never came back. His decorated coffin returned though. The second world war had not only taken his life, but also hers.

Deleterious
adjective [del-i-teer-ee-uh s]
harmful; injurious

Tale: Vacuum

Their marriage was on the rocks. They hadn't talked to each other for days. Smiles had vanished from their home and both their kids were growing grumpy. It was difficult to understand what went wrong. They both loved each other deeply and had well paying jobs. They were a successful couple in every conceivable way. One day he came home, shot his wife, strangulated his kids and then jumped off his 50th floor apartment. The deleterious effects of living a purpose less life had taken its toll on his mental health. For months, now he was always bothered about the vacuousness of his life, his friend informed the police.

Potboiler
noun [pot-boi-ler]
a mediocre work of literature or art produced merely for financial gain

Tale: Life of Crime

He was considered as the most intellectual filmmaker in the noir genre. His crime thrillers were dark and morbid. Lapped up by the audiences, he was the toast of the town. Some of his critics mentioned that his films are so perverse that if he wasn't a director, he would have made a perfect criminal. They didn't know how close they were to truth. He was a pickpocket in childhood. After spending some years in a juvenile home, he came out a hardened criminal. He started drug trafficking and pimping. But then he came across a melancholic, beautiful small time actress. They both fell in love. That transformed him as a person. He studied film-making and nothing stopped him after that. His life reads like a potboiler. Isn't it? 

Tuesday, October 04, 2016

Unheard Words, Radical Thoughts - Part 4

Start of a new month brought in some really interesting words for me to weave my stories around. In fact, I think for one word (amphiboly), while I got the usage right from sentence point of view, but the example may not be apt. But narrating the story was far more important for me, so I just went with the flow.

So here are the three words shared in first three days of October, on our Readers' Club's WhatsApp group and what I did with them.

Druthers
noun [druhth- erz]
one's own way, choice or preference

Tale: Bad Habits

She couldn't stand that man. His hygiene habits had pissed her off many a time. He would make loud noises while eating food and would burp shamelessly. Whenever he used to fall asleep, the entire neighborhood would know because of his loud snoring. Once she saw him itching around his crotch and then eating food with the same hands. She was disgusted to no end. If she had her druthers she would have never married him.

Understory
noun [uhn-der-stawr-ee, -stohr-ee]
the shrubs and plants growing beneath the main canopy of a forest

Tale: Futility

Beneath the cover of heavy understory, two eyes glowed like ember. The anger in them could have started a forest fire. But he was waiting, patiently. Waiting for her to come. He had no business being here. But life is uncertain and here he was, willing to pounce on her the moment he sees her and kill her. Kill her with his bare hands. As she strolled in, royally, and unaware about her hunter, she started drinking water from the pond in the clearing immediately. Following her were her six cubs whom she was protecting fiercely. He then realized what this lioness did yesterday was her maternal instinct and his young son's foolishness. He returned and mourned for his son.

Amphiboly
noun [am-fib-uh-lee]
ambiguity of speech, especially from uncertainty of the grammatical construction rather than of the meaning of the words

Tale: Love You, Love You Not 

She could never make out from his texts whether he was flirting or not. His use of amphiboly was so effective that even if she feels upset by any of his text, he knew he would be able to explain otherwise. Like this one time he texted her, "I love you, isn't that the most beautiful thing one can ever say to a beautiful girl like you?" She used to like him, but that day she knew, he wasn't the guy. He wasn't willing to risk anything to get her.


Saturday, October 01, 2016

Unheard Words, Radical Thoughts - Part 3

With this post, I will complete thirty stories for thirty "Words of the Day" shared on our Readers' Club's WhatsApp group in September 2016. That calls for a little celebration. This little daily ritual has helped me rejuvenate my blog. Happy reading and writing to you all. 

Here are today's three stories.

Peradventure
noun [pur-uh d-ven-cher, per-]
chance, doubt, or uncertainty

Tale: Thank God It's Friday

As she scrolled through his mobile phone, her heart sank. The man she had loved so intensely had been betraying her for months. Each text message proved beyond peradventure his guilt. He had been indulging in sinful activities without her knowledge. Every Friday night he was going for binge drinking with his friends. While she thought that he was working hard at office.

Lodestone
noun [lohd-stohn]
something that attracts strongly

Tale: Nature of Attraction

Moths get attracted to fire. This is a fatal attraction. An attraction that kills. But moths never learn. That is the nature of attraction.

He was driving on the expressway. He had to urgently reach somewhere. Then he heard that lilting voice. A song
from his childhood filled his ears. The voice, reminded him of his mother's lullaby. The song like a lodestone, made him change his path. Instead of going to his destination, he took a by-lane and followed the sound. He kept going round in circles but he never reached the source of the sound. He knew he was going to get free today. He drove his car off the cliff. The sound stopped.
 

Testudinal
adjective [te-stood-n-l, -styood-]
pertaining to or resembling a tortoise or tortoise shell

Tale: It... 

Her three year old suitcase was witness to several unspeakable things she did over this period. It had gone through the rumble and tumble of her extensive travels and adventures. She used it, stuffed it, abused it to no end. But it was a suitcase with testudinal strength, that had many secrets of hers stored in its belly. It had seen her naked many times snorting off lines of coke drawn on its top pocket. One of her boyfriends once even dropped his ejaculate on its back. The suitcase still embarrassingly carries that stain. But it still remained by her side through her highs and lows, despite her never taking care of it. Today a new larger, pink one caught her fancy. It lies in a corner waiting to be thrown away in a dump.