Sharath Komarraju's Blog, page 55
March 20, 2021
Free Fiction Sunday #008 – The Fullness of Time
1921. I AM ARTHUR COTTON. People in these parts call me Cotton dora. Twenty two years after my death, the villagers of Palem decided that it was time to commemorate my work in this way: by erecting a seven-foot bronze statue of me on top of a five-foot stone pedestal. I look nothing like the […]
March 13, 2021
Free Fiction Sunday #007 – White Jasmine
The eleven a.m. bus to Dhavaleshwaram had only two passengers in it: a young couple who had chosen one corner of the last seat. As he got on at the Palem stop and made for his usual place in the middle row, by the right-hand-side window, Vilas Rao found himself feeling a touch of lightness […]
March 6, 2021
Free Fiction Sunday #006 – Plus One
Two things happened on the eleventh day after my mother’s passing. One: Vinay wanted Amma’s watering can for himself. Two: a man came to visit me; a man I’d never seen before; a man who had one of those vaguely familiar faces that made you uncomfortable; a man who introduced himself as someone who once […]
February 27, 2021
Free Fiction Sunday #005 – Show Maker
Head Constable Manikantham whistled while he put on his red-and-blue-striped hat. He stood in front of the mirror hooked to his window sill, and lightly grazed his stubble with the fingertips of his right hand. No need to shave this morning, he said to himself. Tomorrow, Monday, was payday…. PDF | EPUB | MOBI (Kindle)
February 20, 2021
Free Fiction Sunday #004 – Hero
‘Rekha, will you take this up?’ Ravi asks me. And I immediately say yes. For the smallest of moments I offer a private apology to Monali, whose story this is and whose byline it deserves to appear under. But it has been a month since she has handed in her leave of absence, and Shekhar […]
February 13, 2021
Free Fiction Sunday #003 – Our Lord Drinks Milk
‘It is that boy, Anvesh,’ said Matthew Sir, the newly appointed English teacher at Palem’s school. He sat leaning forward in his chair from across Principal Rammurthy, who was, at the moment, trying to balance the books from last month. Government funds invariably arrived a couple of months later than they should, and staff invariably […]
February 6, 2021
Free Fiction Sunday #002 – Pankajam
My father died of a cardiac arrest in March, 1990. We cremated him on the shores of Bhadrakali Lake in Warangal. My mother expected his dying wish to be laid to rest somewhere in Palem, but he did not mention it. Ever since we’d left the village – eleven years before, in 1979 – I […]
January 30, 2021
Free Fiction Sunday #001 – The Seven AM Bus
The man under the black umbrella had a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth. He held it between his teeth, behind pursed lips. He stood some distance away from the bus shelter, as if taking refuge from the harsh white light of the solitary street lamp. Everywhere else in the village, it was utterly dark… PDF […]
April 15, 2019
Bookwards Writing Contest 2: My Brother My Rival
For our second writing contest, the theme is sibling relationships. The prompt: My Brother My — You can end the prompt however you want. Here are a few possibilities: My Brother My Friend My Brother My Saviour My Brother My Lover (If you want to explore incest/abuse themes) My Brother My Rival (That age-old theme […]
March 20, 2019
Bookwards Writing Contest 1: A Second Chance
Readers of this blog will remember (or will be reminded by this post) that we used to do writing contests here four years back. We did sixteen of them in all, and they fizzled out because I could not figure out how to build a community around them. But while they lasted they were a […]
