Roshan Radhakrishnan's Blog, page 68

Oh. To have a story rejected

All of you know I'm a show-off. After all, my 'Moments of Pride' button on the blog is so filled to the brim with self- congratulatory posts (Me! Me! Me!) that I had to convert it into a drop-down menu linking to three separate pages ( Me! Me! Me! , More Me! Me! Me! and Best of Me! Me! Me! )!

Anyway, I know I make a huge hue and cry over every short-story that gets published in print or media form.  I get a lot of 'anything you write gets published' comments too.
That's flattering to hear......

A quote which defines you

In the Appletini, recently I had written about two women whose stories I felt were truly inspirational.

One was a young girl born to a single mother, so poor that she had to wear potato sacks for clothes. She was raped by her relatives at the age of 9, ran away from her home at 13, was pregnant at 14 and lost her infant at 15. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we would never have recovered from these many blows at so young an age. Well, not only did she recover but she scripted her...

A faithful hint of citrus and coffee

Till very recently, even if I were to blindfold you and bring you to a house, you would immediately identify it as mine if you had been there earlier. You couldn't miss the mild hint of an orange citrus scent in the air. It was present in most rooms - the kitchen, the living room, my bedroom and even the bathrooms - but it was always strongest in my parents bedroom. That's where she went to sleep every night, after all.
Ruby, our pomeranian-fox-spaniel hybrid was born in this house in 1999. Sh...

Introspection and a Guest post

A few fellow bloggers seemed to be having an illness which affects most of us at some time or the other - writer's block. Like all of them, I too know the feeling, having experienced it probably once every three months since the start of this blog.
But as I looked back over the posts, I realized something weird - my own posts this year lacked that old personal touch and openness that I used to enjoy before. There are descriptions of events and contest posts but that's it. The closest I've gott...

The Ones Who Remember Me

I had just finished taking the history of a patient and was walking out the door when I ran into a previous patient and his family. Now, jovial ol' me couldn't walk past without saying hi so I stopped in front of him with a "Hi. How are you?"

He punched me! 
And then turned to the guy next to him, pointed at me and said "I don't like this man. Hit him." To be fair, I can't blame him. The last time we had met, there had been blood involved.

Perhaps, it would be prudent for me to provide a bi...

So I lost but it's ok.

I had asked many of you for your help and you had been kind enough to vote for me in the Indireads short story contest. Well, after the voting, the top two voted entries from each genre were selected and then a winner was chosen by the judges based on merit.

I did get shortlisted in the 'Crime' category among the top two stories but fell short in the end. Sigh... winning and losing are all part of the game, right?
I just wanted to thank all those of you who took the trouble to vote for me.  Even...

A little help, everyone - Part 2 !

Remember long long ago (last week) when I asked for your kind votes to help me get published in the Indireads contest for my story "A Second Chance"? 

Well, here's an unexpected twist. We were allowed two entries in that contest. And both my entries got selected in the final shortlist, as it turns out. (You know where this is leading, right?)

Anyway, last time I may have tried scratching your emotional nerve center with a picture of a kitten begging. That was lame and I apologize for tryin...

Marvel vs DC Comic-based Movies: A lesson in long-term planning

Author's note #1: This is a geek post featuring investment planning and comic books. Yes, exactly what I said. So read at your own peril. 
When people talk about the benefits of long term planning, I always use the example of comic-based movies. It is just a more appealing method to explain to people of my generation, instead of trying to explain the benefits of 9% compounded interest and 8% annual inflation rates, gilt and equity, stocks and bonds. So what is my explanation?
Now, for this...

Empowering women entrepreneurs through digital media - Open House

Dear women in India,
You are as content as you choose to be. Perhaps more importantly, you can be as successful as you aspire to be. The field isn't limited to the traditional barriers of a successful household or the surprised looks of a winning beauty pageant contestant. India moved on in the workplace and so did you.
Managing Director (MD) of the biggest pharmaceutical company of the country. Head of Operations of India's leading banks. Chairman of India's leading news network. Vigilance Com...

A little help, everyone.

Okay. Long story short.
A story of mine has been shortlisted in a contest where the winners stand a chance to get published.
This time though, I need people to vote for the story for it to be selected over the stories of the evil neo-fascist, cradle-robbing, dolphin-beating, tarantula petting, big fanged* competitors I'm up against.
So, I would be really glad if you would head on over to the Indireads site where my story "A Second Chance" is presently showcased.
If you like my story, Click the 'V...