Blood and Virtue

This is quite good, although overdramatized. But then a lot of fine literature is built upon overdramatization.

You write quickly and well. That is a great gift.

More readers!! [and some returning ones!] All right!!

burpinder - i love that story. glad you liked this one.

kulsumbeig - thank you but you are much too kind. great for my ego though. :)

jang - you should! i think you`d like it. but iowa? i know its a great program and my friends who went there tell me they had a great time but... its still iowa!! but maybe you`re not such an urbanite?

cayenne - knock yourself out.

harimou - still firing blanks online as well as offline. tsk tsk, better luck next time.

subs - now thats a great topic for an article or a peice of memoir. ragging, i mean. werent you a boarding school kid? all the more grist for the mill methinks.

#13 Am - actually it is a true story, witnessed by a friend during a ragging session in college.

Ref kaurasach #3

[I read this twice. Will someone please explain this story to me.

He butchered an animal while thinking about the nagging of his family members. And the Moral of the story is??????]

Oh, is THAT what it is?

I looked at the title and figured it might have something to do with the rupture of the hymen during a non-virtuous act.... you know, that would be something an Indian Libby transplanted to the US is likely to write about.

``````Chatter, chatter, chatter – that’s all they did. His wife, his mother, his sisters-in-law and these days even his daughter. It was something in their blood; their lying, manipulating female blood that called out for the destruction of an honest man and all his dreams and simple pleasures...........``````


Teehee.At last someone writes the truth `bout indian women.I know.I`m married to one and i fathered one.And, i live around them.Spell casters,is what they all are.I resolve not to call you by your `professional` name for a while, in appreciation.

damn one of these days when i grow-up, i will take a writing class.. maybe even the iowa one..

Dear Amrita

You are gifted !! Reading your story made me reminiscent of the obscurantist slant of writing often evidenced in Dostoyevsky. This was like reading an abridged version of Crime and Punishment and/or Karamazov Brothers.

This piece is your venom unleashed on the chattering classes, the patriarchal societal structure and the abyss of post-modernity we live in.

I liked the story. Twist in the tail short stories should always be short, even abrupt, like ``Appointment in Samaara`` (the Jeffrey Archer version).

Doc - thanks for the compliment but I like to experiment a little especially with shorter fiction. Otherwise, I keep hearing the same voices over and over again and ... I get bored. :) Its a good thought, however.

Subs - :)). Did a dying Russian sheikh tell you that one while he was waiting for your account details?

Zehra - check your email :). Yup, this is about the only one of mine that you can read quick I guess.

amrita...u a NSU/GF grad? i was there as well which is why im wondering...i did film.
i thought u were.

great visuals. detailed comments later....ive been reading ur stuff in bits n pieces (sorry been away from chowk and also travelling now) and this is a change from the other stuff.

is there an email i can reach u at?

z.rizvi

``My father is in the flesh trade`` he said.
``He is!`` was the shocked reply.
``Yes `xxxx` butchers, we own that you know``.

``dont paint war scenes,dont show blood splashed on the canvass--it disturbs peace of mind...always paint which is soothing to the eyes and mind od the viewer``
This is what the great painter Sobha Singh used to say.Same applies to writing.
You are a good writer,definitely much better than many chowk writers....dont waste your telent on such abstract things.

First of all, a big thank you to all those who read this short short and a bigger one to those of you who posted.

t - verbiage?? did you say verbiage?? I heard you!!! woe is me....

scoutie - thank you! I love em too... short stories in general, I mean :)

Kaura - you read this twice? You`re kidding me! Mummy kasam? As for the moral - its a secret.

Jang - Thank you! And everyone who ever heard my efforts at poetry also hopes that I dont listen to temporal. :)

Harish - thanks! But ... remember Maqbool? [duh-duh] ???

Sho - :)). Thanks and :P indeed.

RD - not quite ``shamelessly`` but more ``un-affectedly``. Subtle difference that comes when the impulse to write is, alas, not shortlived. But on other points, you`re on to something.

Ixie - hey, thanks for showing up! Thats the question isnt it? :)

so he killed all the women?? sorry amrita : )

create a frame - a visual;
make up histories of the people you see in that visual;
over-state every little/big thing in the scene shamelessly;
since, impulse to write is raw and shortlived - makeup a melodramatic connection within the visual;
some wordplay is preferred route and thats it - a real short..short-story (watever that is) is ready for consumption.

Good stuff, Amrita!

call it a butcher`s catharsis?

p.s. don`t forget to post an elucidated version along with a moral on UP :P

regards