1. I heard an impatient honk outside. My ride to DRDO had arrived. Off to work.

I stepped out the door. Something hit my head. Crimson liquid streaming down my neck! My shirt was now stained blood red!

“Aaargh!! Sniper!” – I yelled, hitting the deck.

Laughter all around. I turned. “Happy holi!” – they screamed in unison.

—-

2. “War – what is it good for?” I thought, crouching low behind the bushes.

“There he is!” – someone yelled. I clutched my weapon tighter. I was spotted! I ran, felt something heavy explode on my back*, tripped and fell.

The hunt was over.

My pichkari slipped away as the other kids drenched me with coloured water.

—-

The running theme is “The reluctant Holi enthusiast”. The problem with themes is that everything after the first one is predictable. The ‘*’ where I refer to something exploding is about the now selectively-banned water balloons.

-> Badrinath.S

P.S. : People should be encouraged to write more 55-fiction. Its quick, dirty and fun. It takes at most 5 minutes to come up with an idea, and another 15 to heighten tension and correct the word limit. 20 minutes in all.

P.P.S. : Heppi holi etc.

P.P.P.S. : Shameless link to part I.

1. They cheered as he descended from the heavens. A grand entrance for their champion! “Owen! Owen!” they screamed.

He raised his hand to wave. He would finally come out of his brother’s shadow.

He heard something snap. It was his last conscious thought.

“Death by blunt chest trauma” – announced the medic. “Owen Hart is dead.”

2. The office party was in full swing. She sat in a morose silence, oblivious to her drunk coworkers and they squeals of joy.

“Ready?” he asked her. “Does it matter?” she replied, taking the mike in her hands. She looked down at the paper in her hands. It was a list of names titled “Redundancies”.

3. She smiled as the memory of her piano concert came flooding back into her head. “Once in a generation genius” – the press had tagged her. “Everything will be okay, we are here now,” she heard her father’s reassuring voice.

She slid into consciousness. She was struck speechless as her eyes fell on her amputated arms.

—–

Not particularly good, but not too shabby either for a first (few) attempt(s) at 55-fiction. I seem to be shockingly good at writing 56-fiction. Every attempt went to exactly 56 words when I finished, after which many words were cut and sentences were rewritten. I was thinking about titling this “55 fiction : When Bad Shit Happens to Good People“, but decided against it – I dont need to explicitly state it. Parts II and III and so forth will probably be on themes like “KLPD”, “The vagaries of fate”, “aliens”,  “FML”, etc

-> Badrinath.S

P.S. : I decided to start writing depressing 55-fiction as it seemed so easy. Just so many possible endings – death, loss of limbs, loss of jobs, loss of mental faculties, loss of money, etc

P.P.S. : Now for the credits section. Two blogs on blogroll – this one and that one.

P.P.P.S. : Dont bother counting the words. I made sure they came to 55

Violence has died down in Mumbai and it seems to have shifted to Bihar now. In order for something to be burnt by the rioting mob, it must satisfy two conditions

(image copied shamelessly from the Hindu’s website. very shamelessly.)

1. It must be big. The bigger it is, more is the impact, more the footage you get on the news. Hence buses, trains and everything burnable and big are being burnt.
2. It must be government property and must disrupt life. If you walk around the streets burning garbage, nobody would care. People in fact would gladly donate more of their garbage to your cause. Burn a bus, and every news channel will stop talking about the recession and give you all the airtime you need.

With so many self-help books flooding the market, I am quite sure there must be something along the lines of “7 Habits of Highly Effective Rioters” or “Chicken Soup for the Rioters Soul“. Not that these people need any help, mind. They seem to be doing a bloody good job of disrupting public life so far.

Seeing as every media outlet is obsessed with the situation, I doubt if I need to harp on about what is happening. That however, will not stop me from harping on regardless. In a nutshell -

• Raj Thackeray claims the Marathi Manoos (loosely – Marathi Peoples) are not getting enough representation, jobs, etc.
• Raj Thackeray strongly advocates an anti-northie bias. (why dont some people like the term northie? hardly offensive, is it?)
• Raj Thackeray’s lackeys use strong arm tactics on a bunch of Biharis trying to write the Railway exams.
• Tactics turn out to be a bit too strong armed and some of said Biharis kick the bucket (which is an insensitive way of saying – they died).
• Cue the justified decry of violence-based politics.
• Raj Thackeray is arrested.
• His lackeys get another excuse to go on a violent spree.
• Maharashtra burns.
• Said lackeys get arrested.
• People in Bihar, incensed that people in Mumbai get to make big bonfires out of public property, decide to get in on some of the action. After all, who doesnt like a good riot? But what about the excuse… I mean the reason? Their kith and kin are getting thrashed around a thousand miles away! That will do.
• Gather those stones, get the petrol out. We have ourselves a riot!
• Bihar burns. Simple so far?

In the whirlwind of media reports about the situation and how common mumbaikars, the impoverished lot in general and those from the north in particular (among the impoverished lot), are living in fear, certain common stereotypes are built up. The leader of this movement (which would be Raj Thackeray) becomes a mindless monster who can do no right. Your average Bihari/UP-ite living in the Mumbai shanties is an innocent migrant cowering behind tin walls and plastic roofs. All he wanted was a fair shot at making himself a life. All he got was a stab in his back and a nice whack on his head. But is the situation really that simple?

Violence as a means to an end is rarely justified in a democracy, so there is no issue to be debated there. A solution to violence based politics is simple, if somewhat unlikely to happen – ban repeated offenders from contesting elections. However, behind all this violence, there actually is a valid cause. Their demands may be a but excessive and their means may be rotten, but there is a valid cause.

“What is wrong with folk from Bihar and UP migrating to Mumbai?“, people might wonder, “it was people from such diverse places who made Mumbai what it is.” They might muse, “Besides, we are one nation. What is wrong with a little inter-state migration?“

Quite a lot actually, more so in a over-populated country like this one. This situation is not about a bunch of Maharashtrians resorting to violence because they are xenophobic. Their reasons are far more complicated. Their means may be unnecessarily violent, but they do have their own valid grievances (imo, of course). There will hopefully be a next part, where I elucidate further. Seeing as none of my previous “Part I” posts have any “Part II” posts following them, the smart money would be on this being my last post for a while. But a few months back, the smart money was on the stock markets, right? Those of us who read the papers know what happened to that