February 26, 2008

A tall story

And while I meander through another slow period, blogging-wise ...

Earlier this month, the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival ran a Flash Fiction contest: 300 words on the theme "Tall Story". I got an entry in about a minute before the deadline expired (this is true). It didn't win anything, but here it is for your reading delight.

PS: In the rush to get the entry in, I forgot to give it a title. If you have suggestions, I shall entertain them. Thank you.

PS #2: Alert readers like you might note some startling similarities to my previous entry to this contest, two years ago. Probably says something about my story-telling capabilities.

***

"Tell me another, please!"

"OK, OK! Stop bugging me! D'you remember Unni?"

"Taught us Chemistry? Sure! How many times did I fling test-tubes out the window on a dare?"

"Yeah right. That's what I'm talking about. He caught on, y'know. Tubes are now in holders, holders are chained to the tables ..."

"... and the tables are nailed to the floor, right?"

"You got it. No really, just the tubes. You wanna know what we did, just as a lark?"

"What?"

"'Twas Ketan's idea. Came up with some chemical compound he claimed would do a slow dissolve of the chains."

"Slow? How slow are you talking about?"

"Reee-al slow. Ketan said once applied to the chains, in three weeks they'd be history."

"So you plastered the stuff on the chains?"

"Not quite. Ketan made it, and we had it in a little dish, but Unni walked in right then. So we left it there, meaning to do it next time we went to the lab."

"Yeah?"

"It didn't quite end up that way."

"What do you mean?"

"Overnight, the stuff solidifies. Looks like coconut barfi."

"All right, this gets better! Now what?"

"We cut it into pieces, packed it in a nice mithai box and left it on the table."

"Lemme guess. Unni helped himself. He would, the glutton!"

"Yeah. Ketan says it's tasteless. But it has some side-effects. One, in particular. You getting the drift of this?"

"Waaaait a sec. I'm thinking of that odd incident last Thursday ..."

"The one where Unni put his hand up like he always does, saying 'PLEASE!' and asking for silence in class?"

"... yeah, except this time his hand got slashed badly by the fan."

"Right. You ever stop to wonder why, this time, his hand got as high as the fan?"

2 comments:

Subbu said...

title:chemical brothers ;) (that is if the two characters twin brothers)

Sidhusaaheb said...

I would've expected the chemical to open blockades, if any, in the digestive system, if not melt the innards of the person...since it could melt chains...

:D