Not long ago I used to write. I have written loads of stuff - some short stories, some poems and some character-based articles (part fact, part fiction). Here is some of my work for public perusal. Please feel free to redistribute if you find fit. Only let me know when you do so.

• Short Stories
  • My Fair Lady
  • A Unisexual World
  • On Bowling a Maiden Over
• Selected character-based articles
  • Ahuja - A Caricature Sketch
  • The Trial of an Ass - Exposing the Muddi (written with Vaibhav for SBI)
  You will find some more articles at http://www.btech96.org, our batch website. Of course, you will have to dig around a bit. Vaibhav and I formed a lethal writing team called SBI in IIT, which wrote some pretty interesting things during its heydey. We thought we were lethal, which is all that matters, anyway!
• For our batch's farewell party I created a couple of Powerpoint presentations:
  • "Was It Not yesterday?", based on a poem by Kunal Talwar
  • The Awards Nite - a recognition of the claims to fame of various talented personalities of our batch.

"That's it, Jaidutt! Smash it over!" The supporters of Arjuna House were roaring. And why not? The Arjuna team needed just 2 more to win off the last over and Jaidutt was well-placed on 42. As the captain of Krishna House handed over the ball to me, all I could think of was Azhar giving the ball to Sachin for the last over of the Hero Cup semi-finals. Only, as the reader would notice, there were two subtle points of difference: first, in that match, South Africa needed 6 runs to win off that over whereas here, Arjuna House needed 2. Second, and more importantly, I was nowhere within miles of Tendulkar in my bowling technique and versatility.

The over started. My plus point had always been sticking to a good line. I did just that for the first two balls and pitched in beautiful yorkers. The chants for Arjuna intensified as Jaidutt prepared to face the third ball. This one shot in like a rocket and he just put his bat out in front. Ordinarily, it would have sailed over the bowler's head. But not quite so ordinarily, I was a bowler who could jump pretty well and pretty quickly. I got a caught and bowled.

Jaidutt        c&b     Rishi        42

There were groans from the Arjuna camp. Their last good batsman was gone. But still, only 2 runs were needed. My house supporters grew hopeful. This was the beginning of the Arjuna tail. Rahul was the new man in. By virtue of being his classmate, I knew that he had weak nerves. Comfortably, I bowled another dot ball. Possibly I got complacent now, because the fifth ball I pitched outside the off-stump. Rahul lashed out at it and struck well. But there was Ashish at the covers. Ashish was one, who we believed, had the hands of God.

Rahul        c Ashish     b Rishi        0

Now the Krishna house supporters erupted with joy. One ball to go and 2 runs needed. The last ball went right through the batsman, Vishal.

Krishna House had won. And I was the hero.

(This article was entered into Tryst 1999, the IIT-D Technical Festival. As the topic was given and so was a word limit, there are some holes in the logic. Nevertheless, the article was ranked 2nd)

Hanis Nathan was a genius. He had reason to be. After all, he had attained at a young age of 29 what most people couldn't even dream of at 50. He had successfully converted mankind in its totality into mankind in the true sense of the word (For the benefit of those who do not know, Hanis, together with Yor pioneered the "Project Man").

It all started when Yor Ruhal got disgusted. The reason - his wife. He was really disgusted with the harridan. He was disgusted of the fact that she could never keep any bit of information to herself. In fact he was sick of womankind in general. After all, why couldn't women be of a more sedate nature? Why couldn't they ... "DESTINATION REACHED, PUSH THE "DOOR" BUTTON TO OPEN THE DOOR", the panel on his MotorLite beeped and thereby, broke his musings. He had reached the venue of the conference of the Scientist Fraternity. This was to be a special conference where all the theoriticians of the world would assemble. As he walked to his seat in the Conference Hall, he had an idea. Yes! He would put it through!

"Brother scientists and dear friends," he started when his turn came. "This is something I have been thinking since quite some time. Please bear with me till I finish, for you might find quite a few of my concepts outrageous. I have been thinking of a unisexual world - a world where there would be only men - a world from where womankind would be erased."

(This article was entered into Rendezvous 1999, the IIT-D Cultural Festival. As the topic was given and so was a word limit, there are some holes in the logic. Nevertheless, the article was ranked 2nd, adding to my Tryst prize earlier that year)

Deepshikha was in tears. Rather, she was hysterical. Any girl would be if she had lost a boyfriend and close confidante. And Vipul was more than that to her. They had known each other for over two years then.

As I was leaving the Menon residence after offering my condolences to Deepshikha, her sister Anusha accosted me. She gave me such a cold stare that I thought any other person would have frozen at it. I shrugged it off and continued on my way home. After all, I had other important things to do.