The Thought Curry

Mand-fakir felt a whoosh of hot air rising up his backside before he was thrown headlong out of his cave into the frigid Himalayan mountainside. As disorienting as the launch and landing was, he realized that lying on his face on the icy mountain-side with a burnt and exposed bum was likely to be quite nasty. So he got up and examined himself. Satisfied that there was no real damage, he turned to check his cave. It looked the same. He looked up. The sky did not look the same. What had been a starless full moon night before his belly-flop had turned into a very starry one, and the star population was increasing even as he goggled at the strange phenomenon. Within minutes, the sky was ablaze with what looked like a crore suns; so intense, it pierced through his closed eyelids. And a few moments later it was dark again. Blinded, but excited, he tottered back into his cave, feeling for his conduit, a human skull. He dimly noted that his hand felt alien, as if it was only entertaining hi...

The following story was my entry for the 2012 Deccan Herald Short Story Contes t. I did not win it, though IMHO I should have ... :-) The last thing I remember from the time when I was alive is getting my throat ripped open by a pen. I remember being shocked. And then … I died. When I regained consciousness, my first reaction was one of bewilderment. I could not comprehend what I had become. And then it dawned to me. I had died. I realized I was now a spirit. A ghost. I do not feel like one though. At least not like the ones they depict in movies or books. There is no bright light I can walk into. I can not possess anyone. I can not rain fire or raise thunderstorms. I can not even walk through walls. I am like an invisible web. A net of thin tentacles made of air. Heat, humidity, even the slightest disturbance affects me. I do not have eyes or ears. I do not need them anymore. I can sense everything better than the time when I was alive. I can feel your heartbeat from w...

It is like a mine field. Only the mines are in motion… Brownian motion! They are everywhere, rickety contraptions running on 3 wheels. The roads are rigged!!! Be scared. Very. Very. Scared.

Hey “Smoker”... Yes you…!

I stood there my back bent, my head bowed, my legs taut, my forehead knotted, my eyes burning with the sweat from my brow, my temples throbbing in anticipation, waiting, listening… The noon sun was relentless. It burned the back of my neck. But that was the least of my problems. There were others besides me in the same state as I was in. All of us waiting, listening…