The Launch

It gives me the greatest pleasure to announce the grand opening of my new headquarters www.mithunmukherjee.in!! Time to flock over there folks! :)

Quick Update!

Hiya folks!!

Will be at IIT Delhi on 24th September (TODAY!!) at 3.30 pm for the book launch of Seven Deadly Sins by Serene Woods publication, a compilation of winning short stories judged by me. My books Revenge and Cold Feet would also be up for sale as well. Be there for your signed copies! :)

Halfthought

Am I a writer?

Is a writer like one of the thousand scattered, among the sea dream that we pass off as the sky?

As the cosmos, or the milky way?

What defines you?

What combines you,

As a human being or a multi celled organism

Trying to be what you probably wouldn’t even be

In your waking lives?

The City

I am the ruins of a forgotten city.

A city which is now a half baked jigsaw of broken down monuments.

You may call these monuments buildings,

for they once were built on the foundations of character and a vague semblance of humanity.

There are building of tears,

Arches of guilt,

Unending pathways of remorse

Blind-turns of faith, hope and agony.

I am still alive.

The city is still alive.

Alive and dead in the same moment of space time.

There are crumbling bricks of men and decaying concrete women.

They were complete once, now , only pictures.

Installations in a gallery which no one visits.

Flickering images and broken dialogue on television sets

Soaps with anonymous actors, playing out unknown stories,

Broadcasted on channels which don’t exist.

I hear music.

The city has music.

Jarring, itching notes created on a violin

Made out of broken furniture and high tension wires.

It goes on and on, like the unending leak lying unrepaired

At the house which plays the soaps.

The city is empty and full.

Loud and quiet.

I am the city that you cross, looking out of train windows

Visiting places that you think you know.

Tab saves the day...

Jack was a sick kid.

Here, sick does not stand for someone who has a sadistic bent of mind or has thoughts so vile, that the society doesn’t see fit to interact with him. It means that he was one of those frail kids who are mostly on some sort of pills to cure one ailment, while the other ailment is secretly sneaking up on them, dragging them back to sickness, not breaking the ‘vicious cycle of sick kids’. In fact, he was so sick that his pill popping in school got him a nickname; Tablet.

For the longest time, Jack tried to get rid of the name, tried to fight it. He ran past kids in corridors, bumped into them at the canteen. It was not only his classmates anymore. Somehow, the name had leaked out of his classroom and slushing across the school corridors, soaked the entire school into a jeering, teasing frenzy. Tablet Tablet Tablet. In the dark corner behind the school building. Tablet tablet. In the last cubicle of the washroom, scrawled across the back of the door.

TabletTabletTabletTablet.

This was before a single day changed his life.

Jack the introvert spent a lot of time on his computer.  He had been following the date for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 launch, just the way an expectant kid waits for Christmas. And then finally, whump! The day was there. It was the tenth of August, 2011, the LIVE Webcast of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 launch. Jack watched it like it was the last programme before Doomsday.

As the webcast slowly went on, the circuits inside Jack were going through a change that he wasn’t personally aware of. All the negativity was suddenly fizzling out like it never existed. He had been running a slight temperature, being the ‘sick boy’ that he was, but that was slowly turning into history, with every single second passing on screen. It was as if, the webcast was like a placebo not only for his illness; it was the answer that he was looking for, all his life. He never noticed his father enter the room and stand behind him. He never noticed him smiling and giving an almost invisible nod to himself. He never saw the satisfaction playing on his face, having finally found a way out for his son. All he saw was the dreamy image of the tablet in the webcast. He slept a peaceful sleep. Jack the tablet was soon going to spring a surprise not only to the people around him but also to himself, as he would soon find out.

The next morning was going to be the best morning he had had in a long time. The sun shone in through his window and he half opened an eye to look. Time for school. He raised his hand to the dresser beside his bed to get his glasses. Strangely, his hand touched something sleek and rectangular. Something he hadn’t expected. Something which Couldn’t have been there. When he opened his eyes, he held up the rectangular thing.

There was nothing else he could ask for...

As he settled into his seat in computer class in the last period, he fished out the Samsung tablet and connected it to the wi fi. The kids around him took their notes in the laptops that they carried, eyeing him with furtive glances, exchanging words which Jack no longer cared about. There was a smile playing on his lips. As he sent in the assignment of the day, executed on his sleek new device, he saw the teacher give him a strange look and saying nothing. As the day closed, he heard a mean voice in the back hissing “tablet”... he turned back slightly and curling the right side of his lip in a knowing grin replied “exactly”...

 As school got over, he was sitting right outside his school gates, browsing through his favourite e-books that he had recently transferred to the device. “Hey, fancy!” he heard a voice croon right near him, and his heart splashed right into his stomach. “Um...sorry, I only know your name as, uh , tablet”, she fumbled sheepishly. Jack was feeling large hearted, so he replied ‘Its Jack. You are Jenn right? Football star Ned’s girlfriend?’

“Was!” she said rolling her eyes “he thinks he owns me or something, so I got rid of that jerk. You mind coming along for a coffee?” she said.

Jack’s heart, which was finally returning to its original position, fell right back with a louder splash this time. “Sure” he said and got up to dust the backside of his pants.  As he tried to stuff back the tab, he heard “Can I see it?” from her. ‘Umhmm’ he replied handing it to her, as they walked to the cafe, not hand-in-hand. Not yet.

Afternoon soon stretched into late evening, as they chattered their hearts out. She was a huge reader, the last thing that he expected. He showed her his e-book collection, going from one title to another. Jenn continued squealing with happiness as she handled the tab, her fingers flowing smoothly over the amazing touch screen. In the meantime, he had somehow managed to quickly text his dad about not worrying, that he Just might be late. Eventually, it was time to leave the place as the sun had already dipped below the horizon, and the first stars were coming out.

“Lets hit Ollie’s!” she sang, her eyes twinkling like the prettiest diamonds Jack had ever seen. Jack wasn’t a pub hopper, so he tried to chicken out, “no not happening! I gotta get home, its too late anyways...my dad...”

“Just this time. I promise it would be fun” her voice like the most beautiful melody Jack’s ears would catch. This was turning more difficult that he imagined. ‘Sure’ he said relenting, now headed to a pub, for the first time in his life.

Ollie’s  turned out better than he had expected. Since they had checked in early evening, the place was just warming up. Few scattered high school kids occupied a few stools while others were occupied with people he would rather not want to have anything to do with.

The minutes of his Blockbuster Life Movie sped past him. He couldn’t believe that he, Jack the tablet, could actually have so much of fun in a single day, let alone a lifetime. He had his tab snug inside his backpack. Two beers down, his body felt light, like a kite. He was at peace. But then, just like every Blockbuster, it was time for the twist.

A heavy hand landed on his shoulder and a voice boomed behind him ‘Someone let Jack out of the box today hmm?’ A few stray voices sniggered. He did not need telling it was Ned, the football star, the one who had received atleast six detentions in the last year itself, out of which atleast four were for beating up guys. That, ofcourse, was the official count.

Jenn looked behind him and said “I wouldn’t do that if I were you Ned”, motioning Jack secretly to move. Ned came and stood leaning on their table, going red in the face only slightly before hitting back at her “Tablet? Seriously? You must be seriously out of your mind!” A few more laughs followed. Jack signalled the guy at the bar for the cheque.

“I am not. I can prove it to you that Jack here is more intelligent than all of you guys combined” she said colouring visibly. In fact, he can take money off you to clear the bill here, right this moment!” she said. A loud roar of laugh went up from his cronies, and Jack suddenly started wishing he could melt into the sofa he was sitting on.  

Ned silenced the laughing hyenas behind him with a raised arm. He then turned towards Jack. His next words were like a death knell. He whispered, his face level with Jack, breathing right into his face,

“Sure. What do you have on your mind Jack?”

Jack’s mind raced like it was one of those hulking supercomputers he had googled so many times on the internet. He slowly slid his hand, out of Ned’s sight into his side, where the tab now lay, and closed his fingers around his new best friend, the Samsung Tab. Right then, a moment of inspiration struck him. He spoke

“Alright Ned, here’s what we do. I ask you a question. If you answer it, I will give you five bucks. But in case you don’t, you would have to give me fifty bucks. Deal?” He fervently hoped his head wouldn’t turn into a mashed potato.

‘Sure tablet, bring it on. But if I or my friends answer it, you are gonna give me much more than five bucks’ Ned retorted, steaming a little. People around the pub were starting to look now. Jack gave a slight nod.

Jack’s mind raced as thought about every question he had ever read. His mind went into a tizzy. Before he knew what he was saying, he blurted,

“What goes up a mountain on four legs and comes down on three?”

Ned’s face looked like someone had knocked the wind out of him. His cronies slowly started backing up, half step at a time, knocking they were soon going to be hauled up for the answer. But Ned did no such thing. Instead he screamed, “That’s bullshit” and swung his right arm at Jack’s face. Jack closed his eyes for impact. The punch never came. When he opened his eyes, Jenn was holding his hand and he looked like he had seen a ghost. Jenn spoke

“Why don’t you stop behaving like an animal for once, and put down the money if you don’t know the answer?” Jenn glowered. Jack made a mental note of taking tips on bravado from her later.

Ned, knowing that he was stuck square, fished into his pocket and came out with the fifty. The cheque was there as well. He boomed ‘I don’t know the answer.’  

Jack fished into his pocket and slung his bag. When his hand came out, he had his palm balled up around something. Holding the Samsung tab in one hand, he said ‘I would take the tab now, gentle men.’ No one said anything. He picked up the fifty and gave it to the waiter.  The waiter quickly gave him the change and disappeared from the scene. A big hand belonging to an equally big Ned, blocked his way.

“I don’t know the answer” he said through gritted teeth, his face a big tomato, on the verge of exploding.

Ned calmly took his hand and closed it around the object that he had been holding.  Ned opened it to discover a fiver.

‘Neither do I!’ Jack screamed behind him, as he heard laughter coming from Ned’s friends, and his efforts at quietening them down.  A few strangers smiled at him. His right hand was inside his pocket, fiddling with the change that had come back from the waiter. He felt fingers close around his left. The most delicate and beautiful fingers that he could ever imagine holding. Life was good. As he walked out, a single thought crossed his mind,

‘I took care of the tab. Or maybe, the Tab took care of me...”

A road less travelled...

Thirty minutes.

Thirty straight minutes at a jam. The car running, devouring fuel like it was a monster out of a children’s fairy tale, with just a huge mouth and nothing else. There was a limit to how much a man could take. It was time to make a difference. It was time to break the cycle and he was the one who would do it.

He gave one last look at the huge snake infront of him, made completely of cars, gorging on invaluable fossil fuel like a blood hungry leech. He closed his eyes and gripped the steering wheel. Concentrate. You can do this.

A hum, like a TV channel which isnt broadcasting, makes, started to go up. It increased in volume and soon enveloped his car. People around him were looking from their cars now. With a huge boom and a big ball of yellow light, the top of the car flew off. Glass fragmented on all sides, littering the road and the cars around in a shower of diamonds. Rohit, the struggling corporate, was suddenly not struggling to reach his office on time. He had become Rohit, the flying corporate, guardian of the fossil fuels. As he flapped his huge, white, angel like wings, taking to the skies, dazzling in the golden light of the sun, speeding like a bullet towards his office, he thought to himself, “that should solve it!”

A rude honk slapped him right back into his car and he discovered the jam had cleared. He changed gears, urging his car to move forward. There had to be a better alternative than taking to the skies with imaginary wings.

Swimming in his pool of thoughts, he was now standing right outside Swati’s house. He saw her come out of the door, just in time, about to take her car. Swati had joined his office last week and he had been wondering how to get chatty with her.   

“Swati!” he called, attracting her attention. She stood wondering for a while and slowly came towards his car. “Rohit right?” she said. His turn.

“Yeah!” he said, trying to play it smart. “I go through the same route everyday to office and I was seeing that you take your own car to office too...I was wondering you know, the rising costs of petrol and everything...”

“I know! Isnt it crazy?” she retorted, cutting him short. “I was anyways planning to dump this fuel guzzler and get the Fiat upgrade offer soon...its where you buy the car and if you are lucky, you upgrade to the Fiat Multijet diesel technology  for the price of a petrol car. That should happen soon enough.”

“Great idea! In the meantime, why don’t you fly with me? I mean, in my car?” Rohit stammered, trying real hard to get the daydream out of his head. He thought he blew it, but he was in for a pleasant surprise.

“You are a funny guy” Swati giggled. “Only on one condition though...” she continued “ we split the cost. That way, we both save” she finished, moving towards the passenger door.

“Sure! Whatever you say!” Rohit scrambled to get the passenger door, almost strangling himself with the seat belt in the process. She smiled again, and nodding her head sideways, sat beside him. Buckling herself into safety, she finally turned towards him and with a twinkle in her eye said,

“What are you waiting for? Lets Fly!”

Sweet timing!

You know what they say about 'sweet timing' right? I would assume that you do, so I am not going to repeat it for you. What I am going to tell you instead is how my latest fascination with webcomic making suddenly had a happy collision with an App from Intel. Yes, Apps and webcomics CAN collide. If you don't believe me, read on.
I am a gadget/software freak by nature; you could say that. But, I had not gotten addicted to using apps as a rule. Very recently, I started doing webcomics on Facebook, by the name of BOING! which have been running nice and smooth and getting a more than decent response from the readers. And just as this is going on, WHAM! An app by the name of "Comics Creator" from Intel hits me flat on my face and throws me off balance. I mean, as General Tapioca from Tintin would say...CARAMBA!

So what is this app again? To put it simply, its the El Dorado of Comic Strip creation. Not only does it provide you a Gazillion characters across close to a dozen types of illustrations, it has a bevy of other features, which make comic strip making look like child's play. While you can drag and drop characters and add from a huge chunk of speech bubbles, there are a host of smart features which let you do SO much more, without being a pro at Photoshop or other design softwares.

To begin with, there is a multiple selection of the kind of strip that you want. Once this is decided, you can go ahead and choose your characters. As I mentioned earlier, there is a huge cache of pre-made characters available, which only means that if you have a Claw instead of a hand in the field of drawing, like in my case, you can rest assured that your comic strip will not look anything short of dazzling. Once this is figured, choose your speech bubbles and you are set! There is also the option of choosing from a bunch of four fonts and innumberable colors to fill in the background.

Incase you want to make a guest appearance in your own strip, its possible! CLICK your own picture and put it in the strip! Yes its possible, and YES, I am going to do it in a short while as soon as I get over the characters. There is also a selection of backgrounds, vehicles and ohmygodsomuch of other little details that you can add to your strip. The app also gives you the freedom to choose from multiple drawing style to mash your style up and create endless oppurtunities.

Oh and the PREVIEW! For every single step, you can click on the preview and it shows Exactly how your comic strip is going to look. Once you are done, click on the button, and you would be given a slick JPG of the final strip! There is also your own place, where you can draw with colours, doodle, yap yap yap. I know I am rambling. But trust me on this, if you were a comic strip enthusiast like me, and using the App, you would know what I was talking about. It promises a LOT more enhancements in the near future, so I am WATCHING out for those, for sure. And here are my littel works of art that I did, with the comics creator...TADA! :D

One little thing that I would like is, if I could just drag and drop my OWN characters in here? THAT would be something. I am sure in a few more enhancements, theres going to be so much more juice into this already meaty app. Oh, and wait for the punchline...it aint come yet.


This App if free...

This blog is an entry to the "My Favorite PC App" contest. Check out numerous apps for PC/Netbooks available at the Intel AppUp Center. If you are looking for an opportunity to build and monetize your applications, check out the Intel® Atom™ Developer Program.

BOING!!!

Why no stories?
Errm...uh..
Why no updates?
Well, I was about to...
Did you stop writing?
No...ofcourse not! See the...
Have you taken up farming?
NO! Right now I am BOING! :D

That was the conversation between me and my blog a while back. And incase you are wondering what the BOING business is about, then you are in for a surprise; its my BRAND NEW COMIC STRIP! :D :D

Its just about five strips old and been getting pretty decent response. If you want to check it out, This is where it is!! :) And here are two of the strips, just to get that curiosity going! :D

Please feel free to share the strips on your Facebook Profiles and Do tell me how you guys like it! :D

[POOF!]

Revelations

The Clarity of Night contest is on, and as always, yours truly has sent in an entry. Only this time around, it is unlike anything that I have ever written.

Its not dark.

Its not scary.

It doesn't chill.

Then WTF does it do???

Its a simple story. I would rather let it talk for itself. Check it out here and please tell me how you like it?

I am trying to put in fresh fiction on my own blog as well. Hope to come up with something which is worth the effort, atleast to me.

Cya! 

Update!

My Shocketry fever seems to be finally dying down, so you guys wouldn't have to look at any poetry coming from me for a while (unless you Really want it, in which case you could let me know in the comments. It was a joke. Haha. ) I am working on a short right now, which should be up in a bit (I Promise!). In the meantime, I thought I should update you guys about whats going on here.

The blog has been featuring at teabreak.pk for a while.

Also, the blogpost on Shocketry managed to get featured as a chosen post on "best web pages for poetry" for the 9th of July at the Paper presentation website, paper.li . See, I told you its a cool idea right? :)

I have been toying with the idea of playing with parallel narratives and somehow combine them with distortions in time. I have done both before and have been toying with the idea of clubbing them together to deliver some superawesomeness. If you guys have some cool brainwaves, I am all for it. Also, the guest blogging thing...um....anyone?

Shocketry Reboot: The Bite

And so it was

That once, a boy

Not knowing what to do

Just closed his eyes

And made a wish

And hoped that it came true

‘Every word I say,

Must turn for real

And behave the way they mean

No dilly or dally,

Nor silly or sally

As real as could be seen!

It was all fun

With the moon and sun

And Stars and day and night

Then he felt a chomp

Not quite the romp

It was the word called BITE

Up and down

He scampered hard

With Bite holding his bum

Come rain or wind

Or Sun shine in

They were now the best of chums!

So the boy wrote a book

And christened it

“I’ll call you Bible cuz I can!”

Then he named the bite,

More out of spite

“Now on, I’ll call you MAN!”

(pic: Helix nebula, nicknamed "The Eye of God")

[Okay okay, I shall get back to writing fiction soon! Incase you are new here, this is a part of Shocketry which started last week here.  Two people followed suit and did their own shocketry here and here. Have you earned your shocketry badge yet? Also, I am looking forward to collaborate on fiction stories here or on Your blog. Any takers? ]

The birth of "Shocketry" and other important things...

Ola Amigos!! There is a lot of news updates this time. All of ‘em are good, for a change. Or let’s say I am keeping the morose stuff out of this place. Why would you want to ruin the mood at a Dark Fiction blog isn’t it? That was a joke I just said. Just so you know.

So the updates. The Facebook Page has zoomed past the 200 Likes mark. The blog here has also upped to 200 plus followers. What could I say but THANK YOU. I could have hugged each one of personally. No, seriously. Thank you.

I coined a new form of poetry. It’s called Shocketry or Shocking Poetry. I define Shocketry as nothing but Shocking Poetry. You could have your own definition. It could always be a good shock or a bad shock, the only condition being, it MUST have shock value! Your boyfriend growing horns. Your motorbike turning into a turtle. The school teacher turning into an octopus. Anything. Wild! Anyways, ‘nuff said. Here is my first attempt at it.

The Pumpkin’s Revenge

It was dark as night

And Jack sat down

On the night before Halloween.

With knife and pumpkin on his lap

All ‘ready’, if you know what I mean!

For years together,

 Jack always made

Lanterns Big and Small

And during Halloween, Jack o’ Lanterns shone

In the houses, one and all...

So on this night

Without a fright

Jack poised his knife on top

Before the blade could make the cut

He heard a grave voice say “STOP!”

“No more lanterns!”

The pumpkin said,

“We have taken this all too long!”

And before Jack knew, the pumpkin broke

Into a pumpkin song!

The song now over,

And Jack quite frozen

The result was very strange

Jack spoke not a word, nor did any gesture

For both seemed out of range

Next morning when

the villagers came

to take their lanterns home

It seemed just like any other Halloween

The way the years had known.

“This one looks like Uncle Jack!”

A child squealed looking at his piece

The villagers giggled

and praised crafty Jack, saying

“I think we should pay his fees!”

Jack now hangs

Outside a door

With a candle in his head

And if the poem scared you bad,

Make sure you don’t wet your bed!

[It was first published here and the blogger folks liked it! A real cool blogger took the cue and did her own Shocketry! Read her Shocketry here.  In case you find the Idea interesting , don't hesitate to do your own shocketry. Yes, I am pretty obsessed with how cool this can become. Infact, I even made a "Shocketry Writer" badge for you guys to pin up on your blog! :D

Feel free to copy the badge from below and put it on your site and put my link. Let me know in the comments section if you did any shocketry so I could put your link in my blog. See you soon!]


Presenting the SHOCKETRY BADGE:

Quick Update!

It is time for a quick update!!
Yes, dont give me that weird look. You thought only News Channels could do that?

There has been a lot of action in my life of late (NO! Not what you are thinking! Real, Physical Action! Ok you know what, forget about it. :| )

First, there was an accident. Not like the Genesis/Bible types. This happened on the road.
I was pillion on my bike and escaped unhurt. The guy who was biking got six stitches. Yeah, well.

This happened before the Actual first accident mentioned above. So you could call this the Zero Accident.

My guitar got a hairline crack. Yes. Hairline. I am almost dying.

A stupid B-grade CGI Hollywood flick later, which I couldnt even finish (COVENANT!), I am a little wiser.
I will stick to the basics. I am getting back to the Matrix Trilogy. Again. Good ol'.

There was Purani Dilli cuisine too, but thats okay; part of my life mostly now. Atleast, thats what I would like to believe.

More importantly, I have started writing at The Writer's Lounge too. An older story called Room For Rent now features there, as my first post. Go read it here. New short story coming up soon. There is also a lot of activity happening here . Thats my Facebook Page. Yes, I am famous enough to have my OWN facebook page. Join it! :D