Preamble: I’ve been finding it very hard to articulate my views on the NLB book withdrawal/destruction. I’m not a fantastic storyteller, so this has to do for now. Both sides of this war have to understand each other’s pain. That’s the starting point. Then we can talk about democracy and how we want to move forward […]
You Never Know (a story about breathing)
This story is adapted from Jack Kornfield. I used this short story in a guest lecture I delivered in NAFA recently. Enjoy! There was once an army general, who had just come back from numerous tours of duty in an active war zone. As a general in the war, he had seen many horrible things […]
Robert Fulghum — underrated master of the short story (or so I say!)
Robert Fulghum’s writing saved me. When I was in university, I was a little bit of a nervous wreck, as I was pushing myself a little bit too hard. I didn’t know how to stop, rest, and smell the roses — but I definitely knew how to read, and it was only through reading that […]
Something, somewhere, went terribly wrong (a short story)
The bloodstains seemed pretty obvious to me. The car was travelling against the flow of traffic. Or whatever traffic there would have been, if it hadn’t been so late. Human beings are 70% water, right? 70ish, anyway. And it was pretty obvious where this waterbag went “poof”, and where the impact came from. “Sir, the fella lying […]
Rainbows (a short story)
The boy looked at the girl and slowly, seriously, and deliberately said, “I wish I could take all your pain, swallow it, and poop rainbows.” The girl blinked once, and frowned. She blinked two more times, and stared at him. What he had just said started to filter down into the part of the brain […]
The Fires
The bus was so crowded I could barely move. My nose was stuck in someone’s armpit groove. This man’s hygiene — oh! — I could not approve. The rhymes in my head could drop me dead, but no, it mustn’t be so, for to court I had to go. I had refused to get off […]
Personal Digital Master (short story)
I wrote this after I watched a video about how computers are becoming more and more like human beings. Think about what we have with the iPhone’s Siri, and social robots. It’s an exciting new frontier, but it holds its dangers as well. Enjoy! “Time to wake up, Harry.” The modulated, market-tested for teenage boys, […]
Jane’s Story
In this story I attempt to juxtapose two versions of masculinity — the predatory and the nurturing male. Men nowadays are seen as ‘unsafe’ figures for children to be around due to the idea that adult men have sexual appetites that are barely under control. I would like to modify this idea. Can we all […]