Aish's Blog Spot

Since I last posted. Am ashamed, I truly am!

A lot has happened since I last posted, some I would like to talk about, some I cant talk about (Superstition). Wat the heck, might as well. Had a client interview- did well! restored a lot of confidence that I had lost. Most normal people would probably start making arrangements to ship themselves off to "foreign" shores now, but knowing the way my luck operates, I shall wait until I get an express approval asking me to leave on such and such a date and by such and such airline and so on and so forth.

Have been reading practically nothing over the past few weeks- noting of any use, atleast. read the Rocking Horse Winner again. Its by D. H. Lawrence- to use my favourite term - The story has atmosphere! How is that for egoisim, I wonder. I quote myself!

Read a lot of short-stories, actually. The Lottery Ticket by Shirley Jackson. A couple of short-stories by Roald Dahl. Revisited some old favourites - "The Necklace", "The cask of Amontillado", "the Monkey's Paw" among others. Writing short stories is a sublime art. The timing is really criticial. Typically, these operate on two paces. One is a starting pace, typically slow and relaxed. The last para usually puts on the "sudden-brake", or spirals away in excessive speed, leading to a head-on collision. This of course, is exemplified by the likes of Roald Dahl.

Another kind is the Saki-type. This is usually characterised by a gentle even pace, that is just interrupted by a bump (of the speed-breaker variety) in the end, that however lets the "After the story" part proceed in near-about the same pace.