Surreal

Surreal

1. Characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions;

2. Resembling a dream

3. Having qualities attributed to or associated with surrealism

Anahita Dordi

Brushing her wavy locks, Nisha was all set to meet her colleague Alok. Waiting for her phone to ring she saw to it that she had worn Alok’s favourite colour and left her hair open just like he liked them to be. Tring tring went the phone; it had to Alok. As soon as she answered the call a voice narrated an extremely loving and romantic poem. Nisha was almost into tears until when the voice said, “Neha you there?”

It was surreal for Nisha to have expected Alok to call and strange timing of the poetic call she received. Strange co-incidents happen.

At times even a wrong number leaves a smile on your face.

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Truth Dude

It started as an innocuous comment. ‘So what’s the truthdude thing? Truth always wins and all that.’

About a year later, I was in Delhi, sitting in her Mamaji’s flat.

My breath was shallow. My skin was tingling. The anticipation was killing me.

We drove to a furniture shop where her mamaji was to select an almirah – a present for his newly wed daughter. Everybody was busy going through compartments and fixtures and colours.

I was standing right next to her.

‘Put your hand down’, I whispered.

‘What?’

‘Your hand…’

Contact!

After a year of intense questioning, thinking, feeling, loving, and going to the brink of insanity and back.

Our fingers intertwined.

Electricity – spontaneous combustion – aaaaaaarrrrggghhh!!

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Mandappa

"Slept well?" Johny's pillow asked Reeba's.

"No, couldn't sleep a wink last night. Reeba's so tensed over her appraisals that her brain cells

were thrashing around like popcorn in a pressure cooker. Frying and dying faster than you could list the names of Jack the Ripper's victims. What's the deal with this money thing? Everybody hates it, yet they spend their lives revolving around it. They either think of acquiring it or spending it. It's a vicious cycle. A cycle more vicious than a double headed cobra on heat."

"These humans, waste their lives on something they hate. Kinda surreal don't u think?"

"Just like the Tarantino movie I saw before I passed out" said Johny's pillow.

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Dok Saab

Jeeves, this morning I felt very what's that word, it starts with an S and means dreamlike. I was woken by the sweet voice coming from the Radio. I looked at Her. She was smiling. I say she because she looked like Jayanti.

Love you Rajat, she said.

Shut up, I wanted to say, but I said cock-a-doodle-doo.

What else can a chicken, which has been fed upon saffron and pineapple, say?

I threw away my blanket and jumped out of my bed, or was it a pen.

Ruffling a few feathers I reached her, and switched her off.

Sun was shining through the window and I wanted to get out and you were blocking my way.

Is it surreal you want to say, Sir!

Yes that was the word, Surreal, but Why are you carrying that knife Jeeves?

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Richa

(a correction has been made to the text!! The NOTE was part of the submission)

Hey diddle diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

This was my first introduction to surreal writing. I did not know it as "surreal" then…I just knew I did not like it. Then I read Lear's The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Round the World, it was full of sentences like "After a time they saw some land at a distance; and when they came to it, they found it was an island made of water quite surrounded by earth. so that it was perfectly beautiful, and contained only a single tree, 503 feet high. Pardon me but where is the humor in it?? Recently I re-read Lewis Carroll's masterpiece ""Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" and believe me I tried but I still could not see the humor. I was told you have to have savoir faire, sophistication to appreciate such art. Well it has taken me years to attain enough of both to admit "I don't like Alice in Wonderland"!! There I have said it!!!

Santonu

I was looking at her for hours! Her trembling face on the candle was smiling, spreading light to the every corner of the room. The brown chocolate cake was waiting for the guests to arrive. I was sitting silently in front of the table, talking to her; the shining knife the wine glasses created the perfect ambience. It was my birthday and I was jovial; with the evening getting younger and seductive, I was following every curve of her face, her smile. Friends were filling the room and suddenly I was conscious, everyone in the room started cheering me as I was blowing off the candle, her surreal image disappeared with a thin smoke line which bade adieu. I lost her, my soul as every one cheered….