Short story: Self-praise is a virtue

Tracy: Hello Dad!

Dad: Hi honey! You never called me this early in the morning. Is everything OK?

Tracy: Dad, I am planning to quit my job today. I don’t think I am cut-out for this job. I cannot be an exit interviewer anymore. Employees bring everything that I hate about human nature: frustration, depression, jealousy, arrogance, greed and selfishness.

Dad: I should tell you something that I never told you before- You are much stronger than you credit yourself for. But if you don’t enjoy your work then I am not going to push you.

Tracy {Surprised}: Thanks Dad.

[Tracy enters into her manager Ram’s room.]
Tracy: Ram, I need to talk to you now.

Ram: I am quite busy now. Schedule a meeting for today evening and we can talk then.

[Tracy returns to her cube to find her HR coordinator Hannah waiting.]
Hannah: Where have you been? It seems another employee of our client ‘Creative Solutions Ltd’ is quitting the company and you are been assigned to take her exit interview.

Tracy {with a heavy sigh}: Ok.

Tracy {to herself}: I swear to God, this is my last exit interview. I am not even going to read her profile; I will just call her and finish the interview in less than 15 minutes.

Tracy: Hello Julia, I am sorry to hear that you are quitting ‘Creative Solutions Ltd’. Can I ask you which company are you joining?

Julia: I am not going to work for a while. I am tired of my job and cannot take it anymore.

Tracy {disinterested}: Right, is there anything ‘Creative Solutions Ltd’ can do to retain you?

Julia: Not actually, company, pay and employees are great. It’s just that my job sucks. It tells me everything that is wrong with this world. I like to enjoy every moment of my life. However since I joined this job my passion for life is dying day by day.

Tracy {Surprised}: What exactly you do?

Julia: I take ‘exit interviews’ for employees. Since they couldn’t get anyone to take my exit interview, the company finally requested for your company’s services.
Tracy {smiling}: Thanks Julia for your time. I wish you a great life ahead.

[Evening in meeting room]
Ram: Tracy, I have some good news for you. We have decided to promote you. Chris is leaving and you would be the new Team Lead. So what you wanted to talk to me in the morning.

Tracy: Thanks Ram, this is really mind-blowing. Huh, I was planning to take a week off.

Ram: Good, enjoy your afternoons and come back next Monday with a fresh mind and a new spirit.

[Night]
Tracy staring in mirror: You are much stronger than you credit yourself for.
Tracy’s reflection in mirror smiles.

Total words= 463 + 4(title)

Postcard story: Happy Birthday, Johnny!!!

Anne (Secretary): Good Morning Peter, executives are waiting for you in the main conference room. Give us the good news by noon.

Peter: {laughs} Anne, you know it better than me that acquisition doesn’t happen in a single meeting. They take months and sometimes even years.

Peter enters in the meeting room.

Peter: Good morning all, hope I didn’t make you wait that long. I am the CEO of Creative Solutions Ltd and this guy is Tom who has been working hard to make this merger a success.

Steve: I am Steve, CEO of Quick Fix Inc. And this is not a merger; you are forcefully trying to acquire our company.

Peter: {laughs} fair enough. But let me tell you one thing that after this deal we would be a number one company in the whole world.

Steve: Not us, just you. And I don’t see this deal getting finalized with the current terms and conditions. We are been undervalued and post-deal benefits don’t seem to be impressive at all.

Peter: Only market and time will tell whether this deal is a raw one. But as of now we own the market and the current time is ours. I will promise you only one thing and that is nobody would be laid off. I will see to it personally that your company is treated as our extended family. That reminds me, I have to leave now for a birthday party of one of my family members.

Tom {whispers}: Peter, we need to attend this issue right now. I busted my ass for almost a year to get everyone in one room. You cannot leave now.

Peter {loudly}: Sorry Tom, family comes first. Steve, Tom will handle all the details from here. If this deal doesn’t materialize today then I promise you that I will never ever try to cross your path again.

Steve and other executives watch Peter leave with angry faces.

[Couple of hours later]

Tom: Peter, this is huge. Listen to this, Steve signed the papers. He said- I like a CEO who takes care of his family. Whose birthday is today, by the way?

Peter: Thanks Tom, talk to you later.

A little girl: Daddy, I didn’t know you loved our dog this much. Thanks for bringing Birthday cake for Johnny.

Peter: Anything for you sweetie. Now go, hug Johnny and smile….

“Click”

Words= 396 + 3 (title)

Postcard story

While growing up you are amazed by few events or principles or people that they stick in your head forever. One such principle for me has been the concept of 'slow is good' in a learning process. Let me give you an example - if you want to learn riding a bicycle it is advised that riding it as slow as possible is a good approach. Riding faster is easier and doesn't teach you the power of control much. This was and is still fascinating for me.

Similar concept applies for writing as well i.e. writing less is good as it gives you more control over your words and ideas. The phrase popularized by Mark Twain pretty much summarizes my thought in this regard: "If I had more time, I would have written less". This thought is so true, it is easy to write a 2 page article to explain an idea as compared to writing a 2 line sentence to explain the same. With this spirit in mind I have to decided to diverge my energy in a writing a postcard story. Postcard story is a short short story that comprises of 250-300 words.

Here is a classic postcard story written by Arthur Clarke, named Quarantine:

Earth's flaming debris still filled half the sky when the question filtered up to Central from the Curiosity Generator.

"Why was it necessary? Even though they were organic, they had reached Third Order Intelligence."

"We had no choice: five earlier units became hopelessly infected, when they made contact."

"Infected? How?"

The microseconds dragged slowly by, while Central tracked down the few fading memories that had leaked past the Censor Gate, when the heavily-buffered Reconnaissance Circuits had been ordered to self-destruct.

"They encountered a - problem - that could not be fully analyzed within the lifetime of the Universe. Though it involved only six operators, they became totally obsessed by it."

"How is that possible?"

"We do not know: we must never know. But if those six operators are ever re-discovered, all rational computing will end."

"How can they be recognized?"

"That also we do not know; only the names leaked through before the Censor Gate closed. Of course, they mean nothing."

"Nevertheless, I must have them."

The Censor voltage started to rise; but it did not trigger the Gate.

"Here they are: King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn."

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, First Issue, Vol 1, No. 1, Spring 1977

Courage (A short story)

[The story is fictional and a new chapter to my collection of short stories.]

There are some unforgettable moments in everyone's lives; I have quite a few. These are usually moments of unexpected success, sad events or some amusing incidents in which you didn't play any part at all. One such amusing event will always remain close to my mind. In 5th grade we were asked to write essays in all the languages that were taught in school, i.e. English, Hindi and Marathi. Well, scoring highest grade in a language subject was different and writing an essay in that language was a different ballgame altogether. Best escape was to buy some cheap award-winning essay book and try to imitate their writing style in your essays. Well that used to work out great for me and I hope it still does for the current 5th graders.

The story is about a boy, Atul, who being a bright student, also had an unparalleled passion for languages. Teachers used to ask him to read his essays in front of the whole class. Not that his essays were great but they were original. His originality used to bowl me over. But on one such day, when we were supposed to write an essay for Marathi class, he was not prepared. The essay was about our local hero and king, Raja Shivaji. The class was scheduled after lunch break when he busily started writing his essay. There was a glitch in this essay-writing homework – an incomplete essay would affect the overall grade. After scribbling for a while he was able to finish about half the essay which was about 2 pages. After lunch-break the lecture began and unfortunately the teacher asked him again to read his essay in front of the class. The poor guy couldn't dare to admit that he couldn't finish his homework as it would affect his otherwise clean academic record. He took his book in his hands and stood in front of the class. Few of his friends, including me knew the actual facts but we didn't know how he was going to pull this off. Reading an essay that you have written and in a language that you are not quite familiar with, is a big task for an 11-year old guy. Atul started reading his essay explaining King's birth, childhood, schooling which exhausted his essay completely. Without looking at the class, staring at his notebook Atul continued his essay by elaborating about an event where King killed his arch-enemy Afzalkhan with his wits. I was amazed to see his cool, calm poise and confidence with which he was fooling the whole class but with a good intent. Well, teacher was impressed and awarded him good points for his essay. From then on he never missed his homework. The point that I realised was that a given task should first be completed in one's mind before its execution and there will be times where you will not be prepared for an event, but approaching it with a positive attitude will have higher chances of bearing success.

Innocence - A Short Story

"Oh man, I think this would be the end of my simple life. From today onwards everybody would be expecting me to act as a matured person. I have to think twice before making any decisions, I have to maintain my reputation, think about my career. My girlfriend, Priya thinks I am a loser. I wish I could go back in time and lead a tensionless life. I have to be a good son, good brother and a good citizen. I need to plans things and execute them in order to be successful person. I would read newspaper, technical and art magazines on a regular basis. I would eat healthy food daily. I would sleep early and wake up early everyday. From today I would be a changed and better person. From today..."(A lady enters in)
"Welcome to the fourth grade, kids!! I am your class teacher and I would promise you that we would have more fun than you guys had in third grade."