MANDIRA PATTNAIK

It is that time of the year when we take stock. It is as much taking stock of the year just gone by as the year that is upon us. In the spirit of refocusing and readjusting your perspective, why not write a story about your room, with your writing desk at its middle, and whether this room is a shackle that the narrator wants to get rid of, or is it a launching pad for her free imagination.

Many travel at this time of the year. Some of us watch travel videos at home, or movies that involve multiple locations. Not all travels are fun. Tell us a story where the traveler must lose his identity under compelling circumstances and travel on a fake or assumed identity in order to complete the journey.

Lucky are the ones who get snow on Christmas. Elsewhere, it might rain, or be summer weather (as in south of the equator). Deriving from this contrary-to-popular-perception image of Christmas (that I found on the internet) of people enjoying Christmas in Australia, how about a story where paradoxes rule.

There is variety and a lot of tradition in the festivals that we celebrate. Be it Christmas, New Year, Navratri, Eid or Gurpurab. Of course the way we celebrate also varies from family to family. As a person who has newly married into a very orthodox family, will your narrator safely navigate the customs of the first festival they celebrate together?

Following from crowds that we see at public places, imagine what would happen if you only had a day to live, and you find yourself moving along in a crowd of people and you had no idea where you were going and what you were doing there.

According to experts, thoughts of ‘The End of the World’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’ are now common among general public more than ever. Imagine you’re offered to be one of ten people in the world who’ll have advance knowledge about things to come in 2024. Would you accept the offer? If yes, how you’ll use your advantage? If no, why?

Ponder over the word “PAUSE”.

If you were to retell a mythical story you were told in your childhood (and still somewhat believe in it, though it is hilarious), which would it be?

Did you know: Ants can be found on every single continent except Antarctica. OR that: Sand is the world’s most mined resource. OR: The human brain can generate about 23 watts of power (enough to power a lightbulb). Write a one-sentence micro referring to one of the three facts above.

Ten is a triangular number (think about how bowling pins are arranged: 1+2+3+4). It’s also a tetrahedral number (very few people care)! Number 10 Downing Street is the home of the British PM. “Deca” means ten (you knew that). But did you know that “decimate” really means to reduce by a tenth? If you write the number 10 twice (1010), you get the number ten in binary! Now write 10 quick sentences about 10 things that you see/hear/smell/feel RIGHT NOW!