The Journal Story
Submitted it for a flash fiction contest on Livejournal. And made it to the top 100. Tres tres happy!
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I live therefore I am.
I have seen it all. Conception in lonely times. Nature's fury. Almost freezing to death. Grotesque creatures. Water. Smelly places. Mutations. Flight. Intelligence. Brown. Journal.
In the next 450 words, my autobiography is succinctly explained. The future is uncertain. But optimistic.
I owe my birth to an amoeba. It needed me - a cell to survive. I was too glad to help. Sometime soon though, it got bored of me and broke me off into two. Reason he gave me: dude...need to go this. Gotta spread the genes.
One fine day, I got gobbled by a slimy tentacled hydra. It was funny the way it happened. And know what, all my subsequent hosts believed they were handsome.Ask me for Christ's sake? Ohh wait, Christ comes later in the story!
Evolved into a crude spiky puny fish who thought it was huge. Entered the guts of a salmon. Polar bear. Dinosaur. Mammoth. Hyena. You name it. Every living creature's deepest "gut" secret I know.
Meteor came. Things were screwed. I lay decomposed. Probably would have died a natural death. Guess I had some will-power though. Gotta spread the genes, you know.
Ice age came. Water rose. Brrrrr. Would have been engulfed forever under ice. My saviour turned out to be a silly old sea weed. He was nice unlike anyone I ever saw. I still celebrate the anniversary of our integration.
Life changed. Warmth around. Was shuttled around between planktons, fishes, whales, octopuses, squid (the one-eyed funny ones), shrimps. Until I entered birds. And I loved them for their flight. It was cool to be a part of an eagle's wing. Saw the world with an eagle eye's view. Pun intended!
Discovered man after he thought eating a dodo's eggs was in vogue. Men are serious capricious guys. You never know what they are up to. And yeah that Christ guy I talked about - he apparently was some sort of messiah. Realized it while residing in someone's brain. Him and others like Allah, Krishna, Buddha were these alpha dudes whom my hosts always thought of and were willing to fight for. Wish I were part of those. Maybe some distant cousin of mine got to feel them.
Here's also an axiom from my experience. Men are eternal flirts. Women are eternal attention-seeking! Not eating my words.
From man, I moved to flora through a hermit who died in the Himalayas. Grew big into a tree. Could see beautiful snow capped peaks around. Ahh, life was so beautiful. Until I was cut one day and put into a shredder. An interesting avatar evolved. I became paper.
So it ends here that I am a paper in a journal. I will be written on soon by a historian who wants to etch on me an encyclopedia of evolution on Earth. Right from the first cell. From me.
I smirk. Maybe its joy. Life has turned full circle. What a long quirky journey! Isn't it?
-----
I live therefore I am.
I have seen it all. Conception in lonely times. Nature's fury. Almost freezing to death. Grotesque creatures. Water. Smelly places. Mutations. Flight. Intelligence. Brown. Journal.
In the next 450 words, my autobiography is succinctly explained. The future is uncertain. But optimistic.
I owe my birth to an amoeba. It needed me - a cell to survive. I was too glad to help. Sometime soon though, it got bored of me and broke me off into two. Reason he gave me: dude...need to go this. Gotta spread the genes.
One fine day, I got gobbled by a slimy tentacled hydra. It was funny the way it happened. And know what, all my subsequent hosts believed they were handsome.Ask me for Christ's sake? Ohh wait, Christ comes later in the story!
Evolved into a crude spiky puny fish who thought it was huge. Entered the guts of a salmon. Polar bear. Dinosaur. Mammoth. Hyena. You name it. Every living creature's deepest "gut" secret I know.
Meteor came. Things were screwed. I lay decomposed. Probably would have died a natural death. Guess I had some will-power though. Gotta spread the genes, you know.
Ice age came. Water rose. Brrrrr. Would have been engulfed forever under ice. My saviour turned out to be a silly old sea weed. He was nice unlike anyone I ever saw. I still celebrate the anniversary of our integration.
Life changed. Warmth around. Was shuttled around between planktons, fishes, whales, octopuses, squid (the one-eyed funny ones), shrimps. Until I entered birds. And I loved them for their flight. It was cool to be a part of an eagle's wing. Saw the world with an eagle eye's view. Pun intended!
Discovered man after he thought eating a dodo's eggs was in vogue. Men are serious capricious guys. You never know what they are up to. And yeah that Christ guy I talked about - he apparently was some sort of messiah. Realized it while residing in someone's brain. Him and others like Allah, Krishna, Buddha were these alpha dudes whom my hosts always thought of and were willing to fight for. Wish I were part of those. Maybe some distant cousin of mine got to feel them.
Here's also an axiom from my experience. Men are eternal flirts. Women are eternal attention-seeking! Not eating my words.
From man, I moved to flora through a hermit who died in the Himalayas. Grew big into a tree. Could see beautiful snow capped peaks around. Ahh, life was so beautiful. Until I was cut one day and put into a shredder. An interesting avatar evolved. I became paper.
So it ends here that I am a paper in a journal. I will be written on soon by a historian who wants to etch on me an encyclopedia of evolution on Earth. Right from the first cell. From me.
I smirk. Maybe its joy. Life has turned full circle. What a long quirky journey! Isn't it?
Labels: flash fiction, journal, Story
posted by Tejas at 10:24 AM
2 Comments:
Nice! An abridged version of Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale.
wow.. loved your style...
Simple yet impressive.. or should I say , simple AND HENCE impressive...
Good work dude... This blog goes to my Fav. right away....
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