Writers’ Space

How did words enter their number space?

Apurva explains. “Rishabh used to represent his clients and argue their cases at the appellate tribunal when he dealt with international taxation for four years. He used to come back home and write funny stories about what transpired. I was his only avid reader in the family. In course of our work we came across like-minded people who love writing but rarely find an audience even among immediate family and friends.”

They finally decided to take the risk and quit their high-paying jobs exactly a year ago to launch an online platform litizens.com.

At the very first meeting of the club,only one stranger turned up to discuss his own works. However,the project has now grown exponentially to include 150 amateur writers,with 3,000 Facebook followers. The authors,as the club’s motto goes,are ‘physically stuck in the real world but mentally in an alternate universe and (have) a penchant for putting it all down on paper’.”

Every fortnight,many of them converge on cafes,parks and terraces to read out short stories,give their opinion on each others’ works or be part of freewheeling word-play sessions. “In our last meeting,we were pleasantly surprised when some 65 people turned up at the café we usually hang out. We were forced to scout for a space large enough to accommodate all of us,” said Apurva.

There are days when each member has to spin a yarn within a pre-decided genre ranging from horror,science fiction and adventure to travelogue and humour,even fairy tales.

On other days,the group discusses classics of Jane Austen,the caustic humour of PG Wodehouse,Stephen King’s expertise in whipping up horror to fiction by today’s authors.

“Ours is not so much a book club as it is a platform for writers to discuss their own works and learn from others,” said Rishabh. When they are not into incisively examining each others’ work,the group comes up with games where one person starts narrating a story while others take the plot forward with their own spontaneous twists and turns or sessions where they start scribbling stories about time travel or they just jumble up pages of well-known short stories and rearrange them.

For 43-year old Shawn Pereira,the group is a welcome break from the constraints of a demanding job and family life. “I took to writing a few years ago after I moved to this new place where I didn’t have any friends for a while. It began with scribbling down a few lines. I accidentally chanced upon this group online a year back and since then I have posted 20-odd short stories on the site,” said Shawn.

Two of Shawn’s stories will be published in a book ‘The Labyrinth’ Apurva and Rishabh plan to launch this month. The book is a compilation of 15 best short stories written by some members and selected through voting by members themselves. While the club itself is based in Mumbai,its online reach has ensured that a chef from New Zealand,an investment banker from Hong Kong and a doctor from the United States have all written for the multiple-genre anthology.

Next on the agenda is an audio application,which can be dowloaded,for the increasing number of people who love stories but have little patience to read through voluminous books. “We have started recording some sessions so that such people can listen to stories on ipods or mobiles while they drive or jog. But that’s for much later; first we have to test the waters by launching our book next month,” said Apurva.