Saturday, January 09, 2010

Entry #86

The Shah of Blah
by Mayur Sharma


‘Who are you?’

‘My name I did not get to choose. I am the one who can tell a tall tale. You can call me the Shah of Blah. I can pluck words like vivid and colorful and entwine a magical spell into them. In bold and colorful strokes, I can weave a story just for you. Don’t ask me if they are real or just a figment of my imagination. But they are, as all stories go, magical.’

‘Tell me one.’

‘Well. This happened on a day not too different from all others. A carriage tore through the silent forest, riding under the beat of moments passing by. He was seated inside, oblivious to the world under the wrap of an arabesque shawl. If you cannot fathom the boredom of eternity, try listening to the buzz of pounding horse hoofs. No. Do it later. Right now, come back to my story. The gentleman in the carriage did not know about the bird circling up above him. But the bird knew it was time. It hovered and then dived into the foliage. Bump, boom, blast, clank, clang, and a crash. It’s awful if you are out of practice, sometimes.’

A dramatic pause.

‘If you think about it, it’s inevitable. The carriage came to a halt. Curiosity always gets the better of your kind. The gentleman stepped out and saw the bird, lying very still on the ground. That’s when it transmogrified.’

‘And?’

‘The gentleman asked it..’

‘What?’

‘Who are you?’

26 comments:

Aimee Laine said...

Love the circular path on this one!

PJD said...

Echo Aimee. I also like the voice of the Shah. A little flippant, a little smug.

Sarah Laurenson said...

Cool circle. Nice job.

Craig said...

Shah sounds like an interesting character to say the least.

M. said...

I wanted the Shah to describe himself devouring a couple of djinnis et al, but there is a word limit :). I'm glad you like it.

JaneyV said...

Mayur - I knew I'd like this when I read the title. I think the way you came back around on yourself was very nicely done. The Shah has a wonderfully languid and irreverent tone. I can almost hear him weave his clever spell then Blah Blah Blah!

Lena said...

That was some enjoyable read! Good work :)

Aniket Thakkar said...

Very enjoyable read. The Shah reminded me so much of Bartimaeus the djinn. One tricky fellow he is...

This was most fun!

catvibe said...

Nice job. Fun to see this in a longer tale.

Preeti said...

:-))))

Beautiful. Beautiful.
I can almost see a convoy of elephants and dolis and carriages, resplendent with gold, diamonds, rubies and emeralds. And the Shah blahing away to glory. through orchards of lichis and mangoes. with the fragrances of wild flowers. Sigh...

there is such a droll sense of humour in this. it is enthralling. and a pleasant read after some intense pieces.

I liked. Very much. :-)))

Kartik said...

Somehow this reminded me of Seinfeld, which is self-described as a show about nothing!
Wonderful piece!

M. said...

ah-ha! He is the Shah, after all :). I wanted to write somethign light after so many intense pieces, its good to see so many of you like it :). getting back to the entries I missed over the weekend!

laughingwolf said...

round and round...

Pallav said...

Woah, got me there for a moment :)

Good one!

Rock on!

N

Laurel said...

I loved this piece from the title on down. It completes itself and still leaves a question:

What happened? To the people in the carriage and the one hearing their tale now?

Very neatly done. And it reads like a classic.

M. said...

Thank you, thank you people's :).

I wanted to just draw a character sketch of both the Shah and the gent while trying to leave the reader wondering exactly about the 'What happened, what could have happened after that?'

THAT way, the story did not end with what I had to say, but what you could imagine :).

Fun.

DILLIGAF said...

The Shah of Blah??? hahahaha!! Excellent!!!

Enjoyed the read enormously and, yes, I am fascinated in 'what happened next'.

Use MY imagination? Oh dear...;-)

Smashing writing old bean.

austere said...

Enjoyed this one.

Deb Smythe said...

Fun! A refreshing change from the deep and dark.

Anonymous said...

i was expecting that circular twist, nevertheless enjoyed it. was fun!

Chris Eldin said...

Classic writing! Enjoyed being in this world you created!

james r. tomlinson said...

Nice character sketch. I was hoping for something more than a circular path, but the setting was easy to visualize.

Terri said...

Very enjoyable indeed; This is like 2 stories in one... and all in less than 250 words. I love the tone and the imagery - the whole thing, really.

SzélsőFa said...

i liked the style, it was easily readable yet it contained so much...

Anonymous said...

Dear Entrants #1-105,

I have read your pieces so that I can fairly participate in the Readers' Choice vote. (I read all of them through last week, before I started commenting.) I will be coming back around to offer my keep/tweak comment, but I didn't want anyone to snark.

Cheers,
Aerin (#236)

BTW, it's perfectly fine if you still want to snark, but this way you can choose a more appropriate subject, like the Golden Globes or those wretched Old Navy dummies.

Unknown said...

Loved the title and the way the story circles around to meet itself.

Congrats on the H/M!

Dottie :)