First Assignment

THIS WAS MY ENTRY FOR A WRITING COMPETITION BASED ON THEIR GUIDELINES

Q1. Write a scene (in not more than 500 words) based on the following outline: Wife is at home. Husband enters. They have not been talking for some days. One of them tries to cajole the other. The other withdraws. The first one goes back to doing what he/ she was doing. The other comes to the first one and kills him/her. Please note that the scene cannot have any dialogue. So you can only write the scene-description.

APPLE PIE

Priya is mixing some batter in the kitchen. She stops to wipe the sweat off her fore head. The door bell rings. She rubs her hands on her apron and hurries to the front door. Through the peephole she sees her husband, steps back, takes a deep breath, exhales and then opens the latch but not the door, before walking back to the kitchen. Vikram hears the door unlock, but nothing more, doubtfully he opens the door and just manages to catch a glimpse of his wife’s back retreating to the kitchen. Bowing down his head with disappointment, he closes the door and locks it. He walks into the bedroom carrying his shoulder bag along.

A few minutes later he emerges from the bedroom in his pajamas and finds his wife sitting on the sofa, watching TV. He sits nearby but not too close and pretends to watch TV. He can smell something baking in the kitchen. The microwave is ON in the kitchen indicating 12 minutes to finish and there is a half empty box of Apple Pie mix. Slowly he places his hands on hers. She looks up at him with anger and removes her hand swiftly and turns her attention back to the TV. The frustrated Vikram stares back and just when he is about to say something, his mobile on the table in front of them rings. The caller ID indicates it is “Dr. Rekha”. Priya glares at the phone for a second before pressing hard on the remote to change the TV channel. He starts to ignore the call but then decides against it and picks the phone. He gets up and walks towards the balcony with the phone and closes the door behind him.

Twelve minutes later, the microwave beeps loudly indicating that the baking is done. Priya looks towards the kitchen, gets up from the sofa and walks in the opposite direction towards the balcony. She opens the door and steps out. Vikram is sitting on the ledge with one leg on either side of it and talking over the phone. He sees his wife come out and mumbles something into the phone before cutting the call short. She comes really close. He can see tears rolling down her cheeks. He places his hand on her shoulder to console her but she grabs the hand with her left and with her right hand she holds his pajama pants and then pushes him over to certain death. Without even looking back, she heads to the kitchen, takes out the apple pie and goes back to the living room. She sits in front of the TV. She cuts out a slice before taking a spoonful from it. Tears still rolling down her cheek.

Q2. Re-write the same scene between the husband and the wife with dialogues. The dialogues can be in Hindi or in English. (Max 1000 words.)

APPLE TART

Priya is mixing some batter in the kitchen. She stops to wipe the sweat off her fore head. The door bell rings. She rubs her hands on her apron and hurries to the front door. Through the peephole she sees her husband, steps back, takes a deep breath, exhales and then opens the latch but not the door, before walking back to the kitchen. Vikram hears the door unlock, but nothing more, doubtfully he opens the door and just manages to catch a glimpse of his wife’s back retreating to the kitchen. Bowing down his head with disappointment, he closes the door and locks it. He walks into the bedroom carrying his shoulder bag along.

A few minutes later he emerges from the bedroom in his pajamas and finds his wife sitting on the sofa, watching TV. He sits nearby but not too close and pretends to watch TV. He can smell something baking in the kitchen. The microwave is ON in the kitchen indicating 12 minutes to finish and there is a half empty box of Apple Tart mix. He looks to his wife who ignores him.

“Are we going to talk about this?” he asks. No response from her.

“According to you, the doctor said its not my fault that we can’t have a child, then why are you angry with me for?” he asks.

“I don’t want to talk about it” She quickly responded before increasing the volume a bit.

“Fine.” He replied. “Have you at least found my phone? It took me two days just to buy a new phone on EMI and a replacement SIM card.”

Still no reply from her.

Slowly he places his hands on hers. She looks up at him with anger and removes her hand swiftly and turns her attention back to the TV. The frustrated Vikram stares back and just when he is about to say something, his mobile on the table in front of them rings. The caller ID indicates it is “Dr. Rekha”. Priya glares at the phone for a second before pressing hard on the remote increase the volume further. He starts to ignore the call but then decides against it and picks the phone and at the same time he gets up and walks towards the balcony connected to the hall. He closes the door behind him.

“Hello Doctor, how are you?” he greets the doctor.

“I’m fine Vikram, what about you? My office has been trying to call you for the past two days. I was planning on sending someone over tomorrow to check what happened.”

“I lost my phone doctor. Just now the replacement sim card got activated. But why were you so worried. Priya told me about the test reports. “

“And how are you taking the news?” the Doctor asked.

“I understand these problems are common in many couples nowadays. So I’m learning to cope with it. But she is very upset and for some reason she is very angry with me.”

“I don’t understand. What exactly did she tell you Mr. Vikram?”

“She said the reports indicate that she cannot have a healthy baby due to some problems with her body and that further tests have to be done to determine if there is any treatment possible”

“Oh my God.” The doctor was shocked.

“What is it Doctor?” Vikram asked, confused.

“Mr. Vikram, it is good that you approached a doctor before planning to have a baby. Many problems can be avoided if couples are a little prepared. You have a very good chance of having a healthy baby, but the complication is not because of her alone. Both of you have been tested positive for HIV”

The microwave beeps loudly indicating that the baking is done. Priya looks towards the kitchen, gets up from the sofa and walks in the opposite direction towards the balcony. She opens the door and steps out. Vikram is sitting on the ledge with one leg on either side of it and talking over the phone. He looks up at his wife approaching him. Shocked, he tells the doctor that he will call him later and cuts the call.

He can see tears rolling down her cheeks. He places his hand on her shoulder to console her, “baby, I don’t understand what is happening”

But she grabs the hand with her left and with her right hand she holds his thigh and then pushes him over to certain death. Without even looking back, she heads to the kitchen, takes out the apple pie and goes back to the living room. She sits in front of the TV. She cuts out a slice before taking a spoonful from it. Tears still rolling down her cheek.

The wind slithers through the kitchen window, tumbling the apple tart box to reveal a bottle of poison behind it.