Rains and Ruminations: July's Postcard

The monsoon really brings out the Mumbai Spirit to the forefront. The crumbling infrastructure and waterlogging are just part of city life. Not something anyone wishes for, but something everyone battles. The lack of proper government support to fix these issues, year after year, might make you think we’re living in some Tier 3 city. Sometimes we’re lucky enough not to need to step out every day for work, and sometimes we just hope the rain holds long enough for you to get your errands done somewhat easily.

Of course, there’s a plus side to the season: the greenery everywhere makes you accept the potholed roads as the dust washes off the trees, which are generally dust-laden. And sometimes, the clouds are out there doing something amazing.

Clouds Imitating Giant Waves.

Quick Zeus Update

If you read last month’s update Through June’s Haze, you’d know that Mighty Bitey Zeus (our green-cheeked conure) has been under medication and medical observation. Over the last few weeks, he’s shown improvement, and on our last visit, the vet told us to slowly reduce the medication as all his test results were negative for any new or old issues. The vet also suggested we get Zeus’s gender determined (via DNA testing), as it might help us understand if some of the previous results were due to him being a female conure. Previously, we’d accepted that the bird was male as told to us by the pet shop. Overall, it’s been a difficult month for him, being manhandled twice a day and sometimes by strangers for medical tests. Hopefully, the next visit will be before winter to get him vaccinated for the changing weather.

Zeus doing an extreme Sploot.

Life updates

I feel one great win for me has been the fact that I’ve been getting to the gym quite regularly. Even on days when I had to step out to the vet, I made it a point to do short sessions at the gym. I can see what scientists have been on about with regard to exercising and improved mental health. While I’m not so sure how much better my mental health is compared to last month, I definitely feel I’ve been getting lots of ideas for writing. I’ve been actively making notes of microfictions, short stories, and adding plot points for the longer pieces that I’m working on in parallel.

In terms of Photography and Videography projects, I wasn’t actively looking for them last month, as we had to administer medicine twice a day to Zeus. However, I did manage to get commissioned for some short video editing work.

I also got approached by multiple people who asked about projects they wanted me to be involved in, and then they went AWOL, which I find very weird. You reach out to someone, and when they reply, you don’t have the decency to update them that you’re not looking forward to working with them. This is also true for people on social media who ask for others to reach out, and rarely check their ‘other’ or ‘requests’ folder.

On the other hand, I do have some interesting works in discussion, and I’m really hoping they turn into monthly projects. If you’re reading this, feel free to cross your fingers for me! I am also figuring out some personal projects with friends in order to create some short films that I wrote a while back.

In case you read the older blog post, It’s For Your Future, I decided to borrow some from my future self in order to help with an improved trajectory. It was a turn of events, involved days of stress, and in the end, I do think it might be for the best. So I wanted to make a note of it for my future self’s reference more than anyone else’s. If you’re a close friend then just ask for more details.

Anyway, just a reminder to the lovely folks (and to help with some SEO search results): Lucid Illusions is looking for new photography and videography projects based in India. I can work on corporate interviews, or even help produce advertisements or short films, just drop me a mail.

Art and Photography Updates

I’ve hardly been able to take out time to practice art; however, I did manage to do some doodles, which you can check it out here if you’d like. It’s a bridged account, so you can follow it on the platform of your choice. I’m really hoping to put in more time this month for drawing and painting. Hopefully, I’ll have some nice work to showcase in next month’s update.

On the other hand, two of my original artworks were sold this month. I had drawn the bird for #BirbFest2025 earlier in the year. The weevil was drawn from reference.

Diptych of the two original artwork I sold. Phainopeplas (L) Weevil (R).

I’m considering getting an Epson V39 scanner or a Canon Lide 400 so I create better digital versions of my artwork and put them up for sale. (If you’ve used either of the scanner, and especially on a Linux machine, let me know how the experience is.) Quick note to self: I also need to be good at promoting these. In case you want to check some of the art work on sale you can either check DM2Buy if you’re in India or Ko-Fi Store for Rest of the World. You can also DM me directly through any of my social media channels. I also recently got an invite to an INPRNT store, so expect more artwork for sale on there as well!

I’ve also been a little too tied up to take time to edit and share photographs from the Jungle on social media, but I’d say follow me on BlueSky, PixelFed, and/or Instagram to see my work as I share it. I’ve also shortlisted a few images to share on Darkroom this week, once I’m done with the final tweaks. As you know how much I love photographing the roads inside jungles, so a part of me also wants to create Phone Wallpaper packs that will be available on the Ko-Fi store.

What have I been writing?

Funnily, this month I’ve been hit by a truckload of ideas and prompts that I’ve been diligently noting down, adding to, and building on. Since I also had to spend a lot of time waiting in offices and banks, it gave me ample time to catch up on reading. I think some of the material has been helping me go wild with the ideas I’m having and the directions I want to steer them. So, yes, it’s been a great few weeks!

Apart from writing for myself, I’ve been actively writing and sending out manuscripts to various online magazines. I also realized that creating a Shunn Manuscript template would make my workflow far easier. I even wrote a blog post about how my workflow has been evolving with time and technology.

As I mentioned last month, Tasavvur magazine published ‘Horror Gone Wrong’ as part of their 12th Issue. Go ahead, check out my story that talks about a monster who is stuck in a Kafka-esque horror of its own. As for the other stories from the issue, I’ve read about half, and I’ve loved each one of them. I’m planning to finish the rest next week.

I’m also sharing a list of stories I’ve written that are available online this month.

• Accessible for members on Patreon:

  1. ‘The Cursed Book’: The story involves a protagonist picking up an old book, which keeps returning to her.
     This is one of the first stories I wrote to send out to an online magazine earlier last year. It didn’t make it, but I rewrote parts of it, and it’s now part of my e-book, which you can also pick up from a store of your choice.

• Accessible on this website:

  1. I added all of my old Fifty-Five Words stories that I wrote between 2012 and 2015 into a new section. I also recently felt inspired to write a few more. Most of those are just ideas and need to be rewritten to fifty-five words. I did add a new one to the collection, titled ‘Gold’.
  2. ‘The Lunar Cicada’: What if the moon was an egg? This was a fun prompt I got on Instagram, and I wrote a short piece based on it.
  3. ‘The Fall’: A fight between a woman and an Eldritch god. It’s been a while since I used Oracle’s Label on Bsky to write a story, and this one felt very natural.
  4. ‘Witchcraft 101: The Third Eye’: Continuing the series where someone uses the AI-powered app for a magical solution, and something goes awry.
  5. ‘The First Saturday of Forever’: BlueSky has a weekly art showcase on Saturdays, which is thematic. While I usually share photographs, I decided to write a piece for the theme ‘Summer Daze’.

I’m not sure if any of the stories and drabbles I’ve sent out will get selected, but I’m really proud of these pieces, and it’s tough to sit on them when I’m eager to share them with you. Sooner or later, though, I’ll be able to get them onto my own platforms for my readers.

Note: I decided to remove the Work In Progress (WIP) portion that I had last month because, funnily enough, I didn’t finish any of those stories. Instead, I’ve written and shared a lot more, and now I also have a lot more new WIPs.

Support Me

If you’d like to pick up The Forgotten Alley e-book, you can check Amazon or any other store that you prefer. You can also support me on Ko-Fi. Check out Darkroom with new photo prints. You can also find some art merch on RedBubble. Want to commission me to design movie posters, or write stories that you can gift someone? Just drop me a mail. Every bit helps me make rent and cover utilities for next month.

Reading Suggestion

As I mentioned, this month has been packed with reading, so let me offer some of the pieces I really enjoyed.

1. If you were dead, you’d be obsessed with death too by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
   Read about a deceased narrator’s lifelong obsession with death and plague literature. This took me multiple sittings to read, because it felt like a story that needed to be taken in small bites.
2. The Ritual by Maria Zafar
   A beautifully crafted body horror and part of Tasavvur’s 12th Issue.
3. The Curious Case of Samosas by Maliha Rao
   This is also part of Tasavvur’s 12th Issue. It’s such a fun story involving the exorcism of a demon, and honestly, I’ve been craving some homemade samosas for weeks now!
4. Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole by Isabel J. Kim
   I came across it in the list of Locus Award Winners for Short Story, and it’s definitely worthy of all the awards it has garnered. If there’s one story you should read from my suggestions, this is it.
5. To Kill a Language by Rukman Ragas
   A very short piece, but a very powerful one.
6. Murderbot Diaries (1 to 4) by Martha Wells
   I’ve had the Murderbot Diaries on my TBR list for a very long time, so once the Apple TV+ show was announced, I dove into the books. In the last two months, I’ve read four of the novellas, and I’m totally in love with them! Now that all the episodes are out, it’s time to binge-watch the show, and I’m very excited for it!
   

Some of my recent interactions resulted in me remembering and revisiting stories that I'd read a long time ago, and I feel others should read them if they haven't already.

7. By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars by Premee Mohamed
   I was reminded of it again from the Locus Award Winners list.
8. muo-ka's Child by Indrapramit Das
   I read this story way back in the 2010s, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's only recently, when Indra reshared the story on BlueSky, that I realized I've been a fan of his work for much longer than I'd thought.
9. The Egg by Andy Weir
   Someone wrote a short story, and shared for me to read and critique. I liked the premise of the story, and I hope to read a final version of it soon. It somewhat reminded me of 'The Egg,' so I went back and read it again after a long time. If you haven't read it, you should.
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