Hi Guys,

I've been writing 69-word, theme-based stories for the digital lifestyle magazine, The Brown Scooter, every month.

Read off and let me know what you think/feel :)


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Theme #4 – Budget


Story 1

“But I…”
“Why can I not…”
“So unfair this entire…”
“Are you sure about the…”

Circa 6666, life in the future. Everything was budgeted for, even the number of words people spoke.

Good? Bad? I’ll leave that up to you, yes you, the one reading this, to decide.

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Story 2

“Dad, I want an Avengers action figure set for my birthday.”
“It’s out of my budget beta.”

“Dad, the Ban-everything Barbie set is so cute. I want one.”
“Over budget, sweetheart.”

“Varun, let us revamp the kitchen and re-paint the house soon!”
“I don’t have the budget for it right now, Sakshi.”

“VARUN, LOOK OUT! ”

*CRASH*

Varun’s phone beeped – Your net available balance is 6987 Cr.

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Story 3

“YOU built this? Him?”
“Yes, I did. Finally!”
“For how much?”
“A fourth of what our initial calculations predicted it to be!”
“So, what does he do? Heart surgery? Data analystics? Advanced mathematics? Quantum physics? ”
“He brings chilled Budweiser from the fridge.”

*pause*

“Sounds like the perfect robot to me. So, what do you call him?”

“BUD  GET!”

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Story 4

I kept turning it frantically. I twisted it horizontally, and vertically. Sometimes it was one set of nine and sometimes a set of eighteen. The colours just won’t match. It was irritating and an exercise in futility.

Green - Parents
Blue - Friends
White - Relatives
Red – Life Partner
Orange - Society
Yellow - God

They call it the Rubik’s Cube.
I call it my budget crisis, my life.

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Story 5

“Are you from   my religion?
my caste?”
my community?”
my village?”
my city?”
my complex?
my ex-company?”
my college?”
my school?”
my kindergarten?”
my strata of society?”
my salary bracket?”

“Do you eat from at the same places? Watch movies at the same theatres? Shop from the same stores?”

Weird how we budget our love and share it only with people who we perceive as being connected to us.

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