Portfolio
Novellas:
The Glass Circle
Synopsis: It was almost a work in jest. I had been working on various projects as my fourth novel but none made adequate progress and everything came to a complete stop. Was it writer's block? I decided to write on it: the characters from my first three novels now in an apocalyptic fix and desperately trying to know what is wrong with me. It became a deeply reflexive writing process with episodes and excerpts from my diary thrown in. Imagining their apocalyptic world was one of the most satisfying part of writing this novella. This was my first novel in English and it was completed on my 40th birthday. It gained larger significance six years later when I reworked it as my master's dissertation. I edited this version after the completion of the dissertation to include new elements from the rework, but the story development and ending remain true to the original version.
Works written for MA in Creative Writing and Wellbeing :
This was my first assignment that emerged from an exercise to free write to music. It was supposed to be a non-lyrical music but I picked Mariah Carey's 8th Grade anyway. Emotions of New York City fills my mind whenever I listen to this. It is my favourite song of the album because it seems to have layered meanings and conflicted emotions about a past love. There is regret but also release on hindsight. The line "I am not your world, no, I am not your life " that was frequently repeated in the song became the ending point of the short story. Much of the story was set on 37th street New York City and the balcony in the Hilton Garden Inn Times Square South became a prominent setting of the piece.
This refers to the butterfly in my stomach. As a one-page piece to share with peers and tutors for open comments, we were supposed to write to a body part or feeling and reply from their perspective. I wrote a conversation with the butterfly which depicts the struggle I have with Monday blues every Sunday.
This assignment was based on the days leading to a depression. Everything was going wrong when expectations were so high for things to be right. The events were compressed to a single day for artistic effect. It is presented in comic form, however, to offer relieve to what was a tragic and hopeless day. The ending indicates the common sense of what that has gone down so low has no where to go but up.
This was written for my wellbeing component of my course where I used fantasy to depict a patient going through chemotherapy. The main character takes off on a flight in fantasy whenever he is on a course of chemotherapy. The banking to the right with the massive city skyline coming into view at night was describing my childhood memory on SQ12. The plane banks to the right as it takes off at dusk from Tokyo to Los Angeles. The fantasy parts are in italics and reality in normal font. The transition of fonts is used to depict the shifting of perspective between the two realms.
The Circles (MA dissertation creative portfolio / Adapted from The Glass Circle )
The Circles was based on The Glass Circle, my fourth novella but the first one written in English. I wrote the novella as a response to my writer's block. Characters from the first three novellas run into apocalyptic experiences in their world as a result of me not writing. The attempt to find out about me through my blog and imitate contact. The Circles explores the relationship between creative writing and wellbeing, and uses fiction as a reflexive attempt from a third party perspective.
The Glass Lake (2025 completion)
Synopsis: This novella was inspired by the struggles and sufferings of those in mental distress and illness whom I encountered in the course of my job during the late covid period. The Glass Lake is set in an alternate historic period involving members of an imperial family where protocols, norms and expectations clash with the needs of wellbeing and rages of distress. Inspired also by the medieval sights of Scotland and the renaissance architecture splendour in London and Paris on my first European trip in 2022, I explore the emotive imagination that grew in me from that trip.