Cutting it short

The story writing workshop gave a sneak peek into the world of short story writing

Located just at the mouth of the North Main Road of Koregaon Park, Cafe Mocha was the ideal haunt for an event like this. The short story writing workshop conducted by Grey Oak publishers, held on Thursday, saw the low-lit interiors of Cafe Mocha blend in seamlessly with the coffee and stories by the writers. The list of panellists was impressive, from working professionals to college kids and a couple of novelists. Ironically it took some time for the event to take off, as we had to wait for the crowd to filter in way beyond the starting time. Comprising mostly youngsters, it was not unnatural to see them twitch nervously in their seats as the show began. As a compere, Lipi Mehta, editor of the online portal Dfuse.in and a contributing writer in the Urban Shots collection, introduced the speakers one by one, with each getting 10 minutes to speak about their respective styles.

We were not surprised to see the variation in the talks. On one hand a theatre artiste aimed at getting the meek audience to interact more with her, while on the other, two young college students, kept their talk short and sweet. They detailed their quest in writing their own short stories for the short story collection book, interspersed with decided moments of uncertainty, which we could attribute to either stage fright or lack of topics to talk about.

We observed though, the young crowd displayed a wide variety of emotions. A lot like the variety in the speakers themselves. While a major chunk sat through aimlessly, altering between occasional glances at the speakers and texting on their phones a few heard the speakers diligently. Some others also appeared more interested in their coffee rather than the speakers. All this however did not spill over into the short speeches being made.

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