IMPORTANT - Seems nobody reads the fine print well. You CANNOT POST you entry until the results are out - the entries have to be emailed PLEASE!

You knew you were deliberately scaring them. You had to do it for some compulsion that you deemed important enough then to go ahead and do it…

Here’s the contest…

Write in about 750 words your true life incident where you deliberately planned, strategised and carried out an entire gimmick to simply scare/con someone. You were a child then, under sixteen and you thought you absolutely had to do it…it could be serious, funny, rude, whatever…

Last date : 15 December 2006

Email your entries to ilandcontest@gmail.com Please mark the SUBJECT line as DECEMBER 2006

The entry must be sent with the following undertaking:

"I hereby certify that my submission is my original yet unpublished work and that it has not been copied from any place. I also certify that any legal issue that contests the originality of my piece is my sole responsibility, that rediff or the contest co-ordinator are in no way responsible for the same."


~ This is the LAST contest I am organising.
~ This initiative was taken to get people to push their creative writing skills to a dimension within iland so that they feel motivated enough to pursue a dream of someday making it big as an author/ poet/ writer/journalist…anything in the writing media.
~ I have had the support of a lot of iland friends and my heart-felt gratitude to them.
~ The participation has been low and discouraging.
~ Perhaps there will be better ways to encourage this.
~ Until I think up a better way, this is the last (for the year anyways).

Cheers and good luck!

-Sandy

I like nonsense — it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope…and that enables you to laugh at all of life’s realities.

– Theodor S. Geisel, a.k.a. “Dr. Seuss”

Argue or support the quote above (you may agree or disagree) in not more than 1000 words using humour to support your argument.

Well! That was the crux of the November Contest.

Quite disappointingly, that frequent humour-infectious virus did not find its way to many people and we have just eight people to contend for the prizes. Sigh!

I thank the judges for their time and patience and assistance and the participants for taking on the challenge! J

Please post your entries on your page and leave the link in the comments so the same can be provided to the ilanders.

Verdict by the Judges went as follows:

ENTRY NO 1 ' The Bhai ' F1 Hunt by Madhavi Sreenivasan

"This is an ad for a Reality show to be aired on television after 3 months. We, the Organizers, thought of Internet as the best option to speeden up the process of the BHAI ' FI  Hunt. True to the title, this show would be a sincere and honest attempt to search for the Best Indian Bhai "

JUDGE 1 '

Humor: 6/10

Fantasy element: 2/10

Relevance to the topic: 4/10

Total: 12

Quality of write up: B+

JUDGE 2 '

Length: 842 words

Comments: Good nonsensical take on life: part fantasy-part reality. Nice style. Though there was too much of (and unnecessary formatting), which took a lot of focus away from the main content. Length limit was used well. But, there was no agreement or disagreement or even remote reference to the topic. Author would have scored more had s/he linked the idea with the topic and then gone on with it.

Marks:            

   a) Content (Max 30)                        15

   b) Humour (Max 30)                        25

   c) Presentation (Max 30)                        25

   d) Length (Max 10)                        10

Total 75          

JUDGE 3 '

First reading Review

1. Conceptualization: Laughter soap Weak

2. Ingredients: Compactness absent Not coherent

3 Grammar/Punctuation presentation Poor

4. Effect Failed to induce laughter Fell flat!

5. My Views Ineffective attempt, probably a new writer

Vocabulary constraint! Not discussed, should not have submitted!

ENTRY NO 2 - Devdas and Kaun Banega Crorepati?Dutiya by Satya Saloni

"Ek thay Mr. Devdas Kumar

Chaaya tha oonper Paro ka bukhaar.

Problem thee ki who na karte thay koi kamai

Per chahtay thay banana Paro ko apni lugai "

JUDGE 1 '

Humour: 7/10

Fantasy: 2/10

Relevance to the topic: 5/10

Total: 14

Quality of write-up: B+

JUDGE 2 '

Length: 158 words

Comments: Too short. The idea was good, but it wasn't developed well enough.

Again, no agreement or disagreement or even remote reference to the topic.

Marks:            

   a) Content (Max 30)                        10

   b) Humour (Max 30)                        15

   c) Presentation (Max 30)                        15

   d) Length (Max 10)                        5

Total 45          

JUDGE 3 '

1. Conceptualization: Parody Ok in lower portion

2. Ingredients: Long, disjointed rhythms Ditto

3 Grammar/Punctuation Chaaya tha? Chhaya

4. Effect Better than entry #1 Not good enough

5. My Views Ineffective

Imagination constraint! Not discussed, should not have submitted!

What has happened to the humor usually seen on the net?

ENTRY NO 3 ' Mr. Bechara by Chandan Kumar

"On numerous occasions,by destiny, I had been hard done

Here my plight is being presented in the form of fun.

I think it has all the ingredients 4 the remake of the movie Mr. Bechaara

As both of us(the hero of the movie and I) are Kismat ka mara."

JUDGE 1 '

Humor: 5/10

Fantasy: 4/10

Relevance to the topic: 5/10

Total: 14

Quality of write-up B

JUDGE 2 '

Length: 1056 words

Comments:            A long-winded rambling of incidents. Fulfills the nonsense/fantasy part of the topic ' but here again, no reference to agreeing or disagreeing with the topic.

Not as humourous as it could be. One bright spark was the cell phone bit ' could've been developed further.

Marks:            

   a) Content (Max 30)                        15

   b) Humour (Max 30)                        10

   c) Presentation (Max 30)                        20

   d) Length (Max 10)                        10

Total 55

JUDGE 3 '

1. Conceptualization: Memoirs of the victim them Narration is bit wonky.

2. Ingredients: Three incidences in life Presentation not good

3 Grammar/Punctuation Reasonable ditto

4. Effect

5. My Views See below!

6. Exceeded word limit of 1000!

2. A bit of P.G. Wodehouse in the making, but needs polish!

3. Better than 1 & 2 both!

ENTRY NO 4 ' by Dee

"Nonsense wakes up the brain cells? Why did no one tell me?

I've been trying for three decades and my brain cells still act like a sloth on morphine. Americans have cracked it. Turmeric, they exclaim is the key to awaken the brain cells & ward off Alzheimer's (and much worse)…"

JUDGE 1 '

Humor: 5/10

Fantasy: 6/10

Relevance to the topic: 5/10

Total: 16

Quality: B+

JUDGE 2 '

Length: 747 words

Comments: A well-written, humourous and structured piece ' relevant to the topic. Sufficient amount of nonsense, with a good amount of relevance to life's realities.

Marks:            

   a) Content (Max 30)                        25

   b) Humour (Max 30)                        25

   c) Presentation (Max 30)                        25

   d) Length (Max 10)                        10

Total 85

JUDGE 3 '

1. Conceptualization: Essay Tea leaves type

2. Ingredients: Tickling to rib-tickling Ditto

3 Grammar/Punctuation No problem Ditto

4. Effect Not embarrassing Very satisfactory

5. My Views Potential is quite high, needs to work hard!

1. Signs of wisdom at long last! "Fantasy is not life enriching; it's just enriching"

2. Passages of interest: Here lies the one who did not cover her wretched postpartum

head, and died a painful death

Understatements

3. The colleague still hangs around in my cubicle trying to ply me with his mother's

cooking

4. I will use up the prize money to buy L'Oreal's De-crease to rid my face of the

ungainly unwanted laugh lines!

Comments :HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

By far the best till now, but let me check! Problem, word count again!

Prize contender, for portrayal of life like things!

ENTRY NO 5 ' by Tisha hi

"Writing or saying things ' that laugh, that wink for me says a lot more than those serious words. People (inlcuding me) say things that we really want to say and if we realise it was too bold a comment..just cover it by sayin' I was kiddin'! Ask yourself??? Are you really kiddin? Or is it the kid in you that is coming out and forgetting all those adult masks and being itself and saying things ' uncoated, unpolished "

JUDGE 1 '

Humor: 0

Fantasy: 0

Relevance: 10/10

Total: 10

Quality: A

JUDGE 2 '

Length: 279 words

Comments: Too short. Didn't do any justice to the author's idea. Reading it, one is not clear on what the author is trying to convey. Just a few references to the topic. Could've been made much more humourous.

Marks:            

   a) Content (Max 30)                        10

   b) Humour (Max 30)                        5

   c) Presentation (Max 30)                        15

   d) Length (Max 10)                        5

Total 35

JUDGE ' 3

1. Conceptualization: Totally poetic and serious Misfit!

2. Ingredients: Serious essay

3 Grammar/Punctuation Not gradable

4. Effect Not gradable

5. My Views It is a good philosophical passage!

Serious philosophy, very short, missed the opportunity to use the work space available.

Felt let down, the theme and approach were good! Prize contender No 2, for the quote has

been analyzed somewhat!

ENTRY NO 6 ' Zeus

"The human mind is an ensemble of imagination and creativity. We derive some of our most original innovative ideas out of directionless pondering. Our carefully cultivated conventions of rationale, logic and reason nod in collective disapproval at some of our aimless thoughts "

JUDGE 1 '

Humour: 5/10

Fantasy: 0/10

Relevance: 10/10

Total: 15

Quality: B

JUDGE 2 '

Length: 597 words

Comments: Well written, author has a distinctive style. Relevant to the topic. Author could've developed the ideas much better; the piece should've been longer. More humour would've received higher points

Marks:            

   a) Content (Max 30)                        20

   b) Humour (Max 30)                        15

   c) Presentation (Max 30)                        20

   d) Length (Max 10)                        7

Total 62

JUDGE 3 '

1. Conceptualization: Serious discussion #2 Ditto

2. Ingredients:

3 Grammar/Punctuation

4. Effect

WOW! Forget the details! Enjoyed reading this one! Serious stuff though!

5. My Views Way ahead of the pack

Quotables

human intellect, dextrous as ever, finds alternate avenues to amuse itself silly. Who

can deny the blissful experience while we indulge in ‘baby talk’ with a toddler?

Sexual fantasies are no exception to the asexual ones. They are the methods of the

mind to escape the constant demands of reality and indulge in reverie for a fleeting

moment.

‘Nonsense’ is a sedative which switches off the mind to its workload.

The faculty of the human mind to ‘fantasize nonsense’ should be celebrated

ENTRY NO 7 ' Sumangal Halder

"A young tutor realizes
That his student is FANTASticalY dressed
Her dressing sense
Made the young tutor complacent
He wondered …am I so smart?
To make a one sided affair start "

JUDGE 1 '

Humor: 7/10

Fantasy: 5/10

Relevance: 3/10

Total: 15

Quality: B+

JUDGE 2 '

Length: 133 words

Comments: Too short. Good style. Only slight relevance to the topic. Could've been made more humourous, author (poet?) seems to have that flair.

Marks:            

   a) Content (Max 30)                        20

   b) Humour (Max 30)                        20

   c) Presentation (Max 30)                        15

   d) Length (Max 10)                        5

Total 50

JUDGE 3 '

1. Conceptualization: Nabokov like monster! Ditto

2. Ingredients: Worse verse Ditto

3 Grammar/Punctuation Needs a lot of attention!

4. Effect Good communications

5. My Views Young man, needs practice

Misquoted:

So readers what do you think

Do I agree or am I a dink .

Does he know the meaning of dink?

DINK

1. A couple who both have careers and no children (an acronym for dual income no

kids).

2. A drop shot, from dink, sound of a weakly hit or dropped ball.

Using a word jus for rhyming is SERIOUS offence!

Sorry, better luck next time

ENTRY NO 8 ' Vijay Gambhir

"Here comes the winner! Many times I have told it to myself and have had really cherishing experiences almost always. Seldom do the fantasies come true but I am used to live with them and I am really happy that way "

JUDGE 1 '

Humor: 7/10

Fantasy: 4/10

Relevance: 6/10

Total: 17

Quality: B+

JUDGE 2 '

Length: 740 words

Comments: Could've been made more relevant to the topic. Not enough humour. Author has narrative capabilities, but didn't seem to be able to connect the ideas together.

Marks:            

   a) Content (Max 30)                        15

   b) Humour (Max 30)                        15

   c) Presentation (Max 30)                        15

   d) Length (Max 10)                        10

Total 55

JUDGE 3 '

1. Conceptualization: Compromises Not understood!

2. Ingredients: Sob story

3 Grammar/Punctuation A little editing would have

helped!

Ok, minor problem!

4. Effect Long winded

5. My Views Can not win! Meandering with no result!

Sorry, better luck next time!

ENTRY NO 9 ' Kaushik Das

"Seriously speaking, if there were no copyright issues, I would have posted a PJ or two that weren't copied right. The intellectual reaction to those PJs would be the answer to the quote above. Of course, if the 'I' stands for intellectual, can no sense really be liked? "

JUDGE 1 '

Humor: 3/10

Fantasy: 0/10

Relevance: 10/10

Total: 13

Quality: B+

JUDGE 2 '

Length: 280 words

Comments: No undertaking. Too short. Very relevant (probably best in terms of a nonsensical essay). Author has a flair for humour and a longer essay would've received more marks. 

Marks:            

   a) Content (Max 30)                        15

   b) Humour (Max 30)                        25

   c) Presentation (Max 30)                        20

   d) Length (Max 10)                        5

Total 65

JUDGE 3 '

1. Conceptualization: Extremely good, To the point

2. Ingredients: Word play, puns

3 Grammar/Punctuation No problems

4. Effect Very effective

5. My Views Very competent person, but in a hurry!

6. Views of Organizer Agree/Disagree

The WINNERS as adjudged:

Entry No 4 - Dee ' Splendid text, brilliant at times, like confessing that the plumber did not show up because he was attending to a leak, personal! Naughty Lady!

Entry No 6 ' Zeus ' Sparkles of wisdom and evident joyful method, brief but explicit.

Entry No 9 ' Kaushik Das ' Very competent person, but in a hurry.

FINAL LISTED WINNERS:

First Prize ' Dee ( Okay girl all this while no post from you go on, post this now!)

Second Prize ' Zeus ( I don't know how you do it but man, you seriously need to open a bank account now!)

Third Prize ' Kaushik Das (You were the surprise entry!!! Congrats!)

Early Bird Prizes ' Sumangal Halder and Tisha ( Book Prize! Courtesy from P K Madhavan)

CONGRATULATIONS!

Sumangal, Kaushik and Tisha, Please email me your address at ilandcontest@gmail.com 

I like nonsense — it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope…and that enables you to laugh at all of life’s realities.

– Theodor S. Geisel, a.k.a. “Dr. Seuss”

Here’s the CONTEST for NOVEMBER 2006…

Argue or support the quote above (you may agree or disagree) in not more than 1000 words using humour to support your arguement.

CONTEST CLOSED ! EIGHT ENTRIES IN ALL!

Cheers
Sandy

We had a dearth of judges somehow and because of my own connectivity issues, the month of October slowed considerably. Hate to begin anything with apologies makes me somehow feel really guilty! BUT IT IS CALLED FOR!

MY DEEPEST APOLOGIES FOR KEEPING YOU ALL WAITING!

Eternal gratitude to Madhavan PK for helping out. Eternal gratitude for all my iland friends and members and participants who waited and waited till kingdom came J

The dearth of judges, made me sit on the difficult seat of having to decide too not an easy task.

We had eleven participants:

• Zeus Zeus
• Dee
• Deepa
• Ajay Mane
• Madhavi
• Sur Mehta
• Navina Sai
• Rajat Chandel
• Vishal Rathod
• Mesha Bhat
• Rajesh Vora

There was an assortment of entries because this time it was open to either write Poetry or Prose We have amazing entries.

I request the participants to post their entries on their blogs and leave me a link either on the guest book or comments page so I can incorporate the same into this result page as and when I get your uploaded story or poetry

NOW FOR THE RESULTS:

Madhavan:

"As is usual in the analysis of creative work, there is an element of subjectivity. In trying to be objective, I have tried to mark for writing style, originality and content, narration, clarity of thought, flow and readability."

Here goes. Of the entries, I would give Bright Walls and a Pale sky the first place closely followed by Dinks. I have no third place. Compos Mentis is well written, has a great narration, flow and style. But to my mind, it fails because it talks of the much-bandied multiple-personality disorder a la “aparachit” or “anniyan”.

Zeus Zeus:

Entry: A Saga of The Sands ' Poetry

"Darkness engulfs the expanse of sand

As twinkling stars struggle with clouds

Smuggling flickers of hope into the eyes

Blinded by passion, despair and war.

Two souls crave "

 http://livinglife.rediffiland.com 

Comments:

A marvelous narration in poetry full of excellent imagery that gets one to visualize the entire story in its array of colors.

"Excellent description, an easy read, simplistic in its content and finely etched."
 

Ajay Mane:

Entry: Sorry Ajay, your entry was disqualified, as it did not connect in any way to the contest theme.

Madhavi:

Entry: Sannata ' Poetry

"Is Neel Gagan Ke Chhaon Mein,

Tez, Kadakti Dhoop Mein Tapti Hain.

Yeh Imaaratein , Zameen Se Lipti,

Oonchi Tanee, Jalti Hain,

Jheel Ke Us Paar Phaili Hain.."

 http://maddies.rediffiland.com 

Comments:

"Very moving and thought provoking."

Sur Mehta

Entry: My Imagination ' Poetry

"As soon as I saw the picture of the fort,

 I sat down & gave it a thought.

 I didn’t knew what would I write,

But ya some vague ideas crippled through my mind…"

Comments:

" Vivid imagery a fair attempt had its moments of catching attention, it lacked the flow poetry usually carries I like the hint of story in it though"

Navina Sai

Entry: Yours truly, compos mentis ' Story

"Skippity-skip. Hoppity-hop. Somehow, she knew she had always belonged here. Her hair seemed to have a gentle tussle with that familiar tug of wind. Everything was terribly familiar. The strong smell of the mud soaked in yesterday's rain or was it something headier than just rain? She couldn't figure that out, though the air was echoing sounds of hushed voices, intermingled with excited shrieks. Feverish chatter. She thought the steel would have rusted, but the blades just gleamed like they had been recently polished "

Comments:

" Highly imaginative very unique story line has hitches in its structures but it is unique in its theme "

Rajat Chandel

Entry: Bright Walls and Pale Sky ' Story

"Sitting on the roof of the famous “bath-house-for ladies(Janana-Hammam-bara ) adjoining the not-so-famous Mohnisha Taal, on the footsteps of Fort Raigarh, I wondered, "Why did I come here?"

After all, I really didn’t have a reason to be here, they had already cremated him two days ago and I wasn’t planning on staying till fifteen for Kriya "

 http://rajatchandel.rediffiland.com/ 

Comments:

" Easy, ruminative in narration and simple in style. A good build-up and a factual end"

Vishal Rathod

Entry: Crouching Picture Hidden Tiger - Story

"”What do you think?”

“Its a beautiful palace,” my younger brother replied, pushing aside the newspaper from his hand. Both of us were staring into the computer screen.

“That makes four. I need a thousand words for the contest,” I protested.

“Write those words over and over again, for a thousand times. Simple as that.” He smiled ."

 http://keval23.rediffiland.com/ 

Comments:

"A contemplative piece, humour apparent in places."

Mesha Bhat

Entry: Love and Repentance ' Poetry

"    He sat alone beneath the oak
    A man old and bent
    His eyes crinkled with the years
    His feet ..they struggled to stand.

    His hair was long.. matted and tight
    Like vines growing wild on a tree
    But for the cloth around his loins
    He lived naked and free "

 http://mesha.rediffiland.com/ 

Comments:

" Story in musical poetry ruminative love from the past well told"

Rajesh Vora

Entry: Poem

“ I may be consigned to the pages of history
I may be long forgotten
People may mistake me to be dead
They convert me to hotels and resorts
But I am very much alive and
I have lived to tell the tale…”
http://rajeshvora.rediffiland.com 
Comments:
 ” A touching narration from the Fort…”

THE WINNERS:

FIRST PRIZE ' We have two winners here this time around

BRIGHT WALLS AND A PALE SKY by Rajat Chandel

THE DINKS by Dee

SECOND PRIZE ' A SAGA OF THE SANDS by Zeus

THIRD PRIZE ' SANNATA by Madhavi

Congratulations!

All participants are requested to please upload their entries and post it on their page and leave me a link so that I can include it here.

Please email me at ilandcontest@gmail.com your address and full name for dispatching the cheques

Cheers!

-Sandy