DNA-Out of Print short fiction contest: The Aftereffects of a Nightmare

Thank you to all the writers who put so much passion into the work they sent in. 

Any slight trepidation we might have had that running the contest so soon after the elections would influence the interpretation of the theme, ‘choice’ in narrow ways quickly dissipated. The

range of issues was wide and addressed personal freedoms, societal pressure, social apathy. There are stories about cross-dressing, corruption, conscience, callousness, neglect, injustice,

farmers, writers, colliery chiefs, postmen, gigolos, mothers, fathers, cruelty, rape, abuse, desperation, release, futility, death, love. All winners.

It wasn’t easy to identify the five finalists and we wish we could have included more among them. The choice of winning story was ultimately influenced by the clean direct simplicity with

which the protagonist approaches the complex choice he makes, and the deceptive lightness with which the story is told.

— Indira Chandrasekhar, Leela Levitt, Ram Sadsiv at outofprintmagazine.co.in

Afternoons are the worst. Endless stretches of stillness when the mind ventures into undesirable territory and minutes go on for hours. Maya dreads these spells of unnerving silence over the

weekends when the predictable security of an office day is missing and she is trapped at home. The streets seem to be deserted and she is too scared to venture out.

Maya comes home, exhausted by the shadows inside her head. Almost on autopilot, she ticks off the long list of steps towards self-fortification. Double lock on the door, check. Windows shut,

check, Curtains drawn, check. Try not to think of what happened just now at the market, check. Try not to think of what happened to her in the next room that night, yeah right! Turn on the

TV, check. Pretend to herself that the exaggerated characters and inane story-lines would help clean up the clutter inside her head, check.

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