Candice Ramaiah

“Breakaway” by Candice Ramaiah

Submitted to Contest #57

Everyone was silent. I had just introduced my spouse to my family including extended members – the uncles, aunties, cousins and all those who were linked to the family tree. We have all congregated at my grandparents’ village in Kumbakonam, a couple of hours drive from Trichy. One of the cousins was getting married, the Iyengar way – early morning marriage, groom invitation the night before and the coconut game on the third day. Yeah, so you would have guessed by now – I belong to a very traditional Iyengar family from Kumbakonam. In I...

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“The Hidden Dagger” by Candice Ramaiah

Submitted to Contest #56

People were mingling around, although time was past 3 a.m. Loud music was played at the DJ console. There was smell of marijuana in the air. Women were dressed in their sexiest and most provocative attires, while the men were in bow tie and tuxedos. If one were to think this was a party in London, well, one could probably be right, but it was in downtown Mumbai. The occasion was success celebration of the film `Kataar’ – Dagger. It starred a newcomer and hit the box office at Rs 600 cr, which was above Dangal, the Aamir Khan movie. The new...

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“White Face” by Candice Ramaiah

Ramayee walked briskly through the winding path. She needed to get away from the row of house soonest. Those were estate workers’ quarters. It was 4 p.m. and most of them would have returned from their rubber tapping work. There would be hoots and catcalls if they see her, so she wanted to avoid that. At 18, Ramayee was a very pretty slender girl with curves at the right places. There was only one problem – she was fair-skinned. The estate workers were mostly from South India and generally were dark skinned. But Ramayee was not, though she...

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“The Second Tide” by Candice Ramaiah

Submitted to Contest #54

The taxi drove through the town of Avarua; nothing seemed to have changed. The sea was on the right and rows of houses on the left. The town looked almost the same as Eddy had left in 2009. The name of the island was Rarotonga; one of the larger islands in The Cooks Islands. The other large island was Aitutaki. Eddy watched as the endless sea seemed to whiz pass by. This was one island nation where people drove on the left side of the road unlike Canada where he had lived for the last eleven years. It took him some time to get used to dr...

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“A South-Westerly Fling” by Candice Ramaiah

Submitted to Contest #53

The scorching heat was unbearable. Leela could not feel the air-condition in her old Myvi – her old faithful, a car she has been driving last 13 years. Her glasses grew misty, no thanks to the sweat on her forehead. She slowed down to wipe her face briefly with the towel she had always kept in her car. A brief respite. The month was August. From May to September, her country experiences the south-westerly dry wind from Indonesia; particularly Sumatera. The dry wind not only brought heat, it also brought with it smoke from land burning wh...

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“The Closure” by Candice Ramaiah

Submitted to Contest #52

I thought he was dead, but there he was, right in front of me on the street, smiling at me. It can’t be. My mind was racing. I saw them bring his body up from the boat. It was a boating accident right before our wedding. He had insisted he wanted to have a bachelor party on a boat, middle of the sea. I wasn’t comfortable but he had insisted. Think about it, no naked girl would be popping out of any cake, he had laughed. There were eight on the boat and my brother was one of them. He had hired for a whole night, Friday. The plan was for the...

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“The Midnight Bride” by Candice Ramaiah

Submitted to Contest #51

The motorcycle navigated through the laterite road; some places were slippery from rain that evening. Deva and Kugan were brothers who lived in a joint family deep in the rubber estate, which was only accessible through the muddy laterite road which became impassable during the monsoon season. Each week, they would make that motorcycle ride to the nearest town to buy home essentials and groceries like rice, sugar, washing soap and other household items. Their dad worked as the headmaster of the interior schools which served the people from...

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