How to participate in CLS Short Story Competition 2015

Rules and Regulations for CLS Competition. 

Though these rules have been put in a pdf format and are available for everyone to see here, we are reproducing the same again for your ready reference.

Rules & Regulations:

1.    All the entries must be in English
2.    Story guidelines: The story submitted for the competition must begin with the opening lines that have been provided. However you may choose any genre and may give any title to your submitted short story. It should be your own original and unaided work. Entries must not have been previously published or self-published, in print or online, or have won a prize in another competition.
3.    Word Limit: Be sure of your word count! Entries exceeding the word limit of 1000 words (counting every single word, including the opening lines but excluding the title) will be disqualified.
4.    Who can apply: Anyone who is a resident of India can submit his or her entry. Age is not a bar to participate in this competition. A maximum of one entry per person will be accepted.
5.    Who cannot apply: Members of the CLS organizing committee would not be considered for this competition.
6.    Fee: There is no fee for entering the contest. The aim of this competition is to encourage writing and develop creative skills.
7.    Submission: Only online entries shall be accepted. Submit your entry in MS word format. Your name and address must not appear on the pieces entered, nor should there be any other identification mark. Personal details (author’s name, address, phone number) and Word Count (mentioned in numbers) should be attached on a separate page. All the entries should be sent to clscompetitions@gmail.com
8.    Last date to submit entries: Only online entries shall be accepted until midnight  (Indian Standard Time) of 15th June, 2015.
9.    Judging:Entries will be judged solely on artistic merit. Decisions of the judges will be final.
10.    Winners and Awards: A short list of ten will be selected, from which a winner and two runners-up will be chosen. The names of these chosen winners will be notified by 1st August on our facebook page.
11.    The copyright of the submitted work would remain with the authors, but CLS would reserve the right to publish the winning entries.
12.    Submitting an entry would automatically mean that you agree to accept these rules in full. In case of any deviation from these, your entry will be disqualified.

Do you know who that girl was in white top and flowing blue skirt?

Just as tantalising is this question, and so would be this short story writing competition of Chandigarh Literary Society (CLS).

We are back with our annual short-story competition and we invite each and everyone, who knows to wield the pen, and all those who wish to try their hand on writing an exciting story. And as always, there is no entry fee.  No age bar.  Simple 1000 words of sheer excitement.  Type it out in English. No more than 1000 words, and mail it to us before midnight of 15th June.

In last competition we had some super contributions from school students too, and we look forward to their participation this time too.

We shall have the entries judged by a jury where after we shall  announce the winners of this contest at a public function of CLS, with lots of prizes.

Here's our Help to You.  The first step of sitting down and writing that first opening sentence is the most difficult part.  We are cutting out that agonising wait by giving you the opening montage of the story written by a celebrated fiction writer.  Incorporate these lines as the opening lines, and complete the story in 1000 words.  Easy! Isn't it?

              "He was sure that it was her...almost!  He walked briskly down the pavement, overtaking several fellow pedestrians.  She wore a white top and a flowing blue skirt. Her hair flew tantalisingly behind her as it used to all those years ago..."

Get cracking.  Last date is 15th June.  

All entries must be emailed before midnight of 15th June, on clscompetitions@gmail.com.

Terms and Conditions can be downloaded here. 

'The Ex-Files' is all about empowering women

Ms Sumita Misra, Chairman of Chandigarh Literary Society released Vandana Shah’s book, “The Ex-Files” published by Shobhaa De books and Penguin Books India on 21st March at the Chandigarh Golf Club.

Told through her own personal story, The Ex Files reveals the hardships of divorce and also the joys of emerging stronger with your positive thinking and humour intact.  The book also deals with the legal and social aspects of divorce, so often overlooked in India, and provides an indispensible guide to the ins and outs of proceedings.

Noted author, columnist and tv personality, Khushwant Singh moderated the session.

In 2001 Vandana Shah, despite her best efforts to save her marriage, found herself facing a divorce petition.  But instead of wallowing in self-pity, she picked up the pieces of her shattered life and moved straight on.  She not only found a job but went on to become a divorce lawyer and a community leader, starting India’s first divorce support group and network.

At once funny, tragic and uncompromisingly honest, this memoir will resonate with anyone who has endured the end of a marriage and come out changed.

Vandana Shah studied at St Xavier's College in Mumbai and has since donned various hats including that of a model, a deejay and an advertising professional. After being thrown out of her marital home with just the clothes on her back and Rs 750 in the bank, Vandana rebuilt her world and founded the first Indian support group to help people going through a divorce, 360 Degrees Back to Life. She has since come full circle from being a litigant to being a divorce lawyer and practices at the family court in Mumbai.

Vandana writes a monthly column in the magazine, Black and White Oman and she edits Ex-Files, India's first divorce news magazine.

She has also participated in the Lead India Programme and was the winner from Mumbai in 2010. Vandana's work for the cause of women going through divorce in India has resulted in a BBC documentary about her work, entitled Invisible Women of India. This was broadcast worldwide on international Women's Day in 2014.

Her first book endorsed by the iconic feminist Gloria Steinem won an award and she has translated another book on the Jain faith from English to Hindi.  She also received the NAI Achievement award for the best lawyer in India for Women’s Rights in November 2014.

 “When Holy Wedlock becomes Holy Deadlock, what do you do?  Cry your heart out of laugh it off?  Here is a book which will help you to enjoy your way through the thickets of divorce and plot the second marriage.  Read, relax, rejoice”
Padma Bhushan Lord Meghnad Desai

“Champagne-dripping, solitaire-studded, a Jimmy-Choo-on-steroids divorce memoir that lightens the trauma of divorce…that you just can’t put down”
Advaita Kala

It Happens for a Reason

Preeti Shenoy: “The only woman in the best-selling league”
Sumita Misra, chairperson of Chandigarh Literary Society, released “It Happens for a Reason” by India’s best-selling author Preeti Shenoy at the Whistling Duck restaurant here today.

Best known for her romantic novels including ‘Life is What You Make It, ’34 Bubblegums and Candies’, and ‘Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake’ ‘The Secret Wishlist’, Preeti shared her journey as an author from being a blogger to a columnist for various publications. 

Now author of five best-sellers, an artist who love to paint portraits, or indulge in paper quilling, a oet, yoga-buff, ex-basketball player, Nature lover, Ted X speaker is what describes her multifarious and diverse interests including working with under-privileged children.

“It happens for a Reason” is an engaging and enthralling love story which puts the protagonist, who is just 18, single and beautiful into a situation where she gives up her promising career in modeling to have her baby, and how her life takes new turns after sixteen years, Preeti remarked.

Amidst twists and turns of our lives we come across numerous instances when something unexpected happens, and what Preeti philosophically puts it that it happens for a reason.

When asked as to how she manages her time with the family and professional duties and yet get to write so many books, Preeti said that she got herself into the habit of writing daily, come what may; a promise she keeps.

She is known for her descriptive details and keen observation while writing which, Preeti admitted, is result of her extensive research on subjects and situations by personally engaging herself whether it is a mental hospital or life in the street.

The book has been published by Westland, and Ms Sarita had coordinated her visit to the city. Members lapped up her five books from the stall set up by the Bookstore Partner, Capital Book Depot.
And our special thanks to Mr Ambar, the owner of Whistling Duck Kitchen and Restaurant for an excellent and elegant snacks over a warm cup of tea at the end of the session.

Why do children need stories?

Stories help Children make sense of the world: Samina Mishra

Writer and film maker Samina Mishra from Delhi strongly recommended the need for study of literature and art in school curricula in the country, while addressing the Chandigarh Literary Society (CLS) at ‘Meet the Author’ programme here today at the UT Guest House.
Samina, who is a part of Scholastic India’s programme, Storytelling Night, and UNESCO’s Travelling Literature Festival, Ghummakad Narain, shared her work she is doing with the children from lower middle segment of the society around the country.
Stories, she said, are important for the children to make sense of their their homes, their neighbourhood, and their surroundings and learn to express themselves through different media, whether it is images, text or sound.
With the availability of variety of media to the young generation today, they need to be told the stories of both positivies and not so good part of the happenings around them so as to have a better understanding. She shared her experience of working with children in the walled city of Delhi and areas referred to as Muslim ghetto, and conducted art and writing workshop with children there, out of which has emerged soon-to-be-published book, ‘Come, Walk Through Our Streets”.
Having been awarded the Sea Change Residency by the Gaea Foundation of USA for her works, Samina Mishra shared clips from her documentaries on girl child which she shot in Punjab as part of UNICEF project, “Stories of Girlhood”, and “I found My Way to School”.
Large number of writers from the city interacted with her including Vivek Atray, Deputy Commissioner Panchkula,  CLS Secretary Madhav Kaushik, Suparna Saraswati Puri, Saguna Jain, Manju Jaidka, CJ Singh, Hardeep Chandpuri, etc.

An Author Deserves to be Known

In order to create a community of creative people in the literary domain, Chandigarh Literary Society (CLS) has initiated the drive to build a database of authors in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

CLS has initiated the process of inviting authors to share information about their published works and their profiles with the readers through facebook, and we do hope to make CLS a more strong platform to encourage interactions and creative writings. 

You as an author are special. You are the one who has gone through the grind of spending hours to pen down your thoughts and opinions and shape the throughts of your readers...and new dimensions and perspective to the world we live in.

So go ahead, and share your profile.  Enter it here: http://goo.gl/forms/xpTBTEqgcq.

The World of Image, Sound and Text

THE WAY OF STORIES: The World of Image, Sound and Text

Meet the prolific writer and documentary maker from Delhi, Samina Mishra. CLS has scheduled an interactive session with her on 16th January at 5:00pm at the UT Guest House.

Samina Mishra, an alumnus of St Stephens College, Delhi University, who did her Mass Communications at the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

She works as a documentary filmmaker, writer, facilitator/teacher and sound recordist, and has a special interest in media for children.

Her films include Two Lives (2007), The House on Gulmohar Avenue (2005) and Stories of Girlhood (2001). Her short stories The Goat That Got Away, Looking Through Glass and The House At The Corner have appeared in anthologies by Scholastic, The Wisdom Tree and Penguin.

Look forward to meeting you.