My short story "Her favorite pupil" is a part of Writersmelon's Jukebox!

How does it feel when one of your favorite authors writes the foreword of the book that you are a part of? How does it feel to be one of the 15 winners of a nationwide writing competition? Fascinating. Exciting. Fabulous. 

That's what I felt when I saw that Preeti Shenoy has written the foreword of Jukebox, a collection of 15 winning short stories of Melonade, a nationwide writing competition organized by WritersMelon. Melonade, 2016 was judged by a panel of eminent writers, one of them was Preeti Shenoy.  

My association with WritersMelon is a long one. I have been reviewing books for them since 2015. I appreciate the wonderful platform that they provide to authors and bibliophiles to showcase their talent and promote their work. 

When WritersMelon announced their nationwide writing competition "Melonade" in 2016, I couldn't stop myself from taking part in it. I wrote a short story titled Her favorite pupil which is about the relationship that a speech-impaired student shares with his mentor. It is about the teacher's unwavering faith in her student and how the student restores that faith after fifteen long years.

Sometimes all we need in life is a person who has faith in our potential and talent much more than we have in ourselves. Faith is truly magical. It can move mountains. 

This short story is very close to me as I have seen such a relationship between a teacher and a student where the teacher's faith gave the student the courage to chase his dreams. My paternal uncle runs a deaf and dumb school. I have seen him working day and night on speech impaired children and change some of their lives. 

I was thrilled when I learned that my short story Her favorite pupil is one of the 15 short stories that will feature in the anthology by WritersMelon. The book is edited deftly by Priyanka Roy Banerjee and it was amazing ti share writing space with some very talented writers. Jukebox is the 10th anthology that I am a part of. 

Jukebox is divided into 3 sections: 
-Spine Chilling Drama and Suspense
-Quirky, funny and awkward moments
-Poetic love of hopeless romantics

As a reader, I am having a great time savoring these winning stories. I am sure you will have a great time reading this book too. As WritersMelon say, it is a book about life choices that will compel you to think about the choices that you have made in your life. 

Check out the trailer and grab your copy! I am sure you will enjoy the reading experience. 

"The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words."~William H. Gass