Last week I mentioned that I am doing a creative writing course. So I thought that this week I would share a piece of writing from my homework. We are given a cue and then need to write for 10 mins or 3 pages and we post roughly 250 words on the writers board for everyone to give feedback on. Here was one of my efforts from the week:
As Lyndsay surveyed the thriving mass of humanity in front
of her, her gaze was drawn to the Sadhu sitting on the ground next to the
entrance to the Laxman Jhula suspension bridge. He was perched on top of a
small bundle of what appeared to be his only worldly possessions. She had heard
a little about these Holy men but it was the first time she had seen one up
close herself. He had glasses that resembled the bottom of glass coca-cola
bottles. Inches thick and caked in so much dirt and grime that she couldn’t
believe they were actually helping him see. His face was a mass of wrinkles
that seemed to have every second of his lifetime etched on his face. He looked
like he had not bathed in weeks, maybe even months and his long, thick, grey
hair was matted and dreaded to such an extent that Lyndsay could imagine
snapping one of them off if she tried to touch them.
Despite all the chaos and craziness around him, the Sadhu
appeared to be in his own world. Scooter tyres skimmed his feet, pilgrims
brushed past dropping offerings of food in his rusty bowl, and monkeys jostled
for prime position on the ropes of the suspension bridge. Yet he remained calm
and still as if in a trance. In the exact same instant that Lyndsay raised her
SLR to her eye and began to zoom the lens towards him, he raised his head and
locked his eyes right on hers. Her breath left her body, sucked out of her like
air from a popped balloon. His gaze was so intense that it was burning right
through her. She couldn’t figure out what was going on. She knew she was in
Rishikesh and moments ago she had been about to take a photo but at the same
time she felt that she had just left this world. Departed through a rabbit
hole, just like Alice, only through the eyes of a Holy Man. It was as if he was
unlocking everything that was inside her. Every secret and doubt and thought
stripped bare. Pulled inside out and then slipped back in again before she even
knew what was happening.
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