A photograph showcases an empty bench overlooking a river in Alleppey under an evening sky. Posted below the photograph are 18 stories, each of 99 words or less. Surprisingly, no two stories sound similar. While one talks about the bench as a lover's meeting haven, another is tinted with nostalgia and yet another, deems it as a suicide point.

In a story titled Rat Race, Rohan Mukherjee writes: “Look at them. They all think that they’re unique. Yet, just rats in the race.” “What race? Five of them are off to Pune for a colleague’s wedding. The aged guy is thinking of the closest Iyengar bakery to carry home some dilpasand for his granddaughter, three of them are street musicians on their way to a recording studio, and the guy in the centre, hand covering his face? He still can’t believe that he won the two movie tickets from that radio contest!” The race is in your mind. And rats, nowhere. Pic courtesy/Jan Joseph