Tiku had asked me/Ajay to comment on the results. Ajay has already commented on the Blogadda website. And I would like to take the liberty to name a few of the entries that I found interesting.

My feedback is here: http://writerzblock.wordpress.com/2010/05/28/contest-in-controversy/

Thanks…
Pal

Regarding the Contest, I learnt a lot about story-writing….mine was a plane
mathematical answer to the Contest….but few people were able to hold the flow of author’s imagination brilliantly! So, though I lost the contest, I learnt a lot about srory tellling….Thank You Guys!

Thanks Blogadda! 🙂

Blogadda I thoroughly enjoyed this contest and hope to see a ton more from you guys! See this contest at least got me to log in here and put comments

🙂

As for the rest of the comments, I really didn’t get time to check all of them but i’m sure they all deserve to win in their own rights.

And Good one Karate brat, among all of us, u nailed it right!
🙂

:Mrgreen:

Enough of the controversies people! Peace! 🙂

Looking forward to more cool contests frm u guys! U guys rock!

First of all, I myself never have written the post with “winning” in mind. I have read the T&C thoroughly and also the comments from “admin” before posting into this competition.

In response to questions asked by “tikulicious” and “gyanban”, “admin” mentioned that this need not to be written in the form of a story in the first place. So, what “suranga” has mentioned in this comment is absolutely true.

I read the post written by “Chandana Shekhar” before writing mine, so I knew that she is the one getting the “right answer”, “sucide”, Lila killed herself.

I read some other opinions like the “author” is the killer. Now, like “gyanban” mentioned in his post about the “flaws” and “loose ends” of this story, I started writing it in the form of the story, which is not ended. It was like another entry in my “story telling” blog “GolporKhata” – > the storybook, and commented on all most all the posts whichever I found interesting, in hope, that they will read mine in return.

That was only thing I had in mind. I have never “dreamt” of winning and therefore chosen “nothing” from pingoo.com, rather used HCN as murder weapon, which leaves a little trace as it evaporate quickly and kills really fast, within seconds.

I don’t want to be considered as a “winner” if that really hurts someone, who actually is my dear friend blogger, who waited just to know the answer and visited blogAdda blog page now and again. Most of the competitors visited my blog, commented and that is the real “winning prize” for me.

Also, please visit and read my other stories in your spare time, “honestly” comment on them, so that I can be better and may someday really become a “good” writer to fulfill my dreams. That’s all I want from you, not to “win” over anybody.

I finally would like to thank Mr. Sidin for giving my biggest prize I ever got in my blogging life, calling me “A Belgian in Kolkatta”. Apart from my daily life of “writing code”, the story telling really is a thing “I really want to do.”

And last, but not the least, Lila – created by Ajay, still creating controversies after she is “long dead”, that’s the best price an author can get all the time. Thanks Ajay for your masterpiece.

Thanks BlogAdda! Thanks my dear friends!

With regards and best wishes,
Shankha

Just clarifying a few things.

When I wrote this story, for me there was a simple psychological solution inherent in it. Apart from the clues, the details and red herrings, the questions were:

Who would want to kill Lila?
Who could succeed?

The answer to the first question is more difficult. Everyone in the room had a motive and since the story was from the point of view of only one of the characters, it’d never be possible to judge the motives of others, except make educated guesses. So you have to trust implicitly in the judgment of that one character as he runs down the list to suggest why not any one of them is the murderer.

The second question is the the more reliable one. There is a history of failed attempts – and as the narrator goes through that history, you can rely more on them.

The one thread that’s constant is Lila’s infallibility. This is a woman who has been shot, been in an accident, almost drowned and was poisoned. And survived. Until she contracts something from which there is no escape. A woman who obviously believes in living life her way. The inference I’d draw (or tried to suggest) is that she’d want to control her death too. And what’s death without drama for her?

Hence, the logical answer of a suicide.

Having said that, the point was to create enough ambiguity to make it interesting. In that light, I’d think Sidin picking a second winner with a different answer is quite fascinating. That answer swallows the red herring – of the twin sister – whole but is presented in a creative manner. I’ll refrain from judging the quality of other answers – I was overwhelmed by the responses and many of them were well thought out and interesting.

Being a life-long cricket fan, I subscribe to the edict that the final verdict does belong to the umpire. And as a judge, you always have to have some latitude, which Sidin’s exercised in this case. From someone as consistently witty and funny as him (Exhibit A: http://www.whatay.com/ ), you’d not expect a dry, boring judgment, would you?