[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_28":-5,"_38":-5,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54},"routes/_store+/_readers+/email_author.$slug/route",{"_9":10,"_11":-5},"book",{"_12":13,"_14":15,"_16":17,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":23},"currentUser","id","Z2lkOi8vbGVhbnB1Yi9TdG9yZTo6Qm9va1Byb2R1Y3QvNzgzMjE","title","The Spite Architect","state","published","contactAuthorMethod","email","aboutText","

In the gleaming high-rise apartments of Parramatta, senior Cloud Architect and secret geneticist Chunmun Singh reaches his breaking point after enduring years of petty condescension, mockery, and passive-aggressive jabs from his neighbors in the strata committee and building. Fueled by spite rather than malice or ambition for fame, he uses his advanced but clandestine knowledge of genetic engineering to create perfect human clones of the newborns belonging to various couples in the building. Under the cover of night, he delivers each cloned infant to the respective apartment doorstep and triggers localized fire alarms to ensure the parents discover the duplicate in a state of maximum confusion and sensory overload.

Each chapter follows a repeating, darkly comedic pattern: a couple is jolted awake by blaring sirens and flashing strobes, only to find their wife holding a second, identical baby. The husbands react with shock, paranoia, or wild accusations (ranging from secret affairs and barista paternity to black-market daycare schemes), while the wives instantly pivot with absurdly confident, theatrical explanations. They invoke the Kali Yuga, reference Ramayana mythology (comparing the clones to Lava and Kusha), frame the event as divine intervention or “corporate synergy,” and spin the scientific miracle into a story of destiny or cosmic justice. Overwhelmed by the chaos, the noise, the flashing lights, and their wives’ unshakable conviction, each husband ultimately surrenders and accepts the second child—often with a humorous caveat about not paying double insurance, school fees, or vet bills if Chunmun ever clones their car, lawnmower, or cat.

The novella is a satirical, sensory-rich black comedy that skewers suburban pettiness, strata politics, gender dynamics in Indian-Australian households, and the absurdity of modern life in a rapidly gentrifying Sydney suburb. Through vivid, almost overwhelming descriptions of sounds, smells, lights, and panic, it portrays Chunmun as a quiet “architect of spite” who achieves the ultimate petty revenge: forcing his neighbors to live with twice the domestic responsibility they once mocked him for lacking. The story ends with the building quietly doubled in population, while Chunmun slips back into the shadows, his point dramatically—and biologically—proven.

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Kick off your book project in 3 hours! Live workshop on Zoom. You’ll leave with a real book project, progress on your first chapter, and a clear plan to keep going. Saturday, May 16, 2026. Learn more…

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