The Beauty And The Brain - Episode 12 - Serial With Weekly Episodes

I needed that endorsement badly, Sudha!

Dear Sudha,
It was a matter of great relief and immense happiness to know that you liked the serial and the ending. As you have pointed out the possibilities of romance are endless.
An endorsement from a person of your stature does wonders to my ego, which I now need very badly because of the bruises it had from elsewhere.
thanks again,
sridhar

 

Getting Addicted to your style, AGR!

Dear AGRji,
I am now getting addicted to your style of writing. You should be holding the Guiness Record for using the maximum number of full stops (periods) in your writings. But that's refreshingly unique and I enjoy it. Though I have to read it twice or thrice to find out whether you have bouquets or brickbats for me.
I'll make a confession to you AGR. Please don't tell anybody else. I had a different ending in mind. But our women did not want any sudden change of Sethu's mind. So I thought over it for a while and gave an open ending. Those ILites who wanted Sethu to unite with Swetha can think that their marriage took place within a year. The other group can thinkt hat Sethu did not marry her at all. In a way I gave a customisable end.
You do see a lot of films and I think you are enjoying them. There's nothing wrong in it AGR.
See you in the next "work". I don't know whether it will be a serial or something else.
regards,
sridhar

 

I am Crowned, Pankaja!

Dear Pankaja,
I spent many sleepless nights in devising the climax for this story. The end I had first in mind was to unite Sethu and Swetha in wedlock. Then reading the story again and again and hearing the comments from the gracious ILites I felt that it was not the right way to end the serial.
On the other hand I could not banish them into their separate lonely lives also. So I chose this open end which, I am really thrilled to find, has won the approval of IL's Anupama. It's equivalent to winning a Sahitya Academy Award for the serial.
Thanks for your kind wishes. Your words of praise have been a great source of strength for me.
Let me take this opportunity to wish you a happy birthday again in this forum.
affly,
sridhar

 

Hats Off, High Priest!

Dear Sharada,
At last I got it - genuine,authentic words of appreciation from the Flawless One, The High Priestess.
There is no need to apologise for the criticisms. If you do so then I will have to apologise for my sharp, rude replies to you and Vidya. At one time I was foolishly defensive and used extra-sharp words to hurt you both. I apologise.
In hindsight I find that you (and Vidya) did a service to me; you popularised the serial. The controversies you started attracted more and more viewers for this serial.
But for you the serial might have languished from indifference. It was not to be.
Thank you very much.
And you said what I had in my mind. Yes Sethu will eventually marry Swetha and they will live happily ever after. They have had enough in life and let them see nothing but sheer joy and happiness for the rest of their lives.
And may their happiness get reflected in our lives too.
Thanks for being with me throughout. Every week I will wait with trepidation for the comments of High Priest. I am going to miss those anxious moments.
regards,
sridhar

 

Thanks Varloo, For the Support and For the Praise!

Dear Varloo,
Moved by your words of praise. Your support has always been like a rock to me. And your words have captured the very thought process in my mind at the time of formulating the climax for the serial.
I am happy that I was able to make you happy with my words. Looking forward for your continued support in future as well.
Varalotti

 

Thanks For The Response, Bhugan!

Dear Bhugan,

I think this is your very first response in all the 12 episodes. You have floored me with your comments. I appreciate the candour, Bhugan.

I still remember the short and sweet pm you sent me praising the serial sky high. I don't know what happened in between and now you don't like the story. I respect your wishes and will take your comments as guidelines for my future serials.

Chitra has eloquently answered your queries. I don't think I can even dream of improving upon my dear friend.

What thrills me is that you are also a sudoku fanatic like me. I need to solve at least 2 hard puzzles every day to sustain myself.

Based on my Sudoku knowledge I just want to make two statements in response to yours:

1) A sudoku being hard or easy is quite relative. There were many instances where I found a puzzle easy whereas my friends found it hard. A sudoku puzzle being easy or hard is just a matter of individual perspective.

2) Another lesson I learnt from Sudoku puzzles is that simply because a puzzle has many clues it is not easy. I have worked very hard puzzles with 31 clues. I have also worked very easy puzzles with just 24 clues. I have heard this from the Sudoku experts. You cannot judge a sudoku puzzle as easy or hard by just looking at it, or by counting the number of knowns (ie filled up squares) or even by solving it. In fact the computer algorithm to judge the hardness of a Sudoku puzzle is much more complex than the one used to solve it.

I think these learnings have their applications elsewhere too.
Thanks for the response, Bhugan.
regards,
Varalotti

 

I am Also Sad, Kamla!

Dear Kamla,
The sadness is mutual. I will also be missing the interesting exchanges we had in this serial.
Any day the responses were more interesting than the serial itself. There were angry responses, humorous responses, terse ones, lengthy ones, clear ones, confused ones and even confusing ones; but none of them were boring.
If the responses were good, the credit partially belongs to me. As I needled and provoked the ILites both with my serial and with my responses to their postings.
I know I did hurt you when I talked about the commerical nature of the medical profession. All professions have become commercialised nowadays and I could not help making that comment. I apologise if I had hurt you or your Doctor husband in the process.
You said it right. When I focussed on my heroine (E4 and earlier) people thought I was very vulgar. But when I shifted to the hero, the responses were tremendous. Many ILites have become Swetha's rivals in falling in love with Sethu. A lucky fellow, I should say. The author never had that kind of luck. Even to make one woman fall in love with him (I mean my wife) he had to turn the world upside down. Whatever the author could not have had in his life, his hero had. And that is a mark of success for the author. What he could not enjoy in real life he enoyed vicariously.

About Swetha making an abrupt about turn - any about turn is bound to be abrupt - and for the justification for the abruptness please refer to my reply to Chitra (May she be blessed; for she immediately accepted my logic and reasoning and even went to the extent of defending me from another attack) on the same subject.
Thanks for the words you have for my editor friend. You said that the style was sleek and smooth. I owe that words of praise to my editor friend. Pray for her and bless her.
Thanks for being there, Kamla.
sridhar