A LOVE STORY - Episode 6

Re: New & interesting characters!!

Dear Krithika,

I have been waiting long for your fb, which invariably comes every week in your inimitable style.

We have been taxiing for long and I am preparing you for a take-off. I am not sure whether Ambuja or Naren will be taking off with us.

You are right in comparing Ambuja with Neelambari. So Ramya Krishnan will be the ideal choice for that role. Shakespeare did not say that hell hath no fury like a woman. He added the word "scorned" at the end. What would Ambuja do, we will have to wait and see.

I would just like to add one more dimension to the statement. Women are generally more matured for their age than men, at all stages of life.

thanks.

Poor fellow, Arun thought that by using strong words he could kill all soft feelings in Ambuja so that she won't be longing for him and thus ruining her life. But his strategy has backfired. It's an overkill. Yesterday an ILite whom I met in person said the same thing.


I am happy that you liked the farewell party. I just described my actual farewell held way back in 1978,

When the parties to a relationship do not have any unreasonable expectation and love is the driving force in the relationship, this happens.

Indhu and I have invited an ILite to lunch to our house. The menu is almost the same, minus the maracheeni kizhangu appalam. Could not get that stuff at short notice

What Arun gives Marimuthu is not charity. It is a brilliant business decision. After writing for ten years I know how crucial is an editor's role. With his experience Marimuthu can tell upfront whether a project will be successful or not.

The next episode opens with an answer for this.

Even if you are not wearing your seat-belts you wont get hurt, Krithika. I am piloting the craft and I am fully aware of the most precious cargo I am carrying on my craft. Seat-belts are only to avoid the jolts due to turbulence.

thanks for the nice fb.
regards,

 

My dear DD Oviya,
What I suggest is you keep your guesses yourself and see how the story is unfolding. And then in the end you can tell me your guesses. I am planning to translate this story into a Tamil novel. I'll use your guesses there, if possible.

In a way my adolescence was worse than Arun's. I was more like Bhaskar minus the love, proposal and all.

No Oviya, don't have too much expectations. Have less and then you won't be disappointed. But I cant hide it from you that I loved writing the 7th episode.

Yes, the list is not final.
Kushboo or Tabu for Dr. Kamla
Ajith (of those days) or Madhavan for Arun
Genelia for Vidya
Ramya Krishnan for Ambuja (we should have a dark make-up for them as Ambuja is "particularly dark")
Aarya for Sundar
Prakash Raj or Rajiv for Kumar

Any improvements are welcome. As soon as we finalise the list we can start asking for the call-sheets.

Love,
Your SriPa

 

Dear Vidya,
Very few authors had the distinction of being read by their own heroes and heroines.
On the one hand I am ecstatic to know that ALS figures in your dinner- conversation. I am sure discussing the story would only pave way for more intimacy. I am giving my life and soul to design the story in such a way.
On the other hand I am aware of the power I have over you and as my daughter loves to remind me a million times, with great power comes a great responsibility. I'll tell you a secret Vidya. I don't struggle hard to write an episode. I wait and wait till the events unfold of their own. First the scenes come. Then I write an outline screenplay, something a cine-director should do before the shooting begins. Finally I write the dialogues.

IL is divided on Arun's approach towards Ambika. Many, including an affectionate IL from Bangalore who was kind enough to stay with us for a day, say that Arun should not have used harsh words. Arun genuinely wants to kill all feelings of love in that village belle and so he play-acts using harsh words. In a way whatever he said was true as well. May be if some one approaches Arun now with a love-proposal, he would know how to drive them away without unnecessary harshness. But ten years back.. it was a different Arun and a different story.

With respect to those lines about the human mind which you like, yes, Vidya, it was my heart talking without the brain intervening. I too was in love. Though I never proposed and had never talked to my wife before our engagement, I knew her for almost 8 years before our marriage. My parents did not know and we started receiving quite a lot of horoscopes and girls' pictures. Whatever feelings I had when I saw other girls' pictures, I made them into words and put them into Arun's mouth.

I would like to defend my heroine,Vidya. But any word I speak now would give away the suspense. But one thing I can surely say in her defence. So for we have seen Vidya mostly through Arun's eyes. We never had the opportunity to see her and talk to her directly. I only hope wish and pray that we will have an opportunity to do that. And if we do, I'll make my heroine answer her namesake. Deal?

For rash, ill-mannered guys expression is not a problem. They will simply barge in and proclaim their love over a loudspeaker. But not soft, timid, and a good-mannered guy like Arun.

Yes, Arun is in trouble. Otherwise why should he call Dr. Kamla at 11 in the night, which he has never done before? And insists that he should see her immediately. So Kamla rightly deduces that Arun is in some kind of trouble.
I can say it even more confidently because I just now finished writing the 7th episode.

thanks a lot, Vidya. I am now going back to the draft of 7th episode to ensure that meets up the expectations of my hero and my heroine.

As usual, I love reading your fb. Several times.
love,
sridhar

 

Oh, dear, dear Vaashini,
While I bow down to your love and affection in equating me with my character Arun, as a person who knows me very well, I am left with no option than to say, that there is more love than truth in your kind words.
thanks,
sridhar

 

Dear Sindhuja,
Never mind the delay. For me every fb is precious whether it is on time or delayed. Happy to know that your mom is visiting you. When I was in the US last year I wrote about the parents visiting their children settled in US.
I am giving below the link to my thread.
http://www.indusladies.com/forums/w...250-love-indian-grandparents-visiting-us.html
I know, Sindhuja, a loving person like you do not require guidance especially when your mom is visiting. But I am anxious to ensure that you or your mom do not miss out on anything.

I am very happy to know that you liked this episode especially Arun's approach to Ambuja and his feelings for Chari.
You are quite imaginative. Marimuthu giving news about Vidya to Arun.. well, honestly I never thought of that possibility.

Why did Arun call Kamla at that odd hour? Wait till Monday morning.
Thanks for the fb,
love,

 

Dear Mythili,
It was a double treat for me to read the nostalgic memories of your college days. Behind that carefree laughter or the heaviness that came later in life, you have a soft, kind, caring heart. I am moved by the concern you have for Arun. You are right about Arun's innocence.

In the past fifty years I have seen several lives. I have seen several people coming up and several people falling down. I have seen the so called "clever, street-smart, over-intelligent" people raising only up to a particular level. In many cases they fall from that height. But innocent people if they have a little wit come up to the top. Innocence is an evolution-favouring trait and the Universe and the ubiquitous Natural Selection process favours innocence (and not ignorance, of course). I definitely have this in mind as I am writing this serial story.

See how Life twists us and turns us. You belonged to a care-free teasing group of girls and now you are writing an emotional piece like Anna. On my farewell day, the one we had amongst our classmates, I was one of the very few who was not emotional. So all of them chose me to deliver the final speech on behalf of the students. As I finished my speech one student came and told me,'Sridhar you did not cry at all, but you made all of us cry."
From there after receiving several blows from life and more important than that, several Graces from Her, I have now become very emotional. You won't believe I was crying continuously when I was editing ALS 7.

I am looking forward to reading your letter.

These few lines speak volumes.
It's a blessing to know you.
love,
sridhar

 

Dear Mol,
thanks a lot for your kind words. To be appreciated by one's Mol is a blessing very few fathers enjoy. I am amongst those fortunate few.

Your psychological analysis is right. Once shunned the person develops an obsession, so magnificent and so disproportionate to the qualities of the object desired. In Rajni's Tamil movie Padaiyappa, Ramya Krishnan who falls in love with Rajni will be shunned by him. That leads to a life long obsession for her.
But the effects do vary mol. In a character like Ambuja it leads to vengeful action. But in a soft person like Arun at the worst it leads to a depression, which of course can be cured by love, in this case Kamla's motherly love.

There has been a divided opinion about Arun's reaction to Ambuja. Many have opposed Arun's seemingly unnecessary violence and harshness there. I am happy to see that you are with Arun on this.
Think it from the angle of a teenage boy in college. When someone proposes to him, he would be only flattered. A selfish man not in genuine love would keep the proposal in abeyance as a kind of back-up arrangement.
Love is not about commercial expediency. For Arun it was either Vidya or none. Any soft words to Ambuja would give false hopes to her and she may try again for his love.
That's why Arun chose the hard way. I am sure when Ambuja got married elsewhere and has children of her own she would think of Arun's gesture and would feel grateful to him. She might also feel guilty as she had done her part of harm to Arun.
Your concern about Arun not being vocal is very poetically expressed. Sensitive persons with soft hearts think so many times before they talk something, especially something as important as a love-proposal. For Arun the matter is much more complicated because on the one side there's his best friend Sundar, who is in love with Vidya. On the other side there's this girl, whose heart he cannot fathom. Every word he utters in this context will have a severe impact -on his best friend and the girl he is in love. Unable to find the right opportunity or probably the right words, he did not speak at all. Whether that was right or wrong, we'd know only much later.

Marimuthu, Naren and Sethuramalingam are nice, sincere and honest people. I want to populate my stories with characters like these.
Honestly, Mol, I am simply disgusted at the scale and intensity of dishonesty and debauchery that is being practised in the the world. Even two days back I was shocked to see an instance of shocking dishonesty in somebody. Not that I am Mother Theresa. But as a writer I have the duty to atleast preserve these old-fashioned values in my stories. Hence Dr.Kamla,Kumar, Marimuthu, Naren, Sethuramalingam, and above all Arun and Vidya.

It was so nice of you Mol to compare your reading of this story with your mom's reading of Ramayanam and Bhagavatham. Your moms reading of those holy texts has not gone waste. They have made you into the wonderful person you are.
Thanks for the fb, Mol.
love,
sridhar

 

My Dear GFs,
As the site would be shut down for Forum Upgrade, I will post ALS 7 by 9 AM on Monday Morning (instead of the usual 6 AM).
Please go through this announcement by Induslady.
http://www.indusladies.com/forums/a...ware-upgrade-site-unavailable.html#post395119

love,