HE - Episode 6

Thanks Supriya. I have never seen someone posting a response so far. I happened to see your comment just after finishing my posting and editing.

I am happy you liked the story. River is an apt comparison. At times it can be smooth and at times it can be rough. It can be very narrow at times (like Aadu thaandum kaveri - so narrow that even a goat can jump from bank to bank) and it can be very wide (ahanda kaveri).

Now I have started worrying about HE 7. I have now learnt the art of worrying just about the next episode.

Thanks Supriya,
regards,

 

Hello Aruna,

I am both a CA and a writer. I know many CAs who don't have any time for any other activity. I met one such CA in a recent conference. He also asked the same question about my writing. I asked him about the time he spends before the television. He sheepishly admitted that it will be around 3 hours a day.

Well if you spend 3 hours a day in writing regularly then very soon you can create masterpieces like 'Of Human Bondage' (Maughm) Siddhartha (Hesse). But with the limited intellectual prowess I have I can do only something like HE.

Pretty early in life I learnt that "I don't have time for this" is just an euphemism for saying, "I am not interested in doing this." Actually it is your interests that creates the time for you. It is not the other way round. It is not the time that creates an interest for you.

For a moment I wanted to bask in your compliments - about my writing and my CA work. But I know working, young mothers who take care of their children, cook, do household work, go to office and added to that, also write in places like IL. Before such women my time-management is next to nothing.

While I don't just write about my experiences, I will have to certainly live all the roles to give weight to the persons and their dialogues. When I see or read about love or betrayal, I feel at least a small portion of the happiness or the pain. Maybe I used this episode to vent out some accumulated pain. I don't know.

What will Sharada get when she goes home? What will happen to the already dysfunctional relationship with her husband Balki? What role will Sethu play in her life?
Believe me I too have the same questions. Let's both wait together for the answers.

Thanks for the fb, Aruna.
regards,

 

Dear Vidya,

Thanks Vidya. I was not so sure of this timeline concept. Some ILs wanted to finish one timeline and then go to the other. But that way the charm of the story will be lost. Now your appreciating this genre is quite reassuring. Thanks.

As I have been telling for sometime, I no longer write the story. I just write the scenes. I write the screenplay. I visualise myself as a Director and in every scene I want to bring out the best from my characters. "Showing off pandithyam" is just an incidental by-product. I badly wanted to convey about the Azhwar's paasuram and I put myself in someone like Urmila Sathyanarayana who introduced each item during my niece's debut. I liked her non-intrusive language which I gave it to Sharada.

Though this serial is HE all my main characters are women and almost all of them are good and strong. (except of course characters like Mythili)

Thanks a lot Vidya,
regards,

 

Dear Sudha,

A writer gets the real thrill when someone appreciates those lines which he thought would capture the hearts of his readers. I got the real thrill reading your post.

I have got a lot of professional friends who always ask me, "What's the big use of reading books which are not related to our profession?" I tell them with a smile, nothing. Then I tell them that every person has to do something to earn his living. But more importantly he should do something which can be called as "living."

Living only to do the office work and reading only to help doing the office work is like having a car which is used only to go to the gas station for refuelling.

I know that many dancers undergo this dilemma in their lives sometime or other. That's why I advise many mothers not to put their daughters in dance. It's an all-consuming passion and if properly ignited at the right age, it can at times, consume the person herself.

About the Azhwar's song. I have been telling many dancers to focus on Nalayira Divya Prabhandam and Thiruvasagam where there is enormous scope to present the deepest emotions. I am afraid many dancers are scratching the surface when they confine themselves to items like "theeratha vilayattu pillai" or "chinnanchiru kiliye". They are no doubt good.

But when Kulasekara Azhwar says,

கண்டார் இகழ்வனவே காதலன் தான் செய்திடினும்
கொண்டானை அல்லால் அறியாக் குலமகள் போல்
விண்தோய் மதிள் புடைசூழ் வித்துவக்கோட்டம்மா நீ
கொண்டாளாயாகிலும் உன் குரைகழலே கூறுவனே

I thought there could not be a more wonderful opportunity for a good dancer to express herself.

We writers know the value of a character like Balki. First they provide the apt contrast so that I can show my Sethu and my Sharada in very good light. And two, they faciliate the movement of the story in a fast pace.

Thanks for the great fb, Sudha.

regards,

 

Dear Chithra,
Yes, already the entry of villain is quite delayed. If I had delayed any further then Varalotti, would have been made a villain. So with a sense of urgency I brought in the villain. Of course Mythili was doing her role.

Thousands and thousands of books have been written to explain "that". But looks like we have not captured even a millionth of what it means. So let's have some kind of a contest to explain what is "that". Whether it is an usual that, or an unusual that, as of now, no one knows as of now.

Thanks, Chithra. These are surely my views but not just on dancing but on any activity from which there is no apparent gain. Many people have questioned me, "why do you write?" If you take money, it is peanuts. What I got from Vikatan and Kumudam for stories like The Scar and The Promise was not even enough to cover the postage and printing expenses, let alone compensate for the time spent.
But certain activities in your life you will have to do just like that. Dancing, singing and writing come under this category. I can enjoy a good dance performance. But many of them are boring because they do the same numbers they did fifty years back. After a long time I enjoyed my niece's debut as her facial expressions were lively though I thought the teacher could have done better in the selection of songs.

Dancing has an important role in spiritual growth. When we dance, let's say in a party, we will have to shed our egos, our position, our age and our mind which we have accumulated all these years and merge in the activity. After a few minutes you don't know differentiate between the dancer and the dance. That is equivalent to the samadhi state in our Yoga Shastras.

Hopefully not. But even if you get one, you will still be in the jet. I have closed all the doors and none can get out to sleep out their jet lag. Howzzat?

Love,

 

I Lost!

Yes, Most Gracious ILites, that's the name of the thread I just now posted in my Wednesdays Forum.

Here's the link for the thread.
http://www.indusladies.com/forums/wednesdays-with-varalotti/17635-i-lost.html#post194396

IL is a family. At times it offers hands to shake on, when you achieve something. And as a family it also offers shoulders to cry on, when you lose something.

What did I lose? Go to that thread and let me have your views.

Love,
sridhar

 

Dear Kamla,

After getting to know the result of a short story competition I entered and lost (Please see the post I Lost in Wednesdays Forum) to read your fb for the nth time is quite soothing to the heart.

The idea of having two time lines is to make the reader genuinely interested in both separately and at the climax scene, merge the interests into one. (How I am going to do that... ILites, please open a prayer thread for Varalotti)

Kamla, actually one syndrome that has afflicted us is that we look for Gurus in "proper form". We look for them in Asrams, temples, in the houses of high priests and invariably get cheated with the bogus ones. The real gurus are actually working. They might be serving as masseurs, they might deliver your pizzas, or repair your taps or be running a garage or just flying a plane. And if we can remove the mindset of a guru form, we will be soon blessed to see a real guru right in our vicinity. There may not just be one, but many of them.

For a woman the decision to marry is always a very complex decision. Especially if she is beautiful, talented, rich and famous.... each attribute complicates the decision a thousand fold. I read some touching short stories by women writers residing in the USA where they have described the plight of talented woman imprisoned by their domestic responsibilities.

But honestly when I married, I was not a good man either. I did not want a a famous wife. I did not even want a working woman. May be with the maturity I have now (I am touching 50 in the next four months) I can handle such a relationshiop. Back then when I was 26 I could not have done that. While women might see my action as chauvinistic, I pat myself on my back, for I refused to bite what I could not chew.

Life goes on. HE 7 is in the making and you can now start brooding over the Madhavan Priya couple.

Thanks for the fb.
Love,
sridhar