The Beauty And The Brain - Episode 5 - Serial With Weekly Episodes

There Was a Need For An Early Reply!

Most Gracious ILites,
To be honest with you I was afraid of the success of this episode as it describes the life of an accountant. You know accountants are boring, 9 to 5, single-track mind people wearing grey suits and are frighteningly conservative. Conservatism is an accounting convention, mind it!
But I am happy at the wonderful response you have give me.
There was one factor which worried me, though! Most of you have not fully come out of the haunted house, yet. Many of you have exclaimed in this forum and through private mails, "When will Sethu and Sharada meet?"
My dears, Sharada was the heroine in the Haunted House. In this serial Swetha is the heroine. So there is no point in Sethu meeting Sharada. Sharada plays a supportive role to the heroine.
I attempted to correct the draft of the 6th episode 3 times. And 3 times I had to just leave the desk crying unable to finish the job. I had to pray God to harden my mind to do the editing. Hopefully I shall do it before this Saturday.
This time your reviews were fine, but your 'views' (I mean the number of views) were not. May be you are busy with your children's exam, your vacation or something else. If it has to do with my mode of writing please keep me informed.
Thanks for the support,
your
Varalotti

 

Replying Vidya is replying all!

Dear ILites,
Of all the responses I have received Vidya's is very fair, comprehensive and truly representative. And as she does not carry any jetlag from a previous flight, her response is free of any prejudice as well.
First things, first, Vidya. There's no need to be scared of reviewing. The moment one offers his/her work in a foum like IL, he or she accepts the fact that there will be a review, one way or other. And I am neither Rajnikant nor Bin laden to have fans or fanatics to frighten the reviewers. So go ahead and have your say.

And this baby of mine looks forward to receiving not only hugs and kisses but occasional spanking too. What the baby detests is total indifference which is worse than even a scathing review.
About E4 we have had enough discussion. So other than drawing your attention to the comprehensive reply I had given, I don't have anything to say on this except this: If E4 will make a seaman and his wife blush, some of the jokes in the humour thread, the mean men jokes thread will even make a pornographic actress blush in shame. I have been watching the other threads too and had an idea of general level of prudery prevalent in IL before I designed E4. E4 is about Bollywood and I wanted it to be a little realistic.
E5 is just an episode of a serial containing about 10 or 12 parts. With a little more time and patience, you can find out for yourselves that it is tightly linked to the other episodes. Starting an independent story and then connecting it into the main story is a story telling technique at least as old as Ramayana or Mahabharatha. And E4 ends with a reference to the person whose life is described in E5. E6 and probably E7 will establish the links.

If I finish the serial without connecting E5 to the rest of the story then and then only can we say that E5 is jutting out as an odd man. To say now that E5 is odd is equivalent to looking at the flowers which are being woven into a garland and saying that the flower is jutting out.

Please be assured Vidhya, the story, (or for that matter any story of mine) is and will be strictly going my way. I'll take all the suggestions, remarks and reviews and if I feel comfortable then I will assimlate them and make them part of my way.
Like Haunted House I have the outline of all the future episodes ready with me. Only when an apparent error or inconsistency is pointed out will I make any change in the outline. Otherwise the story will walk my way. After all it's my baby.
If the story goes on the way most of the readers think then they might say 'I knew it long back' and if it goes on the other direction then they might say, 'The story is not as good as I exptected it to be.' In either case I am struck. So I listen to my readers but not too much. I have been writing for so long that I know one thing for sure, the story has to take shape independently in my mind. I can make adjustments for the inconsistencies or errors pointed out by my readers/reviewers.
To use a simile I use my own make-up-materials to beautify the face of my heroine, in this case my story. The readers and/or reviewers can remove the extra powder a bit or straighten the bindi or remove the fudging of the mascara but I don't allow them to use their materials on my heroine.

And finally a small question. Rakesh Khan. You know the famous hindi dancer, Helen. She is Helen Khan. Helen is a christian and her husband is a muslim. In this case Rakesh's mother is a Hindu and his father a Muslim. So Rakesh retains the first name given by his mother and the surname from his father. This is the least of the oddities in Bollywood.

Vidya, I owe a debt of gratitude to you. Your post made me to go for a mid-week introspection. This will have an effect on future episodes as well.
And I would like to receive the same kind of impartial review (fearless of frowns and careless of smiles ) from your side week after week.
regards,
Varalotti

 

A Stinging Criticism, Sharada

Dear Sharada,
Your criticism is stinging, as you have called me a popular driver, literally at the end of the episode in which the driver falls asleep and is responsible for a disaster. Just kidding, ha ha ha..
Jokes apart this driver prefers argumentative passengers to dull passengers who will make the driver sleep and then land every one in trouble. (if at all they land)
Many people find accountants dull. One of my young clients said this: The only thing that is more boring than talking to an accountant is listening to his talk. And many of us accountants have greatly lived up to that reputation.
Unfortunately balance sheets and profit and loss accounts do not carry any sex appeal. Nor are accounting ratios and tax chalans romantic,or our books of accounts, creative. (Creative Accounting is considered unprofessional, immoral and illegal)

Another thing. I do not deny the importance of your namesake in the story. She is the prime mover in many episodes starting from the second episode onwards. She has a great role to play. But my fear is that, many people suffering from a hangover from the previous serial mistook Sharada for Sethu's lover. That was a jarring note for me and an indirect admonition to me to choose different names.
But like my Accountant I am stuck with a few names and I could not emotionally relate to other names so easily.
Let me repeat. Sethu is the hero of the story. Swetha is the heroine. Sharada plays the supporting role.
Let me set the record straight so that if any Oscars are to be given for the characters let there not be any confusion in the categories. ha ha ha
Varalotti

 

I am in a fix now!

Dear All,

Thanks Vidhukumar and Usha for the nice words. Usha, you reserve your opinion about who's beauty and who's brain till the last episode. In spite of the proliferation of movies, I am happy to see that most of you are able to relate to an ordinary accountant's life than the dazzling life of a movie-star. That only shows that all of you still have your compassion and empathy intact.

Now, ladies, I am in a fix. Having described about the accident I could not bring myself to edit the next episode. Several times I abandoned my efforts. I got the rough draft ready. But even to read once through the draft requires the heart of steel, which is something which I profess to have but I don't.
Vidya, please don't consider this as a hype. It's real.
So let all of us pray that 6th episode comes on time on Saturday.

regards,
Varalotti

 

Feel Like A Student Awaiting Exam Results!

Dear ILites,
Just posted the 6th episode. Have butterflies and dragonflies in my stomach. Feel like a student who has written a tough exam and anxiously awaiting the results from strict valuers.

Varalotti