Circa 1998:
“Ram and Abu were flying kite in Kutch near the India-Pakistan border. Suddenly a gush of wind snapped the string and the kite fell on the other side of the fence”
This is how a story I had started to write when I was in 5th (maybe 6th) grade began. Unfortunately this is the only 2 sentences this story ever had.
Mind you, it was an period of my life when I had the misgivings of being very imaginative and creative and thought that I had a flair for writing stories and poems. I still have a diary full of my literary works at home. Infact, I was pretty good for a kid of that age (given that I have to confess that I have done grave injustice to the literary world by not letting that side of me to flourish ;)
So, just as I had finished writing this much, I noticed my brother peeping over my head. Before I could act, he snatched the piece of paper from me and started laughing incessantly.
"Amaam, India-Pakistan borderle alluva pattam paratha viduva! Onakku geography ethavathu theriyuma, manda" (Yeah, they let you fly kite in the border! Do you know anything about geography, u fool).
I have to accept that at that age, I didn’t know much about the topography of Ind-Pak border nor about the accessibility and hence I had to believe what my elder brother was saying.
I agree that at the time of drafting, the only basic idea I had was that the two kids try to get to the Pak side of the border to retrieve the kite and are spotted by the army and are thus trapped there. But having been ridiculed for the basic premise on which I was hoping to waive the story, I didn’t have much to proceed and hence I dropped that story there.
Circa 2004:
An Indian movie by the name Little Terrorist gets nominated for Oscars as the best short film. I was surprised to find that the premise of the movie bore an uncanny resemble to the above mentioned.
Well, I am not saying that my story would have developed exactly into this one. Nor I had any clue how to proceed with it. But just the fact that I could imagine a plot similar to an Oscar nominated film, at an age when I hardly knew how to ride a cycle, was quite self astonishing. At the same time I was pissed at my brother for nipping the confidence of a budding author (or maybe even a probable Oscar winner ;)
And the first thing I did was send my brother the synopses of the movie. And his response was "ethu pole oru kathai nee pandu ezuthallaya?" (didnt you write some story like this long time back?) which only aggravated my anquish.
To this day I haven’t forgiven him.
AVS
(Anyone is wondering if the title has any relevance to the plot, it is in reference to the namesake movie implying how India would have got an Oscar nomination had I completed that story then :P)
“Ram and Abu were flying kite in Kutch near the India-Pakistan border. Suddenly a gush of wind snapped the string and the kite fell on the other side of the fence”
This is how a story I had started to write when I was in 5th (maybe 6th) grade began. Unfortunately this is the only 2 sentences this story ever had.
Mind you, it was an period of my life when I had the misgivings of being very imaginative and creative and thought that I had a flair for writing stories and poems. I still have a diary full of my literary works at home. Infact, I was pretty good for a kid of that age (given that I have to confess that I have done grave injustice to the literary world by not letting that side of me to flourish ;)
So, just as I had finished writing this much, I noticed my brother peeping over my head. Before I could act, he snatched the piece of paper from me and started laughing incessantly.
"Amaam, India-Pakistan borderle alluva pattam paratha viduva! Onakku geography ethavathu theriyuma, manda" (Yeah, they let you fly kite in the border! Do you know anything about geography, u fool).
I have to accept that at that age, I didn’t know much about the topography of Ind-Pak border nor about the accessibility and hence I had to believe what my elder brother was saying.
I agree that at the time of drafting, the only basic idea I had was that the two kids try to get to the Pak side of the border to retrieve the kite and are spotted by the army and are thus trapped there. But having been ridiculed for the basic premise on which I was hoping to waive the story, I didn’t have much to proceed and hence I dropped that story there.
Circa 2004:
An Indian movie by the name Little Terrorist gets nominated for Oscars as the best short film. I was surprised to find that the premise of the movie bore an uncanny resemble to the above mentioned.
Well, I am not saying that my story would have developed exactly into this one. Nor I had any clue how to proceed with it. But just the fact that I could imagine a plot similar to an Oscar nominated film, at an age when I hardly knew how to ride a cycle, was quite self astonishing. At the same time I was pissed at my brother for nipping the confidence of a budding author (or maybe even a probable Oscar winner ;)
And the first thing I did was send my brother the synopses of the movie. And his response was "ethu pole oru kathai nee pandu ezuthallaya?" (didnt you write some story like this long time back?) which only aggravated my anquish.
To this day I haven’t forgiven him.
AVS
(Anyone is wondering if the title has any relevance to the plot, it is in reference to the namesake movie implying how India would have got an Oscar nomination had I completed that story then :P)
2 comments:
That is a pretty good start for a kid... You should've gone on to write the entire thing! If not for the Oscars, for yourself :P. It reminded me of Kite Runner for some reason, the book by Khaled Hosseini... that's a very well-acclaimed title too... So if not fothe Oscars, atleast for the literary acclaim. Don't hold back now. Go on.. WRITE :)
i think i have lost it....education has indeed spoiled me :P
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