21st Century Life

Chapter Five

'Today is a good day to begin writing my story,' I told myself as I sat before my laptop, all ready to get into it. The day has just begun, the sun is up and about, the room is flooded with bright sunlight and everything feels just perfect. I spent the last evening coming up with a plan. Anything would have helped. A plot, a structure, an idea, but it wasn't as easy as I hoped for. Nevertheless, I have an idea and I am determined to go for it.

I paused for a second just as a thought ran through my head, looking at the laptop screen for a few seconds, I quickly shut down my laptop and set it aside. The first rule for any writer to follow, no distractions. For me, laptops were the source of distraction. I quickly scurried around my room, finding whatever I could to write on. I finally ended up with the book that I used two days back. The page with the word 'goals' was still in it. Without a second thought, I ripped it out and threw it into the dustbin.

I slammed the book onto the desk and prepared myself to write the story. It had been over two months since I wrote with a pen and I hoped that I still remember how to. The pen was ready to lay down the words. 'What shall we call the story,' I wondered. 'Story, just story. Will that do any justice?' It doesn't matter at this moment and I am going ahead with it anyway. The title is only a name, the content is the king.

Up until this day, I had written quite a few stories but they were always a fully developed concept before I had gone ahead and written them. But now I had to do it on the fly. This was the first time I had found myself putting effort to come up with something. However, those stories taught me something. Any story, no matter what, had certain rules to them. Create and define these rules and see your story blossom into something beautiful. For the most part, I ignored them in the past, but it was time to pay my dues and actually use them.

The story is quite simple, for the most part, it is just two people talking about a movie. There is no plot or anything to it. Whether that is a good idea or not, I am about to find out. I know how the scene played it. It had been etched into my memory, but it isn't as simple as turning them into words. I am not writing a scene, a memory from the past, I am writing a story. It needs character, proper dialogue, background, and setting.

I shut my eyes and relaxed a bit, going back into the past might help get some ideas. More than that it is a fond memory of mine. I can definitely say is the first time I found a true friend and that is something hard to come by these days.

We were almost ready to graduate high school and that is a place we both were keen on leaving as soon as we could. Life had not been kind to us back them, rather I should say, our class wasn't so kind to us. In less than three weeks, we became outcasts, but that is a story for another day. It was a good thing in a way, it is because of them, we became friends and to this day, I haven't met a single person from that school and I am glad that I haven't.

There was one more thing that helped strengthen the friendship, I liked to tell stories and she liked to listen to them. I found out that she was a fan of an actor and luckily for me, I knew who he was. In fact, I really liked the movie. Back then all my stories were fanfictions. It turns out, trying to rewrite stories we love brings us joy. Perhaps that is why these memories put a smile on that face every time I think about them.

'The stranger from nowhere', the story of an assassin on the run after a foiled murder finds himself in the victim's home, posing as the victim. It had a typical family-friendly flavor to it but used a few narrative tricks to enhance the story. Meanwhile, my story is about a spy who is on the run after a failed assassination and finds himself back in his home as the long lost son. See the difference? This is a completely different story.

'This is the same movie,' Kaashi said.

'Yes. But the devil is in the detail,' I replied calmly.

The rest of the class had scattered for lunch but the two of us decided to have lunch in the class. It is unnecessary to walk down to the cafeteria if we bought our own lunch. The others who were left behind didn't pay any attention to us.

'Go on,' she said as she popped a cucumber piece into her mouth.

'Alright,' I said and spent the next half an hour retelling the story.

'Oh my god! It is really nice!' she exclaimed, 'I mean it is essentially the same thing.'

'See! What did I tell you?'

'You know what?' she said slamming her hand onto the desk, 'let us make this into a movie, in a different language.'

'Yes!' I remarked, 'we can call it as an unofficial remake. I can direct it!'

'And I can act in it,' she said in excitement. But suddenly her enthusiasm dropped like a dead bird, 'hold on who the heroine in this movie?'

There was no heroine of importance in the story.

'Also,' she continued, 'if we make this movie in a different language, my hero won't be able to act... you know what plan dropped,' she finished concluding her dilemma.

I quietly rolled my eyes.

Such discussion always bought a smile to my face, it made us feel like we doing something productive. But lately, our creative minds have been a slog. After a dry spell, it quite hard to get back on our feet. It is like trying to restart an engine that has been sitting in the garage for a year. It is going to take some effort, but with my plan, I hope I will be able to get back up on my feet again.

Alright, where do we begin? Characters. They are the most important part of my story. There is Kaashi and there is me. Our names have to be changed of course, but what will they be?

I looked to the left whereupon a novel caught my eyes. Kaashi had left it. Suddenly a bright idea popped in my head. I can use a name from this book! I picked up the book and immediately went into the middle of the pages, there I found a name, Srikar. What kind of name is that? It will do. However, it needs to be a little different. I know, I will do what every good author does, stretch it. Now it becomes, Shreekhar. Kaashi is up next. This isn't too hard, she already gave herself a name before, Manushree. No wait, too similar. How about, Manusri? That should do.

Alright, characters have been made. Next up, the actual story. But wait. What is this story going to be about? What is it trying to tell? The whole idea is based on an afternoon conversation, should I keep it that way? A simple conversation between two friends? But there is no substance to that. Fantastic. Another roadblock.

The idea is based on a conversation between two friends but it doesn't have to stay that way. In fact, it could be anything. Maybe one is trying to pitch a story to the other. Maybe he is trying to con her. But then what is he going to do next?

I stopped thinking for a second and shut my eyes again, 'there has to be something I can do,' I told myself. 'Time travel?' the thought suddenly popped up in my head. Maybe he tries to pitch the same story several different ways to the same person. That would be the worst application of time travel though. But it doesn't have to be time travel. In fact, it doesn't have to be anything special. The idea of trying to pitch a story is interesting enough. Maybe Shreekhar is on the line, this is the last chance and he must impress Manusri with his story.

'Things finally feel like they are going forward,' I told myself as picked up my pen to write. I didn't realize I was smiling as began to jot down my thoughts.