I have been making stories from the time I have remembered thinking. Stories to escape a punishment, a beating at home or just to escape work. Not all stories were successful but some were. So after two years of bloging, I write my first fiction and then another and then another.This is a look at memory lane, trying to remind myself why in the first place I wrote all that.
Most of these stories are just voices in the head of a daydreamer.
- The First Day : My first attempt to write fiction. A colleague of mine, twice my age retired from his job. I had worked with him for 2 years. His last years were extremely frustrating as he was sidelined and extremely unhappy in his job. On his last day, we had a big talk about what he was going to do after retirement. The whole account was from his point of view. He was indeed going to another colleague’s marriage. Incidentally both of them were starting a new chapter in their life, one was after retirement and the other with his marriage.
- Highway A1 : Last year I visited CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. We started around 2 in the morning so that we could be there at the start of the day. CeBIT is a biggest IT exhibition in the world and a day is certainly not enough to see the whole day. This story came from Vijay during our journey in the car. Even with 5 more people in the car, even with bright lights on the road, I felt the shivers. Its supposedly true but I guess it’s a legend kind of thing. Everybody knows someone who know someone who knows someone who has experienced this. My first attempt in horror.
- She Can See : A story formed by collection of incidents heard from friends while chatting on late nights.
- Papa Jaldi Aa Jaana : My Father worked in shifts. When my dad used to work in the second shift, my brother and I use to ask my mother when he would come back? My mother would explain to us and then she would sing this song which has always been engraved in my mind. The song is the title of the story. The story is dedicated to my father. Anybody can tell that waiting for a loved one when the person is delayed is the most grueling moments of all.
- The Attack : This story was based on somewhat of a personal account. My Father died due to a heart stroke. Since that, even a small pain in the heart makes me nervous. Apprehension over some incident caused me a lot of anxiety. I spent a sleepless night over something I don’t remember now. The story is a description of the night.
- Rain : This is a story of “What if?”. Sometimes you yearn for a lot of things in life, some of them you have missed something or someone. What if this things/people come back?
- I hate you : This story is based on a conversation I had with a friend. After I told her one of my worst ‘PJ’ she got frustrated and said “I hate you” and I said “I Know!”. The concept was to tell the story as a dialog between two people with minimum explanation. I guess I succeeded to a large extent.
- Yaadein : Once She asked me “What would you do if I left you?” and I said “I would have to sing that song”. Although I haven’t sang the song yet, the story is a tribute to Indian movies where song form an integral part of the story-telling.
- Always the Bridesmaid…… : Men, especially boys have the uncanny ability to find love when there isn’t any. An innocently friendly gesture by a female friend can be interpreted as love by most of the men. There have been many instances including mine, when woman have said the dreaded word, “I never felt that way for you”. Most men experience it a lot, inspite having no problem with them. While still, most men would never speak out for the fear of the above words and ruining a good friendship. Should they take a risk? It is possible that these men may become good life-mates. Women are a mystery and men are clueless.
- Night Walk : This story was based on a conversation between Pranav and me when we thought of visiting a cemetery close to our house.
- The Fight : I went to a party where the DJ played soft romantic music. I saw couples dancing. Observing them, most of them were dancing in each other arms. Looking at them, I wondered did they come to the party in a good mood? What were they talking before coming there? The story is again a “What if”story.
- A Story Idea from Vi: The story idea was from Vi, a blogger friend. She started the story giving a very short outline of the characters. It was expected for us to go wild and complete the story. Looking at the story now, not bad, not bad at all.
- Road: My first attempt of writing a short story and when I say short i mean real short, less than a page. Inspired to write the story when someone said to me “I don’t take that road anymore because a construction is going on there”. I took the first part of the sentence and formed a story around it based on a litlle personal experience.
- Manners! : Normally we make judgements on the basis of the person’s appearance. So a demon in the stories always looks ugly and has horns, the good man is always handsome. The same may not be true in real life. The story is loosely based on a true incident and a Reader Digest survey about Mumbai being the Rudest city.
- After 3:00 AM: Inspired by me waking up at 3:00 AM for consecutively. I could not understand the reason but then thought for a story.
- Missed Call: The mobile phone makes us communicate instantly with others but it makes us jumpy when people do not pick up calls. Based loosely on an actual incident.
- Reflection: Inspired with the concept of “talking to myself”. The story has more to do with an imaginary friend we have in our childhood. Atleast I had one.
- The Report Card: The story is based loosely on a personal incident with lots of fiction thrown in.
- Touched – Touch can say a lot that mere words. A touch can make you feel warm and protected. The story is based on the feeling of touch or rather the absence of it.
- Push – Its was appraisal time and the one word from my Manager said, started me thinking even when the appraisal was going on. The word was “Push”. One needs to be pushed sometimes for the search of excellence. Tried weaving a story around the word “Push”. Had the start and end in mind. What I couldn’t get was the middle part. I would need to work on the middle more. Although I do not like to name my lead characters unless very necessary, the names have been borrowed from “Ahista Ahista”
- Monster – The story is based on a real life incident I saw in the metro. The child was crying for a long time. When the man entered the compartment, the child went silent after some time. I though it was fear of seeing a huge man like him but I could not see fear in the eyes of the child. The man had his back toward me hence could not see his expression but this is how I imagined the situation
- To Be… – Based on a friend’s comment to weave a story about a girl “who could never decide”. The story is built around the sentence.
- 5 Minutes – The story was written a year back. The idea was to link complete strangers by a single event. I could not publish it because I could not think of an ending. An alternate ending was the bus meets with an accident and everything ends but it would have been dramatic. The idea came from watching people early morning while going to office and trying to think what they were thinking.
- Past – I really do not remember what inspired the story but I have been trying to write the story for a long time. Sometimes the inspiration for a story is lost but the story isn’t. I was not sure if to make the story a happy or a sad one. I decided to go for the happy one. The last moment sad mood ruined everything. But then, going with both endings. You pick what you desire.
- Arrived – While making a recent trip to India, I spent a lot of my return journey at the airport and a lot of time checking flight timings on airports. Except running around trying to find my delayed flight, I did not have much to do. The above story is the first of the trilogy centering around one of the many status of the flight. I plan to write two more on the status of the flight. The only thing common in all the stories would be the Airplane. All those people you see on the airport and plane have their own story. This story just may be true for somebody.
- The Multiplex – The story is inspired by “City” multiplex. The multiplex is in Leidseplein and even though being a busy area is surprisingly empty many times. It has multiple floors. The stairways and the toilets are empty, especially during the late night shows. The noise of the water in the toilet gives it a scary feeling. An attempt in horror after a long time.
- Good Morning – Inspired by every morning before I get up. I have 2 Alarms configured so that I do not get late for office and every day cannot resist 2 minutes of extra sleep.
- Terrace – If I write about my weird dreams and my Nightmares, I would write more than 365 horror stories and each one would be original and weird. Thankfully I do not remember each and every dream. The above story was a nightmare I had few days back and a really bad one. The first part is exactly like my dream. The second part, I made up.
- Shadows – The most suitable place where you can think peacefully and on a very wide variety of topic is the toilet. It’s the “main aur meri tanhayee” kind of place where a number of thoughts crosses the mind. Many of my post have been inspired in the toilet. The story was inspired when I was fidgeting with the lights in the toilet. The only source of light in the darkness was the light coming from below the door.
- Sleepy – Loosely inspired by a dream told to me by a friend.
- Angry – Based on personal experience without the dream sequence and of course without the girl.
- Small Packages – Inspired by an article in Rediff. The article described a young girl living in rural Bihar who saw a train first time in her life because the small hamlet where she lived did not have a railway line. What we consider as normal can be a luxury for some.
- Nine Lives – Inspired by a Neighbor’s cat. The cat would sit on the Garden door when I worked in the garden during weekends. The cat would look at me with suspicion and would move very silently. And the cat does exist. The story with three alternate end.
- Beach – Loosly Based on Personal experiences. I had visited the beach in Haarlem, Netherlands and the visit triggered off some memories.
- Use and Throw – This story took me more than 2 years to write. I started writing it when I was not feeling quite good about myself. After writing four pages in one go, I realized that the story had become too long. The effort to reduce it did not work and it turned out to be more than 5 pages, the longest story I have written. Loosely based on a girl I knew!
- The Third House on the Right – Inspired while telling someone address to a house. The house was somewhat like “Third house on the right”. Also inspired by something my mother always says that “You are not important. Life will always go on without you”
- Breathe – Sometimes you feel suffocated, not for the air but also because of your emotions and then you need to breathe to feel alive. The story is based on a dream
- Survive – I like to talk to myself. In my head I design characters and let them talk to each other. Based on a stupid conversation I had with myself. Just wanted to see if I could make a story out of it. Pretty insane!
- The Talk – Inspired by an idea after I woke up from a dream in the middle of the night. The concept is same as the “Reflection” story. I call it a sequel to the story.
- The Letters – The story is inspired by a true incident few years back.
- The Mask – The tragedy of writing is you tend to be inspired by personal experience and that also makes it a wonderful experience. The shortest story written in one of the depressing moments of my life, the thin line between fiction and reality seem to have disappeared.
- The Forest – Loosely inspired from the small walk I had during my visit through Germany. The morning dew and the Black forest, its beautiful and scary. The story is about the scary part.
- Silence – Sometimes I feel like a middle man who sells somebody’s emotions and creates stories for others to enjoy. Unfortunately the emotions are completely mine. The story here is a part of memories that I would like to forget and then one day I would move on.
- Tough – The story is based on a true incident that happened many years back. I could not think of a better ending for this one. It took some time to write the ending and I think it was delayed a lot.
- The Palace – The story is very much based on a nightmare, I had few days back. I could remember most of the details of the dream. It still makes a good story.
- Backup – It is amazing how much data is stored in our computer. More of it is personal data rather than work-related data and each bit of information is associated with that moment, those memories. Inspired while taking a backup of my laptop.
- The Warrior – Loosely based on a dream and a conversation I had with myself. It is a continuation on the series of conversation I have with myself and started with “Reflection” and “The Talk“
- The Witness – The idea came to me when I was thinking about my Nikon D50 in the bus on the way to office. It was just an idea and my first attempt of writing a detective/thriller story. I could not build on the thriller part as it has been written/re-written over many days
- The Present – The story was based on a true incident that happened some years back. Again a story very much inspired by personal experience.
- Delayed – I got the idea while dozing of in the company bus while commuting to office. I don’t know why. The story is a part of trilogy which I was supposed to write long back and which started with “Arrived“. Although it does not have the plane as the central character but it does act as a trigger to the events. Also this is my 51st fiction. It was supposed to be my 50th story and 650th Post. I miscalculated somewhere.
- Bedtime Story – The last few days have been very busy. Work is clouding my mind so much that I have dreams about working in office. Based on the idea as what gave me good sleep in my childhood. My mother would sometimes tell us stories before sleep.
- Jungle – Inspired from a trek to National Park. A pile of stones were found on the mountain there. Still not sure what the stones were doing there. It took me a while to write the story.
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