HE - Episode 8

Hello Aruna,
Many dancers and musicians face such a situation.
This happened some 20, 30 years back. There was a lady who was a good singer. Her husband was a good for nothing rich fellow who was jealous of his wife.
Once she was singing in a concert. There came a moment during the performance that the mridangam artist perfectly co-ordinated with the singer. When such things happen, normally the singer and mridangist will smile at each other. It's a beautiful tradition followed even now. This lady smiled at him. The husband went on to the stage and slapped at her in publich, in view of a few hundred people who had come to the performance that day.

Aruna, I am happy, that though you are a little tensed up with the developments, you enjoyed the episode.
Thanks for the fb.
regards,

Dear varalotti ,<?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p>
I ‘m writing this more as a fan of urs than as ur wife ! Depicting villainous characters in a clear –cut manner -the author being a perfect gentleman –is a difficult thing to do , I know .But U ‘ve done it nicely : <o:p></o:p>

”Balki had a unique mind, something which could not be replicated even by the world’s most sophisticated computer system. When he thought of something good, then only 10% of his brain would be working and that too on a single track. But if he is engaged in something malicious, almost 80% of his brain will be working and that too on multiple tracks.”<o:p></o:p>
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"Nalini knew the pain in Sethu’s mind. She looked at him with affection."- 


What would have been the flashback in Sethu’s life ??? – Pl. break the suspense – I just can’t wait , varalotti ……

"While dancing I am in communion with God. While standing in His temple I feel that I am away from him.”

- simple , profound & thoughtful statement by Sharadha ! Very true ! I have experienced that sort of feeling while playing veena !

Now my comment as ur wife :
Ur bad luck , Sridhar - I did go through ur reply to kamla ( especially the lines u didn’t want to be noticed by me ) . Better u arrange for a tight security for ur safety – but I don’t think that would really help u ! ( nara...nara...nara...)
Bye ,
Indhu .
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Dear Chithra,

Thanks for the elaborate fb. As usual your post replies a line by line reply. Let me make an attempt at it.

We associate baby girls with dolls and baby boys with toy cars. You seem to have continued that association and have a great fascination for big cars – Skoda Octavia, Elantra……

I don't have a fascination for cars, let alone big cars. I love riding my bike rather than driving a car. But in a story like this I have to fit every one with an appropriate vehicle. Priya was driving a Verna (Rs.5 lakhs). Madhavan, a Benz (Rs. 30 plus lakhs) Elantra is about Rs.14 lakhs and Octavia Rs.12 lakhs. For stories happening 25 years ago, there used to be no problem. It was mostly an Ambassador or a fiat, or a generic "imported car". Ambassadors and fiats were contraptions we wrongly called as cars. But at this stage in life I am convinced that a 30 year old Ambassador and a brand new Accord - both are just tin-sheets each having a different kind of dent.

Next – inconsequential to you, though – I use a combination of ginger & cardamom only for Kerala payasams. Now, I will try making tea with both, a la Sharada style !
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Thanks. I never thought HE will become a source of recipe. But honestly if you want to have a cup of tea late in the night as a balm for headache, ginger and cardamom is the best combination.

For Balki’s statement
“Oh that guy was rubbing all over your body! Simply great! And you enjoyed his actions right? Marvellous. And were you wearing any dress….”<o:p></o:p>
I wish you had put the following words in Sharada’s mouth<o:p></o:p>
"Yes,Mr Sadist ! It is yes for both questions. Happy?”<o:p></o:p>
I now feel, it is hightime, women start paying back their spouses in the same coin !!<o:p></o:p>
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Well, having picturised my lovely heroine as soft and gentle, I let her sleep over the insult and then give it back to Balki the next morning. I wanted to write more on that, but being mortally afraid of infractions, I had to stop with that.

With the following words <o:p></o:p>
It was not a state of mindless trance, which an ordinary pschedelic drug could induce. It was a state of mindful bliss happening simultaneously in two souls fusing them into one. It was caused by the world’s most powerful drug, love, a drug for which there are still no known antidotes.
do you imply that Sethu is also falling in love with Sharada?<o:p></o:p>
If so, Sethu’s image is slightly “crashing” in my mind.<o:p></o:p>
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Do you think, Sethu should be immune to love? Will it not be a little too harsh on my gentle hero, that for the sake of protecting his image, he should not fall in love? I would have to rephrase that expression. Sethu is not "falling" in love. He is raising in it. Again, this love is not a deliberate decision of his; at a point of time he is simply overwhelmed by it. At this stage it might be too early for him to profess his love. But it is never too early in life to feel "love" for somebody, wherever that somebody is.

Well, Sridhar, you have subtly introduced ( very aptly too!) Karmayoga with your statement<o:p></o:p>
“Then it hit the student that there are no superior activities like meditation or prayer and there are no inferior activities like eating, sex and selling meat. At that very moment the student became enlightened.”
I will ask your help for suitable examples when I write my Gita posts.

Thanks for your compliments. But wait... me... giving examples for Gita posts....do you really mean the posts on Bhagavad Gita or does it refer to somebody named as Gita?
If it is for Bhagavad Gita, my supplying examples will be like asking Actress Nameetha to dance for the classic song, Mannavan Vandhanadi in Thiruvarutchelvar.

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Well, the story is taking an interesting, but somewhat anticipated trend.<o:p></o:p>

I am a little confused here. The combination of the words "interesting" and "anticipated" in the same sentence sounds oxymoronic to me. If it can be anticipated, it can't be interesting.

Well I have to confess that I cannot make the story completely unpredictable. It has to have some twists, some unexpected twists, no doubt. But it has also to conform to some overall pattern. I find this in most of the Jeffrey Archer's stories as well as Sydney Sheldon's.
Honestly I am shivering at the prospect of connecting the two timelines which I have to do sometime or the other.

Thanks for openly acknowledging that you needed my friend behind you for a “flawless” post ! You, Sridhar, are a Real Man !

That's the least I owe to your friend.

Loves,

hi sridhar,

nice nail baiting timelines...looks like you want people of IL to next have a discussion on what will happen to the protagonists in both the timelines...in the lines of people discussing mega serials in temples/supermarkets etc...(have i planted an idea in your mind??).

I love and appreciate cars...so now i am thinking in terms of what car will be allotted to whom..aka..what car will be allotted to nalini, sethu.if they drive a car.....(an afterthought, the car could have reflected their personality.....than their status)

Anyway there is a story behind sethu, any day we are going to witness the narration to sharadha by nalini....

Balki, when introduced, i understood the plane in which this story is taking a twist, as I have read about these things happening in the music/dance world...and also there is this famous violinist who had to face the same tune...not in the public but almost...as the singer.

Stooping to detectives,is very common nowadays...and have you heard about their exorbitant fees....and the areas in which their services are offered..read about it in a article..

Next time, when you make tea, add 2 sprigs of tulasi to the same thing and have it with honey. very healthy..it is better when you are going to sleep....

technology can never capture god's creation in exact....(referring to your fb).

The vibes between both sethu and sharada has started looking mutual...

Liked the zen story and your reference to this..

Great going........

Dear Vidya,

Thanks Vidya. To get a note of approval and a word of praise from one's own moderator is a real blessing. Thanks.

It is sad that art is always forced to exist in circumstances where it is not appreciated or encouraged.

That is true. I have been watching many of our lyricists. When they are poor, when their poverty sort of suppress their talents, they tend to write very well. When they become famous and lead a comfortable life, their words do not have any "life."

Any other husband in Balki's place would have been ecstatic in having a women like Sharada- a beautiful woman, dancer and soul- as his wife.

Yes, Balki was at one time quite ecstatic about that. But that was only as an external symbol. Evil doesn't relish so much of goodness so near.

At times, couples can have an intensely romantic and spiritual relationship just thru simple conversations. A couple reaches sublimity when they can share silences, when their silences communicate.

This is true both in the realm of love and in the spiritual realm. In fact one scripture defines Guru as one person in whose presence your mind gets automatically silenced. It says no other trait is sufficient enough to describe a guru.

I hope Sharada and Sethu get what they are looking for. As usual, the plot reveals itself gently, the narration is smooth and chic. Great piece of writing!

Thanks again.

And it was sweet of Indhu to read and point out the typos. And sweet of you to have acknowledged your editor in public giving her due credit.

Thats the minimum I owe her. Because she got up early in the morning, waited till I posted the episode and while I had gone out for my morning game, had listed all the typos on a piece of paper.

Must add one thing. Usually when reading one timeline, I am conscious of the other timeline in the background. This time however, I was totally absorbed in this episode, in this time line. If I may call it a 'time-wrap'. That shows your maturity as a writer. Good!

Thanks. But Vidya, you need to shift to the other timeline now. And statemments like these make me shudder how I am going to link the timelines without disappointing discerning readers like you.


regards,

Hi Madam,
You are quite unique, Malspie. You have focussed on one character who, I thought many would miss, or at least would not consider it worty to mention in the fb.
That single photograph might change the storyline dramatically. Let's wait and see.
Thanks for the fb.
Have a great celeberation at Goa. Do take care.
regards,

Dear Malathi,
Thanks. I am happy that you enjoyed those points in the episode which I simply loved to write.
During the period 1985 to 1993 I had professional work in Chennai and used to go around the city in a Rajdoot Motorcycle. I used to cover something like 100 kms every day. That gave me some idea. But Chennai right now is totally different.
For instance in those days OMR used to be totally deserted. We used to visit a factory in Kandhan Chavadi. If you are stuck there during lunch time, you are done. Starvation was the only alternative. But now OMR looks like a Californian suburb.
Thanks, Malathi.
regards,

Dear Varloo,
Since we have lifted ourselves off the ground, we need to travel faster now. We are now cruising at a height of 40000 ft. Let's see where the flight, I mean, the story takes us now.
A photographer with an evil intention can do much more damage with a single photograph, than a good one with many. Let's wait to see what happens. Meanwhile we'll have to see what mess Madhavan is in.

regards,

Dear Indhu,
Now comes the most difficult part of my work. Replying to your post. You gave me jitters in the way you addressed me. "Dear Varalotti" instead of the usual, "Dear Sridhar." I knew something was coming.

I ‘m writing this more as a fan of urs than as ur wife ! Depicting villainous characters in a clear –cut manner -the author being a perfect gentleman –is a difficult thing to do , I know .But U ‘ve done it nicely : <o:p></o:p>

That's a great compliment whether you gave it to me as a fan or a wife or whatever. Madam, I seek your permission to use your own words when we have some arguments, especially the matters concerning "tight security" described towards the end of your post.

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What would have been the flashback in Sethu’s life ??? – Pl. break the suspense – I just can’t wait , varalotti ……

There are things you have to wait. And if I tell that now, the story will lose its interest. (The real fact is that I myself am not clear.

- simple , profound & thoughtful statement by Sharadha ! Very true ! I have experienced that sort of feeling while playing on veena !

If you say so, I think it is long since you have had communion with God. For it is aeons since you last played Veena.

Now my comment as ur wife :
Ur bad luck , Sridhar - I did go through ur reply to kamla ( especially the lines u didn’t want to be noticed by me ) . Better u arrange for a tight security for ur safety – but I don’t think that would really help u ! ( nara...nara...nara...)
Urs ,
Indhu .
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I knew that I have to face the music sometime or other. Ok, now the question is, nara nara apart, the ranting smiley apart, don't you think the statement I made is true? If you say it is not true, then next time when we go out together you should not shout at/beat me....(well, let's stop at this. Let's not mar the decorum of the forum by bringing our infighting here)

Thanks for the fb, anyway.
Love,

Dear Sridhar,

Just now sipping my hot cuppa laced with ginger and cardamom ( its my favorite combo to add to tea, and i always take it this way anytime of the day!).

Gosh, the two episodes are just racing ( and really I think i need to make a visit to the beauty shop to buy a wig now!!) .

I think i am more partial to the S and S timeline than the Priya Madan one. Am still waiting to read the oh so sad flashback in Sethu's life. Now please don't keep us waiting. Is it possible to do that next week itself??


Vandhana