HE - A Curtain Raiser!

Curtain raiser for HE - by Varalotti

Most Gracious Ladies and Gentlemen,

Writing SHE for you was a rewarding experience. Reading your responses to the story was even more so.

SHE was all about a woman. About how she is treated by her family, by her parents, by her colleagues, by her husband and by her lovers.

And now it’s high time that I balance SHE by a new serial HE.

HE is different in the sense that it centres around men. Two men. Poles apart. One is an industrialist rolling in crores and the other is an ordinary masseuse struggling to make his livelihood. Both are good. And in this world it is very rare that goodness goes unpunished. But to be punished so cruelly, so heartlessly…. What’s this, I have started telling the story…. Just erase these lines from your memory.

In as much SHE needed a host of men to accentuate and contrast her character, HE also requires a few women to demark the characters of two ‘HE’s but also to define the storyline.

I had issued a warning to the Moderators when I wrote the curtain raiser for SHE – that they should be vigilant as the story is inherently controversial. Well, it was almost touch and go for me. With live-in relationships and lesbianism, I had to take Herculean efforts not to get penalty points from our wonderful moderators. In some cases I had to send the episodes in advance for a kind of pre-censor.

But for HE, you, wonderful moderators, can sit back and relax. Forget your moderator’s post and start reading the story. But let me warn the general readers, that though you can also sit back and relax, many a time you will be forced to the tip of your seats. Of course it will not be rough like a ride on the roller-coaster close to 3G settings, but nor will it be a gentle breeze. It will be the flow of a violent river that gushes forth to its home with so much force that it might uproot the trees on its way. Of course the river also flows along the plains for a while when the flow will be calm and gentle.

‘What’s this HE all about, Varalotti?’ Many friends in IL have been asking me. I have to remind you of what I wrote in the curtain raiser for Beauty and the Brain,

“My pen and I belong to the class of hopelessly optimistic romantics and we team together only for raising temples for true love and love of the truth.”

Yes, it is a love story. But not the Formula story where a rich girl falls in love with a poor guy (or vice versa), the parents don the garb of the villains and there’s a nail biting climax and a ‘happily lived thereafter’ ending. HE is definitely about love. The deepest love. It is also about betrayal. The worst betrayal. And then it is finding the love once again. In a different place.

When it comes to love I always say that women are better than men. But this story might indicate that the fair sex excels the other sex in matters of betrayal too.

HE will walk into your lives from next Saturday onwards. Receive him into your homes and into your hearts. You may or may not like him. If you like him tell me so. If you do not like him, even if you hate him with all your heart, please tell me so in plain words. In either case please do not be indifferent towards him. I don’t know for sure whether HE will be able to bear the indifference. But the creator of HE cannot.

Have a great, safe and a happy Diwali.


Happy Reading, Once Again!

Hi sridhar,

Happy diwali. waiting for HE and your handling of he....

Dear Malathy,

Thanks a lot for announcing the serial and for posting the curtain raiser. After seeing the CR I have started to work furiously on the serial. Most of us writers have the bad habit of working on the serial only after we see the announcement. That way your announcement has been a major inspiration and instigation for me. Thanks once again for providing me a very nice setting for story-telling.

regards,

Most Gracious ILites,
HE will be my 5th serial in IL. All my earlier serials had one thing in common. They were different from each other.
One story was about ghosts and poltergeists. The other one was about a beautiful woman and an accountant. The third one was about an actor and the price he paid for his success. The last one was about a woman in search of her identity.HE will be different from all the other four.

HE would be about two men who went on a rough ride on the roller coaster called Destiny.

I got the plot ready while I was in the US. I am now working on organising the episodes and defining the story line.

This story will have many heros and heroines. I have also added a few villains for a good measure. Writing a story is more or less like inventing a new recipe. Like a good cook (CV and Mano will vouch for this statement) who will wait with bated breaths for the first reaction that is going to come from the person who has tasted the food , I am waiting with an increased heart-beat, to know your response.

SHE was a single straight story about a single woman. Where as HE is a mixture of many stories. To knit all the stories into one I am experimenting with a new concept in this serial. I will be using Timeline A and Timeline B (if necessary Timeline C, D etc) to show that the incidents narrated happened during different points in time.

You find it complicated? ('You men have the knack of complicating anything' - my women friends always tease me) Don't worry. Skip this and just read on. Everything will be clear in the end.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, allow me some time to do some final touches to HE, so that when he stands before you, (which will be either this Saturday or the next) you give him a place in your heart.

Happy Reading again,
sridhar

HI V,

Congrats on the starting of your new serial "HE" . I have been wanting to catch hold of your "SHE" since a very long time, but something or the other keeps cropping up and I am not able to browse through IL as actively as I used to earlier. Hopefully I should be actively involved in "HE". These days, in the society so predominantly dominated by females(yes! times certainly are changing), it is really good and refreshing to read the problems men are going through-- this is my guess as to the subject matter of HE.

Over the months, you have been enthralling and captivating the audience by your magnetism with words, I do know and believe that "HE" will only be an icing on the cake. All the best V, let this serial be as good if not more successful than all your previous serials/snippets.

I take this opportunity to wish all ILites a "VERY HAPPY DIWALI AND LOADS OF BEST WISHES"


Regards,
Purni

Hi Shanthi,
I think HE has had a very auspicious beginning. To be wished by a nice person like you is a good beginning.
Pray that should be blessed with enought strength and wisdom to deliver to your expectations.
Thanks for the kind wishes. Wish you and Veda a very happy Diwali.
regards,

Hi Purnima,

Thanks for the congratulatory post. Yes, I did miss your interaction in SHE. At one point the discussion was getting very hot, especially in Episode 11, where I was bold enough to talk about alternative lifestyles.

Unlike SHE which was mainly about the working of a woman's mind, HE will be a simple drama. I am not going to dwell deeply into a man's mind here. But of course we are going to see how the mind of two exemplary men work, under conditions of stress.

I was in the US for two months on a training assignment. During that period I wrote a serial Varalotti In The US. Just go through it and let me know how my perception of American life fares vis a vis yours.

Thanks for the kind wishes, Purnima. It will be my constant endeavour to deliver quality writing to this forum. I need your good wishes for that.

Wish you and yours a happy and a safe Diwali.

regards,

Hi Varalotti,

Excited to hear the announcement of a new serial from you! While 'She' was quite something onto herself, I am actually looking more ahead to HE. For one, it is more sensational these days to write about women and their etherical experiences. I personally feel that writing about men, that too, two- will be a totally different writing and reading journey. The timeline concept is appealing. I am especially glad to read in your reply to Purnima_2K that HE will be a simple story. Less in more, and it takes more thoughts, words and conviction to convey more with less.

Goodluck!

regards
V24

Dear Sridhar,
Surprised? Well, I am your good “old” (pun intended) friend, back again in your forum, after a breathing time for you from my FBs !

Can’t help saying, “HE” is irresistible for a woman at any age ! ( Oh, the advantages of a senior citizen !!). So I am ready, awaiting HIM !
I am casting aside my garb of a moderator when I read your serial & will just be your fan. That way, I need not force myself to the tip of my seat, but sit back, relax and enjoy your story. The other moderators are your greater fans and let them do the job, if at all.

Let me ask you one question – in our culture and tradition, SHE (the wife) comes behind a “HE” (the husband), rather supposed to come – I am correcting myself. But why this reversal? I know, the forum being a Ladies’ One, are you extra careful and decided to give us our due rightfully ? Great, Sridhar ! I like your sensitive nature !

I am already taking a strong objection to your line

But this story might indicate that the fair sex excels the other sex in matters of betrayal too.


Now, a woman, if driven to betrayal, must be having very valid and strong reasons for the same ! Well, let me not start my first round too early ! You might start wondering whether I should have come back here at all, in the first place.

Don’t worry. I am your foremost fan, but will be a critic as well – I know I can take that liberty because you have mentioned

If you do not like him, even if you hate him with all your heart, please tell me so in plain words.

I have decided not to be anymore indifferent to the creator of HE, but about HE – it is too early for me to say.

Good luck, Sridhar !

Love,
Chithra.

Hi Vidya,

I am afraid that I have raised your expectations about the new serial making my job even more difficult. While writing about women I had to go sit in a woman's mind (my wife complains, you can sit in any woman's mind and know about its workings. But you know next to nothing about my mind) and then write the serial.

Though SHE had a drama component, it was more of workings of a female mind. HE on the other hand is a drama straight away. And there will be no live-ins or same-sex relationships in this story.

I am happy that you liked the timeline concept. I had developed several knots for the story and the only way I can untie them was through this mechanism.

Thanks for the good wishes, Vidya. Pray for me.

regards,
sridhar