Hello everyone, I am getting back to writing after a very long time (my first & only post here was in 2008!!!) and thought that in this post I ought to re-introduce my amatuer interest in writing to all by giving a brief walkthrough of my short journey as an amatuer writer :-).
Reading & Elocution were always my hobbies from my young days, they became the base for my interest in writing. I first got introduced to writing in my school, we had a school magazine (Dehiscence - if I remeber correctly) and I had the privilege of being on its editorial board for two consecutive years. That was the first time I had written some articles of which two were published in the magazine, one was a Hindi Poem on soldiers & the second was a English article on the entry of educated minds in the world of crime, both recieved good response from our teacher who was heading the editorial team as well as my fellow members on the editorial team.Following this I didn't write anything for a long time till the great social networking revolution called "Orkut", I started participating in discussions on the communities on various topics; this caught real steam when I got involved in the Anti-Reservation Protests of 2006; I was just out of college and literally sitting at home so writing & reading orkut communities became a daily addiction.
This protest campaign was my first major introduction to the real power of blogs, I used to read many blogs which openly wrote & argued about the pros/cons of reservation. I understood that a blog could give a larger platform for putting forward ones ideas/views/arguments/grievances etc. But even with this understanding I only satisfied myself by replying in small debates & arguments on the community forums or venting my anger in front of the television debates of "eminent" panelists, never could really muster the confidence to write my own blog. Soon the protests died & my entry into professional life took out all the steam in me, writing became just a thought.
One fine day, just happened to think of a storyline which I thought to be interesting & surprisingly I sat down to write, this was the first short story I wrote. I had it circulated to a close small group of friends & relatives for their honest reviews, being my first attempt many improvements were suggested, but interstingly the response overall was quite positive and many people whom I spoke to genuinely appreciated my attempt with a caution that i need to build on this & improve myself. The positive reviews made me come up with an "ambitious" plan to start writing of many short stories regularly publish them on a blog, the idea behind this was that I would improve with each story I write & the readers of the blog will be able to analyse the difference in my writing from my first story to the ones I would write later.
So, I started this blog & published my first story "Till I'm Alive", this was time when I had just moved to Mysuru for my job. Following two years were so hectic that I didn't have time to think of anyting to write.
Now, I am back in Mumbai & have been thinking for a long time to start writing again, but this was not happening partly due to work & partly due to my extremely lazy nature. But over the past few days a few of my friends have gotten into blogging like Mihir, Tanuja etc. (thanks ppl) & thats what gave me an insipration to decide writing again and thankfully have some good topics in mind.
I hope that this time I shed my laziness & continue writing good articles worth reading; I also would request all my readers to give honest reviews on whatever I write or have written so I can also learn & improve in the process.
God Speed.
Regards,
Ashish Shekhar Kirtikar
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Saturday, August 23, 2008
TILL I’M ALIVE -- My First Story...
It was 6’oclock in the morning, with a coffee mug in my hand I was glued to the television seeing the same pictures and news repeated again and again. It had been a harrowing weekend for me, with constant phone calls from the media and reporters camping outside my house, after all I was the only living relative of the kidnapped reporter Srichand Rajput : His Fiancé.
These thoughts were suddenly disrupted by a foot note of Breaking News coming on the screen. “Sad Valentine’s Day for India”, it said, followed by “Inside sources say that Terrorists have killed the hostage”. I was shaking all over, my feet went numb, I could barely stand; I somehow managed to reach the phone which was ringing for the tenth time by now. It was Sri’s boss “It’s not true…huh…tell me it’s not true…”I asked in a croaky voice “Its True Priya…I am sorry…though the official confirmation is yet to come we got it from a reliable source inside and….” I wasn’t even aware that he was talking after he said “Its True” I barely kept the receiver and was struggling to stand on my feet. The coffee mug from my hand was lying on the floor and everything around was appearing to be moving at a fast pace, suddenly everything blacked out.
Valentine’s Eve one year ago:
“Honey, are you ready I have to leave in half an hour” Srichand said in his usual sweet tone, “Yes I will be out in a minute” said a croaky voice from the room. “Oh my god, Priya, Are you crying again?” he said entering the room “Please!!! I am not going for a war…it’s just a story”. “Yes, just a story, in terrorist infested Kashmir and that too POK!!! I would prefer you going for a war then…” I said, now more composed than before “I don’t understand why you have to go for this. Don’t you have any other journalist to do this job??!!”. “Honey we have talked about this before, you know I have asked for this assignment…Its my passion and love for journalism that couldn’t let me leave such an opportunity…I want to do something like Daniel Pearl, even in his death he showed to us the cruel and heartless nature of those Islamic Fundamentalists…He made the common man aware of the extent of their cruelty and inhumanity…I want to do the same thing when I go there, I want to expose the reality to public…you know how much I love my work…Don’t you Dear?” he said with my red-eyed face in his hands, “Oh Yes I do, when my mother first heard that I was in love with a journalist she asked me if he worked for Page3 , does he know Aishwarya Rai?...I told her that he found gun-wielding Bearded dirty people and barren cratered lands more attractive than anything in this world…even Aishwarya Rai…”I managed to smile in a sarcastic manner and walk away, “Don’t say that, didn’t I fall in love with you, The Most Beautiful woman on Earth” he said embracing me from behind, “Huh…you wouldn’t even care to wait for one more day to celebrate Valentine’s Day with me and you say you love me” I walked away pretending to be angry “You must have forgotten my gift also…” and I stopped in the door staring at the bouquet of Roses kept on the table in the Living Room “Happy Valentine’s Day My Love…”He whispered in my ears while holding me from behind “…I may be anywhere in this world but I will never forget to send the Roses to my Rose, TILL I’M ALIVE”
I could feel a ray of white light piercing my eyes. I opened my eyes slowly and looked around and tried to come back to my senses. After a few seconds I heard the doorbell ringing very hard, I forced myself back to my feet and literally dragged myself to the door and opened it. It was Shyam, Sri’s best friend and colleague. “I tried calling you as soon as I heard the news from boss…I am sorry Priya…”I didn’t let him finish I just hugged him and started crying “Priya, calm down I know its hard but you have to be brave, as brave as Sri was…” He said leading me to the couch “the press has been stopped by the police downstairs…the government officials and the negotiators want to talk to you” “But before that they wanted me to give you something which Sri had requested the negotiators to give…wait a minute I will get it, I managed to sneak it in avoiding the media glare…”Waiting for him I heard the news reporter on screen saying “ Three negotiators were sent back by the Pakistani government citing security reasons saying that only one diplomat would accompany the body back to India…The negotiators say that in the tense conditions that they met Srichand Rajput, he managed to give them hints regarding where he had hidden the tapes which had his entire operation on it….The negotiators have managed to get it back to India and say that these tapes will expose the truth behind the terrorist training camps to the whole world…They saluted him saying that his exemplary show of bravery under tense conditions deserves a salute from the Nation…They also said that he made an unusual request to the negotiators which they said was too personal to announce it to the media… ”. “This was his request Priya…” I heard Shyam’s voice behind me .As I turned I saw a bouquet of Roses in his hand, he gave it to me and I again felt the dizziness. I controlled myself hugged the roses and started crying when I heard Shyam say in a suppressed croaky voice “Read the card please he had told the message that’s written in it…” I opened the card with trembling hands and I read “Happy Valentine’s Day My Love …remember…TILL I’M ALIVE”
-Ashish Shekhar Kirtikar
These thoughts were suddenly disrupted by a foot note of Breaking News coming on the screen. “Sad Valentine’s Day for India”, it said, followed by “Inside sources say that Terrorists have killed the hostage”. I was shaking all over, my feet went numb, I could barely stand; I somehow managed to reach the phone which was ringing for the tenth time by now. It was Sri’s boss “It’s not true…huh…tell me it’s not true…”I asked in a croaky voice “Its True Priya…I am sorry…though the official confirmation is yet to come we got it from a reliable source inside and….” I wasn’t even aware that he was talking after he said “Its True” I barely kept the receiver and was struggling to stand on my feet. The coffee mug from my hand was lying on the floor and everything around was appearing to be moving at a fast pace, suddenly everything blacked out.
Valentine’s Eve one year ago:
“Honey, are you ready I have to leave in half an hour” Srichand said in his usual sweet tone, “Yes I will be out in a minute” said a croaky voice from the room. “Oh my god, Priya, Are you crying again?” he said entering the room “Please!!! I am not going for a war…it’s just a story”. “Yes, just a story, in terrorist infested Kashmir and that too POK!!! I would prefer you going for a war then…” I said, now more composed than before “I don’t understand why you have to go for this. Don’t you have any other journalist to do this job??!!”. “Honey we have talked about this before, you know I have asked for this assignment…Its my passion and love for journalism that couldn’t let me leave such an opportunity…I want to do something like Daniel Pearl, even in his death he showed to us the cruel and heartless nature of those Islamic Fundamentalists…He made the common man aware of the extent of their cruelty and inhumanity…I want to do the same thing when I go there, I want to expose the reality to public…you know how much I love my work…Don’t you Dear?” he said with my red-eyed face in his hands, “Oh Yes I do, when my mother first heard that I was in love with a journalist she asked me if he worked for Page3 , does he know Aishwarya Rai?...I told her that he found gun-wielding Bearded dirty people and barren cratered lands more attractive than anything in this world…even Aishwarya Rai…”I managed to smile in a sarcastic manner and walk away, “Don’t say that, didn’t I fall in love with you, The Most Beautiful woman on Earth” he said embracing me from behind, “Huh…you wouldn’t even care to wait for one more day to celebrate Valentine’s Day with me and you say you love me” I walked away pretending to be angry “You must have forgotten my gift also…” and I stopped in the door staring at the bouquet of Roses kept on the table in the Living Room “Happy Valentine’s Day My Love…”He whispered in my ears while holding me from behind “…I may be anywhere in this world but I will never forget to send the Roses to my Rose, TILL I’M ALIVE”
I could feel a ray of white light piercing my eyes. I opened my eyes slowly and looked around and tried to come back to my senses. After a few seconds I heard the doorbell ringing very hard, I forced myself back to my feet and literally dragged myself to the door and opened it. It was Shyam, Sri’s best friend and colleague. “I tried calling you as soon as I heard the news from boss…I am sorry Priya…”I didn’t let him finish I just hugged him and started crying “Priya, calm down I know its hard but you have to be brave, as brave as Sri was…” He said leading me to the couch “the press has been stopped by the police downstairs…the government officials and the negotiators want to talk to you” “But before that they wanted me to give you something which Sri had requested the negotiators to give…wait a minute I will get it, I managed to sneak it in avoiding the media glare…”Waiting for him I heard the news reporter on screen saying “ Three negotiators were sent back by the Pakistani government citing security reasons saying that only one diplomat would accompany the body back to India…The negotiators say that in the tense conditions that they met Srichand Rajput, he managed to give them hints regarding where he had hidden the tapes which had his entire operation on it….The negotiators have managed to get it back to India and say that these tapes will expose the truth behind the terrorist training camps to the whole world…They saluted him saying that his exemplary show of bravery under tense conditions deserves a salute from the Nation…They also said that he made an unusual request to the negotiators which they said was too personal to announce it to the media… ”. “This was his request Priya…” I heard Shyam’s voice behind me .As I turned I saw a bouquet of Roses in his hand, he gave it to me and I again felt the dizziness. I controlled myself hugged the roses and started crying when I heard Shyam say in a suppressed croaky voice “Read the card please he had told the message that’s written in it…” I opened the card with trembling hands and I read “Happy Valentine’s Day My Love …remember…TILL I’M ALIVE”
-Ashish Shekhar Kirtikar
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