Mann Ki Lagan - The Journey - Page 3

Originally posted by: suku_07

Nice thread and note Di ❤️... now thru phone will come in a while and comment 😳

Originally posted by: -deepali17-

Suvi.. And aarti both hats off.

Originally posted by: Suvika.

In a while🤔... That means tomorrow...right?? 😆

Originally posted by: Suvika.

Christmas party + your birthday party.. extended to five more months. 😉😆

super glad that you made that wish though 😃

😳😃

Originally posted by: Diksha_1991

Hatts Off to both of you Aartiji & Suvi 👏 👏 👏

It was pleasure reading it...😛

Originally posted by: Swatishubh

What a journey you both had together Suvi di and Aarti di 👏👏

Yes, it was quite an experience... I have enjoyed myself, the creative process is exhilarating. 😃

I am in love with your FF from the very beginning. Man Ki lagan from the very starting dealt with such an interested plot. Altogether, i came to grab the emotional aspect of one's life changing the spouse's life in one go.

Thanks for liking the plot. It was something that I had been thinking for a while, but finally gave a form to it through this story. 😃

Loved to read about both of your journey. Thanks so much for being the Editor of the FF! I wud love to see another successful FF from Aarti di and you in every part of it Suvi di. 😃

👏 👏 🤗

Another FF? 😲 Really very tough to handle... I don't know, let's see 😛

Originally posted by: bawaswift

Thank you so much Suvi di for sharing your journey while the making of Man ki Lagan .. with Aarti ! 😃 This has been a terrific joint venture for both you ! Loved every part of it ! Me very very attached to this FF ! 😃👏

Yes, Bawa, we had a blast these last five months. I would not trade it for anything else. And thank you for your enthusiastic support form the word go! Your comments, and motivation meant a lot 😃

The success is for you both... n i wish to read so many more from Aarti and you Suvi di ! ⭐️⭐️

Thanks for being there in every update.. ! Hats off to Suvi di n Aarti ! 👍🏼 👍🏼

The success was Destined... as this was written with Man ! 😳👏 👏

Thank you Bawa. Yes, it was written with mann 😃

Originally posted by: Suvika.

Mann Ki Lagan - The Journey

Sometime in the end of January 2014, Aarti called me. We had been in touch through email and other forms of communication by then but discussion of a storyline was tough that way. And she shared her thoughts. Thoughts that I found very interesting. The story I felt, had a great potential. My only doubt was.. This was her first attempt at writing an FF. Would she be able to handle something so complicated.

You had doubts?? Thank God you didn't say much on that score, or I would have stopped right there! I was literally shaking wondering why did I even have to think of something like this! 😆All I knew and I think I told you was this was going to be a long one, will have two separations and yes, a dog! 😉

For readers who are familiar with my stories do know that either one of my protagonists have issues. And the story revolves around how they overcome the said issues and find a happy ending.

But Aarti's story is where BOTH of them had issues of their own.

Again, I must have been stark raving mad! 😆 But yes, somehow I could not detach the two issues in my mind. Believe me I tried to think this story without Nidhi's complications but however I tried to weave it I kept getting back to Nidhi having some kind of issues of her own. I promise, I tried... 😳

Ashutosh was a divorcee and Nidhi had a painful childhood courtesy of her father and his suspicions. So I gently suggested to her that she should probably take up one of the two and write the story around that. She said OK..I'll think about it. (Which as time passed by I realized meant - I have decided and I'm not going to change my mind.)

@ bold --- Oh boy!! Am i that bad? Wonder how you put up with me!

Then she started writing and asked me if I could be her editor. That had me thinking again. I have never been known for my diplomacy. And I seriously didn't want to do or say something where I would end up losing a very great friend.

Maybe I was more confident about that than you 😳 So I did tempt you with that Prologue 😆

Oh the temptation of that story..that pulled me and I couldn't resist. Our journey began and I had begun to look forward to where and how she would take the story forward. But by the end of chapter two, I faced another hurdle. My inability to connect with this Nidhi. Gentleness and a tender forgiving heart not being a part of my own psyche I guess.

Again, thank God you let me flow with it! 😳🤗 And did not express that to me in so many words.

So I called my editor Divya and explained my problem without giving out much of Aarti's story. I'm quoting what she said here..

"Don't try to be the writer of that story. When you narrated THT, I found that Nidhi beyond my comprehension too. A teenager with an obsession towards a guy 15 years her senior, drugging him and taking snaps of him. But then I realized that is how YOU want her to be. And I went with that. So go with Aarti. Trust her to know what is right for her story. Just make sure the characters and the storyline are on track. That's all you have to do."

Brilliant words! Thanks a lot Divya! 😃 I think by now I know you a lot more through Sujatha.

So that's what I tried to do. And that's all I did. Aarti thanked me in her thread for putting up with her eccentricities. LOL that makes me wonder how Divya has been putting up with my eccentricities for the last one and half years.

Maybe I should ask her that! 😉 😆 I guess that's a mild way of saying I kept you on your toes... I know I am a perfectionist .. each chapter I have edited too many times.. my famous sentence to you, "I don't want things to sound abrupt!" 😳 And I'm sure this has caused a lot of trouble to you.

Oh Divya loved this story BTW. I sent her the story so far link.

Thank you so much Divya... and since you edit Sujatha's stories I think you automatically look at every story from that standpoint... so you are probably a more discerning reader. And I feel honored that you liked the story 😃

Anyway, back to our journey. Aarti needs a standing ovation for what she did the last almost five months. The sleepless nights and the emotional energy she invested on some of the chapters.

Yes, would not recommend it to anyone... but sleepless night is part of an Architect's training... I have stayed up all night since my college days drawing sheets and rendering and what not!

At times it was really tough and at those times I had my friend Sujatha advising me what I should do and how I should handle the next update. 😳 You really helped me out in those times.

Being a writer full time, my stories take a toll on me and I really don't know how this lady handled all that. I used to feel so very guilty whenever I had to make her rewrite something. But she never complained. She took every suggestion / advice / order to heart and did her best to understand what I was trying to say.

Well, maybe I am more like the Nidhi of this story... again I would thank my training as an ARchitect, you know some of those black and white ink renderings used to take 8-10 hours of constantly drafting. That type of thing teaches one to be patient. 😊

I clearly remember that Priya chapter and my first toned down version... you were shocked, more so when I told you I deleted the original. You insisted I write that the way I wanted to.. what you all see is the result of that! Thanks Sujatha, sometimes I needed that push, that confidence you gave me or I would have chickened out at those crucial scenes. 😔

The next was the Ashu-Nidhi scene when he grabs her in anger.. I know we went back and forth till I was able to project the right type of emotion... that was a very fine line there, where a single wrong word or action could have changed the entire outlook of the scene. So thank you for helping me get my vision on paper.

And then came all the med cases... sorry but I'm horrible at them and have never watched any med show... I know I have troubled you a lot when these scenes came up, asking you to check and recheck what I wrote, consulting and asking for suggestions about cases in the first place. So thank you for being very patient with me.

Please believe me when I say that kind of trust is not a small thing. A story is a writer's baby. Entrusting its welfare to another person indicates an untold amount of belief in that person. So Aarti, thank you so very much.

No, what you did was to make sure I did not dilute the effect of all the different emotions in this story... or the characters would have been diluted. I always believed that that was what you were thinking of when you made suggestions, so it was never a question of not accepting them or implementing them.

I have enjoyed each and every moment of this journey with you. I laughed at Sam's antics and cried along with Ashutosh when Nidhi left him. I grinned at Armaan and Anji's sangeet and giggled at Nidhi crying in her bidai. I dreamt AshNi driving along the beach on the two wheeler with Nidhi driving and wanted to punch the living daylights out of CV. I wanted to hug Ashutosh for what he went through with Priya and wanted to kick him you know where for what he put Nidhi through. I watched them meet, fall in love, part, come together again, become friends, then a couple and then fall in love some more, part again and come together again this time as lovers. A turbulent journey which has finally reached its destination today.

My God!! Did so many things happen! 😆 But what you have mentioned were the most difficult scenes to write... Sam's death coupled with Ashutosh's loneliness, then Nidhi-CV conversation, Priya's FB(Still shiver when I think how I wrote this!), then Ashni's SR (Because it was my first ever love scene in its true sense!), and that Ashni scene in the hall...I think these few took more toll on me than the rest.

Thank you for letting me write an FF without any elaborate wedding, though the wedding I wrote was detailed just not in the traditional celebratory format. It was more a wedding from everyone's emotional POV. And thanks for not insisting on an HM either! 😆 though some of their activities on the beach, thier life away from any family itself seemed like HM in my mind.

Aarti, I am not going to say start thinking of another story soon. But I will definitely hope that you don't stop writing completely. Something. Anything. Like your Nidhi pursues her painting and your Ashutosh, the music. Good luck!

Thank you for being there every single day, even when you were away in your maika. And thanks for all the pep talk and encouragement when I had my bad days. I will keep your words in mind for sure...😳🤗 let's see if another FF is in my destiny or not. I had set out to challenge myself and see if I was capable of writing a complete, out of the box story, which was a romance yet different from a traditional romance. And I think the result is not bad.. not bad at all 😃

Lots of love

Aarti

P.S: Thank you all for reading this post of mine. I thought of posting it in Aarti's thread itself but didn't want it to get lost among the reviews and replies. Hence a separate thread.

Thanks for this gesture Sujatha. You have enabled me to explain my POV to all and relive and revisit our journey 😃

Originally posted by: aardhan

Sujatha, yesterday I gave you a general comment as I was very sleepy, so today I am trying to do justice to this 😃

Originally posted by: Suvika.

In a while🤔... That means tomorrow...right?? 😆