Posted:
i cannot imagine how i missed THIS. Truly Fabulous. pls add me to ur buddy list😛
smitha
AUTHOR'S SELF AGGRANDIZING NOTE:
So, now this one is done, and I was going to go quietly into the gentle night but there was a small matter of a bit of a "story" exchange, a private joke between me and Inked, the phenomenal writer of "About Last Night." She wanted an Author's Note, because she was curious about how this story came about--so here it is, for Inked. And for those of you who PMed me asking why this was so different from Perfection, as well, I guess. This is a behind the scenes "DVD" commentary on the writing of Love Story--feel free to ignore it, of course, but if you are curious, read on!
I thought I'd walk you readers
through my writing process, for this specific short story. Of course, its
different for everyone, and even different for every story--This one pretty
much poured out of me and onto paper, already formed in my brain, while
"Perfection" takes thought, and rewrites and, at times, a lot of internal,
painful digging. The main difference was the tone-"Perfection" being a longer story, gives me scope to really dig into people's natures, whereas in this I just created one new character, who I was in love with, while the others were very easy to put down--and like the serial. All but one-Anjali
So, a few days ago, I'm minding my own business, cleaning out the kitchen, when
this scene in the epilogue came to me, fully formed, without anything else. Nothing else, just the scene of two people, on the bed, who shouldn't be there, and who have nothing in common. And it had nothing to do with "Perfection," which has a story arc and a plot set up well in advance of each chapter. I was totally swamped with the images, I tell you. I
literally wrote this out, and had no damn idea how to fill in the background
story, or even if there was a background story with Arhi in it, since all it
had was Anjali and a "Mr X" in a hotel room. Together.
I knew the woman was Anjali because I have been thinking of her quite a lot lately. The man? I had no goddamn clue--I wanted to see what
Anjali would be like if she was human, you know? Not quite such a dumbass,
maybe a bit more "bad" than the pavitra
nari ASR sees her to be. I like strong women, especially those you don't see coming.
Anjali has bugged me and bugged me, and I've wanted to recreate her. Flawed, making stupid mistakes, regretting them. Manipulative, as all
intelligent women must be, to some extent. And honestly, how can she be ASR's sister and
be so sickly sweet and clueless? That has always puzzled me-- they share a gene
pool, for God's sake! So out of all that thinking, came just one scene-Anjali
with an unknown man, in a hotel room.
And this Anjali would have to know her
husband a bit better than the idiot Anjali does in the serial-those of us who
are married, who live with the men in our lives day in and day out-trust me,
you wonderful single girls, those who still don't have a man's dress shirts hanging in your closet-- pathology on Shyam's level-you would have an inkling, you would
KNOW in your bones, that the man you are with is..twisted.
So anyways, I wrote this story backwards. Literally. I tried to think about what would bring a
woman like Anjali into a meeting with a stranger in a hotel room in the first
place. Weirdly enough, I concluded that she would do crazy things for one
person only, and that would be her Chote. But why would she be making love to a stranger and how could that help Arnav? Obviously, it would have to be her choice to do so--this is Anjali Raizada, not some poor silly woman who has been blackmailed into anonymous sex--and equally obviously, Chote could never know about her in this hotel room right?
So I went with that---made Mr X into a
kind of anti-hero, someone who Anjali would need for her Chote, and who she
would benefit from as well. Not someone who would be a creep, and make the woman pay for his help--but someone who would be so virile and sexy, any woman worth her shoe collection would jump him. And in Anjali's case, someone who might help her heal from Shyam, even if she doesnt understand she needs healing.
And the man
would love her, because she is lovely, she is intelligent and ferocious, but
also flawed and human. And he would KNOW more about her, because a good man, a smart man would not just love an appearance, he would love quality, depth. He would know more than just --she likes Puja Paat and enjoys midriff baring chiffon saris. Because Anjali, to deserve the kind of worship she gets from Arnav-she HAS to BE more than just that !
But her and this man--they would not be the main story here-that would be the
implication for another day, another love story. So that's where Kunal Roy's
nature came to my mind-someone who would appreciate a devious, manipulative
woman. Who would keep Anjali's secret. Because he is, himself, a devious,
cunning man-a "bad" good guy. Good men don't have to be boring!
And I have to tell
you (TMI!) I find salt and pepper hair, you know the premature, silver streaks
on jet black hair on young, south- asian men incredibly sexy. As in, I'll drool and stalk/follow a freaked out total stranger who's looking at me fearfully up and down the streets of NYC kind of sexy. And yeah, yeah, my husband knows about my fetish.
Moving on, final
item-Lisa Kampadia. Anyone remember the bitchy supermodel who's coat Khushi spilt
juice on, and who Khushi then replaced in the red sari calendar shoot? The
first ever Rabba Ve moment? That model was my inspiration for Lisa.
And if you
notice, poor Lisa Kampadia never appears in this story at all. Like, at ALL.
She is speculated over, linked with ASR and Khushi is insanely jealous of her,
but where does she actually approach ASR, or try to get publicity? Nowhere,
naa? She is just someone who is active in the Delhi scene who Anjali and Kunal
use as bait, pretending she is part of the scandal because the woman has had
some mild contact with ASR.
She, poor thing,
never wanted to marry ASR, never sent any story to the Delhi Sun, never tried
anything-she was as much a victim of these two planners as ASR and Khushi were.
In my head, the woman gets back with
that Ehsan Shah guy, who is jealous of her new "boyfriend"--the great ASR, and,
not being a total moron about men, Lisa never corrects Shah- and they end up
married and having dumb but beautiful babies together.
So, that was my story about "The Love Story on Page 3". I hope it helped
give a sense of closure, and an idea as to what my process was. If anyone has any questions, about any of this, I'd be happy to answer, because, like I said, this was a commentary, and I've touched on why I wrote what i did.
Thank you for
reading my work, and for bearing with this babbling! If you've made it this
far--good God, woman, go back to work!
Your boss knows you are surfing on India-Forums, you bad bad thing!
Hehehe..bye
Navin
PS: I don't work and have never worked in the media -newspapers included! I just channeled every bitchy "sensationalist" gossip writer I've ever read. But you know the one that got me the most inspired? I used to LOVE reading "Stardust" that horrible film rag back when I was a teen, and my mom banned it from the house before the O Levels. Thanks, Mom!
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| sakshi5050 | 1344 | 52908 | ||
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