A Pair of Silk Stockings - Kate Chopin

I am enjoying my little Penguins. They are about 50 pages long and most of them have more than one story. This one for example has five stories. One can fit them into small 20 minute slots while waiting etc.

'Desiree's Baby' is about a young couple who appear white for all purposes but who have a colored child. The suspicions are cast on the lady and she is driven away with the baby for having hidden her birth secret. While burning away the baby's belongings, cradle etc, the husband does not burn one letter. It is written by his mother to his father and she is happy that her son (who is born white) will never know that he belongs to a colored family. I would not have understood this story if I had not read 'Roots' and from there figured out the varying shades of people.

'Miss McEnders' is all moralistic and takes back work given to a lady whom she considers amoral. Miss McEnders wants to set the world right. The lady in question comes by and points a few truths to Miss McEnders who soon realises that the whole world knows of her father's treachery and her fiance's debauchery.

'The Story of an Hour' begins with the feeling of ecstasy that sweeps over a long suffering wife (who has a heart ailment) when she hears that her husband of many years died in an accident. She feels incredible relief. But within an hour comes the husband who has been mistakenly identified. Her happy heart breaks. Death by uncontrollable happiness says the doctor. Lovely.

I didn't get what Neg Creole was about.

'A Pair of Silk Stockings' is about poor Mrs Sommers who sets out with fifteen dollars and a host of good intentions of buying stuff for her children. She never buys anything for herself, nor eats because she just about makes ends meet. But when her hand falls on a pair of fine silk stockings at the shop she cannot resist and buys them for 2 dollars. Then she gives in and buys a fine pair of gloves, then has a fine lunch in a fine restaurant and then treats herself to a matinee. On the cable car home, she wonders if she cannot just go away forever on the cable car. Beautiful.

Kate Chopin tells fine stories.

A New Writer's Dilemma - Some Pointers

Recently I got a call from a friend of mine - after many years. While in the US he met another successful professional who had written a book based on her life experiences and was looking to get published. My friend said that he hoped I could guide her on how to get published because she had tried and given up. I told him I could share what I knew - not that I was an expert at getting published - but I'd had a few knocks along the way which could come in use.

When she called, I heard an interesting story from her. Her friend, a published author himself, had asked her to contact an agent. She did. The agent got back within an hour and told her that the entire book has to be rewritten. If it has to be rewritten at the level of writing for a top notch publisher, it would cost her 18 lakhs (one could buy a house for that). If it had to be rewritten at a normal level it would cost 3 lakhs. Take your pick. In both cases no guarantees of getting published. Your book will be taken out of your hands, your bank account dented seriously and someone will rewrite your book and go home laughing. The writer gave up on her dream of getting the book published and went back to her life. I would have if this would have been my experience too. After all publishing in India is vague and difficult to make a dent - if you do not have the right profile or are not persistent enough.

It's not about the 18 lakhs really though it was a jaw dropping amount for me. Many medium publishers would queue up outside to publish the book for half the amount! What anyone charges for their services is their own business and I have no problem with that really. But what reeked of mischief here in the agent's response was this. There is no real need for having someone rewrite the entire manuscript. (I saw it and I can pretty much say that there's no need to rewrite at all - just develop it some more.) It's not that she does not know how to communicate, or write. She's from India's top management institute, a senior Vice President in a large IT company and a Fulbright scholar. And anyway people write to express themselves, to feel good about what they have written, not have someone ghost write their stuff.

Any decent advise would have focussed on the improvements that the book might need and the time involved and costs involved. Not rewriting which is rather presumptuous. (Self publishing a book won't cost more than a lakh of rupees, for say a thousand copies.) Even if I get an expert editor to work through the book development process and pay another lakh to the editor (a decent amount) to help develop the book, we still have our book written by ourselves, which has a fair chance of getting published.

I suggested to her that since she was a first time author her work may need some work. Hiring the services of a good editor can help bring out the potential of the book. All it requires is patience (and and this is one thing one must have in this business, many rewrites and persistence). Let's say after a year, the book comes to some shape, she can then approach publishers or agents and try it out again. Worst case scenario, the self publishing route is always available as is the e-publishing route. My only word of caution for new writers before they jump on that route of sp and ep is that those are easier routes to take - which means one could compromise heavily on the quality of writing. One could instead spend time going through the grind because it will help better the craft.

Writing is a wonderful way to express oneself and it is a process that makes an honest person out of you. For good or bad, it is best if the writer writes his or her story herself because it is after all her story. More so when it is filled with such experiences of an intense nature. Agents and editors must encourage people to write, to go through the process and better themselves, perhaps give assistance there. Not merely take over the book, rewrite it and get it published under this person's name which would be a dishonest way to arrive at the result. (Rewriting is understandable when the person has no time, has language issues - not in these cases.)

I saw two more books recently written by first time writers. One who has written three full fledged novels and novellas - and a fine writer to boot with good command over the language and good story telling abilities. Another a young college goer. I feel it's the best time to write, so everyone who feels like it should write.

For all new writers then, go ahead and write. Work as hard as you can before you head to the publishers. Approach the agents and publishers. Face the feedback and the rejections. If it is not good enough, find a good editor who can help with the manuscript. It is your first after all so there could be some issues. There are plenty of good editors and you can find them if you search. Pay them well, work closely with them and develop the manuscript to satisfaction. Be patient. Then seek the agent and publisher again. If you still do not find success go the self publishing/ e publishing route. No harm. Your book is in good shape and you have worked at it hard enough to deserve this. Now with the Internet everyone has a space to express, to publish and get a fair chance. If it's good, it could just take off. If it does not, it's still okay, the journey would have grown you anyway.

The shortcuts are tempting. But they may not add to the development of the craft. Nor will you enjoy such fame - when you have not written your story. Enjoy the process, be true. If writing is about anything, its about honesty. So stay honest.

And keep writing!

Nice Link - 10 Most Beautiful Movies of All Time

Having Senthil as a friend on facebook is a huge boon. He comes up with these wonderful links. Here's one about 10 most beautiful movies of all time.
http://www.jamuura.com/blog/10-most-beautiful-movies-of-all-time/

I have seen two - Manhattan and Citizen Kane and have three more that I can access now. But something tells me I need to watch the other two again - Manhattan surely.

Anjali - How Business Is Done

Anjali had her annual rakhi making competition at school a couple of days before the actual rakhi day. She told me while we were driving to school that she had never won any prize for rakhi making in all these years. 'But this year I will win,' she said with a determined look. With little preparation and a simple idea she managed a third prize - which was a big deal with her. She was happy with the result. (Also happy with the fact that her akka had told her before the prizes were announced that she suspected Anjli might win the first prize - that was as good as winning the first prize for her.)

Back home she showed me her rakhi and told me how simple her idea was and how detailed and complex the other rakhis were. She was all praise for the first prize winner who made an elaborate affair with pulses and stuff like that. 'Aunty said that she was giving marks mainly for the effort that went into making the rakhi,' she said happily.

Sometime then the business idea developed. 'Nanna, why don't I make rakhis for all the attas?' she asked. 'Anyway they have to buy rakhis to tie to you and Pappa.' I readily encouraged the idea wondering what it would lead to. But the enthusiasm was infectious so off we went to the faithful Himalaya Book Store. She carefully chose the kind of colored paper she wanted, the ribbons, fevicol and such other stuff. Suitably armed we headed off to her aunt, Mythily atta's, house where the rakhi manufacturing process would begin.

It was no mean task. She has four cousins in Hyderabad plus the eight rakhis she needed to make for my four sisters. Twelve in all. She recruited support and technical expertise from two aunts and got eight rakhis done on day one and and the remaining four the next day. The pricing was then fixed - the more complex ones would be priced at 50 bucks and the others at 10 bucks or something like that. The aunts were informed accordingly that no rakhis needed to be bought - they were already made.

Sealed in a box like the Finance Minister's budget, the rakhis made their way home amidst tight security. A sum of five rupees a head was promised to the two helpers and me, for buying the material. The rakhis came out on display on the D day. Money briskly changed hands and she went about comfortably selling them at a hundred bucks a pair. And then her cousins had to come - word had spread  that rakhis had been hand made.

By the end of the day the enterprising little miss had grossed something well over two and a half thousand which went straight into her notes bank. To her credit (and her aunts) the rakhis did look very different and colorful and I enjoyed wearing them all day. But seriously, I cannot even imagine doing anything a tenth as enterprising even now.

Looking back at the entire event I can only admire the thought process and the preparation which led to the result she richly deserved. All on her own she thought of making rakhis (where no seeming demand existed - in fact there was competition from regular shop keepers), she thought of the idea ahead, captured her market. Then she motivated me to buy her the material she wanted, got the help of two of her aunts to make the rakhis. Then the pricing was done (good solid pricing if you ask me). The sale was interesting too - a nice display on a big table. The emotional angle. There was a clear need. There was an event. There was an opportunity. She stepped in and just captured that market. The way she foresaw the need and went about preparing was worth it all - with all the innocence of a child but neatly mixed with the pragmatism of a businessperson.

I thought it was a brilliant piece of business management. Next year on - I am sure her market is pretty well defined.

The Paradoxes of Our Lives - When We Worry In the Now, We Are Not In the Now

Worrying in the now, is not being in the now. To be in the now, one must be in the present moment, not in the future.

Enjoy the flowers
Pic courtesy - Sailaja

To stop oneself from doing something now because of the fear of something in the future (like not being able to pay bills, some similar consequence etc) is not living the now. However much it may appear practical, it takes away from the experience of the now, and from its possibilities and experience. Mostly it takes away enthusiasm and the joy for life.

To be in the now is to be there. Not worry about it.

Children of Heaven - Movie Review

Am watching this wonderful film again but this time I had Anjali for company and so had access to some more viewer reactions. Though I saw the movie only about four years ago, it seemed very different this time.

The conflict is between what is necessary to survive and how it is constantly threatened. In this case two siblings, a brother Ali (9 years) and a sister Zahra (7 perhaps), from a poor family, try to survive on one pair of shoes between them. The girl's shoes have been lost by the brother accidentally and they dare not tell their father because he is struggling financially anyway and is behind rent already. To add to their woes their mother is ill and has just had a baby. To keep things going the boy agrees to lend her his sneakers - out sized and dirty - if she comes quickly from school and gives it back to him so he can go to school after. The kids race through Teheran's interior roads as they try to make do with the one pair of sneakers between them. Until one day the boy enters a competition because the third prize winner gets a pair of sneakers. He promises to win those sneakers for his sister but however hard he tries to come third, Ali comes first, and is disconsolate! His school director and physical instructor are very happy though.

The scene where the father earns good money on his gardening project and instantly starts planning all the things he wants to buy - and how he somehow loses it all because he cannot handle the money and conjures an accident is pure genius. Some people just cannot hold money and lose every bit of what they think they do not deserve. The other scene is when Zahra discovers her lost shoes - on another school girl's feet and takes Ali to confront her. But when they notice from a distance that the girl's father is blind, they return without confronting. Zahra's anger later when she realises her acrifice went in vain because the other girl's father bought her new shoes is brilliant. 'Why did you give them away?' she screams, instead of giving them back to me! It suddenly struck me that the young boy was good at running because of all the running he and his sister did. But sneakers or not, the end is happy with the kids playing near the water blowing bubbles, and the father bringing them stuff from the market including shoes for the girl. Beautiful!

Srimanthudu - Movie Review

Mahesh Babu is the scion of an empire that's worth 25000 crores but he wants a simple life where he shares his wealth and helps others. That is the conflict that drives the story - rich boy does not want riches but wants to distribute IT and help others - against the wishes of those who want him to multiply the wealth. Deep down, as always, the conflict is between father and son.

To further inspire him on his philanthropic pursuits he meets a young lady who ardently espouses the cause of one child to married couples - so ardent that she could well have them commit to it right there and then. Also she is learning rural development techniques to improve her rather sad village. Everyone is leaving the village for various reasons and even have a people-left-village-counter - but mainly - bad people. The bad people are of course in power, are Union ministers and have brothers and sons who are equally bad and are also (in flashback) the reasons for his father's attachment to his money. (They also tell us that they are bad.) The bad people have an army of bad people, a bunch of aspiring WWF wrestlers, who have this special ability to bounce off the ground like springs when they fall. Anyway turns out that the young man adopts the village and retains it to old glory by bashing up the bad guys again and again and when he realises their bouncing qualities, eliminates the lot with an elegant solution -  a short circuit.

Mahesh Babu does what he does best, looks good, delivers his lines in his inimitable way, fights the bad army and dances in his usual way. All good so far because we can go to watch this guy do all this stuff again and again and it does not bore you. Shruti Hasan was not as interesting to me as she appeared to Mahesh Babu, in fact she appeared the opposite. All else was regular fare. One thing in MB's favor - he does make rather boring stories watchable just by being in them. So watch.