One can enjoy life in various innocuous ways. He found one, in the hard way by attempting to write a story…
He did not realise the work of putting down words to tell a story will become a potential minefield. Enthusiasm was egging on the raw talent to go all out to prove " U 2 can do it!" Done with its part, it evaporated proving even for enthusiasm, entropy existed.
He was scared to visualise that the collective ghosts of Sadi Carnot,
Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), the architects of Thermodynamics,
jumping up and down with in delight. At this point, if he had shelved his dream
to write, it would have become a diplomatic coup for the established
writers and if he decided to persist with, it would certainly land him in a
tank of hot soup for every paragraph he wrote.
He had a doubt whether the established writers’ attempts to derail his authorship could be called a diplomatic coup?
"Diplomatic coup” is an idiomatic expression to describe a brilliant, sudden, and highly successful act. For his purpose he had to trim some of the trappings viz disregarding its nuanced approach in the geopolitical sphere. He assured himself with an “Yes” that it would entirely be within his rights. Would it have gained him an upper hand or advantage in the literary circles? The jury is still out there on this whether to allow him to normalise relations or secure a significant internal agreement within the circle.
When it came to thinking, the physical work involved movements, sounds and conversations like the silent shifting of mental gears and any conversational interruption that chased away the thoughts, sometimes never to be apprehended. For the onlookers, the writer appeared to be idling while all of them were engaged in tangible, visible and useful activities. This first batch of inhouse juries, stood by this assessment.
Are there any more juries? What was the fallout for the writer? One thing would certainly be there - a guaranteed variety.
As he was searching for a novel idea to trip and trap the thief, came the interruption. "You are sitting like a statue; would it be asking too much to dump the wet and dry wastes in the garbage bins?". If you read between the lines, you will catch the subtle, dual reference to garbage clearance. Withstanding all this type of snide and asides from the sidelines, he was yet to progress beyond the opening paragraph. Availing this opportunity, the beginning of the apprehending ploy vanished without a trace and the wastes got promptly disposed into the bins.
He decided to give a late start to a good Samaritan, to go after the thief. Remembering his description of the human chaos at the busy marketplace, he gave up the idea of a chase and hit upon another solution. He brought in a child character to blow a whistle and contrived a shrill whistler to echo in response, from somewhere in the market. Thinking that two policemen were after him, the pickpocket hid the purse inside his baggy pants while searching for an escape route. He hoped the pickpocket and the readers would not pause to think "Oh, What a joke! Our potbellied policemen giving a chase, unbelievable!"
Not to embarrass the police force, he revised his plan and decided on three or four separate incidents in the marketplace that would be an ideal setting for further narration. For starters, he focused his mind on devising ways to reunite a child (another character) that got separated from its parents.
Engrossed in developing this angle, he failed to notice the hubbub in his house. A frantic search was going on for a misplaced article. In frustration, his son came over and hissed at him, "You were handling it yesterday, where is it now?" Leaving the child lost in the crowd in a safe corner he turned his attention home ward. 'What did I handle yesterday and which is misplaced today?" Without uttering a single word, his son gestured to a pair of shoes on the floor keeping company with a tin of shoe polish.
The smell of shoe polish just registering, he blurted out, " You mean the brush?” Instantly transforming himself into a rag picker, he dashed out to rummage among the garbage, he had emptied a while ago.
The poor child, lost in the crowd of the market, has to wait for some more time to reunite with his parents. The interrupted narrative, after the brush episode, moved forward to the spot where the child was witing. To stir the emotions of the would-be readers with sympathy, he decided to depute an extra actor to extend a friendly gesture with a cup of ice cream to comfort the child.
Reluctant, confused and yet yearning for the offered ice cream, the child got down to the business of emptying the cup. In the meanwhile, another extra actor, not to be outdone in compassion, brought a bag of chips. Perplexed and glad, the child took the chips of chips and even offered to share some with the two caring actors. Touched by this grand gesture, the actors enquired, “How you got separated from the elders?”
This question confused the child and in between munching the crunchies replied, “Why would you ask like that? I just came to enjoy the crowd and the marketplace!” Before the writer could appreciate himself for giving an Aesop twist, he heard the siren, “The washing machine has just finished its work, when will yours be?”
After this ‘commercial break’, he continued thinking about the next step in the narrative. His mind was unable to come out of the crowded marketplace and urged him to look for something there itself.
He created a small disturbance, in the write up, and forced some people from the crowd to converge there. Though the encircling wall of humanity obstructed the ongoing visuals, enough audio filtered through to inform the gathering that two persons were throwing heated arguments at each other. The context was unclear after some time the sound-bytes stopped abruptly. Losing interest in further proceedings, people disbursed leaving the quarrelling duo alone.
What about the readers? He had to describe something for them to read, so he included in the write up this conversation:
“Did I not prove my point?”
“The point is, you would not have proved it without me”.
“Wrong, I would have proved it solo, even without your help. As expected, they all gathered, watched and made no attempt to learn or diffuse the situation. The moment we stopped shouting they all left. What this tells you?”
“One, you were right. Two, entertainment in any form is ok with them!”
He had come to the decisive part of the narration. The snatched purse has to be retrieved and the thief has to be apprehended.
Unaware of the narrator’s dilemma, the thief took his own decision and decided to hide safely in plain sight. But he wanted that plain sight to be in a busy cafĂ© and have something to munch too! He chose a crowded self-service pay and eat cafe. With a few nervous butterflies fluttering in his stomach, he approached the cash counter and then all hell broke loose …... for him.
Coincidence or a twist in the pig’s tail, the narrator experienced another kind of hell breaking loose for him. The overhead tank had run out of water and he had forgotten to top it up from the storage sump. Quickly switching on the motor, he came back to think of ways to end the story. In his hurry he forgot about the part of switching off the sump motor after its job was done.
A part of his mind said, "catch him" and the other part argued pro bono to get him off with a warning. He mused. "Why not twist the tale a bit more and leave it with two endings?" He praised his foresight for having brought the thief to where he wanted him to be for the twin endings.
The thief took out the
stolen purse and counted out the required money for whatever he had ordered. As
the printer was doing its work, an unfriendly hand shook the thief from the
back. The thief turned around to face the person, who was none other than the
extra actor, in plain clothes, who had given a bag of chips to the child, a
little while ago and in some other part of the market.
The blood drained from
the thief’s face when recognition hit him like a loaded truck. Soon the other
extra actor, also in plain clothes, who had sponsored a cup of ice cream to
that child, joined the show. The printer which just finished the billing sat in
silence with anticipation. The thief knew that his game had just ended even
without the policemen blowing their whistles. At that point, his worry was about
the order he had placed and paid for with the stolen money.
With one of the endings
behind him, the narrator mulled over the pro bono ending.
He simply decided to make use of the two policemen already in place. Only they have to stage a different act as compassionate police men!
The actor who laid his hands on the shoulder of the thief asked, "why should you degrade yourself like this?" Before the thief could reply, the second actor clarified, "Maybe hunger forced him to do this". Instead of the good cop bad cop play it was all the way a good cops act!
The cashier wanting to play a part, chose that exact moment to announce, "take this printout and collect your ordered items”. The thief hesitated but the two extra actors slightly nodded, retrieved the stolen purse and after giving a stern warning before letting the thief go ahead.
When he wrote the words 'stern warning', he never expected to receive one himself. In his scramble to end the narrative, he had forgotten to switch off the sump motor, which was happily giving the side walls of the overhead tank a most welcome bath!
What he had left to do now, was to come up with a suitable title for this untitled story.
The busy market place, people who tested principles of thermodynamics, the pickpocket and the two extra actors and the child who blew the whistle and the other child who did what he did for fun, the crowd that gathered around a disturbance and of course, the interruptions at home while thinking….
The list lengthened like the vote of thanks mentions, which often had more names than attendees.
What would be a more appropriate title? Before his mind could suggest a two branched title, he decided to title it as The story 'on the making of a story'.
