New Sense

The last time he had walked down this street, she had walked beside him… She had asked him if they were similar… without hesitating he told her they weren’t… It was much later in the day, this time around; and the street seemed less busier. He walked by the coffee shop and it brought back memories of their only conversation there…

The appointment had finished earlier than expected and that meant that he was now a whole thirty minutes ahead of time for the next one. He had two options, either to walk the street right to the end and walk back. an exercise that should put him right on time. Or to walk directly to the restaurant, half way down the street and sit at the table waiting for his guest…

He chose the latter as it provided him better opportunity to read his company. What if she arrived a little ahead of schedule, would that mean she was nervous about being late or maybe she was just like him. What if she walked in a little late, maybe that would be a sign of how things would go from there on… Or the worst case, what if she walked in on time and he was sitting right there…

He somehow felt that he was playing a game of chess that was headed towards stalemate. Any footing what so ever to get a better grip of the situation might seem like an advantage. On the flip side, maybe he was just over thinking all of this…

Then he saw the street corner, the same street corner where they had stood. It was a long time ago but it all seemed like if just happened yesterday. He some how knew that day that he probably would never see her again… This was the second time in his life that he had felt that about her. The only difference being that the first time he knew was absolutely wrong.

He walked into the restaurant and as he entered he scanned the horizon on the off chance that his date was there before him, she wasn’t. He inquired about the reservation and was pointed to a cozy corner. A projector played the music videos of the albums from the past, they did not match the songs flooding the speakers.

As he waited, his thoughts went deeper into the past. He was more comfortable thinking about the past than he had imagined he would be. He still remembered the first time, he remembered how he stood in the street looking at her and she hired a taxi. There was nothing spectacular that had happened, she sat in the taxi and left… He stood right there knowing full well they would meet again. They did… it took them 10 years but they did…

She had this endearing honesty about her. People can fake interest, attitude and maybe even a little bit of mystery but to be endearing to someone thats almost impossible to fake. A little later they were laughing their heart out… They spoke about random things and in their random talk found comfort.

The second time things were different. She stood by and watched him leave. As he drove away, the thought of never seeing her again struck him but he didn’t do anything about it. Maybe they were similar… maybe thats why it couldn’t have worked…

Before long the dinner was over and they stepped out. They walked down the same street but this time things were different. She turned to him and asked “Do you think we are similar?”. He looked at her and said “No”. She smiled and said “Thats good, I wouldn’t even consider marrying someone just like me.”

Found this site that analyses what you write and says which writer you write like… I decided to run the test on a bunch of my short stories and a few of my latest blog posts… Here are the results:

Short Stories:
One Hour – Stephen King
The Question – Issac Asimov
The Photographer – Mark Twain
Fact Is Fiction – P. G. Wodehouse
The Sculptor’s Statue – Dan Brown
The Old Man and The Mountain – J. R. R. Tolkien

Blog Posts:
At Stake… Again – H. P. Lovecraft
Dreams and Words… – Dan Brown
At Stake… – Mario Puzo
Breaking the Jinx… – Mario Puzo
Stuck In Time… – David Foster Wallace

Some big names there

Inception has easily been one of the most entertaining and gripping movies I have had the pleasure of watching. As I sat in the the theater dumbstruck trying to navigate the mind and ideas of Christopher Nolan there was a weird sense of Déjà vu…

Thirty minutes into the movie I remembered what it was that seemed so similar… Actually what I remembered forced me into a smile and simultaneously made me extremely excited…

Five years ago, I wrote a short story – The Question. The story was little over 3 pages long and has been one of my best short stories till date. Turns out there was a lot of common ground between the concepts in Inception and The Question. While the common beliefs formulated the core of my story, in Inception they were the minor details of the story telling. Yet the similarities were clearly there…

After the movie I stood outside the theater(like many others) discussing the finer details of the movie with my friends. Among the people there I was only sure that my friend, Swetha had read that story five years ago. I told her that the movie had in parts reminded me of my short story and she immediately echoed my thoughts. Apparently she too had remembered my story while watching the movie!

The most oddest thing about the whole incident hit me only a couple of days ago. When I had first written “The Question” I was extremely vary about how it would be accepted, so I sent a proof copy of the original draft to a couple of my close friends. You wont believe that one of the proof readers’ response of the story was “This will make an awesome movie!”

Its an odd set of coincidences… You can feel free to read the story here: http://blog.chandrahasa.com/archives/333 and decide for yourself if the similarities are significant enough… I would love to hear your thoughts!

Ps: The coincidences don’t just end there; that reviewer, a very close friend of mine has gone on to become a film maker!

You have the power to cure all the world’s diseases but the price for this is that you must kill a single innocent child, could you kill that child?

Thats the question asked by the protagonist during the climax of Swordfish… I have thought about that question many times, asked it to a few ppl too… Frankly, the answer might tell you something about yourself; About if you can in metaphorical terms ‘pull the trigger’ when the time comes… But what is usually ignored is that, this question is not entirely complete…

The amount of information given is very small compared to what is put at stake… One might wonder about what is to happen to the child after being spared or what about the people of the world, will they live forever? But that actually also does not matter… the question is just a test… there is not child in harms way or no cure for all world’s diseases…

But what if you have the choice to choose between an ethical compromise and helping someone?

What if someone approached you to help some deeply in need. Your heart goes out for the person in need but you doubt the authenticity of the person in front of you. Would you extend you hand to help them knowing full well that you might be getting conned or would you walk away knowing somewhere in your heart that you possibly refused to help someone who direly needed your help.

You might consider weighing your options… but what if the decision has to be made at the moment?

Lets raise the stakes…

What if the help is not insignificant for you? What if your help would be a huge boost for the person in need?

Thinking? Lets see how far we can go with this

What if the help is very significant for you? What if your help would could save someone’s life?

—-

I read a short story a long time back, it was about a barber who was visited by the Dictator of the land. He had in his hand the sharp blade and in front of him the throat of a tyrant who had tortured and destroyed his country. Professional ethics dictated that he do his job and not be biased the political situation…

What would you have done?

During the entire time he is shaving the Dictator’s beard, the barber mentally tries to make the decision… In the end, he does his job. The Dictator walks away a clean shaven man…

So did the Barber make the right call?

I believe, the amount of information given is very small compared to what is put at stake…

Photographs have always been amazingly powerful inspirations to me. What I love most about them is that they let you choose how much you want to be moved by them… Actually thats the case with almost every form of art, what makes photographs more special is that the more you listen the more secretive it is.

I have been following the Explore page of Flickr for the past few days and its unexplainable how looking at creations by people across the globe has affected me. There is so much ideas flowing thru that portal each day that its overwhelming. You can look at those photos for hours and still be afraid to close the browser, just coz you might miss something wonderful…

Every frozen moment carries with it a story. The story of how that moment came to being and the magic of how that moment was captured forever. Sometimes I think about the subjects of those photos and wonder about the circumstances that bought that moment together, then again I wonder sometimes about the person behind the camera…

What appeals to me most about the art is that its hard to walk away from it. You can see a book and ignore it coz its too big, or read the first verse of a poem and walk away telling yourself that its too complicated… But with a photo you just have to give it a second, a second to register… thats it.

I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life… You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.

-American Beauty(Last lines)