What should I write about?
The first topic that peeped in my mind was ‘I should write about my initial days in Mumbai. The problems I faced and how I came up with the solution over them. How difficult was it to find a room in Mumbai. How happy my parents were when they heard that I got job in Mumbai.’ Then a second topic came up discontinuing the first one and I thought that I should pronounce through the story ‘Hey I am the first man in my family and relatives who attended college and found a good job in Mumbai.’ ‘May be that is very personal and I should not share it with anybody.’ So I dropped it.
Then I checked if there are any new mails. And there was one from my lead. Reading which, I was a bit shocked. The mail read that I had to finish the story and submit it by 3 am. Writing a story in 3 hours and I had already spent thirty minutes. Only two and half hours left! I was yet to find any topic. There was a kind of heat coming out of my skin. I was not able to concentrate. I was not able to think. Writing a story in such a short time! That’s impossible!
I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds and communicated with myself ‘Why am I panicking? This is a very small amount of task. This shall not bother me. There can come many such tasks which will demand me to work upon and complete them in a very short time. Come on man! They must have a motive behind curtailing the time period and bring it to three hours.’
When I opened my eyes, everything was clear now. I was as cool as before. I again started thinking over the topics. A thought came up, I should write about a man who, once I had met in train in the last summer. He carried big cold-drink bottles with water in them and offered water to the commuters. In return, the commuters offered him some money but he refused saying he was a teacher in a school and that was simply a social work. May be, it was a lie. But it was a social work, indeed!
Then another topic interrupted and I thought to write about the incident when there were seventeen incidents of fire in my village. All the villagers were afraid that some supernatural power was behind it. May be a ghost or something! At the end, everybody was surprised to learn that Sonu and Pappu had set the entire village on fire. The soothsayer who came that day was held responsible for this. Thank god, he was out of the village then, otherwise he was dead!
But writing this may require more than three hours and it would be a very lengthy story. So I dropped the idea.
It was two o’ clock. I had not penned even a single line. Last one hour was left and I was yet to finalise the topic. Then an idea struck my mind. I thought that I should surf internet and find out the topics. I found many topics such as blind woman, the rainy day, the road accident you encountered, a stolen ring, your good or bad experiences with people, good or bad incidents in your life and my observations.
‘I am such a stupid man!’ I said to myself. I should have done this earlier. If at all I did not know how to start, I should have searched for topics on internet. I could also have found some guidelines on writing a short story. Then I could have thought about characters and develop a story. After finishing it I could have gone through it and made a quick spellcheck and some grammar changes if required. Oh God, only a half hour is left!
I completely messed up. I could have written a good short story. But, what now?
Now, I know how to write a short story. I should start it now. What should I write about? I think I should write about ‘How I met Revati and how our love story flourished? Oh, it’s very personal. May be I shall write about the incident when Viveks’ ilnesss was wrongly diagnosed and how he responded and behaved. Later when, another doctor diagnosed it as something different and....
Oh no, its 3, o clock. What shall I do now? No, I am going to tell my lead that writing a story in three hours is not possible. But what if she asks me as to what did I do in the three hours?
Oh man!
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