Shawshank Redemption

Notes from Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank fever is up on me. Here are a few posts in the last couple of days about it.

So anyway, I saw the film and I decided to read the original short story by Stephen King on which the book is based. And I made notes alongside and I tried to think of Nidhi’s story while reading it. Here are some notes that I made while I was doing so. Might be of interest to some of you.

Oh, this assumes that you are aware of the Shawshank as a story. If you are not, a quick glance to the wikiedia page would bring you upto speed. And if you were to watch just one more movie in the rest of your life, please go see Shawshank. It’s that good. Not just me, but all those people on IMDB agree as well, for it tops the list of best movies made. Ever.

So coming back, here are the notes.

Nidhi’s story is similar to Andy’s. Not the jail and other things but the one before that. A society girl, a pro sportsman and an estranged husband. King took less than 6 pages to paint such a vivid picture of the story that I want to continue reading it even after it is over. I, on the other hand expect to take about 300 pages to narrate it. And I am assuming that someone would actually sit for all the hours it takes to read 300 pages and finish reading the story.
Apart from Andy’s story, there are a million simple little side plots in the story that are stories in themselves (Red’s story, the guy who smuggled his coin collection in prison and hid it somewhere, the clerk from the store that testifies against Andy, Jake the pigeon, the boss at Foodway etc.). Nidhi’s story on the other hand, is as flat, simple, straight, plain, bland as they come. Would one single long bland story interest readers? I dont know. I will find out though.
The dialogues are as amazing as they come. They are preachy, insightful and yet made up of simple words that I and other common folk would understand and comprehend. For Nidhi, I am not relying on a lot of dialogues but it would be nice to have some. I will have to work on it. I will do it.
Analogies (“every one of those seven has an ass as hard as the water drawn up from a mineral-spring well”, “the pigeon was just as dead as a turd”, “cockroach on a wedding cake”) etc. King seems like a master of these. I dont think I can cook such things. I dont think I have a vivid enough imagination to think of how to compare a prisoner who has broke out of prison to a cockroach on a wedding cake. Thankfully I dont really have any prisoners in Nidhi’s story but there are more than one shady characters. I need to get creative and start seeing a lot more cake shops, turds, mineral-spring wells. You get the drift I think.
I need to get creative with simple objects and make the narrative better. King calls a ten dollar note, a picture of Alexander Hamilton. I later found that Hamilton is one of those former presidents of the US and graces the ten dollar bill. The way Gandhi does most of our bills. I could have never imagined that I could call currency notes anything but notes. Or cash. Or wad. Or something like that. And not just currency, there is a lot. So I think once I finish one draft of Nidhi’s story, I would get busy with these interesting things.
Characters. I have come to understand that a story is about three things. Characters. Characters. And Characters. Everything else is useless. If you ignore the cliche and indulge me, most stories have the same structure and same plot. A common man is wronged by a situation or a person. The man then fights back and avenges the wrongdoing. And then lives happily ever after or dies in peace. Campbell actually wrote a book about this. You must read it if you are interested in writing or interested in characters. The way King creates these characters is amazing. Like the Warden. He does not talk about how bad or corrupt he is, there are only degrees that he can talk about. Instead he talks about another Warden and then simply says that the new Warden was twenty times badder than the previous one. Simple and yet effective.

All these things that I could take a note of, dawned onto me while I read the short story during the day, interspersed with bouts of fitful sleeping and trying to better my time at solving a Rubik’s Cube over a shitpot. It stands at 3 minutes and 40 seconds at the time of writing this. The world record, to put things in perspective, is 5.66 seconds.

To summarize, I have realized that I am not even half good as the tip of the nail of the pinkie of King’s lesser used hand. I know its early days for me. But then, I am on the road already and there is no stopping me now. The question is, how far do I get to travel on it and do I meet Stephen King somewhere down the road?

You, as the reader of the Nidhi Kapoor Story, could help me along that road. If you read it, please share your feedback on it. Make it as brutal and as critical. Point out flaws and hide the good bits. Make me suffer in the agony of my failure. Help me see things that I cant. May be, just may be, you would thus help me move on the road faster! And you know what? Thank you in advance for doing so.

And like I said in the beginning, do read the short story and do see the movie if you haven’t.

P.S.: This is day 5 on the trot that I have published something on my blog! Yay baby! Here are the links to the posts on 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th.

P.P.S.: If you are interested in reading a slightly modified version of this post that includes some headings, I posted it on the Nidhi Kapoor blog. No, not Nidhi’s blog. But the book’s blog.

Andy, Red and Nidhi Kapoor. sgMS. And Poker.

Today evening I was home and had nothing to do. I took out time and wrote that longish rant on freedom. And while writing the post, I read about Shawshank. And then I read some quotes and saw a few clips online. And then I got the movie and saw it.

While I was seeing the movie, a few really interesting things happened. For starters, it gave me insights into how I live my life viz a viz the inmates at Shawshank. And more importantly, it gave me insights into what all could be ~~still~~ done with The Nidhi Kapoor Story (tnks) to make it better. Let me use bullet points to talk about this further.

So far the story is about three characters, Nidhi, Renu and Prakash. The entire story is not really narrated by someone, as Red does in Shawshank. What if, tnks was narrated by someone. I dont know if this will make the material any good but it would be exciting for sure. It would also mean that I would have to rewrite a large chunk of what is already on paper. But then, I have a responsibility towards the readers of tnks and I have made them a promise and I would re-write as many times as I think is required to get the story in a readable shape. If not for twists and turns, I want people to have a good time while reading the book. So, over the next few days, I need to figure out the way forward.
Apart from the change narrative and the plot, the scene from Shawshank where Andy, Red and their gang is painting the roofs with tar, it gave me yet another gimmicky idea for marketing tnks. After all, beneath the damn bald (ing fast) head, I have a marketing brain on my shoulders. Its early days to talk about it here but I am really excited about it.
Live life from each character‘s perspective and then write it. And not as a journalist with a third rate publication. But as a real person. What emotions would someone go through if her favorite pets are killed? What emotion would a guy go through when the love of his life is fucking his best friend? What emotion would the reader go through while he is reading about the unfaithful girl? So on and so forth.

I know am not taking the story forward with these things but I am definitely putting shape to the ideas that I had in my head. And I believe that it would do a world of good. That’s it for Nidhi.

Apart from Nidhi, the other woman that occupies my head a lot is sgMS. I will talk about her now.

So, today, something interesting happened. I met this really old and really good friend for coffee. She knows me in and out and I really thank my stars that I am friends with her. She made me realize that my fascination for sgMS may be misplaced and I need to move on. She made me realize that if she is happy without me, actually enjoying her life without me being around, I have no right to interfere. What if she was brought on Mother Earth for me!

So, since its something that I can control by myself, I have decided to flip the switch and have decided to move on. And try and find some real love. I mean I know I cant find real love but I would let these accidents happen now. I would live. I would be free. Remember the post I made yesterday about freedom?

I know I have made this promise to myself at least a hundred times earlier, if not more. But this time, its for real. Andy, in Shawshank says, Get busy living, or get busy dying. Here is a poster.

Its one of THE most powerful set of words ever written. All this while, I was busy dying. Now, this day onwards, I am going to live. And get busy with it. And there is no place for sgMS in that busy life. But then the fact remains that she is above everything else. She defines the beginning. And she defines the end of all my endeavors. She is that important. Whatever we shared for whatever duration, was special and I feel blessed to have had that. But like every good thing, I guess the relationship has served its purpose. And I need to move on. And I would.

Finally, the third thing that I want to talk about today is poker.

Since I left my job in July, I have spent a large chunk of time playing poker. With real money, online and offline. And with moderate success. But then I realized that I was getting addicted to poker. Like I get addicted to all forms of games of chance. I promise that as a part of this get-busy-living phase of life, I would take a sabbatical from poker. I would read about it alright, I would talk about it, but I would not play. Except the coming week.

That’s if for the time being for an update and a blog post. This is also the third post in as many days. A welcome change, since I hadn’t written for a large chunk of this month. Do check out the FB page for The Nidhi Kapoor Story and Like it if you like what you see there.

P.S.: This is like a daily diary on steroids. Writing, fiction, fact, inferences, thoughts et al. Four days on the trot. Lets see how long do I continue it this time.

What is it to be free?

Before I get into a long drawn rant, I want to show a picture, if you guys are interesting in reading this. So, I dont know who sent this to me. Or may be I found this on the Internet somewhere. But its am amazing picture that I would want as a background on my phone / laptop.

And you may want to read this tweet that I sent out today morning.

So coming, to the post, this friend and I, we met over lunch today and we got talking about life and times and careers and money and opportunities and other such things that two wannabes talk about. We also spoke about the fact that we are on the wrong side of age now. He’s 34. I am 31. We were at Breeze and while he was busy getting drunk at 11 in the morning, I was content with a mere Red Bull.

So the thing with Breeze is that, on your left, you can see Bandra, Andheri and the sea beyond all those hazy buildings. In front of your eyes is the Powai lake and Vihar lake and the mountains, all these hidden by those multistory towers of Hiranandani. On your right are more buildings by Hiranandani and the hills. Its probably the best view of Mumbai that poor us can afford, second only to the view from AER.

These views, the bird’s eye views, its like being on top of a miniature city that someone built and then abandoned. From such a vantage point, the city that never sleeps looks like a ghost town. You can only see the hazy outlines of buildings and the geometric continuity that these buildings seem to make in the distance.Of course there are cars and trains and other things that you can see but these are mechanical and scaled down. You don’t see the detail, the very detail that brings the world alive for us.

Anyway, that is not important. And that is not why I wrote this.

I wrote this because we had this interesting discussion about being free. Free like birds that we could see flying among those tall buildings and going up and down at their whims. Free like that wind that was blowing at that height and was free to chose the direction it went in. Free like those thoughts that run amok when you are on a drive. Free like that free man that Morgan Freeman talks about in Shawshank Redemption. For the uninitiated, he says,

“I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain…”

We, the friend and I, we talked about it. About being free.

And then an amazing realization dawned upon us. We could be free as well. Free like those birds. Free like a man on the start of a long journey.

And all we needed to do was to hold our phones like we were holding a cricket ball. And then extend our arms all the way back. As back as it goes. Even bend backwards while we are stretching the arm back. Take a deep deep breath. Place our feet on a firm footing. As firm as they come. And then fling the arm, the whole upper torso towards the emptiness below us. And just when the arm is out there, travelling away from our body, let that deep breath escape from your body. The breath that had been trapped all this while. You let it go. And with it, you let go of your phone. The one that you were holding like a ball. The one thing that has been stopping you from letting go and being free.

But we did not. We did not have the balls or money to do so. We had he money but we weren’t free. We weren’t ready to be free.

The route is out there. Its simple really. Its only about doing it. Some day soon. I promise to myself, that I would be free. Free like a free man on the start of a long journey. Soon.

Quotes from Shawshank Redemption

Finally I saw it. And yes I like it. Here are few quotes that I loved.

Dufrense to Red, in the letter

Dear Red, If you’re reading this, you’ve gotten out. And if you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don’t you? I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels. I’ll keep an eye out for you and the chessboard ready. Remember, Red. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you, and finds you well. Your friend, Andy.

Red on Dufrense’s escape

I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright and when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice, but still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they’re gone.

Red after reading the letter

I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

Dufresne on Music

Forget that… there are places in this world that aren’t made out of stone. That there’s something inside… that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. That’s yours.

Copied liberally from wikiquote and IMDB. BTW did you know IMDB was owned by Amazon?

And like Dufresne I like to have projects. I do have one right now.