likho umesh

Since I found myself free and with a lot of time to spare, I started reading short stories written by Somerset Maugham. I like his short stories. Most of the times he writes about extra-marital relations or about the travels he had during his writing career. What I have seen is that a good writer mostly writes from his experience. There are very few who use their imagination. I feel I have many stories in me. But despite coaxing my inner writer many a times, nothing seemed to work. I believe you have to have a plot if you are writing a story. Now I can write about many people I know. Many of them have interesting lives. For example, Khalk Singh. He is a former landowner’s son. His father named him Khalk Singh as the word Khalk means world in Urdu. Maybe he wanted his son Khalk to rule over the world. But the opposite happened with Khalk Singh. Kids make joke of his name. Nobody takes him seriously. Whatever he does turns to dust. He has many grand ideas but none of them work. He likes to eat and eats with a gusto. He is a great believer in the philosophy of Que Serra Serra. So he never worries about his kids or wife or for that matter anything. What will be will be, he says. Now I know so many traits of Khalk Singh and believe me therein lay many a rib tickling incidents. But either I should be carrying a diary to immediately write down or I forget!