A Story That Launched Another

Every moment spawns a new globe of perception . . . some that we recognize and acknowledge and many that we don't. Every moment causes a stimulus that makes us to launch into a new enterprise, which may either flourish into something phenomenal, or peter out and merge back into the ocean of generality. This hub page is about one such stimulus, one such spawning, which had a consequence that managed to reach a stage somewhere between those two extremes . . .

The story was serialized on Squidoo - a chapter a week, every Friday, over ten weeks, beginning mid-September 2009, and then withdrawn. In search of permanent address, it is now being quartered on HubPages, hoping this would would be its permanent residence.

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Madhuri Ramakrishnan

My daughter and co-author of the story.

She is a medicine resident at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

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Movies are for entertainment. One goes to a theater, munches popcorn and washes it down with a steaming cup of extra sweet coffee, laughs or cries as dictated by the story line-some times it could be for all the wrong reasons if the quality of performance so warrants and forget all about it as one walks away and gets reabsorbed into the daily routine of life. So I thought, until we saw the Hindi language film "Lagaan", which was the official Indian entry at the Oscars in 2002. The movie wouldn't let us exorcise it from our thoughts; It remained embedded in the depths, haunting us benignly, for weeks, for months ... perhaps it will be so for a lifetime.

That is when we decided that we should pay a tribute to something that affected us so profoundly. An event can affect different people in different ways. We thought the best form of tribute would be to write about the way we understood it. In our perception, the movie said so many things that were unsaid, portrayed so much more about the characters than what the script and visualization individually did, had a content that was a great deal more than what a three-hour movie could enfold. The outcome of that resolve is this story titled "A surge of time."

Doing anything the first time is always the most difficult. Hesitation haunts you. Uncertainty irks you. Dithering disturbs you. However, once a beginning is made, its momentum takes you much beyond what you had bargained for. This is pretty much that happened with my daughter Madhuri and me, as well. We wanted to write a novel, having never done it before, and before we knew it, we had accomplished it. It is the story as we saw it, where characters had backgrounds much beyond what the film had to portray and many new characters included too. There was also this challenge of language specific ideas to overcome - where certain customs and traditions are best described only in the language of the land and do not have an exact parallel elsewhere. This was in December 2007.

We hope that this effort does justice to the episode of excellence called "Lagaan" and induces those who have not seen it yet, to do so and those who have, to view it many times more.

Notionally, anything can be linked to anything else in the mosaic of existence. Some of them appear quite innate, others seem effected yet acceptable, while some others quite implausible and far fetched. An association between the game of cricket and the freedom struggle of an aspiring nation is of the last kind. To establish such a connection and make an interesting story out of it requires a highly imaginative mind, depth of thought and erudite creativity. To believe that such a story could be adapted for a movie requires not just courage but ingenuity as well.

This, then, is what went to make that one-of-a-kind movie called Lagaan. It presented grandeur using a backdrop of stark simplicity; contrived intrigue from integrity, fidelity, and sincerity; and inspired awe with plain rusticity. It was a sublime work of art, an epitome of originality. The music was not only an appropriate embellishment but was also an ode in itself to this exquisite conception.

It stimulates a patriotic fervor, which is strident and gentle at the same time - a wonderful blend indeed. It leaves the viewer with an all-encompassing feeling of well being and love for all - the perceived oppressor included.

Lagaan will remain a benchmark for films of its genre, and may be for those of all categories - because it has a little of everything in it, all beautifully woven together.

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In a novel attempt and the first of its kind in the annals of fiction-writing, a father / daughter duo has co-authored a novel – 'A surge of time'. One could call it a new age phenomenon. In the words of Judy Reeves, the author of 'Write Alone, Write Together', it is most important to first accept that you are a writer. And that the written word means serious business. Many of us have a burning desire to write. For this one needs to have the determination to get down to the art of writing – the tenacity and the perseverance.

This novel 'A surge of time' has a story content which has an integrity and strength of its own. The authors of have a pleasing narrative style, which as the story unfolds makes it gripping, holding the reader's imagination in a sustained manner with incidents unfolding before the mind's eye with clarity, sequence and descriptive quality that both absorbs and delights the reader. They have taken pains to research and gather material for the book and have cleverly woven fact and fiction into a tapestry that is appealing. The story content and the narrative speak volumes of the authors' excellent and evocative style of writing. The characters leave deep impressions which linger long after the book is finished. The authors of 'A Surge of Time', Ram Ramakrishnan and Madhuri Ramakrishnan, have brightened the art of story telling, and the novel will leave an indelible mark on the mind of the reader.

Vimala AnandaRam (Critic and Writer)

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