The Art of Story Telling...

“All the men of letters, in the look out of earning fame and recognition for the inherent literary creativity they possess, must have some times been in the dilemma of deciding the perfect most way of telling the story or the plot of the story they have in their mind…

…It is a question of uncertainty common to all writers…specially the budding ones…

…No matter how meritorious the plot is—telling it beautifully and in an interesting way is the most crucial part of constructing the plot into a well-knit story…

…In this concern a famous and widely popular Writer has presented a Guide-Line to be followed by every budding narrator in order to make their story a well-told-one…

…According to the Writer a perfectly constructed story must have four basic elements in it…

1. Divinity
2. Aristocracy
3. Sex and
4. Mystery…

…These four basic elements are to be mixed in proportional ratio to develop the plot into a concrete and well constructed story…”

The Teacher now paused for awhile only to regain her breathe…she was satisfied with her lecture and had no doubts in her mind that her students had understood clearly all the secrets of the “Art of Story Telling”.

She gasped for a few more moments…then instructed the class: “Now, with the help of those four basic elements I had just informed you, try to write out a story of your own where all those four elements are mixed in a balanced form”.

It was a class on Creative Writing…and definitely she was trying her hardest to take it to a different level!

All the obedient pupils immediately started to follow the direction of their dearest Teacher.

With mellowed eyes she glanced at her students…all were busy with their exercise books…scribbling onto it…some were found chewing the back of their pens with eyes half closed…she knew they were certainly mind-mapping the plot!

‘Now it’s time to relax a little’… the Teacher felt and unstrained herself softly on the chair near the table… ‘They are engaged in really writing a story, and it should definitely take some time to complete’… she told herself.

Only at this a girl stood up and came to her.

With a proud smile on her face the little girl offered her exercise book to the Teacher to have a look at her story and remark.

It read…

“Oh God”, exclaimed the duchess, “I am pregnant, but I do not know who is the father!”

Can you deny folks that her story has all the four basic elements mixed in a proportional ratio?

There is…

“Oh God” (Divinity), exclaimed the duchess (Aristocracy), “I am pregnant (Sex), but I do not know who is the father (Mystery)!”

And what did the Teacher remark?

Well, I am leaving that for you to presume!

The Unknown Citizen

“He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be

One against whom there was no official complaint…”

He was a simple worker, with a humble educational background, always trying his hardest to meet the two ends of life together.

“…in everything he did he served the Greater Community…”

He tried his level best to serve the local people…through the gush of wind and heavy downpour…working desperately to keep the current of Urban Life flow undisrupted.

“He worked in a factory and never got fired,

But satisfied his employers…”

Every employer is always satisfied with workers who follow their instructions unquestioned and with unprotesting sincerity…He was therefore loved for his loyalty to the instructions of the authority, though rude and humiliating it may be.

“Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,

For his Union reports that he paid his dues…”

Certainly, the Union was for him a compulsory enrollment; as he neither believed in the Union agendas nor did he ever willingly participate.

“…he was popular with his mates and liked a drink”

Yet you can take my word he was not a drunk! And never was seen involved in exchanging hot words with his mates.

“And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured”

During one storm he got a nasty shock while trying to obey the orders of the authority…but he himself considered it to be an accident!

“And had everything necessary for the Modern Man”

Thanks to the ‘accident’ and the ‘compensations’ his authorities paid in order to suppress their own instructions of going out ‘lighting’ in a lightning-storm!

“When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went”

He was unresisting, unprotesting by nature I have already assured you…what else do you expect?

“He was married and added five children to the population”

His only concern was the well upbringing of his nestlings and all his labour was keeping this goal ever fixed in his mind. He dreamt of a real better prospect for them…not as unimpressive as his, but definitely worthy enough to mention.

But…

“Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:

Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.”

At least, The Unknown Citizen has never complained us of anything!

Quotes: The Unknown Citizen by W. H. Auden

Photograph: Author

Touch of Heaven...

"Children do not know how their parents love them, and that never will till the grave closes over those parents, or till they have children of their own...."

~ Alistair Cooke