...Continued From here...
As I reached back to my desk with a cup of strong smelling coffee in my hand, to my disappointment, I noticed the story had already moved forward. I quickly ran through what had happened while I was away, and it read as:
Moments after the taxi started, the lady asked AK about where he was going and where is he from? Is he a tourist? Etc, and so began their conversation. And to their surprise, they found out that they both worked for the same company, and same office building, and same floor too. And while they were busy discussing all this, the taxi stopped somewhere and at some distance AK could see large board reading “MoChit Bus station”. He got down and asked the driver how much. But the lady was much faster and she paid the full amount and refused to get any money from AK. She then took him to the platform where he should wait for his bus, and left for her bus.
“oooh noooo...!!!” I exclaimed. “Why? Whyyy?” I asked in a disappointed voice, as if there was somebody around me to answer “He did not do any good now, then why!??” and I rested my forehead on my hand. And immediately I heard the familiar whispering voice of the magical entity, soft and slow “AK showed faith in God and his people” and the voice faded away “even through suspicious time”…
I frowned dejectedly, and decided to get ahead with story. I was very angry as well and wanted to take out my anger on the character and I started scribbling furiously
The platform was heavily crowded and very noisy as well. People were moving hither and thither. Near the platform from where AK had to catch the bus, there was a big mob of people. AK, somehow moved in through the crowd and noticed that there were two old, but well built ladies sitting at a table with and old pc. From what was happening around, AK, could make out that they were the bus coordinators and so he showed them the tickets which they looked at hurriedly and muttered something in thai. AK looked confused and looked around if there was anybody who could translate for him. No luck, everybody was thai local. The crowd seemed to get bigger and bigger and forget walking, even standing was difficult. After few mins a bus arrived, and the people at platform ran crazy. But AK did not know if that was his bus. He once again asked the lady at the counter, and she seemed to get irritated, and again muttered something angrily. Another lady nearby who heard her reply and expression on AK’s face, said to him that all buses are late. 6.30 pm bus reached just now (8.30 pm) only!.
The same situation continued for 1 hour, 2 hours and the crowd kept increasing and AK became very tired. He could not stand anymore and held on to the chair of the lady and tried to manage standing. It was getting more and more difficult, and his mind was suggesting that he get the ticked refunded and go back home, but he continued to hold on…
“How are you feeling now, baby..” I said softly to myself with a wide smile on my face…, but this smile was short lived, as the pen started moving by itself writing something. I held on to it tightly and tried to stop it, pull it away, but it was no use. It was ever so powerful, I could not do anything. Then I accepted defeat and asked again “what now?!”, and again the soft whisper came “AK showed endurance through physical and mental turbulence and hung on to his goal…” and in about a min, the pen stopped writing and dropped.
I quickly read out what damage it ended up doing
“all of a sudden, the lady at the desk started looking around, and then pointed at AK, and asked him to give his ticket, and then scribbled something, cut a piece out of it, and asked him to get into a bus that was standing in next platform. She escorted him through the crowd and into the bus and told something to a person inside it. AK realized that this was a VIP bus, and he had booked for a second class only, but he was promoted to this bus, for reasons unknown.”
As I read this my face again dropped in spirits, and I thought there was nobody to blame for this situation of mine - except me. I remembered how I was part of the same Magical Writers clan who always wrote only good things and one fine day …
...Continued here...
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The Story Writer Series - Part 1
Characters:
First Person (Refered as “I”): An author who is writing a story about AK (fictional character-as far as the author is concerned)
Magical Entity: It is something/someone that interferes with the authors writing and adds its own twist to the story (magically). He/she/it is not visible, but jumps in important situations of the story to give the story a different twist.
AK: The Main Character of the story written by Author. He is bitten by adventure and enjoy/experience life bug… His life events are controlled by what the author and the magical entity writes in the story.
Legend (Color coding):
This font & color represent the author speech and actions.
This font & color represents the Story
As I walked over to my writing table, with a notebook in my hand, I thought “I hate this character - AK… no matter what I do, he ends up being happy. Of course, I know it’s because of that damn magical thing, but there ought to be some way, to get this story forward in the direction I WANT!”, and I sat on the nice comfortable wooden chair saying to myself “it’s been few days since that sprite has interrupted me, best time for me to make the story more interesting”.
I quickly ruffled through pages of the notebook and found the point where the story was hung. “Ok, so here it is. AK is about to go to Chiang Mai… hmmmm… poor fella! Now see what i do to you” and I had a secret chuckle on my face with my eyes bright and twinkling.
“Ok, so here you go baby”, saying so I started
AK comes out of Kamphaeng phet station in Bangkok and looks around. He has to go to Mochit station to board his bus for Chiang mai, but doesn’t know the directions. He walks up to middle aged lady, standing on the pavement near a busy road, and asks her for direction. The lady’s eyes lit up seeing the bus booking receipt that AK showed. She stuttered back that she can take him to the station in Taxi along with her
I rubbed my hands together at this point and had a big secret smile on my face… and again continued back to scribble…
She looked around the road, left and right uncomfortably, as many taxis passed, but did not bother to stop them. She spoke on phone (in thai) for few mins in between. AK, watched this impatiently, and finally after about 10 mins, she said, its difficult to get a taxi here, lets walkover to the other side, and try, and saying so, she walked back and towards left side. AK followed her wondering what was going on, thinking he was better off getting a taxi himself.
They walked around to a little more quiter side of the road, and there was a rickshaw like taxi already standing there. She directly walked up to it, spoke something in thai, and asked AK to get in and she got in too.
“Ah! this is going perfect” I thought, as I turned the page, “And more importantly, its still in my control” with my face still smiling. “Let me grab a cup of coffee, this is going to be interesting”, saying so I stood up and walked over to the kitchen, leaving the notepad on the table. Little did I think, how a cup of coffee could impact my story…
Continued here...
First Person (Refered as “I”): An author who is writing a story about AK (fictional character-as far as the author is concerned)
Magical Entity: It is something/someone that interferes with the authors writing and adds its own twist to the story (magically). He/she/it is not visible, but jumps in important situations of the story to give the story a different twist.
AK: The Main Character of the story written by Author. He is bitten by adventure and enjoy/experience life bug… His life events are controlled by what the author and the magical entity writes in the story.
Legend (Color coding):
This font & color represent the author speech and actions.
This font & color represents the Story
Note: Please dont forget that "I"=Author ... NOT Me (Abdul), while reading....
As I walked over to my writing table, with a notebook in my hand, I thought “I hate this character - AK… no matter what I do, he ends up being happy. Of course, I know it’s because of that damn magical thing, but there ought to be some way, to get this story forward in the direction I WANT!”, and I sat on the nice comfortable wooden chair saying to myself “it’s been few days since that sprite has interrupted me, best time for me to make the story more interesting”.
I quickly ruffled through pages of the notebook and found the point where the story was hung. “Ok, so here it is. AK is about to go to Chiang Mai… hmmmm… poor fella! Now see what i do to you” and I had a secret chuckle on my face with my eyes bright and twinkling.
“Ok, so here you go baby”, saying so I started
AK comes out of Kamphaeng phet station in Bangkok and looks around. He has to go to Mochit station to board his bus for Chiang mai, but doesn’t know the directions. He walks up to middle aged lady, standing on the pavement near a busy road, and asks her for direction. The lady’s eyes lit up seeing the bus booking receipt that AK showed. She stuttered back that she can take him to the station in Taxi along with her
I rubbed my hands together at this point and had a big secret smile on my face… and again continued back to scribble…
She looked around the road, left and right uncomfortably, as many taxis passed, but did not bother to stop them. She spoke on phone (in thai) for few mins in between. AK, watched this impatiently, and finally after about 10 mins, she said, its difficult to get a taxi here, lets walkover to the other side, and try, and saying so, she walked back and towards left side. AK followed her wondering what was going on, thinking he was better off getting a taxi himself.
They walked around to a little more quiter side of the road, and there was a rickshaw like taxi already standing there. She directly walked up to it, spoke something in thai, and asked AK to get in and she got in too.
“Ah! this is going perfect” I thought, as I turned the page, “And more importantly, its still in my control” with my face still smiling. “Let me grab a cup of coffee, this is going to be interesting”, saying so I stood up and walked over to the kitchen, leaving the notepad on the table. Little did I think, how a cup of coffee could impact my story…
Continued here...
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
My Jul 24 2010 weekend trip - part 2
(continued...)
24 jul 2010 4.00 pm I and the Lady from US (a teacher in english language for kids in some school in bangkok) were walking towards the exit and discussing how rudely/roughly the tiger caretakers handled the humans (pulling people around each of the tiger and getting their snaps) as well as the tigers. We both felt bad for the state of the tigers as they were completely out of their natural habitat and just living a mundane life on the human's wills and whims.
But she was happy that she cancelled the safari tour and took up the tiger temple on my suggestion.
On the way back we saw Peacocks, horses, bufallos, cows, and sheeps as well."
7/25/10 9:00 AM I am standing under a waterfall called "Sai Yok Noi" in kanchanaburi and nobody from the tour group got up to the waterfall, it was only me alone and as I started my descent back down, I slipped in the slippery stones and water
24 Jul 2010 10.30 PM I am lying on a single bed in a small room and mosquitos are torturing me. And to top it, there is no electricity…
I had booked this guest house room for one night when I realised I wont be able to cover all the places in one day. It is jus 5 mins walk from the tour agency and is pretty decent and believe me or not, the rent is just 70 baht per day (without electricity) and 150 baht/day (with electricity)."
7/23/10 10:00 PM I am packing my bag for the kanchanaburi trip. I realise that I may get wet in waterfall and so keep one pair of dress additionally and a towel as well.
7/25/10 7:00 AM The additional pair of dress that I had kept came useful now as I had a bath n changed my dress.
25 Jul 2010 9.15 AM fortunately I managed to hold some rocks on side and stop my slip from waterfall to just a couple of feet. But my dress got dirty and so I switched to my prev days clothes back again…
25 Jul 10.30 AM I am sitting on long pieces of bamboo tied togather floating on a small stream flowing inbetween nice dense forest. I hav along with me another tourist from taiwan catching some snaps for me. This turns out to be quite an exciting ride especially around turns and uneven rocky beds
7/25/10 11:00 AM I am on top of an elephant which is making its way through dense forest for sometime, then through the stream for sometime and everynow and then stopping by to pull out grass from around and eat. The ride is very shaky and as the huge animal moves up and down through paths in its own inimitable style.
25 jul 2010 4.30 pm I am in travelling in the death railway (similar to toy train) and can see amazing sights out of the window
25 Jul 2010 3.30 PM I am at Hell fire museum going through the articles and videos present there about what happened in during the second world war.
Felt very bad for all the people (about 100,000) who died in process of making the railway line between burma n thailand (which is now called the death railway) and many more who went through unimaginable and unbearable pain and circumstances in constructing the same.
7/25/10 4:00 PM I am IN the Hell fire pass. It’s a rgeat feeling to be there and view is just breathtaking. And it is so unbelieveable that this cutting between the moutain was done all by hand and in just 14 days by the prisoners of war from southeast asia.
7/25/10 8:00 PM I am sittin in a mini van, travelling back to, going through the pics in my cam and realise that this has to be my best tours till now.
But she was happy that she cancelled the safari tour and took up the tiger temple on my suggestion.
On the way back we saw Peacocks, horses, bufallos, cows, and sheeps as well."
7/25/10 9:00 AM I am standing under a waterfall called "Sai Yok Noi" in kanchanaburi and nobody from the tour group got up to the waterfall, it was only me alone and as I started my descent back down, I slipped in the slippery stones and water
24 Jul 2010 10.30 PM I am lying on a single bed in a small room and mosquitos are torturing me. And to top it, there is no electricity…
I had booked this guest house room for one night when I realised I wont be able to cover all the places in one day. It is jus 5 mins walk from the tour agency and is pretty decent and believe me or not, the rent is just 70 baht per day (without electricity) and 150 baht/day (with electricity)."
7/23/10 10:00 PM I am packing my bag for the kanchanaburi trip. I realise that I may get wet in waterfall and so keep one pair of dress additionally and a towel as well.
7/25/10 7:00 AM The additional pair of dress that I had kept came useful now as I had a bath n changed my dress.
25 Jul 2010 9.15 AM fortunately I managed to hold some rocks on side and stop my slip from waterfall to just a couple of feet. But my dress got dirty and so I switched to my prev days clothes back again…
25 Jul 10.30 AM I am sitting on long pieces of bamboo tied togather floating on a small stream flowing inbetween nice dense forest. I hav along with me another tourist from taiwan catching some snaps for me. This turns out to be quite an exciting ride especially around turns and uneven rocky beds
25 jul 2010 4.30 pm I am in travelling in the death railway (similar to toy train) and can see amazing sights out of the window
25 Jul 2010 3.30 PM I am at Hell fire museum going through the articles and videos present there about what happened in during the second world war.
Felt very bad for all the people (about 100,000) who died in process of making the railway line between burma n thailand (which is now called the death railway) and many more who went through unimaginable and unbearable pain and circumstances in constructing the same.
7/25/10 4:00 PM I am IN the Hell fire pass. It’s a rgeat feeling to be there and view is just breathtaking. And it is so unbelieveable that this cutting between the moutain was done all by hand and in just 14 days by the prisoners of war from southeast asia.
7/25/10 8:00 PM I am sittin in a mini van, travelling back to, going through the pics in my cam and realise that this has to be my best tours till now.
Monday, July 26, 2010
My Jul 24 2010 Weekend trip - Part 1
Below is an extract from my weekend trip diary.
7/24/10 6:10 AM : I am in a Taxi, and I ring up somebody and after a few words handover the phone to the driver
Rewind ~ 2 days
7/22/10 2:00 PM : I am in office talking with a colleague sitting next to me, as he surfs the net trying to find out the best way for me to reach kanchanaburi
Rewind ~ 1 day
7/21/10 9:00 PM : I am surfing net at my serviced apartment and reading tourist review comments for kanchanaburi trip and finalized Mini-van for dropping me to kanchanaburi
Forward ~ 1 day
7/22/10 2:15 PM : Finally found out one tourist van service number. Called him up and confirmed if it was still active and timings and price.
Forward ~ 2 days
7/24/10 6:30 AM : My cab halts in an empty road in khao san road, and I can see a number of mini vans parked on the left hand side. I talk with one of the person sitting behind a small table placed on the pavement, pay him 120 baht and in another five minute, get onto the front seat of a mini-van.
Forward ~ 2.5 Hours
7/24/10 9:00 AM : I am walking along a deserted street which is full of massage shops, food shops, guest houses, and shops of tour organizers. Most of them have not yet opened. feeling completely lost and confused… not knowing what to do
Rewind ~ 20 mins
7/24/10 8:40 AM : I am talking with person behind the counter of a tourist shop, as they explain me all the available tours in kanchanaburi, but when I select the tour I want to go, I am informed that it has already started and the vans have departed. I go around few more shops, and its the same story. The day tours seems to start at 8 AM itself
Rewind ~ 1 day
7/23/10 4:00 PM : I am sitting next to my Team lead in office @Chamchuree Square, as he googles and shows me maps and distances (and travel duration) between places that I want to cover in kanchanaburi. He is concerned that I may not be able to manage all the travel myself and we finally decide that i should reach there (kanchanaburi) and join in one of the local tour programs.
Rewind ~ 4 hours
7/23/10 11:30 AM : My TL is sitting next to me and has a look at the list of places I want to cover in my weekend trip. He then suggests me that I should take into account the time factor as well (travel n sightseeing) to make the plan work. Else I may not be able to complete the trip as planned.
Forward ~ 1 day
7/24/10 5:00 AM : My alarm rings, I wake up hurriedly and go through the daily morning chores. I had already packed my bag yesterday night. The plan is for a one day trip to kanchanaburi. Will travel till kanchanaburi by a local tourist van and then catch a local tour program from there, and return by 8.30 pm back to Bangkok
Rewind ~ 2 weeks
7/5/2010-7/14/2010 : I go through various sites, friend suggestions, tourist companies around Bangkok and enquire about various adventure trip options, their prices, the duration, etc. and finalize on Kanchanaburi - as that seems to give me more new experiences and is affordable (both time and cost wise) for me.
I also notice that cost/prices set by bigger tourist firms (found online) are way too high than ones offered by tour shops along roads (nana for ex), and even cheaper is the weekend Special Train offer. But disadvantage is that its quite slow and does not cover everything that i want.
Forward ~ 2 weeks
7/24/10 3:30 PM : I am sitting next to a nice big tiger (re
al), touching softly on top of its neck and somebody is clicking pictures, and seconds later I am suddenly being held firmly on my hand and pulled around very fast, almost like running
Rewind ~ 6 hours
7/24/10 9:15 AM : I am standing at a tour organizing shop named "Good Times" (came back again after enquiring other shops), and they tell me that there is a tiger temple tour at noon, if I wish to join. The travel cost 130 baht (up and down) and 500 baht is the entrance fee.
Rewind ~ 2 weeks
7/5/2010-7/14/2010 : I read about tiger temple in Kanchanaburi, I see pictures of general tourist people with tiger on their lap etc. I am very excited and want to experience the same ….
Forward ~ 2 weeks
7/24/10 3:15 PM : I am walking along with a pretty lady in a seemingly deserted forest like area with some brochures (maps) in our hands and discussing something.
Rewind ~ 2 hours
7/24/10 1:30 PM : I am at the "Good Times" tourist shop again, this time booking my Tiger temple trip, and next to me is a pretty lady seemingly from the US. She is going through the tour brochures and seems pretty confused and selects erawan waterfall + safari world tour option for next day.
----------I N T E R V E L-----------
If you want to know what happened with the tiger suddenly? whats the story about that girl from US?, and was my trip successful? what all places was i able to cover? did i stay back there for the night? etc, then you will have to wait for the next part :)
Coming up next is the answer for all the above questions + a straight forward review and tips for Kanchanaburi tour.
Hope you enjoyed reading this. Eagerly waiting for your comments. :)
7/24/10 6:10 AM : I am in a Taxi, and I ring up somebody and after a few words handover the phone to the driver
Rewind ~ 2 days
7/22/10 2:00 PM : I am in office talking with a colleague sitting next to me, as he surfs the net trying to find out the best way for me to reach kanchanaburi
Rewind ~ 1 day
7/21/10 9:00 PM : I am surfing net at my serviced apartment and reading tourist review comments for kanchanaburi trip and finalized Mini-van for dropping me to kanchanaburi
Forward ~ 1 day
7/22/10 2:15 PM : Finally found out one tourist van service number. Called him up and confirmed if it was still active and timings and price.
Forward ~ 2 days
7/24/10 6:30 AM : My cab halts in an empty road in khao san road, and I can see a number of mini vans parked on the left hand side. I talk with one of the person sitting behind a small table placed on the pavement, pay him 120 baht and in another five minute, get onto the front seat of a mini-van.
Forward ~ 2.5 Hours
7/24/10 9:00 AM : I am walking along a deserted street which is full of massage shops, food shops, guest houses, and shops of tour organizers. Most of them have not yet opened. feeling completely lost and confused… not knowing what to do
Rewind ~ 20 mins
7/24/10 8:40 AM : I am talking with person behind the counter of a tourist shop, as they explain me all the available tours in kanchanaburi, but when I select the tour I want to go, I am informed that it has already started and the vans have departed. I go around few more shops, and its the same story. The day tours seems to start at 8 AM itself
Rewind ~ 1 day
7/23/10 4:00 PM : I am sitting next to my Team lead in office @Chamchuree Square, as he googles and shows me maps and distances (and travel duration) between places that I want to cover in kanchanaburi. He is concerned that I may not be able to manage all the travel myself and we finally decide that i should reach there (kanchanaburi) and join in one of the local tour programs.
Rewind ~ 4 hours
7/23/10 11:30 AM : My TL is sitting next to me and has a look at the list of places I want to cover in my weekend trip. He then suggests me that I should take into account the time factor as well (travel n sightseeing) to make the plan work. Else I may not be able to complete the trip as planned.
Forward ~ 1 day
7/24/10 5:00 AM : My alarm rings, I wake up hurriedly and go through the daily morning chores. I had already packed my bag yesterday night. The plan is for a one day trip to kanchanaburi. Will travel till kanchanaburi by a local tourist van and then catch a local tour program from there, and return by 8.30 pm back to Bangkok
Rewind ~ 2 weeks
7/5/2010-7/14/2010 : I go through various sites, friend suggestions, tourist companies around Bangkok and enquire about various adventure trip options, their prices, the duration, etc. and finalize on Kanchanaburi - as that seems to give me more new experiences and is affordable (both time and cost wise) for me.
I also notice that cost/prices set by bigger tourist firms (found online) are way too high than ones offered by tour shops along roads (nana for ex), and even cheaper is the weekend Special Train offer. But disadvantage is that its quite slow and does not cover everything that i want.
Forward ~ 2 weeks
7/24/10 3:30 PM : I am sitting next to a nice big tiger (re
al), touching softly on top of its neck and somebody is clicking pictures, and seconds later I am suddenly being held firmly on my hand and pulled around very fast, almost like runningRewind ~ 6 hours
7/24/10 9:15 AM : I am standing at a tour organizing shop named "Good Times" (came back again after enquiring other shops), and they tell me that there is a tiger temple tour at noon, if I wish to join. The travel cost 130 baht (up and down) and 500 baht is the entrance fee.
Rewind ~ 2 weeks
7/5/2010-7/14/2010 : I read about tiger temple in Kanchanaburi, I see pictures of general tourist people with tiger on their lap etc. I am very excited and want to experience the same ….
Forward ~ 2 weeks
7/24/10 3:15 PM : I am walking along with a pretty lady in a seemingly deserted forest like area with some brochures (maps) in our hands and discussing something.
Rewind ~ 2 hours
7/24/10 1:30 PM : I am at the "Good Times" tourist shop again, this time booking my Tiger temple trip, and next to me is a pretty lady seemingly from the US. She is going through the tour brochures and seems pretty confused and selects erawan waterfall + safari world tour option for next day.
----------I N T E R V E L-----------
If you want to know what happened with the tiger suddenly? whats the story about that girl from US?, and was my trip successful? what all places was i able to cover? did i stay back there for the night? etc, then you will have to wait for the next part :)
Coming up next is the answer for all the above questions + a straight forward review and tips for Kanchanaburi tour.
Hope you enjoyed reading this. Eagerly waiting for your comments. :)
Welcome to my New Blog
Hello Friends...
I am back with a new blog, and this time, my main aim is to try and be more creative with my writing.
Hope you will enjoy my posts, and your comments are always welcome.
I am back with a new blog, and this time, my main aim is to try and be more creative with my writing.
Hope you will enjoy my posts, and your comments are always welcome.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)