Do you know how many unfinished documents are in my drafts section in the WordPress dashboard? Well, how would you know when I myself did not till now! The what-shall-I-write-about-today question made me wander to the drafts and I was amazed to notice there were actually fifty-five of them in various stages of preparedness awaiting my attention and eventual publication on the blog. One by one I went through them all. Some were pretty obvious in their clarity of what and who they were and where they were headed. But there were those whose direction I could not ascertain at all, and still others that simply baffled me by their brevity and lack of openness. Interestingly they were ALL titled ‘Untitled’. Reproducing a few of them below.

Untitled 1

At long last the sky broke down and wept, beating its chest in anguish. With copious tears, it tried to wash away the stains…

I  stopped mid sentence and listened. Something had disrupted my flow of thoughts. Or had it been just my imagination? No. I was sure that had been the gate being pushed open. It came to me just then that I had forgotten to lock it for the night. Chinna does all such work around here that when he goes away on his annual holiday I tend to forget. Who could it be at this late hour? Perhaps it had been the wind. I smiled. How silly of me to think someone was at the gate. But that surely sounded like footsteps coming up the path? I put my pen down and got up.

This one was pretty easy and straightforward to decipher. Fiction. I simply needed to take the story forward though I have no remembrance now as to who or what if anything I thought was walking up the garden path.

Untitled 2

Today, while stepping out of the house on my weekly vegetable run to the store, I saw a Blue Mormon. It was hovering over the bougainvillea that stood outside my neighbor’s wall. Ah, there you are! I said. Long time since you have been seen hereabouts. Even as I watched the Blue Mormon settled on a bougainvillea flower. What! I exclaimed. Now you like bougainvillea too? All this conversation – admittedly one-sided – had slowed me down.

Hmm… Interesting. Slowed me down how? Slowed me down why? Where had I been hurrying off? Sigh, it doesn’t hold any clue whatsoever.

Untitled 3

“The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.” – Ernest Hemingway

Ah, a quote! Wonder what I wished to make of this one. A post, or a story?

Untitled 4

If someone were to ask me if there was something, anything, I hated about writing fiction, my answer would be a resounding YES.  No, it is not about being stuck while writing and ending up chewing the pencils tips, and definitely not about the characters acting slippery like eels, not that I have ever handled eels.  Neither is it the frequent interruptions one has to endure which inevitably leads to losing the thread of the story, nor having to cut short your writing when you are going strong because you have hungry mouths to feed.

‘Then what?!!!!’ Yup, I heard you asking that.

Ahh, this one I definitely know and shall return to in due course to complete and post on the blog one day.

Untitled 5

redeem

Er.. umm… This one is tricky, mysterious and secretive all rolled into one. A single word with no pointers as to what it means or why it takes up space in the drafts folder.

I hope you enjoyed this peep into my drafts folder. 😉

© Shail Mohan 2021