Notes on 'My Kinda Girl'

I almost forgot this. Had been lying among the drafts for quite a while now.
So this has become a regular - writing after-notes for the so-called stories I write. You might want to read it if you haven't yet, otherwise this post is going to be irrelevant to you.


First off, I am much obliged to thank you all, my readers, profusely, for taking time to read it. Thank you! 
Secondly am overwhelmed with the comments and criticisms that came pouring in both online and offline. Thanks again.


Despite my oft repeated assertion that this is just fiction, a considerable number of you think this to be true. Fiction is usually inspired from real life. In this case, utmost a tenth of it might have been inspired from my own life. Rest is merely a figment of my imagination, I daresay.


Alright, now on to the crux of matter. I once had a chat, about a year ago with a friendgirl of mine. And this topic of 'my kinda girl' popped up. Even a pea-brained moron would know that girls (not the Raj's kind ;)) love such small talks. In the course of the chat, I realised that an idea for a writeup based on this was taking an agreeable shape in my head. I just left it there at that and it took about ten months to get on to paper. (Not that I'd been thinking about it for ten long months; it's just that's how most of my writeups come; after a long gestation period). Thanks, V, for the thought trigger.


The mother and aunt characters are entirely imagined, perhaps drawn from other people's lives. Raj's (protagonist) ideas are partly based on the aforementioned chat. The geek part(not part of the chat) was thrown in only when I had sat down to write this piece. It was included with an unwarranted presumption that it would make the piece an interesting read. I hope it did, but you, as readers would know better. And I've been given to understand that some of the geek and other cues weren't readily understandable. Fair enough. Because I'd to do some research myself when doing the drafts. I would be much obliged to explain some of them here, if you will allow.


slashdot and HackerNews are popular tech/sci/geek/news forums


xkcd - is a popular webcomic. Most often needs a Math/Physics/Engg/CS background to understand the comics.


The Big Bang Theory - a popular sitcom about a bunch of nerds/geeks. I am dazzled at the kinda research that must have gone into writing the script. Used to air on Zee Cafe here. Not anymore, I guess. But, no worry, you have youtube. :)
March 14th - This is a bit cryptic. March 14 is celebrated as Pi day because the date 3/14 represents the 2 decimal approximation (3.14) of the irrational number pi - the ratio of circumference of a circle to its diameter.
And 8th, March is Women's day, of course.


cafebabe, c0ffee, cafed00d - these are actually hexadecimals numbers which can also be read as English words with some leetspeak involved. The concept of coining English words from Hex numbers is called Hexspeak. More details at Hexspeak and Leetspeak.


FreeBSD - BSD Unix is one of earliest of Unix species and one of the first ever operating systems to come free (free as in both free beer and free speech).


MBTI/KTS - Myers Briggs Type Indicator / Keirsey Temperament Sorter - popular psychometric device to classify people based on personality. 


"I sense a disturbance in the Force!" - a popular quote from the Star Wars. I've never any of the Star Wars movies. So where did I pick this? This comes up on the Pyschic mode plugin for Pidgin. That's how I came to know of it and googling did the rest for me :)


There were some Tamil terms and artifacts that might need explanation to the non-Tamil readers.


Kachivaram - name of a place known for its marvellous temples and silk sarees. In this context, it obviously refers to the saree.


Kurangu Kusala - is a comic character that used to feature on Rani, a Tamil weekly from the house of popular Tamil daily Thina Thanthi. The strips took a dig at political and social scenarios that existed back then, voiced through Kusala, who's a housewife with a monkey face. Sample some strips here.


Ananda Vikatan - a popular Tamil weekly, one of the top selling for more than eight decades now. Take a look at its mascot here.


VTV - short for VinnaiThaandi Varuvaaya - Gowtham Menon's latest purported romantic flick. Actually it was just mush :( Candyfloss romance is alright, but where is the depth in the relationship? Hmm..may be am too old for such stuff. And it's off-topic too.


Vada-Malai - a garland made of Vada (this not the South Indian delicacy of Medu Vada or Masala Vada). This is a harder kind posing great challenge to ones having a weak dental anatomy. This garland is offered to Lord Anjaneya aka Hanuman (usually as a bribe) :p


Vennai Kaappu - literally means butter casting. The idol of Anjaneya is smeared with a thick sheath of butter as an offering.


Kuthu-vilakku - The 5-nozzled lamp mounted on a post, the symbol of auspiciousness, purity and divinity is usually lit to mark the beginning of auspicious events. In Tamil culture, the daughter-in-law is metaphorically referred to as Kudumba Kuthu-vilakku - the family's Kuthu-vilakku, someone who marks a new beginning in the family in all spheres of life. Some info here. HT to LCS for the link.


E. & O.E.


Side notes:
Like my most other writeups, I had started on this one too with a 2-3 parts series in mind. As usual, it went on and on and was dangerously looking to run into five parts. Had to scissor and prune some stuff. Had to hold back some sub-plot situations and ideas much before they got on to paper.


Some of the junk that faced the axe - 
** Talking about hexspeak, I considered using deadbeef. From there, take the conversation to non-vegetarianism (thanks to beef in deadbeef) and go on to give a mini monologue on why vegetarianism is better, simply for health reasons and not about ethics and morals involved in killing animals. Thank yourselves I killed the idea :)
** Environment friendly: I considered contriving a context wherein the protagonist talks about plastics and why everyone should reduce/avoid usage as much as possible. And when the gal comes later, she mocks the protagonist asking if would consider avoiding plastics when he wants to use protection. This would have been way too bold and would have made the gal's character unbelievable. Implausibility apart, it would have given a Chetan Bhagat-esque sleaze to it. This is all the more reason, I purged the idea. ;)
Also this the first among my serialised stories, wherein I completed it in full before I started posting the episodes.


msr
PS: This ain't no fiction ;)