In general, my stories are about characters and their conflicts in the real world. They are about heroes or heroines who get over something they are fighting. But what would happen if that fight didn’t get them what they wanted? Would the restlessness go away?
The mind of a human being is by its very nature restless. It can be both a friend and an enemy. The mind when it gets entangled with ego and a strong desire for something or someone can drive the person in either direction, good or bad.
A lot of what will then happen is difficult to predict. That makes for an interesting story. I wanted to explore that possibility.
I didn’t want to write stories about out-and-out villains. Somehow, it didn’t fit into my worldview and, perhaps, those of my readers. But I realized that if I took normal characters motivated by something, and then stretch their motivation to act in a manner on the borders of sane behavior, a restless mind, even if momentary, is born.
These are not run-of-the-mill extreme bad guys like Gabbar Singh or Mogambo who take pleasure out of harm to people. Restless minds aren’t a problem for these extreme villains because they have no conflict. But the characters I wanted to write about were those who were unable to restrain their restless minds and end up doing something that isn’t good.
What would happen if a character got what it wants? Would he or she be consumed by greed and want more? Or would the innate self of that character control the mind? What would happen if that thing was love, or money, or status?
What would happen if a character doesn’t get what it wants? Would he or she be consumed by anger and pursue it blindly? And would that anger lead to revenge, wickedness, or a simmering hatred?
So, there is a bunch of stories that I wrote about three years ago that has characters that fall in this category.
One such story was titled “A Train to Nowhere” about a woman who has lost in love. It was motivated after watching a movie, but I wanted to capture the strong emotions of such a woman who decides to run away from her world. This was not a character that was inherently bad, but who gets caught in a flurry of rage that she is unable to control.
“The Mind Hack” is a similar tale about a man who is in despair because he cannot control his sorrow after he finds out something about his lover.
Then there were a couple of stories about how greed and manipulation twist a mind in a corporate setting titled “Symbiosis” and “Full and Final Settlement”.
But the one that I found hardest to write was a story titled “The Last Job” which is about a underworld criminal who wants to exit the underworld but finds it tough to get out. Incidentally, he is a bad guy, but the story is about how his mind works as he eventually uses his ‘bad guy’ skills to execute a good job.
And then another story “Mind Game” is an insight into a good policeman’s mind, and how he uses his bad side to deal with a criminal.
These stories eventually were put together in the collection “Melange.”
I find the workings of the mind fascinating. When mixed with conflicts of characters, these tales turned up.
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