Venki,
While PR's write-up is obviously a classier extrapolation, some of the themes he talks about - The privilege and perils of birth & the difference between knowing, feeling and doing - were the writing stimulus. The original idea was to write from the standpoint of the அந்தணன் whose cow he kills. But then the bee idea seemed more in line with a neutral 'onus of birth' idea. In its initial form [in my head] the princess and the தளபதி had more pronounced roles [there was a romance aspect that seems quite reproachable in hindsight]. The reason for the bee stinging KarNA was also significantly different in the original form. With that story outline I set out to write the story in January of '08, but I did not have the words. The words finally came last week [when I sat down to write something else] - and they completely wrote out those 2 characters. While writing, the frustration of raging against this machine - of going up against something that one can never hope to change - was quite overwhelming, resulting in the last paragraph.
That is as much insight as is available to even me on this story. [In hindsight I might have taken something away from the story by writing this. Oh well!]
Whether story by itself is worthy of PR's eloquence is, of course, for PR and others to decide.  |
Doesn't cease to be mercilessly funny, that line.