A Robot Learns to Feel - Preface

'A Robot Learns to Feel' was written sometime around Feb-March 2007. It is my third story and my most favorite of the three.

This story was written in long hand in a single evening. Both the acts are rare for me. I almost never write my stories (or anything else for that matter) in long hand. Reason : I am on computer at 13-14 hours a day. So why write in longhand in my ugly handwriting when I can write with beautiful (Yes, I have an unhealthy attraction towards beauty) fonts on screen?

Another special thing for me about this story was that it was written from start to finish in one single evening. And the first draft is almost 95% unchanged. This is very rare for me since finding a story to tell is a painful process for me. I almost never have my entire plots ready before I start writing. Generally all I can think of are some scenes or characters. Then I struggle hard to create a whole story from this scenes or characters. I abandon this effort in midway quite a lot of times.

Also one more thing, during this story I wanted to change the name of the company which manufactures C360 to a more creative ‘Automated Logic’ from run of the mill ‘Robosys’. But in the end I just ended up accepting ‘Robosys’ since it is straight forward and easy to understand for reader. No explanations required.

I hope you will like the story.

Thank you.

Preface | Part I | Part II

The Robot Psychopath: The Case of Dr. Tattoo – Preface

Yes, yes stories are not supposed to have prefaces but my stories have prefaces. If you want to know why read the preface to my first story, The Lady with Green Eyes.

The Robot Psychopath: The Case of Dr. Tattoo was the second story I wrote. Partially it originated from my first story or more precisely from the lack of originality in my first story.

If you have read my first story, then probably you may have noticed that even all in all it is an entertaining (at least I think so) story, almost all of the plot points are lifted from some movie or other.

So The Robot Psychopath story was sort of my response to this dilemma that I was facing: should one call himself an artist if he lacks originality in his art? Can a piece of work be called art if it is ‘inspired’ from something else?

As the story ends I ended up concluding that art was nothing without originality. Yes, I was dismayed. By that rule I should stop writing, which is something I couldn’t do. So I hope what they say about writing is true: Want to be writer – Write More.

There is life to live and there is hope!

Preface - Part I - Part II

The Lady with Green Eyes – Preface

I know stories aren’t supposed to have prefaces. But this one has. Why because it is not being published in a magazine. It is being published on a blog. And for me the whole meaning of blog is to communicate with readers.

The ‘The Lady with Green Eyes’ is the first story I wrote. I wrote it in April 2006. That was almost 2 and half years ago. Barring a few select family members and friends I have never shown it to anybody else. It was just sitting there in my folder titled writing along with the two stories I wrote later. (These two stories will also be posted on this blog too.)

Like most of us would be writers I dreamed to be ‘published’ some day. But I never sent the story to any magazine since after writing the story I came to know I was far from being a professional writer. And I thought I will show my work to the world only when I was good enough. (See I don’t want to be laughed at and dealing with rejections is a difficult thing.)

But how does one become a writer? Everybody says by writing more. So I kept on writing but still today I am far from being a professional writer. So what are the options I have? Will I ever share my stories with other people?

When I thought about it, I came to know that I wanted to share them with other people, yes probably I am not a master at the craft of writing stories but I believe at the core my stories are interesting stories.

So here is the first one.

The Lady with Green Eyes

It is a story about a man who is lonely mainly because of his own acts. Almost all of his relationships are failures. And then a robot comes into his life. This robot teaches him the meaning of love and relationships.

How? You will have to read the story to know that.

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