Learning Tips For Writing Screenplay

Best Books For Scripwriting Helpful For Beginners

 

“To make a great film you need three things – the script, the script, and the script.”

                                                                                                              – Alfred Hitchcock

Congratulations! As you have decided to write scripts, BUT...

  Image by Negative space via https://www.pexels.com/ 

You have ideas! But no experience of how to convert it into a script. I am sure you must have searched for books to read and learn. I am not shocked as you must have come across hundreds and thousands of search results, adding confusion about which book to select and trust. 

I have listed a few methods and books which are not only my personal favourites, but also are highly recommended by many senior, professional, national and international screenwriters. 

1) Do not begin with books 

Yes, you read that right. Till now you must have watched many movies. But, watching a movie is completely different than reading a screenplay. So, start reading screenplays now. 

This will help you understand the format of how screenplay looks and the way it is written. Try reading minimum 25 screenplays. 

You can find many screenplays online, for free

https://www.imsdb.com/

https://www.simplyscripts.com/

https://sfy.ru/

2) Screenplay transcription

Screenplay transcription means, to watch a movie and simultaneously write a screenplay of it. After reading 25 screenplays, now you know how the format is. So, watch a scene, pause and write about it in screenplay format. Follow this for the whole film and you will have a transcript of a screenplay in hand.   

I suggest, transcript 5 different genre movies.

3) Now, which books to read?

Yes, now is the best time to read books as you know how to format a screenplay. But you still have to learn how to write it with the idea you have. You have to learn to evolve your ideas to fit in the structure of screenplay.

Therefore, the books by some of the experts will be useful.

A. Story by Robert Mckee 

This is a bible. An in depth and in detail explanation from idea to premise to characters to their three-dimensional approach, character growth, archetypes, three act structure, ample of movie examples, movie genre, and so many micro elements of script writing are elaborated for explanation.

Robert Mckee, is an internationally famous and reputed name for his script writing and coaching expertise. Also, he organises a lot of paid webinars on various aspects of screenplay writing.

B. Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

“Save the Cat” is the screenwriting rule that says: “The hero has to do something when we meet him so that we like him and want him to win.” 

In the movie Sholay, though Dharam and Veeru are conman, we start liking them as they decide to help Thakur in his revenge against a dacoit named Gabbar. 

They immediately do not withdraw the traits of conman. We as an audience enjoy their transformation. Something within them changes that makes them likable.

The ways to design various situations where our protagonist is challenged and tested is aptly discussed in this book. 

C. Read all books by Syd Field

Once you finish reading all his books I can assure, you will have your screenplay in hand if you do the tasks mentioned in the book.

• Screenplay, the foundations of screenwriting.

• The screenwriter’s workbook

• Four screenplays

• The screenwriter’s problem solver

4) This should be enough

These many books will be sufficient. And it will be a fantastic feeling to be a screenplay writer of your first movie by the time you finish reading all the books.

 

    Image by Negative space via https://www.pexels.com/

It will take time. Have patience. Enjoy the process. All the best for your journey ahead!

So, which is the first screenplay you are reading? Answer this in comment section and will be more than glad to discuss more on this.

Also, let me know in comment section if this was helpful and leave your feedback. Follow me by clicking follow on the right hand side above, we can connect and read and discuss more interesting things on sciptwriting.

Next, I plan to write about best books and practices for playwriting for beginners. 

See you again, Thank you!

Healthy India! Let’s Make It!

How HEALTHY Is India’s Population?

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During the ongoing pandemic, we keep reading about number of cases, mortality and how healthy our immunity system needs to be.

HEALTH, becomes a very important topic to discuss as just surviving the pandemic won’t help. Introspecting about our health, which we have been taking for granted needs urgent and immediate attention.

Good Health will not only be helpful for us as an individual, but collectively, it will have a direct impact on nation's health too. 

There is a basic parameter to understand the health and well-being of a population in all, 'Life Expectancy.'

Life expectancy is the key metric for assessing population health. It tells us the average age of death in population. 

India’s life expectancy is 69.16 years compared to average Global life expectancy of 71.5 years.

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The average life expectancy has always grown over the years, be it in India or globally, because of the ongrowing research in medical science. Not only this, but also because of some practices that population in majority are doing right.

Put it simply, a long life is possible only if we are Healthy. Life expectancy increases if the Healthy Life Expectancy is good. 

What is Healthy Life Expectancy(HALE)?

An average age of population that remains healthy is called HALE. India’s HALE age is 59.3 years.

Is it good? Is it bad?

Some would think it is good to be healthy till 59.3 years. Some would feel exactly the opposite, healthy life only till 59.3 years?

Comparison

Let us see where India stands compared to other countries. Selected a few countries to compare HALE against India. This is a data of 2016 by WHO

Country	HALE age
Australia	73 years
Canada	73.2 years
France	73.4 years
Germany	71.6 years
India	59.3 years
Japan	74.8 years
Norway	73 years
New Zealand	72.8 years
Spain	73.8 years
U.K	71.9 years
U.S.A	68.5 years

We can clearly see, many countries are not just better than India, but their HALE is higher than India's average life expectancy. 

Meaning, in simple words an average age of population from healthier countries is more than the average death age of India’s population. 

Still simpler, The age at which Indian's die is an age, where people from other countries are still living healthy life.

Amongst the healthiest countries data, Let’s see where does India rank?

Top 10 healthiest countries are

1. Spain
2. Italy
3. Iceland
4. Japan
5. Switzerland
6. Sweden
7. Australia
8. Singapore
9. Norway
10. Israel

Canada ranks 16th, New Zealand 18th, U.K, Germany and U.S.A 19th, 23rd and 35th respectively.

India, is not in top 50....Forget top 50, not even in top 75. Infact we don’t even rank among top 100 countries.

Shocking..! Missing a heart beat, as we realise how healthy and ahead other countries are.

119 countries in the world are healthier countries compared to India. Yes, India ranks as low as 120th amongst the healthiest countries. 

That too, India slipped from 119 in 2017 to 120 in 2019. Not good if this pattern continues. 

Certainly, we would be curious to know how many countries in all were considered? So, let me tell you, more precisely, amongst the healthiest countries, India ranks 120 out of 169 countries.  

No, it’s not just about the lesser population other countries have compared to India. We can’t keep giving same reasons to every problem and ignore. 

What are we as a population doing for a healthy living? 

We as in Government and we as individual, both. 

But, let us first see how much expenses have government incurred for population’s health. 

We have some eye opening numbers from a data of 2017, to look at expenditure on total health as % of GDP.

Country	% of GDP on  Health Expenditure
Australia	9.21%
Canada	10.57%
France	11.31%
Germany	11.25%
India	3.53%
Japan	10.94%
Norway	10.45%
New Zealand	9.17%
U.K	9.63%
U.S.A	17.06%

Yes, only 3.53% of India’s GDP is the total expenditure on health. Compare it with other countries it does not look impressive at all. 

Direct connection between HALE and Life Expectancy 

Countries with higher HALE have higher life expectancy. The world ranking of the life expectancy of countries:

Rank	Country	Lige Expectancy Age
1	Hong Kong	84.7 years
2	Japan	84.5 years
3	Switzerland	83.6 years
4	Singapore	83.7 years
5	Italy	83.4 years
5	Spain	83.4 years
7	Australia	83.3 years
8	Iceland	82.9 years

But,where does India stand here with an average life expectancy of 69.16 years? Way too less than top countries and way behind, India ranks 128th.

Reading these statistics and also understanding the government’s interest in expenditure on health, we need to realise one thing very strongly, that it is us and only US who will have to look after ourselves.

Image by Magda Ehlers via pexels.com

What can we do to improve?

We would look at the country names and feel they are developed and rich countries. They can afford to spend more. So, it is possible there but not in India.

No, No, long lives is not just about rich countries and their affordability, but it is more about their diet and lifestyle too.

For example, Japan. HALE - 74.8 years, Life expectancy - 84.5 years And ranking 4th amongst the healthiest countries. What makes this Asian country so healthy?

• Healthy Diet
• Regular physical activity
• Extended work years
• Aggressive government intervention.

Image by Dana Tentis via pixels.com

Let us take another example of Top ranked healthiest country, SPAIN. HALE - 78.3 years, Life expectancy - 83.4 years, expected to rise by 85.8 years by 2040. 

Wondering, isn't it? How inspite of drinking culture of Spain, this is possible? Possible because of the habits and lifetyle of the population.

• Healthy Diet (Mediterranean and lots of fruits and vegetables)
• Healthy lifestyle (walk almost everywhere they can)

Spain has the highest percentage of walkers in Europe. 37% people in Spain go walking to work instead of driving.

Image by JoEllen Moths via pexels.com

Healthy country, Happy country

Good health is a mix of physical, mental and social well-being and not just being disease free.

When the health is good it reflects on the happiness. So, a healthy population will indirectly reflect the happy population with right diet and lifestyle.

India ranks 140, amongst the happiest countries in the world. 

Good health is the key to ageing well

Who would love to age and grow old, bedridden? Feeling weak and demented, depending on someone. Remaining in good health is vital if we are to live well in our old age.

The elderly themselves are not the only ones who benefit from staying as healthy as possible - society overall benefits too because ultimately increasing life expectancy shouldn’t put too much of a burden on the health care system.

Healthy Population, an Asset

Like we discussed earlier, good diet and lifestyle, if practiced continuously and consistently it will lead us living a healthy life and when a larger population will take their own health seriously, it will reflect and help us improve our healthy population. 

A healthy population is an asset of the nation because the nation is built by the people who live in the country. Healthy population equals healthy economy. Health is the greatest social capital a nation can have. Without a healthy, productive citizenship, a country can’t be economically stable. 

Promise to ourself

So let’s promise ourself a healthy us, make sure and be positive to bring a difference in us. As this will be much needed, fighting and building an individual and also a healthy nation now and post pandemic. 

“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.”  

                                                                                      -Buddha 

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Let us connect  with each other to discuss other awareness, basics and simplicities of life.

Leave your email id in comment section along with your feedback, and

If you enjoyed and wish to continue reading and discussing more topics click on ‘follow’, on the right hand side above.

How to be prepared for Cyclone Nisarga

Authorities are taking best precautions, so should we.

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India Meteorological Department(IMD) has stated red alert to Mumbai and west coast of Maharashtra. The depression in the Arabic sea is intensifying into a cyclone (Nisarga).

The cyclone is likely to reach the west coast of Maharashtra on Wednesday, June 3 and an alert has been issued for Mumbai city, Mumbai suburbs, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts.

Cyclone Nisarga is expected to make landfall at Alibagh on Wednesday afternoon with wind speed between 100-125 kmph, as per IMD.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thakre, while addressing the state informed that, in case of heavy rainfalls, authorities will have to cut the power supply.

To tackle the situation, Army, Navy, Air Force, NDRF, SDRF, teams have been deployed.

Precautions will be taken during the relief and rehabilitation works considering the prevalence of COVID.

Indian coastal guard ships relayed weather warnings to Fishermen and were called back to the shore and asked them not to go fishing for coming few days. Coastal guards will be making sure no activities are taking place in the sea.

Necessary evacuation is being done from the low lying areas.

Mumbai’s first cyclone

Mumbai will be facing its first ever cyclone and the people of Mumbai are not used to the precautions.

Who doesn’t enjoy rains? But, let’s hope it doesn’t do much damage.

Let’s be careful and take necessary precautions from our side too.


Safety tips to follow at home:

• Charge phones and emergency lights.
• Keep medicines and first-aid kit handy.
• Keep valuables safe and secure.
• Keep windows and doors shut. Do not sit near glass windows. 
• From windows and balconies remove the hangings, decoratives, any sharp tools.  
• Keep old towels handy to soak water in case it comes in house. 
• Don’t spread rumours and validate news.
• Do not take shelter under temporary sheds.
• Keep your scooter on main stand.
• Disconnect electronic devices that are not in use. Do not leave them in sockets.
• Store drinking water.
• Take precautions but don’t panic.

Helpline numbers for Cyclone Nisarga (Mumbai)

• BMC disaster control room 022-22694719 / 25 / 27
• Dial 1916 and press 4 for any cyclone related query or concerns
• The control room at mantralaya is operational round the clock. 

Don’t wait till the last minute

Precautions and safety are better taken in advance. Please don’t be careless and think nothing will happen. Well prepared is well begun.

“Before anything else, preparation  is the key to success”
                                                   -Alexander Graham Bell

Let us pray not much damage happens. No lives are cost. Wish our families, friends and relatives stay safe.

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If mobile phones and internet die tomorrow?

Topsy Turvy World! Moving ahead and back together.

                     

• Mobiles phones were introduced in 1995 in India.

• Internet was introduced in 1995 in India.

From 1995 to 2020, in a span of 25 years we must say we have seen the technology grow and make things available at the speed of a click.

Benefits like; Efficiency, time saving and Multi tasking are possible because of our mobile phones and internet. And this will only keep getting better.

But........

Image by: Pixabay via https://www.pexels.com

Are we prepared if tomorrow comes a day where mobiles and internet will die? 

No...No...I am not scaring you with any cyber-hack news. ‘Just imagine’ if the mobiles and internet die tomorrow?

Life will be like what it was before 1995. We will be in the times of B.C (Before Computers...is what I mean)

• No, Indian Cricket team won’t be solely dependent on Sachin Tendulkar again.

• No, No, People in late 30’s now, won’t have to prepare for their board exams and worry for admission in college.

• No, No, No, we won’t have to worry again about Y2K.

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We will very much be in 2020 but life would be like we lived before the computer, mobile and internet was introduced in India. Back to basic necessities of living, ‘Food, clothing and shelter’.

But, how much will it impact us? 

Not one. Not two...But in many ways... for almost everything, literally everything, we are dependent on our mobile phones and internet (some ministers win election on the basis of promising free wi-if). 

This is a fantasy and we have to understand that this is not to scare, but just an imagination like Alice in Wonderland!

Tomorrow what will be the impact on our lives when mobiles and internet die?

A. Communication: 

Oh no, We wake up late for work since the alarm on the phone didn’t ring. 

We desperately check but realise the phone is dead and so are we, as we will reach late for work. 

We want to call and inform in office but we don’t remember the number as it was saved in mobile. 

And as we confirm with family and neighbours, we realise, that the mobiles and internets are dead.

We cannot post on Facebook or immediately broadcast on whats app to validate the news.

Our smart tv doesn’t work without internet and for radio too, we were dependent on our mobile phone.

Society members realise, there is an old man in the society staying alone, who has a radio. He comes down with it to hear songs in the evening. 

We rush to the old man’s house to hear news on radio and the news is heard about mobiles and internet dead from today.

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B. Information: 

Imagine the dependency on information we have because of mobile and internet. 

Google, Newspapers, Wikipedia, Job Opportunities, GPS, Flight information, tourism, hotel accommodation, education, trading and finance, Shopping sites, etc, everything that was just a click away is not with us anymore. 

We will have to immediately search for Encyclopaedia.

Image by Pixabay via https://www.pexels.com

C. Banking:

Demonetisation which was done to reduce the use of currency and encourage the use of online payments cannot be done anymore. 

Our wallets that had money in it, will never return to us. 

ATM’s won’t work. We will have to wait in long que in bank for Self withdrawal.

D. Home Deliveries:

We will get home deliveries. But by dialing landline. 

Oh, now give them the address and explain them how to reach home. 

If the delivery boy cannot get your address how will he contact you? How will he find address? Will asking pedestrians help? 

We live in times, we don’t know the building names which are just 100 metres away from where we stay.

E. No online purchasing 

We will have to go to the shops nearby or far. 

Remember to have enough cash in hand, as card payment won’t work.

Image by Pixabay via https://www.pexels.com

F. Photo/videos:

To create memories we will now need old cameras with roll of ONLY 24/36 pictures that can be clicked.

Then the negatives will be printed and we will have actual photographs in hand, in an album. 

Sorry, we won’t be able to post or tag online. Instead, write date and details behind the photograph.

Still, we will be able to show(off) the albums to friends and relatives coming home. 

But....They will have to make efforts and verbally express, like, love, wow, share and comments on it.

G. Office presentation?

Well, no MS Office and therefore no presentation possible. So what now? 

We will have to bring paper charts, sketch-pen, ruler, rubber, pencil and some different size bangles to create venn diagrams. 

H. Entertainment:

Bored...Tired....Need Entertainment? 

Music, movie, random forwarded videos for fun, video calling someone...or...

Oh come on.......It is high time we come out of the denial and accept the fact that the mobiles and internets have died. They won’t exist anymore. 

We will have to get used to, roaming with empty hands. Fingers and thumb must be relaxing from a certain typing and scrolling motion now, and forever.

Image by Andrea Piacquadio via https://www.pexels.com

I. Unemployment: 

Suddenly, lot of employment lay offs are happening in nation. 

Oh god, people who knew how to work on tally, do not know how the actual accounting works. 

A huge section of people whose skills got them job were dependant on internet and computer are given pink slip.

Infact, many companies itself will shut. Will directly affect our nation’s GDP (Opposition party person, reading this, please read ahead don't settle and start planning).

J. Impact on every industry:

Today there is not a single industry where internet and mobile phone is of no use. 

From Astronauts to Farmers to Fishermen, people from every industry is dependent on internet and mobile phones.

Everything will slow down (And the last use of # will be for writing #rip on the grave of mobile and internet. Yes, grave not graves. It is singular because looking at their compatibility, they will be burried together). 

K. Lockdown?

Imagining a life without mobile and internet during lockdown will deprive us from learning and upgrading us. 

And no zoom calls or webinar’s or work from home. 

No academics for children from school.

No nominations and challenges, no foodporn, nobody except the ministers on news channels, would have come live.

L. My Blogs?

This would be my last blog and no one except me would have read it (as i finished writing late night and published after 3 a.m)

Image by Julia M Cameron via https://www.pexels.com

Back to Reality 

After imagining all this and realising the efficiency we have now, our mobile phone and internet deserves respect. 

Within a click what is efficiently available to us shouldn’t be taken for granted by just snapping fingers at them.

Remember, it is not just a smartphone that we are carrying with us, but a thing, that will help us from our basic needs to emergency needs. 

Our mobile in hand with internet, accept it or not, has helped us overcome our loneliness too. 

Let it never die and let us enjoy the privileges we have with it. But, obviously overdoing won’t help. Learning to Balance is an art too, which we should keep trying.

Good bye and don’t forget to charge your phone or else you will wake up with the disaster of dying phone. Only later you will realise that the phone battery has conked off.

Your comments will help us to discuss and enlighten more on this with many friends joining in for the same.

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“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” 
                                                                                    -Arthur C. Clarke

Introspecting the use of Facebook

This post is an introspecting post about the way we use Facebook. An interactive discussion would be all the more better. So, until lockdown relaxes, let us interact here if we agree, disagree or want to point more.

I generally think, if it was not lockdown than the families would be enjoying their summer holidays now. I am sure every family must have planned a trip to village, or somewhere outside with family, domestic or international, they would have posted lovely pictures with beautiful skylines, making memories, and with the kind of person I am, I would have kept reacting to those posts with more than just a like. At least, love or newly introduced, care or a wow!

Instead, the families are locked down but still making memories and spending time together at home. 

This is the best part of facebook I like. To see and share our personal and social lives with friends.

BUT...

Do we realise how Facebook, a social networking site, has now turned into social media?

A little change, but a huge psychological impact on how we have started looking at it.

The news channels are already bombarding us with highly dramatised way of telling news, debates happening unlike the traditional and sophisticated ways, what is it that makes us post like a headline or news or make strong statements about everything and anything? I feel, are we constantly intellectualising ourselves to create an online image and then we have to maintain that?

As per my observation, Politics is the subject people post the most on Facebook now. We agree, we disagree, we even feel disappointed and start doubting the capabilities of the ministers and therefore start trolling on Facebook. These days hardly anything good or positive trends. It is generally trolling that trends. And this demeaning and belittling scares me the most and has made me to introspect about the use of Facebook or for that matter any social site.

A lot of questions arise as introspection. What entertainment do we seek in trolling? What does it make of ourselves? Ready to argue on someone’s posts. Ready to politicise an expression. Ready with various unproven theories. Ready to attack. Spoiling our relations, spreading hatred just to prove and impose our intellect and ideologies. But we forget it is fun to be different. We have to respect being different. The wolrd cannot have everyone the way we are. We need to have this Acceptance. And the lack of it unfortunately leads to sour relations. Our virtual relations define the real relations.

Stop here.....Breathe......Stay with this thought.....And let’s ask ourselves.......WHY?Let us find our own answers to this WHY. 

It really surprises me that why can’t Facebook community be at peace? Why are we waiting for an opportunity to troll someone? Or sometimes just troll whatever comes in front of us. Sometimes reading others troll makes us want to comment and involve ourselves. We welcome drama. 

Facebook has been introduced to us for more than a decade now. But, the facebook updates have been more than we updating ourselves on how to behave on social platform. 

In these times of uncertainty also, we are just reflecting the behaviours of media and politics on our Facebook world. We are venting, we have strong opinions about everything, yes, certainly many times the pressures created on social media have been useful, but then, there is media to do that and we can help them, but is it necessary to become media? Is it necessary to be a part of aggressive politics? Is it necessary to become communal? 

Remember, every comment, hatred or love is being read, will be presented as testimonies of hatred by the people or community that will feel hurt and these testimonies will be used to influence people to take revenge by mass murders with various forms of attacks. 

Stay with this thought for a while.....Imagine, if it is our one hatred comment which is being used to take revenge and plan attacks on us. And mind you, these are not mere attacks on Facebook, we will be attacked and lives will be lost for REAL. There is enough hatred in the virtual and real world, both. What both don’t have, is enough Love. 

And when we say it is a Social site, let’s make it social. Why make it controversial, political or communal? Let’s bring back ‘The Social Networking’ which has turned into social media.

 

                                                                                                                        - Mirr N Rajda

Short film script on Lockdown

Location : A middle class house of Vikas and Pragati in Mumbai. 1BHK house.

Characters
Vikas - late 30’s
Pragati - mid 30’s
Jyoti - 6 and half. (Daughter of Vikas and Pragati)

Pragati, in her tracks and t-shirt. She is in the middle of cleaning the house and is also talking with her friend on earphones.

Pragati - (shocked) Oh, is it? The cases of domestic violence during lockdown are rising?

(Vikas, who is cleaning vessels, gives a sharp look to Pragati realising she is taunting him. They share a look. A tensed beat. Vikas turns to cleaning vessels again)

Pragati - (continues on phone) But, I am sure many women must not be reporting too.

(Vikas helplessly pauses, but doesn’t turn this time)

Pragati - (continues to taunt while speaking on phone as she realises Vikas is deliberately ignoring to avoid) Just imagine the rise in numbers, if every domestic violence was reported?

(Vikas takes a deep breath to control. Though affected, he continues to clean the vessels with guilt and aggression).

Cut to

Flashback (A day before)

Vikas is so busy on his phone that he is indifferent to the situation. Pragati is multitasking, doing her household work and making Jyoti, their 6 and a half year daughter do summer activities given by school as home assignments for revision during Lockdown. Jyoti excitedly shows her finished work of Maths. Pragati is checking, in between gives a sharp look at Vikas who is still busy on phone. She starts to check again.

Pragati - (suddenly fumes) what is this? You started right. All your additions and subtractions till here are right. But, out of last 11, 7 are wrong. Why? (Scolds)

Vikas still unmoved and busy typing something in phone. Jyoti is standing disappointed and hurt.

Pragati - come on, speak up...don’t behave like your dad.

Vikas - (continues typing) don’t get me in between

Pragati - (angrily whispers to Jyoti) he will never finish what he is doing and you are always in hurry to finish. See, when you started, all your answers were right. But when it came to last 11 questions how can you suddenly forget the concept and keep getting wrong answers, specially towards the end? Because you want to hurry and finish. No attention span and patience at all.

Vikas - (getting disturbed) talk slowly yaar

Pragati - yes yes you are getting disturbed checking your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp or whatever crap you are busy doing instead of helping me, sharing responsibility and making her study. I am just multitasking and cannot make it all alone, do you understand?

Vikas - What nonsense? I make her study almost everyday. Don’t I? Today, I...I...

Pragati - What, I what?

Vikas - I wanted a break.

Pragati - (sighs in frustration) Jyoti, go inside beta. No need to study now. This will turn into a fight, which I don’t want you to experience it.

Vikas - What the hell?

Pragati - (firmly) Please... not in front of her. Jyoti go inside. Take your books. Switch on the Music, loud.

(Jyoti obeys, goes in the room with her books, starts the music with loud volume and shuts the door with sadness and helplessness in her eyes)

Pragati - Continue... you wanted to fight...

Vikas - I don’t want to.

Pragati - You do not have any attention towards us, towards this family. Agreed, you go out and get the groceries whenever needed, that’s it. And sometimes sit with her, after, I have to get after you to sit with her for her studies. A few days back you also argued to have a tuition teacher take her summer assignments on zoom.

Vikas - what’s wrong in that?

Pragati - Her screen time is increasing and with uncertainties ahead she might even have virtual classrooms as a part of her school education. I do not agree for so much of screen time. You understand now? I doubt you would, because if you could you wouldn’t be just enjoying on phone, ignoring us and most importantly not being helpful.

Vikas - I was not enjoying on phone.

Pragati - Don’t give me shit that you were working on phone. You know my health is not well, doctors are not accessible.

Vikas - Exactly... That is why I am saying calm down, it is affecting your health. (pauses) Give me the broom I will do it. (Holds the broom to take it from her)

Pragati - No please... don’t

(Vikas keeps insisting, she keep denying, a little tug of war with broom. Vikas, pushes Pragati to snatch the broom from her. Akward silence as she falls. Pragati looks terrified. Vikas baffled. Loud Music from other room continues)

Flashback over.

Cut to

Present

(Jyoti, is busy drawing silently. There is a striking imbalance in her colouring of the scenery that she has drawn. Vikas goes towards Pragati as she has finished the call)

Vikas - Your taunts were obvious. Why do you always have to carry the baggage of past?

Pragati - The baggage is because of the burden of responsibilities that you don’t care to do. Today you did it, but even you know you did it because what happened yesterday and this so called change is just for a day or two. That’s it.

(Jyoti suddenly gets up with her drawing book and Colors and without uttering or looking at them, silently goes inside the bedroom, shuts the door. Loud Music begins)

(Both, Vikas and Pragati are zapped)

Pragati - let’s not talk.

(Vikas walks away and sits on the sofa. Pragati walks away in the kitchen. She weeps. Both look sad)

(Vikas gets a call)

Vikas - hello...yes...yes speaking...oh yes thankyou. I had applied with your company for being the delivery partner. Let me tell you I have always loved Zomato and I order food from Zomato, but in these times of lockdown it isn’t very easy....you getting me right...the financial insecurities... yes, I have mentioned I do have a bike. And I will be more than happy to utilise this opportunity during lockdown to help myself and my family. It will be a good financial support. (he keeps getting emotional while saying this but there is a constant effort of sounding normal)

Cut to

Pragati - (gets a call, recieves) hello... yes.... hello doctor, thank you. Yes I had applied in Practo App for an appointment with therapist. I need counselling. The thing is....I feel lockdown is a very....very...tough time...(she is emotionally choking as she speaks further) affecting...affecting my family... my marriage... my daughter... (she weeps and tries to gather and continues) Maids aren’t here and I have become one in the family, doing almost everything single-handedly. (Pauses and listens) No... No...No...we haven’t spoken about it. We...generally cannot communicate hard feelings, as it turns out that we are just blaming each other.

(Now, we only see Vikas and Pragati speaking on phone but do not hear them as they continue. We see them both disturbed, seeking help)

Cut to

(Jyoti is trying to balance the colours in her drawing but fails with her attempts. She finally surrenders to the imbalanced coloured drawing and leaves it. We keep seeing the imbalanced colourful image and the music which is playing loudly continues)

The End

“In this LOCKDOWN, don’t LOCKDOWN your feelings. SHARE... Be a better communicator”
                         
- Mirr N Rajda

The story and script is registered with Screenwriters Association. It is meant for reading purpose. Filming or any performing act or mass reading of it should be done only with the consent of the author.