10 Milligrams of Stories

“Shankar Devine doesn’t need therapy.” “Shankar Devine doesn’t want therapy”.

Shankar Devine said this to himself until he believed that he didn’t need therapy to write stories. It was just another writer’s block for him. One more inspirational trip to a place that catches his eye on Instagram and he will come back to his writing table victorious, ready to showcase his wonders yet again to the world.

He was at a point in life where he didn’t have a client waiting to read what he has written for money. He had enough of it to be free from the capitalistic approach that comes between a creator and their creation. Maybe he could write about that, he thought. But writing cliche was not just Shankar’s style anymore.

His last trip to Cambodia was in vain. He ended up spending more time with tour guides than with himself, not giving him even a remote chance to interpret the beauty of the foreign land into a line, which was enough for him to extrapolate into a story. What different would it be this time, if he visited some place that he had never seen? Would he find new stories to write, or would he be too busy living his life to notice what gaps could he fill through his stories? Shankar had never been confused about his stories before.

“Should I try therapy? Should I blurt my problems to someone who is completely foreign of my functioning? How good could that be.” Shankar always had a problem with therapy, even when he needed it. He knew that the ride that he was on, he didnt need to ask directions from someone, or even use google maps. If there are signboards that help, that can be enough once in a while, but wherever the road takes him, he goes there.

The problem is that his is lost. Not in circles, in spirals. Something that he knows, but doesn’t really realise.

I know he will not go to a therapist. I am the one stopping him from going to one. You see, Shankar Devine is my character. You all know by now that Shankar is arrogant. I also know that. He has inherited this from me. I don’t know if I should act as his creator, his mentor, his therapist or just his friend. But what I would prescribe him in any capacity is just 10 milligrams of stories. Experiences that made him a writer in the first place. Stories that he found exciting enough to tell. Because now he is creating them. You can’t create a story.

Every story in this universe is one that has already been told.

You and I just tell it differently. You and I just tell it our way.