Saurabh, Redux

Methinks it is nearly time to pull “Saurabh’s Darkest Hour” out of the old vaults, a short-story of which I have been continuously conscious and editing over the course of probably a decade. Julian first introduced to me the ill-fated story of Saurabh, and around that time (4th grade) I wrote the very first draft of “Saurabh’s Darkest Hour,” which underwent several revisions for years to come. The last draft to be written was in 2005 when I was a senior in high school and enrolled in a creative writing class. At that time, I submitted “Saurabh” as an open-ended short-story piece and got positive feedback from my teacher. As the years went by, the Saurabh character became more developed, his story more existential and persistent. I stayed quite true to the original in its core, though this of course was a loose adaptation of the “true” story Julian had told me when he was 16 and I was 10. That last version of 2005 was filed away indefinitely, crystallized in an adolescent form, replete with angst and yearning. Indeed, the first “Saurabh” was very well suited for a pre-teenage mentality: action-packed, irrevocably goofy. Then, the early teen phases displayed more of an undeveloped sense of desperation and anxiety with a self-conscious approach, which finally gave way for the no-holds-barred I-don’t-give-a-shit-if-my-parents-read-this reworking that revolutionized the story and gave it a significantly deeper message. The version that exists today is flawed. I think it will be forever flawed, but I can at least rework it to the best of my means, like a physicist breaking down particles faced with the obstacle of a limitless smallness of things. If I do revise it with much sweat and tears (quite possibly bloodshed too), it will not be much different. Saurabh will stay the 18-year-old me, not the 22-year old (as of now) me. But the betterment of my writing since 4 years ago, and a little bit more common sense as to what works and what doesn’t may be poured into it to allow for a more solid piece. “Saurabh” has become, after all, a story of adolescence and therefore must stay in that moment of time. Any changes I must make will be purely cosmetic; although maybe some subtle changes that affect the message will be undertaken as well. Stay posted…