The Kidnapping Game - The Preface

Hi!That’s me. Today I am a teen aged boy of 13 .What more can any one dream or expect from a boy of my age? Nothing, but a strict routine of studies, and daily discipline. Well I got bored of this schedule and wanted to dream, fly high and enjoy life.

My inspiration is my mother who encouraged me to write and often told that I can pen my thoughts in a bundle of words and can express myself to the world. But frankly speaking that was again a difficult task as it often clashed with the timings of my fun and frolics.

But my mom being a strict lady would start shouting from the morning, perhaps, just like any other mother, trying to get a perfection in what ever you do… whether studies, games or watching television. “Saheb! Its 6 am! Leave the bed!! Saheb! Brush your teeth fast!”
Saheb!! Do this do that …..?.... Endless routines. And one fine day she threw a new tantrum, “Saheb why don’t you start writing something as that would improve your English?” I really wanted to rush and bully her like an ox but had to control my anger as she is my mother.

It was my summer vacation and my school had given me the time to while around. And here is my mother who wanted me to be once again with the books ,pens and the stuff which really are the hated lots for a boy of eleven.

My eyes welled up with tears as I looked up at the foot ball lying at the corner and my cricket bat and ball…..

“Mummy today I have a match. Tomorrow I will do it”, I said hoping that my mother will soften her stand. But she said sternly, “I will tell your friends that he will come after he has finished writing four pages”.

I had no other option but to sit unwillingly and start penning what I thought and often dreamt.

I dreamt to write a few stories and imagine my self to be the main character of the story. I dreamt to be a hero who could solve the mysteries like Sherlock Holmes.

I told my sister about my ideas. My sister who is older to me by three years just gave a mocking laugh and ridiculed me by saying, “You and Stories! What a joke!!”

That was the pinnacle of my anger and I decided to write. Write something which I felt was mine, something which was my imagination, something to express my self.

And thus started my journey with words which I will share with you. I will slowly unfurl before you a boy of eleven who gradually matured to his teens.

I do not remember how many pages I have torn before I could pen a sentence. I could only recollect the stories of Hardy Boys, Enid Blyton and recent addition was Harry Potter’s. I was really very disappointed and then went to my mother for some help. She told me to write what I wanted to … not fearing if it resembled any story.

That helped me a lot and I started jotting down my first story “The Kidnapping Game”