We are all travelers
The soft sound of a pin dropping on a rug. Even the whimper of thoughts as I gently scratch my head as I think. Or the thunderous buildup of musical notes as someone unknown somewhere strange walks in or rushes out or does whatever has to be done. There are no rules of any of...
The writer’s mind conceiving a character
Undefined. Rebellious. Naughty. Machiavellian. Purposeful. Powerful. Kerfuffle. Paracosm. And sometimes a heady mix of all of these and more. This is how a character begins a journey in a writer’s mind and may stay on unchanged from being flexible enough to be a truth adsorbent and willing to change with the kind of experiences it...
Life finds a way… it always does
This book tells me that even when ‘every inconvenient truth, every wrinkle has been smothered’, life can twist and turn in ways that can transmute a delicate Murano wine glass into an aluminum bowl in a jail cell… just as it has transformed Kamini Pratap Singh, a ‘girl from the dingy gullies of Varanasi’ to‘learn...
Villainy is dead
Headings matter and I do not want the title of this piece to be ‘Vikas is dead’ because then the ruling party spokespersons and their economists are going to be really perplexed. But then headings, like the names of gangsters, always make an impact… and even Bollywood has convinced me that it is looks and...
Fair, white, and light
We know now that the word ‘fair’ has been eased out of brand promotion for a certain product and that Sunny Jain, president of Unilever Beauty Division has even gone on record to announce that the company recognizes ‘that the use of the words fair, white, and light suggest a singular ideal of beauty that...
It’s not that simple to be simple, says Chetan Bhagat
I saw him from a distance and waved. He smiled and waved back. No airs. No snooty looks thrown at anyone. Chetan Bhagat loves to retain his easy and communicative personality… and I guess this is exactly how he has shaped his writing through the years. As we walked around the poolside area in Hyatt...
The mind is an astronaut in space
Deep within me there are no boundaries.No cacophony of walls are ever built here.No barbed wires separate a smileFrom a caress. Or love from fear.There are no marching bandsNothing here will beat retreats.Heavy boots with nailed solesAren’t ordered to create reverberating treatsThat give birth to tsunamis of emotionsEnding with a blitz of applauding commotions. A...
The way stories unfold
Ideas for stories believe in a 360 degree freedom to enter. This is more than the mind being like a fortress that is besieged because inspirations for plots do not need the fortress gates to open. Ideas have the power to come in anyway and they could very well walk through the walls as if...
AI-infused robots as siblings vs adopting an orphan
Note: #SiblingStories is a blogging train hosted by Ila Varma in collaboration with the Brand Ang Tatva. Thirty esteemed bloggers from blogging fraternity have joined hands to participate in the Blog train for #SiblingTalk reviving the sweet and tickling hours spent with loving siblings and revive golden memories of the past. This post is written...
Politics
They peer at me through a lens. They want to confirm if I am who I say I am and imagine that the retina has the final word. Even the technology resting in my hands insists that I trust the lens. They think my face is my fingerprint. As if fingerprints are alive and ready...
Yoga, fragrances, and relationships
Yoga is more than the relationship between businesses and politics though our news agencies would deny this vehemently. I insist that yoga, relationships, and fragrances go together. By the way, when they are moving ahead as one, they last longer than any Eau de Parfum or Eau de Toilette if I may add. No limits...
Getting fit is almost like writing a short-story
There is one story that invariably comes to me mind whenever I see my friends tying themselves into complex knots when pursuing fitness. These friends go around with long lists of what to eat and what not to eat, time schedules that appear to my mind as roaring dictators, actionable plans that leave no space...
