On Writing

Only a fool writes for anything but money, the compassionate and learned can share his knowledge about anything under the sun for hours. One should write for what one stands for and not what the people demands. Writing helps in facing our fears, aspirations, perceptions and illusions about ourselves with a frankness that makes the portraits and stories as engrossing as they are disturbing.

There were three basic parameters for good writers considered by me. They are command over language, observation power and experience.

1- Language is natural fracture across communities and it will always be. I can't boast of proficiency in a foreign language like English without having a good command over my own mother tongue. Learning metaphors in a language is like deep water diving into clean ocean. Gradually, one enjoys subtle humor in generating charm through understanding of medium.

2- I was advised by a reader to observe at least for 10 minutes. I started this in local transport and found faces and hand movements beautiful. This observation was dropped by me further as I only tried to be receptive and become aware of the world around me.

3- I am a poor writer in the fiction genre. The experience is missing in the life, a statement that was aptly put by Werener Herzog about film making. It was just opposite to the world of Thoreau that takes the path of thr woods.

Go out to where the real world is, go work as a bouncer in a sex – club, a warden in a lunatic asylum or in a slaughterhouse. Walk on foot, learn languages, learn a craft or trade that has nothing to do with cinema. Filmmaking must have experience of life at its foundation. I know that so much of what is in my films is not just invention, it is very much life itself, my own life. ---  Werner Herzog

The cultural part is hugely reflected in our writing as it embarks our search of identity. There is a constant state of euphoria in the name of entertainment and dose of reality is always injected to come out of it. Also describing this in words of Czech writer Milan Kundera, an individual need to keep intact personal narratives that the state tears apart by violence, undermines by erasure, and unravels by substituting personal testimonies with official documents.

We should never underestimate power of story and myths. Story-telling, history and memory play vital parts in building this 'whole' Identity of the Individual, society and Nations. That can be the power of fiction in the world full of lies and deception.

There is a quote in Shakespeare play, King Lear : We will all laugh at gilded butterflies. A butterfly is already something of great beauty and functionality. Gold leafing it is an example of human arrogance in thinking that gilding a butterfly makes it better when in fact, it would destroy both its great natural beauty and its ability to fly. In the pursuit of fame and success, save your true nature within...

I will quote Jigna Kothari's article from PFC to end mine opinions:  To sum up what everyone was trying to point out when you don the hat of the writer is:

• Know your culture and stay true to it.
• Don’t be ashamed of your roots because that’s what made you. Reflect that in your story.
• Be sensitive to whats happening around you and try and reflect that in words.
• Don’t think global, think desi. It is not about reaching the audiences far and wide it is about reaching the heart of the person you are narrating to.
• Don’t slot your stories in commercial or off beat arena.
• Write in the language that you understand.
• Believe in what you write.

Nothing to Write !

Mental idleness leads to aimlessness and eventually despondency. To be a contented and creatively-active person, one has to keep doing something that keeps your zest for life alive and inspires you. For me it is blogging, it makes me feel alive. Today, Nothing to write but a zeal to express is there in the heart.

I am observing that there has been shift towards how much you own, how much you can get paid for some skill that you have, and bargain hard to get the most you can. We've been culturally brainwashed to believe that the average products for average people, compliance, focus on speed and cost (the factory approach) is the one and only way. It's not the ideal situation. People deserve more and have more potential within. I feel that capability rather than domain knowledge is more important;

Today, I find a beautiful paragraph on creativity by a famous poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz. In 1951 Faiz and a number of army officers were implicated in the so-called Rawalpindi Conspiracy case and arrested under Safety Act. The government authorities alleged that Faiz and others were planning a coup d'etat. He spent four years in prison under a sentence of death and was released in 1955. That is where he wrote about his experience on solidarity. Faiz on himself  --- 

Prison life, like love, is itself a fundamental experience which opens up a new vista of thoughts and insight. The first thing is that, like the dawn of love, all the sensations are again aroused and the mistiness of the early morning and evening, the blue of the sky, the gentleness of the breeze return with the same sense of wonder. And the second thing that happens is that the time and distances of the outside world are negated; the sense of distance and nearness is obliterated in such a way that a single moment weighs on the mind like the day of judgement and sometime the occurrences of a century seem to be like the happenings of yesterday. The third thing is that in the vastness of separation, one gets more time for reading and thinking and for decorating the bride of creativity.

The 400 Blows

This is mine 400th post on the 'Sparsh'. It’s an eve of expression and celebration for me. I have a long journey of “unlearning" prejudices to gain insight of human nature. Also, the explosion of the blog phenomenon has exposed youths like me to a multitude of opinions. I had read, written and discussed about social, economic, and political opinions of importance and enjoyed sharing views on cinema.

I read several bloggers but follow ritually for new updates on these blogs : Nimmy, Nimmy2, Indianhomemaker, Rashmi Bansal, Atanu Dey, Devinder Sharma, TheSouthAsianIdea, Prof Abi, Sameer Bhat, anindianmuslim , Winds From The East , Calamur Harini, Vikram V Garg, Diptakirti, aPocRyPHaL, Anu, The Rational Fool, Nita, The Religious Policeman, kufr, Roshmi, Jaya, Santosh Desai ,  joie de vivre and Rajjo;

I read and like works of these Public Figures : Osho, Nadeem F. Paracha, Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens , Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, P. Sainath, Namit Arora and Pankaj Mishra ;

We as a whole shun social scientists but there is a deep urge among many to understand what is wrong with our country and society. There is a need to examine deeper causes because denial and inertia are easier than rational, analytical debate. We need  writers who can bravely give voice to what people had been wishing- but not daring to say for many a year. I aspire for that role.

I love Internet as it has been able to blow lid on the cheating systems set in pre Internet era. Internet gives me blog space to publish my views without any censor. Internet is a wonderful place and offers endless opportunities for individuals to connect with the rest of the world. So why restrict yourself to the boundaries of ours geographic region? Step out and explore.

I enjoyed writing all these four hundred posts. I view each blog post as a blow to the moral fabric of society by an individual. I am in the search for the elusive individual buried behind the cultural , national, colonial and global sentiment. This blog is now a crazy obsession, its about finding a new instrument true to the one's spirit. I will write more and more till there is passion and curiosity kicking inside me...

Ten Issues - 4

1- Half-life of the Coal Child : Not many know that the dangerous and suffocating rat mines of Meghalaya are worked by 70,000 child miners. Following them into hellish pits, Kunal Majumder exposes the dark veins of an exploitative industry.

2- Glory, piety and politics : With Pakistan’s two main political parties looking exhausted by being made to play a continuous game of cat and mouse with the establishment, the new generation of young Pakistanis began to look elsewhere.

3- A Short History of Rebellion" : TSI discovers that most fade away or come back ‘home’. Some do make history–for better or worse.

4- Interview of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad given to the famous journalist Shorish Kashmiri for a Lahore based Urdu magazine, Chattan, in April 1946.

5- Of grids and groups: An alternative view of "open" and "closed" societies.

6- Over 200,000 Narmada Dam oustees still to be rehabilitated; A crime that goes unpunished for 25 years.

7- Killings of Ahmadis unleashes fresh soul-searching over Pakistan’s identity : The soul-searching is particularly acute given that the suppression of the Ahmadis is officially endorsed by the state.

8- The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People : The thing about habits is that for good and bad they require no thinking.

9- Invisible environmentalists : They forage the city, collecting and sorting often hazardous waste when the city sleeps and by day they are gone. Most of them are women and we have no long-term policy in place that looks at their welfare or health, writes Kalpana Sharma.

10- The Great Bhopal Killing : Read here complete history of Disaster.

In Between, Abhishek Singhvi who is the spokesperson of Congress is also the legal representative of DOW Chemicals (the company that purchased Carbide). Not only that, he is also a member of the committee that is supposed to investigate the Bhopal incident. So on the one hand he is an investigator, and on the other, he protects the legal interests of DOW. What a wonderful world !

Mein pal do pal ka writer hoon

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.

I am not in love but has an obsession with the writing. I had chosen writing as a hobby or parallel life because it enabled me not to be beholden to anybody. I write and also know that no way anyone will be going to put his neck on the line for implementing my ideas. Sometime, I behave like some young fool who did no know when to stop. The real purpose of my writing is not to please or make the audience comfortable. It is about rebelling and make them uncomfortable for a short period of time. My anger on world and myself have been diluted with time still passion remains same.I can be thief, plagiarist, adaptive and original in writing for the message but will never do this for money. A vow of never charging a single paise for unoriginal writing had been taken by me. But, still miles to write before can publish any of my work.

A writer draws inspiration for his writing from the world around him/her. But it fades away with the mood. Truthful opinion can't be compromised. I learned this lesson in the history books. India was a food begging nation and US supplies wheat to hungry Indian. Still, India opposes USA in Vietnam war time causing constraint in the Indo-US relations. That is rare case of integrity and not bowing to unjust demand even US was your food provider. I take this as an ideal and never write on demand as it makes me biased. The natural opinion or inadequate knowledge about writing subject makes me feel guilty. So, I write what I want. Pretty selfish nature...

I read a lot but never likes dark sarcasm. Yesterday, I read a political article which was focusing on the Seven Assholes of the World. The first nation is well guessed - USA. Evert Cilliers (aka Adam Ash) ask - There Are Seven Big Bad Countries In The World -- Is America The Worst Of Them?

America, Britain, France, Germany, China, Japan and Israel all have one thing in common: they're the only countries on earth who think they're better than anyone else.

America thinks its Constitution and economy and military make it better than anyone else. Britain thinks its Shakespeare and erstwhile empire and Beatles and sense of humor make it better than anyone else. France thinks its food and fashion and culture and Revolution make it better than anyone else. Germany thinks its Beethoven and philosophers and engineering and efficiency make it better than anyone else. Japan thinks its honor and work ethic and tech smarts and kawaii make it better than anyone else. Israel thinks its Jewish suffering make it better than anyone else. China thinks its size and growth make it better than anyone else.

Call them countries who suffer from a superiority complex.

You can read full article and have a fun on USA. And then think, can someone write this article with India in the center stage without getting in any controversy ?

Triple Century

The map is not the territory. --Alfred Korzybski
Or take this simply. The blog is not the real world but its a route for me to become Neo from Mr. Anderson. I am on rampage enough to publish 300th post on my beloved blog. I congratulate myself in the sense of vanity and proud over this. Driven by basic instinct to compose and compile all crazy ideas at one place seems flourishing now. I could have easily forgotten this triple centurion post like previous centuries but Amit reminded that I was near triple century. And first time someone appreciated that my words are a source of inspiration. Hence celebrating mine minor joy in full pomp and show. Thank you Amit for your kind words...

You Should Write Blogs by Steve Yegge.
It is most most most pushing article that prompted me to write my bakwaas or preachings as a blogger. It explains why should I blog inspite of the fear and anxiety. Most people give various reasons why not to write something in the life .
Reason #1: I'm too busy.
Reason #2: I'm afraid to put my true thoughts on public record.
Reason #3: Nobody will read my blog.
Reason #4: Blogging is narcissistic.

It has ended these speculations and doubts. The trick has worked for drifter like me, hence it will help you also. Let me put up here opening stanza for preview:

"This is certainly the most important thing I'll ever say in my blogs: YOU should write blogs. Even if nobody reads them, you should write them. It's become pretty clear to me that blogging is a source of both innovation and clarity. I have many of my best ideas and insights while blogging. Struggling to express things that you're thinking or feeling helps you understand them better."

My Output:
I also insist that everyone should write: blog or no blog. Originality isn’t everything. In the world of art and design, originality is highly prized, but sometimes the emphasis is a bit too strong. The point of design isn’t to be original, but to speak a message effectively. If a highly original design does it, so much the better. But sometimes you have to reach to the readers by lowering your standards a little bit. I always insist that the message shouldn't be lost between simile and metaphors. And blah blah blah....

Puneet Jain has also started blog - Rehgujar
I am sure that I will left something behind at blogland, not cease like someone who took something away with him. Just wanted to sing: Yeh honsla kaise jhuke, Yeh aarzoo kaise ruke.

The history of writing

Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow. — Some dude.

I was really flattered when Rajneesh pinged personally and congratulated me for this blog-post in which I stated about my feeling of loneliness. For a mediocre guy like me, to produce magic of ecstasy for friends through written words give intense pleasure. I have frozen frame of the moment in my memory when Himanshu Gupta applauded me for enjoying a healthy and detailed chat on diverse topics. Topic started with him explaining about science in a movie AI to me and continued 3 hours at the lobby of Morvi Hostel (IT-BHU). A sense of confidence was born from inside. It is one the most encouraging memory to cherish till this date.

I always go slow and hate the stopwatch mentality of the world. Deadlines drives me crazy and nervous till this date. The line between an intellectual and a pretentious bore is at best thin. Hence, I feared much in expressing myself. I was like sponge as a kid soaking all in it. Hence, there was so much to tell to this world. Wisdom is learned by 3 ways in the life: Reflection, Imitation and Experience. Imitation gives only outer shell. Experience is most bitter of all. Reflection is the best in all learned retro/ intro - spection.

Imitation kills initiative and discourages independent thought and effort in long run. Foreign words became insufficient to express the experience and thoughts. A sense of dissent for western metaphors or simile is there inside me, as they take mine unique Desi identity and makes me more English. As English isn't my first language, expressing myself through it creates a mental hurdle of translating. Hinglish education had changed my habit of thought and scale of values. Prolonging intellectual serfdom in classic English leads me to indiscriminate adoption of alien wonts and usages. I always try to avoid it. I always like the writing of Salman Rushdie due to his use of Indian English. A sense of Desi belongs in it and English language transforms from British background to urban India. But, I can't adapt his lucid style of complex statements and have deep impact of Premchand's simplicity in Hindi. Hence, imitation way was not for me. Then, I learnt that I had to carve my own way for establishing myself.

Experience comes with passing time through reading and writing ; Advice through comments gives feedbacks of the proactive writing. The reactive comments help in knowing the minds of readers. This stage of experience writing is best expressed by me in a previous blog post.

Reflection makes you strong from inside and a crystal clear point of view appears. Take the seed idea and develop in its essence. That is called adaptation with reflection in my books. The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule or the law of the vital few) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. I think that both every distributive system follows this principle. And personal reflection is that 80% in the mine writing. It may be only small part but its effect is massive.

The three stages are always going in different proportions in writing about any topic. If something is worth writing, it is worth making it extraordinary in the nature. As John Quincy Adams rightly said: If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. So, I am creating anonymous leaders in blogland...

FYI, Abhishek Arora and Vivek Tripathi have started there own blog. Cheers for them...

My First Attempt For Scriptwriting

Notice: I will kill the guy who will plagiarize this creation. I am damn serious.

Walking Diary

1^st scene

Two Boys:One wearing che guevera t-shirt

1^st guy: You are wearing a T shirt with image of Che on it!!!

2^nd guy: who the heck is he in this world? I absolutely have no clue about this man except that it looks cool.

1^st guy: People should be banned from wearing ‘Ernesto Che Guevara’ t-shirts who absolutely have no clue about the man and his sacrifice.

2^nd guy: Did he was an important American rock star or soccer player….

1^st guy: Never mind about that stuff, lets go; Guru (3^rd guy) must be waiting….

2^nd scene

A beautiful girl on side ways and both boys on walk

1^st guy: What a beauty!!!!

1^st guy: Hey, you noticed that chic. She is hot…

2^nd guy: Do you only see the beauty of girls in this whole world? There is hunger, poverty and unemployment around you…

2^nd guy: I got sometimes mad by these sites. People walk with the ignorance and cold heart. I hate viewing those stony eyes.

1^st guy: (Giving Lal Salaam to2nd guy) Are you frustrated or someone rebuked you in the front of beloved one?

1^st guy: Be practical in life.

1^st guy: Go to China and Russia, see the oppression of people. Fussing about communism in this lighter mode! Hey relax, man...

1^st guy: (whispering) you cannot talk so loud in those countries…

1^st guy: You have really damned my mood. I am just priest of beauty like Keats...

2^nd guy: You bastard comparing yourself with Keats. I will die with laugh. Such an exaggeration!

1^st guy: Move fast, long road is ahead of you

(Both of them sigh at the long and unending road)

3^rd scene

In front of temple or religious place

2^nd guy: (hailing in front of temple) really marx was correct. The religion is opium for masses…

1^st guy: Not in India my friend, only cricket and bollywood are unofficial religion…..

4^th scene

View of a dead man (corpse)

1^st guy: I hate seeing corpses on the road. It gives me a draconic feeling.

2^nd guy: Man, you live in India; A place with 110 crore population. People born and die here on streets. Listen...

2^nd guy: Life, disease, and death have always been more visible in India than in another country of west. Children play cricket on the road; shirtless elders chat sitting on the front deck of their houses. Everyone is free to piss on the road. Death is a visible event. You talk like a tourist from west.

1^st guy: It is not originally your words.

2^nd guy: Just lifted from a blog. It was good lines so just delivering dialogue as a hero of parallel cinema.

(Laugh with deep sense of respect of each other)

1^st guy: Hey, I am fultoo Indian from heart. Do no inspect my foreign brand T-shirt. Do you really have met any foreigner in whole life except Bangladeshis and Nepalese?

2^nd guy: Nope. I find them disgusting. They are just bunch of escapists - floating through life on the strength of a favorable exchange rate.

1^st guy: But my heart feels otherwise. They all could just as well be lying on a beach in Goa sipping tequilas. But they are here in spiritual places on some kind of personal quest.

2^nd guy: (urging voice) Correction needed here. They are traveling at religious places not spiritual.

1^st guy: (Hands and head bowed) ‘mai baap sarkar’.I am just a simple “aam aadmi”. I have pinned down a hornets nest. Do not open the pain and sufferings of artistic cinema in front of me. I am seeing enough art in life. Let me emphasis on mine entertainment while you work on society development.

5^th scene

(Two guys and Guru in open place near tea stall)

Guru: Welcome ‘Changu’ and ‘Mangu’. You seem to remind me of contrast characters in life. One walking left in theology and other right wing activist.

Guru: Take a sip of this royal tea and enjoy the beauty of nature. Transitory world add charms to this dusk.

2^nd guy: Sun rise and Sunset are optical illusions. The earth revolves…..

1^st Guy: life is simple time span to express you. Why to waste a beautiful scene with scientific views. Just have a belief in what you observe with open heart.

Guru: Life is not about facts or fiction or about right or wrong. Roles of person are interchanged in his short cinema of life.

Guru: Life is full of paradoxes and mysteries. I do not waste my breath in decoding these puzzles of philosophy. There are certain times in our life when world appear to be nostalgic, insomniac and full of chaos. Identity crisis surrounds you. The world is nothing but mirror of desires and work of all people. Everyone wants to change the world from his point of view.Then,why so serious....

Guru: (Lighting a cigarette & smoking in space): To green world.…

1^st guy & 2^nd guy: (Cheering tea kulhads): To world peace (A serious laugh)

The End

By Himanshu Rai

Dedicated to Varun Grover

I ink,therfore i am.

Who am I?
May be a tramp, vagabond, bohemian, stranger, amigo, nameless traveler, stalker, pauper or faceless identity in a lost world.

I am sure that I am not an artist of abstract and reflective thinking.

Then, Who am I?
I ink, therefore I am but really there is no purpose in asking question to the abyss called as soul.

I write this blog for expressing my feeling and inspire others.

Why do i write?

Chaos, Cosmos, Chaos, Cosmos. Once again the sickening game;

My writings are introspection of change within me with time and place.I have no secret ambition to turn into literal giant in real or virtual world. I don't want to impose my fictional views on others. I write blog just to reflect my feelings in words. I am a free lancer in the world of professional writers.

Passion of writing in diary was started by admiration of quotation. After reading short stories, poems and novels in Hindi and English, the spark for creation ignited me. There is ghost inside me giving lucrative offer to rise and fall in deep oceans of literature, cinema and spirituality. Nowadays, blog and diaries are only remedy to preserve my mind from chaotic thoughts. Every night infinite number of ideas are erupted inside me. There is deep conflict and enigma inside me to understand philosophy of life. This mythical consciousness enables me to think about art and non materialism. I seek for solitude to search for real purpose of knowledge and wisdom.

Perception of reality seems to be blurred from every point of view. I cannot distinguish my life into colors. The world is not simply black or white but as a variable shades of Grey. It makes the world more puzzling and perplexing choice between right or wrong.

Whole sole purpose of shaping my thoughts is now self discovery. Words translate this feeling of inwards journey to a form of expression. I feel writing is like realizing our own divinity in this mortal world.