Free Writing: My Saviour

Photo Credit : https://www.flickr.com/photos/crdot/

For many years (I started blogging as early as 2004!) I have been trying to develop a habit of daily writing. When I started  blogging the goal was just to express myself,  but later on the goal transformed into something else. I started dreaming about writing that one novel, that one story, that many people dream of writing. Of-course, being the most severe critic of my own writing, I want to make sure that my writing does not suck. Professionally, I have been a stickler to rules when it came to producing any professional written documents. But professional writing or rather I should say business writing is all about providing some information to the reader, however, writing fiction is more about evoking emotions in the readers. In fact, those whose jobs require them to write business documents regularly, often develop a writing style that is too cold and mechanised. 

So, developing the habit of daily writing was my antidote to safeguard my writing style from being ‘cold and mechanised’. Unfortunately, developing this habit proved to be a rather tough task. First, I was not sure what I should be writing daily. Second, following a daily routine has never been my forte. 

I searched, inquired and read about other people’s experiences and it came out that daily journal writing is the way to go. So, I started a daily journal. Since, I spend most of my time in front of my computer, and physical journals are risk to one’s privacy, I decided that I would write on my laptop. My journal writing strategy was simple: I was writing about how my day went. In next few days, I realised that I am getting repetitive, as most of the day my routine was very similar. 

After trying out several other strategies such as using prompts, writing about past memories, to make myself write I found that most of these strategies did not work for me. Finally, I thought of trying out Free Writing. I was sceptical of this initially. But I found out that this really works. I never thought that this simple technique can be so effective. 

I started just writing whatever came to my mind and in some time I realised that I am able to incorporate more variation and scope in my writing. 

Free-writing was also instrumental in making me write daily. Earlier, the problem was that every time, I sat for writing, more than half an hour was spent on deciding what to write. And, that never helped me in getting consistent. Many times, I just wrote a line and then walked away. With free-writing I was able to get my thoughts flowing. 

It has worked for me, and I believe it can work for many. 

(I am going to write about my experiments with writing in my future posts. I would love to know more about your experiences on the same.)

Changing Lives

I tried my best to balance myself on the bricks that were strategically placed in the annoying puddle of sewage that was coming out from the nearby households. The bricks were there to help us cross the puddle without getting our feet dirty.  Every morning I had to cross the puddle, whose size grew randomly, in order to go to my school. There were not many student keen on doing this, they had several excuses to not go to the school. And, not many people were bothered. School for many parents was the place to park their kids when the kids were being a nuisance at home and/or they were not old enough to contribute in the agriculture or household work. My family and I both were exceptional. My family sent me school for studying and I never tried to find excuses, like many other kids, to not go to school.
Our village was fortunate  to have a primary school as there were no schools in the surrounding five-six villages. Students from those villages walked, with a home-made bag and a old grain/fertiliser sack, 4-5 kms every day to attend our village school. The sack was filling in for lack of desk and bench.
Our school three teachers, two rooms and zero toilets. But we never needed a ‘toilet’, there were many options. But anyway, for us learning was always dependent on teachers and not on the infrastructure.
Our teachers used the school time to pursue their many hobbies (such as reading Gulshan Nanda and Kushwaha Kant novels) and occupations (scouting for good buffalos for their business) but still they found sometime to teach us. All the five classes were held together, as there was only one room that was functional. It was not a big issue as there were no syllabus or routine to be followed.
Surprisingly, amidst all of this we learnt a few things. Of course, not all the students benefitted equally. But some really did well. I am one of those. I look back and find that most of my classmates never studied beyond class ten. A lack of resources, family pressure and lack of understanding of impact of education frittered away all the possibilities of developing the future potential.
Today, in hindsight I understand that a better education system, better teachers and a better pedagogy would be have done wonders to many human lives. And, there can never be a more noble profession than being a teacher. I would surely like to be a teacher. 

Let's buy air-purifiers!

Air Pollution in Delhi - (image from Huffington Post)

“People with young children are reluctant to move to Delhi.”  - my European colleague confessed.
“Delhi is now one of the most polluted cities in the world and everybody is concerned about the impact of pollution on health.”

I nodded in agreement. The word is out. Almost all expats working in Delhi, especially those with foreign missions and embassies are asking for their office and residences to be fitted with air purifiers. Many organisations and governments have already have agreed to their demands.

We have done the assessment of air quality in our offices and outside and it is confirmed that the air contains several times more than the permissible quantity of PM2.5 and other harmful gases. Air purifiers for our office are on their way.

In our growing years, we never realised the need of water purifiers. We grew up in small towns never bothered about the quality of the water that we drank. The water tasted great, and, even if, we fell ill sometimes, the doctor did not force us to install a water purifier. Our water was clean and potable. Today, water purifiers are in every household that can afford them. The air-purifiers may be soon be ubiquitous in Delhi households.

Rich people have several options to deal with the hazard that they have created. But those with poor income have no option other than to suffer from havoc caused by luxuries and greed of rich people.

Protecting common people’s interest is government’s responsibility. However, day by day deteriorating quality of air and water is not yet seen as a challenge that need comprehensive intervention by our government. 

Sad, Unfortunate and Foolish

Gajendra Singh committed suicide in AAP rally today. The news hit reflect the sorry state of affairs in our today's politics. Is it politics at its new low? Was this a political drama gone wrong? Or was this a genuine hopelessness and frustration of a farmer forcing him to end his life?
I hope that we come to know the truth soon. This is was a sad, horrible unfortunate and foolish act. Suicide is not an option. I am also surprised at the insensitivity of the people in that rally. How can a farmer attempts  suicide in a rally in a full public view and nobody stopped him.
If this was a staged drama gone wrong then Kejriwal or whoever is responsible should be given harshest punishment for this. This is politics at its nadir. 

Craving for Clean Air in Delhi

Most men racing towards 40s spend a lot of time thinking about the increasing waist size and receding hairlines. One cannot do much (yes, wigs and hair transplants are always considered) about the receding hairline but there are a few things that they can do about the increasing waist size. jogging and running are supposed to the most popular and easy options. 

Every day, at the time of getting dressed for office, my waist reminds me of the promises that I have made to myself. The promise to run or jog to burn the fat that make me look like a python that swallowed a goat. I want to be honest to myself but there are several challenges. 

In Delhi, there are not many places where you can run or jog without consistent threats of a rich kid with big car and tiny civic sense running over you. The public parks and running tracks are luxury for most common men. Luckily, I live close to (close enough to reach there with a 10 minutes walk) a public park. But, for that one needs to get up by 6 pm. There is no shame in accepting that I am not one of those morning persons. Getting up at 6 pm does not come naturally to me. It is a rather forced and unpleasant thing. Post 6 pm, I do not want to take that 10 minute walk to the park; the smoke and the traffic threaten me to a level that I would prefer dying as fatso than walking. 

So far, I have not been able to jog or run for more than once or twice in a month. Recently, I did all the hacking of mind and motivational nudges to make myself up for the challenge of morning jog. I have started jogging.. well.. I have done it for a couple of times to be exact. But I might be switching to running on a treadmill in gym. Delhi air quality is getting worse and worse every day. I was under the impression that I am running in clean air but that was just an illusion in absence of information. 

I hate running indoors. Nothing can compare running with trees by your side and morning wind hitting your face. Sadly, it seems that if I want to run in not so polluted environment I have to switch to gyms fitted with air purification systems and use a treadmill. 

We need to be more conscious of our lifestyle and economic growth. We are paying a horribly high price for our luxuries, egos and greed. 

The DNA of Politicians

Anyone who follows Indian politics (or politics anywhere else) will agree to the fact that almost all politicians hate being criticised. The politicians also perceive themselves to be beyond questioning and assume that they always act in the best interest of party, country and the people. These traits seem the inherent part of a politician’s DNA.

Mamata Banerjee, Narendra Modi, Mulayam Yadav, Indira Gandhi.. the list is tiresomely long. I wonder whether this is one of the basic attributes of being successful in politics. I am utterly disappointed by our politicians. In a democracy, politicians are to represent peoples view and work for people’s interest. This requires a personality and attitude that are accommodating of criticisms, different opinions and an open mind  for participatory decision making. Sad that our politician’s DNA  does value these things.

Arvind Kejriwal is the newest entrants in the list and a very apt example. His entire tirade was against the centralised and dictatorial processes and he promised that everyone will be part of the governance and decision making both at the party level as well as in the governance of state. But  he seems to have developed allergy to criticism. Whatever be his intentions and however selfless be his acts, criticism is something that cannot be ignored. Criticism is part of the process. It need to be factored in and properly addressed through a transparent process.

The Better Team Won

Today, we lost the world cup match to Australia. I was afraid of this result but hoped that we can beat the Australians. At least the last 3-4 matches suggested that we have got the momentum.

The victory against South Africa was the main reason behind for this hope. We outplayed South Africa in that match. South Africa  is a great team and beating them was no small achievement. But South African bowling and batting both did not click in that match. Nothing like that happened today.

Our weaknesses were exploited and our strengths were tested. We have been blessed with some remarkable individual performances in this world cup from our top 4 batsmen but there was always a concern that against a good bowling attack our lower order will of now use.

Raina and Jadeja are great players in Indian subcontinent and against average bowling. But they have too many weaknesses against genuine pace attack. It is difficult for them to score at quick pace without playing risky shots. When their aggression works, they are hero but against a team like Australia it is difficult to score if you have weaknesses against short ball and rising deliveries. Jadeja is not a dependable lower order bat outside Indian subcontinent.

Dhoni, one of our most experienced and trusted players in crunch situation often has the tendency to leave things for last minute. Many times this has worked but I can recall several matches where he let the required run rate go beyond the manageable limit and succumbed to unrealistic demand of scoring 50-60 runs on 15-20 balls. He is a great runner and great hitter of the ball but he too depends too much on aggressive shots for making quick runs.

Anyway, this is a young team and this would be a great experience for Sharma, Dhawan and Rahane. We hope that this long Australian trip has given them the lessons that will make them win big matches in Australia and England in forthcoming tours.