Writing – From hot-pan walk to cake-walk

There are a variety of readers with varying tastes; they have a reading pattern of their own, some like to read the old fashioned detailed writings, while others prefer crisp and to the point writings.

A writer writes to be READ and hence he strives to improve everyday, with this thing in mind, I would like to share some points that may come handy to my fellow writers and to-be-writers who are willing to be read:

1. Keep in mind the target audience, anyone who is going to read your writing is your audience; he is going to see you perform throughout your article.
2. Never show off, your writing is not your attire but your attitude and hence carry it with utmost care and never ever show off.
3. Have a clear picture of what you wish to convey, unless you are clear about the ideas you wish to share, it would be very tough for your audience to grasp the same.
4. Never make unnecessary assumptions which would eventually alter the entire style of your writing. For instance, don’t feed in a lot of details about some basic scientific phenomena when your target audience is scientists or take it the other way round, never write so much superficially that your readers are flummoxed and are even unable to comprehend the piece.
5. Using thesaurus is good but it is not meant to show off the language; to pick a precise word is one thing and to pick an unknown, uncommon word another.
6. See if your ‘writing’ interests you or not, if it can not interest you, there is a very high chance that it won’t interest anyone else; I tell you a secret – NO ONE READS TO GET BORED!!
7. If I want to get bored, I would never prefer reading over umpteen other mediums; hence never take chances and try creating a piece of work that could be anything but not BORING.
8. Be specific, digression is good only if you know your destination, you digress and reach somewhere, which leaves not only you but also your readers confused, is unacceptable.
9. Read your article a couple of times before actually publishing it, every time you would be beautifying your piece at least a bit.
10. Neither feel contended nor complacent; you might have written a fantastic article but DON’T get carried away, always have the zeal to improve upon yourself, bring in consistency, bring in charm, bring in a new wave of magic in each and every article.
11. Novelty is what we are all are looking for; bring in the variety and kill clichéd works in your article; this newness is always admired and talked about (This novelty made Aravind Adiga win Booker for The White Tiger).
12. Experiment with your articles; never be afraid of trying something new: it may or may not be liked by one and all, but it would certainly make you much wiser.
13. In the journey of your article writing, bring in unexpected twists, turns and sharp curves; grave and joyous picturesque sceneries for the reader to admire and then leave your article up to the reader to praise, love and cherish.

""13 points is just a matter of chance, no voodoo attempts""

Comparing writing with the culinary skill, some points garnishing this analogy are:

• However good your dish may be, it has a scope for improvement.
• All the best dishes in this world are a result of experimentation.
• Same kind of the best delicacy if eaten daily can lead to monotony and hence food merely becomes a daily bread rather than a piece of art, so bring in novelty.
• Be it a food connoisseur or your 10 year old kid, anyone can give you a tip or two to improve upon your dish, so listen to them.
• The content is certainly important but equally important is the overview of your dish; work on the overall presentation to ensure that no one makes a decision without even tasting it.
• Prepare food that can be digested, if the eater is required to take in something to digest it, you are to be blamed.
• Never prepare the food without the prior knowledge of those who are going to consume it, you serve the best sea-food to a bunch of veggies and end up receiving boos and shoos.

Unless you are very clear about the target audience, you can’t create a good piece of art.

Be it
a painting, a song
a poem, a dance

give your best shot
and never miss a chance

it should be appealing enough
even in the first glance

it is a piece of your soul
and not a piercing lance

it would bridge the distances
shorten the gaps

it would narrow the lanes
put you ahead some laps

Spread magic and charm
And make the cold life lovely and warm….

So gear up authors, mould your thoughts into words and present them in a beautiful platter to be remembered and admired till eternity.

You will die but your writing won’t, it would see the times that even your last worn-out strand of DNA won’t be able to.

This post is primarily motivated by a writing project on a fantastic site ‘Confident Writing’ to improve your writing skills by Joanna. Thanks Joanna for the inspiration!!

--sudharm baxi

Goodbye - salutations

It is always tough to part from your loved ones. Hence, the English language takes care of it through so many adopted words, phrases and idioms from various languages.

Some of the most appealing and widely used ones are briefed here, all of them suggest a meaning very close to goodbye:

• Ciao - Italian (pronounced Chao).
• Hasta la vista - Spanish (meaning: until next time) (remember Terminator 2).
• Sayonara - Chinese.
• Adieu - French.
• Adios - Spanish.
• Au revoir - French.
• auf wiedersehen - German.
• ta-ta - British (informal).
• Do svidaniya - Russian.

And the regular ones - See you later/soon/tomorrow(cya), goodbye, take care, b-bye etc. (Origin of Goodbye - God be with you).

OK so bye for now!! More coming up soon, keep crawling (a term used by Google to look for your search items in the web pages worldwide).

Writing - my endearing romance!!

This blog is like my baby. I once heard somewhere - किताबो से तो शादी करनी पड़ती है (One has to get into a wedlock with the books). But my engineering books never found me worthy enough as a life-long soulmate, hence i could just manage short term relationships with them (short term implies one semester).

And no traces of anything studied in that semester could be found in the rarest-remotest corner of my brain post that semester. Still, somehow i managed to clear engineering and ended up in an IT company. Here the ghoulish coding languages were awaiting my welcome to this graveyard (sorry for being harsh - i know this is my PRESENT EMPLOYER - making me a PAST). Somehow i managed to finish off with the gruesome training and right now doing something that earns my company some dollars.

During this whole expedition, i came across the world of blogging. And here i could deliver this baby - i was expecting ever since i came across linguistic communication. I could give shape to my thoughts, my ideologies, my understanding and as per my title - my underintelligence.

So why do you write?
Because i love writing.

And who gave you the right to impose this writing upon others?
I never imposed anything...

Yes you did..you forced them to read and admire your so called 'baby'..
Nooo!! i just send the link and if they wish they read it...

Don't send the link even - this is like forcing them to read..
I don't force them, i share it only with the selected few and that too i stop sharing if i feel they might not be interested in it.

This is like showing off, displaying your ego..
Showing off- i can't believe this, i have stopped using a capital 'i' ever since i started writing and you accuse me of showing off.

Ok Ok!! Still stop telling them that you have added something on your blog, stop imposing your love of writing upon others - Be humane, you should not trouble others because of your love. Should you?
No i should not and i will try that i do not.

But let me assure you of one thing - i will never let this baby grow old. Right now the baby is maturing with time, it is going through the vicissitudes of life and once it attains adult-hood, i would stop the process of its ageing (Yes, i can do that, but don't ask me how?). Because if my writing grows old it is bound to die, and i can't let it die.

I would die but my writing won't, it would see the times that even my last worn-out strand of DNA won't be able to.

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.

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Contentment is bad

Contentment is bad unless you are Buddha or Mahavir. You would not even realize when this contentment transforms into complacency and thence your (asked for) failure.

The world is full of examples that claim this fact. You remember Romesh Powar, the red-goggled Mumbai spinner. He might be talented as he got into the national team, and then out of contentment, he started to take it for granted; never tried to improve his fitness, his fielding and above all bowling, as a result he is out forever. Ask a guy who practices cricket 8 hours a day, sweats out in the gym, pool and race tracks for the remaining day, just to get into the Ranaji team or the university team. And here we have a guy who got such an immense opportunity, a chance to represent the nation and he wasted it like anything.

Have you visited any of the 'More' stores by the Aditya Birla Group? They have huge establishments, so many employees, so much space, money and experience to experiment with and become a leader in FMCG sales. But where do they stand right now? Nowhere.

This is because of the very basic reason - they don't even understand that the force that drives the middle class is money; if you don't give discounts, if you are not healthy on the pockets of the consumers, why would the customer prefer you over the local kirana store or any other local grocery store.

Have you visited any of the huge book stores namely 'Odyssey' or 'Crossword', i am not sure if they generate profits or not. But one thing is for sure, if they deploy a few very obvious strategic techniques, they would be heavily profitable.

People actually love reading, they want to purchase original books, but the books are so heavily charged. A piece of fiction which is not more than a few hours read for a voracious reader is worth 500 bucks. I can not even imagine buying that book; hence i go to the road side vendor and purchase the duplicate copy for 70-200 rupees. Yes, i feel guilty in doing so but i can't help, i can not purchase a book at an asking price of Rs.500.

Firstly if that book had been priced 250 or so i would have gone for the original one, secondly if those grandiose stores offer schemes like discounts on future purchases or gift coupons or for that matter anything which make me feel that i get worth of MY money whenever i go to so and so store, why would i go for the duplicate cheap purchases (Recently i purchased the duplicate titles of - 'Go kiss the world' and 'The White Tiger' for the very same reason).

Contentment certainly leads to happiness but it kills the urge to get ahead. In a race, you are contended that there are five cars behind you, but that would never make you win, what would make you win is i have to speed up, there are still 8 cars ahead of me.

Just after college, we get into the job without thinking or giving a second thought to WHAT IF i go for this or that? I seek contentment in - Hey! At least i have a job. Also, in the job we don't put in our 100% because we don't find it necessary. But in order to succeed we have to get ahead, think of new frontiers, think of new horizons and without fail head start in that direction.

If you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.
--Norman Vincent Peale

Smile - Joviality Transmitter!!

Here in this post i would like to share something that i have discovered recently. I call it a discovery because it was ever existent, known to many maybe, but never realized and practiced. And pertaining to my altruistic, philanthropic nature, i ought to share it with you..

Do you realize how scarcely we smile, how we have almost forgotten how to smile. Try to recollect - Your mom's face when you left your home for studies or job; a mix of care, fear and love beautifully encompassed in the teary smile. This smile was pure, straight from heart and selfless.

Smile is one of the most beautiful gifts; which i am not sure if is adorned only by humans because i have seen monkeys, donkeys, owls, cheetah cubs and particularly dogs and cats smile. So, why not make full use of this gift, why not smile in all the situations of life - good or bad, tough or easy.

There are umpteen benefits of endowing a smile in the tougher times of life:

• A smile creates an atmosphere of positive energy.
• A smile shifts mood from sad to happy and happy to happier.
• A smile always signifies calmness, laugh can not boast of this.
• Smile makes you livelier, jollier and much more adorable over the period of time.
• Being contagious, it relieves tensions, worries and the troubles not only you but also others around you.
• A smiling face emanates - happiness; contentment; high energy level; welcoming and accepting attitude.

The mojo possessed by smile is not something that a hearty laugh can boast of. The technique was employed by Boman Irani in Munnabhai-MBBS, he actually laughed heartily whenever he was in tension and suggested that it is a good technique to relieve him from tension.

But i feel a smile comes more naturally than a laugh.

• You meet your dear ones, you smile and not laugh.
• You see a cute puppy on the road, you smile and not laugh.

Hence, we are (if not can be) more prone to a smile than a laugh. A smile is more personal than a laugh. A person is at his honest best when he is smiling, he is his own true self and that too through his own eyes (try hiding your mouth and than smile and see your eyes smiling). A laugh when cherished in memory can lead to a beautiful smile.

Initially it would be tough for you to adorn this jewel, this crown of smile; it would be like wearing an Armani tuxedo in the company of beggars. Yes it would be tough, because over the period of time we have been taught to be serious. So, you need to condition your mind with the benefits of wearing a smile.

• This would be like that flowing river which flows on and on smiling, creating lives all over.
• This would be like that tree which is so very happy to give shelter, fruits and whatnot to the fauna.
• This would be like those flowers which are so welcoming to the bees.

So, the mantra is smile whenever you feel worn out, smile whenever something troubles you; use this infectious perfume to spread happiness all around the globe. Wear this perfume wherever you go, in the process you will not only enlighten your own self but also the lives of all your dear ones. The aroma, the charm of smile is going to glorify your life and let you exude gallons of positive energy all around.

Smile - This investment only knows hefty and merry returns and nothing else, always!!!

Paulo Coelho

I have particularly liked Coelho ever since i read 'The Alchemist' because of the simplicity in his writings. He tries to teach life lessons that are so simple but all forgotten, all buried in the sands of civilizations. He is the guy who is removing the sand. For me he is a cleaner, a soul cleaner.

There are gurus who say do this dhyaan, asana, Samadhi and whatnot, and we forget all that, minutes after listening. But Coelho is different, he is a simple story-teller with that grace, that aura, and that magic to transform the complex life lessons into easy, comprehensible and good to read fables.

You always wish to live in the world, in the shoes, in the troubles of the central characters of Coelho. Be it the girl who decided to die (Veronika decides to die) or the guy who was willing to cross deserts to attain his much desired treasure (The Alchemist), or the girl willing to learn magical powers (Brida) or any character for that matter.

You actually think what if I get to experience all this, but here is the trick, Coelho through his lessons want to convey one very strong point and that is – You need to experience everything in this life yourself and no one is going to actually teach you any of those strange or mundane or whatever things. You have to be a self learner.

You have to go through the pond of wealth as well as the creek of bitter life yourself. Life and time are bigger teachers than anything else ever existed on the face of this planet. So, I sincerely request you to read Paulo Coelho, he may sound silly, insane, or childlike at some instances but he is actually a connector between the unknown, unidentified being and the small us.

This spiritual extravaganza awaits anyone who wishes to explore, who is willing to remove the dust off the lid. One who is eager to take pain, suffer at the hands of the society, the customs, and the dictums to find the unknown will be the one who is going to find true spiritualism, true eternity and will eventually become the flag-bearer of the coming generations.

Lover or a ..

On a lighter note i penned these lines yesterday..

Her wink suggested she has brought something
And somehow I had to get rid of the friends crowding

Once I did so, how I don’t really remember
She grabbed me by my arm and took me to a corner

We sat on a two sitter
And she started her famous chatter

Unpacking the food
She looked so good

Her food was not exactly delicious
But she certainly looked very gracious

I ate like a hungry fox
Knowing I would later require a Maalox1

Not that she forced me as such
But as always I was obliged pretty much

She said she would bring more next time
And I was constantly thinking about some lime

Being with me she considered her luck
But I was more worried of my stomach

She departed saying meet you at dinner
Oh man this girl is a lover or a hired killer……..


1 Maalox is a trademark drug for relief from indigestion and other common stomach ailments.

Kill Me ! ! ! !

People say
Don’t stop things in between
Then why you leave me half alive

Kill me
I’m already half dead
Kill me
I am terribly sad

Kill me
I carry my dad’s ambition
Kill me
I say no to addiction

Kill me
I dare to speak
Kill me
My moral doesn’t leak

Kill me
I refuse to bribe
Kill me
I don’t belong to your tribe

Kill me
I abhor plagiarism
Kill me
I adore patriotism

Kill me
Please please kill me

Before I create my own paws
And start tearing and bending the laws

Before I find pleasure in cocaine
And my dad’s ambition utterly insane….

Kill me!!!

Me - You

Me Hindu
You Muslim..
Me Christian
You Jew..
Me Capitalist
You Communist..
Me Secular
You Fascist..
Me Modern
You Chauvinist..
Me God's Child
You Devil's Pride..

All this goes no where
But you don't dare you don't care..

Why i fight the stream
Why i try to scream..

Let the other guys fight and die
If necessary in the court i would lie..

I am not concerned with people dying, children crying
Most of the times they are lying

Yes they lie when they say they are dead
To check I kick them hard in their head

They say I don’t care I don’t dare
And I tell you I won’t dare till I go bare

All i am concerned with is my pocket
And my wife’s ring and her diamond studded locket….

Hunger - IMMORALITY harbinger?

Ethics, morality, patriotism and all the wonderful attributes of a noble person don't exist for a hungry man.

You steal
You kill
You cheat
You hit

Not because you are morally disinclined

but because you have not had

a roof
for years,
a bread
for days,
water
for hours,
medicine
for the dying mother,
dowry
for the unmarried sister,
fund
for brother's education

and above all

money
for raising a living..

Everyone is born with whiteness inside
but sooner or later that is put aside..

You can stick with truthfulness
until you have encountered the worldliness..

Go out with a white shirt on
Try your best to keep it on..

I mean don't allow it to be tainted
don't let your spirit be fainted..

Soon your bones would be visible
and stealing would look more feasible..

Still somehow you protest
Give cheating a look so grotesque..

But the world out there is willing to spoil you
Neither they like your white shirt nor the whiteness within you..

They don't believe in healing or curing
all they know is spoiling or torturing..

They dig in to your roots to kill
every truth telling pill that can take you to the hill..

And history is evident that those with white shirts still white end up in grave sooner than others
Those with their ethics still intact, morale castle-high and spirits unadulterated, end up as Stickers..

Don't take me as if i am proclaiming the fact that all the acts of indiscretion are because of poverty, oppression, depression or suppression. There are filthy creatures on the face of this planet who do so because they don't find anything wrong about it.

More about such creatures in my next poetic endeavor… :)