BRAToSPHERE

Tag: writing

  • A beautiful Sunday Morning

    A beautiful sunday morning. The clouds have agreed to descend in the middle of hot May summer. A balcony revamped with greens just very recently. And, a mug of hot black coffee. Things cant get better, can they?

    This is a wonderful moment with the perfect setting in this otherwise barren concrete island called Gurgaon. The hot humid weather was killing and this respite is very much welcome. 

    This is the weather i was looking for to write here! 

    Have been caught up in the daily vagaries of life amidst a whole lot o things that the writing took a hit.

    I have been doing a lot of reading of late and have been on varied topics with varied writing styles. Will have a complete post to cover up all of that.

    There are also “strategies” that i had made two years back that are now seeing initial light of the day. My days and night have been consumed with them. All towards the prosperity of humanity!

    This and a lot more has been going on. But well, weather permitting, i would be back here. Sooner than you can tell.

  • Writing in a cafe

    There is something about writing at home that makes it plain jane boring and the creative juices just do not flow to get the thoughts out of my mind into this digital odyssey. So what do i do?

    Jump into the coffee shop close to my home to get the creative juices flowing and the fingers tapping away to glory. Coffee Shops, or cafes, are the best place to write.

    Coffee sure is a wonderful stimulant for the brain cells, but it is about the cafe and not so much about the coffee. The vibe there is what i personally find more stimulating.

    If you have to write stuff that people would eventually read, you better be in the midst of people. Not that i eavesdrop into others conversation but the whole feel of a coffee shop is that much more livelier and happening, filled with energy. There are a gamut of emotions around to observe and learn from and set our minds free. You just need to look up to find your muse. It is sitting right across your table weeping away into her boyfriends shoulders. Keep guessing. Be innovative.

    Coffee and writing sure have a strong connection. how else would one explain the phenomena of a cafe in a book store that is all the rage across cities globally. The oxford bookstore in CP, Delhi is brimming with people all the times of the day. All kinds of people chatting, browsing books, sipping coffee with tidbits and exploring away. That place is one of the most happening places in Delhi to experience a wide array of diverse people engaged in different moods.

    In the end, it all Probably is a marketing genius (Horward Schultz anyone?) at work, and in the pursuit of being cool we end up patronising writing in a cafe culture. But what the heck! it works!

    p.s.: Writing this sipping on my favourite Kenya estate blend pour over in my neighbourhood starbucks. Writing in a cafe indeed!

  • Early Mornings

    In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

    This one statement captures it all. Mornings are indeed the most productive hours of the day. The birds chirping, the chill in the air and the dew droplets on the leaves – the atmosphere is so soothing that it brings out the best in you.

    Alas! Most of us (including me!) have wasted most of our mornings, and we keep doing it. Unfortunately, most of these mornings are spent in slumber missing out on the best moments of the day.

    Of late, I have started this routine of waking up before dawn and ideally hitting the ground before the early morning sunlight. Taking a walk around the ground, slight stretching exercises, some yoga exercises or sometimes just sitting there on the bench and observing the beautiful nature – the day seems all charged up.

    Some things that I try doing in the morning:

    Exercise: Work out in the morning. After running, or brisk walking, 10 Km at a stretch early in the morning, heaps of work in the office should be a smooth run. Anything in the form of exercise – Yoga, stretching, meditate, etc. A 45 minute brisk walk session followed with half an hour of Yoga works perfectly. Have been trying to accommodate meditation into the routine for sometime now.

    Planning my day: The extra fresh hours in the morning, give me ample time to put my day in place. Mapping out the schedule for the day, and the to-do list, makes it so much easier.

    Healthy Breakfast: No stress on the importance of this meal. So I tend to have a good, hearty one for this.

    Writing: Well, reading and writing is supposed to be a leisure activity and thus should be done anytime during the day right? Well, true. But bringing in some amount of discipline gets more productive results. Also, mornings allow the mind to think freely and be more creative.

    All this waking up early and getting into a routine forms a very strong and powerful thing within ourselves (other than the six pack abs, if you are the gymming kinds) – HABIT.

    Habit is probably the most powerful thing that drives us to do anything, and the best way to form it is in the mornings when it sticks the best!

    Developing this habit in the daily routine has made me realize that the day actually has enough number of hours, it just needs better planning.

    With this, I am off to get my breakfast, yes a whole and hearty one.

  • Article in BusinessWorld Magazine

    Writing has been a passion since long, and I remember writing right since I was in the 1st standard. Yes, I wrote my first ever story when I was in the first standard. I had drawn a picture on my notebook with the new set of crayons. The bedsheet was more coloured than the paper, and obviously mom was furious. I told her what the picture meant, and how the bedsheet played a vital part in the overall scheme of the story. I was saved from a sound thrashing. So, that people, was my first ever story.  Though, Mom tells me that it was just to cover up the bedsheet mess, and we have ever since agreed to disagree on the same.

    And in this pursuit of convincing my mom that I actually enjoy writing, I picked up writing. I started off by writing the examinations, and then graduated to writing diary.( A habit which has stuck from the past 10 years!).

    In this writing career (really?), spanning several years, there have been several times that I have been published. Don’t believe me? I should show you my school section magazines, I was published twice there in three years.

    I also vividly remember the instance when I was baby sitting one of my cousin’s son. This was sometime during my tenth standard. The little brat ( he now follows my blog! Can’t name him), was not allowing me play my new video game in peace, and I had to shut him up. I told him a story. A story with lots of strange creatures called BOO. I could not use devils, as my cousin would not really like me scaring his kid, and harry potter mania had still not caught on. After the story, the kid was so psyched out, and till date is afraid of me, when I utter the B word. My first tryst with influencing people with my stories.

    I had written a couple of times to gokulam, I also wanted to write for tinkle but did not know how to cartoon, and by the time I realized that we just need to send the story I was reading playboy. Gradually, I started writing for rediff, contributed to jam Mag, was involved with the college magazine, and realizing that I just want to write without others approving it, I started blogging.

    I am still waiting for the writing to be made on the brick on the wall.

    Now here, I would want you all to read, not one of my stories, but an article I had written sometime back for Business world. This is about life at IIML, and in B-Schools in general, and my stay there. Hope it helps the aspirants to be better equipped.

    Pfa the scanned copy of the article.(right click and save the image on your computer harddisk, or atleast the temporary cache,  to zoom it. Technically challenged.)

    The article has been published in BUSINESSWORLD – THE ULTIMATE B-SCHOOL GUIDE.

    (Note: alternatively, you can download the article from here)