Amit Goes Blogging

We had a robust black and white television set from ECTV. It came with a wooden cabinet and shutters  drawn horizontally from either end. The TV had four knobs for volume, brightness, contrast, and tuning. To switch channels, we had a knob that moved through 12 slots. The remote was not an in thing; for, only one channel was aired then. And, when DD Metro broadened the choice, the knob got twisted so much that it crossed its tolerance and fell apart. After that we started using nose-plier to switch channels. The TV remained with us for 16 years. My father is a disciplinarian. The reason he bought us TV was every Sunday we brothers flocked to a house in the neighbourhood to watch TV. One day, we kids were denied entry. This cut my father to the quick. By the following Sunday, father had his honour and we had our new TV set. But, it's not a very pleasant story after this. As if the shutter wasn't a secure child lock, my father draped the TV with a heavy cover. The TV r...

Professionalism is one elusive lesson from the corporate world that has often unhinged me with its implications. Every organisation stresses it and swears by it in its business dealings. To gain an insight into the mystery, I carefully observed its adherents - professionals. These are the observations I came up with. Professionals never look sideways. For them, the neighbour next-door or the colleague in the adjacent cubicle is an absent figure. Only those who fall before their gaze are acknowledged with a beautifully carved smile; a smile that likens to a wreathe of flowers on a coffin. If you mistake this smile as an invitation to friendship, then you have not read 'so far and no further' in the fading of the smile. It is even interesting to watch their learned reactions. You can notice them retracting into a safe zone of no opinions. They are haunted, as it were, by an unseen media presence. They speak neither for nor against anything; they go by the book. The book discourag...

If you wait for inspiration, you're not a writer, but a waiter. -Anonymous One has to live a life that creates a writer. -Erno Paasilinna Writers will happen in the best of families. -Rita Mae Brown Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen. -Willa Cather When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. -Samuel Lover Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.- Elie Weisel Writing is so difficult that I feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter. -Jessamyn West Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted. - Jules Renard Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else. -Gloria Steinem I take the view, and always have, that if you cannot say what you are going to say in twenty minutes you ought to go away and write a book about it. -Lord Brabazon...

While reading stories about great men, the awe that fills us makes even the ordinary incidents of their lives significant. I have no such advantage. Some stories are read as they make interesting travelogues or historical reports. I was never so vexed with my surroundings that I had to go visiting nor have I taken the onus of providing future generations with the excitement of historical research.  I am afraid of losing the measure of frankness to be displayed in writing my story. If I mention all that passes through my mind, my story would find an honoured place among books written by hardcore moral wrecks. I would spell doom for others who would be exposed besides me. There would also be a few good thoughts but mostly borrowed. Why shun originality and be accused of plagiarism?  Biographies inspire us to emulate the lives of great men. This tendency to seek inspiration destroys the spontaneity in our lives. Let's not upset our beautiful life living someone else's. There are ...

The other day I was reading a book by Abraham Eraly, "The Mughal Throne". It gives an interesting account of the Mughal arrival and expansion in the subcontinent. It's very well written in that it has the advantage of an enlightened interpreter in Mr. Eraly. After reading the book, I asked myself a question - does the study of history serve any purpose?  By studying human development over ages, people have tried to figure out the workings of history. Some have undermined its value for posterity. For some, the study of history warrants attention if it proffers the knowledge of the future course of events.  If you look at the past generations with the eyes of the present, you notice human progress sometimes slows to a crawl and generations stagnate in the pits of time. But, after tarrying for ages, man takes a giant leap. Certain props that suit his present are accepted and those that grow heavy discarded. Then, follow the periods of assimilation and inward testing. When a...

During my college days, the idea of a relationship with the fair sex had always tugged at my heartstrings (it still does); whereas, boys, who infested my life, had always been a nuisance (they still are). Boys around felt the same. Hit with boyhood syndrome, we always flocked together at tea-stalls, college canteen, or languished in our rooms. Each lauded his achievements to which none was a witness. Some boys accomplished their life-work on the train; some had their first lessons in love-making from the servant-maid; some, while in school, were regular visitors to the house of ill-fame and women of easy virtue swore by their libido; some even claimed to be happy victims of child molestation at the hands of girls in their neighbourhood. Even I concocted stories in self-glorification in that I was a hot favourite among girls at school. My appearance betrayed my claim. Everyone had a glorious past but a sad present. We spent time gossiping about others' affairs; heaping criticism on ...

Being silent is the choicest suffering that you can inflict on someone. How often our loved ones resort to it, and disarm us. When people harbour enimity against each other, the silence pricks; and when there is love between them, the silence soothes. It is said, "True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable." Silence is called the great art of conversation. Thinkers are struck with its soulfulness and profundity. Story is told of Confucius that one morning he was accompanied by his friend's friend on a walk since the common friend, Confucius' daily companion, was unwell. On reaching the mountain-top, the only words this man uttered, in the entire journey, were, "How beautiful is the weather out here!" Confucius later complained to his friend that the man talked a lot and spoke the obvious! Confucius was trotting the mountain alone the next day. There are occasions when silence comes to us naturally. But, we do not grace ourselv...

A political leader while addressing a gathering said that Gandhian way of life was the best path and everybody should follow it. This exhortation was meted with a fiat(fatwa) from a Mufti who opined that anybody asking Muslims to follow a path other than the one shown by the Holy Prophet is violating the basic tenets of Islam. I couldn't believe the gross stupidity displayed by the mufti who is the guardian of muslim faith. This bickering cannot be backed by a divine sanction. It springs from resisting the power-shift triggered by democratization of religion. Every organized religion suffers when these emissaries carry a mandate to languid in the ruts of age-old thinking and take religion back to its tribal settings from where it was freed by its prophets. Have these muftis offered their rationality at the altars of dogma? What the prophet has bequeathed to Muslims, if it has to be protected through strife and violence, then this creed urgently needs a prophet again. But is it poss...

It's a difficult, amidst commonplace occurrences, to decide what one chooses to write. All amateur writers like me face this difficulty. What would serve as an interesting piece for the numerous readers hooked on net? Readers savour practically anything that comes through blogs. The term blog dispels the cloud of seriousness that overcasts writing. There are plenty of sites that advise you how to blog effectively. Writing is like a TV soap. Production is all that matters. If something really startles you, grips you and haunts you, then with an innate writing ability you can definitely bring forth a worthy piece. Remember, it is not events but their impact that has interested writers. Only calenders, bills, user manuals and schedules are without any impact; and you know how interesting they are! Overcome the fixation for a particular set of words. Record things with a fresh pen that is not confined to a limited diction. Avoid premeditated expre...