So you want to write?

So I was complaining how fast things changes… that was in my last blog. When I started my blog a few years back I had done it more because I wanted to experience the medium. Over the time I realized it is such a fantastic place to actually jot down some of your thoughts and experiences… and people even come and read it. Must tell you the second part appeals tremendously! And that’s what had got me going, writing stuff and sharing experiences. And then I got into a job… as something many people call ‘journalist’.

Four years back when I started working I figured out that blogging is so much better than writing for a newspaper. Here you are editor… you can practically write anything. Sadly though that ‘anything’ takes a backseat over the time as  matters related to the job preoccupies. Writing things that will keep your boss happy and money flowing becomes much more important than filling up your blog with stuff that makes you happy. Normal human tendency this one...  and this in turn creates lethargy – towards your blog if nothing else. It did with me.

Beliefs versus reality 

Ideas still randomly sprout… things that I would love to share. But the fact that I will have key in another piece after a hard day’s work kills all enthusiasm. Result: I may have lost innumerable of award winning write ups (Yes I am an overconfident narcissist… this is a result of being in the profession)!

Okay I accept that I am not the award winner types. Too many typos in whatever I write and my vocabs never improves! But there certainly was an urge… still is… to write. But no energy! Creative writing is not easy when you start writing for money… especially in the mechanical settings of media.

And that’s what makes me smile when new talented writers join the media. I smile at the irony. They probably too guided themselves into the profession of writing... as they wanted to be writers. I have got quite a few calls in the last few years… from friends and relatives. They tell me they know someone – cousins, children or friend – who is very creative and writes lovely poem and stories. And how they these people think that the poor kid should join the media! Many kids fall for it, some save themselves by taking up other careers. Chetan Bhagat definitely saved himself by taking up banking. He probably started writing to relieve the stress… and then wrote a best seller, became a writer and now roams the world.

I don’t write to rid myself of stress. Writing is what creates the stress now! And I don’t see myself writing my dream novel anytime soon… considering I run out of steam writing a short blog piece!

Positive side – If Chetan Bhagat can be an example… I think I could be one too!

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Too fast…

Recently when I was interviewing Sunny Deol he said something very interesting. “Right now things are changing too fast,’ he said. He was referring to changes in the film industry. But as I walked out of his house that one line kept running through mind. Change, we have always maintained, is the only constant in this moving world. And for a newsperson change is GOOD because that makes news. Something that gets us money…  But then the ‘too fast’ clause indeed was an interesting addition to the thoughts.  And I am just talking about the probably headline for the interview.

Things indeed have changed. And while we believe it’s always good… we don’t always analyze what could be making out of us.

did you say 'fast'?

As a student four years back I was different. Well I was much thinner for one. But that’s not the concern. You do gain weight and proportion as you grow older… at least people in my family always seems to have. But there have been changes apart from that. Changes that we attribute to life… but are actually more about us. Life after all is what we make of it.

Back then if I had to reach a place at a particular time I used calculate how long I would take to reach by bus. And I used to reach very much on time. Today I decide how long it will take by an autorickshaw – a faster medium of transportation and much more expensive too – and yet I reach late. Simply because there those few extra minutes that I desire to ‘rest’ or ‘take easy’.  Bottom-line while I could manage for Rs 4000 a month as a student I don’t seem to be able to make my ends meet with multiples of that much money as my salary. Lazy? I would hate to admit. Maybe it’s just killing the jest…

And when I see all around me, I know I am not alone. Nothing seem to be enough anymore.

We were talking about change. And such a change in mere four years is definitely ‘too fast’.

Of course there are reason to this… reasons which have been working on us since we gained consciousness. But I assume I will just talk about the change for today.

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