The Idea-smithy

I’ve had a strange relationship with music.
I remember listening to Winds of change by the Scorpions on my walkman, lying between bundles of sheets and clothes in a corner bedroom. I remember that I was wearing a pair of corduroys that seemed to be the most comfortable and yet appropriate garb for the occasion. My [...]

Okay, weekly NovelRace update time. First of all, congratulations to Angad Chowdhry and shomeshome for having completed the race at 1,67,934 and 74,000 words each. These are the first novels to be completed and they signal the start of a new phase in the race.
A conversation with my dad earlier this week made me rethink [...]

A creative writing experiment. This story has been written in third person and then in first person. Which works better and why? Tell me, dear reader, what you think? I am really looking for feedback here so be brutal.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
A Room To Call Her Own (Third person)
Sheila Rai lived in the same house for the first [...]

Mail Today/ South Delhi Plus (I saw the online version on Mail Today but a friend told me he saw it in South Delhi Plus) did a story on Internet addiction yesterday. I’ve been quoted in the main piece and there’s a separate mini-piece with my views.
(Click to see full pages)

(Photograph courtesy Sumit Jagdale)

My muscle aches some [...]

Here’s my NovelRace update, not one but two weeks later. After a ‘I do me proud’ start in the first fortnight, I slacked off for a week in between, making full use of my 30th birthday as an excuse. Pune and its wonderful people gave me a delightful celebration spread over 4 days (a birth-weekend [...]

I started the 30 diaries three months back because I couldn’t wait for the answers that I hoped would come to me with the big Three-O. I turned thirty yesterday and guess what? There are answers. Just waiting for the right questions to be answered. Just like 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe [...]

My school had an interesting way of encouraging children to read. A book-fair was held every year in a couple of the classrooms. After school-hours, parents coming to pick up their kids could buy those books. It was a much anticipated event for me and I’d go and look over the books during my lunch [...]