The Writer's Nest

Writers are…

So, one beautiful morning when I had nothing to do (I lie. I had tons of work and was too bored to do it), I Googled the following query: writers are

Here’s what was listed in suggestions:

One positive thing: writers are engineers of the soul. Just one!

Now, you may have noticed that my blog’s name happens to be The “Writer’s” Nest. So this particular list of suggestions was almost a personal attack. Therefore, I’m going to go about busting (or not) these myths.

Writers are crazy – I refuse to believe that only writers are. I think all of us have some amount of crazy within us. And I think it’s what keeps us going. Every one of us is a personal brand of weird.
Writers are loners – Big lie. I don’t see any need to generalize. There are loners who are writers and there are writers who are loners. But then, there are also loners who are not writers and writers who are NOT loners. I know some personally. Case closed.
Writers are weird – See 1.
Writers are engineers of the soul – That’s a phrase used by Joseph Stalin. So does that bring down our tally of positive opinions to zero? No, we’ll consider it. 🙂
Writers are liars – I don’t know how they even came up with that! Just because we tell stories? Give me a break here!
Writers are introverts – See 2
Writers are insane – Yes, we have a few writers who did go insane. But there are thousands of others who didn’t! It has nothing to do with writing.
Writers are alcoholics – Yeah, and lawyers smoke too much! And chefs are addicted to coffee! And don’t even get me started on the teachers! You see where I’m going with this?
Writers are forgetful – and my blog’s name was…umm…let me see now…the writer’s…umm…the writer’s …
Writers are desperate people – Huh?

The engineers fared slightly better thankfully. Ah, Google! At least we share our love for engineering. 🙂

Have you people heard of silly myths about things that you love? Careers or interests?

August 12, 2013

Category: Random Musings

Tags: Engineering, Engineers, Google, Musing, Myths, Prejudice, Writer, Writing

The Wonderful Team Member Readership Award

Can you believe it? My second award in less than ten days! Michaela from The mmmmm family has very kindly chosen me for this award. I’m extremely grateful. 🙂

I’ll have to admit, I hadn’t heard of this particular blog award before. Nevertheless, it’s nice to get awards and here I am!

The rules:

1. The nominee of The Wonderful Team Member Readership Award shall display the logo on his/her blog.

2. The Nominee shall nominate 14 readers they appreciate over a period of 7 days, all at once or little by little; linking to their blogs; and telling them about it at their blogs.

3. The nominee shall name his/her Wonderful Team Member Readership Award nominees on a post during 7 days.

The award name is quite a mouthful, isn’t it?

These are today’s nominations:

Funny for Nothing

The Girl Who Blogs

Awakening to your story

This Would Make A Great Story

Sarcasmia

Observations of a canary

Project light to life

Imperfectly perfect

Three Magical

Congratulations to all of the nominees! Keep writing. 🙂

August 8, 2013

Category: Awards

Tags: Blog, Blog award, Wonderful Team Member Readership Award

Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life by Robert Spaethling

As a music lover, I suppose I’ve been too confined to one genre of music. The Hindi music is so vast that I never ventured outside. I’ll have to admit that present day English pop is something that I’ve never enjoyed. It focuses too much on the rhythms, while I enjoy soulful tunes. This is exactly the reason why I greatly enjoy Madan Mohan’s music; it has great melody and meaningful lyrics (although that’s not his contribution).

I’ve read indirectly of the great music legend, of course. “I swear it on Mozart’s head” was Ruth’s refrain in The Morning Gift. If you’ve ever read Eva Ibbotson’s works, you would know how much she focuses on music and the musical city of Vienna recurs in almost all of her books.

So, when I saw Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life by Robert Spaethling in our Resource Centre, I was just slightly intrigued. I’ve never been one to read biographies, and especially not about people that I have little or no knowledge of. But then again, I have a penchant for letters, and the title compelled me to pick it up.

(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

What better than to hear things from the horse’s mouth! Even autobiographies tend to take on shades and hues; nobody is able to give a completely honest picture of one’s own life. Letters and diaries, on the other hand, are written without reserve, and are much more closer to the real person.

I didn’t have the chance to finish the entire book. I just read the first part : The Early Years (1769 – 1776).

That was the period when a young Wolfgang Mozart made various journeys to Italy, Vienna and Munich on account of his music. He was accompanied by his father Leopold. The letters are mostly addressed to his sister Nannerl and a few to his mother. It is evident that he was extremely fond of his sister and the two shared a very comfortable relationship.

The “wunderkind” was mischievous like any other child of his age. We have a tendency to disregard the childhoods of famed people. Forget them, it’s difficult to imagine anyone as a child if you know of them only as adults. Mozart was unapologetic about describing the inadequacies of other people, be it musicians or Royalty.

What pleased me the most was that Mozart appeared to be humble, and almost unaware of his genius. He referred to his successful operas in almost an offhand manner. Most of his conversations about music were practical; about writing the notes, copying papers and so on.

Being famous to the degree he was, Mozart’s letters, no doubt, generated a lot of scandal when published. Several biographers have attempted to tone down the language (which included a lot of profanities in German, Latin, Italian and French). This particular collection of letters, however, retains its original form. He played a lot of word games as well, which made for a colourful read.

Here are a few gems from his letters.

I don’t know anything new, except that Herr Gelehrt, the poet from Leipzig, died and after his deathe has written no more poetrie. (p. 7)

I kiss mama’s hand, and to my sister I send a smacker of a kiss and remains the same old – but who? – the same old buffoon. (p.9)

Write to me and don’t be so lazy. Otherwise, I shall have to give you a thrashing. What fun! I’ll break your head. (p.16)

The dances are miserably pompous[…]in the opera house, he always stands on a little stool so that he appears taller than the queen. (p.16)

We have the honor of being aquainted with a certain Domenican who is said to be holy. I myself am not convinced of it, becaus he often consumes for breakfast a cup of ciocolata, right after a big glas of strong spanish wine,[…] a whole plate full of birds, two full saucers of milk with lemon. Maybe there is some kind of plan behind it all, but I don’t think so, because for one thing it’s just too much, and for another, he takes quite a few morsels with him for an afternoon snack. (p.20)

August 7, 2013

Category: Books, Music

Tags: Book Reviews, Books, Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life, Music, Robert Spaethling, Salzburg, Vienna, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Pride and prejudice has been adapted many times. Sometimes, it retains the original form, sometimes there’s creative inspiration involved. Of the latter form is the Lizzie Bennet Diaries; a web show that finished in March this year.

I discovered the series by accident; quite by accident. Owing to my habit of reading everything put before me, I happened to glance through a webpage that I opened by mistake. Honestly, I wasn’t even aware that something called Web shows even exists. And I’m super-glad I discovered this one.

Lizzie Bennet lives with her family comprising of her parents and their three daughters, Lizzie being the middle one. She’s twenty-four, a final year grad-school student of Mass Communications. Jane’s the eldest sister, Lydia ‘s the youngest. Since the adaptation was based in the year 2012, they showed only three children, while Mary Bennet became the first cousin and Kitty Bennet the cat.

Lizzie has a video blog where she documents her family’s life, talking about Jane’s romance with Bing Lee (a play on Bingley. Smart, right?), her crazy baby sister Lydia, George Wickham and of course, the proud Mr. Darcy.

The story starts with the ever-famous quote from Pride and Prejudice: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife (on a t-shirt).

The videos are recorded and edited by Liizzie’s best friend Charlotte Lu. Each video is about three minutes long and the series incorporated the social media beautifully and efficiently. Since the LBD is essentially a blog, the viewers got their dose of Pride and Prejudice actually happening on their Twitter feeds and Tumblr blogs! It was luck that I discovered the series after it was finished. Not complaining, I wouldn’t have had the patience to wait!

Lizzie is funny, ambitious, clever, thoughtful and yes, a little prejudiced. But she’s a good sister, and basically a good person, just like our original Elizabeth Bennet.

One of the highlights of her video blog was role play. Lizzie’s imitations of her mother are downright hilarious, and her interactions with pretend Darcy (role-played by Charlotte) are a delight to watch.

The best part about the adaptation is the focus on Lizzie’s, Jane’s and Charlotte’s individual careers. The choices that they make and the impact it has on their friendship is shown beautifully.

You can check out the entire series here.

Have you watched the Lizzie Bennet Diaries? Do you know about any other web-shows?

August 5, 2013

Category: Life in moments

Tags: Books, Jane Austen, LBD, Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Pride and Prejudice, Reading, Social Media, Video blog, Web Shows

Awarded!

My first ever blogger award!

I have been nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award by mushroomsup from the super-hilarious Funny For Nothing blog.

I just have to say this: Thank you so much all you great people who take time to read my blog! When I started this blog, I had hopes of finding the like-minded and the not-so-like-me people (because hey, variety is the spice of life). I’ve found some truly amazing blogs this way and I’m really glad that there are people who have enjoyed reading my thoughts.

Right. So here are the rules:

1. Display the Award Certificate on your website/blog. (I’ve been longing to!)

2. Announce your win with a post. Make sure to post a link back to me as a ‘thank you’ for the nomination.

3. Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers.

4. Drop them a comment to tip them off after you have linked them in the post.

5. Post 7 interesting things about yourself.

Hmm…seven interesting things, huh? That’s going to be difficult.

My first ever novel was a three-in-one Mystery series by Enid Blyton. Yeah, that’s the first thing that comes to my mind; books. I know, I know. I’m a total nerd!
Poetry is a recent love. Secret: I like it because I’m lazy. Why should I write an entire story when I can convey the whole thing in a few sentences!
I don’t enjoy birthday celebrations. Gasp! But really, it’s the one day when I want to be with myself and my family.
I’m terrified of wearing lenses. Just the thought of putting something in my eyes makes me shudder.
I get travel-sick pretty soon. Like the opposite of home-sick, you know.
Yellow flowers are my favourite!
I think the self-description exercises are the toughest of all!

And, without further ado, the nominations (in no particular order)

Thank you for reading! 🙂

July 30, 2013

Category: Awards

Tags: Blog, Blogger, Versatile Blogger Award

Lull

Drop. Drop.

My eyes follow

Every single drop

As it falls

From the tap

To the sink.

The dishes remain undone,

There’s dirt caked on the floor.

It’s been two days

I haven’t seen the sun.

Tick-tock.

My ears hear

Every single second

As it passes

And the day

turns to night.

The emails remain unanswered,

The work still has to be done.

It’s been two whole days

And I haven’t seen the sun.

The eyes have become a blur now.

There’s a low buzzing in my ears.

The mind is somewhat alert though

And I can’t stop thinking

About letters, notes, stolen kisses.

About fingers entwined, the walks.

I can’t stop going back

as I sit here, waiting for you.

Knowing that it’s been two days

And I haven’t seen the sun.

July 22, 2013

Category: Poetry

Tags: Love, Poetry, Romance, Waiting

Self versus Self

I can’t.

I can.

Of course, I can’t.

Maybe I can.

What am I saying! I can’t.

I should probably try.

What’s the point in trying?

What’s the harm in trying?

I don’t know… I’m so afraid.

Of what?

Of letting myself down in front of others.

Letting myself down? Or in front of others? Which one is the major issue?

I think the second one.

You do realise that’s stupid to the point of hilarity, right?

Easy for you to say. After all you are the eternal optimist.

Easy for you to disregard me, you being the eternal pessimist.

Is the glass half empty or half full? The pess... — Is the glass half empty or half full? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The battle continues. I wonder if it’s like that for everyone. I wonder if everyone is plagued by extreme versions of themselves. Who wins, then? My pessimist made an appearance rarely in the past. Who knows? Maybe it’s because I haven’t had to make difficult decisions or take too many risks before. But the pessimist, when present, is potent and dangerously influential. My poor optimist’s claims come in bleak tones; I’m hardly able to hear her over the loud proclamations of the pessimist.

I think my pessimist is actually afraid of listening to the optimist. Because that would require her to take risks and put herself out in front of others, making herself vulnerable.

The pessimist first made an appearance some four years back. It was immediately after my optimist had had a huge victory. At first, the optimist didn’t really pay attention. But the pessimist was sneaky, and made her way into my heart slowly. Her roots became so entrenched that the optimist was forced away, and after a few feeble attempts, left me for two whole years. Ruled by the pessimist, I made mistakes, huge mistakes. I lost my peace of mind, my self-respect, love for myself. I became that person who needed others to assure her worth.

Two years passed, the time and the situation changed, and my optimist made her way back to me. But she was badly hurt, and couldn’t banish my pessimistic self out completely. Hence, since then, I’ve lived with both of them inside me. There are moments where both co-exist peacefully, but as soon as the time comes to take decisions or risks, a fight breaks out. And more often than not, the pessimist, supported by her deep roots, wins.

My optimist is questioning me today. With beseeching eyes, she’s asking me what happened to that girl of four years ago. She’s asking me why I let the pessimist win. She’s too powerful, I’ve answered. But it wasn’t so much her power as much it was my weakness. The previous years spent with the optimist have taught me not to have too many regrets, and believe me, I’ve tried very hard to not let go of that policy. But somewhere deep down, I regret losing against the self that was destructive to my personality.

I’m still afraid. The optimist tells me that it’s okay to be so. She tells me that it’s not about failing. It’s about conquering the fear. It’s very difficult to do so, she says. But not doing so makes the rest of the life even more difficult.

The battle is still on. But after a really long time do I see my optimist fight back with strong conviction. I hope she wins this time. I hope I won’t let her down.

July 4, 2013

Category: Life in moments

Tags: Optimism, Winning against yourself

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

This. This one I read till two-thirty in the morning. This one I read (and finished) even as I was unwell. I had seen some nice reviews and thought it would be a good idea to order it. I don’t normally do that. Normally, I just walk into a bookstore and pick books up on a whim. I’ve found great books that way. But this one. I just felt I wanted to get it. And it was fun. I guess…

Izzy Spellman is 28, single, and works for Spellman Investigations, a family-run private detective agency. She

might have a chequered past littered with romantic mistakes-but at least she is good at her job. Invading people’s privacy comes naturally. To the whole family. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; sabotage a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail and wiretap a Spellman.

But when Izzy’s parents hire her 14 -year-old sister to discover the identity of her new boyfriend, Izzy snaps. She wants out. Her parents make her a deal: solve one last case and her employment contract with Spellman Inc. Will be terminated. Trouble is, the Snow case is decades old, ice-cold, and more twisted than a pretzel…

The reason for the “I guess” is this; I wasn’t really sure I liked Izzy. Ok, she is hilarious in her straight faced humour. She has her good moments of being the Big Sister. She is a good private investigator; passionate about her job even if she has no choice of having any other career. And she is realistic about her expectations of having a “normal” life, if a bit cynical about them. But she herself is a pretty big part of the “Dysfunctional” in her family. Rae merely follows her footsteps. I think a lot could have been avoided if Izzy hadn’t been a rebel in the first place. Having said that, this book really isn’t about full-dimensional characters or realistic situations or relatable relationships. It’s not literature. This book is about having a good time with it. And so I did.

The story is spunky, the characters are funny, the dialogue is sharp. Of all the characters, I liked Rae the most. In fact, I’ll go ahead and say that even though Izzy is the narrator, the story revolves around Rae for the most part. Completing her first surveillance job at the age of six, Rae is good at what she does, even if she is addicted to it. Rae and Uncle Ray’s battle is one of the best parts of the story. I immensely enjoyed her discourses in front of Milo the barman (Rae is fourteen). And behind all her cold-blooded negotiating and rule-breaking, sugar addiction and “recreational surveillance”(following complete strangers), blackmailing and grudge-holding, (I know the list of shortcomings may already be too long for any redemption) she is essentially a good person. In her own way, of course.

The other characters in the story are amusing as well. Mr. And Mrs. Spellman are controlling to the core; we’re talking forced dates with lawyers and interrogation dinners with boyfriends. They bug Izzy no end. Yep, the pun is totally intended. David Spellman, her brother, PI since the age of fourteen but out of the family business now, is a ruthless lawyer, negotiating money with his youngest sister. Uncle Ray, health-food addict turned alcoholic gambler, who claims that healthy living gave him cancer(!), has his own issues and runs away frequently on what the family calls “Lost Weekends”. All of them fight for personal privacy. None of them is able to give privacy to other family members.

Enter Daniel Castillo. Handsome dentist and tennis player. Belonging to a family of private investigators isn’t what Izzy calls normal, and it’s easier to tell Daniel that she is, in fact, a teacher. Laughs are assured, as Izzy first tries to hide him from her family, and then hide her family from him.

The Snow case isn’t your typical heart-accelerating mystery, but it’s not predictable either. Mystery lovers may not enjoy it as much. I did have some thrills at a few points, but that may be because of reading it in the middle of the night. Another mystery is disappearance of Rae, which is where the story starts.

I liked the way this book is written. The chapters are mini-stories in themselves and the story moves backwards and forward. And yet, everything is catalogued; Izzy’s Ex-Boyfriends, her redemption, the Lost Weekends, the “unpunished crimes”, the Spellman Wars. More than anything, I loved the witty dialogues and the fast-pace of the story.

Did I like the book? Yes. Will I read more books in the Spellman series? Probably. Looking forward to it.

June 19, 2013

Category: Books

Tags: Book Reviews, Books, Lisa Lutz, Mystery, Private Investigator, The Spellman Files

Girl who saw the rain for the first time

I mentioned last time that “I’m strictly a prose person”. Well, I’ve attempted a bit of poetry. It’s in free-form, or as I like to call it, prose form. It’s one of the very few poems that I’ve written in my life.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I saw her on the train,

Sitting two seats away from me.

She was seeing the rain for the first time.

I know it, for her eyes were huge as she looked out of the window.

Having no one to make conversation with,

I moved over to her side and smiled.

I was her first friend on earth.

I know it, because she blazed with warmth as she returned the smile.

“What a trouble! Rains will create traffic as usual!”

I wanted to say this; a conventional conversation-starter in Mumbai.

But I refrained, sensing that the convention would be lost on her.

She won’t understand.

“Beautiful rains!” I said instead, resorting to convention for the “artistic” types.

And she nodded excitedly, and added, “Best time to stop at the bakery.”

She had clearly never tasted cake before

And was waiting for an occasion as special as rains.

She soaked in the wet-mud smell,

Looked at me, and asked, “So…What do you do?”

Perhaps she sensed my need for convention.

I launched into a description of what I did.

She couldn’t have ever met an engineer,

For she listened with rapt attention,

Nodding and asking questions at right places

And I had no choice, but to believe that she hadn’t tuned me out.

“I am an engineer too!” the exclamation caught me by surprise,

More so, because it was an “exclamation!”, than the meaning.

I wondered whether I had ever been as thrilled about my job.

I had a vague vision of myself freshly out of college.

We were near my destination now,

And I got up to brave the sea of people lining to get to the door.

She got up with me and smiled

And swam across that sea gracefully.

“It was nice meeting you!” she said on the platform.

She waved, turned and left, probably for the said bakery.

I turned too, making my way out of the station

Thinking subconsciously about muffins and coffee.

Then suddenly I stopped and wondered

Why I was feeling confused, wondered what made her different from me.

A few moments, and then I exhaled; of course she was different.

I know it, for she was alive… And I was merely breathing.

June 7, 2013

Category: Poetry

Tags: Poetry, Rain

Spoken Word: Discovered

(Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

I don’t normally write poetry. Correction: I don’t ever write poetry. Unless I’m assigned to; that happened last in fifth standard (grade). I’m strictly a prose person. Which is (not really that) surprising, because my father happens to be a poet. In his spare time, that is.

I don’t even enjoy reading poetry all that much. Now this really is surprising that a person who gobbles up hundreds of pages full of words can’t find the conviction to read one page of poetry. So when I discovered the Spoken Word, I actually discovered that I enjoy poetry. When it is spoken to me, that is, when it is performed and felt, not just written. I’m glad to have found this.

I happened to start with Sarah Kay. The first video that I saw was her performance at TED Talks. I’ve now spent two whole hours watching those performances; poetry recitals. I’m sure I’ll grow to love other spoken word poets too in time. Meanwhile, here are a few of her poems that I loved.

Sarah Kay: B

Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye: When Love Arrives

Sarah Kay: Private Parts

May 29, 2013

Category: Poetry

Tags: Phil Kaye, Poetry, Sarah Kay, Spoken Word

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