What to write? I have been thinking last few days. I thought of sharing some thoughts on the effect of the Internet on mankind. Then there is the topic on my funny behavior of trying to force people to read my blog. I was thinking of the world cup football – definitely one of the most sought after events of the world. Last few days’ research on it reconfirmed me that in 1954 the event took place in Switzerland. Immediately the mental faculties shifted to Switzerland – how has it been able to maintain its status of a neutral country under the most trying circumstances? Then I had thought of writing something on the work I do – something of a training material type, guidance notes. That will be purely work-centered and will definitely not feature on these pages. I am not sure how to proceed with it, although a start has been made already.
So actually there is no dearth of topics. You just have to make your mind wander. And you’ll land up with the wanderer’s tales. Hey- I am getting a second connotation to the word ’WANDERER’. When I started writing the stories under that banner, I had physical journeys in mind. In fact I started with our West Europe trip and thought of penning down travel stories only. Now I can add mental wanderings also to it. The stories I write today encompass life in its entirety. So from now on I’ll be able to explain ‘The Wanderer’s tales’ on a different line as well – Physical and Mental journeys in the Journey of Life. Wonderful!!
Ok – I was saying that you make your mind wander and start your writings. Very easy- right? Not at all for many! Most of us are so caught up with our daily chores and circumstances and our minds have got conditioned in such a way that it is difficult to look beyond, think beyond, let our minds go on a free trip to the Moon, Sun, Venus , under-water, above water, anywhere, everywhere. That must be the only free travel in the world. Any other form of travel would entail a cost in terms of money and effort.
You ask a person to write a letter. In a substantial number of cases, you’ll find that the person will not be able to write at all. He/she will ask you what to write. How to start and so on? Believe me, I am not exaggerating. They’ll find it so hard. And if you insist, chances are that they will go the other way the next time they see you. I’ll give you an example. Once I was trying to sing a song in front of my younger sister. She just could not fathom as to the huge amount of effort that I was making in getting the words and the tune come out of my mouth. She saw how difficult it was for me to sing a song. For singers, songs come just like that.
You have to have an active mind – that is the first requisite for writing. In fact that is the source of every activity. The principle to the second of the seven habits says that mental creation precedes physical creation. Think of a thief/cheat. He/she continuously keeps on improvising on the methodologies. Sirji – what an example! You must be murmuring – the guy couldn’t get a better example? They have to be extremely creative to get their booties. See – the scams. Every scam story will unfold the ingenious ways that were deployed to get the perpetrator his undue share of the pie. Sorry that was a negative example. But that could be turned to more positive examples.
The other requisites are some sort of a command on the language and a flow. People call it a flair for writing. You have to be a story-teller. Regular bouts of story-telling at the coffee table must be helping me in my writings. When added to the regular reading of the Statesman in my younger days and writing paragraphs on any topic for Fr. Jacob to correct in class vi make my background a good concoction for writing stories.
Now tell me – was it on my list of topics – Writing 801 words on what to write? See how I have mastered the art of saying the sweet nothings!! Ha Ha!
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