The Case of the Loutish Richshaw Driver

Something that riled us today and we are thinking endlessly about it. Pay careful attention to the sequence of events. We were standing in the autorickshaw queue and the auto comes along and a man who wasn't in the queue gets in. We protest. We say we were in queue but the man wasn't. The man in the beetle-shaped, black curtain-flapping autorickshaw got down. The rickshaw driver again insisted that he will carry that man and not us and forced the man to get in and drove off.

Since it was raining we didn't have the time to take a picture of the rickshaw number. We had made a similar complaint about a rickshaw earlier and we had got a call from the Regional Transport Office (RTO), some minion, but, nevertheless a valuable cog in the wheel. This is provocation of the highest order, a slight we can't forget soon. We have been thinking over it, quite persistently. It has upset us quite bad. But we let it pass. After all, you can't fight all the ill-mannered louts all the time. And, to think we used to tip these rickshaw drivers! They don't deserve it. To think they are going on strike on Friday! Again, do they deserve to be paid extra?

John is @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. He blogs here. His Youtube Channel Page. His novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.

Another Disappointment - Collection of Short Stories

Disappointments are a part of a writer's life. We have taken rejection badly in the past. But this once I was hoping for something better. Tch Tch. We shouldn't be too optimistic. Why can't some positive news bunch itself together and schlepp us out of this morass of despondency? We don't know. We are sharing it here so that you there know how tedious the process of writing is.

Submitted our short story collection to a publisher (as a friend recommended, an up-and-coming one) and got an email saying, "the reviewer has not approved," blah blah. Do you know how much effort we put into editing and sending you the bloody submission? Do you know how much time is required to even think of the plot and write the stories? Do you know how much creative juices have flowed?

Well, hm, nobody knows the inside of a submitting writer. It's all hope and despondency when a rejection comes. But we are sort of inured by now to these vicissitudes, these ups and downs. (we had to spend a minute looking up "vicissitudes.) Writing is not easy folks. As Hemingway said, "Writing is easy. Just sit in front of the typewriter and bleed."

He got that right. But, then, now it's the laptop you sit before.

By the way, today we retrieved some data from an old laptop, which is no irreparable, or, so my computerwala friend informs me. The data is important to us as it contains the manuscript of the book we were writing on Kerala. So the cycle now restarts, buy new laptop, write novel, book (whatever) and then junk the laptop and move your book to another laptop. When will this process end. Sigh!

John is @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. He blogs here. His Youtube Channel Page. His novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.

Cultural program at Kairali, Belapur

Onam celebration at Kairali, Belapur, New Bombay.

Jerry Pinto on Writing: Begin Again If You Fail

We read this excellent piece by Jerry Pinto on writing on Facebook. Especially read the exhortations to writers he has written with such sensitivity, care and concern. That's because he is a teacher too and who better than a teacher to teach you about writing. There is a honesty and selflessness about the writing, a sense of sharing without asking "What's in it for me? Why should I do it." Not for nothing is Jerry such a writer and poet with a mass following.

We agree some of the pitfalls of being a writer has been amply covered. But here we add a new spin to it as is our wont. Some of the practical aspects you might find when you let it be known you want to be a writer. All these people pretend to sit in ivory towers and pontificate and not write anything. Know why? Because if they write they would be found out. Simple. The greatest effort an aspiring writer can make is to sit in front of his desk and write. Get inspired by life, get inspired by what you read and then write, write, write.

"He/she can't write to save his life."

"He/she is a bad writer."

"He/she doesn't have a voice."

"He/she hasn't read much."

"He/she doesn't know grammar from farmer."

Yes, all these we have heard before and are repeating here. The first was said to us by a vanity publisher who drank himself to his grave. He was our boss for some time and a mean boss at that. Such mean people exist, we can't do anything about them. They destroy themselves and in the process try to destroy others.

So, follow Jerry's advise and do the following:

Keep at it.

Keep going when it's not working. It won't start working on its own, you have to make.

Keep going when it's not coming out right. It may be right, you may not be able to see it.

Keep going when you're feeling low. That's when Dylan Thomas did his best work.

Keep going when you're blazing like a comet. That's when Alan Ginsberg did his best work.

Keep going when you're rejected. J K Rowling was rejected too.

Keep writing. But don't be in a hurry to publish. That should happen organically and too many writers are mainlining steroids. Wait. It will happen. Naturally.

John is @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. He blogs here. His Youtube Channel Page. His novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.

The Rich Are Less Likely to Reach Out to Others During Times of Trouble

According to a study by UC Berkeley affluent people (read: rich) people are less likely to reach out to others during times of trouble. Now we suspected this a long time ago, well, um, in a clichéd and melodramatic way, modelled upon the quintessential Hindi movie plot. In the said plot - quintessential or otherwise - the father of the poor hero who wants to marry the rich girlfriend often says, "Woh log bade log hai; unke sath hamara kya vasta." Something to that effect, considering how poor our Hindi is.  

Another phenomenon (if we can call it that) which the article in Science Daily points out is that while the poor value their families, communities, and colleagues; the rich do not hesitate to relocate if the salary offered is higher. Briefly put, as is our wont, it means that for the rich money is everything and they hang on to it as if the rest of the world didn't matter. This is all the more evident in our own poor country where there is not much by way of philanthropic work by the rich. Our affluent people open schools and hospitals if they think it could be profitable. Money, the filthy lucre even we crave for, is everything for them. (We must state, even among us there are the pretenders who say money is unimportant, but would scramble to grab a few greenbacks if the opportunity presents itself.)

We have noticed this time and again in our personal peregrinations here and there. The poor would give alms and would tip a cabbie a fiver while a rich man would fight for every rupee. Poor people opened the doors of their homes  for the poor in the deluge Bombay witnessed while the rich bolted their doors and saw television. Hm. 

A story we heard about the world's richest man of those days - Paul Getty - is that he installed a pay phone inside his sumptuous mansion so that employees in his house could make calls at their expense. No wonder he died such a miserable death with not one of his relatives by his bedside.

John is @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. He blogs here. His Youtube Channel Page. His novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.

Shed a Tear for Maya Kodnani

We still can't believe Maya Kodnani, a woman, a doctor (gynacologist, at that), a politician, and a minister could do it. For days we have been shaking our head and saying to ourself, "this can't be happening." But it has happened. How can this happen? See what we mean? We still haven't come, sort of, to terms with it. The fact that she has been arrested and convicted points a finger at her complicity in one of the worst communal carnage the country witnessed. She now has to spend 28 years in jail, which would mean her entire life.

We also see her as a victim. Higher-ups gave a command and she obeyed it. Rather zealously. We shed a tear for the Maya Kodnanis of our country. They are mere pawns. They are doomed to spend their lives in prison. Now the very people who gave the command have distanced themselves from her. Can the minister for women and child welfare look at another woman and child of a community and sleep peaceably in the night? As a doctor her responsibility is to protect lives not kill. As a woman she is naturally designed to nurture life. She has failed in both.

Actually, rather cynically, we thought nothing would come out of the Special Investigative Team (SIT) that was probing into the carnage. Just another white wash, we were telling ourselves. But they did a commendable job gathering evidence and sentencing the guilty. So, all hope is not lost. 

John is @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. He blogs here. His Youtube Channel Page. His novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.

Hills covered by clouds

The hills of Belapur are covered by clouds today, the third day of unceasing rains, belated albeit welcome.

I been waiting...

An old song. Anyone remember?

Wild flowers

Wild flowers growing near my house in Belapur.

Go Quietly into the Night - Rising Cost of Medical Treatment

Have you stopped and noticed what our world has come to? No? We have and we got a terrifying view. These days everyone is after your money and nobody is willing to offer service or take responsibility. It's like this: snatch your money, say goodbye, no more service, go die somewhere quietly. 

Medical practitioners are the worst culprits we feel. The very fact that it is not regulated and they are considered as "Gods" gives them ample leverage. A doctor we consult raised his fees by 66 per cent and nobody said anything. Gods can't be wrong and they can't make a mistake. Drug prices are always rising, never coming down. If you are sick: lie somewhere and die quietly and don't make a fuss, or, else, you will be robbed of all your property, savings, by unscrupulous elements in the name of tests and check-ups. 

Ask anyone who has been through the routine. We have. Why do tests cost so much? Because of the equipment? The equipment cost is made up in the first two years. Nurses? Nurses are badly paid in India. It's because of your friendly neighbourhood medical practitioner that tests are so costly. Does the IT department raid the doctors? No, they are Gods.

That said, we rest our case. When the time comes to lie down somewhere in a corner, we will go quietly into the night.

John is @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. He blogs here. His Youtube Channel Page. His novel Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard.