Thatched House

Do you write these days? People ask.  I say No.  Why? You should write, they advice.  I have no answer. But I have these reasons in mind. One. I became a father. Two. I have no internet in my laptop. Three. Gardening. Then, my wife suggested that I should pick up writing again. And that got me thinking. I thought that she should be more considerate as she knows my routine, but I felt that she pushed me. It was a good push.  My 2 nd book project has been in cold storage. When my 1 st book was released in Nov 2014, I said I will write another one, this time a proper book and not a collection of newspaper articles and talks transcripts.  I took up a hobby which I didn’t have the space for. Gardening. It is rewarding to the body and mind and I don’t have any thought of stopping it.  Bougainvillea cuttings of June 2015, blooming in March 2016 When I look back at the days when I used to write regularly, I was not freer th...

I expect to blog more regularly in 2014. So, you can expect to see new posts more frequently this year. I’ve said this earlier but I was not able to carry out myself: that one should not try to write big stuffs all the time. It need not be a thoroughly researched and carefully thought article that one tries to write each time. If one tries that, one won’t survive for long in blogging.  So, I’m going to write about things and thoughts which I encounter every day. Every day ordinary stuffs are beautiful. And I would appeal to the heart to appreciate that beauty that we can find in the ordinary, that we often take for granted. It is about being observant, being alive to the times and the surroundings, being appreciative, but also being critical sometimes. I want us to live more reflectively. I want us to live with more hope. And I believe that people can change for the better. If we care, if we speak up, and if we act on what we believe; I believe people and our society c...

Here's a quick glimpse of this blog's statistics. Till this minute, there is a total of 27,876 page views. When it was started in May 2008, there were zero views. In March 2013, there were 2906 views. That's a huge improvement although some popular blogs may be having that number of hits on a daily basis.  Anyway, thank you for taking the time to visit.  I'll be happy if a handful of people can be helped through this blog. That will be enough for me.

‘Go forth and blog’. Pope Benedict to his priests Blogging is exciting. You have flexibility and total control over your blog. You can blog about anything, at any time, at any length. So, first, there are no rules on blogging. However, I would like to share some tips that I shared with a friend who was considering to start a blog: 1.    Don’t worry what you should blog about. Don’t worry if a thousand books have already been written on the topic you have in mind. No two people read the same book. No two people see the same thing. 2.    First sentence is so important. You can lose readers with a bad first line. OK, you witnessed a shootout on your way to college and you want to share it. If you start by saying how your day began, what clothes you were wearing that day, or what the definition of a ‘shootout’ is; you can make the gunfight seem boring. Instead, you can start with something like ‘Bang bang!’ (Writing a story doesn’t have to always sta...

I wrote this for a discussion forum in facebook 1. If you don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything. 2. When you are about to comment, be careful to read all the other comments ahead of yours so that you do not needlessly repeat what has been said by others before. 3. When you are about to post a comment, especially on something that you disagree with; be careful to read even more carefully, so that you don’t misrepresent your opponent’s view. Worst of all is to contradict yourself and go round about yourself when no one’s arguing with you anymore. 4. Don’t use foul language or personally attack the person you are debating with and make it difficult for the two of you to meet in real life. 5. Going off topic may be necessary once in a while, but as far as possible, stick to the thread of the discussion. 6. Don’t complicate yourself by using high-sounding words that you are not comfortable with. 7. Let others know if what you are saying is a personal opinion o...

‘Go forth and blog’ - Pope Benedict to his priests You don’t have to be a writer or a scholar to be a blogger. To start with, you don’t even need to have good English. That can be learned in the process. The good part about blogging is that you can edit your blog posts anytime you want. You are the master of your own blog. If you try to always write masterpiece articles, you won’t last long. After a few posts you will have nothing new to say and you will be fed up of blogging. If you have something that interests you, say, a picture, a video, or a passing thought, post it right away. This makes blogs more interesting than websites; that they are more informal, more open to discussion, and makes you sound more human. Do you feel that nobody will want to visit your blog or hear what you have to say? Well, that’s something you need to work on. In my first year of blogging, hardly anybody visited my blog. The reason? I was too humble to advertise my blog. It’s the way you ...