I recently took an online session on this topic ‘Travel (Inspired) Stories in association with Rustik Travel. I spoke about the different types of travel writing with popular examples in each category. These included Commercial Travel Writing (Guides, Destination Pieces, Blogs, Reference Books), Travel Narratives Nonfiction (Essays, Articles, Memoirs, Travelogues, Odysseys) and Travel Literature Fiction … Read more
I went to Loktak Lake near Imphal in Manipur in Dec 2021. It is a huge freshwater lake, that looks like an inland sea. It is like a living lake with fishermen and farmers living on various floating islands called ‘Phumdi’ locally. Loktak has a lot of history associated with it. When we took a … Read more
I recently read the book ‘War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield. It is an inspiring piece of work for writers and all creatives. It argues that Resistance is the biggest enemy of a writer, and advocates ways to identify and deal with it. Here are a few notes that I took from it: Resistance is … Read more
One of the perks of being a writer is to read a lot. I have noticed that without reading a lot, it is almost impossible to write. Not only does reading provide inspiration for writing (real or like Anu Malik too sometimes, which isn’t all that bad!), but it also keeps your eyes open to … Read more
It is much cheaper to make a movie like Kahaani or A Wednesday or Khosla ka Ghosla than to make a Ra.One or Brahmastra. Even if you add the costs of stars, it might be cheaper to make a Zindagi Na Milega Dobara than Adipurush. But I guess creative people cannot resist the lure of … Read more
In the old days, most creative outputs had gatekeepers. The people who evaluated what you wrote. Or the labels that checked if your music would work. Or the galleries who assessed your paintings. Much of their work was to work for the audience and curate something they thought would sell well and enable them to … Read more
“The other day I was watching Kal Ho Na Ho with my family again,” Jigneshbhai said when we met for coffee last weekend. That was an old movie. But Swami and I looked up as we had watched that many times over. “Do you remember that charged up scene where SRK reads out a letter … Read more
Over coffee last weekend, Swami leaned forward with the earnestness of a man about to reveal a government scam. “You won’t believe what happened at our apartment association meeting,” he said. “It was all about stray dogs.” Jigneshbhai raised an eyebrow. “At least they found a subject where everyone can bark together.” Swami ignored him. … Read more
Here is my written interview that International Book Promotion published recently. You may also read it here: IBP Interview Where are you from? I am from Bangalore India Why do you write? I write to entertain and to provoke thought What do you write about? I write short stories and am the creator of the characters Jigneshbhai and … Read more