«Come to India, the melting pot of many languages, cultures and landscapes»
I first got published when I was in 5th Standard. It was a one-page story for a comic book. Ever since, I never stopped writing.
My dream destination has always been New York because it’s the Mecca of English language journalism. In India we have the equivalent of New York in Mumbai… even this city never sleeps!
I like feature writing the most. You can do anything you want, present the story in any way you feel is right. Food, shop, movie and gadget reviews or travel stories or people profiles. Editing just comes naturally to me; been editing for over ten years now.
Every writer either excels in writing well or conveys the story with deeper meanings and symbolisms. I love the simplicity and humour of P.G. Wodehouse, the sharp and sparse writing of Ernest Hemingway, the Indianness in the books of R.K. Narayan and the childlike magic in Ruskin Bond’s novels.
As a kid, I remember telling my father repeatedly that I would make him proud by being written about in the papers. And here I am, being part of the media.
In my past life sessions, I have experienced what I was in my previous births (although many religions don’t believe in it, including my own). I feel that the soul we have is much, much older than we are. We are clearly people with many past lives. And every attribute of ours has some link to what our soul was earlier.
I don’t like doing routine things that don’t challenge the intellect. Anything you do robotically deadens you as a person.
An ideal job, idea work environment is one where you are independent of income, so you get to do what you want, and when you want it. I can work from anywhere: beach, park, forest, mountain, coffeeshop, and so on, but definitely not inside an office space. Nothing can beat working from my home office by the window.
Editing makes the writing more crisp, to the point and in line with the format required for the job. It makes the paper come alive.
Read a lot of books. Not textbooks or news magazines, but non-fiction or fictional books. Those books, no matter which author, will give you the tools you need to write well. The subconscious mind will imbibe from the books you read, and then when you write, all of that will be on display.
It’s impossible for anyone to live the lives of so many people who have walked this earth. But you can get a sneak peek into their lives through these books, and that should give you a basic foundation of how society came to be and how it has evolved.
Reading is like learning all the letters in the alphabet soup. Without reading truly and deeply, you can’t create any piece of writing that will stand the test of time.
For writing, I would suggest “Performing Flea” by PG Wodehouse, “The Write Way” by Richard Lederer, “Only as Good as Your Word” by Susan Shapiro, and ‘Writing Down the Bones’ by Natalie Goldberg.
Success is happiness. If you are happy, you are successful. If you are at peace with yourself, you are successful. If you are a billionaire but forever restless, you are most unsuccessful.
If I could choose one song to play every time I walk into a room for the rest of my life, that would be ‘Aayeho meri zindagi mein tum bahaar banke’ from the Bollywood film ’Raja Hindustani’. It essentially means ‘You’ve come into my life like a fresh breath of air’.
People make the company, and at Uvocorp, I find every rule to be well thought-through and our feedback is constantly sought to make it even better. Of course, there are always issues, but the ‘can do’ attitude is what wins me over.
Even editors have bosses who routinely go over our papers and spot inaccuracies and anomalies. We also get grades from A-D and our grades don’t remain constant every month. It depends on the work done in the previous month.
If you are honest at your job, there will be no dispute and the editor will not make unfair changes either. They are here only to help you better your paper.
