Random musings of an average writer!

As I sit down to write this blog post, I stare emptily at the screen blinking in front of me. I don’t have any specific topic in mind but at the same time I know I haven’t written since quite some time and if I keep putting off this task, it will prove to be my undoing because to come out of a writer’s block is perhaps tougher than the actual job of writing itself. 

This was my mantra as I sat down to write this blog post.

I check my phone. It is 9 pm. Sharp. I’m tempted to unlock the screen and check my social media- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Whatsapp. Just a peek, you know. But then I’m reminded of an article I read in a lifestyle magazine about freelance writing where it said that working from home is tougher as you do not have any set timeline and any time you while away on such sites is precious time wasted. Time that you could have used on working instead. The urge goes away. 

For now. 

Does writing about only significant things is writing or can I write about mundane stuff too?

So what do I do? What do I write about? I have a million things inside of my head and yet none I feel substantial enough for me to write on paper. But is it only the substantial stuff that a writer should write about? Or even the more mundane ones? I don’t know but I guess the latter works too, atleast I’m sure one writer must have said so. I feel too lazy to go on the Internet to find the exact quote (that is if any exists to that extent). But I’m pretty sure it does. I don’t know how many other authors or writer have come across the same situation, but there are times when I think of something and just to do a plagiarism check (I feel strongly about that one). I go to the internet and run a Google search of my writing. A lot of times I end up finding similar stuff by other people and those are the times that I get insanely confused as to whether that particular sentence or phrase was my creation or it was something I’d read before that I used in my writing. At that instant, the lines get blurred and even if I don’t want to, I end up tossing that stuff into the Recycle Bin or changing the particular “plagiarized” part with some different words but never happy with the end result. It just hurts. 

I decide to write, just for the love of it.

My phone buzzes. Now I really want to check my phone, is it a mail or a text or a tweet or a friend request. Is it important or a message I’ll read and leave unanswered or a mail I’ll end up trashing. And at this very instant I can’t help but smile at my stream of thoughts. It’s excruciatingly irritating and childish and philosophical at the same time. Now that I’ve realized that this certain piece is not going anywhere in particular, I’m hoping that it takes a more philosophical route.

Why? Because even though I know I may not be wonderful at it, I want my writing to mean something to someone. I want it to inspire someone to take up an interest they’d always wanted to pursue, but never got the opportunity to (whatever may be the reason), just like I did by starting this blog. Or maybe it could encourage someone else to write too, you know, just to share their pent up thoughts with the rest of the world or with none at all, really because all I wanted to do when I started writing was to, Idk…just write or exist through the medium of my words. But not words that are hollow but words that carry a meaning behind that imperfect grammar or insufficient vocabulary. 

I want my words to mean something to someone- make them feel even if it is the slightest of an emotion.

Meaning. The word reminds me of a certain text that I received some time ago by this person who chided me or more specifically insulted me outright saying my words carried no weightage at all. That my writings were useless works of art. At the first instant, I was outraged. If he had not been sitting behind a screen, I would have probably kicked him and now I’m laughing at this very thought. But after thinking a lot about it, I came to the conclusion that the very reason I started writing was to make myself happy and to share it with an audience via a medium was a completely unrelated decision. I never begged anyone to like my page or to read my blog post, I simply left them with a request to do so and whether they obliged with it or not was their personal decision. So why should I get flustered by such an opinion? Maybe that person simply does not like the kind of stuff I write about or maybe he’s into more ‘formal’ style of writing. Perhaps the best I can do is to try and improve myself but for the time being all I should remember is that I do it because it makes me and the people who care about it, happy.

And so I write, because it makes me happy!

Why ‘Of Love and Politics’ is the best book on politics you’ll read by an Indian Author.

What happens when Congress, BJP and CPI youth leaders end up in a love triangle?  Of Love and Politics by Tuhin Sinha attempts to answer exactly that and manages pretty well on that front.

This might just be the best book I've read by an Indian Author!

A political scion, a civil officer turned politician and a do gooder- this is no ordinary love story. There’s not much I can say about it but the writer (Idk what his political leanings are) has tried to remain as objective as possible.

All things good and bad about all these different political ideologies are analysed in such a deft manner, you’d hardly believe how masterfully Tuhin crafts his words. 

  

From the time of the Partition, to the Wars India has fought, to minority appeasement by way of reservations, to capitalist politicians, to the issue of Kashmir, to Karl Marx, anything to everything related to Indian politics has been addressed in the book.

Want to form an opinion of Kashmir? This book might give a neutral view.

What happens when a BJP leader locks horns with a Communist!

And all this has been done so skillfully by never losing the characters that you’ll never for once lose interest in the plot. 

The dilemma of these three characters- modern day leaders who want to do something for their country- when they see that the ideologies of their respective parties are skewed and not exactly what they’ve stood for all along is amazing to read. Their journeys of ‘unlearning’, taking each others places is a delight to read and an eye opener for the reader.

What makes them go on this journey? Their troubled personal lives and the 2008 Mumbai attacks that makes them question everything they’ve believed in and stood for before that. 

You'll get to know what goes through the mind of every public servant. EVERY one of them.

 
My opinion? This is perhaps the easiest way to educate oneself about Indian polity as it is very neutral whilst dealing with every political school of thought and at the same time resonates with a young reader who’s more aware about the circumstances in the country  but at the same time lost in his personal life.

To the man I love (Valentine's Day special)

To the man I love,

It's been a year since we've been together and we've had our fair share of highs and lows.
When I say I love you, what do I really mean by that? Do I love you for the time when I went down on my knees and asked you out (because you thought it is too clichéd for guys to always do that) or when you hugged me for the first time so that I would stop crying or our first kiss after which you were cracking jokes to make me feel comfortable...is it your smile, your eyes, the beautiful curve of your lips when you speak?

I went down on my knees and asked you out because you thought it was too cliched the other way round!

Maybe all of this...yet my answer would be incomplete. There's a completeness that comes with YOU.

And I have to be honest, you are not my first love. I had my fair share of “loves” before I met you- one passed away in an accident and the other was a control freak who could not match my fierceness. I was angry and dejected at the same time; I did not give up on love but I wasn’t too excited about it either. The first time I saw you? I knew we would end up being just more than friends but to love so unconditionally? I never could have guessed that for I am an insanely selfish person when it comes to love. But you, YOU changed all of that, swept me off my feet (figuratively and LITERALLY!) and in that instance I knew that I was screwed for life. But it did not matter because for what it was worth, I found you- a lover, a listener, a companion but most importantly, a friend. A friend who would encourage me to be better at just being me, who would push me to follow my dreams even though you would not understand most of them but because they meant the world to me. You are the one who will land up at my place with a bucket of ice cream when I’m in pain; you are the one who would miss an important event to be there for my birthday.

It was you who  made me realise that I was never broken to love.

  

And when I say all of this, I do not mean to say that we are the perfect couple or that we never fight. God knows we’ve had our fair share of arguments but the fact that they seem so frivolous when I see you the next day- that is perfect love to me. When I ask you after we make up- “do you think we will make it till the end?” and you just caress me and say “if you trust me.” I trust you. Of course I do. I’m not gonna say you picked up the broken pieces of my heart and made me whole again but you did give me the love that made me realize I wasn’t broken in the first place and for that I love you.

I don’t know if we will make it or not but I sure as hell hope we do because I love you. I love you for the impromptu gigs you break into to make me laugh. I love you for how you treat me like a kid. I love you for the times you suddenly place your hand over mine and whisper that you love me. I love you for everything you do just to me smile. But most importantly, I love you for being you. 

Happy Valentine’s Day, my love.

Section 292 IPC- treating artists as criminals in our country!

So last week I shared a post talking about the draconian law that is Section 377 of the IPC. While I was going through the IPC (Yes, I’m a nerd), I came across another provision that took me by surprise- Section 292.

The section (obviously construed in the British era) is so vague that they can be used by any conservative group to land an artist and/or his publishers in prison. Sample this phrase for example that says that an artist is liable to be punished if his work- “appeals to the prurient interest” of another person. W-H-A-T?

So basically what the law is saying is that if I come up with a creative work that somehow in some twisted way gets a person turned on, I should go to jail? What the actual F? 

Artists can be sent to jail if someone else gets turned on by their work!

Okay, so for a moment let us consider that the law is perfectly justified. But then who decides what the standard of “obscene” is? What is erotic for one person may not be so for the other. For all I care, a person could be staring at a blank canvas and still find it erotic. So what IS the yardstick and who sets it? The orthodox factions of every religion who are quick to take offence to everything? The moral police?

Isn’t that how Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses got banned? Or Wendy Doniger’s ‘The Hindus’? Or a fatwa got issued against Tasleema Nasreen? How can we curtail a person’s creativity, his freedom of speech through such a vague and ambiguous law? 

Every year this law is used, or rather misused to prohibit certain works of art to enter the public domain and we see no outcry about it. Hundreds of movies, books, sculptures etc never see the light of the day because of this provision. Writers have tough time finding publishers for works which might “offend” certain people. Shouldn’t we be worried that artists have to censor themselves to suit ‘public morals’? Isn’t the point of art to make others think? What is the point of all work of the artists if it will go down the predictable route? Have we become so unaccommodating of others' opinions that we won’t let it enter the public sphere if it doesn’t go down well with us?

Writers have a tough time finding publishers if they have something "offensive" in their content.

Remember M.F. Hussain? The guy who had to leave his own country because he depicted Mother India in an “obscene” form? But seriously, what is obscene? We all came into this world naked and will go back the same way. Is this our only definition of ‘obscene’? We come from the land of the Kama Sutra yet when it came to a play on the same- while it was on the billboards all over France and was a sellout, the makers could not even fathom a minuscule possibility of previewing the same in India. How did we get here?

Everyday our shows our beeped, subtitles changed to suit this law. But seriously do you really think we don’t know what the characters mean when they they’re going to have “Gender”? Seriously?! If this is how you can stop  people from getting ‘corrupt’, all Indians would have stopped smoking after watching those nauseous ads featuring Mukesh before the start of every damn movie. 

A celebrity roast is a common practice abroad but in India when AIB tried to pull off the same, it was taken off thanks to this law!

Isn’t it time to repeal this provision? Or atleast amend it and make it a civil offence for a start?  

Why UILS’ intra moot needs reforms (Or any other competition for that matter)

DISCLAIMER: I don’t write this with any hate but with a simple view to improve the system that we’re a part of. It is merely a dialogue engaging article. Please don’t read this any further if you are not open to new ideas or don’t appreciate constructive criticism for systems already set in place.

So UILS (that’s the place where I study) holds an ‘Intra Department Moot Court Competition’ (fancy, eh?)every year. For those from a non-legal background- a moot court is a competition wherein the students are given a hypothetical case and are asked to argue the same in a hypothetical court as lawyers. So far so good.

A moot court is a simulation of actual court proceedings.

But here comes the catch- every year in the preliminary rounds for the first and the second year the criteria for getting selected is that you need to win from both sides (from the complainants and the defendants) AND also your score should be in the top 8. Sounds quite okay if you ask me. But is it really?

I mean you have almost a hundred teams participate every year- most of them having 3 members in their teams. 100x3. That’s 300 students participating which is a LOT. But out of them you only select…8? Even though 16-18 teams win both of their rounds generally. Well, the top 8 scored the highest. Why the fuss, you ask?

Because the system is a bit unfair. Top 8, kudos to them. Really. But the point is- the marking of judges, even if you provide them with a basic bifurcation of marks, is pretty subjective. What is good enough for one judge may not be good enough for the other. However, if despite all of that some teams win both of their rounds; I personally believe that all of them deserve a second chance. 

The criteria for selections is a bit unfair if you ask me.

Why? Because these are all beginners- first years and second years who’re experiencing a moot for the first time and we should encourage them because an intra moot is the only place they will gain the confidence to further try out national moots. If you’re going to dishearten them in the first place itself that yes, you did win your both rounds but your scores weren’t as high as the other teams who were judged by different judges, they are never going to think they can be good enough.

Not because they are going to take it completely negatively but because in a scenario of a 100 teams, space for only top 8 will ensure only the cream gets out and the rest, even despite their best efforts will not get an opportunity to groom themselves.

The intra-department moot court is an annual event- that’s like only one chance, shouldn’t you give as many chances as you can to the students during this time? Most of them are doing their first moots and inspite of that if they emerge victorious in both of their rounds, they should be given another chance. Marks be damned. 

And it’s not just that, it’s also a peer pressure thing. Your friends see you working for the moot day and night, relentlessly. Flagging your memorials and compendiums, compiling reports of all kinds and when you don’t get to the next round (despite the fact you won both of your rounds but MARKS) they make fun of you. And it really causes a lot of resentment. We are in college, opinions do shape up how we tend to think about ourselves. 

Researched a lot? Won both your rounds? Sorry, your scores aren't enough!

Why did I not write this any sooner? Because I did not understand how the system worked until I was at the center of it. And also because I saw a lot of resentment amongst my juniors after the results were announced and I know somewhere deep inside they were right.

And since it is an annual event and the only annual event we do really look forward to, I guess these are some little changes that are the least the Mooting Society and the authorities can do for us.