on Writing - Stephen King

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

Being a writer is *not* easy. You sit in front of the computer and your mind's frozen. You know you've the story inside you, it just refuses to come out. No amount of coffee (read coaxing) seems to work and thus, most of us postpone it to yet another day. This is a well known phenomenon and has been called variously as *writer's block*, *procastination* etc.

Stephen King is one of those few authors who can actually get shit done. He's managed to write almost every day of his life, published 55 novels and several more short stories. His books The Shining and Misery are classics of the horror/thriller genre and most (if not all) fiction fans have heard about his books.

This is why I had high expectations when I picked up this book. And thankfully, I wasn't disappointed.
On Writing is a memoir on the art of writing and the factors which Stephen believes made him so successful at it. It's a short and powerful read which gives you some good insights and a lot of  background information about the author.

The first chapter is sort of autobiographical (aptly titled 'C.V.' ) and talks about the events which influenced King's own life and his development as an author. It's a fun read and tells us a lot about the author. He also talks about his early writing, sending articles to magazine authors, contributing to his brother's newspaper etc. The next three chapters detail Stephen's advice to other writers on the craft of Writing which is followed with a final chapter discussing his own accident and subsequent recovery.

The memoir is fast paced and you won't be bored reading it. It contains some useful information and introduces you to the life and thoughts of one of the most successful writer's of our times. The writing advice is common knowledge now (avoid adverbs, describe only what's needed and let readers imagine the rest etc) but I suspect this book played a role in popularizing it.

Reasons to Read

• Getting to know one of the most successful author's of our generation
• Understanding that the art of writing can only be perfected by practice
• If you're an aspiring writer

Memorable Quotes:

The scariest moment is always just before you start.

Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

Trips to the railway station - Part 2

It was a cold wintery morning and Sneh would have loved nothing better than to be sleeping in his warm bed. Instead his father had blackmailed him into accompanying the driver to the railway station for picking up his cousins, who were coming from their ancestral village.

Sneh hadn't met them ever before and truth be told, he wasn't too eager to meet them either. Having had no previous experience with people from the village before, he imagined them as being similar to his maid's children. Simple, naive  and happy; likeable in every way but somehow missing some key ingredient that didn't make them worthy of his friendship or attention. These thoughts didn't occur to him consciously but they were there. They were the reason for his reluctance in picking them up, his refusal to share his room with them, his not telling his friends about their impending visit.

They reached the station half an hour before the scheduled arrival of the train so the driver parked the car in the parking and went out for a smoke. Sneh decided to utilize this time for sleeping. Just as he was about to fall asleep, there was a knock on the door. He looked outside and saw an old lady begging for money. She was wearing tattered old clothes and was clearly shivering of cold. Her hands were wrinkled and her eyes seemed hollow. She complained about the cold, the hunger and her poverty. With outstretched hands, she begged for some assistance.

If Sneh had seen such a sight for the first time, it would have shaken him up without a doubt. An old lady, begging for food, in such a harsh weather is not easy to ignore. But in India, where there are millions of such beggars, one simply can't survive without developing an immunity to their suffering.
Too many people need help and it is better to ignore them all rather than to try helping them and realizing your own helplessness against the situation. Thus, Sneh did the sensible thing and, after turning his head, went to sleep.

He woke up to the sound of breaking glass. Panicked, he looked around and realized that a stone had been hurled at his car.A mob had surrounded his car and was hurling things at it. He could see some cars burning in the distant background and hear people shouting about. There was fire all around and the few faces he could pick out, seemed full of hate and anger. Sneh could feel a coldness spreading over his body. He felt numb and could only look as one of the stones broke through the glass and hit the dashboard. He wanted to run but his legs seemed frozen. Fear had him rooted to the spot and cold drafts of air which came through the broken window made him shiver. He saw the old lady again. Her face had a weird glow about it, her eyes were shining and she seemed, happy. Sneh was mesmerized and afraid. Very very afraid.

"Sneh baba, get up. Sneh baba!" said the driver. "The train has arrived and your cousins must be waiting on the platform. Let's go." It took Sneh several moments to orient himself. His palms were sweaty and his breath came out in spurts. He looked around to assure himself that it was all a bad dream.

Walking with his driver to the railway station, Sneh felt some his haughtiness leave him.
The little kid was scared and had just learned to respect the destitute, even if it was only in a dream.

Trips to the railway station - Part 1

He was nine years old when he first visited the New Delhi Railway station. The dilapidated buildings, the big crowds, the garbage and the paan stains all around him made him question the sanity of the teachers who had planned this 'educational trip'. His batch mates however, were very excited to be there. Many of them had never seen actual trains before, being accustomed to the comforts of Ac's and airplanes. To tell the truth, Sneh himself was excited about seeing his first train, it was just the accompanying scenery that made him uncomfortable. Why wasn't the railway station clean like the airport? Why did they allow the beggars and dogs to sit in the open? His mother believed that beggars were no better than thieves and should be jailed. His father took a more lenient view and believed in helping the ones which needed help, like old and handicapped ones. Sneh wasn't sure what he himself believed.

He would have liked to sit and think more about this but his teacher started their tour and so, he had to move along with the group. The boys lined up one after the other and began moving in sync, exclaiming out loud whenever they saw or noticed something different. The man with a single leg, the stink of garbage around the station, the cries of the taxi-walas, all of it caught their attention and imagination. It seemed like a new country to them. These children of fortune were surprised to see the suffering around them.

Sneh was also walking along with his group when he saw a big black bag which seemed to move by itself. It was obvious the bag had garbage in it. What wasn't obvious was who was pulling it, he really couldn't make out the other person in the crowd. Sneh stopped, trying to solve this mystery. The line continued to move, leaving him behind.

A moment came when the crowd parted and he realized that it was child who pulled that bag. The child was about the same height as Sneh himself. He was wafer thin and had marks on his face. It was obvious that the bag was too heavy for him and all his strength was going in pulling it. Sneh felt sorry for the boy. He wanted to go and help him.

But the line had left him far behind. All his batch mates had moved forward and he would be left far behind if he didn’t get a move on fast. He would miss out on the fun and the refreshments planned for later if he went to help that boy.

The teacher will be angry, he heard a voice say in his head, I can’t do much to help that boy as it is, it’s best I avoid trouble myself. Thinking so, Sneh justified his apathy and walked away.

This is the first post in the Trips to the railway station series, something which I have been working on quite sometime now. Hope you liked it.

Dreams and deadlines

I woke up with a start and the first thought that hit me was that I was late for work. Panicking, I looked at my clock and realized it was 4:00am, I still had 6 hours to go before work began. Reassured by thig sight and not sure what else to do, I kept lying in my bed thinking about the present state of my life. It had been 6 months since I had left my job to try and create the life of my dreams. 6 months, during which I worked on my startup idea and tried to create the next big thing.

A Beautiful Mind

I just finished watching this movie and this is going to be an unedited and crazy review of the same. I saw this movie after being asked to do so by a couple of my friends, who termed it 'amazing' and 'inspiring'. Having finished it, I can definitely say that I am both inspired and amazed.

The movie is about the life and struggle of the mathematical genius, John Nash, the man who may be called the father of modern game-theory. It chronicles his quest for greatness and his battles with schizophrenia (a disease where people get hallucinations and delusions). The movie starts off when young Nash enters Princeton and starts his quest to reach MIT. Believing that classroom education dulls ones' own creativity and enthusiasm, Nash spends his entire time outside the classroom, finding and tackling problems of his own choice. All this time, his only friend seems to be the elusive Charles Herring, who is his roommate and confidant. Nash spends most of his time working on his theories and finds himself more comfortable in the presence of books and notes than other humans.

Nash's search ends when he finds a better solution to the problem of Game theory and writes a paper that gets him into wheeler labs. And this is where, the true story begins. On being hired at MIT, Nash meets his love, Mrs Alicia Larde. He is also, signed up by the US secret services to help crack codes being used by the Russians.  This task of a 'spy' for the US government starts taking its toll on Nash's health and mental well being and he becomes very paranoid.
Afraid for his mental health, Alicia calls the mental hospital and gets Nash admitted.

What happens when one of the foremost minds of the 20th century lands up in a mental hospital? And what about the top secret work he was doing?

Well, you must watch the movie to find out. I must tell you this though, few movies capture the beauty of human emotions and turmoil as this one does. The portrayal of Dr John Nash by Russell Crowe and his wife by Jennifer Connelly is realistic and lovable.

This is a movie that will make you appreciate the ups and downs of life more. It is also a movie about love and affection. But above all, it is a movie about a great man who lost his way and the strength of the love that brought him back.

Revival - Stephen King

“Nothing is more frightening than a fear you cannot name.” 

-Cornelia Funk

Arguably one of the greatest authors of modern times, Stephen King, has produced master piece after master piece over the years. His novels stand out not because of their macabre or gory nature, but due to the level of suspense and realism his plots have. Most of his books are about the horror of the unknown and the unnamed. They are little things and little events, which wreck havoc in the protagonists life.

Revival promises to be another top-seller, written along the same lines. The official website describes it as "A dark and electrifying novel about addiction, fanaticism, and what might exist on the other side of life".  

The story begins in a small New England town about half a century ago, where the new minister, Mr Charles Jacobs, begins preaching and reforming the local church.The charismatic minister forms a deep bond with a small boy named Jamie Morton, who loves to play the guitar and has the same 'secret obsession' as the minister. However, when tragedy strikes his family, Charles looses his faith in god and is banished from the shocked town. Over the next couple of decades, Jamie grows up to become a struggling musician, caught in the trap of drugs and sex. Living a nomadic life as a band musician, Jamie's life is profoundly impacted when he runs across Mr Jacobs again.
Seems like an interesting plot no? The official website claims that this novel has the 'most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written'. Quite a tough ask if you ask me but then again, when has Stephen King ever disappointed us?

I am eagerly waiting for this book to come out and will update my views here once it does! Do comment if you have anything to say about this book and/or wish to share your views.

The lonely king

My brain is locked down

And my face wears a frown

With seventy different pressures to bear

And heart quivering as the time comes near

Time to sit on the throne

Time to face the enemies unknown

Enemies who will place in my hands their miserable lives

And hide behind the skirts of their wives

Expecting me to deliver them from their misery

Without touching a sword or risking injury

It will be frustrating time for me

Alone and exasperated I shall be

When will the fools understand?

Alone, I am but one man

Together we are a stronger lot

Who can battle this veritable rot

Of corruption and despair, and bring about

The happiness that seems missing all around