Inspire

Writing is no fluke. You do not suddenly wake up one day, take a pen and paper and become a writer overnight. Well, there might be instances or coincidences that might create the aforementioned situation, but for a layman like me, writing was developed through myriad inspirations and a lot of trial and error.

Inspiration can take different forms through your life and they play a part in what you translate on to a blank canvas at the end of the day. I remember once in art class, when I was a kid, we were given an assignment to design a visiting card. I wanted to be what my Dad was then – a sales executive. So, when my project came to fruition, the visiting card proudly stated – Nishath Nizar, Sales Executive – with a funkier logo and design for the company my Dad worked for. I know what my Dad must have been thinking when I proudly showed it to him – Of all the things you could have become in the world, you chose to become a sales executive? (with no offence intended at the profession i.e.). Well, you couldn’t blame me, my Dad was and is my hero, and I wanted to be anything he was. For the 8 or 9 year old me, the biggest takeaway from the exercise was that I was able to make a funky logo out of the blue in place of the drab current one.

All through childhood, the school library was one of the places I loved to frequent. Going through Enid Blytons, RL Stines, Greek, Roman and Scandinavian mythology collections, I tried to ensure that even if I didn’t write anything (which I didn’t, until late into my teens), I had the vocabulary to be a nerd. It was only after I shifted countries and schools (for good), that the writing became my essential companion. While I began writing to compensate loneliness arising out of new location, new people and new circumstances, just a year later I was in it for the sheer joy and collaborations it brought me. Inspiration from childhood is almost always based on your experiences at school, and I had countless anecdotes and crazy collaborators who helped raise a poet first and writer later. Then there were the heartbreaks, the fights and teenage angst that was great fodder for writing. Along side all of this, I had some wonderful friends, who stood by me at every step of the way and encouraged me to write no matter how crappy it turned out.

Moving to high school and college, it was time for refinement, and the creation of style that has stood by me since the creation of this blog. It was also the time when I got into the habit of writing long letters to anyone who was willing to lend an ear. I still have the whole bunch of correspondence I had with some wonderful women, who have influenced me in a lot of ways. While words barely escaped my lips, I was able to put everything into words on paper at the get go.

I first started writing letters, after my best friend moved to Pattambi in tenth grade. Conversing with Anusha over letters marked the beginning of this ritual, which in today’s day and age is almost non-existent. We would just blab on for pages about every other detail that went on in our lives. Even with the advent of instant messaging, letters continued. Aditi was another close friend, who through her words and letters brought about a lot of calm to some tumultuous times, and allowed me to vent out things I could not have otherwise said out loud. Then there was the savvy Mizaj, who was incidentally my first pen pal and was my personal psychologist before she even started pursuing it in real life. Even this blog had a major influence from Mukta, with whom I would compete to put up the most number of posts. (She won, putting up 36 posts in 2008, while I was able to muster just 21).

Time and again, I have found such people, who have allowed me the freedom and creativity of melding my methodologies into mustering up what I am able to today. And I am thankful to each one of them. At my first (technically second) job in a sports magazine, I always looked up to Kadambari and Anand as my mentors, not just because they were my seniors but fantastic writers themselves. Their influence on me at my first job gave me one of the most perfect platforms to not just improve my writing, but also taught me leadership worth emulating.

I will be a bad person if I conclude this post without mentioning the guiding influence of Jane, who according to me is my biggest inspiration. Through her writings, advice and pep talks, I found great clarity when I was at crossroads. Even today, the greatest critique I respect is that of Jane’s, because that is the pedestal I will always place her on. Her stories transport you to the place and time she wants you to be in while at the same time making you so emotionally connected to the character, that you will in turn feel compelled to be as crisp and moving as her. So Jaaney (as I like to call her) keep doing what you do, inspire a million others and keep writing ever so beautifully forever!

But no inspiration is complete without the backbone support of your family. Back home, my greatest fan and critic is my Dad. The only other person other than myself to be stoked about me getting back to writing was him. He has been lamenting at me ever since I got into a corporate job, about how I have almost given up on writing. But hey Dad, here is you in a post! So, seems like I haven’t given up on it after all. When you have family like these do you want anything more?

Its fuːd, not fud

Pet peeves - doesn't the word sound just silly? The uncertain origin of it also points in the same direction. The term is possibly modelled on Latin perversus "reversed, perverse," or "capricious, silly". While it may sound silly or capricious for that matter, it is a natural part of any human behaviour. We all have those pet peeves that we wish we didn't have to live with, but clench our teeth and smile through it.

Being a student of the English language, and being engaged in the field of media and communication, almost all my pet peeves has to do with the use of the English language.

But speaking about specificities, I think one of the biggest pet peeves that I have is when people say fud for food when it should actually be pronounced fuːd. Coming from the south Indian state of Kerala, we do have our own version of Indian English which no matter how hard we try to cover up, will pop up in our conversation giving our identity away. And one of the easiest way to catch our Malayaliness is if you hear us say food. At the workplace, I have been going around correcting people with the right pronunciation that now when they say the word food, they immediately rectify it to the proper pronunciation if I am around (and only when I am around). While I might have this pet peeve, my friends and better half are quick to point out that I am no worse than others while pronouncing shirt and burger (I apparently assert them as ʃ(r)t and b(r)ɡə(r)). Seems like I am a pureblood Malayali after all. 

There is another language-related pet peeve that gets on my nerve every single time - SMS lingo. Y u do dis? How much time will you waste if you type in the whole word? Almost every single phone these days has word input/autocorrect/dictionary, so why don't you type the entire word and create a decipherable sentence? The sad part is that this shortened lingo has even entered our daily lives, moving away from the glares of the mobile/computer screens. Sometimes I have to google up stuff when kids converse with me these days. 

I promise you this is the last pet peeve for the day - yet another language-related one. I really do not get it when people use too many punctuation marks in their communication. Oh, you are excited? How about you put in three exclamation points? Oh, you are still excited? How about I put in an ellipsis after those exclamation marks? I really wonder at times if it is genuinely done or they are ignorant about the usage of punctuations. I took the liberty to take a class at my workplace just to talk about this absolutely avoidable incorrect usage. But the very next moment I received an email: "Dear all, Greetings!!!!". Sigh. 

All said and done, it is these pet peeves that make us human. And while I hope I get over these pet peeves one day (or the world turns itself around), for the moment, I am glad to learn that some live through such instances every single day of their lives.

Never Hesitate

Day 2 of #30DaysWritingChallenge: The best advice someone gave you.
This was a doozy, coz I could not for the life of me pinpoint to that one advice that takes the mantle of being the best. I've had hours of chats with some of my closest friends, acquaintances, teachers, family, and each one of them had droned advice after advice - sometimes for good, some for the worse.

Sometimes the best advice comes when you least expect it, and from people, you would least expect it from. The one advice that has stood me in good stead over the past few years has been - never hesitate. How did it come to be? Read on.

It was the start of a new magazine cycle, and the monthly team meet was on to decide who would do what stories. Me, being my lazy self, was able to chip in with my usual fluff pieces when my boss asked if I would like to do a story on the Ranji Trophy final. Sensing the mammoth task that lay before me, I hesitated. I said no, while my photographer friend took up the assignment to shoot it. Big mistake. It was the chance of a lifetime. Those working in newspapers are given such tasks after 8-10 years of beat coverage. And here I was, barely a year into my job and given such a remarkable story to do, and I said no.

After the rest of the stories had been assigned to the respective journalists, two wonderful colleagues came up to me and asked me why I hesitated. I told them that I did not know if I would be able to take up such a mammoth task. They asked me to take back that no. After a bit more push from my photographer friend, I took the courage to go up to my boss, and ask again for the very assignment I had put down.

Best. Decision. Ever. Although I was a rookie and had my apprehensions, I found that once I overcame the hesitation, it was a cakewalk (almost of sorts).  I say virtually of sorts because I had never in my life covered a cricket match before, let alone the final of a major Test tournament. I was completely lost after the first day since I didn't even know where to go and sit. Back at the hotel, I called my mentor and told him that I was all over the place. The first thing he asked me to do was to calm down, and then from there on, it was his pointers that guided me. And the rest, as they say, is history. Rajasthan won their second consecutive Ranji trophy, I got my story, and all was good with the world.

That story to this day, I feel is something I am awfully proud about. And it was also the first of my work, that didn't have to go through massive edits. The most awesome feeling was when I asked my boss if it needed any cuts after sending her the first draft, and she replied - "Nicely done". I was over the moon! A lovely fairytale ending to a tale that could never have been.

But all said and done, it was the advice to never hesitate to take that big or small step that stands in good stead for me to this day.

(P.S.: You know who you all are that I have mentioned in this write-up. Thank you for believing in me!)

10 Things That Make Me Happy

So today, a close friend of mine challenged me to take up a 30-day writing challenge, and I gladly accepted because a) I have become too lazy to flutter my creative wings and b) What better way to begin 2018 than through something so positive as this. So thank you Ti, for this impromptu intervention. This was long pending.

So our topic for today is 10 things that make me happy. While the topic might seem cliched, it really does force you to think about how positive our life actually is. Given the topic for today, I found that it is almost always easier to note down the sad than the happy. But nonetheless, if you really delve deep into yourself, you will find that it is those minutiae things that bring you utmost happiness. 

So here is my not-so-definitive list of things that make me happy:

1. Family and friends. I decided to go with the first and foremost of the done and dusted statement to get it out of the way. But really though, it is the amount of love that your close ones provide that gets you through the day. No matter how frustrating your day is, at the end of the day a phone call to your closest friend, a chat with your better half, a venting time with your dad/mom will make it all go away. Family and friends, you rock!

2. This. The joy of writing is what makes me happy. While at the current job, I have a lot of restrictions where my creative juices flow, it is the unabashed writing that I love. I want to do more of this to make me a more cheerful person.

3. Babies. One look at them and my heart goes all melty. So much innocence all bundled into one tiny self is so soothing for the heart and amazing to experience. With so much happening around you, and people plotting from all corners, babies do what they love doing - being adorable and making you realize maybe this world isn't that bad after all.

4. Food. There could never be a better love story than me and my affair with food. From South Indian delicacies to Mediterranean freshness to American junk food, I love each and every lil thing about food. Moreso, this love is even visible on my YouTube playlist, as it keeps recommending Food Ranger or Bizarre Foods or Mark Wiens or the umpteen number of food channels from all over the world.

5. Books. There is something about being in a room filled with books - the smell, the knowledge that there is a whole other world residing within it, the very magic with which each of it has been written - I could go on and on. While the better half keeps a tab on what I buy (secretly read as hoard), I do sneak in a book or two every now and then adding to my burgeoning collection at my home in Abu Dhabi. When we had bought our bookshelf/cupboard three years back, we barely had one shelf of books. Now every single one of them is filled to the brim and some can't even make it to the front. I've been mulling getting another stand alone shelf just for the books, but the mrs. has already tightened the purse strings.

6. Love. Cliche no. 2 on this list. I am not much of a PDA sort of guy, but I love it when people are in love. There is so much positivity around them, that it emanates onto others, spreading even more joy.

7. Cricket. Say what you may, but cricket does bring a lot of joy to me. While a large chunk of my generation have shifted to in-vogue sports, I am still a cricket lover at heart. I still remember getting tensed during the 1996 World Cup semi-final, between India and Sri Lanka, when the hosts were falling like a pack of cards, I went up to our home's hallway and started hitting the ball onto the door with my Four Square bat, hoping it would somehow translate to India scoring runs. And then there was the time when we moved back to India. Summer vacations meant I disappeared in the morning, pinch hitting balls onto unsuspecting windows of NRI homes, only to come back late in the evenings to hear an earful from mom. After school, playing cricket sort of disappeared, but following it was religious, especially after I got into sport journalism. It is only now that I have gotten back to playing the Gentleman's Game, and those Friday morning cricket matches and the friendly rivalry with Kallakali Shaheen reminds me why i fell in love with the sport in the first place.

8.  Music. Music can bring a smile to forlorn person, put a spring in your step and can do wonders to whatever mood you want to set. My tryst with music came quite late in life. During our childhood, my brother was more musically inclined, playing the keyboard and trying a hand at everything music, I was more interested in drawing and animation. It was only after moving to college, that music chanced upon me, and I was hooked. Classics still get me, and I am actually listening to Kisi Ki Muskurahaton Pe Ho Nisar from Anari as I write this piece. Can't get better than this.

9. Home. Home for me is a lot of places. From streets of Wadi Kabir to the lanes of Calicut and the gullies of Delhi and now the expanses of Abu Dhabi. Each city has molded me in various ways, and I am happy to be a part of the experiences, the memories that each have given me. I do not think a you feel fulfilled unless you are at peace with where you dwell.

10. A Challenge. I think it is the challenge to conquer the next Everest that has taken me through each step of my life, and it makes me engaged, which in turn makes me happy. While earlier i used to tense myself up pretty bad with every challenge that came my way, I have realized that if you sit with a cool head and understand that everything will be sorted out the end, then you will have a smooth run. Even with this exercise, which was given to me in the morning, I knew I could complete it only because I wanted it and took my own sweet time to complete.