Canteen Fundas - Finding a Cause Greater than Ourself!

Canteen Fundas in the New Indian Express - Edex page!
'Finding a Cause Greater than Ourselves'!

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/44190615

TED Talk - This is what happens when you reply to spam email

Funny!

This is what happens when you reply to spam email - James Veitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdPW8JrYzQ

Notes from a Small island - Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson travels to the United Kingdom/ Great Britain/ England after a long break of more than a decade and decides to wander around and perhaps collect material for this book. he travels from Dover to Exeter, Oxford, Bradford, Ludlow, Porthmadog, Liverpool, Durham,  Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Halkirk, John O'Groats, Inverness, Glasgow, Carlisle and hops off the island. The details are thanks to a useful map he provided right up front.

I enjoyed reading Bill Bryson again - I was a bit put of when he wrote the Short history. I realised he had this sneaky sense of humour that you miss when you don't pay attention. He will be bumbling about and suddenly there's this very funny line that you will miss if you don't pay attention but which you will suddenly catch out of the blue. He hates to part with his money, wants cheap travel and cheap hotels, does not want to pay for those brochures or stuff like that. He bumps into several specimens of the country, not all of them hospitable - the first landlady was unforgettable, as is the one he shouts at when locked out on a rainy night. But just as I was wondering if he had run out of laugh-out-loud stories he came up with this conversation he has in Glasgow with some Scotsmen in a bar and those two pages are stuff I want to photograph and read everyday for my dose of daily laughter.

Bill is immensely pleased with the British manners, their orderliness, their way of apologising even when they have been hurt, their refined sense of humour. He is unhappy with the disappearing telephone boxes, their incongruous new age architecture, all the entry fees, lack of transportation facilities etc.

All in all a very enjoyable read and I am back to being a Bill Bryson fan again and am all set to read the next book I have of his - A Walk in the Woods or something like that. I think I saw the movie made on that with Robert Redford and a brilliant Nick Nolte.

Talk at MCRHRDI, House Journal Society

The House Journal Society, 94 FC at the MCRHRDI, invited me to their Reading Club Session 2.0 to speak about Cricket, Creativity and Writing. My old pal and writing buddy Vinod Ekbote was the one who mooted the idea and I readily agreed. The audience was composed of IPS, IRS officers of a trainee batch.

It was a free flowing talk as I shared my experiences on the process of writing, why I write, why everyone should write, the process of writing, the benefits of writing, my books, my influences, my learnings etc. At the end of the talk they asked me several questions and gave me suggestions.

How important is honesty in writing (very), I have an idea but am not sure if it is publishworthy, what to do (write it first), how to write book reviews (be kind, look at pros and cons, be original, look at it like a creative work that someone has invested in), how can I motivate myself to write everyday (be true to your why, your priorities) etc.

After the talk the President of the club Shreya gifted me a journal and a small gift - a lovely little book for me to write.

Thanks Vinod, the members of the House Journal Society and MCRHRDI.

Building Believable Characters - Marc McCutcheon

My friend Sunil Jyoti asked me to look in and see if there were any books from his father's impressive collection that I may want after J.R. Jyoti saab passed away. Though he was Sunil Jyoti's father, Jyoti saab became my friend too, interested as he was in the writing process, and more some, humour. He had the entire collection of Wodehouse and I cannot forget the sight of a full steel almirah filled with Wodehouses. He was very encouraging of my writing forays and when he heard that I was attempting to write a novel back in 1997-98, he invited me to a creative writing class he was part of at IGNOU. In that class at the IGNOU centre in Srinagar colony, I met Vinod Ekbote, who became a thick pal, and BS Murthy, Major Kiran and of course Anil Ekbote who was teaching the course. Jyoti saab wrote funny pieces and made a collection of the same and published them as 'Day Becomes Night and Other Stories'.

In the hundreds of books lying there at Sunil's house, I found a whole bunch of books on the writing process - plot, characters, dialogue, short story, novel etc and took those. One Sunil was very generous and called me knowing my interest in writing. One of those books is this one on building believable characters.

Instead of writing about the subject himself, the author picked the minds of several other writers.

Part 1
Some of their thoughts are given here.
You can project a little of yourself into every character, but not too far.
Keep character notebooks.
Get a good handle on the majors with background etc. You don't need to give your readers all the information you know about your characters.
Cut out pictures from magazines to better visualise my characters.
You have to know your characters somewhat better than you know yourself.
Write family trees. Then file it away. Put your characters in conflict with the manuscript and see what they are made of.
If I am foggy about the character he will be foggy to the reader as well.
Characters are composites of friends, relatives, people I know.
Names are very important. The name either sounds right or doesn't.
Give physical traits to characters to reveal them. Find physical elements that convey interior attitudes.
Feed in key details only.
Whenever possible combine a physical description with some form of action.
Always show. Reveal personality traits in action.
A character with vulnerability is a character who has to show character to survive, to triumph to overcome.
Characters should not be perfect or predictable. They must be true to their own past and their beliefs.
Characters must move the plot, not the other way.
Show description through a character's eyes.
Use catchwords, phrases, certain pauses, emotional responses.
People don't talk in complete sentences.
Suspect any paragraph of dialogue over three lines long.
I prefer to let the actual dialogue stand on its own.

Part 2
Character Questionnaire
This has details like name, age, height, weight, body type, physical condition, eye color, hair color and style, distinguishing features, physical imperfections that she would like to change, characteristic gestures, race, ethnic group, religion, family background, lineage, years of schooling, degrees, skills, abilities, expertise, occupation, goals, personality type, quirks, temperament, admirable traits, habits, prejudices, important political and social issues, opinion on abortion, crime, sense of humour, fears, manias, illnesses, hobbies, interests, sports, TV shows, movies, travel, drink, books, diet, clothing, trauma sexual turn on/off, philosophy of life, best friend, home, car, neighbourhood, major problems, solutions etc.
And some more.

Part 3

There is a character thesaurus after this for all kinds of words to describe 1) Face and Body - Complexions and skin types, eye type and shape, eye colors, noses, hair, facial hair, body type, body parts 2) Personality/identity - Personality traits inventory, Bad habits/vices, Psychological problems, Selected diseases, disorders, hobbies and sports, societies and associations, college degrees, occupations 3) Facial expressions, body and vocal language - Anger, anxiety, tension fear and panic, shock, pain surprise, suspicion, guilt, arrogance, disgust and nausea, happiness, sadness, love, affection, lust, Laughs 4) Dress - Dresses, skirts, pants and shorts, undergarments, shoes and boots, caps and hats, glasses and sunglasses 5) Dialects and foreign speech 6) Given names and surnames 7) Character homes - Tudor, shanty, penthouse etc etc.

It's incredibly detailed and exhaustive and covers all you need to know about your character. Fantastic book to read and refer. The advice, questionnaire and thesaurus are a treasure.

TED Talk - The Happy Secret to Work

Shawn Anchor - Positive Psychology!
Fun talk and lots of good information about the benefits of being positive and also how to be positive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLJsdqxnZb0

Your external world as a predictor for happiness is only 10% (what you are, where you are, job, money, status etc). The key is your lens, your inner formula for happiness. It's not - Work hard, be successful and be happy. Delink happiness and success. Focus on the positive.
Dopamine serves two purposes he says - makes you happy, but also opens all the learning centres of the brain. Staying positive has its benefits. To get positive do this minute exercise for 21 days - write 3 gratitudes, journal, exercise, meditation, do random acts of kindness. As little as two minutes.

Zen and the Art of Making a Living - Laurence G. Boldt

Vinod gifted this book to me a long time ago and I made several attempts to read and imbibe this. But I could not make much progress. I would go some distance and then I would get completely confused. As I realised later, the first part is too abstract and completely messes up the plot. It is a 600 page tome.

It is broadly divided into four ACTS. The prologue deals with the Art of Life's work, ACT 1 with the Quest for Life's work, ACT II with the Game of Life's work, ACT III with the Battle for Life's Work and ACT IV with the School of Life's Work. They are as vague and boring as they sound, espeically the first few chapters. As a saving grace, Boldt, embellished the book with proverbs and suggests we could just read it for the quotes It could well be the best part of the book. Before getting rid of it, I added it to a list of books that I decided to give a day's read, however big and formidable they may be, and no more. And this is what I learned.

Up from in the way of the artist he says that the way of the artist is through Trust, Psyche, Society and Nature as opposed to the way of the Little King which is just the opposite. He talks of the ISEE way - Integrity (who am I), Service (how can I live in integrity, how can I make the world better), Enjoyment (What do I love to do) and Excellence (what can I dedicate enough to pursue excellence). He says we must use these principles and craft the story of our life.

In the Quest for our Life's Work he says we must ask vision questions - what;'s the vision for the world, nation, community. Then we must clarify our top 5 values and crat a mission statement. Be clear about how many you want to reach and how deeply - how do you want to serve, whom, how many people. What's the purpose of your work, He asks us to target talents and defines talents as those that we enjoy doing. Create an exhaustive talent list and identify the top 10 talents. Then integrate talents and your purpose. Next, make mission objectives - transform visions into goals. Don't fear failure, rejection, reality, losing, pain, commitment and not being in control he says. By the end of ACT 1 we have a mission, work purpose, top 10 talents and we must integrate them,

In the Game of Life's work, he says make sure the choice is your own. Get out of the approval trap. Screen test yourself in your chosen career and see whether you fit or not. Test it out - a day in the life of that career. Meet people, intern and get a better idea. If you like it, check for skills needed and acquire them.

In the Battle for Life's work he says find a way, keep at it. Fight it out. Rather simple.

It is after so much vague stuff put even more vaguely that he comes to the crux of the matter. Choose your marketing strategy he says - Product, Package, Price, Promotion. That could well be you as well.
If you choose entrepreneurship, he says make a business outline, check out the competition, do a SWOT analysis, know your market, assemble a team, choose a legal structure, raise money, monitor and concentrate your energy and resources. He gives a format for making a business plan.

If you are looking for a job, he says first ask yourself what do you want from the job, what is your criteria for employees, research organisations, select and approach. If you don't like them, create a job and get a foot in the door. If you want to be streetsmart he says network, use publicity, get better at proposal writing an at negotiation. Develop contacts with mentors, peers, superiors, subs and others. Create a team mastermind. He also says one must be sharp, prompt, trustworthy, honesty, responsible, prepared. To learn admit your ignorance.

In the school of life's work, he says create a life image - old image versus the new image. Enlist support and do what you love doing.

He says it is never late to change your career and gives a list of people who trained to be something else and became good and something else. There are transition strategies. Towards the end he talks of the Psychology of scarcity and of plenty.

Overall, it's too much time spent on this book for me though it does make a person think. It's all over the place and could have been 300 pages shorter. That said it has a lot of value for young students out to set out on careers.



Some of the quotes I liked

When one happens on a book of this kind, he is well advised to throw it away - Shuan
(This I should have followed)

Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life. - Herbert Otto

Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

Come out of the circle of time, and into the circle of love. - Rumi

It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. Bertrand Russell

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. - Emerson

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. - T.S. Eliot

Know the masculine, keep the feminine. - Lao Tzu

Nothing divides one so much as thought. - Reginald Blyth

Artists in each of the arts seek after and care for nothing but love. - Marsilio Fincio

Art if the proper task of life - Friedrich Nietzche

The purpose of the whole (work) is to remove those who are living in this life from a state of wretchedness and lead them to the state of blessedness. - Dante

When nations grow old, the Arts grow cold, And commerce settles on every tree.  - William Blake

I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, just for money - has turned himself into a slave. - Joseph Campbell

Art always has something of the unconscious about it. - D.T. Suzuki

To know oneself, one should assert oneself. - Albert Camus

The Tao's principle is spontaneity - Lao Tzu

The work will teach you how to do it. - Estonian proverb

Love is love's reward - John Dryden

To have great poets there must be great audiences - Walt Whitman

Many more, but enough.