Readability

What is the most important thing a story should have? For that matter, any write-up should have?
Readability!
Yes, when you take start to read something, you should feel, hey, how does this end?
If the reader gets this feel, the writer is successful!
I remember one of my favorite authors Sri Yandamoori Veerendranath had told in an interview when the journo asked him the best thing about his novels.
Readability!
The ability to get read.
Be it a story or a novel or an article or even the most dry 'white paper'!
This leaves the writer to choose the right words at the right places, like they talk about women (pardon the expression!) - right curves at the right places!
I have list of favorite authors. Each attracts me with one or the other specialty.
James Hadley Chase (Oh, when do I stop writing about him?) is one of my earliest favorites.
There is a reason. I had known the English of my text books in High School. Before that English was just one of the subjects during my Kannada medium schooling days.
I was wondering what the teachers were saying when I shifted from Kannada medium to English medium in 8th Standard. It was a nightmare year!
Slowly I found this 'monster' English is a 'Gentle Giant'. He is big, but harmless, and even friendly!
Where was I? Oh yeah! Chase. I fell in love with his works when I was free, waiting for my Engineering seat in Bangalore University. I was about 16 with lot of new 'feelings'! (I believe Indians of those days were getting 'matured' at least 3 years later than their 'American' counterparts!!!) and the cover page of Chase novel was very 'attractive'! Panther Edition used to carry a really relevant (to the story) picture and Corgi Edition started using very 'attractive' (Remember the curves!) cover pages!!
Naturally I was eager to 'read' them. (I mean the writing!)
This went on to such a craze that I finished almost all novels of Chase and was panting (pun unintended!) to read more.
Again need not get me wrong again. The novels were highly readable.
Take the example of Mission to Venice. Wow, Chase was also using the 2nd World War theme of Americans v/s Germans. It was a page turner and the book was (is) unputdownable.
The man is a master craftsman. Some times he used to be like Agatha Christie in some books which made us wonder who is the killer or the culprit. Some other times he was a la Alfred Hitchcock. We would know what is the plot and who are the baddies. All we were left to wonder was whether the murder was committed or the bank was looted or the culprit got away.
For the first time I came to know that even the transgressors have their own point of view for the crime they carry out!
I was so much carried away with the idea that it made me write one novel Kappu Nadhi (Black river) which is narrated by the culprit himself. Of course, I could not resist an Agatha touch by keeping the  name of the culprit till the last word of the book (yeah, the last word).
In another novel Haasu-Hokku (ebb-tide), all the bad people have their own logic for their deeds.
Well, Sidney Sheldon is another novelist I like. I had this fascination of 'how to hide the gender of a character' like in English books. For example, his 'Windmills of Gods' had a character which we think is male, which is actually female!
I tried it in a book of mine called Panchaanana (Five Faces)
So, the influence is there from English and Telugu books on my novels. Still I declare that all my works are my own!
Yes, I am the first reader of my novel and I scrap the plot if it is not interesting to ME!

Moods

Sometime we feel off-key. We want to kick someone, we want to bad mouth someone else. Not the best of behavior. But that is human tendency. We feel like questioning Mr. Murphy for making some ‘laws’. Especially the one which says, ‘when things go wrong, they do’.

This is like rubbing salt over the already open wound. Adding insult to injury.

Dr. DV Gundappa, a famous writer in Kannada, has written a very famous book called ‘Manku timmana kagga’ which has 945 poems of 4 lines each.

One of my favorites is ‘Eshtu Chintisidaroo..’

The poet says: how much  we  keep thinking, we will end up in having more and more doubts in this universe. May be Brahma has ‘written’ that we should keep on undergoing difficulties, our fate is just that’

May be, if we try to rise above the mundane situation, things will be better. But how many people can?

To get to mood we need to put an extra effort. If we are in the office, try to have a strong coffee so that the caffeine starts clearing the clot in the brain! We can listen to some soothing music plugging the earphones so that we can shut off the outside noise. After a few minutes our mind will become cool. We can also listen to the same sound again and again like say... om!

There are many famous singers who have sung this type of chants for 30 minutes!  We can put it in repeat mode and keep listening.

When at home and our mood is off, we can try doing praanaayaam. This will help to a maximum extent.

Instead of this, if we start raving and ranting, it takes us nowhere. It will deteriorate the situation. So, to mitigate the heaviness of the situation, we have to put on a smile forcefully.

Then why to create brouhaha in the first place?

Especially when one’s mood is spoilt, the best thing to do is to be totally cut off from other people at least during the first one hour.

One of the worst moods is the surly mood. We may even become angry. If we decide to write and express our anger on someone, consider the relation with the recipient is soured for lifetime. Unless, of course, the other person is so familiar with our moods and behavior, we may be pardoned!

In Gita, Lord Sri Krishna says, anger is one of the worst vices. When the mood is spoiled and the people around are insensitive towards your sensitivity, then there will be chaos. If getting moody is one of our ‘virtues’ and if we can’t get out of it, and still we want to be friends with everyone, better we withdraw into a shell till our mood becomes fine.

To get moody is human, to come out of it fast is divineJ

Preaching is easy!

Have you come across a situation like this in your life?

When I was in Muscat in Sultanate of Oman, I saw this colleague of mine Mr. Patil wearing a very good format shirt on a Friday (which is a national holiday there). I was surprised, so I asked him, ‘why a formal shirt on a Friday? This is a good one for office, especially since you are customer facing, why don’t you wear it to the office?’

His reply surprised me. ‘First time when I wore this shirt to the office, I got banged by my boss. So...’ he drifted off.

Oho! That means he has a complex developed about that particular shirt. if he wears it to the office, he will face some problem with the boss.

Give a dog a bad name and hang it!

Isn’t it funny that people can relate their life situations to the shirt they are wearing?

I have seen people who change the brand of their shaving cream will use it first time on a Sunday or a holiday. Any situation outside the office is faceable!

I have seen ladies not wearing a specific sari since they have undergone some sort of torture, could be physical or mental, when they wore it for the first time.

This is purely imaginary. But try to tell it to the person who has undergone a torture like this... he/she would not agree if you say that the dress we wear, the shaving cream we use have no bearing on the happenings in our lives.  The result of our actions would be the reactions what we face. Newton has formulated the third law of motion – For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction – long ago; and it is true in almost all the cases.

There is another defeatist expression when things go wrong. We say ‘That was not in my hands.  It is destiny or fate’ depending on whether the result is positive or negative!

But still, thinking that a thing on your body – shirt, sari or shaving cream – will harm your day or topples your apple cart of happiness, is not very encouraging.

After all, how can a thing, an inane one at that would make you miserable?

I do not agree (well, almost!) that it can harm!

By the way, this watch of mine, a copper model looking like an antique, which was a permanent fixture on my wrist all these days, my lucky charm (I feel so!) – fell down and stopped working due to the shock of the fall!

I felt very uncomfortable to wear some other watch. I am really missing my watch. I do sincerely hope that my day would be very smooth and nice as it was when I was wearing my copper watch!

Talk about preaching and practicing J

bareyalu utsuka

ಬರೆಯಲು ಉತ್ಸುಕತೆ ಬಂದ ಮೇಲೆ ಇನ್ನು ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸಬಾರದು. ಇದು ರೂಲು. ಹಾಗಿರುವಾಗ ಏನು ಬರೆಯುವುದು ಎಂಬ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಸ್ವಾಭಾವಿಕವಾಗಿ ಏಳುತ್ತದೆ.

ಬಹಳ ಸಲ ನಾನು ಬರೆಯಲು ಆಲೋಚಿಸುವುದು ಕಾದಂಬರಿಯನ್ನೇ. ಏಕೆಂದರೆ ಅದರ ಫಾರ್ಮ್ಯಾಟ್ ದೊಡ್ಡದಾಗಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ಕಥೆಯನ್ನು ಹಾಗೆ ಹೀಗೆ ತಿರುಗಿಸುವ ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ ಸಿಗುತ್ತದೆ. 

ಉದಾಹರಣೆಗೆ ನನ್ನ ರಣವೀಳ್ಯ ಕಾದಂಬರಿಯನ್ನೇ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳೋಣ. ಅದು ಒಂದು ದೊಡ್ಡ ಕಥೆ. ತುಂಬಾ ಪಾತ್ರಗಳು. ಕಥೆಯು ಎಪಿಸೋಡಿಕ್ ಆಗಿ ಮುಂದುವರೆಯುತ್ತದೆ. 

ಒಮ್ಮೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿನ ಕಥೆ. ಒಂದು ಸಸ್ಪೆನ್ಸ್. ನಂತರ ಬೇರೊಂದು ಎಳೆಯನ್ನು ಎಳೆ ತರುವುದು. ಅಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ಕುತೂಹಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸಿ ಮತ್ತೆ ಮುಂದಿನ ಸನ್ನಿವೇಶವನ್ನು ಪ್ರವೇಶಿಸುವುದು. ಇದರಲ್ಲಿ ಬಹಳವೇ ಎಚ್ಚರ ಬೇಕು. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಲಯ ತಪ್ಪಿದರೆ ತರ್ಕವು ಸೋಲುತ್ತದೆ. ಕಥೆಯೂ ಸೋತುಹೊಗುತ್ತದೆ.

ಅದಕ್ಕೇ ಮಹಾನ್ ಲೇಖಕರು ಮಹಾನ್ ಆಗುತ್ತಾರೆ. 

ಆದರೆ ಮಿನಿ ಕಥೆಗಳ ಮಜವೇ ಬೇರೆ. ಅತಿ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಶಬ್ದಗಳಲ್ಲಿ  ಕಥೆಯನ್ನು ಹೇಳಬೇಕು. 

ಒಂದು ಉದಾಹರಣೆ.

ಒಬ್ಬಾತ ಸ್ಮಶಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ರಾತ್ರಿ ಹನ್ನೆರಡು ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದ. ಒಂದು ಸಮಾಧಿಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಒಬ್ಬ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ ಕುಳಿತಿದ್ದುದು ಕಂಡು ಬಂತು.

ಆ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯ   ಬಳಿಗೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಅವನು 'ಏನು ಸ್ವಾಮೀ, ಈ ಸ್ಮಶಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ದೆವ್ವ ಇದೆ ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾರೆ. ನಿಜವೇ?' ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾನೆ.

ಆ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ ನಿಟ್ಟುಸಿರಿಟ್ಟು 'ನನಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ ಸಾರ್. ನಾನು ಸತ್ತು ತುಂಬಾ ವರ್ಷಗಳಾದವು' ಎನ್ನುತ್ತದೆ.

ಇವನ ಗತಿ? ದೇವರೇ ಗತಿ!

ಏಕೆಂದರೆ ಅದು ಅವನಿಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. 

ಇದನ್ನು ಸಸ್ಪೆನ್ಸ್ ಕಥೆ ಎನ್ನಬಹುದು. ಹಾರರ್ ಸ್ಟೋರಿ ಎನ್ನಬಹುದು. .. ಒಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಬಹಳವೇ ಕುತೂಹಲಕಾರಿ ಮಿನಿ ಕಥೆ ಅಲ್ಲವೇ?

One word

Can one word change the world of a person? Why not? I have heard a punctuation mark made a world of difference in one person’s life or death (!)

I remember reading somewhere. A person has been given death punishment. A note comes from the king’s office. ‘Hang him, not leave him’.

I do not remember who altered the note. When the hangman receives the note it read ‘Hang him not, leave him’.

Just the displacement of the comma let the person to escape death at that moment. What happened later is not known...

The other effective use of a punctuation mark is when someone is talking to a person who has done some blunder and still got away with it. ‘You are a great person!’ when the other person exclaims, you can see the sarcasm dripping in that sentence.

A writer would be wondering what to write. He has gone into a long and deep hibernation. A Rip Van Winkle. Someone tries to wake him up. Ah, at last! The writer has come to his senses.

Why anyone should write? Money? Fame? Or both? Or is it something else? As long as it is a legal, moral reason everything is fine.

But trying to put down some other person by one’s writing is wrong, ethically. A few people make it a part of their income; it is a subject to be discussed separately.

Why all this hullaballoo? At least for a writer? Especially when he has gone underground for no reason... or reasons known only to him!

Every day he was wondering ‘What to write?’

Today he is wondering ‘What to write today?’

Yes, ‘today’ is the word I am referring to. The word ‘today’ has made a world of difference to me.

All these days I was wondering what to write... Today, I am thinking eagerly, what to write today?

Nice makeover... as far as I am concerned!

Om prathama!

ಈ ಮೊದಲು ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಇಂದು ನನ್ನ ಬಾಸ್ ಮೀರಾ ಮೇಡಂ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದರಿಂದ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

ಏನು ಬರೆಯಲಿ? ಎನ್ನುವುದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಯಾವಾಗ ಬರೆಯಲು ಆರಂಭಿಸಲಿ ಎಂಬ ಜಿಜ್ಞಾಸೆಗೆ ಬಿದ್ದಿದ್ದೆ. ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷಗಳು! ಇದು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹೆಚ್ಚೇ! ಆದರೂ ಅಂಗಳದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೇಳುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಇಲ್ಲ ಎನ್ನುವುದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ತಡವಾಗಿ ಬರೆಯುವುದು ಮೇಲು.

ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷಗಳ ನನ್ನ ಅನುಭವವನ್ನು ಬರೆದರೂ  ಬಹಳವೇ ಆಗುತ್ತದೆ.

೧೭ ಕಾದಂಬರಿಗಳು, ಮೂರು ಕಥಾ ಸಂಕಲನಗಳು, ಒಂದು ಜೋಕ್ ಪುಸ್ತಕ, ಮತ್ತು ಮನೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಲೇಖನ ಮಾಲೆ .. ಸುಮಾರು ೨೧ ವರ್ಷಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಅಷ್ಟೇನಾ?

ಏನೋ, ಇನ್ನು ಮೇಲೆ ಬರೆಯಲು ಯತ್ನಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ.

ಮೀರಾ ಮೇಡಂ, ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು!

Treasure Hunt!

Today is Akshaya Tritiya as per the Hindu calender. A day when many people buy gold. The significance is that the gold / silver purchased today will not become kshaya (diminish). Hence it is Akshaya (never diminishing!)
For me, this is a special Akshaya. I happened to talk to my boss Ms. Meera about my writing being totally stopped. She insisted that I should start blogging as the first step towards very serious writing.
The moment I came out of her cabin, I was immersed in other things.
She came in the evening and said "I want to see your blogger name!" and even teased that today is a great day and do not wait for a better day to start. So, I went into blogger.com.
I had a pleasant shock! My blog Mana Manthana was alive and kicked me in the face!
Wow, is there a better 'nidhi' (treasure) for a writer than finding his 'lost' writings?
Oh, I could not believe my eyes and started reading a few posts.
When I read about my mother (who was ill then), tears started filling in my eyes. I wrote about her in June 2010 and she left us on 20th August 2010.
I am really overwhelmed with the discovery of my Mana Manthana.
I am a person always churning ideas in my mind. I keep thinking about various people in my life and the marks they have left.
Some good, some bad and some ugly. I know, I have to cope up with my life, myself. After all, everyone has to undergo one's own hell.
Like Lord Narayana helped Devas and Asuras to churn the Milk ocean to get the nectar (Amrita).
But the poison (haalaahala) came out first literally choking everyone.
Lord Shiva swallowed the poison. Parvati stopped it at his throat (NeelakanTha, he became because of this)
We too have to swallow a lot of poison in our lives. Poison of criticism, for example. Poison of bad rumors about us... and so on.
Many people can't swallow it; they keep it in their throat and spit it on some other occasion on some other poor victim.
The one who can digest the poison without spitting it is a special person.
But it is not everyone's cup of 'tea'!!!!
Well, the words can go on. I am very happy to be back on this blog.
Thank you Meera!