It's November! Which means NANOWRIMO!!

I think I have said enough about NaNoWriMo, the yearly tradition of writing a novel in November.

The math is simple, 50000 words, 30 days, 1667 words a day. Keep at it and you have something slightly resembling a zero draft in your hands by the end of the month. It is no way a complete novel. It is just a basic draft of how things are going to happen. Hell, it's not even the first draft, it's a zero draft, the first draft comes later. Most published novels go through 10-20 drafts before even being ready for submission to agents or publication houses. So, don't get your hopes of being a writer anywhere near the UP mark.

NaNoWriMo is essentially practice, for telling yourself that you can write daily and you can achieve a target set of words. That's about it.

Well, you say, yeah yeah pallav, shut the fuck up and tell us how to tackle this beast, cuz we've heard that you've done this shit twice or thrice already, not that we care, cuz you never made a first draft of those zero drafts, but give it to us.

So, I'll say, well, since you asked for it, and because I have to work on my Nano project for this year, i am not going to type out a whole set of posts, because I already did those some years ago.

You're gonna have to click on links, my friend.

Link ONE -- Some Thoughts About NaNoWrimo

Link TWO -- NaNoWriMo Pre-Plan

Link THREE -- Actual fucking writing of the "Novel"

Check these three links, put your ass in a chair and start writing, cuz 1667 words a day it is.

Good luck and godspeed!

Regenerating/Powering Up

There is only one thing you can be absolutely sure about in life. That's life. It never fucking stops moving. For anyone. No one is above or beyond it. Life goes on. Whether you want to hang on for the ride or not, it'll not give a fuck and just keep going on.

That said, there are always minor shocks, trials and tribulations, all sorts of shit that might or might not have anything to do with you, but it's in your path, so either you change your path or you step through it. I think everyone should go through some shit every now and then, it allows you to take an inward look and see what the fuck you've been doing wrong and right.

While you're wading (?) through that pool of shit, the stink overpowering and the shit sucking the shoes off your feet, you'll think to yourself, what the fuck am i doing with my life? Is this what the fuck I want to do? Is this my full potential? Am I living or just fucking existing? When will this pool of shit end? Did I just leave my shoe two steps behind me? Am I going to get my hands dirty picking up that one shoe or am I going to keep walking with one shoe and one foot drenched to the pores in shit? So many questions and often these questions have no answers.

this babe is also contemplating the sea of shit that she has to step through

All you can do is walk. Walk hard and fast and focus on the light, whatever little it might be at the horizon and maybe at the end of the sea of shit that you're walking through. What I am trying to say is that I've walked through my sea of metaphorical shit, maybe I am still going through it, but I am not going to fucking stop. 

November is NaNoWriMo again. I am going to write one more novel again again. There are three in my dropbox folder at the last count. I never got around to editing them. And I don't think I will either. That was just practice. But I've had enough of that. I am sick to my gills of the present market scene in India for fiction and it has finally dawned on me that I, and only I, will have to do something about it. No promises, but, fuck me, if I don't get something done. You know what it's going to be. Yup. 

I have to write more. 

What happened to this blog? What happened to me?

I shit you not, there was time I'd have picked fights with people over the shit I write on this blog. I was so so fucking passionate about every story I wrote because mostly I was young and stupid and damn it, I believed in what I was writing.

I was 110% committed to what I was doing and I'd have fought the fucking world if it meant getting the daily update to the blog. I changed my work schedule so I could write more stories, I wrote in bulk, I wrote faster, I gave zero fucks about so many things that I should have been giving a fuck about. Hindsight is a bitch.

It's all fucked up now. It feels like seeing a beautiful flower growing through blocks of concrete and then a mangy dog shits all over it.

My head has not been in the game for a long time. I got distracted by the hate for this fucking city that circumstances have landed me into, and it's frustrating here because I see no way out. And I can't help but hate it and get flashbacks of what once was all the time. Maybe my head wants to go back and keeps reminding me of every single little thing that made that city my own, but this city is like a thorn stuck in my foot. And I can't take it out because I am too busy walking. So it digs in deeper and deeper till the blood marks my footprints and the wound becomes a sore. But I can't stop walking, so I walk with this fucked up pain in me and there is no escape from it.

So be fucking it.

Still Alive

I was in train when my phone pinged with a Whatsapp notification. 

It was an online friend asking if I was dead. I was not dead, so I asked what lead to the question. Turns out someone had created an account to celebrate my absence from twitter about people missing me and shit. Then another friend pinged me. Another sent me an email. No one called, so that's okay. 

The person in question soon after deleted that account, for whatever reasons. 

Twitter has changed in recent years. Or better, it's a constantly evolving community. 

It was a good community once upon a time, but then people got followers, a lot of followers, others started to get jealous of them, egos clashed and now it's like a murky pool of shit where select few are rolling in the filth and others can't help but get splashed by it. 

There are people hiding behind their anon handles, posting all kinds of shit, heck, people with real names and real pictures are doing it too, it just doesn't matter anymore. You get exposed to their stupidity and venomous agendas no matter how many you mute, block or unfollow. You just can't escape it. 

The only escape is buying a fucking notebook and writing all your tweets there. Because people will always have more free time than you to raise their pitchforks over some inconsequential bullshit. 

In a way, it's become like facebook, but with strangers. 

What's the fucking point? 

Twitter isn't improving our life at the end of the day. It's good for a laugh or two, but after a while you become numb to that shit too. It's just lot of people cribbing and then you start to mirror them too. You might be fine with mondays, but you feel a general discomfort at not tweeting how mondays suck. You can be aloof and distant, but you see, read, listen to all that shit, and who the fuck are these people? Strangers behind fucking handles? You see their lives, their happiness, problems, bullshit they go through, everything, what's the fucking point? That's all I am asking. 

Social networking? A gang to hang out with on weekends? Tech-advice? Contests? 

Why?

My tweet count runs close to 2 lakh and frankly, if I was the kind who'd get embarrassed by this kind of shit, I'd be embarrassed. But that's not the reason for leaving twitter. It used to be funny once upon a time, but then everyone jumped on the bandwagon and now it's fucked up in a very very shitty way. 

Sure, you can say unfollow them all, follow only a select few, you don't have to read what everyone is writing, but you're in the mix, how the fuck can you not participate? I am not going to half-ass something, if I am doing it, I am going all the fucking way. And doing it all the way has become fucking painful. 

So why should I do it anymore?

I asked myself this question time and over again. I left Facebook for same reasons I don't feel like tweeting anymore. Maybe once the crowd loses interest, and twitter gets bought by Google or Apple. Maybe once the trolls die out. Maybe once I feel angry enough about something to tweet again. 

Till then, the account is locked, and I am not going on that website/app anymore. 

If you need me for whatever reason, you'll find a way to get in touch. 

But all that above is just bullshit, I am just too sad to tweet anymore. 

1000 Reasons Why You Should Read Discworld Books

If there is one thing I am sure of in life, it is this.

One day, I will be in power to make people read the books that I want them to read. And that day, I will make everyone read every book from Discworld and nothing else till they remember every line, every lesson and every instance from the books by heart and soul.

That day is not here yet, all I have this blog from where I can shout my thoughts out into the world.

So, hear my thoughts.

Discworld is fucking amazing.

You should read it.

Then you should buy more Discworld books and make all your friends read them too. Give these books to enemies, to strangers, to babies who are learning to read, to old men who are waiting to die, to broken hearted lovers who want to heal, to people who have lost their faith, and to people who have nothing but dreams in their eyes.

Because there is something for everyone in Discworld books. And if you don't have the luck or capacity to understand the lessons given within, at least you will leave the books with a smile on your face. And on some days, even a smile is enough to deal with the world.

But Pallav, you ask, there are more than 40 Discworld books, where do I begin? How will I know the overall story? What about the characters? What about the pain, horror, fun, love and madness of Discworld?

To which I'd reply, surprise yourself!

Pick any single Discworld book. Seriously, any one of them.

Give it a read. Then pick another one and give it a read.

By the third book, you'll be in love with everything Discworld.

This the beauty of Discworld, there is an order, but it is not a concrete order. This is probably the only book series where you can start reading from anywhere.

If you begin somewhere in the middle of the timeline of Discworld, relax, you're in the hands of a master storyteller, who won't let you leave confused and bewildered.

There will be times when you will laugh, and times you will cry while reading the books, and times when you'll be forced to put the book down and think about the genius of Terry Pratchett.

The author has left us, but his work is here for us and the future generations and it'd be a grave sin if we don't give Discworld a read and make it a part of life of every person who can read.

There is whole essence of cosmos in Discworld, there is wry commentary on the state of things, there is scathing wit, the humor is off the charts, the characters are so well drawn that they feel almost real.

I could go on and on about Discworld and maybe I will, too. But right now, seriously, head over to your favorite online bookstore, and gift yourself a Discworld book.

I mean, how bad can it be?