Reasons Why I have Procrastinated Writing

They say well begun is half done. Clearly not, in case of my fledgling daily writing habit. All last week, I have been planning to write a good short piece a day, just to develop a habit. Thje blog is evidence that I have miserably failed. Rather than prolong the streak, I thought I will jot down the reasons why I couldn't write regularly (Also, Saturdays are good for reflection). 

1. I feel I am not adequately prepared to write about the topic yet. I don't have my own thoughts framed, in place. The thoughts I have is rustic ideas, which are based on initial opinions.

2. I feel that others have written what I want to say in a far better form (which is true).

3. Procrastination. There's always a distraction, and if you add up all the distractions, there's always a compelling reason to put it off for tomorrow, or to tell yourself that you arent ready to begin writing yet. 

*Ends abruptly*

 

 

Who Do We Hurt When We Hurt Others?

Often times I joke to clients who are in the middle of divorce proceedings - "you treat your spouse as if they were your greatest enemy in the world. you will do whatever you can to ensure they are not happy. But have you ever considered that the rest of the world probably cares even less about you than your spouse?"

But of course, it never works. We still continue to inflict the most pain on those who, at least at some point in the past, were the closest to us. 

But lets leave aside the past. Even the people who continue to love us, our family, how much pain we inflict on them. Why is it so difficult to make peace with the ones we love, the ones we know love us? 

Part of it is the nature of love, I imagine. We want not just to be loved, but also accepted in so many different ways. So a slight, a word said in anger, a slap cannot be allowed to pass. Or maybe it was the proverbial last straw on the camel's back. 

And yet, who are we hurting? For one, just because we act petulant doesn't mean that the other person is about to apologize (and perhaps that wouldn't be very healthy either). So we just cause hurt both to ourselves and the other person, and then the ego takes over.

Imagining me, the Booker winner

Of all the strange ideas that have come over me, this should take the cake: "I should write a novel!" 

Its a different matter that the idea came to me when I was trying hard to shrug off procrastination and actually write a blog post. And if you have read my writing, or known my story tellling skills, its an ROFL right off the bat. 

But the strangest part was the thought that immediately succeeded it: "Wait, people will actually read the sex scenes I write". And then, of course, I was amused. Why was I embarrassed of writing a sex scene that the world reads?

One, I have read way too many instances of cringe-worthy sex in books. Two, if my flirting game is anything to go by, then I better desist. 

So anyway, the conclusion was that I will write a novel without sex. Or maybe I could outsource the sex part. After all, the story is going to be a family drama. It will explore the themes of guilt, self-sabotage, and constant self-questioning.

I can already hear the applause!

Oh, and you asked about the original blog post? That was a non-starter!

 

Breaking Down News

Eleven past eight in the morning was when I woke up. That’s early by my owlish standards. The first chore is checking Facebook on my phone, drowsily. One of my old school chums, now settled in the States has just walled saying something to the effect that if it REALLY was Laden’s body they found and not a body-double, then its sweet revenge for America. That’s enough to get anyone wide awake, forget a news-hack.

Iv already typed in nyt.com on my browser. That’s logical, considering it is an American story. If it was anywhere else, the logical choice would have been one of the wires, like Reuters, Associated Press or Bloomberg. The Times has a very short story quoting an AP report that Laden has been killed in Pakistan, and that President Obama will make a statement shortly. The three biggest pointers, Laden, Pakistan & Obama, which went on to be blown up manifold over the next day was very much there in the first twenty minutes of news gathering.

I decide to double check on Reuters. Reuters also has essentially that much information, again quoting AP. Bloomberg has still not updated its website. I have a wisecrack and text my boss, and his boss. Four words. ‘Laden dead, says nyt’. That’s important, because the name of the source carries a lot of credibility. If it was Fox News saying it, the news  would have been trashed.

Ten seconds later I get a reply saying ‘we have it, we’re already running it’. I feel foolish and out of touch. By now its twenty minutes since the first report on the New York Times website. But by now all four business news channels (not to mention the dozens of non-business news channels in India) were all broadcasting the story in their own version of the flashy red Breaking News tickers.

In fact, by then NDTV profit had even made the first blooper, pronouncing Obama dead, instead of Osama. Iv worked the ticker. I know the pressure a ticker person goes through. The bigger the story, the higher the decibel levels around you urging you to finish writing that line and click on the Publish button, higher the force of the blood pumping through the veins of your hands, and in spite of that, higher the need to actually publish that line before your counterpart in the competition.

The entire competition probably would have laughed at that blooper. We allow ourselves that luxury. It’s too high-strung a world to not indulge yourself with a moment of relaxation. Very soon, we also make that same mistake. The girl who was responsible got it personally from the Chief Editor for about twenty minutes, not to mention the mails that went to the entire office calling attention to the error. She was in tears.

Within an hour, the Times had a proper 500 word article, accompanying an image of people in front of the giant screen on Times Square proclaiming Osama’s death, written, Im assuming, with inputs from their White House correspondent, and their reporter covering the CIA. This they do by getting the reporters who are regularly in touch with high placed figures in the White House and the CIA or the FBI to verify what happened. With the news already out, and America already taken to the streets in celebration, this verification should have been relatively easy. But then again, for a journalist, news is important only till it becomes news.

In the meanwhile, I continue to text a few friends about the news break. The fellow journalist has also seen the piece of news, and replies saying they’re carrying it on her channel too. The non-news friend hasn’t. And that is the essential difference between a news person and a non-newsperson. For a hack, news just has a way of finding you. That happens on different levels. For a reporter, like the AP correspondent who first broke the story, the people who make the news tell them. In this case, probably one very-high placed CIA operative, who was in the loop. For someone who’s job is to sit in the office, it comes through the reporters or the many wire services around, or if not, one of the rival television channels. But news is never hidden or obscure for a long period, and by that I mean around a quarter of an hour.

Another aspect of being in the news business is how news keeps changing like its nobody’s business. Every week, the world had brushed aside a happening event and moved on to the next.

Lets take this year for instance. In the last week of January, it was the Egyptian uprising, and the toppling of President Mubarak. In ther beginning of February, it was the arrest of A Raja and his aides. The last two weeks of Feb were about the budget. March brought the Tsunami in Japan. A week later, it was the crisis in Libya. Early April was the world cup victory. Later on the Royal Wedding, and now this. Each of these stories can vie for the biggest annual news event any other year, and we’re through with just four months in the year.

(Will probably be completed... Whenever that is)

Owning up to your spine

Every once in a while, a young man or woman shoots out of obscurity with an act or a statement that, while it shocks the guts out of the conformists for its sheer veracity, helps reaffirm the faith of us puritans in the existence of the demarcation between right and wrong. 

 

Miss California Carrie Prejean was the frontrunner for the Miss America title last weekend, till she was asked what definitely was a loaded question by Gay celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. “Vermont recently became the 4th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit. Why or why not?” 

 

Now, gay-rights is an issue which even the presidential candidate is expected to have an opinion on in the US. Why, even Carrie later confessed that “of all the topics I had studied on, I dreaded this one. Any other question and….” But neither the fears, which eventually proved founded, nor the inclination to doctor her prepared answer to sound politically correct like even Barack Obama did, stopped her from giving an answer that politely but clearly stated her convictions. “Well I think its great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offence to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you very much” Ms Prejean predictably (though it is fair to suspect that she could have lost for other reasons too) lost the winners sash. 

 

But clearly she was the winner that night. Touted as a potential winner, and having anticipated this very topic, she probably knew how badly such an answer could affect her chances at the pageant. Even when she foresaw the depth of the trap that she was being lured into, even when she could have escaped with a politically agreeable answer that wouldn’t commit her opinion anywhere, even when she could have found a thousand excuses to even betray her convictions for the larger picture, like all of us are so prone to do, the 21 year old girl chose to be candidly forthright. 

 

We live in a society that, we’d better admit, is abounding in covert morality, covert ethics, and covert spirituality - ‘Keep your inclinations to yourself, please. It isn’t socially acceptable’ So, that a celebrity, from that very class of society that we hold responsible for the downward plunge of our moral values, can stand up and say “it's not about being politically correct, for me it was being biblically correct”, is not just refreshing for its frankness, but also a slap in the face of a generation that shies away from owning up to anything that isn’t the in-thing, a generation that is terrified at the thought of not conforming. 

 

But the furore that resulted points out something else too. The question technically asked for the contestants views on the subject. There was no way she should have been booed for stating what she thought was right. If anything she should have been lauded for the gumption. Instead, Perez Hilton derides her, calling her a bitch Have we become so obsessed with socially accepted stance’s, or the need for self justification in Hiltons case, that we cant even accept a differing view without snickering. 

 

Something in the bottom of my heart applauds the way Miss California could be so vocal about her religion even in front of a partisan crowd, something we rarely have the guts to do. She later described the encounter as “by having to answer that question in front of a national audience, God was testing my character and faith. I'm glad I stayed true to myself”. She might have lost the pageant, and maybe a potential international title, but she was clearly the winner of the night!  

 

PS: All this said, something still bothers me. Same sex marriages might not be Christian, but is sashaying in a bikini, a costume that classifies as semi-pornography in half the world, Christian? But yeah, for now, lets give it to the girl!