Not a book review: A Meaningful Triumph

I love fantasy. I think that’s a well-established fact, especially if you see my Netflix suggestions and the books I have read or added to my TBR. It pains me that there are so few fantasy readers and authors in India. So obviously I had to read and review Arsh’s ebook A Meaningful Triumph.

Not a book review: Life with a Pinch of Salt

What attracted me to this ebook was the cover and the blurb that has the line: This collection of short stories and flash fiction is a small attempt to remind us that life is messy and adventurous and full of surprises. So I decided to go on this short, salty and sweet adventure.

How to beat the cultural zeitgeist

Since my friends and I have crossed our 30s, it’s like our eyes have opened and we are seeing the world a little more clearly. It’s like for the first 20 years, we were sponges and now, we’re going through all that we have accumulated only to find very little of it is useful. 

And it was all yellow – a bookish roundup

I love how the AtoZ forces me to go through a dictionary for fun; and the many words that the most difficult to choose for alphabets i.e. X, Y and Z actually have. I chose yellow for this post because of the Coldplay song and the way the lyrics so beautifully capture my love for reading:

Show don’t tell – thoughts on the writing aXiom

I think one of my favouritest rules of writing – which has made the most sense to me – is show don’t tell. It took me the longest time to figure out what it meant though. It is the difference between saying He was scared and His throat was parched, his armpits were soaked in sweat and his legs were shaking. It is the difference between saying She ran across the street and She weaved through the running traffic, as she tried to keep an eye on her quarry while simultaneously avoiding being hit by a car.

Do you really need a writing style?

The first time it occurred to me that I had a “unique” writing style was when someone reviewing my ebook called it “peculiar.” It didn’t sound too bad so I forgot about it. Which basically means I whined about it to a friend because I was too afraid to ask the reviewer for an explanation.

Veni vidi vici

I had a short story written for today. It was clever but I found I couldn’t abide my own writing. It may have been clever but it definitely wasn’t coherent. I tried rewriting it, I tried to salvage it, I tried to completely write another tale where I could use the phrase veni vidi vici and make it mean something but none of my attempts were successful.

The lost urn

Saksham had seen his mother cry many times – she could cry at any advertisement where a child was being horrible to their parent – but he had not seen her inconsolable before. Usually, a joke here from his father, and a funny face there from him and she would forget her tears and laugh her laugh that filled her entire face. But this time, he had the sense that no funny faces or jokes could stop her from crying. 

Theatre

Once upon a time, I was a king. 

No, this isn’t a fantasy story that I’m writing although the opening is making me question whyever not. But, it’s a truth. When I was in the seventh grade, because none of the tall boys in our class were available, it was decided that I’d play a king. 

Sway with me

Don’t ask me why this post is called sway with me. Maybe because I needed something with the letter S and rebel without a cause or say hello to your inner-saboteur sound like “been there done that” type of titles. Sway with me sounds infinitely clever and fun.

What is shocking though is despite everything, the title is appropriate! Before we get there, let me rewind just a bit.