Tuesday, July 15, 2014

A perspective of time


Today I started reading a very interesting book which I bought ages before and now I got “time” to read it. It couldn’t be more appropriate because I was thinking about finding some “time” to read this book, and title of the book is ‘A Geography of Time – The Temporal Misadventures". It is written by a Social Psychologist Robert Levine. In short, the book is all about how we perceive time as, and what are the factors which affects our perception about time. I just made a start, finished with one chapter and couldn’t help myself but to write about it.

“A man who wastes one hour of time has not discovered meaning of life” as said by Charles Darwin or “So little time, so little to do” as said by famous pianist Oscar Levant, this book tries to put both sides into perspective. It immediately put in a thought mode, and now reflection about my own perception about time started. Especially I know, I got more time saving machines, but lesser and lesser time I got.


I will keep updating here about my finds from my own introspection. 

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Freedom. What is it?

I have been asked to watch movie "Queen", quite a few times by people close by. I have been told to watch "Queen" because they say it’s one of the most brilliant movie from India in recent times. So I had to give a try and watch the movie. It's a brilliant movie, my first thought after watching it. I loved it more because it features one city which I adores the most, 'Paris' and another city which I call it as home outside home, 'Amsterdam'.

On surface it showcase quite an interesting subject, and everyone will have their own perspective towards it. So I was discussing the movie with one of my friend, and I asked, "so what do you think the message of the movie was?” "Freedom" she said.

In my view the movie is less about freedom but more about perspectives. Freedom is perspective, I believe. Movie is about a girl who raised like any typical India girl, about to get married and getting dumped by her to be husband stating their status do not match with each other. This guy knew girl from years, they fell in love, and then this guy goes abroad and then he feels that she is not the right match for her. Well, that’s his part of story. The girl now, goes on her own adventure, and decides to take off to Europe on her previously planned honeymoon, alone, to her part done. And it’s a story about what she discovering a new world all together and coming out strong in the end.

Rather than at the end, I was looking into process. Process of her evolving from her cocoon. The people she meets, what she looks into them, what she learns from them and what she realised. Freedom is one of such realisation. Some people even may not aware about what freedom is all about and moreover if it is needed to them. I still feel, freedom is relative. For some people freedom means different thing than other. I tried searching for Freedom on Wikipedia, but there is none article directly about Freedom but rather various other articles on what Freedom may refer to like free will, liberty, rights, civil liberties etc.


As quoted in Wiki, “Do we have some control on our actions, and if so, what sort of control, what extent?”. And this brings us to whole what, if, but scenario. Like there is no absolute truth, there is no absolute freedom but it is all relative. This may give us little peace within ourself. 

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Introspection

Introspection really happens. And to happen at daily is something very rare. Everyday, how many times we think and ask ourselves questions? From simple to difficult one. With my initiative to improve myself, this is something I took as a challenge to myself. One of the daily things to do is 'Do something nice to someone'.

I took quite a lot of things for granted. May be everyone does. With daily life going on, it is easy to forget to be nice. It is easy to forget about others because you are stuck with yourself. This is something I have realised recently. This task of 'do something nice to someone' is not constantly reminding me of others. Everyday in the evening, I have to ask question to myself, 'have I done something nice to someone?'. And I realised it doesn't take much time to be nice, or let's say it doesnt take much efforts.

It could be simple thing like sending a good, thanking message to your friends, giving call to old friend who will definitely be happy to talk to you, helping stranger, motivating someone, and what not. When you start doing it, you will realise how difficult it is, because we forgot to be nice. We forgot to think about others.

I am realising this, more than ever. And now, with everything I do, I try to find instances where I could be nice. Do the right thing, and make someone else happy. Again, everything started after the post from Reddit. I took a challenge to get myself to next level. I am getting more serious about my running. I have to do it, for my health but also it's fun. Recently I ran 10k run here, and now I am aiming for improving the timing. It's tough but fun process.

With so many things on horizon, I had to put things in place. and everything starts with you. I took it to you, and took this tasks to get myself better at many things.

More report to come soon. With more deta, and explanation :) 

Sunday, June 22, 2014

The power of X

Little I knew, small cards, which are stuck everywhere in the house can make such a difference. The difference of X.

After following the advised from the Reddit post, I got my own cards to developed the habbits. I am following those from last one week, and result is unimaginable. It feels I got very different will power to keep doing the things. Difference between doing and not doing is only a marker X. But for me, this is driving me to overcome everything. Today, one of pending task was to write for 15 mins atleast. It's 11pm here right now, and I just came from friends party. I came early because I really wanted to finish the task of writing and then I could see myself sleeping relaxed thinking I did everything I wanted to do it today.

A lot more changes are coming. Changes I wanted and I needed. I am looking forward to remaining days of my habbit building, and show you in the end what and how I achieved. 

Saturday, June 21, 2014

How all did started?

Sometimes it take time for self realisation, and sometimes once you realise the things, it takes time for it to put into action. The second stage is the one which is more dangerous to us. Dangerous, since it the period of denial. This denial causes you more trouble than the trouble you were facing before self realisation.

During this period, you feel more frustrated, because you know things are not going correct, but at the same you are not doing anything to correct it. It will only change, if you stop everything, and take out your time to put down all your issues on the table and start tackling one by one, step by step. This is what I started doing very recently. And there is no feeling better than seeing your improve. Seeing you improve where you need that you needed to improve. 

I came across two very amazing posts from my favorite website Reddit. And it gave me all the push I needed it to do it. Here are they, sharing my best learning from the internet. If you think, or even if you don't think you are going through such state, please do read it. I am sure you will have more self realisation.

That awesome feeling :)

Links:
Post 1: No more zero days
Post 2: The X-effect


Monday, June 16, 2014

A New Begining - Getting disciplined

It's been exactly 1 year, 3 months and 5 days I wrote my last blog post. Why I stopped, I really don't know. But I can surely say, laziness has been one of bigger reason. Lately this laziness brought much more trouble than I could handle, and I had it enough. I had to do something, and thus began process of my introspection. 

After 5 long days of thought process, 10s of pages of scribbling down, finally I put down plan for my self. Plan to get myself disciplined. Thanks largely to one of my favourite website Reddit. I followed a lot of posts on Reddit on getting disciplined and getting motivated, and few posts helped to draw plan for myself. 

Today was first day for me, and for my two best buddies Rahul and Manish to get disciplined. I will write sometimes about it, how I came to that plan. But for today, I will rather talk about one specific item from that plan, and that is to write daily, for 15 mins atleast. 

Sometimes back I came across amazing post on Reddit on how to improve writing skills, and I have to share it here. I will write atleast one paragraph, sticking to the advise which was given in the post. So here it goes, the same advice from the post of Reddit;

Tips to improve writing:

Tip 1: Read out Loud
 To read your work loud. Reading loud catches the mistakes which your eyes don't

Tip 2: Rhythm and Flow
It has taken from the advice by Gary Provost. In his own exact words, the importance of Rhythm and Flow;

'This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.'

Tip 3: Show, Don't tell
It is so good that I have to put it here the way it is. And it comes from the person named Chuck Palahniuk.

“In six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.
From this point forward—at least for the next half year—you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use.
The list should also include: Loves and Hates. And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those later.
Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…”
Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.”
Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.
Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.” You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen had always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’s roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her butt. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.”
In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling.
Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later). In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them.
For example: “Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. Traffic was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…”
Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it.
If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline.
Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating.
Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.”
Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail.
Present each piece of evidence. For example: “During roll call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout ‘Butt Wipe,’ just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.”
One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.
For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take…”
A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…”
A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives.
Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember.
No more transitions such as: “Wanda remembered how Nelson used to brush her hair.”
Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.”
Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts.
Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You—stay out of their heads.
And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.”
For example: “Ann’s eyes are blue.”
“Ann has blue eyes.”
Versus:
“Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…”
Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it.
And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.”
Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use thought verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t.
(…)
For this month’s homework, pick through your writing and circle every “thought” verb. Then, find some way to eliminate it. Kill it by Un-packing it.
Then, pick through some published fiction and do the same thing. Be ruthless.
“Marty imagined fish, jumping in the moonlight…”
“Nancy recalled the way the wine tasted…”
“Larry knew he was a dead man…”
Find them. After that, find a way to re-write them. Make them stronger.”