Hyderabad 5

Amway has a phrase…yes, 'Fired Up'. I wrote well over a thousand words today, touching up the three stories I've been working on all week. All three have come up to an extent. I now have an idea of how much work its going to take to finish every story, if we want a complete one. A half baked story with little fact and a lot of quotes from boggarts will take close to twenty minutes to write. The other variety, well, that takes a while.

Distance and proximity. Two words that rule a relationship. Any relationship. What is the distance you need to show and respect? What is the proximity you can enjoy and expect? When can you stick to these two rules? When must you cross the line? Paul Reiser described a relationship as a dance, in his book coupling. I know what he means. You gotta know the moves if you want to be any good at the dance. No one is a natural. Everyone can learn this dance if he wants to. There, that's the key word, want. Unless you want to be great in a relationship, you cant. The thought of spending a day wih someone should make you tingle. It should make you play catch with the hundred ways to make that person a trifle happier, these little ideas, flitting about in a great big hall of your mind. And what a thrill when you finally catch one. You suddenly remember her favourite flower and oh, there it is, in that hedge. You conjure two of the sweetest verses you can and jot 'em down on a neat little card, saving it all day to give it to her in the evening. It can be anyone, you know. It can be a stranger you met and liked. You can think up a witty joke you want to share with the guy. Or you could buy your mom that packet of oil she'd been asking for since three days. The reaction is fleeting most of the times, but unless you think its worth it, the better stuff is beyond your reach.

If I went on like this, I could probably make this a book, you know. I mean, the three ramble books I've read so far, by Tim Allen, Bing Cosby and Paul Reiser are all the same – a bunch of stand up comedy routines, with a prelude and a short conclusion attached to make it a pretty little chapter. But, I say, but, they have something else in the book. Their wives, the love of their life. You gotta have some huge factor in your life that turns it upside down as you're living it. You can use parents in your book, because that would be a foul. That would give you too much to write about. A girlfriend is too transient a concept to grasp long enough to write a book. So I guess if I had to write a great book full of jokes, having a wife would help tremendously. Plus, you have an excellent subject and inexhaustible material for jokes. Hmm, clever old rascals, the three of them. Their books probably got their wives starry eyed for weeks, the silly things. Well, I cant marry just as yet, so I guess I'll try and collect as much material as possible and brace myself with good writing skills before the avalanche of nuptial comedy buries me, kicking and rolling in laughter.

Mridula asked me a…..an important question. She asked me if I was a reporter for the journalism or for the writing. I guess I'm here for the writing. I like words. I enjoy looking at them, seeing them, reading them. I enjoy watching the picture they draw, just for me. The best part of writing is that sometimes, you don't see the picture yourself, until you se the words you've written. Definitely writing.

That's not all though. You tend to run out of things to write about after a while, really, you do. There are always things going on around you, but it starts to slip through your fingers after a while. The only way you can stop this from happening is to keep your grip on the pulse of life. The only way to do that, is to be in the thick of things, living life, not some of it, all of it. That's what being a journalist is all about. The average joe can choose the angle he wants to experience and accept. The journo has no choice. He has to look at every angle, he has to cover every angle, he has to experience every part of the story. Yeah, I know, pretty dramatic. But it's kinda true, you know. There's a certain pride in it. There's a rightful swagger in a person who can say, "I know more about it than you do." The humility in such a person is true. So that's what I'm after, in this office, out on the street, among peers and betters.

-Ananda