The Art of 'Writing'

Writing for me, is not just putting down my thoughts on a piece of paper. I would rather call it my form of escape. I write when I want to shut the whole world out from my mind and immerse myself into myself. Its a trip for me that I take every time I sit down to write. I can travel the whole world and beyond in a few minutes when I delve deeper into the layers of my heart.

I started writing at a very early age. My vocabulary wasn't very vast back then, my sentences were weird and I wrote horrendous. But becoming a better writer was like a passion to me. I kept working on it and kept writing more. Many things have worked for me and many did not work in a very good way.

I have tried to recall my experiences and I have compiled a few tips that could help other budding writers like me. I am no best-selling author, nor am I a certified authority, but I have learned from my past experiences and I would like to share whatever I have gained.

A. Expand your Resources - Keeping a dictionary and a thesaurus while writing is a very good idea. When you are stuck at a word, and you want to use any of its cool sounding substitutes, a thesaurus works the best. Not only does it develop your own vocabulary but also makes your piece of writing a treat to read. Also keeping a check on social media, television etc. helps you to get acquainted with all the "in" words of a particular time. You can throw in some of those words to make your writing easily understandable and accessible to all age groups.

B. Get Involved - Get involved with everything remotely related to writing - join clubs, forums, online groups, follow authors on twitter, "Like" publishers on Facebook, get in direct contact with other like minded people because they will always have their opinions, which will help you to gain a fresh perspective on something that you never knew. It is imperative that you surround yourself with people related to writing because networking is very important for writers.

C. Write, Write, Write... - Write down every single thought that occurs to you on a piece of paper, a tissue paper, or simply your notepad app on your mobile. Refine it later and see how you can do magic with a simple line. Explore other areas of writing and go into the technicalities. To be a good writer, writing more is far more important that reading. When you write, you make extra efforts to improve your work and that is how you learn!

If you have reached till this point of this article, then for sure, you are interested in writing. You have that bug in you and you want to write more...
Me and my team are doing some awesome things for budding writers @SpringTide. Reach out to us at www.facebook.com/springtidemag and check out how YOU can be a published author.

Trust me, the world is waiting to hear from you.

The "F" Word...

An All Girls Rock Band in Kashmir is silenced by the atrocious claims on some religious leader, Tamil Nadu government puts a ban on the release of the movie “Vishwaroopam”, the Ashish Nandy FIR on what he expressed in Jaipur Literature Festival 2013, another Rushdie-banning bickering, the want for ‘The Da Vicni code’ to be banned in India by Christian groups and frequent cases of Facebook-arrests are all examples of how the freedom of expression is being curbed or more rightly, being kept under a siege in the current scenario in our country. Looking at the recent developments and ongoing embroilments, the new forbidden “F” word is undoubtedly “FREEDOM”.

Due to domineering social groups, a spineless government eyeing for vote banks and an innocent public, the problem of this siege has been exacerbated. The Palghar incident where Shaheen Dhada was arrested and mentally tormented for weeks by hooligans and policemen alike over something that she had written as her personal opinion, due to lack of immediate action, clarified legal forces and misleading laws. Vishwaroopam was banned under Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure, which empowers the government to issue orders “in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger”. If that was a case of nuisance for the government and if that was urgency then I feel terribly sorry to say, that we are being run by corrupt cabinet, guided by orthodox laws and lead by mindless people who are not able to identify urgency.

Media faces censorship, movies face ban, literature faces FIRs, cartoonist faces harassment and all that we are left with is a Constitution that provides an “absolute freedom of expression with some exceptions”. If our government and the political party in power really believes that all above cases were under “exceptions” to absolute freedom, then there also have been enough incidents lately that have endangered the “security of the state” (Reference: Akbar Owaisi), threatened our “Friendly relations with foreign countries” (Reference: Honourable Ministry of External Affair), crossed the limits of “decency and morality” (Reference: Digvijay Singh on his sexist remarks) which are all provided as cases of exception to Article 19 of the Indian Constitution.

The sad part is that Kamal Hassan agreed to carry out the cuts in the movie Vishwaroopam as demanded by certain Muslim groups. It is not a settlement but surrender by the producer of the movie albeit for pragmatic reasons. However it does lay down a bad paradigm because it concedes to certain intolerant groups demanding a ban, a veto or appellate power over the decision by Censor Board. 

 A liberal democracy is the one where all groups of the country can accept the fact with dignity that people can have different opinions, beliefs and ideologies and have equal right of voicing them without a fear of legal penalties and social harassment. However our country is at a stage where each and every expression is viewed with acrimony and dudgeon and there are immediate obstreperous demands of ban or arrest. You never know which Facebook status of yours might affect a certain social group and the next time you check, you might be in prison.

Our government has very effectively kept up with the changing times and before being active on the social media themselves, they have started placing internet bans and social media censorships by keeping a tab on everything that is being written or shared on the internet. Against such infringement and invasion, there have been some very strong voices which have been raised effectively, one of them being “Save Your Voice” campaign by Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and journalist Alok Dixit, opposing the Information Technology Act of India and demanding democratic rules for internet and social media.

Basically, the point is that any Digvijay Singh or Lalit Modi can say anything anywhere without facing any legal action, which clearly proves how money, power and position work in this country since ages. We are all a helpless crowd. The rich and the powerful are now striking back even harder baffled by the Internet Democratisation that has brought together the youth of India. And the Youth of India is now raising a strong voice, which is loud enough to reach the people sitting at the very top.