An innovative and revolutionary short story series in "Mint Lounge"

Two weeks ago, one of my favourite weekend reads launched a fortnightly series on Indian poetry ("A serious attempt to give poetry the space it deserves").

Yesterday, in addition to publishing the second installment in the "Poetry Pradesh" series, Mint Lounge also featured an innovative and revolutionary short story column.

"Innovative" because the author, Kuzhali Manickavel, will write an original short story every month "inspired by prompts submitted by readers".

"Revolutionary" because, as far as I know, no publication has tried something as audacious before. Which story story writer is willing to risk his or her reputation in this manner? And which publication is willing to risk taking on the challenge of curating a series of this nature? Congratulations are in order, therefore, to both Manickavel and the editors of Mint Lounge.

Here is a short story in the series based on the prompt, "Flowers and other reproductive organs". Read it here: "To melt a snowman".

Want to submit your own prompt, which can be a word, phrase, quote, or brief idea? You can write to Manickavel at this e-mail address: shortstories@livemint.com. You can even tweet the prompt using the hashtag #kuzhalistories.

A question of illiteracy

OCCASIONAL RANT NO. 4:

Headline in the Economic Times, June 24 — "Why the big four Andhra Pradesh-based infrastructure companies GMR, GVK, Lanco & IVRCL are in trouble?"

That question mark at the end is a clear indication that an illiterate person was on duty on the ET desk that day. I have seen such headlines in regional newspapers, but in ET? This is a shocker.

That headline should have been written thus: "Why the big four Andhra Pradesh-based infrastructure companies GMR, GVK, Lanco & IVRCL are in trouble" (meaning, read this article to know why difficult times are looming for the four companies named).

OR, if a question mark was needed, thus: Why are the big four Andhra Pradesh-based infrastructure companies GMR, GVK, Lanco & IVRCL in trouble?

• Thank you, Ankana Sinha, for the alert.

Anurag Kashyap's tour de force

To truly appreciate — and understand — Gangs of Wasseypur and to prepare yourself to appreciate — and understand — the soon-to-be-released sequel, you need to watch the first part (and, presumably, Part 2, too) twice.

• The best review I have read of Gangs of Wasseypur is by Sanjukta Sharma in Mint. Here's an excerpt:

The director is at his pinnacle. Although much of the passage of years is unexplained and the middle slacks somewhat, Kashyap designs the film with such tenacious intelligence that we keep taking it all in. There aren’t many close-ups in the film, a tool usually used to hide the lack of thoughtful visualization. Every visual pulsates with the details of surroundings. So even without the obvious context, we plunge headlong. In routine action films, I often just switch off, and miss nothing. I couldn’t take my eyes off the sequences here, breathlessly following each scene. 

Read the review in its entirety here: "Explosive treat".

Starting trouble

Can a sentence begin with "and"? Are you allowed to begin a sentence with "but"? These are two questions I'm asked every year by our new students. And when I tell them, of course you can, they are sceptical. But this is not what is taught in school, they tell me.

What does one of the world's greatest newspapers, The New York Times, have to say on the issue? Yes, you CAN begin sentences with "and" and "but". Writing in a Times blog on usage and style, Philip B. Corbett asserts that “but” is preferable in many cases to the stilted “however,” and “and” is simpler than “in addition” or similar phrases.

Corbett, who is the associate managing editor for standards and also in charge of The Times’s style manual, has compiled, in one post, answers to some of the most common questions regarding grammar, usage, and style, including the following:

• ‘None’: Singular or plural?
• ‘Like’ or ‘Such as’?
• Are split infinitives acceptable?
• Should a sentence ever start with ‘and’?
• Is data singular or plural?
• Where’s the comma?

Follow the blog here: "After Deadline: Notes on Usage and Style".

Also read: "The most comma mistakes", by Ben Yagoda, who is a contributor to "Draft", The Times’s series about the art and craft of writing.

• And you must read "What our newspapers can learn from The New York Times".

Upliftment? UpliftMENT?

OCCASIONAL RANT NO. 3:

In The Times of India Crest Edition of June 23, Purnima Sharma interviews Salima Raza, writer and director of a new play about the great Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and his Irish wife, Alys. Here is a quote from the interview:

"Their camaraderie was like a meeting of souls. Alys, like Faiz, was as intelligent, passionate and as committed to love as to their common cause — the upliftment of the poor and deprived, " says Raza.

That should be "uplift of the poor", madam.

• Also read: "Localite vs local; upliftment vs uplift".

Here are four ways to "quiet your presentation anxiety"

It can be unnerving for some youngsters to walk to the front of a room, or go up on stage, and make a presentation to twenty or thirty people, forget a few hundred, in the audience. Is there a way to quiet their anxiety? Yes indeed, writes Selena Rezvani on the Forbes website.

Rezvani, who recently had to present a workshop to more than a thousand women around the globe at a "webinar", says she began feeling the pressure as the event neared.

As the registration numbers climbed prior to the event, so did my anxiety. I fussed and fretted — and it wasn’t until I found a list I’d jotted down last year that I got my focus back; that list contained four strategies that I’d focused on and upheld during my best presentations.

Rezvani then shares those four strategies:

• Don’t be self-centered!
• Find your right rehearsal level
• Get right to it
• Think connection, not perfection

These are all excellent tips, which Rezvani elaborates on in her article. Check it out here.

• UPDATE (June 15, 2013): Here is a must-read piece by Vivek Wadhwa, a Stanford University scholar, which I happened to see on LinkedIn today: "How To Go From Being a Disaster—To a Great Speaker".

• UPDATE (September 20, 2013): Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte, an American company that specialises in "turning ideas into persuasive presentations", has this important advice to offer:

Let’s clear something up: you, as the presenter or speaker, are not the most important guy/girl in the room.

Just because you’re on a stage or in front of a crowd does not make you the savior everyone has been waiting for. (This applies whether you are addressing a conference of ten thousand or holding a team meeting with three people.)

Recognize that you are Yoda, not Luke.

The most important people in the room are your audience: make them the heroes of your story. Defer to them, because if they don’t engage and believe in your message, you are the one who loses. Without their help, your idea will fail. Become the mentor in their story and whisper guidance in their ear, empowering them to be the agents of change and achieve greatness.

Read Duarte's post in its entirety here: "Like Yoda You Must Be" (I hope you have watched the Star Wars movies, or know about this cultural phenomenon.)

• UPDATE (November 7, 2013): If you are serious about becoming good at public speaking, you should think seriously about enrolling for this free online course offered by the University of Washington on Coursera: "Introduction to Public Speaking, by Dr. Matt McGarrity". (To learn more about Coursera and Massive Open Online Courses, read this post: "How would you like to take the world's best courses, online, for free?")

A serious attempt to give poetry the space it deserves

Mint Lounge has just launched a fortnightly series that is sure to warm the cockles of the hearts of poets and poetry lovers everywhere. "Poetry Pradesh", which will bring readers "stories about publishing, writing, and preserving poetry", is a serious attempt to give space to an art form that many Indian publications ignore.

In the inaugural column published earlier this month, Rajni George admits that selling poetry is tough. She writes:

Being ignored as well as sometimes blindly adored by the masses is the birthright of poetry. Even dedicated readers do not always have time for it. Out of everyone reading the books pages, a few might read this piece.

However, George asserts, poetry is still a vocal player in its tough corner of the market and she then puts the spotlight on a small group of publishers who, as she says, comprise India’s independent poetry scene today.

Read the piece in its entirety here: "Limited edition".

You can also savour two poems here, one by Adil Jussawalla, and the other by Tenzin Tsundue.

• You may also like to read Aakar Patel's scintillating explanation of why Gulzar and Javed Akhtar need to be considered among the  great poets of Urdu, alongside Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal, and Faiz:  "The list isn't complete".

• UPDATE (July 1, 2012): In the second column in the "Poetry Pradesh" series, Gayatri Jayaraman puts the spotlight on the lack of poetry archives in India. Also on offer: Two poems from Adil Jussawalla's archive.

A prime example of an illiterate sentence

OCCASIONAL RANT NO. 2:

In "The Fantastic 40s", its cover story on June 24, The Economic Times on Sunday features Mumbai trauma surgeon Anand Patil in a sidebar with this ghastly faux pas in the caption:

"New goals for life: For eg: To run all five great marathons of the world."

Here's the problem: "e.g." is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase "exempli gratia", which means "for example". So you CANNOT write "for eg".

• Also read: "What's the point of an education if you remain illiterate?"

Who can say no to a weekly interestingness digest?

It is not often that I can be persuaded to subscribe to a blog by parting with my e-mail address and signing up to receive a weekly newsletter. I am picky that way. So far, I have only opened up my in-box to one blogger and that is Dr. Mardy Grothe. But, a couple of days ago, I chanced upon Brain Pickings, a veritable treasure chest lovingly handcrafted by Maria Popova, and after having studied the wonderful "pickings" on offer, I have just now signed up for the "free weekly interestingness digest". Who can say no to an interestingness digest?

What first attracted me to Brain Pickings was Popova's post about nine books on reading and writing. Many of my favourite books, including The Elements of Style, Stephen King's On Writing, and Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury, are on the list. There are some books here that were new to me: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott; How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One, by Stanley Fish; and Ernest Hemingway on Writing. (Flipkart — here I come!)

Of course, it's not just the list that I found interesting but what Popova had to say about each book and the excerpts she has chosen from each one. Here is her introductory comment on the The Elements of Style edition that is No. 1 on her list:

If anyone can make grammar fun, it’s Maira Kalman — The Elements of Style Illustrated marries Kalman’s signature whimsy with Strunk and White’s indispensable style guide to create an instant classic.

And here's Popova on How to Write a Sentence:

It belongs not on the shelf of your home library but in your brain’s most deep-seated amphibian sensemaking underbelly — an insightful, rigorous manual on the art of language that may just be one of the best such tools since The Elements of Style.

Surely you want to read more? And possibly sign up for the "free weekly interestingness digest"? Here you go: "New Year’s Resolution Reading List: 9 Books on Reading and Writing".

• Also read: "10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy". And you absolutely must check out Maria Popova's bookshelf.

• Illustration courtesy: Brain Pickings.

• UPDATE (August 10, 2012): My post on How to Write a Sentence: "Want to learn how to write a sentence? (Who doesn’t?)".

You are your... ATTITUDE

Ability is what you're capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.

This quote, by retired American football coach, Leo "Lou" Holtz, who is now an active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker, was one of the many gems I received last night in an e-mail from Dr. Marty Grothe (I am a subscriber to his "Quotes of the Week" newsletter).

What he has to say about the importance of attitude is so apt, and so beneficial, that I am reproducing his piece in full, complete with homework assignment:

DR. MARDY GROTHE

"Would You Benefit From
an Attitude Adjustment?"
By Dr. Marty Grothe

Most people think that the word "attitude" refers to people's opinions or feelings. And while that is reasonably accurate, the primary definition of the word is "a position of the body or limbs, a manner of carrying oneself." In this primary sense, synonyms of the word are posture, carriage, pose, and stance—all words that refer to the characteristic position we assume with regard to the world about us.

So when I ask the question, "Would you benefit from an attitude adjustment?", I am speaking as a kind of chiropractor of the mind, and my question is suggesting that your mental alignment may be slightly off—and possibly even in need of a treatment. Okay, I realise the metaphor may be slightly forced, but bear with me for a moment as I pursue it further.

Just as our skeletal alignments can be "off," so can our attitudes about the world. We see it all the time with people whose emotional states are not in synch with the reality of their lives. Many worry when there is no rational reason to do so. Others are fearful when there is no good reason to be afraid. Some are tight-fisted and penurious, even when they are well off, or even wealthy. You get the picture.

If you're living a completely healthy, effective, and satisfying life, then you can skip over the rest of this section.

But if things are not going as well as you'd like, then it's possible you might benefit from an attitude adjustment.

So here's a homework assignment. Select a half-dozen trusted people and ask them to peruse the "attitude" quotations that appear at the end of this paragraph. Then, one by one, ask them this question: "Having read over these quotations, I'd like your feedback on how well my attitudes are working for me. In what ways are they serving me well, and where do I need to make some changes to function more effectively?"

Once you ask the question, listen attentively. When the person stops talking, don't offer any reactions. Simply ask, "What else?" And then listen some more. Before you embark on the assignment, though, let your thinking be stimulated by these observations of the subject:

  If you don't like something, change it.
   If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.
         Maya Angelou

  A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances,
   but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.
         Hugh Downs

  It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which,
   more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.
         William James

  The last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude
   in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
         Viktor Frankl

  The essence of spiritual practice is your attitude toward others.
         Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

  Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.
         Eric Hoffer

  Ability is what you're capable of doing.
   Motivation determines what you do.
   Attitude determines how well you do it.
         Lou Holtz

  Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently,
   but life itself would come to be different.
   Life would undergo a change of appearance because
   we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude.
         Katherine Mansfield

  A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others.
   Be a carrier.
         Tom Stoppard

  If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.
         Amy Tan

  If life becomes hard to bear, we think of a change in our circumstances.
   But the most important and effective change,
   a change in our own attitude, hardly even occurs to us,
   and the resolution to take such a step is very difficult for us.
         Ludwig Wittgenstein

• Want to know more about Dr. Mardy Grothe? Check out this Reading Room post which I published last September.

• Also read: "How mature do you think you are?"