Reasons to be unashamed of not blogging


Hi guys!

We meet after a really long time, I know. I’ve been doing some aimless reading lately, picking up books that might help me design quirky characters and twisted storylines.  I have no idea what I am looking for. Just wandering through the two worlds –real and literary, hunting for people and ideas. I just read these two amazing books that triggered the urge to write something.

The first book, which will stay forever in my shelf, is “Reasons to Stay Alive” by Matt Haig.

Matt was 24. He was living in a posh villa in Ibiza, Spain, and his job was organizing parties. But he had severe depression. This book chronicles his suffering and rising from the mental illness.
What I like about the book is that it combines deeply personal narrative with bits of psychological research regarding depression, and all of it is presented with dry humor. The author tells us how depressing thoughts turned his days into nightmares and states that the medicines did not seem to work at all. Then he goes about speculating why that happened, and presents us with the current lines of thinking in neuroscience.

One line of theory is that depression is caused by lower levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in our brain. Hence, the tablets are designed to increase serotonin levels. However, there is no way to measure the levels of serotonin. So how do you decide upon the tablets?

The second theory looks at the little part at the center of the brain called “nucleus accumbens”. It is believed that a malfunction in this part might be the cause of depression. Is why the group of tablets known as SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) does not work?, asks Matt, and then tells us all things he tried to combat depression, such as visiting Paris.

So, that gives you an idea of how deep the book is. Plus, it has beautiful similes (no wonder, because the author is British.)  Most of the narrative is honest, direct, and crisp with similes used just for taste like salt.

I have just finished Reasons to Stay Alive and am presently halfway through the second book titled “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” by Jon Ronson.

This book looks at how some embarrassing posts on social media made ordinary people infamous around the world and ruined their reputations. It narrates the stories such  PR officer Justine Sacco  whose life was ruined by one stupid tweet –of how she and many others were brought down by social media and then some of them managed to rise  again.  The book looks at why strangers on social media unite to fling dirt on other strangers and in some cases enjoy doing so. Then it goes on to look at how the people who are shamed deal with the humiliation and rise from it.

I discovered both these books via twitter and a TED talk respectively. The twitter hashtag #amreading can lead you to some good treasures.  I never thought twitter could become a tool for searching great books, but apparently it has. And yes, one needs to be careful while using twitter to fish for books.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter to dad

Dear dad, Yes, you work hard to give me the relative prosperity we have today compared to your times, yes, my life seems more comfortable in material terms, but I also face issues. Please, try to understand. Yes, you are right when you say, that today’s generation cares more about practical life than emotions and relations.   Yes you are right when you say today’s generation is confused. We are confused because we witness the differences that exist between the values you taught us and the ways the world operates. We are confused because we live in times markets and sociopolitical situations are fast changing. We value our culture with the same zeal and passion that you do but we do not hesitate to make pragmatic decisions and welcome that change if it benefits us.  Yes, I am always on phone or the Internet, Yes, I know its not always good. but dad, its the need of the hour.   The Internet has opened the doors to infinite knowledge. It h...
Read more

The battle over 300

Today I sit before my p.c. hammering my brain for ideas. My blog has led me into the jaws of wolves that disguise themselves under the sweet name of ‘fans’. Their demand for more writings on the blog is about to turn me into a seasoned writer! However, when I opened this blog, I had no idea that it would be such a great success. The credit of my success goes to a person hereafter referred to as ‘One Certain Official ( OCO ) to whom I also dedicate this article revealing the secret of my success. As the title suggests, it was the famous battle fought over the post ‘300’ that carved out my literary empire. The warring parties - ‘one certain official’ from ‘one certain department’ of Goa University, pitted against ‘the protector of innocent, defender of the weak, man of ladies, patron of studies, the one and the only, the great, Jay Joshi . OCO took great trouble to shape my career as a writer and to demonstrate that freedom of expression can be challenged and crushed in a departmen...
Read more

B2.1 The unfair game

I started learning German out of curiosity but it is becoming a hectic exercise as I advance throughthe levels. Teaching style of the Germans does not match my learning style. Six hours a day, six days a week, one just takes in new words, grammar and culture. While class work focuses more on group work, I tend to be more of a pause-think-observe-learn person. I am simply overloaded by the content and my classmates rush ahead with work while I am still busy thinking about how can one get more creative with the given assignments. One only finds time on weekends to focus and 'digest' the language, working in peace and solitude. However, the very teaching and assessment mechanism of the Germans works in my favor. They believe that language is learned best in a group as it gives you lots of opportunity to talk. It gives me lots of opportunity to observe. Secondly, while classes focus on group work, exams are held in a different class than usual. Oral exams are hel...
Read more