The Eternal Optimist!

Maya’s sleep was broken by her only companion: her mobile phone. She picked up the phone as quickly as her disease-weakened body allowed her. She had been awaiting the sound of that beep for a long time. As she stared at the phone’s screen, a tiny bit of joy and a sliver of guilt came to her at once like yin and yang. Was it wrong to feel so happy in this situation? But why not? Feeling happy for oneself is one of the greatest joys. Why was she feeling guilty about it? Perhaps it was because she had always put the happiness of her family before herself. And had she expressed how happy she was in the current situation, she would have been labeled awkward, weird, and selfish. She was in the Covid ward after all. Maya closed her eyes and brushed off the cobwebs of thoughts. ‘Live in the moment. Live in the moment, Maya’. With a hint of smile on her face, she opened the message on her phone: “Hey, maybe you should start with Heidi. It’s the story of a little girl who helps her loved ones ...

Lately, I have been facing a weird kind of writer’s block in terms of creative writing. I can write very good newsletters and articles, but stories and poems have vanished for now. And it’s happening not because of the lack of ideas, but because of lack of feelings. That’s what you get when you combine a little exposure to Indian philosophy and depressing news. Once you have learnt that everything is ephemeral, no moment upsets or excites you deeply enough to write a story about it. And when you hear some dark news and think, ‘I'd rather write something happy and uplifting than hurting the readers with sad realizations’. So you don’t write. Then, there’s this idea of minimalism brought by business writing-don’t put the word on paper unless it serves a purpose. Every sentence you write must lead the reader to take an action. If that is not happening, don’t write. So you begin thinking ‘how could I intelligently embed a call to action in my story?’ And till you find an ans...