Single Glasses
Jugaad engineering isn’t always a good or safe thing. I had to spend a couple of hours at a government office recently. There was a water cooler, with a single glass, and no glass holder. Some bright spark had decided to use the loops of the wire powering the water cooler for the glass, which seems pretty clever, until you realise that the wire is connected to a plugged-in socket and that the glass is metal.
I attended a small but interesting book-club meetup at a CCD last weekend. After being asked three times very nicely, the server deigned to bring me a glass of water. He then came back five minutes later, asking me if I was one with the water, because someone else wanted water and that was apparently the only water-glass in the coffee shop.
Kala Ghoda
Happy to be reading as part of “Hope Street Poets” on Wednesday in this time’s Kala Ghoda Arts festival – http://www.kalaghodaassociation.com/eventdetails.aspx?subcatid=398&catid=358&id=349
On chai
A cup of tea is renewal. I have this image – my nerve endings turning from a forlorn white to happy golden, just for a few moments. And it doesn’t matter what time of day you have one, after a cup of chai you can start your day again.
A little writing advice for the new year
Write like a Klingon
Write like a Klingon, wild
and reckless and without fear.
Dream like a Bajoran.
Steel your faith to be stronger
than hope and hopeless circumstance.
Write like a Vulcan would.
Be logical and precise in
all you say. Never lie.
Research like a Cardassian, have
cupboards full of facts you just-might-use.
Plot like a Romulan general,
no move too devious for you,
no stratagem ever repeated,
always changing the rules.
Be as ruthless as a Nausicaan,
kill your characters off
as they need to be killed
or sometimes just for fun.
Write like a post-warp human,
not only without the concern,
but without even the
knowledge of money.
Sell your work like a Ferengi,
put your reading glasses on
to look at the fine print.
Write like a Betazoid, lose
yourself in your characters.
Write like a Betazoid, naked
when you invite your readers in
to lines that matter the most.
And above all, remember to
write like a Klingon and get up
every single day and say
“This is a Good Day to Write.”
wordbandar 