An escape or A possibilty?

Let me bring you down to the basic question, if you’re one of those people who’d rather be branded as nerds than to stop reading their favorite books. What do you read for? It’s not long ago when one of my friends popped this question up. “Stop cranking that little head of yours! Why do you read so much?” Not until then I thought it was a valid question. What do people read for in general? What does losing themselves in a fictitious world mean to them? I was intrigued. I don’t know the answer myself.

There’s this quote, by Dr. Suess, I fell in love with when I started reading a lot. You can find magic wherever you look. All you need is a book. It made a lot of sense back then. Even now. It’s undebatable that books take you to a different world. And good or bad, it’s nice to have an alternate world, in your bag, you can dive in to whenever you want. When I think of that, I am quite closer to the answer for the big question. I do read, most of the times, for an escape. An escape from the world that I live in. Because why settle for one life when you can live a thousand by reading a thousand books.

But then, If books give me an escape, where do they take me from here? An escape from here should assure your presence somewhere else. But where? Writers make sure that they make the world they take you to is as fictitious as possible. Damn, some sentences are too good to be real! But recently I had the privilege to be part of the gathering Prof. Muhammad Yunus(Nobel laureate for founding Grameen Bank) addressed. His words still ring in my head.

“Books always don’t need to be an escape. Sometimes they show you a possibility you never imagined to be real. Of a more efficient technique or a prominent technology. Sometimes even of a better world.”

How true he is! Robert H. Goddard would have never invented the first liquid fueled rocket if he took H.G. Well’s War of the worlds as an escape. The way, he and few other people who took the fiction as a possibility and created wonders, throws light on the different side of the coin. I don’t mean you take Harry Potter as a possibility and wait for a Hogwarts letter your whole life.( I’m 18 and I still look for an owl to appear at my door step with the letter. Hypocritical much?) It’s just instead of branding it as fiction, we surely can think of some possibilities the sentences can offer. Who knows what solution you can come up with. I might read The Harry Potter series one more time and find a possibility to start a magic school myself. Yeah, I’m counting on that! I’m kidding.

P.S. : But when I do, don’t worry, I’ll make sure to send an owl to your house with the letter! :p

 

 

 

 

 

An Intern’s Day 01

Well, look what day has come! It’s a well known fact that writing can be done for two reasons. One to feed your soul’s never ending fantasy appetite and the other is quite simple to guess… To feed that little tummy of yours! For all the years I’ve been writing stuff, Reason 1 has been my fuel. Writing for a magazine or making a career out of it never crossed the stuffed brain of mine. But then, Isn’t it fun to try some things which aren’t in our bucket list, for a while? So, I thought Why not a writing internship? By hook or crook, I did succeed in getting myself, as an intern, in to the city’s exclusive local magazine for this summer vacation. (You may call it ‘the all odds in favor’ case!) Now let me tell you about the holy, glorious, worth-celebrating Day 01 at the magazine’s office.

Where to start? I’d definitely like to skip the part where I knocked on the wrong office . There comes Tip 01. Always triple check your Google maps for the correct directions to your new office. (Key word: Triple. Double didn’t work for me!) After all the hustle-bustle which landed me in the right office, here comes the part where you need to act super cool even if you are freaking out like hell to meet your new colleagues.

 Thankfully, I did have super cool colleagues who right away put me at ease. Time for Tip 02. There’s no reason to crack your nerves about fitting in to the work environment. Just depend on your cool. Most of the time, people will be very welcoming kyon ki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi! (This is mostly the case until you see ‘gonna meet a trouble some person’ written in your day’s horoscope.)

Getting done with the intros, it’s work time! I have been clearly instructed about the work structure of the magazine and the kind of articles they’d expect from me. It was a 20 minutes talk and trust me it’s a lot to take at a time. I can’t afford to forget some instruction and produce myself with a wrong work. Tip 03: Always note down the instructions given about the assignments on a note pad unless you are Dr. Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory with an eidetic memory.

 Most of the day passed and what I figured is it’s a lot different and a bit tougher than what we think of writing for profit. It took me a whole day to get used to work process and merge in to the work environment. I can say I found this more important rather than to be productive like an expert on the first day itself. It’s hard to feel like you are part of the process on the very beginning day and that’s something you need to achieve up to maximum extent as soon as possible. Coming to the matter of being productive, there’s always a Day 02!

 

If you are a tech reader, stop by this intriguing post!

 

Turning pages or Tuning channels?

A giant mug of hot chocolate and a seat by your window with a big fat book in your hand or A bowl of popcorn and a comfy cushion in front of the same book turned in to a movie? Well, an eternal debate I had to face since I knew sky is blue and birds flew. I wouldn’t be lying if I say I have my own movie playing in my head while reading a classic piece of literature or a contemporary young adult romance. All the years I’ve done that, now I regret why I haven’t tried to be a movie director with the awesome screen play I’ve been writing in my mind. I mean, I literally am bringing every character to life. Pun intended. In the recent years, I’ve started giving a try on the people who are actually doing it.

Among the hundreds of book-based movies now piling up in the nook and corners of Hollywood and a few in Bollywood too, My first was 3 Idiots, an inspired story of Chetan Bhagat’s best-seller,Five Point Someone. Raj Kumar Hirani did truly draw my exact play of the book on to the silver screen or should I say a better version. Okay,if such things are happening,why give my little brain more trouble to imagine things? With this vicious thought,one Sunday morning I did plan things out.

Two annoyingly freakish best friends. Check. A huge bowl of salted popcorn. Check. A comfy red couch. Check. Last and final. A few CD’S of adoptions of my favorite books. Check. CD after CD,we weren’t even taking a break except for the popcorn refill.That too because of my giant mouthed dear best friend. The reactions at the beginning felt like We are gonna love it… This is going to be more realistic than the book…You even have the back ground music playing for that really awesome scene,now,how lovely is that??… It was the same in the start. However, the Sunday didn’t turn out as expected. It was actually fascinating at first at the thought  of having whole of my favorite book play in front of me in real characters on the screen.

Minutes passed. Hours as well.Then it went like Wait,This is not how I imagined it to be… Really?Where on earth was my favorite part?… That girl wasn’t a freakin’ blonde in the book… and the list went on. Trust me when I said whole,I literally meant whole and most of the movies failed in that area for me. Directors in the thought of bringing their touch to the film always tend to change some major plot twists leaving the dry parts unchanged. But there are some movies which really lived up to the expectations of its book version too.

For instance The Notebook,screened by Nick Cassavetes,did give the best overall view of Nicholas Spark’s 224 paged epitome of longing love. But when I didn’t find Peeves in any of the eight Harry Potter movies and Holly Kennedy wasn’t the same independent young woman who didn’t change her surname even after her marriage in the movie version of P.S.I Love You? Somebody please pass me my mug of hot brewed chocolate. I am done with the popcorn and my big fat ole’ page friend is waiting for me!