Autumn waltzes in languidly in tropical countries. We often do not see her colors as those residing in colder climes do. We feel her mellow footsteps in the air with the gradual departure of the subcontinental monsoon (the rainy season). Although vestiges of Autumn is completely absent where I live (we are thrown straight into the arms of Winter once Monsoon decides to relinquish her grip on us), still we do herald in her advent with songs and poems and festivals that signify the harvesting season. I briefly witnessed Autumn (or Fall as they call it over there) during my visits to the United States and those moments were extremely memorable when I could witness trees aflame in red, orange and yellow, the ground covered in carpets of brazen leaves and the air holding the scent of an impending Winter.

With the advent of Autumn comes in the flow of ideas or words. It has often happened in my case that new ideas and words tend to flow with the onset of a cooler weather. Tropical summers are not really for me. The writer in me tends to suffer a major setback as the days grow longer and more humid. Cooler days with shorter afternoons and longer evenings with the dusk falling rapidly and the birds returning to their nests tends to make me more tranquil, in fact, more spiritual with my words. This is the season when the words flow from the soul and not merely from the heart. This is the season for the writer in me…for the poet in me…and for the minstrel in me.

Welcome Autumn ! You have much to give and very little to take in return. Welcome, with open arms !

Speaking less has its benefits. You expend less energy. You are less misunderstood. You do not have to tailor-make your words for the audience concerned, You become a silent observer of things both necessary as well as unnecessary. And finally, you do not react to every word spoken, but rather respond to the same in your own sweet time.

Since speaking less is a boon, hence, writing more is a natural corollary of the former. I have always spoken/written/promoted the use of the written word in this blog as well as in my earlier blogs. The written word is slowly becoming extinct in this fast moving world that relies more on minuscule text messages rather than on long letters. We are always in a rush to achieve more within a short span of time. This never ending rush is probably that which makes us lazy and somnolent towards the written word. Letters, post cards and the like are no longer in fashion. Emails have become dinosaurs, and are only seen within the precincts of official environments. Writing diaries and journals have become old fashioned too. What remains is an incessant rush to fill up the void in our lives with constant chatter and self advertisement (through social media sites). The need to take things slowly is gradually disappearing. This is actually a crisis of our civilization and must be rectified with immediate effect. The individual who is no longer comfortable with the written word is severely harming himself/herself in the process. The individual who is in a constant rush to accomplish too many things within a tiny span of time is also severely neglecting his or her own potential to do great things slowly.

The written word more than a luxury, is today an immense necessity. Not only for our minds, but also for our souls. Speaking less, rushing less and reacting less should be seen as a way to sustain ourselves in the long run. Thus, I rest my case in defense of the written word.

Au revoir !

Long ago before the advent of social media sites like Orkut and Facebook, diarists and bloggers were a predominant feature in the world wide web. However, with the advent of the above-mentioned sites, coupled with the discovery (by the populace of course) of photo-blogging sites like Instagram and Pin Interest, blogging and journaling took a backseat. Nowadays, diarists are unheard of and a handful of bloggers remain (with the concept of blogging being dominated by corporations and websites who have their own blogs targeted towards their consumers).

I have observed that a lot of friends and acquaintances who write for Facebook and other similar sites get embroiled in controversies. Perhaps because they get a lot more readers than bloggers do. While the popularity is definitely a blessing for their writing prowess, the controversies are definitely not welcome. During the good old days of the written word, writers would often maintain a diary which was personal and would seldom be exposed to the public eye. Bloggers too had this privileged. Most bloggers would write and a select group of genuinely interested people would read their articles (they were not called posts those days). Social media writers often refer to their articles as “posts” and expect instant comments within minutes of uploading their articles online. Quite often these comments are not by genuine readers, but by those who may have a bone to pick with the writer. Very often these comments deal with matters that are not even remotely associated with the article concerned. They may entirely hinge upon an unrelated topic or a pet peeve of the reader. With the writer responding to such comments and in the process trying to defend himself, the importance of the exercise of journaling and organizing one’s thoughts is lost in the process. Hence, writing for social media websites or “posting” is definitely not as effective as writing a diary or a blog. The internal habit of writing for pure altruism and nothing more is somehow lost amidst all the chaos and the cacophony.

All said and done, the need of the hour has changed, times have changed, and the tradition of being a diarist has changed. With blogging and posting being swiftly eclipsed by vlogging and short reels (like those often seen on YouTube these days) the future of the written word is indeed in great dilemma.

So much for now. Till I scribble in the near future. Au revoir !

Most writers these days tend to ruminate about the insanely fast paced life that we are thrust into. It is definitely a stark reality that we, the creative people are faced with. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), everything seems to have become even more unrealistic and hallucinatory. Very recently, while scanning through some videos on YouTube, I noticed that AI is already in the process of dominating at least 60 percent (if not more) of online content these days. This has led to the creation of a strange world online where most videos and content tend to create an atmosphere of illusion. One cannot distinguish what is true from false. I maybe looking at a particular scenery and admiring the same for a substantial period of time, only to discover that it is unreal and has been created by AI. The world, in addition to being fast paced is now becoming increasingly unreal. And already academic thinkers all over the world have started talking about the dangers posed by AI to our human civilization and intellect.

This is perhaps where the slowness of being and becoming is extremely relevant these days. We have truly lost out on the good old days of slow living when letters and/or emails were more important than messages and where books and literature were more important than content creation. Perhaps those most affected by this need for spreed are the writers and other creative people like the painters, the musicians, the sculptors etc. Anything that requires time and patience is probably looked down upon these days. There is a terrible need to accomplish much within a short span of time. There is also an insane need to be “appreciated” and “discovered” by the internet within a minute period of one’s life. We must all have social media accounts (because having websites and blogs is now unfashionable). We must publish two or more books in one year, have book launching ceremonies, give interviews on our Facebook and/or Instagram accounts and in general do all that which qualifies us to be labeled as writers in this age of extroversion and extravagance.

But what about the slowness of being? What about relishing each moment and then captivating the same on paper? What about solitude (that which has historically been considered to be a sacred haven for writers)? Why must we rush and run and scramble with the world? Why must our phones vibrate and chime at intervals with messages and texts that are of no consequence? Why must we, the writers, be compelled to forge multiple contacts an connections in order to maintain our status in society? And why must the world reeling under its own unending cacophony drag us down to its chaotic depths, thus in the process, pilfering our much needed slowness of being? I do not have all answers, but I have one definite belief that slowness is indeed a blessing. That enjoying the intricacies of life is the basic right of every writer. And that cultivating a slow, languorous life is what makes us blossom and flourish like delicate flowers.