Ranjit Kulkarni's Blog, page 6

How Loktak Lake inspired a Story

I went to Loktak Lake near Imphal in Manipur in Dec 2021. It is a huge freshwater lake, that looks like an inland sea. It is like a living lake with fishermen and farmers living on various floating islands called ‘Phumdi’ locally.

Loktak has a lot of history associated with it.

When we took a walk to the lake as well as when we had a boat ride around the lake, our guide filled us up with it. He vividly described the Battle of Imphal that had taken place in the Second World War only a few kilometers away from the lake between the British and Japanese army – both of which had Indian soldiers.

The water level of the lake had gone down significantly over the decades.

Besides, the number of families living in and around Loktak on the ‘Phumdis’ had lowered over the years, partly due to the reduction in vegetation and fishing, partly due to better employment in Imphal.

The city of Imphal also has an amazing women only market Ima Keithel which sold everything from fish and vegetables to household items, all by women. It was fascinating to see the women peddling their wares at Ima Keithel and the fishermen in their small boats rowing around the Loktak lake.��

Later, in recent years, Loktak had also been a hotbed of insurgency activities in Manipur. A lot of insurgents took refuge in the Lake’s many hideouts, moving from Phumdi to Phumdi. It was only in the early 2000s that the Assam Rifles from the Indian Army had done a massive cleanup on Loktak to reduce the insurgency operations.

Locals regarded Loktak almost as a deity, so it wasn’t a pleasant sight for them.

The entire experience of spending that time in Loktak made me wonder how it might have been for a simple farmer or fisherman family to live around the lake over these years.

What if a young couple wanted to make a life and a living and had the simple aim of spending their lives around Loktak? What would they have gone through, from their youth to their old age?

These were some of the thoughts that struck me as I left Loktak Lake and Imphal.

They took shape in the form a story later which I named ‘Staying Afloat’ – a fictional short story inspired by my visit to Loktak and Imphal. Eventually, it became part of the book ‘A Bend in the Road‘.

I highly recommend a visit to Loktak Lake whenever life presents you with an opportunity.

***

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Notes from ‘The War of Art’ – 1

I recently read the book ‘War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield. It is an inspiring piece of work for writers and all creatives. It argues that Resistance is the biggest enemy of a writer, and advocates ways to identify and deal with it. Here are a few notes that I took from it:

Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.

Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self perpetuated. Resistance is the enemy within.

Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole.

The more important a call or action is to our soul���s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.

Resistance obstructs movement only from a lower sphere to a higher. It kicks in when we seek to pursue a calling in the arts, launch an innovative enterprise, or evolve to a higher station morally, ethically, or spiritually.

The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work.

Casting yourself as a victim is the antithesis of doing your work. Don���t do it.

Individuals who are realized in their own lives almost never criticize others. If they speak at all, it is to offer encouragement. Watch yourself.

If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), ���Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?��� chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul.

The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you���and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.

It is a commonplace among artists and children at play that they���re not aware of time or solitude while they���re chasing their vision.

What better way of avoiding work than going to a workshop?

Any support we get from persons of flesh and blood is like Monopoly money; it���s not legal tender in that sphere where we have to do our work.

It���s one thing to lie to ourselves. It���s another thing to believe it.

Rationalization is Resistance���s spin doctor. It���s Resistance���s way of hiding the Big Stick behind its back. Instead of showing us our fear (which might shame us and impel us to do our work), Resistance presents us with a series of plausible, rational justifications for why we shouldn���t do our work.

Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years.

The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.

***

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Sponsored

A few months back I decided to evaluate Amazon Ads. I was told that if someone is searching for Indian Short Stories then if an ad appears for one of my books, then maybe someone will click on it, and then, perhaps, download a sample, and possibly, over time end up buying the book. ‘A long-drawn process’ – that was my first reaction.

But I still evaluated it.

It was then that I realized that I have to bid for the words and there is some complex algorithm that decides when my ad will appear. Much like Google ad words for the search engine, Amazon is a search engine for products. Be that as it may, I thought, and kept that plan to put up ads on the back of my mind.

But the thing that put me off (and pushed the idea of ‘Sponsored’ ads to the backburner) was when I myself went and searched for a couple of things over the past few weeks.

The first was on Amazon. I was looking a good set of clothes for the gym – the athleisure type which I can wear at home and perhaps on a walk or a workout. And when I searched using those keywords in Amazon, the first three rows were filled with products marked with a small ‘Sponsored’ mark. Brands I had never heard of. No fault of theirs, but I found myself neglecting them and searching for products that I was already looking for or familiar with.

The second was on Google. I was planning to go on a trek and wanted some information on it. A bunch of search results came up with the similar ‘Sponsored’ above them (but more pronounced than Amazon). I found myself again moving ahead to the real results. Again, no fault of the advertisers, but it was just how I behaved on seeing the ‘Sponsored’ results.

And that’s when I reached the conclusion that ‘Sponsored’ results may not work for unknown or non-mass market names like those I chanced upon. They may work for names that you already know or have heard of. The reason was simple – trust and familiarity.

I had no idea who they were. I had no trust on them to buy from them. I had never heard about them. On top of it, they were ‘Sponsored’ – which meant they paid something to get there to disrupt my search which further reduced the credibility or trust factor. I found that being ‘Sponsored’ worked counter to their objective. Maybe I will not consider them even if they deserve it.

That’s when I reached the conclusion that this ‘Sponsored’ thing is a waste of time (and considerable money). Unless you are already a well-known or familiar name. If it doesn’t work for them, it is unlikely to work for me. That was my gut feel. Trust is the difference.

The only real alternative is to go through the hard slog of finding readers who are already interested, and produce something that will create credibility and trust, and word of mouth. No other way.

I decided to shelve all plans for Amazon ads for my books. They will never turn up in any search as ‘Sponsored’. Ever.

***

 

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Only for those interested

One of the common flaws that anyone who follows whatever his passion is – is to assume that everyone else has an equal interest in it. That is not always true. In fact, it is mostly untrue.

If I have a passion for writing, it does not mean that my readers would be interested in what I write, even though they may actually find the fact that I write interesting.

At the start of my stint as a writer, I used to post my writing very often on Facebook and even had an Instagram account (both of which I have deleted now). I used to have a mailing list for people to receive my writing. I was told these were good practices – which they might be. But understanding for what they are good practices is important. They are good as a discipline. Don’t expect that because you post something that you find interesting, everyone who sees it will be interested. That was a mistake I made early on, and let the responses either excite me too much or disappoint me a lot.

I always thought that when someone liked something I posted, or commented on one of my blog posts, they shared an equal passion for my writing, or that they actually liked my writing. But in most cases (except a few), they found the fact that I am writing interesting. Most of them weren’t really interested in my writing per se. Most of them just liked the fact that I wrote. Similarly if a particular post doesn’t get response, it doesn’t necessarily mean the writing isn’t interesting.

Finding me interesting or not interesting is not the same as being interested in my writing. Most readers have discovered me due to their own interest and due to whatever reason, they found an interest in my writing during that particular part of their journey.

So that is really the point. Each of us have an interest, our own areas that excite us, our own priorities on what is important and what plays a role in our life. And these keep changing as we traverse through life. It is only when that interest matched the output of my passion whenever you came across it will you be interested in my writing. Irrespective of whether you find the fact that I write interesting.

Most creatives mistake the first for the second. It is in our interest to understand what in our writing interests those who read us, and serve the people who are interested in what we produce, not just the ones who find us interesting.

***

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What makes a great story?

One of the perks of being a writer is to read a lot. I have noticed that without reading a lot, it is almost impossible to write. Not only does reading provide inspiration for writing (real or like Anu Malik too sometimes, which isn’t all that bad!), but it also keeps your eyes open to what constitutes good writing.

There are two parts to being a writer – one is to write and second is to edit. For the first part, you need to have a story in the first place. For the second part, an eye on what makes a great story is important.

So what makes a great story? These are what almost every great story has.

Has strong, identifiable characters. The target audience feels like I know this person.

Is believable and real. The reader feels as if it could actually happen. Even if it is science fiction or fantasy, it should be real as per the rules of that game.

Has desire and conflict that is significant. Conflicts that matter raises the stakes.

Is subtle and not over the top. It allows the reader to deduce beyond a point.

Does not appeal only to logic. Feelings and senses are real and the reader feels emotions on reading it.

Is not contradictory to the world view of its audience. Every story is not for everyone, but for whoever it is, it agrees with the world view of its audience. It doesn’t teach or preach but leaves the audience feel like this is so much like me.

***

 

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Notes from Meditations – 2

My notes and excerpts from the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Set 2 reproduced on this blog post for your reading:

How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquillity.

And so accept everything which happens, even if it seem disagreeable, because it leads to this, to the health of the universe and to the prosperity and felicity of Zeus [the universe].

For two reasons then it is right to be content with that which happens to thee; the one, because it was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to thee, originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy destiny; and the other, because even that which comes severally to every man is to the power which administers the universe a cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very continuance.

I am composed of the formal and the material; and neither of them will perish into non-existence, as neither of them came into existence out of non-existence.

Every part of me then will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on forever.

Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the least degree; nor have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move the soul.

Think of the universal substance, of which thou hast a very small portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it thou art.

Let the part of thy soul which leads and governs be undisturbed by the movements in the flesh, whether of pleasure or of pain; and let it not unite with them.

Take pleasure in one thing and rest in it, in passing from one social act to another social act, thinking of God.

When thou hast been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in a manner, quickly return to thyself, and do not continue out of tune longer than the compulsion lasts; for thou wilt have more mastery over the harmony by continually recurring to it.

I do my duty: other things trouble me not; for they are either things without life, or things without reason, or things that have rambled and know not the way.

How cruel it is not to allow men to strive After the things which appear to them to be suitable to their nature and profitable!

Death is a cessation of the impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the strings which move the appetites, and of the discursive movements of the thoughts, and of the service to the flesh.

All things are little, changeable, perishable. All things come from thence, from that universal ruling power, either directly proceeding or by way of sequence.

Be not dissatisfied then that thou must live only so many years and not more; for as thou art satisfied with the amount of substance which has been assigned to thee, so be content with the time.

It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be disturbed in our soul; for things themselves have no natural power to form our judgments.

There is nothing new: all things are both familiar and short-lived.

It is thy duty then in the midst of such things to show good humor and not a proud air; to understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.

Everything material soon disappears in the substance of the whole; and everything formal [causal] is very soon taken back into the universal reason; and the memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.

The leading principle in itself wants nothing, unless it makes a want for itself; and therefore it is both free from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not disturb and impede itself.

The universal nature out of the universal substance, as if it were wax, now moulds a horse, and when it has broken this up, it uses the material for a tree, then for a man, then for something else; and each of these things subsists for a very short time. But it is no hardship for the vessel to be broken up, just as there was none in its being fastened together.

When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen this, thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry.

Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast: but of the things which thou hast select the best, and then reflect how eagerly they would have been sought, if thou hadst them not. At the same time, however, take care that thou dost not through being so pleased with them accustom thyself to overvalue them, so as to be disturbed if ever thou shouldst not have them.

Wipe out the imagination. Stop the pulling of the strings. Confine thyself to the present.

Adorn thyself with simplicity and modesty, and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice. Love mankind. Follow God.

That which has grown from the earth to the earth, But that which has sprung from heavenly seed, Back to the heavenly realms returns.

Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed thee.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

It is in thy power to live free from all compulsion in the greatest tranquillity of mind.

***

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The Long and Short of AI: Jigneshbhai and Swami

“I am fed up with Raichand,” Swami told us the other day over coffee. Jigneshbhai and I ignored it because that was nothing new. But what he said after that caught our attention.

“So, I decided to get on to LinkedIn and find a new job,” he said. We looked up from our coffee mugs, because it had been a long time since Swami had changed his job.

And it has been even longer since he had done something on LinkedIn. A boss like Raichand had finally provided the trigger.

“It has changed a lot. Every time I put something into my profile, I get a prompt underneath which says ‘Rewrite with AI'”, he said. “Whether it is the summary of my profile or anything related to past experience or whatever, I can write it with AI,” he sounded excited.

Jigneshbhai looked up and remarked, “So does it write what you want to say?”

“Yeah, it does. But only longer. In many more words than I would have. Everything becomes more verbose,” he said and continued. “So I used this feature to update everything, and this is how my profile now looks,” Swami added, and gave us a printout he was carrying.

It had 4 or 5 pages, enlisting all his achievements over the two decades that he had spent working for Raichand and others before him.

“Wow, it is quite long,” Jigneshbhai remarked.

“This is just the profile. When you try to post something, you must see what the AI rewrite can do. It can churn out pages and pages of stuff,” Swami said. He was clearly excited about his new-found discoveries, but I could see much in the form of chagrin on our wise friend Jigneshbhai’s face.

“Does anybody read all this?” he asked. “Profiles and posts and what not. So much stuff generated by AI?”

Swami’s face lit up as if he was almost waiting for this question.

“Well, they also have a AI Summarizer. It takes a profile or whatever you feed it, and generates a summary in 250 words,” Swami reported, in all earnestness. “That makes it quite short to read.”

And while I was absorbing what was happening, Jigneshbhai broke into a laugh. “So, an AI generator to create a verbose profile and an AI summarizer to cut it down?” he remarked, looking quite amused. Swami hadn’t seen the funny side of it in all his enthusiasm.

But the wealthy old man in the sprawling bungalow who had been listening to our talk all this while made him see it. Swami and I broke into a smile when he walked towards us and said, “Looks like that is the long and short of AI !!!”

***

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Writing or Special Effects

It is much cheaper to make a movie like Kahaani or A Wednesday or Khosla ka Ghosla than to make a Ra.One or Brahmastra.

Even if you add the costs of stars, it might be cheaper to make a Zindagi Na Milega Dobara than Adipurush.

But I guess creative people cannot resist the lure of making a dash. Otherwise, it is so much cheaper to invest in good writing before investing in special effects. It is unfathomable to understand why this is not evident to those who made the expensive movies like the ones above.

I guess it is a case of being able to measure what you get for what you pay. It is easier to hire staff, get the latest gizmos and see what they can do on screen, when one invests in special effects.

It is almost impossible to measure what good writing means, before it is done. Hence, I guess it is a risk avoidance strategy to invest in special effects. Or maybe I simply don’t understand.

Otherwise, why wouldn’t more creators invest more in good writing and then add the special effects to tell a good story?

***

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The End of My Life: Short Story

I used to be constantly on the run and had lots more to achieve but, sadly, in a wrongly taken step, the end of my life came too soon.

I had always been an explorer and an achiever. But with a life of exploration and achievement come a lot of risks. I had a compulsive need to be always on the move. Running from one spot to another. There was no stopping me though. Whatever twists and turns life presented me, I navigated them with all my energy, all the skills that had been bestowed on me. In the process, I had amassed more than enough to last me many lifetimes. But when one is on the run, one doesn’t realise that it could all end as quickly.

That is what happened in my case too. My end came as fast as my life was. In an instant, my life was over. I should have been more careful, when I look back. I could have prevented that crash. But that’s how it is. You get the rewards but have to play the risks.

When my life ended, nobody seems to bother though. No one seemed to care. I was the only one lamenting. I went into shock, at first. But then, soon enough, realisation hit, like all other losses. I was angry after the initial shock once I realised that it was all my doing, a lethal mistake of my own.

Then I went into denial. But there was no way out. It was all over. Finally when true realisation hit, I went into a deep abyss of sorrow, though like my fleeting life, even that was momentary. Soon enough, I hit the reality of acceptance that my life was over.

Once More. But rebirth wouldn’t be far. And I could carry on from where I had left. But for now, I had no choice but to wait.

The laws of the game would get me another life soon. That is just how Temple Run works.

***

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Vidur: The Wisest of All

The importance of how birth could undermine your destiny in the culture of Vedic times, and perhaps even today, is best exemplified by the character of Vidur. Even more exemplary is what one does when the ovarian lottery doesn’t play in your favour.

The story of Vidur and his birth is fantastic. In a sense, his is quite an arbitrary birth even after considering the practice of Niyoga. Technically, Pandu and Dhritarashtra at least had their mother from the royal family, which protected their position in the line to the throne. But Vidur lost out on that simply because neither his father (who was surrogate) nor his mother (a maid servant of the queens) were who they were supposed to be. But despite that accident of birth, because of the inherent wise qualities of Ved Vyasa and the devotional attitude shown by the maid, Vidur turned out to be the wisest of all the living members of the Kuru dynasty.

There is a backstory to that wisdom too.

Backstory

Yama the Lord of death had got a curse from a sage Mandavya. It so happened that when the sage was in deep meditation, a bunch of thieves who had stolen some valuables came to his hermitage and were chased by the soldiers of the king of the land. Not only did they catch the thieves but also the sage and sentenced them all to death. It was at the last moment that the king intervened and recognised the sage and saved him from hanging. Now, the sage was angry, but not on the king or his soldiers, and approached Yama for an explanation. Yama told him that as a child, the sage had squeezed an ant, and as a karmic repayment, he had to go through this near death experience and come back. The sage got wild on hearing this and thought that this was grossly unfair and disproportionate. He told Yama that he has no idea how mortals live, and he can’t judge who deserves death, when and how, unless he himself lives among mortals. And so Yama had to have some kind of expansion form on earth, and Vidur was that, with all the wisdom intact.

It is because of this Yama connection that Vidur has a special affection for the wisest Pandava, Yudhishthira, who was the son of Dharma, another name for Yama. The two of them shared a common, or let’s say uncommon, trait of wisdom and virtue that made them amenable to each other. They also understood each other very well due to the same.

Varnavrat

This understanding was displayed during the great escape from Varnavat.

While Duryodhana assumed that he had sent the Pandavas to their death through the Lakshagraha fire at Varnavat, and the Pandavas were found to be alive much later, the question that is often overlooked is how did the Pandavas escape? Vidur was the man behind that great escape.

Vidur who operated as the Prime Minister for Dhritarashtra very well knew that something was amiss in the request that the king had made, when he asked the Pandavas to go to Varnavat. He found out the details but given the position he held, he could not directly tell Yudhishthira either not to go, or that they were in danger. At the same time, he had great love for the Pandavas and had made arrangements for their escape. But he could not tell anything to anyone, including the Pandavas without being suspected or being found out.

The wise Vidur found a way of speaking in code dialect to Yudhishthira. That code language wasn’t understood by Bhima or Kunti or anyone else, but Yudhishthira could sense that there was a message. The code spoke of a tunnel that would be dug out from the Lakshagraha palace. It spoke of a tunnel that would take one to a river. It also spoke of the great fire that Duryodhana’s Purnochan would light. Yudhishthira noted the code and realised that Vidur was trying to tell him something.

In Varnavat, Yudhishthira met people who spoke in the same at every step. From the digger of the tunnel to the boatman waiting for them at the river, the code language was repeated, so that Yudhishthira knew that they were appointed by Vidur. Yudhishthira unraveled the code to understand Duryodhana’s plan to put their palace on fire. He also unearthed the tunnel.

Therefore, a few months after staying in Varnavat, the Pandavas themselves put the fire, preempting Purnochan and escaped from the tunnel. The Nishad woman and her five sons burnt in the fire gave the impression of the Pandavas being dead.

It was the original great escape, scripted by Vidur.

Yudhishthira

Another instance where Vidur and his wisdom and diplomacy, as well as his special relationship with Yudhishthira were displayed was when he was sent as the envoy for the invitation for the gambling match. He communicated the invitation in the most restrained manner almost indicating to Yudhishthira that it is in his best interest not to take it up. Unfortunately, Yudhishthira cited Kshatriya duty and accepted it. At the match itself when things went out of hand, it was Vidur, who time and again, reminded Dhritarashtra of his duty as king to stop the game. Unfortunately he was put down by Duryodhana and Karna every time and Dhritarashtra didn’t act.

Dhritarashtra

His relationship with Dhritarashtra was special, to say the least. It was of a brother at times, and as a Prime Minister to the king often. Most of all, he was a friend whose wisdom Dhritarashtra relied on. In the role of a brother, minister or friend, Vidur provided his advice in the fairest, wisest and most impartial, non-attached manner. But Dhritarashtra never implemented Vidur’s advice, despite taking it and knowing that it was right everytime.

At most times, Vidur was the one who urged Dhritarashtra to break free from his attachments to Duryodhana and the throne of Hastinapur and do the right thing. It happened before, during and after the gambling match. It happened after the Pandavas returned from exile. It happened before the war at the last step when Krishna came as the peace messenger. And it happened after the war when despite losing everything, Dhritarashtra didn’t lose his attachments.

War

Vidur was trained like the others in using weapons but he was absent in the war. The reason for that turned out to be his last interaction with Dhritarashtra, when Duryodhana insulted him again and threw him out. Vidur didn’t feel any obligation to fight on the Kaurava side due to absence of attachment. At the same time, he could have chosen to fight on the side of Yudhishthira but he chose not to.

The reason was that while he knew that Dhritarashtra’s sons would perish, he knew Dhritarashtra won’t. He went on a pilgrimage during the war and kept track of it, only to return at the end to see Dhritarashtra still enjoying royal comforts. It was then that Vidur gave the last wise advice of his life telling him to not live on the alms given by the victorious Pandavas. He urged him to, at least now, give up his attachment to royal privileges and retire to the forests. That was when finally Dhritarashtra took Vidur’s advice. It led to the blind king’s eyes being finally opened.

The affectionate brother, the wise friend and the non-attached advisor, Vidur, had finally helped the blind king see the light.

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