Rian Nejar's Blog - Posts Tagged "self-publishing"

A journey of three decades began for me as a contributor and editor of a Wall Magazine for an engineering department in my undergraduate. We'd write up articles of interest on a large poster, with colorful pens and hand-drawn art, and stick our weekly posters to a wall in a common area. A humble literary pursuit amid intense academic competition.

Two decades ago, I wrote up a summary of a camping trip my engineering team went on - and elicited laudatory comments, with some urging me to continue writing. But a chained-to-the-cubicle work environment left little time for such pursuit, and I limited myself to compiling cryptic messages to confound colleagues in CC:Mail, the email tool prevalent then. I did write engineering papers, and patents, and publish them, but how much of social and literary magic, and sentiment, can one weave into such documents? Even exclamation marks were forbidden...

A decade ago, my family and I passed through difficult times - and events and my life took a decided turn for the worse. Journeying through intense anguish, and confusion, I began to write, and document my thoughts and feelings regularly. It was, perhaps, therapeutic, and introspective, and I felt that there would be something important that may come from all the humiliation and pain endured.

Though I'd made notes and observations for more than five years, it was only early last year that motivation, to forge ahead and assemble it all into a coherent work, grew within. Learning about mainstream publishing and self-publishing on the fly, I embarked upon my first book of social and cultural significance.

In a proverbial nine months, Humbling and Humility was born...