Collecting people and memories
When you are writing a story or a script, you inevitably reach a stage where you confront yourself. That’s just how it is. A normal roadblock in the village of storytelling. Every piece of fiction that is ever churned out from the depths of your mind, has something to do with the non-fiction that your life tries to be. There is no story that is completely true or completely false. It’s like the literal manifestation of Shiva and Shakti. Which is why, whenever you hit a wall while typing a tale, step back and look at the scenario as a stranger; as an observer who has no skin in the game. Maybe you’d be able to wriggle your way out. Better still, you’d stay put and keep facing yourself in your words.
Composing a quiz and hosting it must count amongst the most thankless jobs in the world. Nobody really cares about the amount of time put in sourcing and framing the questions. But you go through it because you enjoy doing it. That’s all. It has hardly anything to do with the recipients. They are just an audience. It’s all about you. It’s your arena and you are the gladiator performing all alone. You are the conductor of a noisy orchestra. Your questions, the way they are framed, how they tillitate the participants’ memory, that’s where the joy lies. As a quizmaster, you pose a question to many teams at once, but you cajole them, not discourage them, and when the answer is finally cracked, you rejoice in their victory. In a way, you become a part of their team.
Last night, I read about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in the process, ended up knowing a bit about Kokura—and the resulting phrase, Kokura’s luck—because Kokura was slated to be bombed, not Nagasaki. But due to a last minute change in plans, the destination fucked got diverted. These two places are separated by merely 200 kilometres. What was ironic about Hiroshima and Nagasaki getting bombed by a supposedly “deeply Christian nation”—in the words of one of the American presidents—is that they didn’t factor in the demography before dropping bombs. Turns out Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the two largest centres of Christian population in Japan during World War 2. Apparently, the atomic bombing in Nagasaki killed 66% of the Christians in the city. More interestingly, even today, the western parts of Japan have a minority Christian presence (about 2 million), with Nagasaki placed #2 on the list of prefectures with practising Christians.
Once upon a time, parents used to school their children to be careful about the friends they make. After all, your company ends up deciding who you are as a person. Negative influence can only lead to negative behaviour. Basic human diktat. In the 21st century, the norms are changing a bit. Today, you are known by the company you helped build. If you’ve granted your time and effort so as to form a memorable organization, you are doing something right with your life. At least that’s how LinkedIn goes.
Last month, I uploaded a video on my YouTube on the narrow lane between being creative and adhering to timelines. There is no doubt that creativity can’t be templatized. The moment you treat content as a product itself, your brand will shoot itself in the ass. Internet loves repetition—the heart of the Imitation Game at play—but if you wish to stand out, then you aren’t supposed to imitate others. If anything, you create a niche for yourself and then keep working around it. Your iteration should be about you, not others. Your goal should be to reach a point where others are copying you.
Over the past couple of weeks, we, the Internetvasis chuckled through a lot of rich folks jokes. Yes, I am referring to the tragic case of Titanic submersible (5 men died; the youngest being 19). One way to look at it is these were ostensibly wealthy folks who could afford to embark on a deep adventure. So, if they died, well, they asked for it. Another way to look at it is, they are human beings and empathy shouldn’t be a factor of one’s social status. Pain and death don’t discriminate anyway. Fair enough, right? Now, there is one more way to look at this case: these men were on an adventure, which means, they were obviously aware of the risk, and most adventures don’t always turn out hunky-dory. Sometimes, disasters take place and somebody dies. So, what’s the big deal? So, yes, all the bad (but funny) jokes notwithstanding, there are more than one ways to look at any event—big or small, shallow or deep, rich or poor.
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