A Win or A Loss?

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Sue & Rue

Sue: When, exactly, is a ‘win-win’?

Rue: When both parties feel they’ve won.

Sue: So a ‘lose-lose’ is…

Rue: ...obviously, when both parties suffer a loss.

Sue: And when is it a ‘win-lose’ situation?

Rue: When there’s a winner and there's a loser.

Sue: And a ‘lose-win’?

Rue: When one wins at a certain cost. Or loses with a consolatory gain.

Sue: Then what would you call this current situation?

Rue: Oh, this is a strange one.

Sue: In which way?

Rue: The winner feels he has lost. The loser feels he has won.

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In Conversation with AksharaSthree

 

Holding conversations is an art in itself. You enjoy talking with some people. Often, it's because they know how to make you talk. Here's an excerpt from a hearty chat that I had with Sandhya Naveen of AksharaSthree - The Literary Woman.

What made you decide to have a varied career involving writing, editing, curating, and content strategy?

During my school and college days, like all young people in those days, I too considered going for a professional degree. However, writing came to me naturally. And so I found myself veering my way into journalism and eventually found myself in this career. More than a conscious decision, it was a following of natural instinct. Writing, editing, content strategy, etc. are all creative processes related to writing which basically require the same thinking mind-set but different approaches. I was lucky that I got the chance to explore all of these. Also, with the advent of the internet, I was at the right place at the right time. I just went along with the flow.

Can you talk about your schooling and how it affected your path in literature and journalism?

When I was in school, there were a few teachers who persuaded me to engage in script-writing, versification, etc. As they say, your teacher figures out your interests before you are even aware of them. However, more than anything, it was the environment at home that influenced me the most. My father led a very successful profession as an engineer. And he was a poet at heart – a much published and awarded one. So he was a person to look up to. I grew up in my grandparents’ home though. My grandparents were huge literature enthusiasts. So is my mother. Their continuous literary conversations around the dining table and in the living room kindled and nurtured my passion for writing as well as reading.

Your poetry has been in different online literary journals and anthologies. Can you tell us about your creative process and what topics or ideas inspire your poetry?

I get inspired by things around me, things that I see and hear. Anything and everything, even a crumbled piece of paper, can inspire me. Sometimes poems written by others become a source of inspiration. There is no specific process as such. Writing begins spontaneously in the mind. Words and lines form naturally. The genre and the format are all part of this natural evolution. By the time I type it out, the poem is almost fully composed in my mind. This is followed by endless revisions. Fine-tuning is a never-ending process. But I just stop working at it after a point.  

As a Consulting Developmental Editor, what parts of working with authors do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy the challenge of editing and organising their thoughts without even slightly affecting or changing their tone and voice. I try to maintain the style and feel in the authors’ writing, sticking to their vocabulary, staying in line with their thoughts. This requires several meetings and discussions with the authors. By working closely with them, I gain a deep insight into their subject and thus get to learn a lot. This, I consider, is the perk that comes with my job. My ultimate gratification lies in the authors’ happiness when they see the final product.

How do you manage being a writer, editor, and consultant, and what do you do to stay organized and get things done?

So who says I stay organised? I get things done all right. But my mind is in a constant state of blissful disorganisation. It is always a clutter of things that I am currently doing and that I plan to do, including writing. There are words and lines that form, un-form and re-form, so to say, continuously in my mind. This generates the fuel that keeps me going.

[Read the full conversation on aksharasthree.com.]

Left or Right?

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Sue & Rue

Sue:  So what, say, is left thinking?

Rue: That the right is in no way right.

Sue: And what is right thinking?

Rue: That nothing’s left of the left.

Sue: Now I’m left thinking as to what is right.

Rue: Stick to your left if you think it’s still right.

Sue: If not?

Rue: Turn right to stay left.

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Higginbothams - Where I stumbled upon my childhood

If reading had a huge role to play in my growing up, Higginbothams had a greater role to play in building my reading habit. If I were an artist, I would have sketched a portrait of the man who used to keep the Higginbothams store at the Thrissur Railway Station. He was already an old man when I first met him. He was dark and slightly on the stouter side, with sloping shoulders. Not one strand of hair on his head was black. He had round, curious eyes staring out of an oblong face. He must have been short. Whether he was sitting down on his stool or standing up to cater to his customers, I never saw much of his torso above the counter of the book shop.

The first time when I went to the shop with my grandfather, I was a small kid. I had to rise on the tips of my toes to read through the titles. And then I would look straight into his eyes. (Yes, he was short.) The old man and I used to have a kind of silent communication which hardly needed any verbal expression. He almost always knew which the titles I wanted were. And they were always one too many. But Achhan (as I used to call my grandfather) made me always stop my purchase at one or two. Because we were not taught or allowed to overindulge. And this became a ritual. Every time we came to receive or see off anyone at the station - and that was the norm in those days - I was most eager to do the honours. For I knew I could stop and linger at the bookshop, and return with at least two books.

From Amar Chitra Kathas to Enid Blytons to the classics, romances, suspense thrillers and period fictions to serious nonfictions, Higginbothams silently witnessed my evolution to adulthood. And as I grew up, naturally, my appetite for reading also grew and we couldn't afford to buy enough to satiate my craving anymore, and I slowly migrated to the Townhall Public Library. My visits to the railway station grew fewer, and I lost touch with the shop. However, I had always reserved for the store and the old man a special place in my heart. And then I realized one day that the shop at the station had closed down. That left a kind of void in my mind and a heavy sense of loss. Later on, I found a Higginbothams store at Kochi, which could never hold that special corner in my heart. What's more, it closed down or relocated to I know not where. 

Several days back, I was at the Chennai airport. I was roaming around, looking for a book shop. (Yes, I have lately got back into the habit of hanging around bookshops, and I still do have a membership in one of the best libraries in Kochi.) And to my pleasant surprise, I came upon and happily stumbled into a Higginbothams'. I was swamped by nostalgia and a rush of emotions. I tried to chat up the storekeeper for a few long minutes, all the while an old man's face gradually forming in my mind. I forgot to take a selfie at the store, as I am not a selfie-clicking person, but I wish I had, just this once. And yes, I did buy books. Only two, though.

©

[Picture Courtesy: Public Domain]

To Paint the Complete Picture

Pick up your thinking brush. Dip it in the skies. Let it soak in the blues. Then sweep it across the mind’s canvas. From end to end. Repeat once, twice or thrice. Or as many times as it takes for the blues to rub off the brush.

If the blues are too intense, dip the spiky bristles in the cloudy whites. Wait until the blues wash away, and then touch up your skies so they light up just a mite.

Now steep your brooding blues in the twilights. Blotch up your canvas with blobs of red, yellow, orange, and blends of all three. Make sure you leave some room for the occasional blues. Draw a few defining strokes so the blobs know their space and don’t spill all over the place.

Splash across the bottom some earthy hues. For all those shades need to bury their roots. Then plant a bed of sprouting greens of the upcoming spring. And there you are! Your canvas is complete.

Some brights and some blues
A picture replete with all hues
Ups and lows, joys and woes.

©

[Picture: Yarra Valley, Melbourne]