Turning older in January means that it is easy to see the regular new year thing and the birthday thing as a big, all-encompassing Big New Year Thing in general. It also makes it possible to procrastinate doing my usual year-end audit. Overall, 2012 and Year 36 was a mixed one. From a professional perspective, […]
Author: Payal
Doing a phoenix
Is my blog dead? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for quite a few weeks now. The answer I want to give is: “No, of course not!” The truth… well, that’s a whole different kettle of fish. But then, if I do want to resurrect Writer’s Log, what better time to do it than […]
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Writing about writing
…Or why I’m not a beetle Writing about writing—my that’s a hard one. Which is a bit of a paradox since I write for a living. Even this piece, which I started writing for a website that was inviting entries about what writing means to different people, could be put down to “work”. Needless to […]
- Scratchpad
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Bookaroo 2012
On 23, 24 and 25 November, the Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival was held in Delhi, bringing together about 70 authors, illustrators, theatre people and various other storytellers—and, of course, thousands of young readers. While 23 November was the schools’ day, the next two days were open to the public. Entry was free and the crowds […]
Mass Effect: A review
And so it came to pass that Commander Jan Shepard finally got the better of Saren. After 24 hours and 18 minutes of gameplay (over an hour of which must have been spent running round and round, keeping out of Saren’s way while taking pot shots and biotic blasts at him) Mass Effect (henceforth ME) […]
Proof that the Web is evil
The WWW is evil. It entices you away from your True Purpose and lures you into its den of vices. Here are some of the ways I have been waylaid while being an industrious ant and minding my own business in the past 24 hours: While rechecking titles of academic publications, I unaccountably ended up […]
Gaming gyan: Learning from my mistakes
Getting stuck in a lift with Commander Shepard and her non-human companions Liara and Wrex last night resulted in some introspection. And I came away with the knowledge that a decade and a half of gaming has taught me many lessons. Here are my five tips to gaming without losing your sanity and keeping your […]
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Finding my romantic bone
Rumour has it that I’m a closet romantic. Now, I’m not particularly keen to peddle such sacrilegious nonsense; in fact, I’ll have you know that though I love puppies and kittens, I don’t like flowers and pink and heart-shaped things. Sometimes I like mushy songs—I usually put that down to PMS—but I hate romcoms with […]
A good month for gaming
September has been an excellent month for gaming and I can say with cool, collected confidence that Gamer Jan is BACK! Well, all right, I just made up that nickname—but “Gamer Bug” sounds like something has been hit by malware and “Gamer Payal” has too many syllables. Oddly enough, it all started in August, when […]