The Guardian asked a line-up of eminent authors for their personal dos and don’ts for efficient fiction writing. The results, to say the least, ranged from entertaining to outrageous to hilarious: “Get an accountant, abstain from sex and similes, cut, rewrite, then cut and rewrite again – if all else fails, pray.” So anyhow, to […]
Author: Payal
Life, according to Mma Ramotswe
It’s rare to read a book that completely enthrals you. But it can be a bitter-sweet experience: on the one hand you are so completely satisfied; on the other hand you know that nothing else will match up with it for a long time to come. The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency happens to be one […]
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Games going free
[NOTE: The following was originally written for my Financial Chronicle (Edge) column, but they only used part of it in their games section, so here’s the whole of it.] Name five gaming classics that can be enjoyed for free? Impossible, you say? Hmm…: Wolfenstein 3D: Help BJ Blazkowicz outwit the Nazis and escape Castle Wolfenstein. […]
- Scratchpad
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Will there be a book 4
…of the Shadow in Eternity series? Well, as things are going right now, there will probably be a sort of mini-book, a novella, if you like. It will basically be an attempt to catch up with the present. The events unfolding in The Timeless Land (book 3) happened in 2006, when Maya was 14. It […]
20 things to do in ’10
More than half of January has already gone by, but Writer’s Log still lags in last year. It hasn’t been for want of trying, but that is a lame excuse. Anyway, here’s a to-do list for 2010 (in no special order): Don’t make lame excuses about not updaing my blog Redesign my site (eeeep!) Put […]
A walk around Sankey Tank
Went to visit a well-known Bangalore landmark on Monday, 21 December — Sankey Tank. This is an artificial lake constructed in the 1880s to supply water to the city of Bangalore. It has seen many ups and downs, but has lately been revamped to make it a really nice place to be in. The water […]
My first meme
This is my first meme. I didn’t really know what it meant or even how to pronounce it, so I had to look it up:
Meme [meem] n.A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.
Um… okay. Read on…
Bhopal: 25 Years Later (Part 2)
A unique buffet Twenty-five years down the line, the scars of the Bhopal gas leak tragedy continue to haunt the lives of the natives. As the ongoing campaign to bring justice to the survivors continues unabated, the following is a first-hand account of a unique protest: A quarter century later Bhopal’s survivors are still fighting […]
Bhopal disaster: 25 years later
Darkest before dawn While the city of Bhopal slept on the night of 3–4 December 1984, they were unaware of the 27 tonnes of toxic gases that leaked from the Union Carbide Plant, exposing half a million people to a poisonous gas cloud containing methyl isocyanate, and possibly carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, nitrogen oxides, phosgene, […]
Spooky season
‘Tis the season to be spooky, and in keeping with the flavour, two leading children’s publishing houses have come out with an anthology each of stories that will make you want to cower behind your sofa. Scholastic’s Spooky Stories has my contribution called “Mirror-Self”, which is about a young girl who discovers her grandmother’s creepy […]