Friday, April 30, 2010

Humiliating Triumph: A Short Story from Bangladesh

‘Bustard! Bustard!’
Ripon heard it and understood who said it. In fact, two boys were shouting. One was John and the other was his friend Shumon. They saw him and then started shouting. This is their favorite hobby. Whenever they see him they just shout this way. So, today was not an exception either. Ripon was scared inside himself and he was scared if they hit him. They had not done it until now but who knows. He was coming to the home of Mitul. Mitul, John and Shumon live in the same alley while Ripon lives 2 miles away.

John, Mitul and Ripon are 15 years old and they study in the same school. On the other hand, Shumuon is 19 years old and he does not go to school. He is no better than a local thug. Because of him, John feels very powerful in the street and whenever he can find Ripoin, he can shout ‘Bustard!’ to him. It makes Ripon very angry but he is helpless. Sometimes, he wishes that he would hit John very hard and run away but he has to go to school through this alley. So, this is not a good idea.
Fortunately, Mitol was in the street and came in support of Ripon. It has become a regular ritual. He went to the two bullies and requested them politely to stop. In other days, it worked but today, they were determined to torture and insult Ripon as much as possible. So, they kept on shouting ‘Bustard! Bustard!’ and it just went on as long as Ripon was in the alley. He understood that it was not a good way and he started to walk towards his home. Then, the two bullies even shouted with more energy, “Hey Bustard, where are you going?” Needless to say that they shouted some indecent slang too. After all, it was their specialty.
In the next day, John showed off to some other students of the class. Some boys laughed a lot but some others got annoyed that John offended someone from the class this way.
One boy asked, “You have done a bad thing. If Ripon complains to Nafisa teacher then you can fall into big danger.” Nafisa teacher teaches them history and she likes Ripon a lot because not only he is the top student of the class but also he likes to read and she really enjoys conversation with him in the class. She does not like John at all because John is exactly the opposite of Ripon. He never does his home work or class work properly. So, he gests punished on a regular basis. In fact, just two days, she got so angry with him that she scolded him for 20 minutes and in the end she said him to bring his parents next week. She also said in a very angry tone that why he cannot be a good boy and good student like Ripon. He should be ashamed of himself and try to learn from Ripon. This acted like the last nail in the coffin.
John has tolerated 6 months of torture from this teacher and now in the end, she tried to prove that Ripon was much better than him. John felt jealous but he felt annoyed with his teacher. He felt that she was a stupid woman with no IQ.
Today, John went to Ripon and threatened that if he complained to Nafisa teacher then it would have dire consequences. John was very unlucky because when he was threatening, the teacher was entering the class and she could hear every word loud and clear. She happily pulled the ear of John and took him in front of the class and asked him to stand up with his hands in his ears. She immediately went out to the headmaster and informed him of the whole matter. The headmaster sent his assistant to the class and he came and beat John with a stick. After the beating being over, both Nafisa Teacher and the Assistant Headmaster threatened John that if he offended Ripon again then he would be thrown out of school.
The problem is that if he is thrown out of school then it will make his parents very unhappy and they may even throw him out of the house. So, the only thing he could do was to tolerate all the insults.
After five moths of this incident, the final exams took place. Then the day of the announcement of result came and Nafisa teacher came to the classroom and started calling the names of the students. Ripon stood first in the class and Mitul could manage to be 5th. She continued calling all the names and in the name of John came at last. He failed in all the subjects and Nafisa teacher said that he would have to stay in the same class next year. Hearing this, Ripon felt relieved that he would not have to see this bully anymore in the class. He also hoped in his heart that since he would not be in the same class, he would lose his appetite to offend him from now.
Mitul’s home was near to the school. He and Ripon came to their home and found that Mitul’s mother had cooked all the delicious foods for lunch. The two boys sat to eat and they ate with all their abilities. It was a very heavy lunch and then they sat in Mitul’s room and started to play chess. Afternoon came and Ripon decided to go home as his parents might get worried about him.
So, he started walking for his home. He saw John and Shumon on the street and they were laughing loudly. He could not understand how John could laugh in a day he failed in school. When John saw him, his laughter stopped and he got very angry and shouted to Shumon, “Beat the Bustard”.
The rest is as they say is history. They beat him for 10 minutes and he was crying loudly in pain. Some people saw in the street but no one came to rescue him. Fortunately, after 10 minutes, a middle aged man came in his rescue and John and Shumon were forced to stop. Seeing the middle aged man, some other by standers came in support and John and Shumon ran away in fear. Ripon lost a large amount of blood and he was losing consciousness. The only thing he could say was the name of Mitul and the address of his house. The middle aged man and another man put him in a rickshaw and took him to the home of Mitul. Seeing Ripon this way, both Mitul and his mother started crying. They immediately took him a local clinic and called his parents. His parents came and mother of Ripon started crying loudly in the clinic. The father talked to the doctor and learnt that there was no danger on his life. He has just lost some blood and it will take one or two weeks for him to recover. There was nothing to worry.
Ripon had to stay in the clinic for one week and then he could come home. After coming home, he just thought about the whole matter day and night. He became very silent and just thought and thought. What happened was that John could convince his parents to change the school and this way, he would not lose one year. So, in that afternoon, when he saw Ripon, he did not have any fear about Nafisa teacher or anyone. Instead, he felt that it was his time to take revenge for all the humiliations. He did not plan for beating him but the idea just came to him on the spur of a moment.
Ripon’s father wanted to file a case but John’s father came and requested him not to do so. Even Ripon’s mother asked for the same thing because she was afraid that if a case was filed then John and Shumon could become more desperate and they might again attack him.
Ripon gradually came out of the shock and again he started to feel normal. He felt sad and depressed that there was no way to fight against these two bullies. However, this beating caused so much pain in his heart that he did not leave the idea of taking revenge. He started to read about revenge and felt that the best thing he could do was to keep his hatred and bitterness intact and just wish for a disaster to happen to the two bullies. He prayed to God daily for any kind of bad accident that would happen to the two bullies. He prayed to God deeply. He donated money to poor persons with this goal but nothing happened.
After few months of that bad incident, John’s father was transferred to another city and the family had to leave the area. So, it came as a relief for Ripon and his family. However, after one year, Ripon’s family had to move another part of the city as his father could at last make a small home for themselves.
15 years passed after the incident. Ripon had finished his university studies 5 years ago and was working in an advertising company. He gets a decent salary and he would get married the next month. Mitul got married 6 months ago. The two friends hardly see each other as both of them were very busy with their jobs. One day, the calling bell was ringing. Mitul’s wife opened the door and saw a man of 30-35 with very dirty clothes and bare footed standing in the door. The man looked so ugly and dirty that she started to scream in fear. Mitul rushed to the door and saw the man. He could not recognize him.
The man smiled and said, “Don’t you recognize me? I am John, your old buddy.’
Mitul became dumb in shock. He could not understand what he should say. John entered the home and sat in drawing room. His feet were bare and full of mud and his hair was curly. It was clear that he had not taken bath for several days. Even, there was bad smell from his body.
Mitul’s wife called Mitul and asked him to come to the kitchen. She was very annoyed with her husband for letting the dirty man enter to their home. She ordered him strongly to throw the man out as soon as possible.
So, Mitul took John out of the house and they sat in a restaurant. John told the story of his life. After leaving the alley 15 years ago, they went to another city. He just became more and more spoilt and he left school soon. He then became drug addicted from the age of 20. At first, it was really cool as he had no problem to get the money from his father. However, after five years, the father understood the matter and the money was stopped.
John’s father has retired 6 month’s ago and asked John to do some job. Of course, John had no desire for any job as he was totally addicted to drug. The poor father took him to a rehabilitation center even. John became normal for a short time but he understood that since he did not continue his education beyond high school, he would not get any decent job. So, he felt that again going back to drug was the best option for him. The father got very angry and threw him out of the house. For the last one month, John was leaving in the street. He walks throughout the city and collect papers and other things with a sack and then in the evening sells whatever he finds and buy some drug. Getting food is not that difficult as he begs to people and get some money too.
That day, when he saw the house of Mitul, he remembered that Mitul lived there. So, he rang the bell. Mitul felt very sad for John and gave him some money. He knew that John would spend it on buying drug but he felt moved by his distress.
He felt so much moved with the distress of John that he went to the house of Ripon on the same evening. Ripon was happy to see him after so many days. Mitul narrated the story of John with a sad voice. Ripon shouted in happiness and Mitul felt very annoyed with him.
He said, “I always know you as a kind and good man. How can you celebrate after hearing such a bad news?”
“What is bad news for you is the happiest news for me. Now, I understood that there is a God after all. God arranges justice. Do you know for many days I prayed and then lost hope?”
“This is too much. Poor John. He has suffered enough. We should be sad for him and hope that he becomes normal again,” said Mitul in an annoyed voice.
“Yes, you are right. He becomes normal and then harms others. If you really feel bad then you and your wife try to cure him and dedicate your lives for him. Leave me alone with my happiness.”
Mitul came out of Ripon’s home with a very bitter feeling. However, when he remembered the reaction of his wife about John, he realized that he would not be able to do anything about him. His wife was even more annoyed than Ripon. So, He came back to his home with a heavy heart.
As for Ripon, he in fact forgot John and today, Mitul brought back his memory. In the last few years, he was so busy with his life that he really forgot the painful incident. May be it was a humiliating memory for him and he tried to suppress it and at one stage, the pain and the memory both faded away. He felt very happy with the news of today. He felt that God did not forget his prayer and God arranged revenge for him. Seeing the triumphs of people like John and Shumon for many years, he forgot that there was a right way and if you do not follow the right way then you yourself get harmed. He tries to be an honest man in his job but many of his colleagues thought that he was a foolish and weak man. He cannot argue with them but in his heart he felt that he was right. 

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

A short Story from Bangladesh is Complete

It is amazing that I could write a short story in a single night. Of course, I had the idea and the plot in my mind. Well, I have to make some changes and then I can post the story in this blog. I am not sure if it a good one. Most probably, it is not. However, I am not sad for that because from my own experience I know that when you do something continuously then you become skilled in it. I cannot expect that after four years, the first story that I write will be marvelous. Instead, it will take time and effort.
I wish that I could write a short story a month. Most probably, it is possible but it requires some good deal of discipline and regularity. I am not good at any of them. Well, I am trying to convince myself for that because I know that writing a short story each month is possible for me. I have so many ideas in my head. These ideas have remained inside in my head for nearly two decades. Now, I have perhaps the maturity to start writing them.
Right now, writing these stories will not bring any money but I still want to write them because there are not too many short stories in English language from my country. So, when anyone is looking for short stories from Bangladesh, they will surely find about my stories and read some of them. I guess that most of them would laugh at my stories as they are going to be somewhat silly and childish. Well, I don’t care for it because I write stories first for myself and then for others.
Yes, these ideas, these stories are in my head perhaps all the time. When I go to sleep then they come to me and push me to write them down. Tonight, I could write one and I feel somewhat relived. It is not that I have done something outstanding but I have done something that gave a lot of happiness tonight.  
Hopefully, I can edit, revise and publish the story in the next 48 hours. Then I am going to put the hyperlink in this entry too so that if you are visiting this entry someday then you can read it. 

Working on the Idea of a Short Story

Today, I gave a lot of thought about a writing a short story. I found an idea and most probably, it will take 2 weeks to write the story. I hope to post it after finishing it. The story is about two teenage boys and both of them are 15 years old. They are not classmates but not friends. In fact, they don’t like each other at all. It is sort of taking revenge.
Here is a story written by Mehdi Hassan:

When I was thinking about the events that would take place in the story, I felt some excited. After 4 years, I am back to writing stories. 

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Dilemma of Writing vs Paying Bills

If you are a writer then you have to struggle with money. Of course, if you come from a rich background like Tagore then it is not a problem. Otherwise, it is a big problem. After doing Masters from English Department of Dhaka University, my goal was to write for newspapers and magazines only. There were basically three problems. First of all, the amount of money the newspapers and magazines would give me was no way enough to pay my bills. For example, for Translating Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’, I got just $50 in 3 months. You can easily do the math that it would not pay any bill for me even if I lived in a village.
The second problem was that I could not sell enough articles in the magazines. For example, once, I wrote nearly 20,000 words in a single issue of a magazine. The cover story was written by me. 4 Interviews (in English Language) were done by me. There were some 3-4 short articles and reports. In the end, I guess, I wrote 22 pages of that issue of that monthly magazine. In most of the articles, my name was omitted (as the wrier) as they thought (and I agree) that it was not decent to show that more than half of the issue of the magazine was written by just one person.
The third problem is that in my country, most newspapers and magazines do not have any standard policy on paying the writers. For example, sometimes, I get the money within one month while sometimes, I get money after 4-5 months of publication. Naturally, my landlady won’t understand that and you can easily conclude yourself the trouble I would suffer. Anyway, this is life and I cannot change it. 

Trying to Find My own Voice as a Writer

When I started blogging, I felt very happy as finally, my days of a struggling writer were over. I could earn enough money to pay all the bills without any worry. This is the best part of blogging but it came with a price. I became addicted to blogging and then I got addicted to learning about Search engine optimization to get more traffic for my blogs. In fact, in the last 4 years, I have read so much content about this matter that I know that I have really become expert on it. However, I have lost the abnormal passion for writing.
Now, I have become more mechanical in blogging. Yes, I am getting good amount of traffic. For example, this month, my major blog, South Asia Blog has almost touched 180,000 pageviews and most probably, it will pass 210,000 pageviews. It is considered to be a huge success for most blogs. Yes, I am successful but I am not happy because I don’t have my voice. When I started blogging, I wrote a short story and it was not bad. In fact, it was good to read and sometimes, I like to read it. Here is the short story:
I uploaded it on 22 February 2006. It was more than 4 years and two months ago. After that I did not write any short story because I was busy with blogging. I always wanted to write short stories. I had so many ideas to write short stories on. Especially, I had the dream of writing short stories on historical events.
Today, I was thinking that when I suffered a lot from poverty, I could write the things I liked. I wrote a novel, I translated a famous book, I wrote at least 5 short stories. May be I wrote a drama too but it was not good. I guess that I will be never be good at writing dramas but I think that my short stories and the novel were good. Should it really matter if others liked them or not? I don’t think so because I wrote them from my personal convictions, passion, belief, dream and most of all, I really enjoyed.
Of course, I am not that foolish to say that I must quit blogging and go back to the uncertainty of money that was my daily companion. However, I surely wish to go back to writing short stories and novels. Perhaps, now, I can afford it and I also dreamt to write some research based books.
In a way, this blogging and Internet have brought the best blessing. I don’t need to think of money, I don’t need to think of finding a way to sell my writing. I can simply publish them in this very blog and I know that some people would read them. Some of them would like them and some of them would not like. I will have all the happiness in my life. I had so many ideas in my head in the past that I wanted to write short stories. I have to get back to these ideas. I have to go back having my own voice.
I really enjoy writing more than any other thing in the world. May be I enjoy teaching too but not that much like writing. The last one year has been very tough for me. The economic recession cut my income to just half. My wife became very sick and then I became very sick and then another member of my team. For nearly one year, I could not work full time.
This one year has done one good thing. It has helped me to become matured and today, I feel very happy. I have learnt the importance of having my own voice and expressing it.
So, I guess that I don’t need any coffee or Coke anymore. I don’t need TV or movies. I don’t need to watch sports or listen to music a lot. I just need to write from my heart just like the past. After all, this is the real me. I just missed my real self for a long time. 

Seeking Happiness in Bangla Literature

In our life, we all seek happiness. We do many things with the goal that it will give us more happiness. Happiness, enjoyment, comfort, these are the things that all the people dream to have. Well, there is a difference in attitude about the definition of happiness in South Asian culture compare to the Western Culture. I think that in South Asia, we give more importance on sacrificing and dedication. We are perhaps more emotional. This is good but at the same time when these feelings get mixed with western values then sometimes problems happen. Secondly, it is not very easy to dedicate and sacrifice when you are not getting the same thing from others.
This problem happens too much in marriage. In marriage, the complain of most people is that they are only dedicating more and they are not receiving love and sacrifice from other partner.
When I look at the Bangla literature then I think I can see that people like Tagore and Sarat Chandra Chatterjee tried to create some amazing female characters in their novels. Specially, when it comes to Sarat Chandra, his heroines are very noble and they sacrifice and dedicate everything for their loved ones. I wish that they wrote some more about the importance of dedication from the side of the husband or men.
When the husband and the wife both try for happiness then it comes very easily. 

Blogging in your Mother Tongue is still a Dream

My mother tongue is Bangla or Bengali. Bengali is one of the top ten most spoken languages in the world and I think that now, it ranks as the seventh most spoken language. Still, you can find that all my blogs are in English but not in Bengali. The only reason for this is that still, it is not possible to earn money from a blog in this language. On the other hand, it is very easy to earn money through a blog in English language because there are many advertisement programs like Chitika and AdSense.
On the other hand, people still mainly search in English language because most of the contents in internet are in this language. There is a huge shortage of content in my own language Bangla and that is why very few people search for anything. So, it is a very bad and vicious circle. Because there is not enough content, people do not search in Bangla. Because people do not search in Bangla, advertisement programs like Google are not interested about Bangla websites and blogs. As a result, it is impossible to earn money by blogging in your native language.
I think that people in Japan have better condition because Japanese people are not that much strong in English. On the other hand, they like to read content in their own language and that is why there are many Japanese blogs. Of course, I have to admit that I do not know if that many blogs in Japan that earn decent amount of money. May be most bloggers are hobby bloggers and the scope is limited. If you know about it then try to give more information in the comment section. 

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Rabindranath Tagore: Still Important

Next year, it will be the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the most important and famous poet of Bangla literature. Tagore is perhaps the only person in our literature who could get international fame. His works have been translated in many languages. When he was alive, his works were translated in different countries. The other day, I was reading about Tagore’s popularity in South America while he was alive.
What happened is that after his death, in Indian history it was was troubled time with fighting between Hindus and Muslims and then India became independent. That time, there was no serious effort to carry out his message of peace and brotherhood.
On the other hand, the majority of Bengali people now live in modern Bangladesh and during the time of Pakistan, Pakistani government sometimes tried to eradicate Tagore from the mind of Bengali people in East Pakistan which is now Bangladesh. There was a lot of protest and when Bangladesh became independent then it was decided that Tagore’s song will be the national anthem of the country.
In internet, I cannot find a lot of translation of Tagore’s works and this gives me a lot of pain. I wish that there were some scholars who would dedicate their lives in translating Tagore. Here, I like to say one thing that in both Dhaka and Kolkata there are many singers who have dedicated their lives for singing just Tagore’s song. May be, some professors should do the same thing for translating Tagore. Of course, the problem of money is always there because in Dhaka and Kolkata, translating Tagore is not a very profitable thing. 

Friday, April 23, 2010

Don’t Lose Your Confidence as a Writer

Now, I am back to almost normal blogging and things are again brightening up. Traffic of my main blog, South Asia Blog is now up significantly and revenue has increased too. So, I am more or less in a relaxed mood. I did a research work in the last two weeks and it was good. Well, it was sort of a ghost work and I did not get the credit. I got some decent amount of money and I am happy for it. Now, I can give some time to do some research. I am also thinking of writing a short story.
I have written a novel and I posted about the two characters here: http://www.southasiablog.com/2010/04/absolute-write-blog-chain-for-april.html
If you can find some time then read it. The novel is mainly a love story and the hero and the heroine faces some obstacles. Some people liked these two characters and if you read the description then I guess that some of you will like it too.  

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

How to Make Sure that Your Wife will not Dance on Your Head?

A few days ago, I talked to one of my school friends. In fact, he called me after many months to know how I was and he gave his latest updates of his life.  He married 5 years ago and just before the marriage day, I went to his home and had a long chat with him about marriage and couple life.
We had exactly the opposite ideas. I told him that day that it was my dream to respect my wife and support her as much as possible. Well, I admit that I could respect my wife a lot but could not support her as I am a very lazy person and I always run away when it comes to household matters like cooking or washing or cleaning. I also have some of the bad sides of an Eastern husband. Still, my dream was to love, support and respect my wife. My wife is lucky in the sense that I am a much better husband than most of the men she has seen. I am not an ideal or dreamy husband but still, my wife is very happy and I am happy for it.
My friend laughed at my idea of marriage and couple life. He said that he was not a stupid man like me. If he acted according to my ideas then his would be wife would climb on his head and dance. I did not argue with him much as I know that he thinks that I am nothing short of a lunatic person. So, my words would not have any value to him.
After 5 years, he has not changed his ideas a bit but things have changed for him. His marriage life is full of unhappiness and fighting. Now, his wife fights with her happily for many small things which I cannot imagine would happen in my marriage life. So, his wife has really now climbed on his head and is not dancing but shouting and I guess that this tragic way will continue forever.
So, if you really want to make sure that your wife will not dance on your head after your marriage then from first try to respect her. 

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

How Happiness can help your Writing Career?

I am very happy to write that compared to many people around me, I am very happy in life. Although, I have suffered a lot from poverty, tension, family feud for many years, still, I am very happy in life. This happiness has helped me to move through my writings career. When I look back to my past, then I can see some good achievements in my profile. For example, I translated Virginia Woolf’s famous book ‘A Room of One’s Own’ in my language first. I published more than 500 reports, interviews, translations in different newspapers and magazines. Yes, writing these things did not bring much money for me because I live in one of the poorest countries on earth but so what! I have published them week after week. Even this month, I wrote the cover story for the highest circulated computer magazine in the country. I also published one report and one interview in another magazine.
Happiness is very important if you want to be a writer. In fact, my full time work is writing and this brings all the happiness for me. I dreamt for it a lot in life. Sometimes, I do journalism, sometimes feature writing, sometimes ghost writing, sometimes blogging and sometimes translating books. Still, all of them are some form of writing. Blogging brings money and pay my bills, magazine writing brings some fame and helps to advance my career while translating gives a lot of satisfaction. 

Saturday, April 17, 2010

JK Rowling: Vote against The Conservatives

It is election time in England and many of the celebrities are asked who they support. One celebrity in the field of literature had openly expressed her support or I should say her resentment against one party. She is the writer of Harry Potter and JK Rowling feels that people should not vote for the conservative party in the upcoming election. She has given her reason.
We know that JK Rowling suffered a lot and the story of the Harry Potter worked like a fairy tale for her in real life. She was divorced and she had to look after her baby and at the same time she was trying to find a job. It was a nightmare experience for her and at that time the conservative party was in power in England. I think it is the time of 1996. The conservative party is more or less supporter of capitalism and they are not in favor of giving too much social benefits. The author of Harry Potter feels that this is a wrong strategy and it seriously puts thousands of people in danger. So, she is asking everyone possible not to vote for the conservative. 

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Back to Blogging in a Good way

Yesterday was a beautiful day for me because I could write fourteen entries. Of course, most of the entries were not good but I was happy that I could come back to blogging. Today, I have already finished four entries and this is the fifth one. I am hopping to write another ten entries today and it is excellent. Of course, blogging is not the thing that I dreamt for myself but at least it is some kind of writing. It is bringing some money can I am happy for it. My dream is to become a freelance writer but I have understood that in this age, it is becoming increasingly difficult because of all kinds of problem. One of the basic problems is that newspapers and magazines are losing to websites and that is why they can not pay enough money to freelance writers. Anyway, I am not unhappy because I know that if I can one blog very successful then I can write my short stories and put them there and many people will read.
Internet is changing the rules of the game in the printing and media industry. One good part is that now anyone can open a blog or website and if they try hard and if they have the skill they can get a lot of readers. In fact, yesterday, one of my blogs had nearly nine thousands page views. 

Monday, April 12, 2010

When not to become Writer?

There are many amazing tales of writers who suffered a lot from poverty and then with writing earned fame and fortune. In the recent past, the best example perhaps is J. K. Rowling. She was suffering a lot from money problem and loneliness when she was writing Harry Potter. Of course, she is skilled and talented or else so many people would not buy her books. However, she is some lucky too.
Anyway, what I want to say is that when you decide to become a writer then first of all, look at your purse. If you do not have enough money to pay your bills then don’t become a full time freelance writer.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Inspiration is not Easy to Come

It has been many months that I could work normally. Fortunately, my health is coming back to some normal condition and I got a nice break from blogging in the last one month as I was busy with two projects that brought some decent amount of money. Now, I feel very happy to be back to blogging. I am a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. I love the way he can deduce and find out a lot of things from mere observation. I feel that writers should have this kind of skill because writers have to have good observation skill. Most successful writers have it. Otherwise, they would not be able to create unforgettable novels and dramas. The characters are great and we feel close to them.
I wish that modern life was not so much related to money. When I sit to write anything then the first thing I have to consider is whether it will bring any money or will help anyway to bring money in future. For example, I know that this particular blog entry that I am writing at this moment will not bring any money now or in future. However, I am doing it as a part of updating my blogs so that they become stronger in Google and other search engines. This will help to bring more traffic in my some other successful blogs and bring some more money.
Where is the inspiration? Is it in money? I don’t think so because I guess that most writers are not passionate about money.  

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Pride and Prejudice: Easy Life Complicated Issues

Life in Pride and Prejudice seems to be very relaxed and normal all the characters had just one problem and that is how to find a suitable husband or a suitable wife and get married. However, it is not as simple as that. There are many complicated factors involved with it. The first thing that you have to think of is the income of the man. If a man has good income then he is very attractive. For example, Mr. Bingley had attractive because he earns a decent amount of money and he is from a good family. So, he is desirable to all the girls in the neighborhood.
Another matter is that at that time girls could not inherit their fathers’ property. So, they had to think of their future and find a good man. For men, it seems to be easier but I don’t think it was very easy either. When Mr. Darcy understood that Elizabeth was a very smart and good girl then he fell in love with her. However, since he was from an aristocratic family, his some of his relatives like Lady Catherine de Bourgh did not like this matter. So, Mr. Darcy was a free man and he was a rich and influential man but still he had to fight with at least some of his relatives to get married with a girl like Elizabeth who came from ordinary family. 

Dream, Reality and Birthday

Like many writers, I dream to write some short stories and novels. For many years, I am totally occupied with writing for money. What happen is that in the last ten days I was very busy with covering an important event in my country and I had to write a lot of things about this event. In fact, I think that I have written more than ten thousand words in the last ten days about the program and Next week, two magazines will publish my articles. It was mainly a computer event and had nothing to do with any short story or a novel. It was mainly writing press release, taking interviews, writing report etc.
Today I was thinking that my age was only increasing. For example, my birthday was on 22nd March which was only fourteen days ago. I became one year older but I could not write any short story in the last one year. So, I have decided that at least in the next one year I will try to write some short stories and if possible a novel. It does not matter if they are good or not because I just want to write them.
So, if you are a in the same position like me then just try to remember that your time is passing and you should not think of any grand skim. In stead just try to write something that you really enjoy. Even if you can write one short story in a year still it is something that you have produced. 

Friday, April 02, 2010

Writing for fun and writing for money

In the last 10 days, I was very busy with a project. There was a business program in my city in which delegates from some Asian countries came. My work was looking after the delegates and taking their interviews. I also did some write-ups about this program. Today, it finished and I am totally exhausted. In the next few days, I will have to do a lot of writings about this event. Yes, I enjoy this kind of writing but I wish that I could write short stories. I guess that hardly anyone enjoy writing a press release on a business event.
At least, when you started your dream of becoming a writer, you never dreamt that you would someday become a press release writer. However, there is some money in it and there is hardly any sure money in writing short stories and dramas unless you are a famous writer. In life, we have to do many kind of adjustments. Still, I am very happy because at least my job is related to writing and information.
To be honest with you, I enjoyed working for the event because I met some very good people from other countries. I could share my ideas and learnt some new things from their ideas. 

Hobby Economist