Five Point AnyoneThe Learning and Unlearning in a Published Writer’s

Journey

Who

• 17

• 18

• 19

• 20

• 21

• 22

• 23

• 24

Why

• Why did I start?

• What it entailed?

• Why did I stop?

Why did I start?

What it entailed?

What it entailed?

What it entailed?

And cheap thrills such as this…

Or this…

Why did I stop?

What

• 21-22– Entrepreneurship

• 23– Pan-India Travel

• 24– Studying Young India Fellowship.

• 25– Travel

– Reading

• 26– Entrepreneurship

Broke away from the cult

Published a book with a ‘decent’ title

Wrote for children …a book with quite

an explicit title!

Travelled across India, not on the truck

always…

Even Wasseypur …

And the world too, meeting extremely

kind strangers, listening to their stories

And studied more…with brilliant

writers, only to realize that…

I was not quite the superman I thought I

was.

None of this tamasha could make a

Rushdie out of the ordinary me.

Not even clicking great selfies in Europe

I didn’t do the homework that

writers are supposed to do.

Because ….

Like every engineer, I didn’t read

enough.

I didn’t read enough to

• Differentiate between what’s good, and what

not.

• What story is worth telling, and what not.

• Know that what I was writing was already

written before.

• Understand that language is more important

than the plot

• Know that I was terrible.

Writing is a craft

• Practice enough before the first concert

• There’s no under 16, under 21 in writing.

When

• I don’t know.

• That is the best thing.

• Publishers have given up. So have readers.

• I can write for myself. Finally. Phew.

Until I write my next novel,

Live the novel that is my life.

Write the course and chapters of this novel.

And read.

Read. Read. Read.

Read great writers, read mediocre fluff, read

classics, read chick-lit.

Read the writers I wish to write like.

Read the writers I don’t like.

Even if it takes me 20 years before I am ready.

This is how I feel right now.

– Steve Jobs

“The heaviness of being successful was replaced

by the lightness of being a beginner again, less

sure about everything. It freed me to enter into

one of the most creative periods of my life.”