[Music]
how many of you are writers here and how
many of you are budding writers here and
how many of you think there’s there’s
something right the writer’s block there
are so many definitions of this term
writer’s block sometimes when you sit in
front of the laptop you suddenly find
nothing there your ideas suddenly vanish
into thin air you can’t write anything
you can’t pen your thoughts and these
monsters of negativity sort of they
start flaunting their fans and all and
then try to grip you said so many times
my students have told me that madam we
cannot write this writer’s block is
always there there are so many
definitions of this term they call it a
literary inhibition literary slowdown
but I call it a myth a total
unadulterated myths and let me hark back
to my childhood I was in the sixth
standard and I was obsessed with the
writing I would just write and I used to
think that I was a great writer in the
6th janeth then came this girl in the
sixth standard and she would come every
day
she had a notebook in her hand she would
come and sit on the last bench of the
classroom and she would scribble
something I was sort of overall by her
because she had this superior or about
her but one day I am bastard enough
courage to ask her what are you writing
with an arrogant toss of her head she
said I am writing a limerick
I was totally flummoxed I did not know
what a limerick was I was in the sixth
anyway I do not ask her I went home and
consulted the dictionary but I couldn’t
get the word because I did not know the
spelling but then I must have courage to
ask my dad what a limerick is and he
told me that a limerick is a 5-line
verse with the rhyme scheme of a a b b a
and then he recited a limerick which I
can never forget and with your
permission I would like to recite that
so many of you you must be knowing it
there was a man from Nantucket who kept
all his cash in a bucket he had a
daughter named man who ran away with a
man and as for the bucket Nantucket so I
was so fascinated by this Limerick this
genre of poetry that surreptitiously and
very furtively I started writing
limericks and still there about 200
limericks lengths have a gathering dust
those lyrics I wrote in the school okay
so then I graduated to writing essays
and I’ll tell you how that happened in
10th standard I was obsessed with
Charles Dickens and I remember having
written an essay on Charles Dickens
which was applauded by the nuns in the
convent and they said it’s a very good
essay but when I showed it to my dad he
just flung it away saying what a lousy
essay the your vocabulary is very poor
you can’t write or not improve your
style so I went home and in corners of
the room I would sit and write and now I
started improving on my essays and from
limericks I graduated to essays so many
of them I wrote and that was the end of
my literary career in my childhood I
wrote limericks and essay
that was the . but later on in college I
was too busy getting educated so writing
to the backseat and I did not write but
then when I became a lecturer myself at
times I would get bored of the classes
and all so one day I again took to
writing but I would write very furtively
I did not show what I wrote to anyone
well then something very interesting
happened in one of my infill classes I
was teaching the Mahatma Gandhi and I
was referring to Martin Luther King jr.
and none of them had heard about Martin
Luther King jr. but they knew something
about golly something and one of the
students he had the audacity to tell me
madam you always talk of Gandhi we don’t
need a Gandhi we need a Hitler and I
will read about Gandhi only when you
paint something about Gandhi in poetry
so that was the trigger for me and
because I had been writing limericks in
school this struck me with full vigor
now and I started writing the poetic
biography of Mahatma Gandhi in the
Limerick jhana
hey BBA but I was so obsessed with it so
passionate about it that I did not
suffer any writer’s block because in
school I was so passionate about writing
limericks I was so passionate so
obsessed with writing essays that I
never suffered from this mythical
writer’s block so I started writing this
Ballad of bapu and I did not know when
it turned into 300 pages of words it
became a book and right now it’s a
best-seller and I sent it to Tushar
Gandhi the great-grandson of Mahatma
Gandhi and he was so fascinated by it
that he asked me in an email
madam can I write the blob can I write
the foreword in poetry so he has written
the poetic forward to this book
so that was recently that was in 2014 so
I never what I’m trying to say is that
in this literary career or lack of it
whatever you call it
I never suffered from the writer’s block
which I always insist is a myth and many
of my students in my classes creative
writing classes tell me that sometimes
madam we sit in front of the laptop and
suddenly those grotesque faces appear
there and they start making those funny
faces and ugly faces and they try to
browbeat you so I keep telling them
there’s nothing like that these are just
the monsters of negativity
they’ll try to browbeat you they’ll try
to calm you down but these are just
monsters of negativity you have to
positive eyes yourself so they also tell
me that mom you always keep saying it’s
a myth I say of course it’s a myth and
the only antidote is that you should be
obsessed with writing whatever you are
doing you should be obsessed you should
be very very passionate about it so let
me cite one other instance one of the
students he said madam I’m very very
passionate about writing and I want to
see my book as a best-seller he was just
18 or 19 and then I told him write on
this I gave her topic but the very next
day he comes to the class and tells me
madam I just cannot write I have this
writer’s block I said are you with me on
Facebook are you my facebook friend he
said yes very much since long so I told
him I block you right here and that is
the writer’s block so later on he
cornered me madam you embarrassed me and
all that so I said I don’t believe in
writer’s block there’s no such thing as
a writer’s block if you are a writer you
are a writer you’re a writer the
plumber’s don’t have a block the
engineers don’t have a block the doctors
don’t have a block so why should the
writers we saw in tight
why should they luxuriate in this
writer’s block
so whatever but some people there are
many definitions many perspectives on
the writer’s block some say that no it’s
not mythical there is an iota of truth
in it and this reminds me of what Maya
Angelou used to say that whenever I have
these monsters of negativity trying to
browbeat me then I start writing
anything that comes to my mind I start
writing doggerel I start writing
limericks and for example she cites an
exam she says I write the cat sat on the
mat and not the rat so this is something
very absurd some doggerel and so she
says she writes aware that the muse of
poetry is so embarrassed
that it comes scurrying to her and it
tells her wait wait
don’t write such poetry I’ll come so so
the muse comes back so I believe that
this block is only in the mind it’s only
a myth there’s no such thing as a
writer’s block and I know it because I
have never suffered it I a writer should
be obsessed with writing a writer should
be very very passionate about writing
let me cite another example
all this Merida Babu was a best-seller
and people still read it but then
Facebook happened for me I started
writing something on Facebook I did not
know what it was earlier I was obsessed
with limericks
then I became obsessed with the essays
then Facebook happened for me and I
started writing obsessively on Facebook
anything
I used to write about the moon I used to
write about the Sun the sunrays the
Moonbeam and the smile on the ragpickers
countenance so I wrote poetry
I wrote essays I wrote novels and
novellas and people started reading me
well anyway and I was talking about this
Oh hark
I started writing on Facebook it was a
very surreal astok spooky sort of a
thing I wrote every day and for three
days I wrote continuously then I
suddenly stopped and then there was a
barrage of questions queries from my
readers asking me what next ma’am why
did you stop so I couldn’t
luxuriate in a writer’s block I had to
write so when you’re obsessed with
something when you’re very very
passionate about something you cannot
resort to crutches like the writer’s
block and another instance of ohok was
that in one of the scenes I kill a
character he is a very very interesting
character who is there forever making
fun of people and he has this drum in
his hand he’s the drummer I just killed
him in one of the episodes and again
there was a barrage of questions and
queries and lemons from people madam why
did you kill him you are the right to
revive him so again I couldn’t
luxuriate in the writer’s block I had to
think ways and means of reflecting him
from the dead so he was he had fallen
down the cliff so in the next episode I
pulled him up from the cliff so he said
this drama follows the other guys and
says I just took a fall step so I do not
die so he comes back and he goes on with
it so on the basis of my own experience
I’m telling all the writers the budding
writers that there is no such thing as a
writer’s block it’s only in the mind
these are just the monsters of
negativity that playing us all the time
they make funny faces at you
they make grotesque faces and they try
to browbeat you into submission so the
only antidote to this is right right and
right as James Thurber says somewhere
don’t be obsessed with being right rght
don’t
obsessed with being right just right if
you want to be a writer no shortcuts no
crutches no blocks just right don’t
think of being right just right just go
berserk just keep writing and something
sure that greatest park is going to be
ignited whenever you feel down or
whenever those monsters of negativity
try to scare you into submission you
just wash them with your confidence and
you will be a winner you will be a
writer you will be a best-seller thanks
[Applause]
how many of you are writers here and how
many of you are budding writers here and
how many of you think there’s there’s
something right the writer’s block there
are so many definitions of this term
writer’s block sometimes when you sit in
front of the laptop you suddenly find
nothing there your ideas suddenly vanish
into thin air you can’t write anything
you can’t pen your thoughts and these
monsters of negativity sort of they
start flaunting their fans and all and
then try to grip you said so many times
my students have told me that madam we
cannot write this writer’s block is
always there there are so many
definitions of this term they call it a
literary inhibition literary slowdown
but I call it a myth a total
unadulterated myths and let me hark back
to my childhood I was in the sixth
standard and I was obsessed with the
writing I would just write and I used to
think that I was a great writer in the
6th janeth then came this girl in the
sixth standard and she would come every
day
she had a notebook in her hand she would
come and sit on the last bench of the
classroom and she would scribble
something I was sort of overall by her
because she had this superior or about
her but one day I am bastard enough
courage to ask her what are you writing
with an arrogant toss of her head she
said I am writing a limerick
I was totally flummoxed I did not know
what a limerick was I was in the sixth
anyway I do not ask her I went home and
consulted the dictionary but I couldn’t
get the word because I did not know the
spelling but then I must have courage to
ask my dad what a limerick is and he
told me that a limerick is a 5-line
verse with the rhyme scheme of a a b b a
and then he recited a limerick which I
can never forget and with your
permission I would like to recite that
so many of you you must be knowing it
there was a man from Nantucket who kept
all his cash in a bucket he had a
daughter named man who ran away with a
man and as for the bucket Nantucket so I
was so fascinated by this Limerick this
genre of poetry that surreptitiously and
very furtively I started writing
limericks and still there about 200
limericks lengths have a gathering dust
those lyrics I wrote in the school okay
so then I graduated to writing essays
and I’ll tell you how that happened in
10th standard I was obsessed with
Charles Dickens and I remember having
written an essay on Charles Dickens
which was applauded by the nuns in the
convent and they said it’s a very good
essay but when I showed it to my dad he
just flung it away saying what a lousy
essay the your vocabulary is very poor
you can’t write or not improve your
style so I went home and in corners of
the room I would sit and write and now I
started improving on my essays and from
limericks I graduated to essays so many
of them I wrote and that was the end of
my literary career in my childhood I
wrote limericks and essay
that was the . but later on in college I
was too busy getting educated so writing
to the backseat and I did not write but
then when I became a lecturer myself at
times I would get bored of the classes
and all so one day I again took to
writing but I would write very furtively
I did not show what I wrote to anyone
well then something very interesting
happened in one of my infill classes I
was teaching the Mahatma Gandhi and I
was referring to Martin Luther King jr.
and none of them had heard about Martin
Luther King jr. but they knew something
about golly something and one of the
students he had the audacity to tell me
madam you always talk of Gandhi we don’t
need a Gandhi we need a Hitler and I
will read about Gandhi only when you
paint something about Gandhi in poetry
so that was the trigger for me and
because I had been writing limericks in
school this struck me with full vigor
now and I started writing the poetic
biography of Mahatma Gandhi in the
Limerick jhana
hey BBA but I was so obsessed with it so
passionate about it that I did not
suffer any writer’s block because in
school I was so passionate about writing
limericks I was so passionate so
obsessed with writing essays that I
never suffered from this mythical
writer’s block so I started writing this
Ballad of bapu and I did not know when
it turned into 300 pages of words it
became a book and right now it’s a
best-seller and I sent it to Tushar
Gandhi the great-grandson of Mahatma
Gandhi and he was so fascinated by it
that he asked me in an email
madam can I write the blob can I write
the foreword in poetry so he has written
the poetic forward to this book
so that was recently that was in 2014 so
I never what I’m trying to say is that
in this literary career or lack of it
whatever you call it
I never suffered from the writer’s block
which I always insist is a myth and many
of my students in my classes creative
writing classes tell me that sometimes
madam we sit in front of the laptop and
suddenly those grotesque faces appear
there and they start making those funny
faces and ugly faces and they try to
browbeat you so I keep telling them
there’s nothing like that these are just
the monsters of negativity
they’ll try to browbeat you they’ll try
to calm you down but these are just
monsters of negativity you have to
positive eyes yourself so they also tell
me that mom you always keep saying it’s
a myth I say of course it’s a myth and
the only antidote is that you should be
obsessed with writing whatever you are
doing you should be obsessed you should
be very very passionate about it so let
me cite one other instance one of the
students he said madam I’m very very
passionate about writing and I want to
see my book as a best-seller he was just
18 or 19 and then I told him write on
this I gave her topic but the very next
day he comes to the class and tells me
madam I just cannot write I have this
writer’s block I said are you with me on
Facebook are you my facebook friend he
said yes very much since long so I told
him I block you right here and that is
the writer’s block so later on he
cornered me madam you embarrassed me and
all that so I said I don’t believe in
writer’s block there’s no such thing as
a writer’s block if you are a writer you
are a writer you’re a writer the
plumber’s don’t have a block the
engineers don’t have a block the doctors
don’t have a block so why should the
writers we saw in tight
why should they luxuriate in this
writer’s block
so whatever but some people there are
many definitions many perspectives on
the writer’s block some say that no it’s
not mythical there is an iota of truth
in it and this reminds me of what Maya
Angelou used to say that whenever I have
these monsters of negativity trying to
browbeat me then I start writing
anything that comes to my mind I start
writing doggerel I start writing
limericks and for example she cites an
exam she says I write the cat sat on the
mat and not the rat so this is something
very absurd some doggerel and so she
says she writes aware that the muse of
poetry is so embarrassed
that it comes scurrying to her and it
tells her wait wait
don’t write such poetry I’ll come so so
the muse comes back so I believe that
this block is only in the mind it’s only
a myth there’s no such thing as a
writer’s block and I know it because I
have never suffered it I a writer should
be obsessed with writing a writer should
be very very passionate about writing
let me cite another example
all this Merida Babu was a best-seller
and people still read it but then
Facebook happened for me I started
writing something on Facebook I did not
know what it was earlier I was obsessed
with limericks
then I became obsessed with the essays
then Facebook happened for me and I
started writing obsessively on Facebook
anything
I used to write about the moon I used to
write about the Sun the sunrays the
Moonbeam and the smile on the ragpickers
countenance so I wrote poetry
I wrote essays I wrote novels and
novellas and people started reading me
well anyway and I was talking about this
Oh hark
I started writing on Facebook it was a
very surreal astok spooky sort of a
thing I wrote every day and for three
days I wrote continuously then I
suddenly stopped and then there was a
barrage of questions queries from my
readers asking me what next ma’am why
did you stop so I couldn’t
luxuriate in a writer’s block I had to
write so when you’re obsessed with
something when you’re very very
passionate about something you cannot
resort to crutches like the writer’s
block and another instance of ohok was
that in one of the scenes I kill a
character he is a very very interesting
character who is there forever making
fun of people and he has this drum in
his hand he’s the drummer I just killed
him in one of the episodes and again
there was a barrage of questions and
queries and lemons from people madam why
did you kill him you are the right to
revive him so again I couldn’t
luxuriate in the writer’s block I had to
think ways and means of reflecting him
from the dead so he was he had fallen
down the cliff so in the next episode I
pulled him up from the cliff so he said
this drama follows the other guys and
says I just took a fall step so I do not
die so he comes back and he goes on with
it so on the basis of my own experience
I’m telling all the writers the budding
writers that there is no such thing as a
writer’s block it’s only in the mind
these are just the monsters of
negativity that playing us all the time
they make funny faces at you
they make grotesque faces and they try
to browbeat you into submission so the
only antidote to this is right right and
right as James Thurber says somewhere
don’t be obsessed with being right rght
don’t
obsessed with being right just right if
you want to be a writer no shortcuts no
crutches no blocks just right don’t
think of being right just right just go
berserk just keep writing and something
sure that greatest park is going to be
ignited whenever you feel down or
whenever those monsters of negativity
try to scare you into submission you
just wash them with your confidence and
you will be a winner you will be a
writer you will be a best-seller thanks
[Applause]
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