I'm a teacher, finally

P.S. Bootstrapped as an entrepreneur, it's time to get all my talents together to pay my bills! You'll find many such posters stuck in the Malviya Nagar area.

P.S. I always wanted to teach someday. Thanks to entrepreneurship, my dream has come true.

P.S. Sorry for hiding the number. I didn't want to make it public. You know, I'm such a girl!

365 Days

Ziyana.

In 2008, when a 21 year old Indian girl, born and brought up in Delhi, suddenly finds herself away from her country in a completely foreign land, she gets completely terrified. She has not been an outgoing person in her previous avatar and the very thought of adapting in her new city, Glasgow, makes her feet run cold. Upon recommendation from an acquaintance, she joins twitter, in hope to find something new, something worthwhile to spend her lonely time with. But stark loneliness finds her. At first, she's haunted. But she starts liking it.

Twitter becomes her diary as her life unfolds and she comes across people, who make her journey worthy. She finds friends. She finds fiends. She finds love. She finds betrayal. She finds solitude. She finds loneliness. She finds addiction. She finds boredom.

She finds what she wanted to discover when she discovers what you want her to discover.

And thus, she finds herself.

And there's more, that she awaits, in her next '365 Days'.

I'd been restless. Restless to write something outstanding. That's how I met Ziyana.

It had been days since I experimented with writing. I wanted to experiment, explore new plots and new ways of story-telling. Thankfully today, I've got an idea. I'd this plan of writing a book about 365 days of a girl's life in a completely new city. Today, I got a fresh way to put forward her story. Through twitter.

I'll be penning down her story, which I don't know how it will unfold since I don't have a clear end in my mind, but I've kept it open for people like you, to influence her life. I've created a new twitter account with her name and I've started penning down her story. We(She and I) are waiting for something interesting to come up and give her a direction to move forward on that solitary road. She doesn't want too much attention, so I've not made her id public but with time, as her guardian, I would allow people who show interest get in touch with her, to know more about her and if they're impactful, they could influence her life's trajectory. The book will just be a book full of tweets, closely interlinked with each other to make a compelling story.

Being hooked to the social media, I expect to complete the book in less than a month's time since it requires more or less around 100 tweets a day, which is around one hour job. Let's hope it turns out to be as exciting as I'm hoping it to be.

P.S. Tweet to me @harshsnehanshu, to know about Ziyana's whereabouts!

My child - christened and good-looking!

P.S. Credits - Cover: Akansha Gupta; Title: Arpa Ray

Name my child...

Hello friends,

It brings me immense pleasure to unravel the synopsis of my next book. Please go through it.

They were far away. They had been coercively separated. Half a world apart. He was in India, while she in US. Some say that long distance relationships do not work. They knew just one thing: love works. And they possessed just one asset: hope.

It worked for them, even without knowing about each other for weeks, even without hearing each other's voice for months, even without seeing each other's face for almost half a year. Six months after they were separated, she was coming back to India for just a week. Their excitement touched the pinnacle of joy, in hope that their timeless wait was going to be over the moment they would behold each other's light, their life would see a new morning of togetherness, their joy would make them cry like never before.

But unfortunately, it doesn't work this time.

Love fails. Hope survives. Or vice-versa?

What happens next? Come and find out yourself in the continuing story of Kanav and Tanya....

With time, a writer evolves. Though, this novel touches the ticklish spot in you as well as the previous one could, with various witty romantic conversations, hilarious events, rare nerdy descriptions and scandalous revelations; this one also contains many moments of introspection, such as - the discovery of passion, the impact of 'cool' parents, the importance of faith and the meaning of respect - portrayed through numerous conversations, diary entries and poems; written to give you a takeaway which could strike a deeper chord with you.

About the title that I'm expecting from you, some guidelines:

• It should be less than 20 characters long.
• It should be in proper English; no shorthands, no Hindi
• Should have a subtitle, which completes and complements the title
• Preferred: Witty title, that could make a reader hold on to the book at first go.
• If you've some other idea, feel free to propose.
• It should be 100% original.
• No plagiarized titles supported.

How it'll work:

• You post the title of your desire on the fanpage.
• To give a fair chance for everyone to get voted, every alternate day, I'll upload a jpeg version of all the posted titles on my fanpage, with your name attached to it.
• As more and more people like it, your chance to get selected increases

Disclaimer: In the end, my publisher should approve of the title. In case he doesn't, I'll be forced to consider some other title. However, the winner will get acknowledged and get the promised personally signed copies.

Dedicated to your smile

It took me almost a year to complete my second book. I've started writing it in June, last year. I made all of my readers wait a lot, for which I'm not sorry. But what I'm really sorry about is giving false hopes about the time when it will get published. I had been over optimistic that I would be able to complete it quite fast, but alas, it took a long time.

Unlike my first book, which was completed in three months, owing to my newly found passion for story-telling, this book took more time. I don't want to give excuses but I realize that writing could happen best when the mind is uncluttered. Over the last one year, I'd been really involved in my start-up thewittyshit.com, and as a result I hardly ever had an uncluttered mind. Now that I'm done with the sequel, I feel immensely relieved and happy. First, the long wait is over. Secondly, I'm happy with how it turned out. I've experimented with some nuances of story telling that I've learnt as a writer in the last two years, such as embedding different forms of writing such as a poetry, one-liner, verses, letters, diaries, emails, chats and SMSes together, which proved difficult considering the gap in flow that occurs while reading. I am happy that I could embed them almost perfectly in the storyline. I began the sequel with the motive to finish Kanav-Tanya's story with this book, but as it turns out, their story needs another book to get completed, making it a trilogy. There were too many sequences to fit into just one book.

Though after writing my first book, I thought of writing a serious book, but when I began writing a serious book, I realized that though my thinking has matured to think of complex and dark plots, I needed a lot of reading before justifying its writing. So I decided to take a break from ambitious literary writing and decided to first test myself on the familiar grounds before venturing further. The most amazing experience while writing humour is the moment when I burst out laughing while reading what I had written. Writing is entertaining, you know. But I wait for the day, when reading what I've written would make me cry. That'll be the day will I actually consider myself a complete writer.

This book is special, because it came out of nowhere. It touches just one fourth of the plot that I had initially planned for the sequel. But, it's complete in its own. Though it would require you to read my first book to get familiar with the characters, but even without reading the first book, by the end, you would get the hang of the entire story. I've not named it currently, since I've a social media marketing campaign in my mind, where I would invite titles from my readers. I've included some of the interesting Kanav-Tanya conversations that I've been putting up all the while on my fanpage in the book, to let the reader enjoy the slapstick witty humour that paint their romantic lives.

The book has been divided into three parts, in much like a story form:

1. The Beginning,

2. The Middle, and

3. The End

There are a lot of long interesting conversations in the book, conversation being the thing I think I'm good at, I've tried exploring new avenues. For example - slapstick conversation, witty, sarcastic, a quarrel, an emotional one and even a drunken one.

Here goes my favorite line from the book:

No monk would sell his ferrari, without making out in its backseat.

Hope you've a good time reading the book, it's supposed to come in two months at max. I've dedicated it to your smile, in hope to sustain it throughout the book.

My Dream Girl

When it comes to me imagining what my dream girl should be like, there always comes an image of a girl who's passionate, caring and independent. These three adjectives are all that I want in my dream girl. I've not mentioned that she should be beautiful. Do you know why? Because those three qualities would make her the most beautiful woman in my life.

Now, coming to the explanation part.

Why passionate?

-> Because only then will she understand me and I'll understand her.

-> Because she'll have something else, other than me, in her life to make her life worth living.

Why caring?

-> What's love, without fun and care. What's life, with nobody to share.

-> Care is not about preventing me from falling down, but it's about standing by my side and encouraging me to stand up.

Why independent? Not only financially, but mentally as well.

-> Because I'm a lazy dog and I hate responsibility. Okay, on a serious note, because I'm a mortal.

-> Because I want to respect her for what she is, not what she gives. I want to respect her self-respect.

-> Because I want her to learn life the hard way, along with me, so that we can understand each other better and live life fully.

Now, why all the three?

Because, that's what my mother is like.

Because, that's what she is like.

Because, that's what I admire.

Wittyleaks

This world cup season, I had been amazingly involved in cricket, the habit that thankfully I caught through my activity on twitter. I’m really hopeful that India is going to win this time and I want to share the witty and emotional journey that my thought-process went through in the process. I present some of my own commentaries on the past cricket matches, starting chronologically:

Wittyleaks:

• No work and no play makes Sreesanth a millionaire.
• Arindam Chaudhari, inspired by Dhoni, cuts his ponytail. He was seen wearing a T-shirt saying, 'Dare to think beyond Sachin.'
• Piyush Chawla donates half of his won money to Sreesanth, for shifting the attention of critics towards himself.
• Dhoni has made a bet to his friend that he would bring the WC without scoring more than ten runs in any match. Well, that’s called confidence.
• Yuvraj says his lack of form in the past few months was just a tactic to get rid of Deepika. Now, he is eyeing Sheila!
• Ponting goes back home, is welcomed by his wife, who says, ‘Fuck off! I’m marrying Yuvi.’
• Munaf signed by Gillette as their Brand Ambassador. His recent tweet said ‘Not taking bath since months finally paid off.’
• India wins. Nehra is thinking, ‘They were right, it was really me.’ #againstWI
• A: Dhoni played politics by sending Nehra for the last over, he wanted him out.
  B: Do you realize that even Nehra wanted that!
• Bangladeshi crowd is feeling jealous. They are cursing their grandfathers for not choosing Pakistan during the partition.
• After Ind vs SA match, Dabur Amla is changing its tagline. Their new tagline goes like this: Asli Amla, Hashim Amla. B-)

Look what Mr. Lee is upto! No doubt he’s a bowler…and our Yuvi, busted his balls!

CriCommentary:

India vs Pak

• Come on India, you got to buck up. If not for us, at least win this match for Poonam Pandey's fans. #mohali

India vs Australia

• India will be facing Pakistan in Mohali. Let there be war!
• Let’s give a nice farewell to Ponting. Let’s make him Nehra for one day!
• Bharat mata ki … jai! Australia ki mata ki ________!
• Mujhe Ponting ko dekh kar ab to aur bhi zyada Hussey aa rhi hai!
• Ricky Ponting’s ton failed to get noticed in the land of master of tons.
• When it comes to Tendulkar, a bat is mightier than a sword.

India vs WI

• @Indian Team – Make sure that you don’t make me cry – ‘Holi Shit!’
• Our Indian players seem bored of cricket, they’re so desperate to end every match as soon as possible
• India is playing a good host. Setting up an example by practicing the philosophy of atithi devo bhav.
• I’m watching Dhoom 2. Even Uday Chopra looks tolerable when compared to the Indian cricket team.
• @Uday Chopra – You suck! Indian team gets the game back.
• WI wiped out. That’s what happens when you ask West Indians to play in the East India.
• West Indies team made a Nehra out of themselves.

Australia vs Pakistan

• Razzaq to Brett Lee after the last over of the innings, ‘Beta, maine teri le LEE!’

England vs SA

• England : they rock when they suck!

India vs SA

• Don’t feel bad if people go gaga on the social network when India loses. That actually prevents violence – not only against players but also against TV sets.
• Nehra is trending on TWITTER. We know who the man of the match is.
• Nehra, after four dot balls in a row, got struck for a boundary. SA believes in tat for teeth!
• India is all about diversity. A man scores a hundred runs, ten men take rest

England vs WI

• This is the first time I’m feeling good for England. After the pathetic Patiala House, they finally attained something good in India.

P.S. Follow me here on twitter.

Soulmate

Find me here, find me there
The world is too big to scan
When you find me, you would hear
That, it was all part of a plan!

ENNUI - On Present

I'm having a funny phase in my writing life. I'm at my creative best when it comes to wits, observations and conversational humour, but I'm facing a difficult time sitting and completing my novel. The reason, that I feel to be responsible behind this is the fact that while writing the novel, I'm lacking attention - not from my side but from the other side. I'm not sharing what I'm writing with anyone even though I desperately want to share, just because I want to complete it first, since I would not be doing justice to my creation or to my readers' eagerness by sharing just a small portion with them. I'm facing a writer's block, a rather strange one, where creativity is not restricted but perseverence is.

The end result is that I'm writing such meaningless notes, which tend to convey some meaning but actually conveys that I'm perplexed and weird - which has some meaning, but it's utterly useless to me, since I already know it. I don't know what I'm writing but I am noticing that I speak when I write and that's quite pleasing since I can notice that I can type at the speed at which I speak, which can be hell fast at times. I'm listening to a song called 'Another Day in Paradise' by Phil Collins. It's a simple 90s english song which has more of synth and less of guitars and drums. Phil Collins has a typical 90s voice, which seems similar to the commentator of WWE. The tune of the song is uncomplicated, fittingly romantic and the drum-beats remind me that it's based on the most basic beat that one learns in drumming. I also realize that such beats are available in almost all the versions of synthesizers, generally in the first ten of the 'style' beats with the name of '8 beat pop'. However utterly meaningless it may be, I'm wondering that you still are reading it with the hope that there will be something that would be interesting somewhere, whereas the matter of the fact is that it is, if you realize that I'm just writing what comes in my mind to break the block that I'm facing. It's called free writing. I don't know whether it works or not, because when earlier I tried it, I came up with a story called 'The Wait' in my blog 'Graffiti' and I was quite happy with the outcome. Presently, it's more about the present. The song has changed to 'Depend on me' by Bryan Adams. I like him, because he's sung some of the nicest romantic songs I've ever heard, my favorite being 'Have you ever really loved a woman?' I like it because I have. However, in this free flowing writing, I better should not spill my life's story, since writing an autobiography now after breaking this writing block is not my intention.

One thing that strikes my mind right now is the feeling of being good at something. It's an amazing feeling when you realize that you're really good at something. The feeling doesn't emerge from the fact that others like you, but rather, it emerges from the fact that you start liking yourself. When you feel your status messages are worthy of being preserved, when you feel the tunes in your head are worthy of being recorded, the feeling of having an idea worth pursuing and the feeling of a person worth sharing your life with just because you're good at making him/her happy; these are some of the most enchanting moments one would ever encounter. I feel good to feel good about something that I do, something that I am capable of doing. As a matter of truth, I also believe that no great thing can ever be achieved without that good feeling from within. I'm feeling good right now, since I'm actually in now, with Jagjit Singh's wonderful voice singing 'Kabhi yun bhi to ho' in the background. I like music. I like writing. And I like living. I think that's my dose of free writing, it's time to get back to the task waiting to reach its end, time to tell the story, time to live another world - within a book.

Good night. Thanks for listening. :)

Excerpt

An excerpt from the book under construction. Hope you like it.

'Another self-dominated diary entry got trapped between the heavy bundle of pages above it. There weren’t many pages left below to fight back the burden above. The page, carrying the helpless scribble of a struggling artist, succumbed to the weight and got immersed in gruesome darkness. The darkness that needed another sunrise of hope to relinquish itself.'

That Little Town

Once upon a time, there was a little town. It was a place where inhabitants were more popular than landmarks, where being social was a part of living, where people were satisfied with whatever little they possessed, where the status of a person was determined by his grace rather than his assets, where being cordial was not a necessity but a habit, where good food was meant to be shared with all the known persons, where a cricket ball hitting a window pane would instigate reprimand but not duels. I used to live in one such town. It was little, much like a cocoon, with a world of its own, away from the world that was outside.

The world is no more the same. It has changed. They say that change is good. But I could never accept it. My little town has been polluted. Polluted with jealousy, greed and amoralilty. In the race of being modernized, the cocoon that gave my little town its life, has been vandalized. Where has the belongingness gone? Why the neighbours who were earlier considered as 'Uncles' and 'Aunts' are now no more than 'people of Flat No. 121'? Why achievements have become more important than happiness? I miss my little town. Sometimes, I feel it to be illusionary, a figment of my imagination, maybe my childish sensibility couldn't unravel the stratas of the hidden feelings that lay beneath that superficial affection. Or maybe, the world indeed has changed. Change, that's not good. Not good at all. Amen.

They tried to change. They have changed.

They didn't try to change. They got changed.

They resisted change. They were changed.

They were dumb. They haven't changed.

P.S. Well, I'm dumb. Like it, only if you're dumb too.

Happy Ending

There is a reason why people like a happy ending. It makes you feel good, despite all the struggles that occurred before.

I've had a happy ending. The end is paving way to a new beginning, where things would turn different. Not that I want things to change, but I can't help the fact that they themselves are changing.

P.S. I like my state. It's called singlehood.

On indifference

I am not the same person that I used to be when I migrated from my hometown to Delhi. I've changed. I used to be a shy, self-conscious, opinionated, rigid and determined nerd who had an opinion about every single thing in this universe, who disliked things which didn't fit in his rationale. Now, I'm sort of detached to majority of the things in this universe. It's not that I've stopped caring, it's just that I've regulated things that I care about. You may call that I've become selfish.

Being selfish has its own pros and cons. It makes you focussed about your ambitions, but at the same time it makes you indifferent to majority of things which others think should bother you. The end result is that you unconsciously might end up hurting people - not by doing anything, but rather by doing nothing. Initially, people expect you to respond to things that you're indifferent about. But when they don't get the desired response, they feel bad and stop expecting. You get what you want - no expectations from you and they get to know what they should expect from you - no response. The end result is a different kind of freedom, which seems solitude at first and becomes loneliness later. Because when you come out of your ocean of self, you realize that there is nobody around to share your 'self' with. Your indifference becomes the cause of your desolation and thus, indifference gestating inside you gives birth to its offspring - depression.

Dear Mother

Dear Mother,

I've been fortunate to be the reason for your happiness since my early childhood. Perhaps that's why you named me Harsh. It has always been my endeavour to make you proud of me in things that I give my heart and soul into. Lately, I haven't been able to give you that contentment which you had always expected of me. I'm not sorry about it since the truth of the matter is that the thing that I've given my heart and soul has still not borne fruits and is going to take a long time. And you've got to wait, along with me, to celebrate the fruits of my passion.

The road that I've currently chosen is tough, full of prickles and deadly thorns, with the presence of countless possibilities - both heartening and disheartening. It's going to take a lot of time to be able to achieve anything which would make you proud of me, which would enable you to say proudly to your friends that your son is an entrepreneur, that your son pursued something different and made a mark of himself. The road is deadly; it might be possible that in the middle of the journey, I get so bruised up that I am not able to carry myself further. Forgive me, if that happens. The road is treacherous; it might be possible that at the end of the day, I sit back and realize that I've made tons of mistakes that I shouldn't have. Reinforce my faith, if that happens. Because it was you who taught me not to fear mistakes while chasing my dreams. I wouldn't stop. The road is unknown; it's possible that at the end of the day I realize that the road was not worth going into and I've to crawl back to the place where I began. Congratulate me on my experience, if that happens. I know that my path is risky. But that's what excites me. That's what gives me a thrill. That's what tells me the meaning of this life. That's what I attain bliss from. And that's what defines me.

Believe me mother, when I say that I heartily enjoy what I'm doing, despite knowing the facts that I might not be able to lead a comfortable life for the next two years, that I've become the least prospective bridegroom in consideration for any of the well-off families, that you have to fight the whims of the society which constantly pesters saying that I had been stupid in choosing the road less travelled over the conventional options, that it might ruin my chances of living a life free from hassles, that I might end up being bankrupt if things don't turn out as expected. The good thing is I'm not scared. The better thing is there is no bad thing, just because of the good thing. I'm ready to take the leap - leap into the unknown just to know where my end lies - across the sky or beneath the ground. I can't promise you success but I can promise you my hard-work, and I'll make sure that I leave no stones unturned to touch my dream to perfection.

Coming from your womb, I'm fortunate to be endowed with all your traits - determination, passion and love - which gives me the confidence to trudge this dangerous path with unmatched vigour and resilience to make the impossible possible. From my end, I can assure you that I wouldn't stop, not until my last breath - to sculpt my passion into a living icon. Please don't worry, and be happy, just because I'm happy.

With love and faith.

Your Son

Harsh

Promise

Those words, simple yet appealing
Touched my heart, the heart that was yours
It was a promise
That was to be kept, forever

Life had a reason
A reason to love, live and love again
It was a promise
That was to be kept, forever

Emotions meandered and meandered,
Until, it entered a road of bliss -
It was a promise
That was to be kept, forever

I thought, I felt and I believed
We were destined to be together
It was a promise
That was to be kept, forever

I thought you were to keep it.
You thought I were. The result was -
It remained a promise
That was to be kept, forever

YOU

I am feeling blue.

Lonely, but not alone.

In a place, that I call home.

The reason, being nothing new

Is that I am missing you.

10 things to do in 2011:

1. Write two books - Can't allow my laziness to spoil me anymore.
2. Travel abroad twice - Sometimes, extravagant breaks add spice to your life. My camera will rot in dust, otherwise.
3. Gym - God hasn't given me a pretty face. Why not make my body pretty?
4. Earn a B.Tech degree - Otherwise, my parents would bestow me a get-out decree.
5. Become very famous - yes, that drives me. Is it bad?
6. Date hot chicks - Yes, I'll be getting out of IIT, this year.
7. Set-up a plush office in Mumbai or Gurgaon - You got to make your parents happy, don't you?
8. Network with big people - my job requires me to do so. I like it. Who doesn't like smartness?
9. Drumming - Come on, there should be a place to vent out my anger.
10. Jog - who knows, I might be lucky to meet you!

Here I am

The placements have been the most amazing experience in my IIT life. I've got to learn so much about people, about professions, about companies, about competencies and about life. Besides that, I've got so many interesting stories to pen down, which I am incorporating in my coming novel.

Talking about life, it has two ways. One way leads you to where you want to be. Other leads you to where you need to be. Often, the latter takes you to the prior.

The Road Less Travelled

The sad fact of life is that when you want to trudge into a road less travelled, people don't show faith in you. Rather than appreciating you for going into something out-of-the-league, they try to bring you back to the traditional path. It irritates you.

They can't see what you are seeing. You just have to silently work and nod against all their advices and suggestions, letting them know that they're so right and you've been foolish in your ambitions. The moment of joy comes when someone unexpected comes to you and says your decision is right.

Well, very few people understand passion. Don't expect them to understand. Don't try to make them understand. Just say yes to all their advices and follow what you want. Ultimately, when you will emerge out successful, they would have known that it's not too bad doing something out of the league.

@My friends at IIT: I prepared for consulting just because I dreamt of being in McKinsey. Now that I didn't make it, I've no interest in going into any other consulting firm as a compromise. I've other options available. Hope you understand.

Thanks for reading. Wish me luck in the comments if you appreciate my choice to become a full-time entrepreneur rather than taking up a job.

On Failure

Ha! I experienced failure. It's hard, you know. The effort it takes to overcome the urge to break down, to cry out loud, to droop down and to surrender to the circumstances is immeasurable. The day for which you'd been preparing for months comes and passes by, slapping hard on your cheek saying that you didn't deserve it. Who likes it? You? Me? None of us. I know it's hard. It's harder to be hard in this situation. You can't let your loose side be visible to someone else. Ha! Nobody likes to be seen in tears.

The sun has set, it's pretty dark outside. It's cold. And it's biting. Biting hard. Life is so unfair. You never know when it can turn its back at your face. And trust me, its back looks yuck! It's smelly, dirty and detestable. At the bottom of your heart, you feel like slamming it really hard. Hard - I mean real hard. Things aren't easy, you know. Especially when you've thought so much about it and even thought so much after it ... it seems like a blank wall. They tell you the game isn't over. There are plenty of other opportunities in the coming days. They are silly. They don't know the game that you were preparing for is over. Over. And it's never gonna come back. Sad, isn't it?

I don't know why but I'm feeling a bit like a rider. The destination where I was planning to stop wasn't right, I think. Thankfully, my horse knows where it has to go. And, it's on the right track just because there is someone more intelligent than me who's directing it(read God). It's time to get to know my horse well. Synergy, as it's called, lies here.