Everyone needs to start somewhere — Kicking things off with a harsh truth — not all of us are equally cut out for productivity. That doesn’t mean we can’t all become productive. We can, absolutely. But the playing field isn’t the same, no matter what influential thinkers will have you believe. The commonly touted belief is…

Those were the glory days — Sometime in 2017, I lost the phone that held my photos from 2016. I’ve lost multiple phones before and since, some to accidents, some to their own cheapness, but this one hurt. It was the phone I had taken with me on my exchange trip to Vienna, a trip I’d…

Six years after graduating, I’m almost glad I went there — Most people who know me as a fiction writer are surprised to hear that I have an MBA, and I can see why. People go to Indian B-schools to get the highest-paying job they can get their hands on, and for that you need a variety of qualities, but creativity…

And whether I want to move here permanently — In May 2022, hubs and I made the move from India to the States. It was a move executed for my spouse’s sake — his job involves working with several Bay Area clients, and the company agreed that it’d make sense for him to live there himself. And I’m a…

Snootiness will get you absolutely nowhere — So you’ve been reading your literary fiction draft and analysing your sentences. And something feels, well, off about them. They make sense, you know that. They follow a sequence, they build up your plot, they convey just enough meaning without going overboard. Except that they’re just…sentences. Of the sort pretty…

When “being strong” becomes its own toxic expectation — Growing up and through my early twenties, I was lucky to have mostly pain-free periods. There’d be occasional twinges, but nothing an Ibuprofen couldn’t solve, and a day or two of mild bloating was the most I’d face in the way of PMS. After I turned 25, it started getting…

It’s surprisingly simple, and beautifully effective — Systems are nice. Systems make the day seem smaller and more in your control. Systems, by default, are structured, certain and repeatable — three things that are musts for daily order, especially if you’re a solopreneur. Except that system failures are a thing. A scary thing. A single mistake rippling…

It’s all too easy to become resentful, but don’t — It’s one thing to feel disheartened by the greats. At the end of the day, you admire them and they’ve earned their stripes. They’re part of the canon. But then there are the contemporary writers. The ones who are aspiring for greatness just like you, only they’re a little further…

Start with a bang, end with a feast — Back when I started writing short stories, I got teased a lot by my boyfriend (now husband) about how often I killed off my characters. “But that’s just the story,” I’d protest, “it called for a death.” “Well, it’s interesting that you keep dreaming up worlds where people need to…