Breakfast at Dalhousie Bus Stop I had already decided that I would not extend my stay in Dalhousie. The town is designed to accommodate honeymooning couples and families on a leisure trip (and the parents of DPS students and the army guys). I wanted to get to Dharamshala. So, I booked a hotel room online and … [Read more…]
Sanjay, the caretaker and cook at Hotel Megha View, suggested me a route to explore Chamba region. This involved some kind of timed run using the bus system that runs like a clockwork. He explained that the buses are limited and I had to catch buses at certain times else I would be stranded with … [Read more…]
Trainspotting in Pathankot Pathankot Cantonment (PTKC) was foggy when I got down at 7:15 am. The train was late by over an hour and half. This could be one of the circumstances where I was thankful for a delay. Had it dropped me at 5:30 am, I would have been blinded by poor visibility. Waiting rooms at … [Read more…]
What’s in my bag? Some basic clothes including t-shirts, shorts and a pair of jeans, spare socks, sleeping bag, liner and a bed sheet, warm inners, head cap and neck warmer, a light jacket and a slightly heavier jacket, two pairs of hiking pants, my laptop, medicines, toiletries, electronic equipments like chargers and connectors, a … [Read more…]
NaNoWriMo has been an exhilarating experience for me. I took up the challenge just to test myself. On the 29th day, I wrote the last words, exported a plain text version of the novel and uploaded it for validation. This is what I got. It is just a dumb image that I could have downloaded otherwise. … [Read more…]
At this point in time I have almost completed half of my novel. This constitutes the first and the third acts in the 3-act structure of storytelling. From a length point of view, it is recommended that the first act is about 25% of the novel, the middle act is 50% of the novel and … [Read more…]
Velominati Rule #9: If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period. Today was a holiday for us. After doing a 65 km roundtrip of Chikka Tirupati last weekend, me and one of my colleagues, Ravish Verma, decided to do a longer trip. I asked him to pick the route. He ended up … [Read more…]
I knew this was coming and I would rather tackle it sooner than later. I have sprinted through the easiest part of my novel – the first one third. It was fun to write. The scenes did not carry much burden, plot point or tension and thus, words flowed like a less viscous liquid. I … [Read more…]
Something really bad happened. I fell sick. I wasn’t able to get out of my house this weekend. This also meant that I had more time to write my novel on the first day. I understood a two things. Firstly, planning scenes is like the biggest saviour. Once that scene plays in my head, writing becomes … [Read more…]
