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Time your blog, social media, podcast, and video posts to these significant dates and events Images (from L to R): GR Stocks | Unsplash, ian dooley | Unsplash, IMDb Did you miss timing your social media post to a movie star’s birthday? Or did it escape your mind that there was a “food day” you could have dedicated one of your cooking-related write-ups to? Whether you’re a professional content marketer or an up-and-coming influencer, whether you’re a freelance journalist or the editor of a widely read publication, let’s not make these mistakes in July. Else, you’ll miss out on trending hashtags and other exciting opportunities that can do wonders for your branding. That’s why I’ve compiled this handy calendar for July for you to benefit from. This comprehensive calendar features Indian and international festivals, fun food days, celebrity birthdays, movie anniversaries, popular sporting tournaments, and various globally significant occasions, among several others. Put it to good use, and you’ll come across as a well-informed authority on current trends and events. So, grab this chance to make your posts timely and topical and establish yourself as a shrewd content marketer. This one-stop calendar is all you need. Month-long events Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Bank Account Bonus Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Blueberry Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Cellphone Courtesy Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Dry July (Australia) Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Grilling Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Horseradish Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Hot Dog Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Ice Cream Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Independent Retailer Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Picnic Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Plastic Free July Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – Sarcoma Awareness Month Thu, 1–Sat, 31 – World Watercolour Month Multiple-day events Fri, 11 June–Sun, 11 July – Men’s Football: UEFA European Championship Sat, 13 June–Sat, 10 July – Men’s Football: CONMEBOL Copa América 2021 Sat, 26 June–Sun, 18 July – Tour de France Sun, 27 June–Sat, 3 July – Eye Safety Awareness Week Sun, 27 June–Sat, 3 July – Helen Keller Deaf-Blind Awareness Week Mon, 28 June–Sun, 11 July – Wimbledon Thu, 1–Wed, 7 – Clean Beaches Week Mon, 5–Sun, 11 – Great British Pea Week Tue, 6–Sat, 17 – Cannes Film Festival (where I hope one of my stories, particularly PiKu & ViRu, eventually makes it; for now, buy/download, read, and review my book here) Fri, 9–Sun, 18 – Calgary Stampede (Canada) Mon, 12–Sat, 17 – World Mask Week Sat, 17–Sun, 25 – Moth Week Sun, 18–Sat, 24 July – Zookeeper Week Fri, 23 July–Sun, 8 August – Tokyo Olympics Fri, 23 OR Sat, 24 July–Sun, 22 August – Shravan Month (North India) Single-day events Thu, 1 – CA Day (India) Thu, 1 – Canada Day Thu, 1 – Creative Ice Cream Flavours Day Thu, 1 – Doctors’ Day (India) Thu, 1 – Gingersnap Day Thu, 1 – International Joke Day Thu, 1 – International Reggae Day Thu, 1 – Madeira Day (Portugal) Thu, 1 – Princess Diana’s birthday Thu, 1 – #SecondHalfOfTheYear Thu, 1 – #10YearsOfDelhiBelly Fri, 2 – Anisette Day Fri, 2 – Comic Sans Day (first Friday of July) Fri, 2 – Euro 2020 Quarter-Final Fri, 2 – I Forgot Day Fri, 2 – Lindsay Lohan’s birthday Fri, 2 – Margot Robbie’s birthday Fri, 2 – The Tomorrow War release on Amazon Prime Video Fri, 2 – World Sports Journalists Day Fri, 2 – World UFO Day Fri, 2 OR Sat, 3 – #25YearsOfIndependenceDay Sat, 3 – Air Conditioning Appreciation Day Sat, 3 – Belarus Independence Day Sat, 3 – Chocolate Wafer Day Sat, 3 – Compliment Your Mirror Day Sat, 3 – Disobedience Day Sat, 3 – Eat Beans Day Sat, 3 – Euro 2020 Quarter-Final Sat, 3 – Harbhajan Singh’s birthday Sat, 3 – Hop a Park Day Sat, 3 – International Cherry Pit Spitting Day (first Saturday of July) Sat, 3 – International Day of Cooperatives Sat, 3 – International Plastic Bag Free Day Sat, 3 – Stay out of the Sun Day Sat, 3 – #30YearsOfTerminator2JudgmentDay Sat, 3 – Tom Cruise’s birthday Sun, 4 – Barbecued Spareribs Day Sun, 4 – Build a Scarecrow Day (first Sunday of July) Sun, 4 – Caesar Salad Day Sun, 4 – F1 Austrian Grand Prix Sun, 4 – Independence from Meat Day Sun, 4 – Jackfruit Day Sun, 4 – Post Malone’s birthday Sun, 4 – US Independence Day Mon, 5 – Algeria Independence Day Mon, 5 – Apple Turnover Day Mon, 5 – Bikini Day Mon, 5 – Mechanical Pencil Day Mon, 5 – PV Sindhu’s birthday Mon, 5 – Venezuela Independence Day Mon, 5 – Workaholics Day Tue, 6 – Dalai Lama’s birthday Tue, 6 – Euro 2020 Semi-Final Tue, 6 – 50 Cent’s birthday Tue, 6 – #5YearsOfSultan Tue, 6 – Frida Kahlo’s birthday Tue, 6 – Fried Chicken Day Tue, 6 – Kevin Hart’s birthday Tue, 6 – Kissing Day Tue, 6 – Ranveer Singh’s birthday Tue, 6 – Sylvester Stallone’s birthday Tue, 6 – Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day Tue, 6 – Umbrella Cover Day Tue, 6 – Virtually Hug a Virtual Assistant Day Tue, 6 – World Zoonoses Day Wed, 7 – Euro 2020 Semi-Final Wed, 7 – Father-Daughter Take a Walk Day Wed, 7 – #15YearsOfPiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Wed, 7 – Global Forgiveness Day Wed, 7 – Macaroni Day Wed, 7 – MS Dhoni’s birthday Wed, 7 – Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s birthday Wed, 7 – Strawberry Sundae Day Wed, 7 – Tell the Truth Day Wed, 7 – World Chocolate Day Thu, 8 – Math 2.0 Day Thu, 8 – Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day Thu, 8 – Neetu Kapoor’s birthday Thu, 8 – SCUD (Savour the Comic, Unplug the Drama) Day Thu, 8 – Sourav Ganguly’s birthday Thu, 8 – #10YearsOfMurder2 Thu, 8 – Video Game Day Fri, 9 – Argentina Independence Day Fri, 9 – Guru Dutt’s birthday Fri, 9 – Kebab Day (second Friday of July) Fri, 9 – National Students Day (India) Fri, 9 – New Moon Night Fri, 9 – Sugar Cookie Day Fri, 9 – Tom Hanks’ birthday Sat, 10 – Don’t Step on a Bee Day Sat, 10 – Kitten Day Sat, 10 – Nikola Tesla’s birthday Sat, 10 – Piña Colada Day Sat, 10 – Sofia Vergara’s birthday Sat, 10 – Teddy Bear Picnic Day Sun, 11 – Blueberry Muffin Day Sun, 11 – Cheer up the Lonely Day Sun, 11 – Collector Car Appreciation Day Sun, 11 – Euro 2020 Final (as per CEST) Sun, 11 – Giorgio Armani’s birthday Sun, 11 – Mojito Day Sun, 11 – #7YearsOfHumptySharmaKiDulhania Sun, 11 – World Population Day Mon, 12 – Bimal Roy’s birthday Mon, 12 – Different Coloured Eyes Day Mon, 12 – Eat Your Jell-O Day Mon, 12 – Etch a Sketch Day Mon, 12 – Malala Yousafzai’s birthday (a.k.a. Malala Day) Mon, 12 – New Conversations Day Mon, 12 – Pecan Pie Day Mon, 12 – Simplicity Day Mon, 12 – Town Criers Day (second Monday of July) Mon, 12 – #2YearsOfSuper30 Tue, 13 – Embrace Your Geekness Day Tue, 13 – French Fry Day Tue, 13 – Harrison Ford’s birthday Tue, 13 – International Rock Day Tue, 13 – #20YearsOfAks Tue, 13 – #20YearsOfLegallyBlonde (as per the release date in North America) Tue, 13 – #20YearsOfTumBin Wed, 14 – Bastille Day Wed, 14 – Conor McGregor’s birthday Wed, 14 – #15YearsOfGolmaal (or #15YearsOfGolmaalFunUnlimited) Wed, 14 – Grand Marnier Day Wed, 14 – International Non-Binary People’s Day Wed, 14 – International Nude Day (not to be taken literally!) Wed, 14 – Mac and Cheese Day Wed, 14 – Pandemonium Day Wed, 14 – Shark Awareness Day Thu, 15 – Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday of July) Thu, 15 – Give Something Away Day Thu, 15 – Gummi Worm Day Thu, 15 – I Love Horses Day Thu, 15 – Malik release on Amazon Prime Video Thu, 15 – Orange Chicken Day Thu, 15 – Pet Fire Safety Day Thu, 15 – Tapioca Pudding Day Thu, 15 – #10YearsOfHarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallowsPart2 Thu, 15 – #10YearsOfZindagiNaMilegiDobara (or #10YearsOfZNMD) Thu, 15 – World Youth Skills Day Fri, 16 – Corn Fritter Day Fri, 16 – Fresh Spinach Day Fri, 16 – Guinea Pig Appreciation Day Fri, 16 – Katrina Kaif’s birthday Fri, 16 – Toofan release on Amazon Prime Video Fri, 16 – World Snake Day Sat, 17 – Peach Ice Cream Day Sat, 17 – Slovakia Independence Day Sat, 17 – Tattoo Day Sat, 17 – World Day for International Justice Sat, 17 – World Emoji Day Sat, 17 – Yellow Pig Day Sun, 18 – Bhumi Pednekar’s birthday Sun, 18 – Caviar Day Sun, 18 – F1 British Grand Prix Sun, 18 – Ice Cream Day (third Sunday of July) Sun, 18 – Insurance Nerd Day Sun, 18 – International Nelson Mandela Day Sun, 18 – Kristen Bell’s birthday Sun, 18 – Priyanka Chopra’s birthday Sun, 18 – Richard Branson’s birthday Sun, 18 – Smriti Mandhana’s birthday Sun, 18 – Soundarya’s birthday Sun, 18 – Sri Lanka vs India men’s cricket ODI 1 of 3 Sun, 18 – Vin Diesel’s birthday Sun, 18 – World Listening Day Mon, 19 – Benedict Cumberbatch’s birthday Mon, 19 – Brian May’s birthday Mon, 19 – Daiquiri Day Mon, 19 – Get Out of the Doghouse Day Tue, 20 – Ashadhi Ekadashi Tue, 20 – Colombia Independence Day Tue, 20 – Gisele Bündchen’s birthday Tue, 20 – International Chess Day Tue, 20 – Lollipop Day Tue, 20 – Moon Day Tue, 20 – Narappa release on Amazon Prime Video Tue, 20 – Naseeruddin Shah’s birthday Tue, 20 – Sri Lanka vs India men’s cricket ODI 2 of 3 Tue, 20 – Space Exploration Day Tue, 20 – World Jump Day Wed, 21 – Bakri Id (Eid-ul-Adha) Wed, 21 – Belgian National Day Wed, 21 – Ikkat release on Amazon Prime Video Wed, 21 – Junk Food Day Wed, 21 – Lamington Day Wed, 21 – Robin Williams’ birthday Thu, 22 – Hammock Day Thu, 22 – Mango Day Thu, 22 – Penuche Fudge Day Thu, 22 – Pi Approximation Day Thu, 22 – Sarpatta release on Amazon Prime Video Thu, 22 – Selena Gomez’s birthday Thu, 22 – Spooners (Spoonerism) Day Thu, 22 – #10YearsOfSingham Thu, 22 – World Brain Day Fri, 23 – Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s birthday Fri, 23 – Daniel Radcliffe’s birthday Fri, 23 – Full Moon Night Fri, 23 – Gorgeous Grandma Day Fri, 23 – Himesh Reshammiya’s birthday Fri, 23 – India vs Sri Lanka men’s cricket ODI 3 of 3 Fri, 23 – International Yada, Yada, Yada Day Fri, 23 – Peanut Butter and Chocolate Day Fri, 23 – Sprinkles Day Fri, 23 – Suriya’s birthday Fri, 23 – Vanilla Ice Cream Day Fri, 23 – Woody Harrelson’s birthday Sat, 24 – Amelia Earhart’s birthday Sat, 24 – Asalha Puja Sat, 24 – Azim Premji’s birthday Sat, 24 – Cousins Day Sat, 24 – Drive-Thru Day Sat, 24 – Guru Purnima Sat, 24 – International Self-Care Day Sat, 24 – Jennifer Lopez’s birthday Sat, 24 – #1YearOfDilBechara Sat, 24 – Tell an Old Joke Day Sat, 24 – Tequila Day Sun, 25 – Carousel Day Sun, 25 – Hot Fudge Sundae Day Sun, 25 – India vs Sri Lanka men’s cricket T20 1 of 3 Sun, 25 – Jim Corbett’s birthday Sun, 25 – Matt LeBlanc’s birthday Sun, 25 – Parents’ Day (fourth Sunday of July) Sun, 25 – #7YearsOfKick Sun, 25 – Thread the Needle Day Sun, 25 – Wine and Cheese Day Mon, 26 – All or Nothing Day Mon, 26 – Aunt & Uncle Day Mon, 26 – Coffee Milkshake Day Mon, 26 – Helen Mirren’s birthday Mon, 26 – Holistic Therapy Day Mon, 26 – Jason Statham’s birthday Mon, 26 – Mick Jagger’s birthday Mon, 26 – One Voice Day Mon, 26 – Sandra Bullock’s birthday Tue, 27 – Bagpipe Appreciation Day Tue, 27 – Chicken Finger Day Tue, 27 – Crème Brûlée Day Tue, 27 – Gary Gygax’s birthday (a.k.a. Gary Gygax Day) Tue, 27 – Kriti Sanon’s birthday Tue, 27 – Scotch Day Tue, 27 – Take Your Houseplant for a Walk Day Tue, 27 – Take Your Pants for a Walk Day Tue, 27 – Walk on Stilts Day Wed, 28 – Dhanush’s birthday Wed, 28 – Dulquer Salmaan’s birthday Wed, 28 – #15YearsOfOmkara Wed, 28 – Huma Qureshi’s birthday Wed, 28 – Milk Chocolate Day Wed, 28 – Peru Independence Day Wed, 28 – Sri Lanka vs India men’s cricket T20 2 of 3 Wed, 28 – World Hepatitis Day Thu, 29 – Chicken Wing Day Thu, 29 – Chili Dog Day Thu, 29 – International Tiger Day (read my review of the Vidya Balan movie Sherni here) Thu, 29 – Intern Day (last Thursday of July) Thu, 29 – JRD Tata’s birthday Thu, 29 – Lasagna Day Thu, 29 – Lipstick Day Thu, 29 – Rain Day Thu, 29 – Sanjay Dutt’s birthday Thu, 29 – Sri Lanka vs India men’s cricket T20 3 of 3 Fri, 30 – Arnold Schwarzenegger’s birthday Fri, 30 – Cheesecake Day Fri, 30 – Christopher Nolan’s birthday Fri, 30 – Father-in-law Day Fri, 30 – Henry Ford’s birthday Fri, 30 – Hilary Swank’s birthday Fri, 30 – International Day of Friendship Fri, 30 – Paperback Book Day Fri, 30 – Share a Hug Day Fri, 30 – Sonu Nigam’s birthday Fri, 30 – Sonu Sood’s birthday Fri, 30 – System Administrator Appreciation Day Fri, 30 – Talk in an Elevator Day (last Friday of July) Fri, 30 – World Day against Trafficking in Persons Sat, 31 – Avocado Day Sat, 31 – Harry Potter’s birthday Sat, 31 – JK Rowling’s birthday Sat, 31 – Kiara Advani’s birthday Sat, 31 – Mutt Day Sat, 31 – #1YearOfLootcase Sat, 31 – #1YearOfRaatAkeliHai Sat, 31 – #1YearOfShakuntalaDevi Sat, 31 – Raspberry Cake Day Sat, 31 – Uncommon Instrument Awareness Day Sat, 31 – World Ranger Day Last updated on Tue, 27 July 2021 at 9.04 p.m. The calendar also reflects the new Sri Lanka vs India men’s cricket fixtures and the corrected dates for Zookeeper Week.

Look around you, and there’s enough material to fuel a lifetime’s stock of blog entries, social media posts, videos, and more Image: THE 5TH | Unsplash Who says you have to wait for inspiration to strike or a trip of a lifetime to materialise for your blog or social media posts to happen? Observe your daily routine activities—there’s infinite potential in them to become page-view-driving blog posts and shareable social-media content. Who knows, if you have enough content covered, you could even have a book or TV show in your hands! (Fun fact: PiKu & ViRu was born from a series of journal entries around a period in my life! Because I had these notes ready, writing the first draft became much easier for me. Buy/download/read/review the book if you haven’t yet.) This is your life—unique in its own way and, hence, a story in itself! You don’t really need something extraordinary to take place. So, how can you mine content from your daily activities at home? I’ll show you right here. If you have any ideas of your own, please feel free to add them in the comments below. In no time, you’ll have a huge content bank that will act as your own property and legacy. Imagine. Activity #1: Watching movies and TV shows What to do: Use a note-taking app to jot down thoughts and observations on your phone. This makes review writing and even brainstorming for your own movie or show so much easier later on. Let these notes be in shorthand or your own code lingo. Feel free to ditch all rules of grammar and language. Even easier: Save your thoughts, opinions, musings on a recording app, then transcribe them later while writing a review or scripting your own film or show. Or turn the lot into a podcast! Even, even easier: Take a pic of yourself watching the movie or of the device in its setting. Even, even, even easier: Screenshot a scene and ask your friends/followers to guess what movie it is. You could weave a contest around this. Even, even, even, even easier: Put out your watch-list. Make a log of all the movies and shows you’ve already watched. Do one-word reviews for each. Activity #2: Cooking What to do: If possible, set up a camera for a top-down shooting of your cooking, then edit the clips into recipe videos. Even easier: Write or record one recipe a day. Even if it’s something basic, do it. Even, even easier: Clip some recipes from the internet, try them out, add your own tips, make them your own. Activity #3: Decluttering What to do: Let your decluttering plan become a script and use that to shoot your own “how to declutter” video. You can ask someone to help out with the shoot if you need them. Even easier: Share before–after photos of your decluttering exercise. Activity #4: Handling mundane objects What to do: Make a list of these objects and look for references on stock-photo sites so you aren’t lost for photoshoot ideas. Even a spoon can translate into an arresting picture if you know how to position it! Activity #5: Browsing old albums What to do: Click pictures of each and every photo from your past, and you have an enormous bank of throwback content ready! Browse through similar Instagram posts and see what hashtags they’re using. Activity #6: Reading books What to do: Take pics of yourself reading. Even easier: Try to read on the Kindle app. Jot down thoughts, mark out new words (the new words you learn can also make for great learning posts!), see how you’d have written the book differently. Even, even easier: Take pics of the book in various settings—check out references on stock-photo sites for ideas. Share pics of your bookshelf, too. Even, even, even easier: Download an app that tracks your book-reading. Then, flaunt each day’s progress on your SM Stories. This will also make you accountable to the world for your reading activity and, thus, help you make reading a daily, regular habit. Even, even, even, even easier: Publish a list of books you want to read in a particular time frame. Activity #7: Eating What to do: Take photos of as many meals as possible. Even easier: Make a bucket list of all the foods you want to try. Activity #8: Ordering food from outside What to do: Take food shots. Speak aloud your thoughts so you have a review. Even easier: Make a list of all the restaurants you want to eat from. Activity #9: Social-media and internet browsing What to do: Bookmark your favourite posts for inspiration, then do your own version or take on them. Even easier: Turn your old wisecracking content on Facebook, Twitter, or Quora into quote posts for Instagram. Stitch together multiple photos into a video or GIF. Even, even easier: See if there’s an Instagram version of what you’ve just shared on Twitter and put it on your Insta Stories. Even, even, even easier: Play online quizzes (such as those on BuzzFeed) and share your results with the world. Even, even, even, even easier: Share your friends’ creations, businesses, or events. It costs nothing, yet it’ll do your friends a lot more deal of good than anything else. Activity #10: Exercising What to do: Take pics of yours while exercising or click a post-workout selfie. Even easier: Download a fitness-tracking app and share your daily achievements with the world. (Even if you don’t log 10,000 steps a day, that’s alright. The public motivation will only help you further.) Even, even easier: Flaunt your diet and exercise plans and logs. Even, even, even easier: Share the video link of the workout you did on a particular day. Activity #11: Music What to do: Sing something and share it on social media or through an app like Smule. Even easier: Make a playlist and share it with the world. Even, even easier: Share the link or video of the song you’ve just listened to. Activity #12: Dating What to do: Write out your dream date (refer to my previous blog post on this subject for ideas) and log your dating anecdotes. Even easier: Make a list or vision board of all the experiences you want to try with your partner. Activity #13: Work What to do: Browse for your favourite work looks and curate them. (This is also your chance to take a shot at affiliate marketing). Collect your dream workplace destinations and make a vision board out of them. Note down the qualities of your ideal boss or coworker. Even easier: Take pics of your workspace and share them. Even, even easier: Tell us what your schedule is like. Even, even, even easier: List out the skills you’d like to learn. Activity #14: Self-reflection What to do: Share your life lessons and scatter them over a series of blog posts, based on the theme. Even easier: Do you have any unanswered questions or problems? Compile all of them. Even, even easier: List out your short-, medium-, and long-term goals. Put them out into the larger world. Even, even, even easier: Share links of the motivational talks you’ve just watched or listened to. Talk about the charities you donate, contribute to, or volunteer for. Activity #15: Shopping The obvious: Share a picture of your shopping cart—offline or online. Share product reviews. What else to do: Make a wish list of your favourite products and share them with the world. Feel free to include expensive luxury items, too. Even better: Share whatever product research you do and guide your friends and followers on what to purchase. Activity #16: Article reading The obvious: Share links to the articles you’ve read. What else to do: Blog your opinion on an article, share it on social media, leave a comment below the article along with your blog URL. Even easier: Compile a list of articles you’ve read in a particular time frame and make a blog post out of it. Activity #17: Conversations The obvious: Share any interesting conversations that you overhear or are a part of—with any need for permissions taken care of, of course. Even better: Whenever you get to interact with an esteemed personality, ask them for life or career advice and share it as a quote post. Activity #18: Playing with your pets What to do: Film or click yourselves in a variety of settings and poses. Ditto for any soft toys you may have. Refer to stock-photo sites for ideas and inspiration. Activity #19: Gaming The obvious: Share results, as well as frustrations. Even easier: Make a list of games you want to play. Make a list of your all-time favourite games. Activity #20: Grooming What to do: Try out make-up and hairstyling tutorials and provide your own take on them. Review and compare various products. Even easier: Make a series of “look books”. Even, even easier: Share your skin- and hair-care routine.

I also list out my 5 favourite moments from the film Within the first few minutes of Amit Masurkar’s Sherni, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, you realise that it isn’t tigers who are predators. It’s humans. Especially those seeking to politicise every matter available. These are the chief forces our protagonist Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) is up against. A forest officer for nearly a decade now, Vidya has recently been posted as a DFO in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh. Just like a caged animal, she’s unhappy with her career and feels trapped in it for its failure in providing her with any growth or progress. I was reminded of PiKu here, who, too, isn’t initially happy with her underpaid content-writing job. (Using this as an excuse to plug in my book PiKu & ViRu :) Buy/download now if you haven’t yet.) Moreover, Vidya is away from her Mumbai-based husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda), who recommends that she stick to her job anyhow. The reason for his insistence is easy to guess: his own employment is on the line due to the economic recession. And then, one day, Vidya receives a phone call. About a tigress on the loose. The animal is seeking another un-encroached habitable land. While the tigress goes on her quest, the villagers along the way need to be alerted and protected. The tigress needs some safety, too. Sounds like a straightforward piece of work, doesn’t it? Not really. While the job should be straightforward and simple, the matter is also a potential goldmine for the politically ambitious. In no time, a bunch of self-serving candidates show up, who create barriers for Vidya in her mission and add unnecessary stress to the challenge. So, you have: (a) an uncooperative boss named Bansilal Bansal (Brijendra Kala), who’s more fond of poetical shers than the living ones, (b) a gruff local resort owner Pintu (Sharat Saxena), who exploits his political connections to justify his hunting expeditions, (c) a campaigning MLA ironically called GK Singh (Amar Singh Parihar), (d) an aggressive former leader PK Singh (Satyakam Anand), and (e) a backstabbing mentor Akhil Nangia (Neeraj Kabi). Vidya’s biggest ally amid all this is Hassan Noorani (Vijay Raaz), a sincere zoology professor who also works as a DNA-collecting expert. Do the two, along with their team, succeed in overturning these forces and helping the tiger reach her destination? Or do they fail in their mission? This is what Sherni is all about. The best part about this Vidya Balan movie is how the makers have taken regular moments from the daily lives of forest officers and injected them with interesting drama. Together, these slice-of-life bits come to form a highly entertaining and gripping movie. Rakesh Haridas’s cinematography gorgeously captures the greenery of MP’s forests and makes them worth your wanderlust. While Vidya Balan and Vijay Raaz shine in their roles as expected, Sharat Saxena and Neeraj Kabi could have done with some more meat in their characters (can’t help the pun). Even in the case of Vijay Raaz, Hassan’s arc could have ended better. Brijendra Kala is surely in for more big-ticket assignments after this earnest stint. The real show-stealers, though, are the actors playing the villagers and other forest officers. Their raw performances make their characters even more realistic. Sampa Mandal as the farmer Jyoti was fantastic. While Sherni is an overall delight, my biggest grouse was with its ending. It left me underwhelmed and could have been way better. Despite the film’s need to highlight the politics plaguing forest affairs, I was seeking inspiration in this part, not hopelessness. I also had a slight issue with Vidya’s whisky-drinking scene. As a ploy used for highlighting the judgmental attitude of small-town India, especially towards women, it works. But as a trope frequently used in current-day movies and web series to show drinking as a sign of progressive-minded city-bred women, it’s getting tiring now. I’m not saying the scene shouldn’t have been there. It’s just that it could definitely have been made to blend better in an otherwise cohesive movie. Overall, Sherni is an awesome watch, even if a few of its parts may not be to your taste. For sure, this Vidya Balan movie will make you fall in love with our wildlife all over again. My 5 favourite moments from Sherni: Vidya having poha-jalebi The village actor hilariously playing a selfie-posing jungle tourist on stage Whenever the tigress’s cubs arrive on the screen Whenever Vidya’s kitten arrives on the screen The line, “Agar aap jungle mein sau baar jaayenge, toh ho sakta hai tiger aapko ek baar dikhe. Parantu ek baat toh tay hai, ki tiger ne aapko 99 baar dekh liya.” Sherni Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes Directed by Amit Masurkar Written by Aastha Tiku Dialogues by Yashasvi Mishra and Amit Masurkar Featuring Vidya Balan, Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kala, Sharat Saxena, Neeraj Kabi, Sampa Mandal, Satyakam Anand, Amar Singh Parihar, Mukul Chadda, Ila Arun Produced by Vikram Malhotra, Amit Masurkar, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Without this daily habit, these stressful times would probably have taken a toll on me On Sunday, 16 May 2021, I achieved a milestone. I completed #500DaysOfJournaling. TBH, I never thought I’d make it this far. It started on 4 January 2020 as a timepass experiment with Julia Cameron’s famed ‘Morning Pages’ from her celebrated creativity manual The Artist’s Way. The rules are simple: 3 pages of longhand stream-of-consciousness writing first thing in the morning, as soon as I wake up, and before I begin my day’s work and chores. This is the format of journal/diary writing I’ve been using now for more than a year. I didn’t realise how and when my journaling became an automatic daily habit. The timing couldn’t have been better: when the pandemic officially hit our shores two months later, I already had a head start. Yes, there have been bad mental-health days since, but I wonder if I’d have had it tougher without the aid of this everyday practice. I feel it has kept me somewhat anchored amid a raging storm. Also, it would have been difficult for me to commence it in the middle of the pandemic, with all the stress, worry, panic, and chaos around. Daily journaling has become so second nature to me that I didn’t even miss it on the day I was sick to the stomach and rolling in my bed with pain. The stomach ache compelled me to stagger the 3 pages over a couple of hours instead of the 30 minutes I usually take, but I did it. No need to exercise any discipline or willpower here; as I said, it all happened automatically. In fact, I have to summon my discipline and willpower to NOT do it at all! In short, I cannot even imagine a day without this start now. All other appointments can stay on hold—not this one. How daily journaling is helping me Daily journaling has helped me achieve a kind of clarity of thought I never have in all my life before. I’ve become a more solution-oriented person, more assertive, and better able to articulate and express myself, my thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Image: Amritanshu Sikdar | Unsplash I imagine daily writing as a pressure valve for my accumulated stress—an act of emptying my overflowing cup first thing every morning. I visualise how light it feels. I envision decluttering my mind and throwing out all those stupid, irrelevant thoughts that no longer serve me but are unnecessarily occupying my head and blocking the entry of some better ones. I picture myself taking the sting off those nagging, pesky thoughts by giving them the form of inked words on a page and not letting them continue to scare me by simmering and stewing in my head. I think of writing first thing in the morning as a way to cleanse my mind the way I do with my body system in the loo. No wonder it’s called a ‘brain dump’. Even this article by the University of Rochester Medical Center, New York, asserts that daily journaling is worth its benefits, ranging from anxiety control and stress reduction to mood improvement and help with depression. Pairing it with therapy works wonders. In fact, journal/diary writing is the cheapest form of therapy one can get, considering it’s FREE, barring the expense of pens and notebooks, of course. In addition, the pandemic is an unusual situation for the entire world, and we need a weapon to prevent its ravages on our mental health. What’s better than daily journaling here?! As an aside, I get to improve my vocabulary and communication skills and garner tons of writing practice in the process. I tell myself that if I skip one day, I may end up skipping the next one, too. So, I journal every day to derive the maximum benefit from it. 5 tips that help me journal daily Doing it first thing in the morning They say your inner critic and inner editor are still asleep for the first 45 minutes of your waking up. So, if I journal during this window, I find myself less likely to stop in my writing and fuss over my sentence structure, grammar, neatness of handwriting, etc. The key to a solid journaling practice is to avoid all sorts of self-criticism towards your writing. I even use multiple languages at a time, and not just English. My sentences make no sense on most occasions. In short, to silence my inner critic, doing it first thing in the morning is crucial. Also, if I defer journaling to other times of the day, it’d be akin to allowing other people and circumstances to dictate my day, mood, attitude, mindset—everything. I remember postponing a journaling session of mine on one occasion, years before my current Morning Pages practice. I thought I’d journal in the afternoon. But just when I opened my notebook to write, my phone beeped a rejection email for PiKu & ViRu (buy/download here) from a literary agent. Although it’s part and parcel of any author’s life, the email sent me into a tizzy and my mind into utter chaos. I couldn’t focus on anything. Everything was scattered. Journaling was the last thing I wanted to do. That event eventually became the trigger for my daily Morning Pages habit. The fear of experiencing something like this again and jinxing my day by not journaling first thing in the morning is enough to make me subconsciously stick to my habit. Mornings are the only time of the day when the world is yet to wake up and get started on its usual business. So, I make the most of them by employing this time wisely for myself. Because if I don’t take care of myself first, how will I be able to help others? To make it easier to journal first thing in the morning, I keep my notebook and pen close to my bed. That way, I end up picking them over anything else. And I don’t check my phone, except for… Using a white-noise website or app The last thing anyone would want while journaling is to see the flow of their writing interrupted and consequently give up on journaling even before it got a fair chance to become a regular habit. That’s why ‘Do Not Disturb signs’ and a white-noise app help. I use Noises Online for my journaling. I understand not everyone has the bandwidth to avoid disturbances daily. But given that daily journaling is the best therapy for our mental health right now, especially in the absence of good and affordable mental-health infrastructure or resources in our country, we have to find a way to prioritise it over everything else. We’ll only end up thanking ourselves later. Writing for not more than half an hour Too many people understandably back out of journaling because of the time commitment involved and the threat of its interference with other important things in life. So, the best policy is to wake up half an hour early for journaling. Choose your paper size accordingly. I use an A4-size notebook, turn it horizontally, and split the page into two halves. I then fill three of these half-sections each morning. Total time: 25–30 minutes. I write fast enough to ensure I outpace my inner critic and inner editor and not surpass this 30-minute time limit. Trying these prompts for journal writing Let’s face it, not everybody on Earth can have enough material in their life and mind that will fill up their Morning Pages every day without the need for them to stop and think about what to write. In the 500 days that I’ve journaled so far, I’ve gone blank more times than you can imagine. I have 5 solutions for this. I start each entry with carefully worded and targeted affirmations. These set the foundation for my mental make-up. To make them more realistic, I use the words “I’m learning to…” Because there’s no denying that we are learning something or the other each passing moment, right? After the affirmations, I write about the best thing that happened to me on the previous day. This format of diary entry helps me see even a wretched day with a different perspective and in a new light. Then, I write about the one thing I want to do or see happen on that particular day. This allows me to figure out what I want the most in my life at that time. If I can’t think of anything to write and my inner dictation is silent, I just keep writing, “I don’t know what else to write,” or something like that. I try writing this same sentence in multiple ways. In the process, something or the other always comes up. I never try to convert my negative thoughts into positive ones. I try to find solutions, sure, but forcing myself to be optimistic when I’m not is counterproductive. I always endeavour to acknowledge, allow, and accept my thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Keeping my journal to myself, without showing it to anybody Your journal/diary entries are for your eyes only. Else, how are you going to write openly and freely? Never make the mistake of reading your journal/diary entries, lest your inner critic should spring to life and tear you to bits. They say you should read them after a few months, but honestly, I haven’t come around to check them out yet. No time to do so. So, it could be a blessing in disguise. Also, this is no exam that’s going to test you on the format of diary entry you use. Feel free to write your heart out! If you’re inspired by my daily journaling practice to start your own and have the bandwidth to do so, try these tips and prompts for writing and see how your daily journaling turns around your life. If it’s helping me, I can’t see how it won’t help you, too.

Celebrity offenders, show reunions, Dogecoin jokes—this month had it all! Images (from L to R): Screengrabs of YouTube videos by Saturday Night Live, Rajshri, HBO Max (Before you read this, a quick note. I haven’t been at my writing best for the past few days, due to a family crisis. So, please forgive me if the content doesn’t live up to your expectations. God only knows how I’ve been able to put this post together. Thank you, and do continue to show your love to my blog and book if you can!) Last month saw a dip in India’s Covid-19 count, which was somewhat of a relief. But the abysmal pace of vaccination continues to be a bummer. Shoots in Maharashtra stay on hold or are being done elsewhere, and rising unemployment is still a reality. On the other hand, there’s America, which is getting back on its feet following a much better-planned vaccination drive. The scenarios in both countries informed the global media industry, and so the developments that occurred were shaped accordingly. Here’s a round-up of the biggest highlights from the content universe in May 2021. When Amit Kumar wanted to stop the music Veteran singer Amit Kumar opened a can of worms when he expressed his displeasure about the Indian Idol 12 episode he was a guest judge at. It all started when netizens complained of the substandard quality of singing in the musical reality show’s special episode that was dedicated to his father, the melody legend Kishore Kumar. Amit Kumar then announced that he was asked to praise the contestants on the musical reality show, regardless of their singing. And that he found the quality of singing bad enough to feel like stopping the shoot midway. He never said anything at the time of filming but broke his silence much later. Some from his fraternity sided with him, some didn’t. Though, are we surprised at this revelation, given how “real” reality TV is? When Kangana was run-out from Twitter Following a prolonged period of spewing hate and vitriol on social media, Kangana Ranaut saw her Twitter account suspended over a series of problematic tweets on the post-election violence in West Bengal. The Bollywood actor is now active on Instagram, though one of her posts—after her positive Covid-19 diagnosis—compelled the image-sharing platform to delete it for incorrectly calling the deadly virus a “small time flu which got too much press” (sic). Blue checks are no guarantee of credibility, are they? When food brands paired with media biggies April’s highlights included a piece of news about fast-food bigwig McDonald’s and its collaboration with K-pop heartthrob boy band BTS. The result: a new meal combo, timed to the group’s latest single Butter. The burger giant began rolling out the limited-edition offering in May and will continue to do so in the next few days in more countries (the meal is available in India from 4 June). Meanwhile, a bunch of other food brands has also had interesting tie-ups. One of them was Mad Over Donuts, which teamed up with Nickelodeon to come up with a limited-edition line of mango-flavoured donuts. Called the ‘Golmaal Jr. Treat Box,’ the range is themed on Golmaal Jr., the animated show based on the Golmaal comedy franchise by Bollywood filmmaker Rohit Shetty. And then there was Gaana.com and Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Tea’s partnership for a specially curated playlist of Indian classical music compositions. Food and drink are truly the way into one’s stomach as well as heart, so one can’t really go wrong here in this regard. Oh, BTW, did you know BTS’ new single Butter became the highest viewed YouTube video within 24 hours of going live? Now, that’s a smooth record to beat! When Nestlé made some unhealthy confessions Speaking of food, Nestlé dropped a bomb when its papers made some shocking revelations. Apparently, more than 60% of the food corporation’s products fail to meet the established nutrition criteria that are essential for something to qualify as healthy food or drink! Thankfully, the likes of Nescafé pure coffee have been spared the controversy. But what happens to the entire fandom and internet culture surrounding iconic Nestlé brands such as Maggi and Kit-Kat, particularly in India? I guess the most sensible thing anyone can do is read nutrition labels and indulge in moderation, no matter what social media says. When Elon Musk drove Saturday Night Live Besides being the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk had an unusual addition last month to his list of achievements: a comedy show host. The billionaire made his first Saturday Night Live appearance as an emcee and guest star for almost 10 of the comedy show’s sketches. During his SNL monologue, Musk revealed he has Asperger’s syndrome and that he’s the first person with the condition to host the show. (The claim was later debunked when it came to light that comedian Dan Aykroyd, diagnosed with mild Asperger’s, anchored the show in 2003.) Musk’s mother, Maye, joined him on the stage, and the two then joked about Dogecoin, his favorite cryptocurrency, which Musk also did in a few of the sketches he acted in. Subsequently, Dogecoin prices reached a record high on the Thursday after the telecast. The episode was a success; on 9 May, it led SNL to see the second-highest worldwide demand for a series. Clearly, a newsmaker and a few cryptocurrency jokes are all you need. When Babita-ji got booed for the B-word Munmun Dutta, known for playing the popular character Babita-ji from the long-running sitcom Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, used the casteist B-word in one of her social-media videos and faced netizens’ backlash for it. Ditto for Yuvika Chaudhary, whose most famous appearances yet have been in the 2007 blockbuster Om Shanti Om and the reality show Bigg Boss 9. Both actors’ videos stand deleted, both have FIRs registered against them, and both feign ignorance of the word’s connotation. Though it’s hard to believe their claims, it’s still unwise to use a word without knowing what it means or implies. These instances would remind those who’ve read my book, PiKu & ViRu, about ViRu and his use of offensively casteist language as a TV personality. Go buy or download it now if you haven’t yet. When Friends: The Reunion took the world by storm Fans of the blockbuster 90s sitcom Friends clearly had a great month. After all, the show’s six lead stars—Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer—reunited nearly 30 years following the show’s pilot for a special feature. Friends: The Reunion also had guest appearances by David Beckham, Justin Bieber, BTS, Cindy Crawford, Cara Delevingne, Lady Gaga, Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon, and Malala Yousafzai, among many others. The show’s global viewership was surely in the millions, with an estimated 1 million in India alone for the first 7 hours after the premiere. While HBO Max was the streaming platform in the USA, Zee5 aired it in India. Also, if a show is successful (or even a colossal failure), how can there be no memes on it? Though, only one source was enough for meme-makers to mine all their material from—Matt LeBlanc. The 53-year-old actor’s sitting pose turned him into an “Irish uncle” for netizens, and the jokes just kept springing from this point. Despite being unable to age well with time due to content that now seems problematic, Friends still holds its place in many of its fans’ hearts. Hope this trend leads to more show reunions in the future that see some introspections, too. When IPL was suspended After starting out to undented popularity, despite the rising Covid-19 cases in India, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 had to be called off when a few players tested positive for the viral disease. Arrangements then had to be made to send the players home. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which organises the tournament, has faced losses of approximately $270 million (₹2,000 crore) due to the midway suspension, with media-rights income being the largest source of revenue for the property. The championship will now resume in September this year, with the action moving to Dubai instead of continuing in India. When Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp stared at potential bans Buzz was rife last month about a possible ban on the Big Four of social media in India. That’s because they’re yet to comply with the new IT rules enforced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which include the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person, and resident grievance officer. The only app so far to have done so is the homegrown Koo, which boasts 6 million users. Though, it’s said the big ones aren’t far behind and will do the needful in the near future. Do you really believe these apps would be going away forever? When Amrita Rao became the #MemeOfTheMonth Bollywood actor Amrita Rao would never have imagined that an inconsequential scene featuring her in the 2006 romance Vivah would become meme material nearly 15 years after its release. In the scene, Rao’s character in the film, Poonam, offers water to family friend Bhagat-ji (Manoj Joshi) and calls it “jal” in the process. See the video below at 8.08. We don’t know whether it’s because nobody really calls water “jal” in normal parlance and commonly uses the word “paani” instead, but the scene has now captured the internet in a funny way. When Rao herself learned about this trend, she jumped onto the bandwagon with a video of her own. Clearly, Rao has had the last laugh here! When Amazon went “mini” After Amazon Prime, the world’s largest e-tailer has rolled out another video-streaming service, but unlike its predecessor, it’s free to watch. Similar to Flipkart’s in-app streaming feature, Amazon’s miniTV can be accessed within the shopping app for a wide range of videos on food, beauty, fashion, etc., as well as web series. The content is entirely ad-based. This means that should you like a product that’s featured in any of the videos or ads, you can directly purchase it from the online store. In short, with miniTV, Amazon is aiming to become a one-stop solution for all your retail therapy. The miniTV feature is currently available only for Android users; iPhone and mobile-web users are likely to get it in the next few months. When Whisper bled red instead of blue Sanitary-pad biggie Whisper joined the list of brands that now show red liquid instead of the traditionally used blue one to depict period blood in their ads. Last year, Rio likely became the first Indian sanitary-hygiene brand to depict the actual colour of menstrual blood in its ads that featured actor Radhika Apte (who also starred in the 2018 menstruation movie Pad Man). The ads didn’t make any bones about the discomfort we experience during our periods, contrary to the all-smiles route adopted by other ads. Other parts of the world have already been making this colour change since 2017. The red liquid is, indeed, a welcome development. For the first 10 years of my life, I always believed sanitary napkins were like any other napkins, meant to remove moisture from clothes and skin! This was before my mother and cousin enlightened me about the concept. So, yes, the blue liquid is misleading and can cause embarrassing situations for kids. Here’s hoping ALL menstrual-product brands go truthfully red in their ads. Some news from me I was hoping to announce a theme in this post itself for my June blog entries. But given the circumstances, I’ll have to defer the plan to the next or another month. Ditto for the second PiKu & ViRu book. Hopefully, these will happen as expected. Fingers crossed!

How this British series is the epitome of clever writing and incredible acting I can’t believe I haven’t watched Downton Abbey in all these years. Yes, I knew about it, and it has been on my watch list for a while, especially for Maggie Smith. But somehow, I never got around to checking out this blockbuster period drama. But I did, starting a few weeks ago, thanks to Amazon Prime Video’s carousel of recommendations. In fact, I finished viewing the finale episode yesterday and will watch the movie as well. Let me put it this way: Downton Abbey is the most epic thing I’ve ever seen on the small screen. I don’t think I can make do with anything less now, and I’ve realised I have lots more to learn as a fiction writer. The bar for PiKu & ViRu 2 (buy/download, read, and review the first book here) couldn’t have been raised higher. Several factors work in its favour: a larger-than-life setting, exemplary performances, seamless writing, clean and tasteful depiction, and multidimensional characters. Plus, the X-factor you can’t put a finger on but know it’s the very substance that makes something click. No wonder I’ve been on a major binge-watching spree with this British series. Downton Abbey has, indeed, raised the bar for me with respect to film and television content. While, of course, I will have to check out other shows as well, there are some moments from the show I still keep replaying on either YouTube or APV. Here they are in episodic order. When Robert stops Bates from leaving (S1E1) It was this scene that made me realise why Downton Abbey has been such a big deal in global television. Without it, the series just wouldn’t have stood a chance. John Bates (Brendan Coyle) has a humiliating first day of work at Downton Abbey, despite his recruitment by Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), himself. His limp doesn’t arouse much confidence among the other servants, except—ahem—the ladies’ maid Anna (Joanne Froggatt). Partners-in-crime Sarah O’Brien (Siobhan Finneran) and Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier) even team up against him, with the former surreptitiously kicking his troubled leg at an important event and pitting him as the cause of the family’s embarrassment. Consequently, Bates is asked to leave. He’s on his way out when Robert, after a moment’s thought, runs after the car and pulls him out from within. You just can’t stop yourself from going “Woot woot!” at this. Sybil, Gwen, and Tom’s group hug (S1E7) While this bit is one of the show’s sweetest moments, it’s also among the most powerful, as it captures the blurring of all barriers of class and rank. Housemaid Gwen Dawson’s (Rose Leslie) aspirations for a career upgrade don’t go unnoticed by Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay). The youngest—and kindest—Crawley daughter then steps into gear to help Gwen with job applications, interviews, and the required transportation. When Gwen finally gets an offer, the news comes through a phone call that’s incidentally picked up by the chauffeur, Tom Branson (Allen Leech). An ecstatic Branson passes on the news to Sybil, who then informs Gwen. The three celebrate with an overjoyed embrace, only to be interrupted by Downton Abbey’s housekeeper, Mrs. Elsie Hughes (Phyllis Logan). Mrs. Hughes’ words of caution to Tom, after seeing his and Sybil’s hands accidentally entwined together in the process, confirm what was obvious all along: Sybil and Tom’s impending romance, which will go on to plant Tom as one of the most important figures in Downton’s history. When Sir Anthony Strallan saves Tom’s reputation (S3E1) Larry Grey (Charlie Anson), son of Lady Mary’s (Michelle Dockery) godfather Lord “Dickie” Merton (Douglas Reith), is still seething from the fact that Sybil chose Tom, a chauffeur, for her husband over a blue-blooded lad like him. To avenge this humiliation, Larry spikes Tom’s drink during one of the Crawley house’s numerous dinner parties, because of which Tom ends up blabbing out politically charged comments at the Crawley dinner table, much to everyone’s embarrassment. Thankfully, Sir Anthony Strallan (Robert Bathurst), who happened to be the love interest of the second Crawley daughter Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) at the time, intervenes just then with his eyewitness account of Grey’s spiking. Grey spills out the truth and spews a lot of venom in the process, so he’s asked to leave. Before he does, Matthew (Dan Stevens), a distant cousin who’s the Crawley heir presumptive, announces Tom as his best man for his wedding to Mary, who’s also the eldest Crawley daughter. The most amazing part about the scene: Matthew and Robert getting up together from the dinner table in support of Tom following Larry’s insulting confession. Truly, a family that sticks together stays together. When the Crawley women refuse to leave Ethel’s luncheon, despite Robert’s orders (S3E6) Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton), Matthew’s mother, invites the Downton ladies to a luncheon soon after Sybil’s untimely demise from eclampsia. They’re heartily enjoying the food when Robert comes bursting in through the door, ordering everyone to leave immediately. The reason: Isobel’s cook, Ethel Parks (Amy Nutall), took to prostitution to support her illegitimate child after her exit from Downton as a former employee, and Robert, at one of his narrow-minded worsts, expresses fears of losing their goodwill if they ate her food. Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), his wife, however, stays put, and so do their three daughters and even the staunch matriarch Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith). Violet, in fact, quips that it would be a “pity to miss such a good pudding,” right in front of her livid son Robert. This was women's power at its greatest! When Bates steals the letter from Sampson’s coat pocket (S4E10) Barrow was right. Bates’ prison sentence, following the wrongful sentencing for his first wife’s death, had changed him. How else would you explain a self-effacing man like Bates nailing forgery and pickpocketing like a proper criminal? Yes, you read that right. Bates’ character arc passes an interesting point with this scene, wherein he successfully traces a scandalous letter, capable of destroying the Crawleys’ reputation, to the coat pocket of a family acquaintance named Terence Sampson (Patrick Kennedy) and smoothly nicks it from there. Robert’s astonishment comes as a treat, as the Crawleys had given up on ever retrieving that paper. Contrast this scene with Bates’ woe-is-me moments in the first season of Downton Abbey, and you’ll see how far he’s come. When Mr. Drewe takes in Marigold and pledges his loyalty to Edith (S4E10) Here’s another scene that shows how the rich can be so wrong in their assessment of the poor. After Edith’s jilted at the altar by Sir Anthony, she becomes a column writer for a magazine and develops a relationship with its married editor Michael Gregson (Charles Edwards). Gregson wants to tie the knot with Edith, but because his wife is recovering at an asylum, it wouldn’t be easy for him to divorce her in England. So, he moves to Germany to take advantage of its apparently loophole-y marital laws. Unfortunately, he goes missing there (it’s later revealed he’s killed by the Nazis), and then, Edith becomes pregnant. Her paternal aunt, Rosamund (Samantha Bond), takes her to Switzerland under the pretext of a learning holiday. Rosamund pressures Edith to give away Marigold, the baby, to an influential couple in Europe. Edith, however, wants to keep her with the Drewes, a family of tenants at Downton’s estate, so she could be close to her. Rosamund opposes Edith’s idea, as she feels the Drewes would try to profit from the situation. But the supposition is instantly proven wrong when Tim Drewe (Andrew Scarborough) compassionately swears complete secrecy to Edith and forever honours his word. When Tom calls Larry Grey a “bastard” and orders him out of the house (S5E7) Why Lord Merton would want to invite his sons over to a Downton dinner after Larry’s spiking of Tom’s drink is beyond me. Yet, he does, assuming the worst is over. As a result, he’s shocked when his two sons show their bigoted colours and Larry especially takes potshots at Edith for “adopting” Marigold from the Drewes, Tom for his former chauffeur duties (again), Isobel for not being high-status enough to marry their father, and Atticus Aldridge (Matt Barber), the boyfriend of Crawley cousin Rose Maclair (Lily James), for being Jewish. Tom, being the perfect son now more than son-in-law, rises in pure volcanic anger from the chair and asks Larry to get out, while also addressing him with the B-word. Robert seconds Tom, despite not “endorsing his language,” and Carson (Jim Carter), the family’s head butler, instantly signals to the footman, Joseph Molesley (Kevin Doyle), to open the door for the ousted guest. It’s exactly for reasons like these that Tom is one of the show’s most beloved characters after Maggie Smith’s quick-witted Violet Crawley. When Robert’s ulcer bursts and Thomas springs into action (S6E5) This one was shocking and horror-filled, as it came out of nowhere. Robert is diagnosed with a stomach ulcer, but despite all the care and precautions, he frequently experiences abdominal pains that he chooses to neglect. Amid this, Violet drags everyone into a pointless debate so she can retain control of the village hospital instead of seeing it go to a larger organisation as per everyone else’s decision. The stupid argument continues over a grand dinner, but in a way, it’s a good thing because it brings Dr. Clarkson (David Robb), the village doctor, right where he’d be needed. Things seem to lull. And then suddenly, after complaining of even more pains, Robert projectile vomits a fountain of blood, spraying red everywhere. Dr. Clarkson immediately summons Thomas, who was standing right behind Robert, and the otherwise malicious under-butler sincerely rises to the call of duty. That Thomas was formally trained in medicine with Sybil at Dr. Clarkson’s hospital during WWI is another reason why the aged doctor may have chosen him for the moment over anyone else. While the scene itself is frightful, it also made me wonder why Thomas is such a conniving devil when he has so much goodness within. When Violet leaves Robert the best gift ever (S6E7) Violet loses the hospital debate and she’s ousted from the committee. Subsequently, she travels to the south of France to cool down. But before going, she leaves something behind for Robert. And when he unravels the present, it brings joy to everyone in the house. No, I’m not saying anything more—find it out for yourself if you haven’t watched it yet. All I can add is that the gift is truly adorable. When Molesley becomes a teacher (S6E8) If there’s one character who’s got a raw deal through most of Downton Abbey, it’s Joseph Molesley. From facing joblessness after his employer Matthew’s death to being exploited as a lowly footman at Downton, he’s been through a lot. Not to forget the embarrassing drunken dance at the Maclairs’ do in Scotland. He never deserved that. But when Molesley begins tutoring the Downton cook Daisy (Sophie McShera) in her studies, he realises his true passion for education. His enthusiasm for the cause is so infectious, the village teacher sniffs it out and offers Molesley a job at the school. It’s an emotionally moving moment when it happens. Later, Molesley passes the requisite examination and begins taking classes, empowering students to visualise possibilities that seem beyond their reach. His character arc couldn’t have ended on a more amazing note. Keep your handkerchiefs ready for this one, even if you’re watching it on repeat mode.

A round-up of my experiences and experiments with assertive expression around the time of this dangerous cyclone, followed by 11 tips for you Image: Andy T | Unsplash The last seven days have been a roller-coaster one. After my jubilation over pitching to a publication in months, I experienced the true effects of Cyclone Tauktae, which passed by India’s western coast early that week. Yes, it impacted my city, Mumbai. But we never thought our home would be so badly hit as to have a major part of our ceiling collapse. Yes, you read that right. It started off as a few fallen chips of plaster. Dad was taping that section of our ceiling to prevent more of it from landing on the floor in bits and pieces when he had to answer nature’s call. The moment he left, the entire portion came crashing down with a heart-stopping thunderous noise, scattering huge, thick chunks of rubble all over the room and sending the tube light askew. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. Clearly, it was a case of a higher power protecting us. If that wasn’t enough, the same night, once the clean-up and scraping were done, I stumbled upon a triggering Facebook Story that made me shake from the unpleasant feelings it kindled within me. I had to report for my project the next day, but the dual shock meant I couldn’t catch a good night’s sleep, and I feared being unable to type even a single character out of both sleep deprivation and distress. My Morning Pages somehow happened effortlessly as always, and I crossed the #500DaysOfJournaling mark as well. Yet, I was apprehensive it would be the opposite scenario with my professional writing. While in the shower, I made a decision. When I was back in my room, I phoned my client and confided in them about both instances. Yes, both—though I didn’t delve into the details of the second one. I assured them I’d give my work my best shot, and that if I was unable to continue, I’d drop off any time. Needless to say, my client responded with all their permission, cooperation, understanding, and support. Later on, my wifi conked off, so I had to wrap up after half my working day. That was when I realised I was enjoying my work so much I wanted to do a full day of it and felt motivated enough for the same. I wonder if it was due to the interesting nature of the work itself or because I expressed myself assertively to my client, got my thoughts off my chest so that they stopped scaring and bothering me from within, and secured a zero-pressure environment for myself to perform in. Anyway, I used the early time off to catch up on my sleep and woke up only after a full two hours of it. Another unusual thing occurred that day. Bit by bit, I began to gain clarity on several life issues, including the one concerning the Facebook Story. I have two theories about how these aha moments may have happened. Firstly, I think my daily journaling habit may have “emptied my cup” enough to get me the ample amount of headspace I needed to receive insights on these various matters. Secondly, it could have been due to my constant practice at learning to communicate and express myself better. I can now assert that there’s no point bottling up your thoughts, feelings, and emotions, leaving them unaddressed or unexpressed, and letting them occupy a major portion of your mind and screw you from within. There’s nothing brave or courageous about it, contrary to what our culture, films, and TV shows have been teaching us. As for the triggering event on Facebook, I know I’m on my way to a solution, thanks to the increasing clarity of thought I’m getting now. If you’re at a point in life where you’re having a hard time expressing yourself assertively, here are some tips I’ve learned over the week that can help you, too. Remember that speaking out > bottling up Bear in mind you have more to lose by “stewing from within” than expressing what’s going on within you. Not only will the act of concealing your thoughts and feelings wreck your mental and even physiological health. In a professional setting especially, you may also witness instances like falling in the weeds, overwork, or burnout because you didn’t speak on time. Factor in every thought, belief, feeling, emotion, and opinion This is something I would also do while writing PiKu & ViRu (buy/download here). It’s only recently I started applying this mantra to my life situations, though. Don’t leave any emotion—not even the tiniest ounce of it—unaddressed. Take everything into account—including the conflicting and contradictory thoughts and beliefs—while you’re working on your speech or solution. Our unpleasant emotions generally mean they’ve smelled a problem that needs the earliest possible resolution. Trace the origin of your emotions, and you’d have detected the issue at the root. Note it down so you know what needs to be talked about and resolved. Have a solution-oriented mindset When you address the issue with the person concerned, ask “how” questions and operate from the mindset that nothing’s impossible. Don’t be bitchy—offer a solution or request for one. Focus on what you want Visualise what your preferred resolution looks like, define it. If you’re not sure what it is, figure out how you’d like to feel once it materialises—whether you’d be happy, relieved, calm, and at peace. Seek help There’s no harm if you want to consult a trusted someone before having that crucial conversation. In all likelihood, you’ll learn about some fresh angles to your problem you couldn’t have come up with by yourself. Just ensure this person has valid reasons behind discouraging you if they do that. Keep asking “how” questions and insist on getting concrete, action-oriented answers for them that you can implement right away. Try telling them, “What would you do if you were in my place?” This can help the other person see things from your point of view and understand your mindset. Point it out to them if you don’t agree with their advice, suggestions, or remedies. They should think of other satisfying alternatives then. Put everything down on a page Writing down or typing out your thoughts, feelings, solutions can help you see everything in a glance and plan your conversation better. Learn to say no There’s still too much stigma attached to the word ‘no’. We see no-sayers as malicious villains instead of the smart, intelligent, and assertive people they are. So, when your plate gets full or if you’re uncomfortable at the thought of doing something, don’t be hesitant to utter this life-saving word. Brush up your language skills I read books and watch shows such as Downton Abbey, which is a textbook in expressive dialogues. I can’t tell you how useful this British series has been when it comes to weaving words and phrases to creative effect. I’ve also gleaned learnings from my own blog post on the 50 business lessons I’ve learned from Anthony Bourdain’s bestselling book Kitchen Confidential. I’m glad I wrote it—it’s become a bible for my work life now. Language skills also equip you for moments of spontaneity in your conversations. Brace yourself for your inner critic This nasty voice is going to pounce on you before and after you express yourself. At first, it’ll relentlessly discourage you from addressing your issues with the concerned person in the guise of “protecting” you and keeping you safe. After you go ahead with your plan, it’ll beat you up for throwing your life or career under the bus by speaking up and “offending” that person. If this voice bothers you and makes you second-guess, just let some time elapse. Give it a few hours or a day, and this voice will automatically shut up and stop making you feel guilty or regretful. BTW, this blog post titled “Experiencing Guilt and Shame after Speaking up” proved to be of great help to me; do read it. Use “we” language By including this word in your conversation, you essentially tell the other person your problem is theirs, too. They’ll then feel equally compelled to find a solution. Embrace the nervousness, fear, and anxiety—they are inevitable. As my dad says, “Catch the bull by its horns.” Go ahead and speak up, despite your fears and other emotions.

On the occasion of Madhuri Dixit’s birthday weekend, a look back at how this landmark movie of hers is subtly but surprisingly bold even by today’s Bollywood and web-series standards Image: Screengrab of video by YouTube channel Bollywood Classics I was a clueless seven-year-old when my parents dragged my sister (a four-year-old then) and me to watch the 1994 Bollywood movie Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! at Chembur’s Basant Cinema (now revamped as the plush Cubic Mall and Movie Time Cinema). Thrice. They were also planning a fourth trip to Liberty Cinema, where the movie ended up running for 2½ years. Thankfully, the idea didn’t happen. I never understood the hype about this movie. As a matter of fact, I never even understood the movie. How could I? I was just seven at the time. The only memories I have from all three outings are of the crispy, golden samosas from the theatre’s non-AC canteen. Of the malai kofta and butter naan that we had for our post-movie dinner at the nearby restaurant ironically named Shreedevi (now Shreedevi Mélange). And of the onion-sized blue bulbs bordering the screen that would light up and dance around when Madhuri Dixit would. Death was still an unheard-of concept for me, so I had no idea what happened to Renuka Shahane’s character, Pooja. It took me over a decade to realise that Nisha (Madhuri) and Prem (Salman Khan) were a romantic couple and not just two random people gallivanting on screen. I failed to grasp during my childhood why the film’s climax was such a big deal. What were our parents possibly thinking when they took us for this Greek-and-Latin colourfest and expected us to understand it?! I do get it now, though. In 2016, I plunged into the world of screenwriting, thanks to destiny playing its cards, and a year later, I began penning PiKu & ViRu (buy/download, read, and review it here). Watching movies became both work and education for me. And so, one day, I decided to make sense of this enigma of a film. Part of the decision to (re)watch HAHK also had to do with a thread of tweets on my timeline that brutally trolled it, so I was curious to find out whether the film truly deserved the critique. So, did I like the film? I have to admit, ever since I watched it in October 2020, it’s been haunting my mind. I can’t get it out of my head. I now know why I never understood the film as a kid—that’s because it was way ahead of its times. True, the plot revolves around Nisha and Prem’s romance and how their alliance faces a threat following the death of Nisha’s elder sister, Pooja, who’s also Prem’s sister-in-law. (Watch Pooja’s brutal death scene below.) The film is so much more than that, though. There are so many metaphors and symbolisms hiding there in plain sight. Plus, there was some clever and smart filmmaking at play, and the execution married the writing very well (pun unintended). I don’t think my parents ever realised what was going on in it (though they were hooked because they sensed there was something special about the film that they couldn’t put a finger on). To illustrate my point, here are 5 factors that made Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! a bold and experimental movie for its time. Rewatch and take note. I’ve also included writing exercises at the end of each point. Go, hone your creativity with this guide! It disobeyed several filmmaking rules Take a look at any mainstream commercial fiction movie of your choice. Chances are 99% that it follows the traditional 3-act structure of filmmaking, which requires specific plot points to be placed at specific timings in the film. If you’re watching HAHK, poised with a pen and paper to catch the plot points at those designated timings, you’d be stumped—like how I was. The 3-hour film’s first plot twist comes at the 2½-hour mark, instead of the first 20 minutes, and it’s the last half hour of the film where all the drama happens. Did the director, Sooraj Barjatya, do it deliberately? I’d say yes. Take a look at these shots. The left image shows readings of Pooja’s pulse rates when she’s battling for her life after her spine-chilling fall down the stairs. Meaning, how much life she still has in her. The right depicts her pulse rates following her death. Now, why did the director have to use this prop? What role is it playing here? Surely the scene would have still made sense without it. But here’s the point he seems to be trying to make: Happiness is boring. And flat. Just like the Disneyesque first 2½ hours of the film. Dead. Life needs peaks and valleys to be interesting—just like the last hour of the film. Barjatya took a huge risk with filmmaking rules so he could probably make this simple statement. No wonder distributors seemed sceptical. That the movie was such a star-studded affair speaks volumes of the cast and crew, who placed all their faith in the director and what he was attempting. Barjatya did keep those 2½ hours interesting enough to engage our attention. For those of us accustomed to drama and emotion in cinema, these could have never sufficed. It was a huge gamble taken here. Writing exercise #1: Experiment with the timing of your story’s plot points. Is it necessary for the inciting incident to take place in the first 15–20 minutes of your film? Focus on the overall story and the central idea you’re trying to convey and find out what’s right for your story. It had plenty of Freudian exchanges going around Part of the reason I couldn’t discern the romance between Nisha and Prem for a good number of my growing-up years was that there was barely any chemistry between them. In fact, Nisha had more flirtatious exchanges with her brother-in-law and Prem’s brother Rajesh (Mohnish Bahl). The jeeja–saali poem by Rajesh is all the proof needed. Likewise, Prem shared more tactile interactions with his bhabhi Pooja than with Nisha. The jeeja–saali angle was definitely a ploy Barjatya injected to up the tension in the climax. Will Rajesh act on Pooja’s last wish, spelled out in Nisha’s letter, and bow out of his wedding with Nisha? Or will he simply let the wedding continue, given his eyebrow-raising exchanges with Nisha in the past? My stomach still does a belly-flop imagining Rajesh pocketing the letter and acting as if nothing’s happened. Or maybe it’s just my pessimistic side, I don’t know. As for all these aforementioned scenes, there cannot be any other interpretation for them! Writing exercise #2: How would you have Rajesh react to the letter if you were the screenwriter? If you think the film’s ending is perfect, how would Rajesh’s life—as well as his son’s—play out from that point on? BTW, what would you name the son? Keep working on these, and you could have a terrific fan-fic spin-off or sequel in your hands! It showed an older woman–younger man romance Nisha was clearly older than Prem. Take note of these lyrics from the male version of the song Dhiktana. “Kab tak rahoon sabse chhota, aaye koi mujhse chhota.” Someone chhota refers to a baby here—Pooja and Rajesh’s kid, to be precise. That means Prem isn’t expecting his life partner to be younger than him. And if he’s envisioning a future with Nisha, she has to be older than him. This age difference is probably why it didn’t cross the elders’ minds to get Nisha and Prem hitched together. It wasn’t really thinkable back in the day to have a woman marry a younger man. Okay, you may argue about the “computers” scene, where Nisha reveals her course of education, which could make her younger than Prem, who’s an MBA. I would take this scene with a pinch of salt, though. Both computers and MBA are fields that can be pursued at any age. I wouldn’t really gauge the two characters’ ages on the basis of these academic details. There are several Bollywood romance films where the woman is older than the man. HAHK is among the few from its time that hinted at this age difference, even if through a song. There’s also Wake Up Sid and Ki & Ka, but these came after nearly 15 years from HAHK and are still very rare instances. Hope pronouncing such age gaps more directly becomes a regular trend in Hindi cinema. Writing exercise #3: Work out a romance story where the age difference between the two main characters is a key source of conflict, especially due to societal taboos surrounding it. Because there are several movies and TV shows with similar plot lines out there, you’ll need to add a USP of your own. It hinted at an open marriage Pooja and Nisha’s parents (Reema Lagoo, Anupam Kher) appeared to have been in an open marriage. The samdhi–samdhan song has some implicit details. Here’s my guess about the backstory involving these characters. Kailashnath (Alok Nath) had a crush on Reema Lagoo’s character during their college days. But then he must have learned about his best friend Siddharth’s (Anupam Kher) feelings for her. Kailashnath may have sacrificed his love for this reason. The death of Rajesh and Prem’s parents may have further compelled Kailashnath to devote all his time to familial responsibilities and never marry. And when Siddharth must have found out the truth after a few years, he may have wanted his wife—who probably liked Kailashnath—to go her own way, but she obviously decided to stay in the marriage. To assuage his guilt, Siddharth may have asked her to keep her options open in case she changed her mind. Something similar was about to play out years later when Nisha’s wedding is fixed with Rajesh following Pooja’s death, but then he intervenes in time. Please note this is a mere surmise of mine, nothing more :) Writing exercise #4: Try your hand at working on this backstory. See if you have other ideas or theories about the same. It highlighted the lack of mental-health awareness Rajesh goes into a state of shock after Pooja’s death. Gradually, his condition deteriorates into loneliness and melancholy. And Dr. Khan’s (Satish Shah) Rx for these issues is to get Rajesh married another time! Seriously?! Moreover, when Nisha faints after discovering who her real groom is, the doctor dismisses her case as “fatigue”. Nobody could fathom what was going on with the poor girl. If they would have, the movie would have taken another course. These scenes didn’t feel like they belonged to another age. They very much appeared sarcastic in nature. The director’s ingenuity lies in the manner in which he seamlessly wove this issue into the larger tapestry of the story. Writing exercise #5: Normalise having doctors prescribe counselling and therapy to your characters. Make your characters seek out professional help for their mental health, without the need to keep it a secret. HAHK does have its share of flaws—for instance, it has been accused of normalising patriarchy through its storyline. But in the larger scheme of things, the film stands out for its daring nature, where the director chooses to make his point subtly without ruffling any feathers. Even in this era of bold digital content, there are very few movies like this one. Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

A list of all my WIPs, including PiKu & ViRu 2 A few days ago, my inputs on my pandemic-related anxiety made their way to an article for Boom Live. (Do read it here. Three cheers for my friend and the article author, Deepika Gumaste, who made it happen in a matter of hours!) In one of the lines, I describe how staying busy (as per various physicians’ and therapists’ advice to me over the years) has become a way for me to cope with these tense times. Apparently, work has proven to be the best medicine for me (apart from music). That’s why I have carved out a sufficient chunk of workload for myself and filled my plate with it. Here’s a lowdown of all the projects I’m working on. Do read because there’s an update on PiKu & ViRu 2 (buy/download the first book here) somewhere down below! A detective web series I never thought I’d say this to anyone—let alone write about it in a blog post. But I’m happy to tell you that I’ve taken the leap to mystery writing and will explore more genres in the upcoming months! I can’t say much about this project until I register it with the Screenwriters’ Association (SWA). Except that it’s a spec one. And that the idea came to me from a news item in a local paper last year. My imagination got going from that point on, and I now have a full-fledged web-series proposal in the works. Besides this series, I’m also writing a bunch of other shows, short films, and comedy sketches. As of today, I have finished the concept note for the whodunnit and I’m working on developing the screenplay for the pilot episode. Another month more, and I should have my bible ready. If you’re a producer reading this, you know what to do :) Pitching to publications I haven’t written for a publication in a while. Yes, I have been pitching, but the efforts petered out over the last year, owing to the string of rejections, mainly due to the pandemic-induced global slowdown. Now, with many publications back on their feet and inviting pitches, I intend to make the most of these opportunities. The idea is to create a bank of pitches so that, whenever I see a themed call, I can pull something out of the bank, tailor it to the publication, and mail it right away. Here’s a list of all the publications I want to write for. Weekly blogging (of course) While book and screenplay writing take their own sweet time to materialise, blogging is the best way for me to connect with you, my dear reader, every week. Yes, there’s social media, too, but blogging is the perfect medium for me to elaborate my thoughts in a manner that also makes for a cathartic read. The goal now is to create a bank of posts so I can be prepared for days it’d be difficult for me to write. Besides, I may not be in the best frame of mind at all times, so a bank would come in handy for those moments. I’m working on this in full steam. In case there’s a specific subject or topic you’d like me to explore in my blogs, do let me know in the comments. I’ll definitely try to see how I can do my best to honour your request. Client projects I don’t know whether it’s due to my regular weekly blogging, but I bagged a part-time project for a major Indian digital agency last April. I do intend to pick up some more assignments if time permits. But right now, I feel, with so many of my personal projects alone, I have heaped too much on my plate, so I’ll have to be smarter with my time and their execution. I’ll also need to be prepared to drop the unimportant ones along the way. PiKu & ViRu 2 If there’s one question I’ve been asked most in life, I have to say it would be, “When is P&V2 coming out?” (Wait, you haven’t read P&V yet? Buy/download here now! And do remember to leave a review on Amazon + Goodreads.) To clarify, I did pen down a few chapters of the second part in 2019 as a first draft. Because the story was supposed to have a travel angle, I was to fly overseas on a recce. But then the pandemic happened in 2020, and so, I had to can that plot. I’ve now got a new logline, and I’ll be developing it in the plotting stage, which should start anytime in May. This isn’t travel-dependent, so it should work out. There’s still the fear the one-liner may not translate into a proper story. But I promise to give it my best shot because I also have the logline for P&V3 sorted. Yes, you read that right. I’m exploring a trilogy here. And if my imagination treats me well, I may have a fourth one going, too. It’s great to see your baby receive so much love and grow into something bigger. I thank you, dear reader, from the bottom of my heart for helping me make all of this possible. Do write to me any time with your thoughts and feedback!

With the pandemic assuming monstrous proportions in India last month, it had to impact the universe of media, content, and writing as well Images (from L to R): Twitter account @taran_adarsh, screengrab of YouTube video by CRED, BIGHIT MUSIC April 2021 will go down in history as the month of India’s worst health and humanitarian crisis. We don’t know what May and the subsequent months have in store, but their predecessor has already shown us a lifetime’s worth of doom and gloom in its mere span of 30 days. As expected, the news from the domain of content, writing, and media had to bear the effects of it all, with film, TV, and ad shoots cancelled and whatnot. What’s more, we also learned a lot about the dos and don’ts of PSA messaging for such a time. While that’s a topic that warrants a separate blog post, here’s a snapshot of 10 highlights from the Indian and international content industry last month and what each of these means for content writers and creators: In-Cred-ible Dravid Who would have thought a road-raging Rahul Dravid would bring us some cheer and hope in these dark, desolate times? When the cricket legend cursed, cussed, fumed, and broke rear-view mirrors in Cred’s latest ad timed to IPL 2021, we happily cheered for his transition from a gentleman to (adorable) mini-Hulk, even if it was for less than a minute. So much, his concluding line “Indiranagar ka gunda hoon main” has become the catchphrase of the year. (Special “credit” to Tanmay Bhat and team for writing the ad.) The credit-card-payment app, known more for its quirky commercials featuring veteran Indian personalities than for its service in general, didn’t stop at this. It soon followed up this viral ad with another, featuring 90s singing sensation Kumar Sanu as—God knows why—a serenading insurance agent. No complaints, though, given the soothing balm to the soul his voice and effortless charm proved to be. Interestingly, Cred wasn’t the first to post these ads on social media. Current cricket icon Virat Kohli originally tweeted the Rahul Dravid one. Just like how rapper Badshah did soon after for the Kumar Sanu commercial. I’m clueless about the rationale behind this strategy, but it seems to be the contributing factor to the ads’ virality. Any sensationalism-versus-substance debate was soon minimised when Cred founder, Kunal Shah, teamed up with healthcare-fundraising platform Milaap and raised crores of rupees for some much-needed oxygen concentrators, mainly through members’ donations of “Cred coins”. Apparently, these reward points multiply at a rate faster than one can utilise them on spends, so users found it wiser to give them away for the cause. We don’t know what the road ahead is like for Cred in terms of revenues and performance. But it would be unwise for it to yield to its detractors, drop its wacky style of advertising, and settle for Jim Sarbh reading out the product description from a teleprompter (though that wouldn’t be a bad idea either). When it comes to content, Cred has, indeed, come a long way. When chyawanprash lands you in a soup Image: Hindustan Times (26 March 2021) Dabur found itself in a hot PR mess after Akshay Kumar, the brand ambassador for its chyawanprash, tested positive for Covid-19. He later found himself hospitalised for it. It wouldn’t have been an issue if the ayurvedic giant would have stuck to calling its chyawanprash a mere strength-building food. But it had actually gone a step ahead and claimed that the product possessed immunity-boosting powers—of the kind that could protect its consumer from the dangerous viral disease. The Bollywood star had featured in a print communication that endorsed these proclamations. Naturally, critics and trolls were quick to upload screenshots of the ad in response to the actor’s tweet about his diagnosis. While the claim itself sounds blatantly misleading at the outset, here’s an article by a medical expert debunking it to bits. Dabur’s response to this is awaited. Unverified claims are a huge no-no, especially when it comes to a territory as sensitive as health and medicine. Here’s hoping Dabur learns from its mistakes and “celebrity” ambassadors exercise caution and judgment during endorsements and the like. Kindle going Vell-a Image: Screenshot of YouTube video by Amazon KDP In desi parlance, “Vella” (pronounced vay-laa) has connotations closer to “idleness”. We don’t know what Amazon was thinking when it rolled out its own version of Wattpad—one that remunerates authors—and called it Kindle Vella (in all likelihood, pronounced vell-aa). But we can’t help wondering if the e-commerce giant is pitching it to influence people so they can learn to quell boredom using books and literature first. Amazon seems to have a strategy in place to achieve this probable aim. Unlike Kindle Unlimited, which features books in their entirety, Vella is a serialised-fiction platform. This means it will enable authors to publish their stories one chapter or episode at a time, using the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) interface. Call it the web-series equivalent of books. Readers get to peruse the first few episodes for free. If hooked and intrigued—which is clearly the effect Amazon’s going for—they can unlock the next episode and then more by purchasing and redeeming a particular number of tokens, based on the episode length. To spice up things, Amazon will let readers interact with authors on Vella through features such as Follow and the Thumbs Up. Readers can even “Fave” a story they enjoy—something Kindle doesn’t allow yet. Amazon will then include the most Faved stories in the Kindle Vella store and, thus, boost their promotion. As a cherry on the icing, readers can browse through Author’s Note for details of the next episode or a peek into their favourite authors’ thoughts in general. Vella looks like a winning proposition for authors, considering they get 50% of the token amount as payment, in addition to a launch bonus for instances of positive reader activity and engagement. Also, while the service will open to readers in the upcoming months, authors don’t have to wait to upload their works and can do so right away. But then, should authors decide to take their stories to Amazon.com, they will have to remove them from Vella. So, it only makes sense that, unless Amazon overturns this condition, authors should use Vella for publishing only those stories they don’t intend to anywhere else and are apt for such a platform. Readers, too, should withhold their celebrations for now. Especially if they live outside of America, which is where the launch will take place first. There’s no consensus on when it’ll arrive in other nations, including India. Secondly, it’ll be an iOS-only app first, which means Android users would be left out of the equation for now. Though, it’s expected Amazon will iron out these issues and go wider in time to capture potential markets. And once Vella does launch in India, Amazon should brace itself for some memes on this front :D Meme maker or book author, both kinds of content creators are set to have their hands full with this development. We’re only waiting for Vella to dock on Indian shores. Indie incentive Bollywood directors Raj and DK have announced the launch of a platform that will help budding filmmakers create indie movies or series. Called D2R Indie, the platform is part of the duo’s production house D2R Films and will produce or back micro-projects that can be easily shot at home. Details on how filmmakers, as well as screenwriters, can approach the platform are awaited. There’s no doubt that initiatives such as D2R Indie will boost small-budget film production in India. For it to be a true success, it needs to be accessible to all (through websites, contact forms, and the like) and freely share resources to help upcoming talent with the necessary know-how. Only then can it enable the democratisation of film production, presentation, and promotion and make it an approachable process. Budget or location should not be a constraint in this regard. Cosmetics are injurious to animal health A heartbreaking animated short film highlighting the plight of animals used for product testing is gaining acclaim everywhere. Save Ralph, written and directed by Spencer Susser, shows the gut-wrenching experience undergone by a rabbit named Ralph (voiced by New Zealand filmmaker and actor Taika Waititi) as he’s compelled to become a lab rat for the testing of various cosmetics. Despite losing an eye and an ear in the process, he cannot afford to retire from this work, as it pays his bills. You can watch the nearly-4-minute short below. It’s a pity that so many of the cosmetics we use are guilty of animal testing. Here’s a list of the top cruelty-free beauty brands in India so you can decide accordingly. But considering these are only a few products out there, the best solution would be for governments worldwide to ban and stop the horrid practice altogether. In order to influence policymakers, create awareness, and make them realise, we have to leverage the power of a medium as popular as cinema. Hence, the necessity of platforms such as D2R Indie and the democratisation of filmmaking. Here’s praying Save Ralph achieves what it has set out to do and makes the much-needed impact. Cleartrip now part of Flipkart’s territory? Flipkart announced its acquisition of online travel aggregator Cleartrip, which has been going through turbulent times since the pandemic. The purchase amount currently stands undisclosed but is reportedly at around ₹300 crore ($40 million). The e-commerce giant already offers flight, bus, and train bookings, as does its biggest competitor, Amazon. It will operate Cleartrip as a separate brand and retain its staff as well. Does this deal spell the end of standalone travel brands? Does it mean a travel business can only survive from now on if it retails in multiple product/service categories? The pandemic has, indeed, raised these unsettling questions. So, if you’re a content writer or creator specialising in travel, it would be more advisable to diversify your niche. This is not to suggest you shouldn’t run a travel-only website or blog. If you have the content ideas that are suited to the present situation, go for it. But you should try to be prepared for any uncertainties that may come along the way. The Intern to go Indian Nancy Meyers’ 2015 blockbuster, The Intern, is getting a Hindi remake. While the Hollywood production starred Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway in the lead roles, Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone will play their counterparts in the Bollywood version, which will be directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma (Tevar, Badhaai Ho). For those who haven’t watched it, The Intern is about a retired septuagenarian Ben Whittaker (De Niro) who applies for an internship at an online fashion website helmed by the very workaholic Jules Ostin (Hathaway). The corporate comedy-drama depicts the synergy and bond the two characters develop in the course of their work together. Initially, Rishi Kapoor was to play the titular role, but his unfortunate demise last year compelled the new casting. This will be Bachchan and Padukone’s third movie together after Aarakashan and Piku. (The latter is not to be mistaken with PiKu & ViRu :D). Piku, too, arrived in 2015. Padukone is also the film’s co-producer, with Sunir Kheterpal under his banner, Athena, and Warner Bros. Pictures (India). The movie is eyeing a 2022 release. Remakes hold tremendous market potential, especially when they’re done tastefully and with interesting improvements made to the original material. The Intern remake, too, holds plenty of promise, especially with its lead cast. Moreover, with the demand for film, TV, and OTT content burgeoning, especially because of WFH lifestyles, producers would have to scour books and overseas content for ideas. And even then, it may not be enough, I daresay. So, take this as a sign that there has never been a better time to be a writer! Especially if you know how to adapt already existing material and can think of spinoffs and sequels, too. Check out my post on writing prompts gleaned from the Malayalam hit The Great Indian Kitchen and get cracking on your own story! Update on Wednesday, 23 February 2022: Remakes aren’t a bad thing by themselves. Every movie industry does them. But if an entire movie industry is only churning out remakes without bringing out any original content, we have a problem. Ideally, there should be a mix of everything: original screenplays, adaptations, remakes, and more. Bourdain’s last dished out Background image: Infralist.com | Unsplash When celebrated chef Anthony Bourdain passed away in June 2018, he was apparently in the process of compiling a book. One that would encompass his favourite travel-and-food spots from around the globe. His assistant Laurie Woolever was helping him put it all together. Following his demise, she took it upon herself to complete the book, using his TV shows as a reference. Almost three years after the unfortunate event, the book is out now. Spanning recommendations from 43 countries, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide is a 469-page “atlas of the world as seen through [Bourdain’s] eyes”, as Woolever puts it in the introduction. Despite the lull in travel due to the pandemic, bookstore chain Barnes & Noble has placed an order for just as many copies as for each of Bourdain’s previous written works. Such is the legacy left behind by the man, and it only speaks volumes of the importance of humility, expressing yourself, and doing great work in your lifetime. BTS melt butter No, this K-Pop group isn’t switching to a food or dairy business (though, I’m sure, we’d be happy to lap up any fare they bring out). Butter is the name of the boy band’s second English single that will come out on 21 May. We don’t know how the song would turn out, but BTS is doing some cool shit with their marketing. In a simple yet mind-blowing way to promote their number, the band live-streamed an hour-long video on YouTube, merely showing an animated slab of butter melting, with some background noise in between in the form of utensils clanging and so on. The number of views for this thing: 14 million and counting! Dairy brand Amul devoted one of its topicals to this event. The seven-member band has also tied up with McDonald’s to roll out a special Chicken McNuggets-based meal that will be up for orders in nearly 50 countries, including India, from around May and June. If there’s any takeaway for content writers and creators for this, it’s merely the unusual way of content promotion. I really wish I could steal BTS’s marketing/promotions person if I can afford it! Oscars go on Keeping its revised date as it announced last year, the 93rd Academy Awards took place 2 months later than usual to honour the best of 2020. Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland swept the key awards of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress, while Anthony Hopkins bagged Best Actor for The Father. Here’s the full list of winners. I’m yet to catch up on all the winning and nominated films, but there are two trends that are clearly evident. One, with Zhao being the first non-white woman and the second woman in the history of the Oscars to bag Best Director, it seems the Academy is finally realising the need for more inclusivity. At the same time, it’s also being criticised for choosing Hopkins over the late Chadwick Boseman for Best Actor. Secondly, while the event did have a red-carpet tradition, there wasn’t any audience per se, barring the nominees. Nor did the show boast any musical or comedy performances. The spotlight was strictly on the awards, nothing else. A pandemic and a rights movement can, indeed, change things. Here’s hoping the Oscars keep evolving with the times, become more inclusive, and honour the best and truly deserving.

The 80 newspapers, journals, magazines, and digital platforms where I wish to see my byline Image: Sarah Shull | Unsplash One of the greatest moments for any freelance writer that makes them whoop in the air with delight is seeing their name in a story they’ve penned for a world-class publication. I’ve had the good fortune to write for the likes of Fodor’s Travel, Indiatimes, and Architectural Digest India and experience such periods of jump-in-the-air joy. And of course, for Condé Nast Traveller India, where I have worked full-time on the editorial desk as a digital writer for 3 years. But I still have a long way to go when it comes to scoring more bylines while also earning a good amount of money and writing cred in the process. That’s why I’ve compiled a wish list of publications so I can put this goal of mine out there in the Universe. These are a mix of print and digital titles, irrespective of their openness to freelancer pitches or whether I have a story idea befitting them. I’d love to explore all sorts of content formats for these, including stories, features, and essays connected to PiKu & ViRu. (Buy/download, read, and review my book here; it’s FREE on Kindle Unlimited!) Among my to-dos, therefore, is to get myself to amp up my pitching activity in the next one year’s time from now to have this dream turn into a reality. Of course, this isn’t the complete list but an ongoing one. I’ll update it as and when I come across a publication that catches my fancy. At the same time, the idea isn’t to keep pushing myself to achieve this aim but to let things happen rather than make them happen. I don’t want to end up piling so much on my plate that it makes my mind switch off from my work and gives me needless burnout. Also, the pandemic has made me realise the importance of celebrating what I’ve achieved, rather than criticising myself for what I haven’t. I’ll bear this in mind during the pitching and writing process as well so I can be kinder and more compassionate to myself. For now, here are the 80 platforms I have in my sights for my article- and essay-writing goals, put together in alphabetical order: Aeon Al Jazeera (The) Ascent (by Medium) (The) Atlantic Atlas Obscura Basically BBC Travel Bon Appétit Business Insider Business Standard Bustle (The) Caravan Catapult Christian Science Monitor CNN Travel Cosmopolitan Culture Trip Eater (The) Economist Elemental (by Medium) Elle Elle Decor Entertainment Weekly Esquire Fifty Two Financial Times Firstpost Forbes Fortune Gastro Obscura Good Housekeeping Goya Journal GQ (The) Guardian Hakai Magazine Harper’s Magazine Healthyish Hollywood Reporter (The) Juggernaut (The) Ken Khaleej Times Literary Hub Longreads Los Angeles Times Mental Floss Mint Lounge Modern Farmer Mongabay Narratively National Geographic Nat Geo Traveller India (The) New York Times (The) New Yorker NPR Goats and Soda OZY Reader’s Digest (DONE for ReadersDigest.in; see my story here) Rest of World RoundGlass RoundGlass Thali Scroll.in Slate Smithsonian Magazine SodaMonk South China Morning Post (The) Swaddle Teen Vogue Tenderly (by Medium) Thought Catalog Time Magazine Travel + Leisure Variety (The) Verge Verve Magazine Vice Magazine Vogue Vox Vulture (The) Washington Post Whetstone Magazine Wired Which are the publications you’re aiming to break into? Let me know down below in the comments. Post updated on Tuesday, 12 July 2022

Loved the 2021 Malayalam blockbuster The Great Indian Kitchen? Want to write your own story on the issues it explores? Here are some ideas to get you plotting, along with a review Nearly 28 minutes into Jeo Baby’s 2021 Malayalam movie The Great Indian Kitchen on Amazon Prime Video, I tweeted this: (Translation: #NowWatching The Great Indian Kitchen on Amazon Prime Video. Around 28 minutes up, and I have lost all interest in getting married.) And the next day, hours after I finished watching it, I posted this: For the uninitiated, The Great Indian Kitchen is about a young woman (played by Nimisha Sajayan) married into a traditionally minded household and expected to honour the patriarchal norms laid down for women—i.e. unpaid housework that involves cooking, cleaning, repairing things, and the like. There’s zero permission for her to get a job or start a business. Initially, the protagonist sticks to this mould but later begins to grow dissatisfied with the experience. What she does about this situation forms the crux of the plot. The best thing about TGIK is how it has leveraged the medium of filmmaking—especially cinematography—to depict one simple word, viz. patriarchy, on screen. Take, for instance, the scenes where the protagonist cooks and cleans endlessly day in and day out. Their well-timed pace makes them brilliantly capture the disturbing nature of the tedium of unpaid routine housework dumped on women. The smart camera angles and neatly composed shots only do more justice to the storytelling. The brilliant performances by TGIK’s actors are its next big highlight. Nimisha was undoubtedly fabulous as the protagonist. I’m already seeing her sweep all the best-actor trophies at major award events (pun completely unintended). But if we feel like punching her on-screen husband (Suraj Venjaramoodu) and father-in-law (T Suresh Babu) in their faces, it only means the two actors have done their jobs supremely well. You can watch the full movie online here. (Also read: A scene-by-scene breakdown of Jab We Met) *SPOILER ALERT BEGINS* Before we dive into the writing prompts, here’s a quick review of The Great Indian Kitchen. I did have a few issues with the film. For example, I wish the husband was made to have at least regretted his eventual divorce from the protagonist, if not turn over a new leaf. The message would have been more positive and optimistic then. And the title could have been a little less misleading and a bit more specific. But overall, the movie acts as a great start for creating awareness about patriarchy, as well as the “superhero syndrome” commonly experienced by women. If you, as a storyteller, wish to keep this chain going, here are 3 writing prompts I have conjured from the film. Get as creative as you want with any or all of them. And remember, no copying or plagiarism. Write a story that’s completely your own. Making the antagonist regret Like I said, making the protagonist’s husband rue losing her at the end could have concluded the movie on a more positive, hopeful, and uplifting note. Currently, his remarriage in the film’s denouement, without any change in him, conveys that humans—especially men—are incapable of change or remorse, which is quite incorrect if you ask me. So, if you write a story in which you have a character like him and decide to offer them such an opportunity at the end, make them grab it with both hands. For instance, what if the husband doesn’t remarry in the end but watches a video of the protagonist’s dance performance on his phone? Something like what Karan Wahi’s character does in Daawat-e-Ishq? (Another film with food in its title, I know.) He could have smiled, as well as felt a twinge of regret. And then he carries on with all the housework at his place and makes his father pitch in. There’s no need to reunite the protagonist and the husband at all. Nor is it necessary to redeem his father (whom I call “Toothbrush Uncle”, considering his apathy at fetching his own dental gear and asking the women of the house to get it for him). At present, the husband’s arc looks flat, one-dimensional, and even caricaturish without the repentance angle, so you could rework this in your exercise. If you need another character for comparison and critical analysis, use ViRu from my book PiKu & ViRu. He has a similar arc. (Buy/download, read, and review the book here; it’s FREE on Kindle Unlimited!) Ultimately, I leave it to you to figure out the character arc for this one. If you have an alternative idea for the ending, go for it. Using Run Lola Run as a reference What if the patriarchy highlighted in the film is only one of two more scenarios that can be explored? Try the technique used in Run Lola Run to capture three alternative narratives using the same couple. For those who don’t know, Run Lola Run is a 1988 German film where the same story is told in three different ways. So, if a patriarchal setup is one aspect of TGIK, there could be another in which the protagonist and her husband split their chores equitably. The conflicts could then stem from other sources. And the third could be the husband taking care of the household while the protagonist is engaged in full-time professional work. How would the couple’s marriage turn out in each of these cases? What would be the conflicts in each? Would the protagonist still walk away from her marriage? Would she find another man? Play around with these scenarios and see what you can come up with. If not a film, you can also use this style to create a web series. In case you’re writing a book, try to limit it to one volume, though, as it makes for a more exciting reading experience that way. Needless to say, find out how you can reinterpret the current story of TGIK in your own style. Normalising equitable distribution of housework It’s great to create awareness about patriarchy through a medium as powerful as cinema and try to make a difference. What can help result in an even bigger impact is by showing every member of a family equally engaged in the housework involved. This should happen in every film, TV show, and book. No praising men when they do their share of housework or calling their women relatives “lucky”. Only then would it be possible to begin seeing lasting change in the societal setup around. Ensure all your stories have this style of living woven in. See how you can create conflicts in this case. What could possibly go wrong in this ideal setting? Where would the drama and tension arise from? Keep writing, keep exploring. Here’s a quick screenwriting guide to The Great Indian Kitchen for your reference: Central idea Happiness comes from following your heart and speaking up, not by conforming to societal norms. Themes Patriarchy, sexism, “superhero syndrome” among women, the importance of assertiveness and of saying “No”, the use of life events as material for art. Supporting data As per a finding by the International Labour Organization, women in Indian cities devoted 312 minutes per day in 2018 on unpaid care work while men spent 29 minutes. Protagonist “The Wife” (played by Nimisha Sajayan) Antagonist “The Husband” (played by Suraj Venjaramoodu) Protagonist’s arc Point A: Subdued daughter and housewife bending to patriarchal norms Point B: Strong, independent, assertive career woman Protagonist’s want To be in a blissful marriage and keep her husband and in-laws happy Protagonist’s need To be assertive and follow her life purpose, even if it costs her her marriage Plot points Ordinary life: The protagonist at her dance class, meeting a prospective match, getting married, visiting relatives, interacting with her husband, helping her mother-in-law with household chores. Inciting incident: MIL leaves to visit her pregnant daughter. First act break: The protagonist is left to do all the housework by herself, without the men doing their share of work. Midpoint: The protagonist’s father-in-law disallows her from working professionally when she seeks her husband’s opinion on the matter in his presence. From this juncture, the protagonist’s need begins to wage a war on her want, though in vain for now. The lack of her FIL’s permission also drives her the farthest from her purpose at this stage. Second act break: The protagonist is ill-treated by her abstaining family members during her next period, all of whom consider her “impure”. Amid these developments, she refuses to delete a pro-feminism video she shared on Facebook. Climax: The protagonist serves the men drainage water instead of tea out of frustration. When her husband and FIL confront her about it, she splashes the remaining drainage water on them in response before walking out of the house for good. Resolution: The protagonist starts a new life as a strong, independent dance teacher and uses her traumatic past as the inspiration for her choreography; her husband marries another woman. Fun fact The protagonists of both The Great Indian Kitchen and Tenet are unnamed. Read my blog post on Tenet here.