Non-NaNaWriMo Update

Hey folks!

Hopefully, you guys are doing well since we last met. Things are looking up at my side also. I am sorting through the priorities of life.

Priorities is a funny thing. It’s amazing how something that we hold important or exciting today is no longer important or exciting after some time. Back in 2015, when I had first started the blog, the one and only thing in my mind was to set up an author’s platform. My aim was to get published, as soon as possible, through traditional means. I focused less on college work and more on the book I was writing at the time. Once published, I would check the KDP Dashboard daily to see how I was doing on the sales front.

Almost 3 years later, my goals have changed again. My blog, to an extent, explains the shift in priorities.

Now, I am earning and almost on the verge of paying off the student loan that had been weighing on my mind ever since I went to college. I have also started investing money in mutual funds – which is another thing that is occupying my mind, because I am trying to understand how the money market works. Financial security is one of the biggest priorities for me right now.

Priorities have also shifted towards health. I would look at myself carefully in the mirror and take a mental note of losing inches from the waistline. I have started spending time on the treadmill and adopted healthier eating habits.

Some of my girl friends are getting married (the boys still have a bunch of years to roam free), so marriage also has come up in the list of priorities. I am still trying to understand what I expect out of relationships and how to find the person who I can spend the rest of my life with.

Besides that, for the first time in my life, I have an option to do the things the way I want to do, thanks to the financial security. I am no longer dependent on my parents for money. So, I want to give travelling a chance. I have been planning in my mind to go to Mumbai. My brother, who is studying in Kolkata, might end up visiting the city late December/early next year. If he comes, I might go visit him and the city for a weekend. I have never been, even though I have family in Mumbai. So I am really looking forward to it. I have also started planning a list of places that I want to visit on the trip. Let’s see!

NaNoWriMo, of course, has taken a backseat. I don’t have enough ideas to finish what I started. I might get back to it for a bit when towards later this month, if I find some catchy idea to work on. Besides that, I do not see any progress on that front. However, the good thing is, I have something beautiful started through the NaNo project this year. Hopefully, through the course of the next few months, I will be able to finish it, and publish it sometime in 2018. I still have a vague goal of publishing a book per year.

That’s about it in this post – I really need to go get ready for office right now.

Until later, enjoy and live your life guilt-free! ❤

The Mu Sigma Times and Other News

I recently got plunged into a number of things at work. Japanese classes were already there, and they are drawing towards an end. We shall have the ‘graduation ceremony’ in two weeks’ time. Me and my teammate are planning to do a small skit for our graduation ceremony.

Besides that, I applied for the position of field writer in Mu Sigma Times.Mu Sigma Times is Mu Sigma’s live news channel – one stop where you can get to know what is happening across different accounts in the company. It also features other varieties of articles ranging from travelogues to lives of authors to different trends sweeping through the analytics industry.

The idea behind applying for the post was to keep in touch with writing. As it happens, due to the day job, I am not able to devote much time to writing. Being a ‘jouranlist’ for the MST shall be one way to keep myself close to my passion. That said, it is an added incentive that I get to don the hat of a journalist in a workplace which has nothing to do with media/journalism. It is so cool!

We had the first meeting with the editors today and they held a very engaging session as to what the goals were with respect to Mu Sigma Times. For the first time, being among people who actually enjoy writing, I felt at home. I felt as if they were my people.

I also met a very interesting person, Debdeep Basu. He is also a fellow blogger at The Pensieve. Post the meeting we had a very lively conversation about writing, books, and movies over coffee.

Don’t be surprised at all if keep bragging about Mu Sigma Times on the blog in the coming days.

Oh, also, I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo  (July) today. I am planning to finish a non-fiction book this time, something that has been pending for about eight months now. Anyone amongst you doing NaNo this July? Let me know in the Comments.

Happy weekend, guys! Cheerio!

Why Candour is a necessary tool to eliminate gossip?

For the last few days, I have been staying at the office-provided accommodation. I am living with people all across the country. At the office, there are even wider variations. with people from different countries working at the same place. The good thing about living with people you haven’t known all your life is that you learn to see yourself in a new light. In these few days I have discovered so many different sides to me. Amid all this, the one skill which I think is most essential, especially at the initial stages of building relationships, is candour.

A closed environment breeds suspicions and anger. Every person is different. When you meet a grown up person for the first time, you don’t know where s/he has come from and what s/he has gone through to be where s/he is. And since there is so much difference between backgrounds, there are bound to be differences in thoughts and actions. If the differences are not talked about openly and clarified, they’ll end up being blown out of proportions and becoming difficult problems.

We often say girls gossip. This is probably because most of the time they do not feel comfortable voicing their true feelings up front. In some ways, I feel girls are more sensitive to non-verbal cues (like the minor expressions on the person’s face to whom they are talking). For example, if I see someone is not paying attention to what I am saying from his/her eye contact, I’ll probably end up being a mute-box for the entire time afterwards. Boys are more inclined to voice their opinions loudly. Sadly, girls have always been taught to be subdued. If a boy is assertive, he’s just being a boy, but if a girl is the same, she is called bossy. This feeling is so deeply ingrained in our mindset that girls grow up internalizing their true feelings for fear of giving offence. And wherein comes fear comes talking behind back.

For those who are naturally nervous, it is important that they come out of it slowly with conscious effort. If your roommate’s ringtone is bothering you, try to convey that to her instead of naturally assuming that she won’t turn the volume down even if you asked her to. Maybe she doesn’t even have a clue that it is bothering you. The world of assumptions is dark and slippery, so let the words throw some light.

If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.

-Nora Roberts

Those who are more assertive should offer to be more empathetic to those who are nervous in order to eliminate petty gossips. The assertive ones should try and create an environment of friendly interaction in which the less assertive ones feel free to speak their minds. Communication is key in the 21st century (more so in a corporate work culture) and empathy is the key to effective communication.

Why do you think people gossip? Can gossip truly be eliminated? Let me know in the comments below.