As tears flowed down silently down my cheeks, I held my father tight, as he rode the scooter to my school. I couldn’t bear to see people turning around and staring at me, pointing at me. I just wanted to vanish into thin air. I prayed that my father did not stop the scooter at any point. Please God, let this nightmare be over.

I was dressed in rags, an old saree( traditional attire of Indian women) deliberately torn at places. An artificial filthy wig of more white than black stuck to my head. …

When I was a kid, I had to participate in a fancy dress competition. Like my other girlfriends, I too wanted a fairy tale princess attire for myself. But as luck would have it, by the time we reached the shop, all the costumes were sold out. The shop-owner held a mucky wig in his hand saying that is what is left. And my father, who is never to call it quits, took it and I participated in the event as a sweeper!

I hated all the princesses from that day on.

And all the protagonists of the many fairy…

Since time immemorial, Zen stories have taught the world how to live a meaningful and peaceful life. The beauty of the stories lies in the fact that they still hold the same meaning even after ages of change and evolution. In fact, they have strengthened in their purpose, while the world around them is losing its own.

My journey as a writer has seen its own share of ebbs and heights, each bringing along its own influx of emotions. …

A woman invented the ice cream maker. Yet, we say it is man-made. Inappropriate, right?

I am not a staunch feminist, but yes, it irks me when a person refers to a generic gender as a man by default. The innocent explanation is that though it mentions a man, it means man and woman both.

Unless you really mean a man, refrain from using the predominant masculine gender to specify generic human being(s). But as a writer, we always come across a situation where we need to take sides. Naturally, women tend to go with ‘she/her’ and men, with ‘he/his’.

…

I was just out of a failed business. All consumed by it for the last three years, I decided I needed time to unwind. I put my feet up for a while. Before I knew it, ‘a while’ soon transformed into long hours.

Right after the morning rush was over, I would be on my couch with my mobile. A brief break would easily become a long one. Though I would think of stopping and doing something else, I would end up in the elusive cycle of one-more-episode. And in some days I would finish a whole series.

But somewhere…

I have been advocating for a decent amount of time now about why submitting to smaller publications is actually a better bet than submitting to big publications. I would not go into that detail today.

But lately, something strange happened.

I had submitted a story on writing with gender neutrality to a small but budding publication. Usually, the story gets published in a day or two, max. But strangely, this time, the piece was still sitting in my ‘Stories’ tab for almost 4 days.

I have been actively submitting to fast-growing publications and am used to the very short turnaround…

2.6 seconds.

That is the time a user takes to decide whether to stay or leave on a website. That short is the window of opportunity for a story to impress.

And the total weight of the decision falls on the shoulders of the headline. Because that is the only part of the story, the reader has to decide on. You might have worked for hours, researched for weeks, to come up with a wonderful story, but not having a strong headline will make it all go to waste.

A headline would always need a human element. But, some tools…

When a baby giraffe is born, it falls from high above- almost eight feet above the ground. The baby enters this world with a thud. As it lays there, all slimy and tired, unable to move any more, the mother bends down and licks the baby. Nudges the baby with her head to stand.

A few moments later she bends her long and powerful legs and kicks her baby hard.

Almost to the point of sending her flying in the air. It might look heartless, but the mother does it for a reason.

When a baby is born, tigers, lions…