#17 Happy birthday, newsletter

Have a cake

Dear reader,

It has been a year since I started this newsletter. When I started, my plan was to get better at writing popular science. However I did not focus much on delivering only on science-related content, instead, I wanted to enjoy the writing process. Writing personal stories and opinions made me feel more connected to the reader.

First of all, I want to express a big thank you. There is a comfort in writing for a regular audience. I tried to make it a weekly newsletter. As you can see I am far from that. But if I zoom out, I have been pretty consistent on a macro level. My monthly average is more than one for starters. The best outcome is the change I had in the way I see the world. I am slowly developing a writer’s eye to see the world differently. When I get new ideas or observations, I tend to make them into a newsletter post (at least a draft). This forces me to think about the topics from different angles.

Last year was a life-transforming one for me. I moved from the heart of southeast Asia to the knowledge centre of the UK. For those who have missed it, here is a post about the uprooting. Luckily, I found new rituals for writing. Every other week, I used to go to a cafe, which became my cue for writing.

Costa coffee near my place

Grounds cafe in Milton country park. There was no wifi. But coffee and the location were unbeatable.

Finding the flow

So I am glad that I kept on writing. But I don’t want to get too comfortable in this laid-back style of writing. There is a concept of “flow” in behavioural science. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (thank god, I can copy-paste) introduced the idea to the field. If you have challenges way above your skills you may end up in an anxious state. On the other hand, they will get bored if one does not take up enough challenges. The secret of happiness is finding the flow, according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

I find myself many times oscillating between boredom and anxiety. When I realize that I am not challenging myself, I tend to take up taking up projects that are way above my skill. Obviously, this won’t end well and I drop the challenge altogether. Back to the boredom.

Dear reader, I want to reach a state of flow in writing. And I hope you will support me on the journey. So, I want to make some changes this year.

Form, language and fiction

What should be the length of the newsletter post? I am a regular reader of many newsletters. But I often find myself finishing only pieces that are shorter (4-5 paragraphs) in length. I thought of sticking to that form. There is a slight problem with this approach. Everyone is not me! People have different thresholds and if they find value in reading the post, the length should not be a concern. The shorter writing format forces me to choose a topic that does not need much any research. But why should I limit myself to one form?

So here is the plan. I am going to be more flexible on the idea of a newsletter post. Some weeks it can be as short as some song recommendation. But I won’t hold myself back from pursuing a post that needs more research. To avoid the fear of completion, I can write update posts during the researching phase.

Another plan is to write in Malayalam. Malayalam was my gateway language for reading and writing. I was writing in Malayalam regularly when blogs were a thing ( I know, I am getting old). Later it changed to Facebook posts. After leaving India, most of my friends were non-Malayalis and that made an unconscious bias toward writing in English. My internal logic was to write for everyone and by choosing Malayalam, I felt, I am restricting the content to one group. But on a second thought, writing only in English does the same. I wish to hold on to the idea of me being multilingual and it will be a lie if I write only in one language. Moreover, the type of content that you access is vastly different when you change the language. Take the case of fiction. The literary feel of reading in Malayalam and English are vastly different. Each language has the power to open a whole world. So why do I restrict myself to one world? Should I start a Malayalam newsletter? I'm not so sure.

For non-fiction writing, I can see a clear plan. Chose a topic of relevance, do some research, maybe some analysis and write in a coherent and engaging way. But how does fiction happen? How do you plan for it? Despite my preliminary interest in non-fiction, I chose to go for fiction when I had to write for some prompts. You can read one of them here. So maybe there is more fiction on the way. You never know.

Random curation for no reason 🙄

The best thing about reading many newsletters is that I get to try random stuff. Sometimes it is a song, an article, a movie, a book or a cooking recipe. The approach to content is vastly different when someone tells they like it and “here is why”. Dear reader, don’t take these suggestions too seriously. These are not a result of intense research. They are accidental discoveries that I found worth sharing.

1. 📻🎼🎵Music for work or writing: Found this youtube channel broadcast for studying music. It has no ads in between and the selection of music is so good. Give it a go

2. Post from a fellow traveller: This category is new. Here I will be sharing  articles I read in a newsletter or blog. This week's selection is a post from "Womenting in India". This newsletter is one of its kind. Each post talks about issues in society which affect men and women unequally.  And half of the population, including me, is oblivious to this issue. In her words

   "Half the world's population, men, have virtually no idea what the everyday life of the other half is like. Even the most woke of men out there would be shocked if they had to walk a mile in women's shoes. And not just because women's shoes are approximately as comfortable as kidney stones."

   In the latest issue, Mahima talks about the ways in which Indian women avoid calling the name of their husbands. For the most part of India, women are not allowed to call their husbands by their name. The name is substituted by " suniye ji"( listen please in hindi). In Tamil it becomes "yennenge" (same meaning). 

   The norm is the same in Kerala. Husbands have names like "listen", "look here' (nokkoo) etc. On the top many call "chetta" , which means elder. This goes even crazier. My grandmother used to call my cousin by a different name. When I asked why she told me that my cousin's original name is my grandpa's name too. So, you are not supposed to utter your pathi's name even if you are calling someone else. Which reminded me of this story :

   After 41 days of vratham (godly routine dedicated to devotion ), s Malathi started her journey to Sabarimala. Needless to say, she is older than 60. People go to Sabarimala in groups. There will be a main Swamy (everyone addresses each other as Swamy during that period) which leads the way. They have a pretty catchy slogan while travelling "swamiye ayyapa". Ayyappan is the god sitting in Sabarimala. The main swami will shout "swamiye" and the followers should shout "ayyappa".. This will happen everywhere. In the bus, train, and tea shops. It is a signal that many swamis (godly people) are coming and you need to make space for them. But many found Malathi mumbling when she was supposed to shout "ayyappa". When it was a large group she was not noticeable. But one day it was only the main Swamy and her two kids. The main swami heard the mumble behind and gazed with anger. He repeated

   "swamiye"

   Malathi closed her eyes and shouted "Kuttyolde acha" ( father of my kids.)

Thats good enough for this week. Catch you latter.