Writing - Process and Routines

After dragging my feet for a while, I recently found a women's writing group. I just needed to have a sense for how other people like me, attempting to write but finding themselves pulled in a hundred different directions, got any writing done at all. I signed up three months ago, but haven't been able to attend one of their monthly meetings yet. Argh!

But all is not lost. Via The Daily Dish, I found this website called Daily Routines, devoted to "how writers, artists and other interesting people organize their days".

What a find! The entries about Alice Munro ("As a young author taking care of three small children, Munro learned to write in the slivers of time she had, churning out stories during children's nap times, in between feedings, as dinners baked in the oven.") and Toni Morrison ("Writing before dawn began as a necessity--I had small children when I first began to write and I needed to use the time before they said, Mama--and that was always around five in the morning.") are heartening. Of course, they are accomplished writers and I'm still languishing in wannabe land, but one can always dream, right?

There are other fun nuggets - Kafka was a procrastinator (yay! so am I!), Emily Post wrote in bed and did not get off it until noon (sigh!).

The posts reminded me of the time a couple of years ago when I interviewed author Sashi Deshpande for AIR's FM station in Bangalore. One of the questions I asked during the interview was what her advice would be to people who wanted to be writers. The lady looked at me, wagged a finger and said, her voice gentle but admonishing, "You can't want to be a writer. That's the wrong way to look at it. You must want to write."

I think I've got the 'want' part down. I was up at 4 this morning, little ideas that demanded to be put down on paper doing the jiggy in my head. Just don't ask me how I ended up on The Atlantic's website.

Terry Gross II

Following up on my Terry Gross post below.

I found this post on James Fallows' blog today (via Coates) about Terry Gross' recent interview with Bill Ayers.

At the most obvious level, Terry Gross succeeds in this interview simply by avoiding the two most common, and laziest, styles of today's broadcast interviewers: surplus aggressiveness, long ago made familiar by Mike Wallace and now lampooned by Stephen Colbert; and lapdogism, most recently on display in Greta Van Susteren's sessions with Sarah Palin and the default mode of Larry King Live.

[...]

What she does instead, and what she shows brilliantly in this interview, is: she listens, and she thinks.

[...]

If you have this standard in mind -- is the interviewer really listening? and thinking? -- you will be shocked to see how rarely broadcast and on-stage figures do very much of either. But listen to this session by Gross to see how the thing should be done.

A Radio Interview I'd Love to Hear

Terry Gross interviewing Sarah Palin.

I love radio interviews. They have the effect of distilling the interaction down to thoughts and how they are expressed. It doesn't matter what the participants are wearing, how they look, what they are doing, or how the lighting is placed.

I especially appreciate any opportunity to listen to Gross' interviews. She appears to be someone who has no agenda other than to let her genuinely curious mind plumb the depths of the issue at hand. These days I end up catching a portion of her program, Fresh Air, as I drive to and from C's school to pick him up.

William Ayers was on her show today. It was enlightening, to say the least. A far cry from the "palling around with terrorists" caricature he had been reduced to during the campaign.

Thanks to all the hoopla surrounding his connection to Obama, his 2001 book, Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War Activist, is being reissued and Ayers has been on TV, in the newspapers and now on Fresh Air. He's underground no more.

A Meeting With Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble announced his retirement from One Day Internationals and newspapers are replete with details of his achievements on the field. His aggression, determination and will to win - complete with clenched teeth and furrowed eyebrows - were there for all who watched his bowling. Newspapers also mention his team spirit, dignity and humility. Two Desicritics articles extol his virtues as a gentleman and a model for other celebrities.

All of this brings to mind my meeting with Kumble 16 years ago at his house for an interview for my college newspaper when he had just made it into the Indian team for the first time. It was early on a quiet Saturday morning. His mother opened the door, let me in, showed to a chair and asked me to wait for a few minutes. Kumble was not back yet from his training. As I waited she returned with a plate of dosas. I was touched. There was no need to do that at all. I was a complete stranger to her, but she went out of her way to make me feel welcome. It is not hard to see where Kumble gets his humility and gentlemanliness from.

I had my list of questions written out on a sheet of paper, a Sony dictaphone that my dad had bought for me on one of his trips to Madras, and a couple of spare cassettes. It was the first time I used that dictaphone. Needless to say, I felt very professional. Kumble, in his low voice, spoke very well and answered all my questions thoughtfully. He didn't at all seem frazzled for someone who was still a student and was off on his first tour representing India.

I finished the interview, went home and turned the tape on for everyone to listen and discovered that I said "ok, ok" or "hunh, hunh" too many times. While it was a pain to listen to, it was easy to type up because a quarter of the tape (ok, a slight exaggeration perhaps) was me with those expressions. Unfortunately, that habit has still not disappeared. My producer at the radio station for which I do interviews now says I must stop saying "ok, ok" every time the interviewee finishes a sentence. He was having a nightmare of a time editing out my "oks" and grunts from one of my recordings. To which, of course, I replied, "ok, ok."

Coming back to the Kumble interview, it was printed in the college newspaper with a vertical photograph of him in action, and my name at the end of the article. For a young student making a foray into journalism, it was a great feeling.

Radio Interview with Kavita Krishnamurthy Subramaniam and Dr. L. Subramaniam

All India Radio's FM Rainbow (101.3) in Bangalore is broadcasting my exclusive interview with Kavita Krishnamurthy-Subramaniam and Dr. L. Subramianiam tomorrow Saturday, Aug 12, between 8 and 9 p.m. This interview is the first in a series (called Pride of Bangalore) that will air every Saturday for the following few weeks at the same time (8-9 p.m.). I'll put up information about the other people I talked to for this series as and when the schedule is fixed. Please do listen if you can.

I interviewed them at their home one morning a few months back. One thing that struck me about them is how modest, kind and unassuming they are. Absolutely no airs about them. They offered us (myself and the sound engineer that accompanied me) coffee, made sure we were comfortable, gave us the best possible sound environment in their home and most importantly, gave me time which is a miracle given their extremely (and I mean extremely) busy lives. And in the process, did not make me feel like they were doing me a big favor.

It was an honor to have met them and talked to them.

Interview with Vijay Amritraj on FM 101.3

If you live in Bangalore, you might be interested in listening to an interview with Indian tennis ace Vijay Amritraj that will be broadcast between 10 and 10:30 am tomorrow, Saturday, March 4th on All India Radio's FM Rainbow 101.3.

I met him for a brief chat when he was in Bangalore to commentate on the WTA Bangalore Open tournament a few days ago.

Playlists

Here are the playlists from my show last Friday.

Old Hindi Songs:

• Mere Mehboob Tujhe Mere Mohabbat Ki Kasam;
• Baharon Phool Barsaao;
• O Basanti;
• O Haseena Zulfonwaali;
• Aayegga Aanewaala;
• Rukhja O Jaanewaali;
• Mere Naina Sawan Bhadon;
• Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si; and
• Hum Bewafaa.

Western Music:

• I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2);
• What About Love (Heart);
• Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen);
• Space Oddity (David Bowie);
• Wonderful Tonight (Clapton);
• You Got It (Roy Orbison. Whoopi Goldberg sang a sad version of this song in a lovely, pathos-filled movie called Boys on the Side. I get the goosebumps every time I hear her version in my head);
• Run to You (Bryan Adams - extreeemely popular in Bangalore);
• Objection (Shakira);
• Golden Eye (Tina Turner);
• Tomorrow Never Dies (Sheryl Crowe); and
• Red Red Wine (UB 40).

Excerpt from My Chappell Interview, Experiment with Audioblogger

I'm trying out audioblogger to post an excerpt from my interview with Greg Chappell I did for my radio station. I've used the raw audio here. The answer to my last question might have gotten chopped off because of the time limit (5 minutes is all audioblogger will allow with an option to extend once you've finished posting the first 5 minutes).

Although I cannot post the entire interview (close to 45 minutes), I might post more excerpts if this has come across all right. Please let me know. The audio quality is not great when I hear it from this post (plus I hate hearing my own voice).

The beginning of the first sentence sounds garbled. It starts out like this: "The word 'great' is used in every sentence introducing Greg Chappell. And why not?"

And of course, this is copyrighted and stuff, so all the implications follow.

Update: I've added a few more minutes of audio below. One of the questions (and answer) I've edited out of this post deals with his thoughts on the Indian team's prospects in Sri Lanka. In his answer, he mentions the practice matches the team went through in Bangalore before they left. So the last question in this series of posts picks up on practice matches, unstructured play and their importance.

My Day as a Radio Jockey

Once a week, between 11 am and 5 pm, I anchor three one-hour shows on one of the FM stations in Bangalore. The first show's format is old Hindi film songs, the second one is a western music show, and the third one is an all request hour where I play Hindi film songs that listeners have called in the previous hour to request. A Kannada radio jockey (RJ) anchors the other three hours.

My work actually begins the day before when I go into the station and pick the songs I want to play on the old Hindi music hour and the western music hour. Then I come home, troll the internet and try to find interesting information, anecdotes or trivia about those songs.

I've developed a pattern now where on the oldies show I ask my listeners two trivia questions about the artists I play (Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Talat Mahmood, Geeta Dutt, etc.) or the actors in those old movies, and in the western music show, if I'm not doing a special on a particular artist, I have a topic for discussion throughout the hour.

Most of the shows on my radio station are interactive. The listeners interact with the RJ in one of two ways: either by sending in SMSs to designated mobile phones in the studio or by calling in on the studio line. Messages or calls relate to a number of things. They could be requests for particular songs, dedications of songs (X dedicates a song to Y for a birthday, anniversary, or just chumma), responses to questions posed by the RJs, or traffic updates.

So at 10 on the morning of my show, I walk into the studio and check my cue sheet that has a list of ads to be played and special instructions, if any. Following that, a quick peep into the computer to figure out the files where the promos and ads are located. At 11 am, following a two-minute news update, the microphone, the console (with a lot of blinking lights and about 12 faders), the CD players, the telephone line, the mobile, the computer, and the spool tape player (yes, we have those too) are all mine.

Of course, in the minutes before I go on air, I am cursing myself and wondering what the hell I've gotten myself into. Couldn't I have just shut up and stayed home?

Anyway, at 11:02, it's too late to turn back. I make my initial announcement ("It's just past 11 am on this fabulous Friday, and you are listening to Meethi Yaadein on FM ___. This is Sujatha, with you for the next hour as I....") and play the first song. My butterflies generally settle down somewhat.

SMSs have started coming in by then. So it's play a song, pull that fader down when the song ends, push up the announcer faders, read messages, push the computer fader up, play ads and promos, pull the computer fader down, push up the announcer faders, say something about the song coming up, pull down the announcer faders, and push up the fader of the system from which the song is playing. If there is a live caller or if something is going from the spool player, then pushing and pulling the appropriate faders there.

After an hour of this, it's a two minute news update again which is read by a newsreader from the news division. By now, I've completely settled down and have a lot of fun on the western music show. It's an awesome feeling to play a song you love and have your listeners listen to your songs. I'm usually belting the songs out in the studio myself. The listeners are also very interested in responding to discussions. Quite a few times, I've received messages asking what the topic was because they had tuned in late. There was a good response today to a discussion about the Discovery astronauts and their courage.

Between 1 and 1:30 pm, listeners call in to request songs from Hindi films and from 1:30 and 2 it's a mad rush to gobble some lunch and get the songs. The hour between 2 and 3 is extremely popular and the requested songs, even though they are played often, are nice tracks to listen to. After being out of touch with Hindi films and songs for so long, I'm now aware of what is released when and I at least know the names of all the new singers.

Although I am not on air between 3 and 5, there's a bunch of administrative stuff to complete and I have to be in the studio until the English RJ for the 5pm to 11 pm transmission shows up. I usually leave at 5 pm and am home by 6.

This is so completely different from anything I've done so far. Although I'd done shows for the youth program while in college and did a few children's shows after I came back, they were all pre-recorded. The feeling of being on air live and the knowledge that the moment words come out of your mouth they've gone on air (there is no time lag here unlike in the US) make for quite an experience.

My Interview with Greg Chappell

It's been a month since Greg Chappell, the master batsman and former Australian captain, took over as India's coach. He and his wife chose to make Bangalore their home during their stay in India. The team just completed their traning in Bangalore's own Chinnaswamy Stadium. In a couple of days, they are headed to Sri Lanka to compete in the Tri-angular series against Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

And today, I interviewed Chappell for my radio station! The interview lasted nearly an hour and that time was exclusively assigned to our interview. A part of that interview was already broadcast today and the entire interview is scheduled to go on air in the next couple of days.

It was a fantastic experience to talk to Chappell. The man was generous with his time and thoughtful with his responses. He's convinced about his philosophy of coaching cricketers (www.chappellway.com) and from all reports, he's made everyone (including the BCCI) aware of how he likes to operate.

One good thing I already see from his presence here as coach: VVS Laxman is back on the roster. Hope he stays there for a long time. He deserves it. It's an absolute pleasure to watch him play.

I think I might post the transcript of the interview once it goes on air.