The Write Creed

While browsing through an Indie author forum on Facebook, Eisha finds Cincinnati-based Jacqueline Vollat's post about her children's book, How to Hug a Cloud, which is available for free on Kindle that day. Who doesn't like a freebie? She downloads it and reads the 36-pages from cover to cover, illustrated beautifully by Noor Alshalabi, a freelance illustrator based in Jordan (https://www.noorillustrates.com/). Will the dreamy rhyme about chasing a cloud and not giving up work for her almost-four-year-old toddler? 

#jacquelinevollat #childrensbook #selfpublishing #kindlebooks #nooralshalabi #illustrator #jordan #cincinnati #cloudycastlebooks #indieauthors #indiepublishing #podcast #books #thewritecreed #rhymesfortoddlers #agesfourtoeight #rhyme 

Eisha religiously empties her Spam and cleans her Inbox to reduce load on the servers. It's one of the tiny things you can do for the environment and save power, she says. Before she hits "Empty Spam Now", she glances through the subject lines, some humourous, some not. From eggplant emojis in mails about penis-elongation to Russian women trying to sell her sex, to lottery and casino wins to blocked PR to hate mail from people she knew or didn't know, she finds them all. Then she talks about the spammers and scammers in Facebook writers' and podcasting groups and cyberbullies who can or cannot be blocked and how she deals with them. Amusing and informative, this episode of The Write Creed is dedicated to the pages of mails we never read or want to ever read. 

#thewritecreed #spam #junkmail #inbox #gmail #mailaccounts #spammail #scammers #spammers #facebook #podcasting #writing #sex #lottery #casino #hatemail #cyberbullies #trolls #bots #selfpublishing #ebooks #publishingscams #traditionalpublishing #digitalbooks #thegoasaga #books #writersforum #betareaders #eggplantemojis #spambots #bots #phishing #fraud

In her bid to reduce the number of plastic bottles in the bathroom, Eisha has ordered a couple of Earthy Sapo's Reetha Shampoo bars on Amazon. This is a product review after her first use. You might wonder why Eisha's reviewing a vegan shampoo bar on The Write Creed podcast. Well, it comes with a lot of literature, that's why. There are instructions on the brown box, an instruction manual about how to use the Earthy Sapo Reetha Shampoo Bar, another instruction manual about how to store or care for Earthy Sapo's soaps, another set about how to convert the soap bars into liquid and then, a couple of notes from the founder,  Sheetal, about how you tailor your expectations to get the maximum benefits from the product. Eisha reads them all out. Enjoy this one.

#earthysapo #shampoobars #ayurveda #ayurvedicproducts #reetha #coconutmilk #aloevera #bhringraj #rosemary #amla #hibiscus #methi #brahmi #shampoos #ecofriendly #sustainabililty #instructionmanuals #hairwash #hairproducts #vegan #noanimaltesting #kalartcreations #environment 

Eisha has just launched her first fiction series, The Goa Saga. In this episode of The Write Creed, she reads out from the second book, Gone Goa Gone. 

Archbishop Patrick announces a press conference to refute all claims of child abuse made by James and other former students of the boarding school in Mapusa. Saysha is a bunch of nerves. James is cool. He has nothing more to lose, he says. At a crucial moment of the televised press conference, there is a commotion in the audience. Archbishop Patrick leaves in a hurry. Aeram tells her that he has released a video that has gone viral. She's proud of how intelligent her husband is. Then Aeram tells her it was James's idea, not his. How!

Gone Goa Gone is now available on Amazon, Flipkart and Notion Press.

#gonegoagone #bookreading #authorreads #thegoasaga #thewritecreed #podcast #booksongoa #childabuse #christianity  

Vadodara's famed public garbas have had to be cancelled because of the ongoing Covid19 pandemic. However, that has not dampened the Navratri spirit this year as much as it had in 2020. Smaller gatherings, baithaks and dances in societies, homes and smaller halls are common. Eisha was invited to one such baithak and she shares a few recordings of that in this episode of The Write Creed. 

#navratri #fineartsgarba #vadodara #baroda #msuniversity #dandiya #raas #durga #ambaji #durgapuja #unitedwaygarba #covid19 #pandemic #pandemicnavratri

Over the last decade of teaching students in the fields of communication, media, journalism, etc, Eisha has had the same queries year after year from students, peers and friends who wish to spread their work far and wide but don't know how much to charge. To those of you who wish to get writers (all kinds, fiction/non-fiction, journalists) photographers, artists and designers to submit their work to you or "offer help" or "support you", you should PAY them for their help/support/job. They may be your best friends but they need a livelihood. As for how much should you pay or how should they charge you, here's a rough guide. Every organisation is different and will have their own budgets and goals but Eisha is putting it down in this episode of The Write Creed because she knows people, even the most seasoned journalists, exploited by companies/NGOs and made to work for almost free because they found it "too awkward" to ask for money. Don't be. If you don't know how much you should charge, let this be a guide.

https://eishasarkar.blogspot.com/2021/03/paid-internships-please-for-arts.html

https://eishasarkar.blogspot.com/2021/03/how-much-to-charge-for-transcription.html

https://eishasarkar.blogspot.com/2021/03/how-much-to-charge-for-your-creative.html

#freelancers #freelancewriters #journalists #journalism #writing #editing #design #photopgraphy #indianfreelancers #creatives #careers #freelancinginIndia #freelancephotography #freelanceeditor #transcription #languages #finearts #liberalarts #needpaidinternships #interns #communications #media #books #NGOs #corporates #events #branding #livelihoods #paycreativepeople #thewritecreed #academics #institutions #projects

Untamed thoughts by Anita Sinha

Notion, caprice or stretch of imagination. 

Leave behind the nitty gritty of life. 

Take a circuitous path. 

Trudge along labyrinth. 

Scale the heights of a summit. 

Watch the snow-clad mountains 

Rays of the sun in several hues. 

Close my eyes and feel the blues 

Shout at the top of my voice, echoes resonate the valleys 

Gleefully I stand in ecstasy. 

Strutting I spot valley of flowers 

Enchanted and captivated 

Stood mesmerised, drinking their beauty and healing my soul. 

Butterflies fluttering, birds humming and bees buzzing around. 

Transcending in bliss, singing and trilling , no scale no rhythm. 

No desire of applause, no fear of disdain. 

Behold! I see brook. 

Streaming clear and placid. 

Pace towards it , tempted to feel the chill. 

Bending to touch, oh no I hear a beep. 

Beep of the timer , brought me back to my present. 

I found myself in the park, for morning walk 

Now time to go for a bath

Cover art: Picture of the Pir Panjals by Rachit Mankad

This episode of The Write Creed starts with Eisha sitting in the Crystal Room of The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai as she gets nostalgic about the events she covered at the hotel when she was an intern at Bombay Times. It has been over a decade that she has spent some time at the hotel and she savours each moment she is there. The Gateway of India and Colaba Causeway are crowded as people make their way to immersing their Ganesh idols into the sea on occasion of Ganesh Visarjan. This year, thanks to Covid19, the celebrations are low-key. The most memorable part of their staycation at the Taj was a gift from the hotel, a ride in a new electric carriage, that has replaced the old horse-drawn Victoria carriages. A pollution-free golf cart-like experience in a part of Bombay she adores. What more could she want!

#tajmahalpalacehotel #tajhotelmumbai #tatagroup #colaba #apollobunder #gatewayofindia #ganeshvisarjan #ganpati #victoria #horses #downtownplus #timesofindia #bombaytimes #covid19 #mumbai #nostalgia #experience #electricvictoria #golfcarts #historicallandmarks #tourism #journalism #travel #thewritecreed

Journalism is all about deadlines and Eisha loves keeping time. She is known for her fondness for unusual dials and wearing men's watches. Not a serious horologist, she did try to repair a few of her early watches during her teens with a set of screwdrivers. Then she outsourced it to old watchmakers in repair shops in Mumbai and Vadodara and took a step back in time. In this episode of The Write Creed, she talks about her favourite watches, journalism and advertising before reviewing her latest, the Crossbeats Ignite S2, made in India. Enjoy this journey through places, people, papers and time. 

#mumbai #bombay #timesofindia #cst #vt #kolkata #orlando #disneyland #usa #america #citizen #titan #mickeymouse #disney #tagheuer #timex #gucci #cartier #seiko #crossbeats #bangalore #productreview #amazon #horology #time #watches #watchmaker #watchrepair #switzerland #fossil #fitbit #strava #applewatch #smartwatch #crossbeatsignite #swimming #pedometer #journalism #thestatesman #bombaytimes #robbreport #patekphilippe #omega #tissot #fasttrak #casiogshock

Eisha was woken up at 3.40 am on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 by a torrential downpour in her city, Vadodara, India, and a buzz on her cell phone. It was a message from her friend Henaa Salehi from New York about scheduling this interview a couple of hours later. Henaa left Kabul on August 15 by the last commercial flight out of the capital of Afghanistan before the city was taken over by the Taliban. Henaa is the Director of Procurement Policy and Legal Directorate, at National Procurement Authority of Afghanistan. She has a bachelors in law from Kabul University and has been a practicing commercial lawyer for five years before joining Afghan government on 2019. She first joined Afghan government as legal expert for Legal Unit of the President where she was also serving as the Acting Director for Directorate of Regional & International Commitment’s Coordination at the Unit and served the positions for 1.5 years.

Henaa is also a Fulbright Scholar and is currently pursuing her masters in International Business & Trade Law at Fordham University, New York City. Besides being a lawyer, she has been a women and youth rights’ activist for nine years mainly focusing on gender equality and education.

In this episode of The Write Creed, Henaa talks about growing up as a refugee in Pakistan, the times of the first and current Taliban regimes, the women protestors on the streets of Kabul and her plea to the international community to not recognise the Taliban government. 

#afghanistan #henaasalehi #kabul #taliban #bantaliban #pakistan #refugees #afghanrefugees #newyork #usa #thewritecreed #spotify #applepodcasts #googlepodcasts #war #afghanwar 

Indian poet and lyricist, Gulzar, has published several children's books. Samay Ka Khatola is a collection of poems and songs he had penned over the years and later dedicated to his grandson, Samay. Eisha has been looking for books in Hindi to introduce the language to her toddler. This one comes handy. In this episode of The Write Creed, Eisha recites two songs from the book in her own style, that her son loves. Enjoy!

#samaykakhatola #indianauthors #hindibooks #hindibooksforkids #gulzar #poems #songs #junglejunglebaatchalihai #junglebook #mowgli #guglijhanakjhhaye #aliceinwonderland #doordarshan #childrensstories #childrensbooks #youngreaders #toddlers #toddlermom #parenting #languages #multiculturalkids 

In this episode of The Write Creed, Eisha tells Waleed that her friends in Herat and Kabul in Afghanistan are in a precarious situation and have, of late, been putting up quotes by Rumi. She asks Waleed why Rumi, who was originally from Balkh in now Afghanistan, is the most popular Sufi poet. They travel through central Asia, Iran, Turkey and the Indian subcontinent through the histories of kings and stories of Sufi poets and their songs in Farsi and Punjabi and talk about different kinds of devotion.

#rumi #shamstabrizi #shams #waleedhussain #sufi #sufipoetry #eishasarkar #williamdalrymple #books #iran #persia #afghanistan #multan #balkh #turkey #anatolia #pakistan #delhi #mehrauli #indiansubcontinent #india #punjabi #bulleshah #amirkhusrau #bakhtiarkaki #nizamuddinauliya #salimchishti #merapiyagharaaya #madhuridixit #nusratfatehalikhan #devotion #love #sufipoets #aurangzeb #jahanara #shahjahan #mughals #alauddinkhilji #mongols #sufimusic #ruhaniyat #mumbai #herat #kabul #turks #afghans #persians #punjabis

(On popular demand, to make distribution across all platforms available, I have removed the song Mera Piya Ghar Aaya by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for this version of the episode).

In this episode of The Write Creed, Eisha tells Waleed that her friends in Herat and Kabul in Afghanistan are in a precarious situation and have, of late, been putting up quotes by Rumi. She asks Waleed why Rumi, who was originally from Balkh in now Afghanistan, is the most popular Sufi poet. They travel through central Asia, Iran, Turkey and the Indian subcontinent through the histories of kings and stories of Sufi poets and their songs in Farsi and Punjabi and talk about different kinds of devotion. 

#rumi #shamstabrizi #shams #waleedhussain #sufi #sufipoetry #eishasarkar #williamdalrymple #books #iran #persia #afghanistan #multan #balkh #turkey #anatolia #pakistan #delhi #mehrauli #indiansubcontinent #india #punjabi #bulleshah #amirkhusrau #bakhtiarkaki #nizamuddinauliya #salimchishti #merapiyagharaaya #madhuridixit #nusratfatehalikhan #devotion #love #sufipoets #aurangzeb #jahanara #shahjahan #mughals #alauddinkhilji #mongols #sufimusic #ruhaniyat #mumbai #herat #kabul #turks #afghans #persians #punjabis 

A few years ago, Eisha watched a viral video of actor Daniel Radcliffe rapping Alphabet Aerobics by Blackalicious on The Jimmy Fallon Show. She looked up the lyrics and that inspired her to pen a poem about her second home, Australia, a country very close to her heart. Here's Alphabetically Aussie:

Alphabetically Aussie!

Australia, Ayers, Assange, asylum;

Beaches, blokes, beers and bush;

Cricket, coffee and conversation;

Diplomacy, dollar, didgeridoos;

Entertaining evenings, exploration;

Feasting, fans, fast-lanes, flangaroos;

Gardens, grills, G'Days and 'greenies';

Highs, health, 'heaps' and handles;

Independent, inquisitive, indigenous;

Jargon, jumbuck, Japanese, jamboree;

Knowledge, koalas, kitties and Kylie;

Lust, love, life, less ordinary;

Murdoch, Miranda, Matilda, mates;

“No worries”, “nice 'n' easy”, NT;

Oz, Olympics, Opera House, opal;

Pokies' players, precious Pommies;

Quiet Queen and quarantine;

Rugby, reef, runners 'n' rowers;

Sand, sun, shadows and snakes;

Tests, tribulations, tribes, trips;

Uranium, units, Uggs, utes;

Victory, Victoria, Venus and vices;

Wine, weather, wellness, worship;

X-Men, XXXX, eXtreme;

Yarns, 'yakka', yells, 'yewies';

Zoos, Zen, zenith, zest.

#eishasarkar #thewritecreed #alphabeticallyaussie #innateexplorer #poem #rap #danielradcliffe #jimmyfallon #thejimmyfallonshow #alphabetaerobics #blackaliciousc#australia #straya #aussie #oz #downunder #poetry 

Niranjan Navalgund derives great pleasure in learning about life through the game of chess. One lesson he shares, "The player who makes the last mistake is the one who loses."  He is a former National U-17 champion, runner up National U-25 and commonwealth silver medalist. He is a FIDE master and a FIDE Trainer and currently works for chess.com and also teaches chess online. Niranjan harbours special interest in new age philosophy, graphology and tarot. A lover of words, Niranjan occasionally tries his hand at writing stories and poems. He believes that writing is a wonderful exercise for the soul. He has contributed short stories to several anthologies and has also written a novella titled The Lively Library & An Unlikely Romance which was published by Readomania in 2016. He has also written a short film titled 'B-Tweets' which won an award at the Barcelona planet film festival in the short narration category. Haiku and senryu are his favorite forms of poetry. In this episode of The Write Creed, in their very first conversation, Niranjan and Eisha talk about chess, letter-writing, books, dreams, meaningful coincidences, synchronicity and tarot. Laughter, learnings and life! 

#niranjannavalgund #karnataka #belgaum #belgavi #kannada #chess #chessprofessional #chesschampion #kidsandchess #chessplayer #grandmaster #fide #commonwealth #tarot #books #thelivelylibrary #readomania #poems #haiku #holalu #novella #dreams #stories #meaninfulcoincidences #synchronicity #life #lifeskills #learning #letters #tarotreading #storytelling #thewritecreed 

Shreyasi Majumdar is a journalist and environment scientist based in New Zealand. In this episode of The Write Creed, she tells Eisha about how she started writing poems at the young age of eight. She has written short stories since then but never had the patience to pen down a novel or novella. An avid reader who loves immersing herself into books, she discovered flash fiction while browsing online and has been writing stories in that format since she moved to New Zealand six years ago. An episode punctuated with laughs and anecdotes, ends with Shreyasi narrating one of her stories in her amazing voice. 

#flashfiction #fiction #writing #fictionwriting #ohenry #jeffreyarcher #somersetmaugham #newzealand #literature #thewritecreed #poetry #prose #storytelling #stories #journalism #kashifmashaikh #books #readers #readinghabits #harrypotter #footloosebyshreandeish #novels #novella #shreyasimajumdar #eishasarkar

Anita Sinha is a writer and poet from Vadodara. Her compositions in both Hindi and English have featured in various e-magazines, including the Hindi e-magazine, Grihaswamini, where he works have garnered many likes and comments. In this episode of The Write Creed, she recites her poem, Yore. 

Yore by Anita Sinha

I think of yore

Want to live yore more and more

Want to tread on path

The path which has already been traversed

Knowing very well cannot be reversed

With gleam in the eyes and beaming wistfully

Want to live in yore more and more

In yore I see myself enveloped in the love

and care of my parents

Who always protected from the snare

and glare of the material world

Anytime ready to take my pain

without any gain

Affection and admiration

Never disdain 

Follies were ignored

Words of wisdom inculcated 

In yore

I see my siblings

Indulged in quibbling 

Without any malice or grudge

Always for fun

Mirth and laughter

Anytime sought after

fun and frolic with innocence

A home sweet home

Full of joy and pleasure

Gaeity galore

With a twinge 

I realise 

Yore no more

Live and sing in present

Present is yours

Muse do confuse 

Writer, editor, photographer, mentor and teacher... Waleed Hussain has spent a good part of the last 20 years as a print and digital journalist, while also wearing many other hats. He has headed the newsrooms of two national dailies in Mumbai and New Delhi and been associated with The Times of India, The New Indian Express, The Morning Standard, Mid-Day, and Cricinfo, among others. A history and architecture enthusiast, he is always en route to somewhere - whether physically, virtually or mentally - to add to his personal encyclopaedia. A passionate journalist, he, however, remains Sufi at heart. In this episode of The Write Creed, Waleed takes us through four decades of his life. Born in Kuwait to wealthy NRI parents, Waleed was a spoiled brat who wanted to be a professional footballer. Then in August 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded and annexed Kuwait and started the first Gulf War. Overnight, 12-year-old Waleed and his family had to return to India as refugees. The death of his mother at 14 shattered him and he was almost suicidal. His school friends were his support system and they introduced him to cricket, a game he had never played in Kuwait. From there, he grew to love the sport and played for the junior and club teams in Mumbai and simultaneously started his career as a cricket journalist. Eisha and Waleed then go on to discuss different kinds of journalism. 

#cricket #kuwait #gulfwar #saddamhussein #iraq #refugees #journalist #journalism #mumbai #waleedhussain #toi #midday #newsroom #ranjitrophy #salimdurrani #cricinfo #wasimjaffer #zaheerkhan #india #indiancricket #mumbaicricket #podcastoncricket #sufi #sportsjournalism #cricketjournalism #newsdesk #reporting #sportsreporter #crimereporter #bombaytimes  

Pic: Waleed Hussain with one of his mentors, former Indian cricketer, Salim Durani. Salim Aziz Durani is a former Indian cricketer who played in 29 Tests from 1960 to 1973. An all-rounder, Durani was a slow left-arm orthodox bowler and a left-handed batsman famous for his six-hitting prowess. He is the only Indian Test cricketer to have been born in Afghanistan.

In this episode of The Write Creed, Eisha and Dr Vandana Talegaonkar, an educator from Gujarat, with over two decades of experience, talk about how different students express their thoughts in the classroom based on their backgrounds, exposure and ability to use technology. Millennials are surrounded by visual media and prefer to use that over language, Vandana notes, though, writing is also making a slow comeback with the current batch of students. They discuss slang and SMS lingo before Eisha pops the very important question: Is a student a client of the university or a product of the university? What do you think?

#education #university #primary #highschool #educators #writinginclassrooms #exposure #ruralurbandivide #technology #socialmedia #smslingo #language #millennials #visualmedia #storytelling #storytellinginclassrooms #teachers #teachingandwriting #communications #expression #english #regionallanguages #cultures #communicationeducation