Every once in awhile, you hear of a word you’ve never heard before. And it sticks.
Like an earworm, or, like an idea, if you’re a fan of Inception and are currently weighing the risk and reward of heading to a cinema to watch Tenet.
Photo by Christophe Hautier on Unsplash
This week, for me, that word was “diphthongs.” I love saying it. I have no idea why. Diphthongs. Diphthongs. Diphthongs.
Greek for “double sound” or “double tone”, diphthongs, also known as gliding vowels, are a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. The phrase no highway cowboys (click to listen) has five distinct diphthongs - one in every syllable. I got into diphthong rabbit holes while writing an article that many of you helped me with (thanks). I’m especially proud of this one. Please do read it:
“That’s a great question” is not a great answer.
The period since we last caught up has been busy. And fun. I did an interesting podcast interview with Susan Lambert of “In the Balance”. She’s a fantastic host. If my final edit sounds half-decent, I’ll let you know when it’s published.
Two Saturdays ago, I also caught up with our IIM Calcutta Chennai Alumni group over a freewheeling interview, which was more of a conversation with friends. Among other things, I realized how much we missed Chennai. I suspect the group wanted free zoom entertainment as I was, in the end, coerced into doing a freestyle rap session. It’s something I’ve often done at college and sporadically after - but almost always after a drink or two of liquid courage. This one was at 9 am EST - a tad early for anything liquid besides caffeine. Or theobromine, if that’s how you roll. The session made me realize two things:
a) how much we worry about making fools of ourselves, and how liberating it is to be comfortable with making a fool of oneself. And to not take oneself too seriously.
b) how much I enjoy improv + rap. I sublimated this refound interest by watching Freestyle Love Supreme (FLS), a Hulu documentary about the group with the same name. Besides Utkarsh, aka UTK and others, Freestyle Love Supreme, which debuted in 2005, included a certain Lin Manuel Miranda, now synonymous with Hamilton.
PS: In a bout of madness, I just signed up for FLS Academy’s classes. I’ll let you know if I’m accepted.
PPS: Epic Rap Battles of History is my all-time-favorite YouTube channel. If you’ve never seen it, you’re in for a treat. I recommend Jobs vs. Gates or Hitler vs. Vader for starters. Or the Wright Bros vs. Mario Bros. Or Gandhi vs. MLK. You get the idea.
Back to this newsletter’s raison d'etre…
Name, Place, Animal, Thing: The book.
Insert Drumroll here. I finished my vomit draft on September 4th. We celebrated this milestone with a lovely family dinner at a unique restaurant in New Jersey that features prominently in the book.
After a cooling period of a week where I did zero work on the book, I am now editing it in three phases. The first ‘make it right’ stage took four days and finished yesterday. It merely entailed checking to make sure everything was broadly in there, and in the correct order. This phase requires courage as it is very easy to, upon revisiting your writing, be critical of what past-you wrote some time ago.
The second phase is a line by line edit of every chapter. I’ll be enlisting the help of the Hemmingway App and Grammarly in this edit. This edit is painstakingly slow and is apparently, the most grueling part of the process. Stay tuned! If my next newsletter is mostly dry, you know why.
I had a bunch of illustrations planned for the book. They were of two kinds - first, sketches of places or scenes featured in the story, and second, charts and diagrams to illustrate various points. I’m retaining the latter but got some excellent advice that led me to do away with the former. There’s a reason most books that lend themselves well to illustration don’t have any pictures whatsoever. Think Harry Potter or fantasy fiction. If you’re sufficiently evocative with your prose, the reader creates an image in their minds. Illustrations rob the reader of that creative world-building opportunity. I guess this is also the reason many of us are disappointed by movies based on books - the director’s world looks a tad different from the one we’d previously created.
Makes. So. Much. Sense.
Three disconnected things to wrap up:
Just about when I think I’m personally tired of Facebook, it springs something serendipitous. This week, I reconnected with Mr.Calley D’Mello, my English teacher from class 8. Thank you, sir, for instilling in me a love for words and writing. I hope you read this.
Speaking of writing, I’m very excited about my next essay: Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I’m store-a-phobic, and so, no, it’s not about the retail outlet. Let me know if you have any guesses on what I might ramble about.
On October 6th, Mars will be 38.6 million miles from Earth - its third closest in 20 years. Seven days later, it will be at its brightest and visible all night long. This planetary event was the nudge I needed to go ahead and finally (back)order the catadioptric telescope I’ve been eyeing for months. Our sons have promised to join me in this Martian adventure over chilly autumn nights. More on that later.
Next time you ask me a question, my answer will start with TAGQ!
I’ve missed out on so much in life due to the fear of looking foolish. Thank god after 63 years I’ve learned to just do it!! My thoughts re “Bed,Bath and Beyond” - where great ideas often occur