A Complete Guide to Writing Fiction using Evernote

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If you know me in my other life, I proudly boast of myself as the Monk Who Sold His Computer for the Cloud. I do not own a computer, apart from video editing, and invest a lot of time trying to replace my computer with cloud services. One of the most important problem faced by me in this period was how do I move novel writing services to the cloud?


Can an internet based service be used for Novel writing? The service should be such that it can be used to sync on the phone, iPad as well as Web.

With NaNoWriMo around, I decided to put on the thinking cap and setup my workspace in Evernote. If you are new to this world, Evernote is a note-taking tool that helps capture text-based-notes, picture based notes, Web-Links (Clips) and even voice based notes. So let's get to work. 

Evernote lets you create Notebooks that can store your notes together. The notebooks can further be grouped together in something they call 'Stack'. For the purpose of the blog, I am going to delve first into use of Evernote to write the whole fiction, if you are using some other tool, like Scrivener, I suggest you jump down to the next section where I explore using Evernote as a supplementary tool for writing.

Using Evernote for Writing Fiction

Writing Chapters
One of the first thing to do is create a stack for the project you are beginning. I usually give mythological character names as working title to the projects I am working on. This NaNoWriMo, I am starting on  a project Narkasura. The first I did was create a notebook, N-Chapters which will contain chapters in their Numbers (Or title) and add it to the Narkasura stack.





Ideas Notebook

The second and most important notebook for me is the Ideas book. I usually write Faction (Which is a mix of facts and fiction) and to get the facts write, I research a lot. These notes are kept nicely in the Ideas book. The best way to ideate is to write down the stuff that you think of. Using the Evernote document scanner, these notes are easily uploaded to the relevant notebook. This was the first notes for the project Kumbhakaran



Characters Notebook

If you are anything like me (and I hope not) you have this maddening urge of making characters that are so real. In my characters book, I detail the character and its journey throughout the book. For e.g., if in chapter 6 Dev Karmarkar (he is the one I am working on nowadays) breaks his ankle, I make a note so that I can set a proper time-line for him to get healed.


Structure

Ironically, the structure notebook is for the unstructured notes and things I think of, which are sometimes useless. If you are working on a thriller and have the need to detail out a crime scene, this unstructured notebook comes in handy. Sometimes, I also add time-line of events to help me focus on the correct sequence. When writing a crime-thriller, it is essential to do a exact layout of the murder location. I usually do it with a pen-and-a-paper, you can scan the document and attach it to the notebook easily.



Evernote Supplementing writing

Evernote makes a wonderful tool to supplement your writing. Be it taking notes in the spur of the moment of taking photos etc.

Research

Internet is a good researching medium. The research notebook can store all your research in one place. I often use it for storing clipping related to my story as well as taking photos. If you want to describe a scene, it is often good to have a accomplishing photos. The photos also help when writing a script, you can give them to the director who can turn them into shots.


Evernote also brings with it a tool called web-clipper. It can clip articles immediately on click of a button.



Make Audio Notes

This tip was given by Amar Vyas on Facebook. You can always record audio-notes that describes a particular character or a setting to be referred at a later period.

Bonus: Managing conventions

If you visit a lot of conventions and literary festivals, you get a lot of pamphlets and business cards. This information may not be useful at that point of time but it may be valuable in the future. Evernote can be used to safely store the pamphlets in a unique notebook for future reference,

The best part is, Evernote business card scanner, scans the business card and creates a contact in your phone automatically.


It is obviously not the best tool for writing out there but you can use it for writing faster on any device. Once you are done with your chapters, they can be simply copied to a word processor for further editing.

This is how I use Evernote to keep track of my writing, research and conventions. What tool do you use for writing fiction?


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The Bio of Professor Shastri

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Born: 14 January 1978
Hair: Curly, partially bald
Profession: Founder- 'Takshashila institute of Advanced research'


Anyone who met Professor Sampakta Shastri always had an undeniable urge to punch him hard in his face. Prof Shastri was a self-proclaimed expert on everything under the Sun. His theories and ideas were famous around the world. He was also known to have an outburst of information about everything in the world. He used to share it in random conversations with no moral obligations of any kind. He liked to give prolonged lectures, which he was fond of giving, at any unfortunate moment. Sometimes, irrespective of whether anyone was willing to listen to him or not.

Professor Shastri was in his late thirties and had a round face and a big belly. From a distance he looked like a giant panda with short and curly hair, dark brown complexion and no facial hair. Depending on who you believe in, he was either a modern day Einstein or a lunatic devil worshipper. There was no real proof about what he did or who he was; only rumours. The only fact known about him in public domain was that he was richer than most people on the planet. He had earned the money from his countless patents.

There were rumours that Prof. Shastri was working with many governments. There were rumours that many governments wanted him arrested for uncertified human experiments. He was also rumoured to go missing for days hunting some treasure or a lost city or a lost civilisation. The only real public information about Prof. Shastri was that he was the founder of 'Takshashila institute of Advanced research'. The five-storey building housed and sponsored experts on many subjects in different fields.

Known Associates


Advika Shetty- Intern

If you met Advika Shetty for the first time, you would not believe her. It would be difficult for you to understand that she was a PHD student training to become a neurologist. It would also be exceedingly difficult for you to understand that her father was Professor Shetty. The infamous professor of theology and comparative mythology. It would be even more confusing to know that her mother was the unpopular Christina Pillai. Christina Pillai was a theoretical physicist who challenged many religious institutes with her theories.
Advika was the after-product of a heated debate at the university about the concept of God and a weekend of drunken madness in Goa. Her parents never got to a proper marriage. But still managed to raise a beautiful scientist according to religious principles. She considered herself a perfect balance between religion and science. But she missed realising her ambition to join the glamorous world of air hostess by an inch. She was an inch shorter than the mandatory requirements of becoming an air-hostess. Her hair were too straight for any possible good hairstyle. Out of pity most hair stylists gave her the same shoulder length haircut with angled bangs on her forehead. After her dream for air-hostess crashed to the ground, she had to choose between joining a convent for studying religion with her father or a PhD college like her mother. Her mother was proud on the day she Takshashila Institute hired her as an intern.


Dr. Meghana Banarjee- Colleague, Head of Psychology Department, Takshashila Institute of Advance Research



Dr. Meghana sported short, wavy, layered curls. They suggested that she was a fun person and also that she didn’t spend a lot of time managing them. She was in her early 20s and wore simple doctor's apron over the salwaar suit. No one would believe she was the the world’s leading authority on the brain functions. She held three PhDs on many subjects by the age of 23. She had written ‘The Theory of Morality,’ an international bestseller. She had received 30 different awards in 17 countries for her research. She was the best of the best and was often called in to help when no one else would know what the problem could be.

These characters and more are going to set out on the most epic adventure ever. Buy the book today


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What makes us believe in something - The idea behind Ragnarok

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The idea behind Ragnarok, my upcoming science fiction satire, came exactly three years ago when I was talking to a friend. This friend of mine (who has explicitly asked me not to name him) was harping on and on about how religion is necessary for faith and belief. That put the idea of God in my head. For as long as I remember, I was an agnostic about the concept of God. I never faced any crisis that would make me look for a higher power or ask for forgiveness.

But my friend put the idea that there has to be someone out there looking out for us. That was the definitive moment when the idea popped into my head. See, here is the thing, we all want to believe that someone out there is looking out for us. Everyone, even an atheist, at one point in time want to look up and say, hey this is not my problem, this is yours.

Here is the idea, if everyone (or most of us) talk to someone all powerful to solve their problem, what kind of pressure are we putting on that one person? And what if, he is as limited as our imagination? 

The idea of God is personal to everyone, we all choose to believe in someone. When I set to write my own God, I had to believe in something. Having never believed in anything, it was a difficult proposition. That set me on a journey to read as many religious dogmas as I could. I met some incredible people who made some incredible points and slowly a picture of what I could believe in emerged. 

The idea behind Ragnarok is massive and it certainly isn't conventional. It is not a story that has a protagonist and an antagonist, not in conventional term. It is not a story where a hero battles against all odds to defeat the villain.

Ragnarok is about life, about the idea called HUMAN BEING. Ragnarok is about the ultimate test of faith. And finally as the actors on this stage will tell you, Ragnarok is about proving ourself what it takes to remain Human in terms of extreme duress.

What will you do when everything you know is about to end and the thing responsible for the ending is the one thing you believe in?

So as I said before, get ready for the journey of epic proportions through space and time. And what's more awesome? Before the epic launch, the book is available online at a discounted price. If there is a best time to buy it, it is now.

http://www.amazon.in/Ragnarok-Siddhesh-Kabe/dp/8192893642/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1439671732&sr=8-2&keywords=siddhesh+kabe
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Why did I choose the name: Ragnarok?

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I stand on the eve of a monumental achievement. After a long effort of four years, I finished my first novel- Ragnarok. It is a science fiction satire based in a fictional world just like us. There were a lot of questions around Ragnarok and I chose to answer some of them. The most common one was, why Ragnarok? Those who know me, know about my obsession with Hindu Mythology but still for the first novel, I chose a title with Norse Mythology.
To those wondering, my Ragnarok is not about mythology. It is a science fiction satire based in a modern world. The only thing related to the old mythology is the title of the book and the chartered name of the secret society planning on world domination.

Just as a disclaimer, it has nothing to do with the Marvel movie. Ragnarok literally means The End of Gods in Norse mythology. Ragnarok is described as a decisive battle between Gods and Titan to determine the successor for the throne of Odin. The following is a poem that is roughly translated in English about Ragnarok.

Brothers will fight
and kill each other,
sisters' children
will defile kinship.
It is harsh in the world,
whoredom rife
—an axe age, a sword age
—shields are riven—
a wind age, a wolf age—
before the world goes headlong.
No man will have
mercy on another

English translation of old Norse poem Volva, The state of Humanity during Ragnarok


If we look at modern world, I believe we are fighting the same old battle against God. We are perfecting the world that was given to us by making better roads, better houses and better lives by destroying nature. At the same time the nature is turning unpredictable; we have seen increase in natural calamities. It is resisting our efforts. That according to me is modern Ragnarok.

No other mythology comes closer to this moment. Essentially, Ragnarok leaves the end hanging. All other culture show that Gods obviously win but in Ragnarok, the end is indecisive. Sometimes the Titans win and sometimes the Gods. Norse Ragnarok talks about the triumph over the most powerful force in the Universe. My Ragnarok deals with modern humans, scientist and researchers, trying to take over nature.

The story is same, the titans are new. US. Humans. Between this battle of Humans and Gods, which side will you choose?

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Understanding the Internet Revolution

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Man is a social animal, this was the first lie they ever told you in your history classes. If we look at the human history going back through the dark ages, we understand that man is anything but a social animal.
The agriculture revolution gave control of food in everyone hand and we started building societies, bringing people socially together. But when societies formed it brought all sorts of people together and caused all sorts of conflicts between them. Somewhere in the middle ages, few smart people realized this and decided to kick start a religious revolution. They established common guidelines for communities to work cohesively without stepping on each others foot. But they could not achieve this without control of information. With control comes fear and with fear comes faith. They established Churches, Mosques and Temples and controlled the information to reach heaven.
But the voices of dissident did not merge, not easily, they just were suppressed. A few kings got on to the idea and decided to infuse this religious fever in their governance model. The entire Europe was established on the principle. Now the religious revolution had fear, faith and power to do stuff. The voices of dissident were brutally killed and the fear increased.
As we entered the industrial revolution, fear gripped the nation and so did faith. Together they created a working class that dreamt of a better world. At that time, two teenagers were working on another Book that would rock the world, they were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The book they authored was 'Communist Manifesto' and they formed the labour revolution.
The labour revolution gave power to the voices of dissident that were hiding till that time. The labour revolution and the religious fever gave rise to democratic system. People decided time was for change and a new form of system was brought out. The democratic system was gift wrapped to the citizens as a government of their own. It was a government that majority agreed. They elected representatives and send them in the parliament, not knowing that the game itself was rigged. These elected representatives worked for the greater good but they were part of the old system, were control of information was essential. This new system was using the same old principle of withholding information thus causing fear and faith among the masses. That gave rise of conspiracy theories and the voices of dissident were termed lunatic and unpatriotic. 
A young college drop-out was working his way to do something he never expected, this was Bill Gates and he was trying to sell a personal computer. When he introduced the concept of Personal Computing, people laughed at him. Why would anyone need a personal computer? They were happy with computers at universities and workplaces but computers at every home? That was madness.
But that madness ensured. Bill Gates (knowingly or unknowingly) kick-started a computing revolution (Although the credit for computer goes to Alan Turing, I personally believe that the idea of Personal Computer was introduced to the world by Bill Gates). Steve Jobs lost the race in computing but regained his spirit in mobile computing. Between them they brought the power of computing to individual people.
The voices of dissident now had a platform. A free and fair medium that was so vast that no one could control and thus the cloud was born. Internet revolution broke the backbone of traditional institutions that relied of information control. These institution are religious, corporations and even Governments.
The power of internet brought with him the Occupy Protests, WikiLeaks and many more to come. What does this mean for business?
It means we are standing exactly where Matthew McConaughey was standing on the Millers Planet in the movie interstellar. What we are seeing as mountains are waves, big tsunami waves and they are not coming towards us. Like the Millers planet, our world, everything we know is moving towards them. We have already started descending into the next phase in human social revolution.
The information is no longer controllable, the dissident voices are no longer silenced. The problems can no longer be put on back-burner. The governments are running scared, trying to control the internet but this is an illusion. Social Media and Cloud Computing are two by-products of this massive revolution. We are moving away from the traditional computing model. We are moving from the controlled model of dispensing information based on location and time. It can still be achieved and is required for security but that is just an illusion.
If your 'social media' strategy does not include 'listening' to those voices, you are being pulled near that wave. If your corporate strategy does not include social media you are being pulled into that wave. Your employees, your customers and your partners are on social media. They are carrying devices that could leak complaints about you at any given point of time. How far can you control them?
The changes internet revolution is bringing are disruptive. They are here to stay. Anyone who pretends otherwise is still believing the waves are mountains and very far away.
Of-course this article is completely speculative and has no real evidence but we have already seen the changes happening around. We can always pretend that nothing of that sort is happening and go back to our life.
But the world will keep on moving and with it bring a new wave of change. How far we prepare for that change completely depends on us.
Pic: Luis Llerena 
Crossposted from Linkedin
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Lessons learnt from a Year of Writing

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The past year was something of a golden period for writing for me. For those who came in late (or not following me on Facebook page), I had a big writing year.  I finished the most epic science fiction book this year titled Ragnarok. The book will be released this August or September. A graphic novel titled Agatya is set to release immediately after that. Agatya is a book about the last line of defence between Heaven and Hell. That's two fictional releases back to back. There is one more technical book coming out soon (no release planned). And finally a short film based on a Short Story from this blog. (Read Original Ginger Chai if you are in that sort of thing)
I am writing a lot in the past year and that was a shameless marketing plug for my Facebook page. With all these books and releases I had a big writing year behind me since last May. I was writing and editing most of the time. And as with any normal human experience, you learn things. Here are some of things I learned during the writing year. We all know writers are self-righteous folks who will not go down without a fight. So here is a disclaimer, there are my observation and mine only.



1. Writing is all about discipline
Writing is a profession filled with people who procrastinate a lot. There will be times when you will have no idea in your head. There will be times when all you want to do is give up, all those times you just don't. I had endless hours of staring at laptop screen. I spend hours stalking other writing friends on Facebook. But procrastination does not put food on plate. So had to push myself to do more. Write one more sentence at a time.

2. There has to be a trust between writer and publisher

The publishing process is a complex one. My lawyer always used to tell me, never run alone on a treadmill (during the startup days). You need a team to bring a product out in the market. While a writer does a creative investment on a book, a publisher backs it up with money. There could be a editor who is helping you out trim the book, there could be a marketing expert. All these people are putting their efforts in the book, trust them. Once you finish writing it is no longer your book, it is a product.
When I talked to Half Baked Beans for Ragnarok, their efforts were sincere. The editor gave a lot of suggestions, I may not agree with them but you have to understand them. For Agatya we had the artist as a stakeholder too along with Fablery. Writing a graphic novel is a collaborative process. There were discussions, there were arguments but what matters is that there was trust. As long as you trust the other person is doing what he things is best for the book, you are good.
3. There will be distractions
We live in the world where the attention span of humans is shorter than their thumb. There are weapons of mass distraction at the click of a button. Netflix releases Sense8 just when you want to finish the chapter. There will be a facebook notification or a phone call, right when you are thinking. The distractions are many and you will lose track of what you were doing. But you need to focus, bring yourself back and write. The chapter won't be as amazing as before but you will get there.

4. Self doubt is your best friend

As a writer you will feel sad about the work you do after some time. You will question it, you will burn it and you will hate it. What you feel about your own works will make the critiques sound like muppets. When I started Agatya, the story changed so much that Nethra had to give out an ultimatum.

5. There always will be a better way to do something, but draw the line somewhere

There is always a better way to write. Better way to form a story. Better way to create a character. There always will be. But writing is not a Mother Teresa charity, it is a money making profession. And as with any money making profession there is a time limit, a deadline. You have to draw the line somewhere. There should be a logical point when you say, 'NO MORE'. (If you understood that doctor who reference, hifi.)

6.  You have to be unbiased about the characters.

When writing Agatya, I came across a character who acts as a villain in the story. The acts that he does and the pleasure he drives from them were unsettling. But writing a character with prejudice does not justify his grandeur. No one in the world things he or she is evil. Everyone does things for good. So when writing characters you have to think like them objectively. Also it is not a good idea to fall in love with your own character, that shows you need therapy.

7. Deadlines are there so they can stay dead

While I was learning this lesson, the editorial team was learning patience. I kept missing deadlines after deadlines. It was not on purpose, just my chant of adding extra hours in twenty hour did not work as expected.

8. Get ready for some harsh criticism 

I learnt this lesson when my technical book hit the market. You get all sorts of emails. Some from people who enjoyed the book. Some from people who felt the book saved their life. And some of the people who judged the book and had some harsh. While you accept the later, you learn to not let the former become your pride. 

9. Nothing beats paper, not even rock 

In the course of the year, I used multitude of tools. From Celtx for script writing to final draft for novel. I used Google docs for collaborative editing and Microsoft word for formatting. But when you are stuck you pull out a pen and a paper and start writing. 

10. Keep writing 

The most important lesson I learned, and this one is a bit philosophical so bear with me. After you finish everything, you keep writing. You move on to your new project and you and your ideas out there. While I prepare for the marketing for these books, I have started ideating on the next! More on that later.

Those were the lessons learnt in past year of writing. Obviously before you leave, hop on to the Facebook page for exclusive give-aways, merchandise and news about the book.

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Building a Multiverse around Hindu Mythology

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For those who are aware (and many of those who are not, don't fret awareness is just temporary) I am currently busy building a multiverse. A lot of questions were asked around my multiverse and I had to answer them at one point or the other. So here is a compilation of my thoughts (and a little bit of progress) around my multiverse. It might be a tiny bit of long post BUT towards the end I am leaving you with a bonus sneak peak of my Universe, don't miss it.

If you do not know what a Multiverse is, Multiverse is basically a shared Universe where multiple characters live (not in harmony) and jump in and out of stories. For e.g., Incident happening in some story are refereed in another story sometimes via close related person or maybe through public medium. Designing a multiverse is a herculean task in itself for little little things matter in this universe. Like Harry Potter lives in his own Universe. It has its own Laws.


The Central Theme of the Multiverse

My multiverse is not magical (atleast not completely magical) and its roots are found deep into Hindu Mythology. The multiverse is exactly like the world we live in, with same physical properties, however in this universe you also meet Hindu mythological creatures like Gandharvas, Yakshas, Apsaras etc. All the story lead are Human and the stories are set in Kalyug, the time when demons rule and not God. But you find different creatures in supporting role choosing sides.

The Multiverse begins on the day Krishna dies leaving the world, taking the Dwapar-yuga with him. A lot of changes start talking place in the world and it begins with Gods and Sages who have attained Nirvana start leaving the world. A lot of changes start taking place on the planet, starting with humans kingdom being formed and subsequently countries etc.

The Death of Krishna and the opening of Kalyuga was part of my short story collection The One Who Stood Against Shiva and Other Stories.

This has been the central theme around the Multiverse, the stories are written in modern world where we meet non-humans, magical creatures hiding in plan sight. We see a lot of individualistic creatures, like a Gandharva attempting to become a post-man because he things its the most challenging task in the world. Or a Apsara, unable to go to heaven, joins a brothel where atleast her body is appreciated etc. These characters even though find their origins in Mythology, no attempt is made to change the 'original' context, features and aspiration. The multiverse spreads across space and time blending seamlessly fantasy, thriller, adventure and science fiction.

***BONUS***

Now for the bonus feature, you can go deeper into the multiverse with some stories about few characters that I have created.

The Runner

If you have never met the Runner, you probably are one of those people who live a fulfilling life. Have kids, play it safely till retirement and then wait for death. Not runner, nope. He has met Death, twice by some account, messed with Devil, raced from stone age to the future and is running forever since the beginning of time. Runner is the messenger for those who did not want their messages to be read by Government, Gods and Ghouls. Extremely resourceful with the knack of escaping the law, bullets and even death, twice so far. All his adventures begin and end with one conclusion. He is mysterious.

Agatya 

Fortune favours the bold and brave they say, but not for Agatya. The fearless man who walks the gate of hell, knocks on the doors of monsters and yet guilt ridden over a lot of wrong choices. Follow the journey of the first man born in Kalyug as he struggles to fulfil his promise made to Krishna during Mahabharata. 
The legend of Agatya is being published as a Graphic novel series by Fablery in 2015

Trisha (Also known as Halahal) 


Born out of harassment of a village feud, Trisha underwent a very deep psychological and physical change. After burning down her entire village she went ahead to turn into the greatest mercenary out there. She is a hero or a villain depending on what is larger, her mood or money.

Dharma (Also known as Death)

I personally like Dharma very much. He is part of the brother-sister family of incorruptible Dharma and his highly mischievous twin sister Karma. His character is inspired from Dharmaraj, the God of Rules in Hindu Mythology. A highly misunderstood but nevertheless incorruptible ruler of Death, goes around performing his duties against those who do not wish to die. Hates Asuras for their practice of Necromancy (bringing dead to life). Dharma has no gender and has been seen in multi-form at different points of time.

Captain Anant Mahajan- Space Pirate

Captain Anant Mahajan started on as loner who wanted to see the world. His journey into space made his age growth slower. He is also the first time-traveller in my Universe. He makes a brief cameo in my upcoming Science-fiction Novel on time travel- Ragnarok
  • Journey
  • What if
  • The last rock on which Universe Collapses (This story will be released as part of an Anthology soon)

    The Professor/ The Secretary/ Ragnarok Society

    Professor Arunachallam Shetty is a discredited scientist and is known as the man who weaponized anti-matter. He is one of the man villain in the upcoming novel- Ragnarok. His unethical experiments often come back biting him. There are more than one people who take upon the mantle. The one who leads the secret science society called Ragnarok is titled The Secretary. The Rangnarok is a secret society of scientist formed in the court of King Ashoka (based on the original society of nine unknown men). They deal with advance/ fringe science pushing the limits of human evolution. Some of their secretary are ethical while some not. 
    Ragnarok is the title of the 2015 science-fiction novel that features 3 past, present and future secretary of Ragnarok and the society itself.

    Bhairav aka Shatir

    The smartest thief on the planet, stealing things that he shouldn't. Notorious for stealing Krishna's conch towards the end of days, Bhairav is the one person you would not want to mess with.
    Welcome to my multiverse, you are here to stay.


    Photo: Green Chameleon from https://stocksnap.io


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    Start a New Habit Open a Blog

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    "Hi, I am very new to this can you tell me how to start my blog?" "I want to write a novel, do you know anyone who can publish it?""I have an idea, can you connect me with a publisher" and the list goes on. The amount of queries about first time writing increases even faster than the 'friend' request my recruiters on Linkedin.

    Write

    My advice to all the one who want to start a blog, write a book or take a career in full time writing- write. write and write. There is nothing else you can do other than do this over and over again. Write. You will start with bad English, you will start with stupid things but eventually you grow, eventually you discover the inner writer and that's when your writing takes place.

    Read

    Obviously you can't just write, as a writer you have to read a lot too. I personally don't read any specific genre but there are people who like certain genre. First step of being a good writer is being a good reader. And you don't have to be ashamed of what you read or what you want to write. You could be a fan of thrillers, a fan of Chetan Bhagat or prefer reading 50 Shades of Gray, it doesn't matter. People will judge you but don't worry they will judge anyone anyways. Read what you like to read and write what you want to read.

    Open a blog and accept feedback


    A good writer listens to his or her readers, a great writer knows who the true critic are. With the Internet, everyone is a critic. Learn to handle criticism positively, and best way to do that is open a blog. It's easy to open a blog and has no money involved. You don't have to be grammatically perfect to start one. Just take the first step. You will learn eventually.

    No one is born a Stephen King or a John Grisham. Writing takes patience and hard work. Take the first step, the rest follows.



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    The Monk who sold his Computer for the Cloud

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    The first computer I ever saw in my life was a desktop that my father gifted to me during my second year of computer engineering. The specifications were a 1 GB of RAM, 40 GB HDD, a modest LG monitor, an Intel P5 Dual Core processor and an Inverter (this came separately and since we were in India, a battery inverter was necessary). The installation was so space consuming that we had to invest in a computer table (no other place could accommodate this machine) that had options of keeping CPU and inverter and Printer under the table, a foldable keyboard and mouse holder and a monitor. This was ten years ago and by the standards back then, my father had purchased the best computer in town.

    My father is a perfectionist, and hence he insisted on building a shelf/ library over the table that would complete the look of a decent computer workstation. This was the computer that accompanied me during my engineering days. The endless hours spend over playing with MS Paint, writing hacks in Excel and sending it to friends. I used to write first draft of my stories on the machine, I used to listen to songs for endless hours. Purchase DVDs and listen to them until they are scratch. I had 9 pen drives, with which I used to carry my data to my college.

    The last three smartphones I had support 64GB of memory space. They all had Quad Core processors, were much faster than my computer and could fit in my pocket. The things that I did with my computer, now I do with my phone but I do it without getting chained to the workstation. I play my favorite GTA Vice City, over again on my phone. I left my home town around eight years back and have been travelling since. Carrying a phone with me was much easier than carrying the machine. I remember having 12GB of songs on my Computer. Now, I use the paid service of Gaana.com, the online music station. And you know what? Even while travelling on the cold foreign streets of London, the friendly voice of Arijit Singh accompanies me. My data is safely backed up on cloud servers and not just mobile data. The old college files, the projects reports everything.

    My brother called a few days ago and asked me if he can sell the computer and buy something new. That call provoked this post. I sold the computer and have moved on.

    Because many people asked for it, updating the post with the common task I needed computer for that have been replaced by the cloud.

    1. Editing my Book

    Thats the easiest thing anyone can relate to. How do I create documents, the dreaded excel sheets and powerpoint presentation. The common answer would be Google Docs but somehow in past few days, I am not really in Moodle for Google (neither am I switching back to the old nemesis microsoft). I used Zoho Writer to edit my novel online. I preferred their services much better than other online tools.


    2. Create Graphic for the blogs

    Creating graphics is as old as computer itself. And when it comes to creating graphics, no one does it better than Photoshop. Photoshop was hard to replace but two services have given me more joy that anyone ever could. One is Pixlr.com and Canva. Canva helps me layout stuff with text, like the title graphic of the blog while Pixlr.com lets me create and filter images easily.

    3. Creating presentation

    When I am not doing anything, I am busy creating presentations. I love those things that move around. You can see some of the things I created on my site showcase. Most of the presentations on the page are created using Prezi.com the online 3D presentation maker. Prezi gives an extra dimension to the presentation and that wow factor helps.

    4. Making Infographics

    I have used many corporate tools for making infographics. The best one was obviously illustrator, adobe knows how to do stuff right. But then can I make infographics online? I tried with pixlr but since there was a screen limit with their editor, making a long infographic like the one for cloud computing was a tedious job. Just when I thought, I am losing the challenge, ta da, Cacoo.com came to the rescue. Cacoo has an easy to use interface where you can create beautiful graphics for free. They offer 25 diagrams on the free license which is really cool.

    5. Sharing files and photos

    One of the many things you need a computer and those little USB drives is transfer of files. During my college days when I did not have a computer, I used to carry a rewritable CD in my bag and borrow CD writers on my friends computer to burn disc. Things changed and we now have those USB drives. So the real question here was how do I transfer more than a GB of file? Now in real world scenario there are very few things that are more than one GB, however lets say I wanted to transfer a heavy file? And there Dropbox came to rescue. What was more with the camera upload feature, I did not have to do anything. When I took photos, they were safely upload to dropbox and all I had to do was share it with my friend.

    6. Watching Movies

    When was the last time you stepped into a DVD store and purchased a nice DVD, picked up a bottle of whiskey and made some pop-corn. If you never did, I highly suggest you do. Anyways, so since this was a post computer world, the best alternative I found online was bigflicks.com. It is a on-demand movie site that streams bollywood movies. It also streams selected english movies. I recently got a subscription for NetFlicks which streams English films and serials.

    7. Listening to Songs

    Listening to songs while doing stuff is one of the many things one can do. However, iTunes has already brought those on cloud. Just like movies, listening to songs is also a regional thing. One of the best service I use regularly is Gaana.com It streams not only bollywood but also regional marathi songs. For Internet radio and songs I switch between Spotify and Pandora

    I am the monk who sold his computer for the Cloud. Are you?

    Image Credits: Flickr (CC Label for Reuse with Modification)
    Edited Using: Canva.com
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