The extraordinary brother of a not so common man...

10 pm in the night. I have successfully managed to wiggle out of office and also let thoughts about work wiggle out of me...I reach for that slim book I had so neatly covered in newspaper, a strip of white paper which is the label tells me the book calls itself "A Writers Nightmare". I wonder what it means. I open it and start reading. Its full of 1 or 2 page write-ups on everything under the sun - marriages, school, mathematics, the scouts, the traffic situation, the writer's ego and even umbrellas (yes you read that right - there is actually an essay on umbrellas and a very interesting one at that explaining how we should all have 3 umbrellas - one for us, one for lending and one back-up in case anything happens to the other two!). I read each and every word with relish. I think about how unassuming the author is. And how humble. He actually says he started writing columns in The Hindu because he wanted to have a regular income - his first 3 novels bringing him fame but no money. And when he had the compulsion to fill in half a column by EOD Thursday he had to write something. And look what he writes!!! A little perspective is all we need in life and no one better than RK Narayan to sensitize us to this little fact - how else would we know that the marriage market is a sellers market and that a love for mathematics is never quite acquired. And how else would we know and even understand especially in todays world where we are all more than free to say and write what we want (this blog being a case in point) that a writers nightmare is when he is robbed of the only thing he has - thoughts he shares with everyone, dressing each one in clothing he alone can weave...Here I am as I drudge through yet another day wondering when I can lose myself into the delightful world of everyday as seen through the eyes of one extraordinary man.