My storytelling in three formats

Writing

During my engineering college exams whenever I wasn't prepared well, I used to write some imaginary stories on answer sheets. Sometimes professors announced and shamed me in the class but that resulted in something unexpected. My room-mates and friends who saw an 'untapped potential' in me wanted my help in writing love-letters for their girls. That was an era when internet wasn't accessible to general public and cellphones were out of question. Handwritten love-letters meant bunch of papers tied up with a thread (just like exam answer sheets).

I grew so comfortable and prolific in writing those letters, that I was soon made a to-go person for 'love-letter consulting'. My boys sometimes even suspected that I was trying to woo their girls with my own feelings than writing on their behalf but little did they know that my love was more for the words, metaphors and expressions than the girls or the boys themselves.

My interest in writing then turned into passion and since then there's no turning back. What started as love-letters continued through project reports, publications, work-related documents, websites content to blogs. Today my main business revolves around writing documents, templates for small and medium sized companies. While they call it management consulting, for me it's all about understanding their business and converting that into words.....sometimes technical but mostly it's word-game.

When I don't have much to write for work, I open my blog and scribble my heart out. And I did that 137 times precisely. But writing is not something which helped me discover my inner passion. It's teaching.

Speaking / Teaching

The year I arrived to Canada, I was asked by my then employer to handle training division of his business in his absence as he had more important things to take care of. Prior to that, public speaking was only about seminars in MBA and later some amateur training to interns. But the day I took up to training, I kind of discovered myself.

When I stood before the crowd and started explaining them things, words started flowing incessantly and organically without me putting much preparation or effort. Explaining complex concepts in storytelling format became fun, then an addiction and then way of life. And my audiences listened in rapt attention (at least I felt so).

My love affair with teaching crossed many thresholds across businesses, subjects, topics, forums to corporate training to guest lectures at my alma-maters. Now teaching isn't a big money-spinner for me and after management consulting began picking up to be my major business, I've been contemplating to put an end to training but it's pure respect and love of my alumni and my own passion of teaching, I couldn't do that as yet. All I could do now is to limit it to weekends and some evenings.

Be it writing or teaching, I love presenting my thoughts in a tangible form for others to understand and devour. And this is the exact feeling I get when I make any music video.

Film-making

While I don't make films per se, I use this term loosely to represent motion art (music videos, short films that I engage in).

It all started with my wife and sister-in-law asking me on gunpoint to film them groove for some remix song at their backyard. I reluctantly started but enjoyed the process and felt it was rather fun. After that there's no looking back. 9 music video covers, 1 short film, 13 snippets for marketing - all happened in a 2 year period.

There are many who admired my videos and I will always be grateful. I took all the criticism and brickbats too into my stride because they took time to watch and express their opinion on my work.

Some well-wishers who noticed that I made all those videos with the same skill-sets, time and resources (like a cellphone) which they all have, wondered why didn't I get formal training and try for an opportunity to make a commercial movie. I wasn't (am not) interested in that for multiple reasons.

I'm in that stage of life when career change, paradigm shift don't entice me anymore and I'm quite satisfied with the money or recognition I currently get by doing what I do.

Question: Then why film-making ?

Answer: Being a perennial daydreamer, I thrive in many random thoughts, dreams and imaginations. When some thoughts persist and get etched in my mind strongly, I try to translate those into some medium. If a thought is beautiful with photogenic faces and appealing locations, I can't do justice to that in a blog-post. I get a strong urge to make a video and make that thought immortal. I love giving life to my imagination.

Then I try finding somebody who could bring my imagination to life. Many who collaborated with me on music videos were (are) my friends or those who I know. Most obliged my request and even those who weren't interested to collab were polite enough and I respected their choice. Once I find actors who I think could do justice, I arrange logistics, plan their outfits, film (mostly with my phone), edit the footage and publish. Then I juxtapose my vision / imagination with the output and if it's on par, I'd sleep peacefully, and if not I use the discrepancy as motivation for my next project.

Question: Is it worth wasting so much time, effort and energy on this ? 

Answer: Yes. Because I refuse to work 9 am-5 pm, pay bills and die. I want to create a legacy of my own which outlasts my physical existence, which defines my vision, my way of thinking and my craft that my kids and to-be grand kids could live with long after I cease to exist.

I hope my friends who worked with me on those videos too have a story to tell their kids later that a crazy guy forced them into some crazy project that helped them tick off their bucket-list item or something they always fantasized but didn't know how to pursue.

Conclusion:

Both my Blog and CutMirchi Media are thus extensions to my personality that could potentially carry my mind, my breath, my words and my legacy. And through both these media, I get to do what I do at my own leisure, terms and resources.

120,000 blog views, 240,000 YouTube channel views,7000 FB page likes only strengthen my resolve.

When I write a blog or a work related document, I tell a story; when I speak in a lecture hall, I tell a story too. During film-making, of course I try to tell a story. Writing, speaking and film-making are hence three modes of story-telling which liberate my artistic expression and keep my creative pangs floating. I always want to live a story-teller and die as one. That defines me.

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PS: Somebody asked me what do I like the most in film-making (or any creative video-making) since I was involved in end to end lifecycle and beyond. Here they are:

• Most interesting phase - writing story / screenplay - because that involves a lot of dreaming
• Most boring task - production design (arranging logistics and scheduling) - meh
• Most overrated task - camera work and filming - that's a craft anybody can master with time
• Most satisfying task - directing the performance to align with the vision. 
• Most difficult task - editing. It's the most creative part
• Most rewarding task - acting. It's most recognized and an everlasting memory for actors
• Easiest task - reviews and judgement :) 

4 Secrets of Time Management

After hearing many undeserved compliments about my multi-tasking abilities with varied avocations, my hard-working nature etc, I thought its time I reveal to the world around me that I'm far from being a hard-worker. On the contrary, I'm one of the laziest creatures around.

So how do I manage to pursue varied avocations and hobbies ? Answer is not in multi-tasking as much as it is in time management. I was in a situation where I had no choice but to learn time management or fail in my longtime goals. Necessity is the mother of invention and I had to reinvent myself and circumvent my laziness.

My Story

There was a time in 2017 when I was in the final stages of my Ph.D thesis work and also on the verge of completing coursework at Harvard and hence had to regularly travel to Boston in addition to handling my regular work. Though my wife took upon her the responsibilities of our kids (then 4 and 2 y.o respectively) and The Saharsh Project, things were getting extremely difficult and dropping out of Harvard was just around the corner but I reached so close to those academic goals which many die for and I could not have lost that golden opportunity. But time was a scarcity and I had only one option and that was to get the most of 24 hours I had in a day.

I meticulously planned for 5 hours of sleep, 2 hours of daily routine that left me with 17 hours a day which meant 5 hours to read, prepare and 12 hours a day to write thesis, dissertation, project work, presentations, research work etc. Yes I was only writing and publishing strategic management related articles for 12 hours every day for months. Looking back, it appears surreal but it was a norm then.

Had I aimed at perfection in all tasks at my hand, I could not have completed any of that. So I chose to be more productive, left out few tasks I could afford, learnt faster ways of doing things, invested 100% in my priorities and adapted myself to the time pressure through skimming, extreme focusing to the tune of not acknowledging the exterior world. I wouldn't have noticed even if somebody robbed me then. At one point, one full hour felt like a luxury.

The phase ended. I graduated from Harvard in May 2017, submitted Ph.D coursework a month later, got doctorate later that year and suddenly I had all the time in the world but didn't want to let go my hard-earned time managing attitude. I needed to do take up something else to keep myself busy by honing my abilities and testing new waters. That was the beginning of my version 2.

I rekindled perennial interest in traveling and we traveled all 7 continents in that calendar year to commemorate our 10th anniversary, revived my latent blog and voraciously read as much non-fiction as I could get hold of. I still had time so I picked up new interest in photography, short film making, cooking. And in everything, I tried to implement the techniques I learnt earlier and in the process racing against time became more fun than compulsion.

I do not usually like to sermonize others as how to manage their time because what worked for me may not work for everyone universally. Also it all depends on how badly one wants to work towards their passion. So the below observations or secrets of time management are based on my own case and could be subjective to my points of view

Secret (1) - Plan for minutes or seconds

Most complain that they don't have enough time to get over daily chores. But I never understand people who take 2 hours for cooking or 30 mins for shower. For example to take a shower - it takes 15-20 seconds to get wet (why more than that ?), 30 seconds to apply soap, 15 seconds to get rid of soap. Even if it's repeated thrice, it takes 3 minutes. Clothing would take another 120 seconds (really need more ?). So if one spends more than 5-10 minutes in shower, they are just having fun or making excuses for themselves.

This logic might sound silly but once you get into the habit of planning things based on minutes if not seconds, you'll notice a significant change in your lifestyle. There is a fastest way of accomplishing every task and if you think this sounds impractical, read more on project management techniques CPM & PERT.

Secret (2) - Prioritization

Assume you overslept and have only 30 minutes to catch the train whereas you usually take 2 hours every morning to get ready. What would you do ? You PRIORITIZE.

You skip all avoidable habits like browsing through Instagram or Facebook on bed or toilet seat, admiring yourself in mirror for long, spending more time in selecting outfits. Bottom line is that when you are under time pressure, you do certain things differently by prioritizing only the unavoidable stuff and skipping everything else. Why can't we do the same even when we are not under any time constraint ? How much of time can you save if we make it a lifestyle ?

Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs sported same kinds of t-shirts everyday just to save time spent on deciding what to wear everyday. Lesser decision fatigue, more time at hand.

Secret (3) - Adaptability

Human body and mind are adaptable. If you subject yourself to certain kind of time pressure for a while, it will gradually become a norm and you start accomplishing the task faster. If you have 1 hour for any task, tune your mind that you have only 20 minutes and plan accordingly.

Pick a task - for example cooking - notice why would it take more than 120 seconds for washing vegetables, 600 seconds for chopping, 120 seconds for adding spices to the pan. Do you really need more than 30 minutes to cook one curry ? Or practice spending not more than 10 seconds to wear shoes.

Taking shower for 30 minutes may give you happiness or satisfaction, but is that satisfaction really worth when you can finish off both shower and cooking within 30 minutes and pick up a hobby in the saved time ? This attitude doesn't get into your system in a day, but doing the same for weeks or months will auto-tune your body and mind.

Secret (4) - Aim for productivity not perfection

You may feel, the above techniques will not result in perfection. I totally agree but think how many tasks we do on a daily basis require perfection ?

                         Output
Productivity =  ---------
                          Input

This has been my mantra ever since I reinvented myself. If perfection is taking more input with lesser output, bid adieu to that perfection. I would rather earn $5 with 1 hour of effort than $10 with 10 hours of effort. Decide for yourself how much time do you want to spend on each task based on the results it yields. Aiming for perfection in unnecessary stuff is a perfect recipe for failure and disappointment.

Trust me, most tasks you do now can be completed with almost similar quality in 20% of the time you take now.

Analysis

If you notice, none of my blog posts, creative work are perfect because I chose to be productive over being perfect. I spend not more than an hour to write a blog post and I never bother to proof read before publishing. I don't spend more than 2 days to shoot a song (only once took 3 days) and in most cases I shoot with my phone to avoid set-up lag and overheads, I take only 2 days for editing. That's because neither blogging nor film making is my career and I don't mind being judged.

When I read something, I skim through patches of paragraphs without reading every word. What started as compulsion became a lifestyle and now its more fun to race against the clock. I do indulge in these hobbies for my fun without being perfection-conscious but by doing the same many a time, I managed to get decent command and this would eventually turn into perfection some day. But what mattered more for me is that I caught a habit of reducing lag in doing any task, made it a lifestyle and now using the saved time to pick up new hobbies, avenues and slowly expanding my repertoire one thing at a time.

PS: As we speak, I'm in middle of expanding business operations, final stages of house construction, ground work for a major event through 'CutMirchi Media', expanding 'The Saharsh Project', editing 12 videos, working on astrophysics based vlog, filming remaining portions of web-series. I'm able to do these not because I'm gifted but because I gifted invaluable 'time' to myself. It's more about discipline and attitude than talent.