Saturday, June 14, 2008

Article in 4INDIANWOMAN

WHY A RETREAT?
By Radhika Meganathan

More than 2 years ago, when I came back from US to India after completing a magazine internship, I had utterly lost the urge to write. Reverse culture shock (the transition from NYC to Chennai was very disheartening), myriad family issues and some disturbing health concerns had zapped my creative muscles. For someone who was earning close to Rs. 1 lakh a month, it was dismal to be faced with the sad CTCs offered to editors.

Thankfully, I had a portfolio of published books so I had enough assignments to keep myself afloat (and not money from Papa). For nearly five months since returning from USA, I was busy freelancing and kicking myself for coming back, when a MNC approached me for the post of a copy editor. It dangled a very attractive pay package, and fate was all but sealed – who will possibly have energy to write while battling umpteen deadlines in a corporate environment?

Let me tell you how a life in a nightshift KPO is. I was surrounded by MBAs and PGs, intelligent enough to be a good company and young enough to laugh a lot. Friendships were quickly formed, since you might not have much to do on a lean week. Meals are free, the company cab picks up and drops you at your place, and every month, a fat pay cheque is deposited into the account. Life becomes positively a bed of roses.

Oh, I forgot the thorns! Everyday, you battle deadlines... nerves are frayed, tempers run hot, and till the deadline is safely met, no dares to even move away from the desk. And if a deadline is missed... there are more enquiries and paperwork and phone calls to be faced with, IN ADDITION to the everyday tasks. So people generally are very careful not to miss a deadline... which means ... yes, non-stop work and worrying.

I won't say that I disliked my job. Copyediting was fine and fed my stomach but my Muse was starved. I left home when my Mom started preparing dinner and I back when the milkmaid deposited two milk cartons outside my house gate.

I never did anything about it, though… but I was always aware of that niggling voice inside my tired mind. “You need some rest” it would whisper, “Make some time for it. Or else….it will be too late…”

I was terrified about the "or else” factor… and anybody who has worked in a cubicle 10+ hours a day will understand the urge to relax in a place where the colours of earth soothe your mind. And that’s why, in August 2006, I chose Pondicherry. Apart from being a well-known (ahem) fun place, it also was located near the Auroville – that universal township existing in mystic tranquility.

And I decided to make it a writers’ retreat, because I wanted to find my lost muse. For some time, the writers’ groups I belonged to wanted to meet on a retreat and I thought, why don’t I do it?

Of course I didn’t know anything about planning a retreat. The only experience I have had before was planning family outings. Besides, with the help of Google and mobile phones, how horrible can your judgment be?

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

My Interview in The Hoot

A WOMEN WRITERS' RETREAT

What do a bunch of journalists do when they organize a retreat for themselves to discuss writing? They end up trying their hand at fiction. CHANDANA BANERJEE describes this unusual experiment.


Every day and every minute of our professional lives is spent obsessing over the written word. Does this article read well; will the story enthrall readers; could I have come up with a better idea; how do I add more chutzpah to the copy? – Questions that all writers ask themselves a zillion times in the length and breadth of their writing careers.


As journalists, writers and editors, we're constantly honing our craft and always trying to come up with a good story, crisp copy, and a flash of dazzling creativity. But somewhere between chasing deadlines and bagging bylines; between juggling home and office, work and family, the general business of living and earning begins to deplete the pool of creativity that each of us has. That's when we need to getaway from it all and lavish some time on our muse; spend some time nurturing our passion for the written word.


A group of six freelance journalists and writers did just that in the beginning of this month. Armed with notebooks and pens, they set out for a writer's retreat at Yercaud, a picturesque and serene hill station 40 kilometers from Salem, Tamil Nadu.

"Take time to retreat; only then you can leap ahead," states Radhika Meganathan, the brain behind this writer's retreat. Radhika, the Managing Editor of Chandamama.com and a freelance journalist and author from Chennai, says that its wanderlust and the talent for planning that made her coordinate this writer's retreat. Having organized a weekend retreat a year ago, Radhika wanted to plan a longer one that would focus on writing.

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