3:30 AM - Alarm rings on the mobile phone. Stare hard at the bedside copy of the virginal-looking War and Peace. Yawn. Go back to sleep.

4:15 AM: Finally manage to get up from the bed. Go online. Check the e-mails and lonely heart classifieds. Nothing interesting. Look for new comments on the blog postings. No comments. God, nobody loves me!

4:35 AM: Open up a blank word document. Stare hard at the laptop screen. Think hard to compose the first sentence of my debut novel. Nothing comes to mind. Instead, log on to nytimes.com and read Maureen Dowd.

5 AM: Am really worried. The dream novel is not going anywhere. Pick out Sense and Sensibility to distract the mind.

5:15 AM: Don't feel like going to the gym. But a paunch is just too unnerving. But still, it’s so boring.

5:23 AM: Make up my mind and feed on sweet yoghurt and glucose biscuits to prepare for all those dumbells and jogging that goes nowhere.

5:40 AM: Pumping up chest in the Butterfly Press. King Lear randomly opened on the lap. Cordelia is banished. But why is everyone staring? Haven’t they seen anybody reading a book?

6:15 AM: Skimming through The Times of India. A full-page feature on the shopping habits of young Indians. The article says that salaries are increasing and so is the spending power. Why does my salary never increase? Where is all this wealth coming from? Why am I not having my share of the economic boom?

6:20 AM: Feeling very tensed. Will I ever be rich? Am I doomed to die in my present poverty? Only way out - quickly write a smashing first novel and earn millions. But where's the time?

6:25 AM: Made a silent resolve. Will start work on the novel. Tonight itself.

6:40 AM: Preparing to get ready for work.

6:47 AM: Thinking of Alice Munro under the hot water shower. Finished her Runaway short story collection last night. It made a beautiful reading. Oh, Munro looks so elegant with all those graceful silvery-white hair.