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.
Article comments
1 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
"By then it will be too late for them to be my friends." Hey, have you been reading my diary? Great piece, Mayank.
2 - Vikk Simmons
"By then it will be too late for them to be my friends."
Yes, well, that's pretty much how it goes...unless one of your coworkers is at home late at night Googling away and somehow one of your blog pages pops up during their research and they suddenly land on your blog. Imagine my surprise when a co-worker came up and said they had enjoyed reading my blog the night before.
Nice piece. Ooops, it's 10:35 and time to begin the long one-hour trek to work.
3 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!
4 - Katie McNeill
"read by people from around the world."
thats nice, huh? I think it's just amazing that you start something like a blog and suddenly your in contact with half the world. wonderful stuff. and when your famous with a Booker prize you'll have to mail out free signed copies. :)
5 - Tehman Lall
You're good alright! No doubts about that and the fact that this does really seem your typical day..
Perhaps you should move away from books to write one. But gosh I hope its before 25 years!
6 - Snarkattack
Dammit, as usual, great article. It articulates the booklover's life so well.
I so hear you on the reading books in public, and that last bit. But no Bookers from me. Of that I'm pretty certain!
7 - Nickoval
3:30 a.m.? Mayank, you are crazy. I am a firm believer in discipline (no, not the S&M kind). You have too much talent, and too little discipline. A lot of nitwits write tasteless books and make big bucks, so you certainly could be successful! Put the nose to the grindstone, man! Heave, ho!
8 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Congratulations & (non-existent) Fabulous Prizes! This article has been chosen as an Editors' Pick.