Writing and Publishing a book is the dream of every new and aspiring author. Author Brenda Mohammed, who self-published 55 books, has created this series for just that purpose.
HOW TO WRITE FOR SUCCESS – VOLUME ONE, received a five-star review from Readers Favorite one month after it was published in December 2017.
In August 2019, it topped all the books in the Non-Fiction category of Connections Emagazine Readers' Choice awards and won the gold medal in the category of non-fiction. It also placed second in all categories and won the silver medal. The merits of the book HOW TO WRITE FOR SUCCESS were featured in a review in the Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition on February 16th, 2020.
HOW TO WRITE FOR SUCCESS - VOLUME TWO written by Author Brenda Mohammed is meant to help new and aspiring authors fulfill their dream of writing a book.
While Volume One focused on general aspects of writing for success, Volume Two is not only on publishing, and marketing, but on writing characters, writing for kids, memoirs, and fiction.
SELF PUBLISHING TIPS is a simple writing and publishing guide for new and aspiring authors who want to be independent and learn the art of self-publishing.
The book is useful for new, as well as seasoned writers.
All three books should be in a writer’s library.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C1XP8BGM

Barry Holmes Mysteries: Three book Series (3 book series)

Young adults, and all readers will love BARRY HOLMES MYSTERIES with three thrilling and exciting tales of kidnapping, and mysterious disappearances.

The stories are interspersed with clean romantic scenes to delight you.

In three mind-blowing episodes, the author weaved the first story, THE GIFT OF LOVE, to introduce Barry as an amateur detective.

In THE AXE MURDERER, which is well written in the author's humourous style, Barry faced many obstacles to identifying the real perpetrator, as there were others who fit the profile.

Readers are taken on a rollercoaster ride to capture the real culprit.

The end is surprising.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MARY LOO, revolves around the bizarre disappearance of a businessman's wife immediately after the lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic is lifted.

Did she really disappear?

Image is a collage of three books made by Amazon: The Gift of Love, The Axe Murderer, and What Happened to Mary Loo.

Get the series on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C1W8YH84

ROMANCE THREE=BOOK SERIES

In this Romance three book series, romance lovers are treated to eighteen unusual, intriguing, suspenseful, and alluring romance stories, intermingled with crime, unhappy marriages, and all the trials and tribulations of love,

These stories are written by Trinidadian Author Brenda Mohammed, and some are set on the island of Trinidad and Tobago.

STORIES PEOPLE LOVE won two gold awards in Connection Emagazine Readers’ Choice awards 2019 in romance fiction.

HEARTWARMING TALES –a reviewer said that this book contains, Unique stories assuring amusement “

STORIES THAT INTRIGUE – this book received a five-star review from Readers Favorite International.

Get the full series on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C2LGRC75

Office chairs are the most important furniture for any office not only for the looks of the office but also for the health and efficiency of the staff. Office chair design has come a long way from the simple prototypes of yesteryears.

Today's office chairs promote health, are ergonomically designed, improve your posture and even help you to meditate and relax.

Here are a few types of new office chairs available in the market -

1. Kneeling office chairs - These office chairs have no back support. They incline forward and thus allow the hips to slide forward. This office chair naturally aligns the neck, spine and shoulders.

2. Saddle chairs - Saddle office chairs are so named because sitting on them is like sitting astride on a horse. These chairs can solve lower back problems quite successfully. The height of the office chair is easily adjustable. It works well as a desk or a computer chair.

3. Exercise ball chairs - These chairs are shaped like a ball. You can use them as a desk or computer chair. It is difficult to slouch in such a chair because the user has to sit upright. The exercise-ball office chair encourages movement while sitting because it is a bit bouncy. This movement keeps up the blood circulation and keeps the muscles in constant use.

4. Recliner chairs - Recliner office chairs help the user to work in a reclining position. It is suitable for people suffering from spinal injuries. A small table can be attached to the chair to enable the user to work.

5. Balans Chair - The Balans office chair keeps the user's legs at an angle of 135 degrees to the spine. In this position, while sitting upright, the weight is distributed between the front and the back of the spine and along its length evenly.

You can select an office chair for you depending on your specific requirements. Whatever type of office chair you end up using, experts suggest the following tips to keep your body and back in good condition:

* Take a break every hour. Do not keep sitting throughout the day. Stand up and walk around periodically.

* Change your sitting position at different times. Keeping a single position is not naturally good for the body.

* Sit straight without back support for at least some time during the day.

* Even while sitting, try to move around as much as possible - pick up the phone, reach for the file or simply get up and stretch.

** Nick Telford worked in office environments for more than 30 years. A few years ago, he developed back problems, and discovered it was due to bad posture in his chairs. He decided to research office chairs, and find out exactly what is the best way to sit for 8 hours a day or more... now he's written a series of article to help others. **

Thanks To Author - Mr Nick Telford

An award-winning mystery thriller. A Skye Keller mystery. Follow Skye on her journey of self-discovery  as she investigates her father's disappearance. For thinkers who enjoy international intrigue, code, and subtext.  https://www.secretmonitormen.com

This work was a long time coming as It took me several years to complete. Having started it in the mid 2000's and only having completed it in 2021. Such an extended period comes from several sources; from not only my own inexperience and, admitedly, initial ineptitude to also leaving it to go and do other things. But also, perhaps even more so, by the sheer size of it all.

Now, what is it all about?

"Buried Planet - the following forever" is a narrative close to 300 thousand words in the telling and with around 115 coloured illustrations to boost it. Without giving too much of it away, it is at its core a mixture of High-Fantasy and Science Fiction. A story where a few out of place characters stand in contrast against an ancient and overly dead looking, underground world.

Some of the inspirations for the concept?

Having grown throughout the 80's I was, of course, heavily influenced by all the animations at the time and this is very visible in every character's depiction. They tend to look ( for the most part) very comic-like, almost superhero-like at times and even though the narrative will support why such a depiction, I still have to admit my fondness for all those great works that so motivated me in my youth.

As for the backgrounds, I have always loved the pre-rendered works found later in certain types of videogames and how the characters roaming through those incredible backdrops never [obviously] felt like they actually belonged. I love the absurd quality of some of them and I love that difference, as unintentional as it was, between the "world in the back" and "people in front of it" and so here we are...

Goal 1: 3500 dollars usd

This will allow us to print 50 paperbacks (in black and white) which will shortly after become available for print on demand as well as an Ebook version.

Goal 2: 9500 dollars usd

If enough interest is shown and we make it this high up then we will also be able to print 50 Hardcovers (in full colour) which will also become available shortly after for print on demand. 

Writing influences?

I am a big fan of the pulps, namely those flashy sci-fi's; all the way from their birth until the early 80's where, to me personally, that is when they died off and although I consider myself quite a versatile reader, that is where my heart lies. That pulp style, that on the move, go-go-go type of story telling where anything goes... the untried and the uncertain . So as aforementioned, despite this being a narrative with close to 300 thousand words, it is still quite light. Any possible reader may rest assured that this is an assembly of words much closer in style to say Burroughs than Joyce. I did attempt also, at times, to go for something different, that untried and uncertain; to strive for some new things, to take a few risks of my own when it comes to story teling. A few made it all the way to the end while others, regrettably did not. Ultimately, this is quite the "meaty" experience but it is also a very "pulpy" one in its nature and should be considered as such.

Why a Kickstarter?

"Buried Planet" is here because, among other things, it is [apparently] too diferent from the norm and therefore quite a hard pitch to sell. And since it is my wish for this to remain an open book, pardon the pun, it is also here because of my refusals to change or reshape it in any form in order to appease some of the tyrants who like to hide behind false claims of sensibility in order to dictate what should or should not be created. It is here because I want it to retain its original vision and because platforms like this seem to be now the last bastion for projects like it. The place where ideas can come to life without any pressure from outsiders; whether they be political or financial. Also, and I'll gladly mention it, all sorts of questions are welcomed and with many thanks in advance to anyone planning to partake in them.

Movement of Time on Earth

By simple observation of the movement of the sun, moon and stars; changes in the seasons, day in and day out and by observing the fall of night ending in dawn, the prehistoric man could guess the time they were passing through. Certain sights, sounds and smells mark the movement of time. The smell of certain flowers at certain times tells us the season and the time precisely. Our biological clock tells us the rhythmic time of our body machines.

Measuring Time using Manmade Devices

Improvement in measuring time came by stages. Sundial was used first in Egypt. Hourglass using sands of time and the Water Clock, used first in Greek, were the devices man invented.

By the 1300 C.E. appeared the mechanical clock using weights or springs in different ways. This was the time when clocks and watches were produced; the predecessors of what we see today in different varieties. Pendulum clock saw the light of day in 1656. John Harrison invented a small clock accurate enough to use for navigation at sea in 1761. Half a century later digital watches were introduced. In 1967 atomic clock used the oscillations of cesium (133 atoms) to tell time. This clock had an error ratio of 1 second for every 1.4 million years. In 1999 scientists developed the cesium fountain atomic clock, which is off by only one second every 20 million years. This clock appears to be the most accurate in the world. All these are dividing the time by our clock, devised to record the movement of ongoing time through the rotation of earth, moon, sun and such bodies, in their own way.

Jantar Mantar

Jantar Mantar is a unique construction with bricks, sand and cement made first in Rajasthan and then in New Delhi, India to record the movement of time. One of the five observatories was built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur in the year 1724. This observatory completed the purpose of compiling astronomical records along with the task of estimating time and tracking the movement of celestial bodies. It is a very intelligent geometrical measurement of time. But in spite of everything, every way of measuring time it moves without any halt.

Can we really Catch Hold of Time! Can you arrest time or stop the movement of time!

Time Whole or Broken!

Time is neither circled by the earth nor even by the universe. It is beyond. From the beginning of civilization the scientists and philosophers were bewildered by becoming aware of the presence of time and space though invisible unless broken in different ways. The big questioners and discoverers were mostly scientists though philosophers too tried to find the answers. What is time!

Stephen Hawking’s Scientific Speculation and Rational conclusions

Stephen Hawking, the great British scientist who has just parted from us, tried to probe the existence of time, space and other things in his A Brief History of Time. He says that “There are at least three different arrows of time. First, there is the thermodynamic arrow of time, direction of time in which disorder or entropy increases. Then there is the psychological arrow of time. This is the direction in which we feel time passes, the direction in which we remember the past but not the future. Finally there is the cosmological arrow of time. This is the direction of time in which the universe is expanding rather than contracting.” (Hawking 153)

“To summarise”, he writes, “the laws of science do not distinguish between the forward and backward directions of time.” (Hawking 160)

He says that the thermodynamic and psychological arrows are essentially the same and that intelligent beings can exist only in the expanding phase. “The no boundary proposal for the universe predicts the existence of a well defined thermodynamic arrow of time because the universe must start off in smooth and ordered state.” (Hawking 160-61)

The concluding chapter of the book, “Conclusion”, is interesting. He cannot arrive at any conclusion in the absence of any definite clue.

“When we combine quantum mechanics with general relativity, there seems to be a new possibility that did not arise before: that space and time together might form a finite, four dimensional space without singularities or boundaries, like the surface of the earth but with more dimensions . . . . But if the universe is completely self-contained, with the singularities or boundaries, and completely described by a unified theory, that has profound implications for the role of God as Creator.” (Hawking 184)

This conclusion is revolting to a scientist. So he concludes by putting a volley of questions, may be to God himself: “Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence? Or does it need a creator, and, if so, does he have any other effect on the universe? And who created him?” (Hawking 184)

Unlike a believer in God Stephen is a bit frustrated. In keeping with his scientific pride he writes, “The people whose business is to ask why, the philosophers, have not been able to keep up with the advance of scientific theories . . . . Philosophers reduced the scope of their enquiries so much that Wittgenstein, the most famous philosopher of this century, said, ‘The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language.’ What a comedown from the great tradition of philosophy from Aristotle to Kant!” (Hawking 185)

Humorous and understanding, Hawking has a rational personality. He remembers that scientific theories are always susceptible to changes though many of the broad scientific discoveries and ideas are guiding us. He mentions in the book that Newton and Einstein committed mistakes and admits that he too committed mistakes. He admits at the beginning- “Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis: you can never prove it. No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory.” (Hawking 11) Hawking’s quest for time seems very genuine and sincere but remains inconclusive.

Concept of Time in Ancient Tradition

Hawkins mentions only Western scientists and philosophers. But many great Oriental philosophers realized God and knew things by identity. They too wrote great philosophical treatises; not just religious books prescribing rituals. There were great astronomers and mathematicians in India. Vedic mathematics is a great subject being explored by some great scholars of the Western World.

According to ancient or ‘Sanatana’ Hindu scripture, the time is divided into equinoctial cycles of ascending and descending Arc, each divided into four Yugas; ‘Kali’, ‘Dwapara’, ‘Treta’ and ‘Satya’, corresponding to the Greek ideas of four ages; Iron, Bronze, Silver and Golden Ages, wrote Yogananda referring to a series of 13 articles written by Sri Yukteswar Giri titled, ‘Yuga theory’ that was published in the magazine titled “East-West” from September 1932 to September 1933.

Yukteswar calculated each cycle to be of 24000 years. The ancients calculated the life of the universe too which was in terms of many lakh solar years, corresponding to the present scientific speculation extending to many millions years. But ironically, none of us will remain to see the truth of such calculations extending to billions of years which has been described as few twinkles of an eye of ‘Brahma’, the supreme Indian Godhead of Creation, for our time and the divine time

beyond the spheres of the universe do not match. (Yogananda 174)

Time Beyond

He is not Slain in the Slaying of the Body (Na Hanyate Hanyamane Sharire)

When we come to the divine reality, as realized by the Rishis of the lore, it remains in essence inexpressible for it is beyond any earthly conception of time, it is beyond time, it is the Time. The God is essentially timeless and featureless.

“The wise One is not born, neither does he die: he came not from anywhere, neither is he any one: he is unborn, he is everlasting, he is ancient and sempiternal: he is not slain in the slaying of the body.” (Upanishad 248)

“He dwelleth above and beyond the past, the present and the future and Time hath no part in him. Worship ye the Adorable whose shape is the whole universe and who hath become in the Universe, worship ye the Lord, the Ancients of Days in your own hearts who sitteth.” (Upanishad 377)

And the realized words of the Chinese philosopher Lao Tse are-

“Tao is in us. Tao is in repose . . . . The true sages follow the Teaching without words, that which remains unexpressed. And who will ever express it? Those who know what Tao is, don’t speak of it, those who speak, don’t know it.” (Wei 7)

“Tao is neither good, nor bad: Tao is real. Tao alone is . . .” (Wei 9)

Time is Eternity of the Eternal

“He is the Timeless and Time; he is Space and all that is in space; he is Causality and the cause and the effect . . . . All realities and all aspects and all semblances are the Brahman; Brahman is the Absolute, the transcendent and incommunicable, the Supracosmic Existence that sustains the cosmos, the cosmic Self that upholds all beings, but it is too the self of each individual . . . . the Brahman alone is, and because of It all are, for all are the Brahman . . . . it is by his Shakti, his Conscious Power, that he manifests himself in Time and governs the universe.” (Divine 324-25)

Here time in a sense is explicitly defined:

“The cardinal fact is that any given Time or Space or any given Time-Space as a whole is a status of being in which there is a movement of the consciousness and force of the being, a movement that creates or manifests events and happenings; it is the relation of the consciousness

that sees and the force that formulates the happenings, a relation inherent in the status, which determines the sense of Time and creates our awareness of Time-movement, Time-relation, Time-measure. In its fundamental truth the original status of Time behind all its variations is nothing else than the eternity of the Eternal, just as the fundamental truth of Space, the original sense of its reality, is infinity of the Infinite.” (Divine 362)

Scientific Indecision

The path of time has not been defined. Scientists cannot catch it entirely. In the vortex of time even a scientist becomes a philosopher: “But the best of evidence we have that time travel is not possible, and never will be, is that we have not been invaded by the hordes of tourists from the future.” 1

Time with the mortals

Looking at time as eternity coming out of the eternal, as said from a different perspective in absolute term, we find that in spite of its eternity of the eternal time it is temporal with us, the commoners of the earth. We are not out of it but in it. Time walks with us holding one of our fingers. A yogi may be free from the clutches of time in his eternal consciousness. An idiot, a mad or a nincompoop does not understand the implications of time in his life. Together they walk but are not aware of it. Everyone else with some awareness, living a worldly life, realizes the effect of time on his or her body, the tangible call of time at different phases of his or her life; the definite mark of ageing finally leads him or her to death. Most individual persons does not catch the vibrations of time; the current of its passing through his body, touching his sense and mind, till a time when his hairs start graying and falling, teeth begin to lose hold of and legs shake. Many remain unaware of age like an uncouth country man unaware of the time past. But it is with him.

The modern man looks sharp. There is no denying that time is passing keeping us witness to it among Nature all around us, witness to conditions of our neighbours, witness to changing phases of market economy. We act and react. Sometimes we may be aware that during a passing phase of time consisting of few day-steps we get up at the same time, do routine works at the same time and go to bed at the same time in spite of our wishes to the contrary. We come to the same measured time unless we deliberately or violently break it.

More a modern man is sharp more he looks at himself, compares his position to the others; ambition pulls him further. Whatever one is one may further progress. A moneyed man may want more money, a man of reputation by birth, family connection and heritage work to gain more reputation. The more one knows more he runs after knowledge. In every field of life’s business; politics, sports, professional jobs, performing art, industry or agriculture, one may always go higher and higher. But one is bound to recognize his self-limitations, earlier or later, at least inwardly. Does Time hold him!

In a competitive world situation one has to run to gain his or her position to the maximum extent. And in such a run time runs with him. All of us run but if we fall back Time will go ahead leaving us on the road side. So the modern man has learnt the phrase- ‘Time Management’, to plan how to achieve the best in a limited time frame. But it is no guarantee that such a rat race will take us to the heights. “Keep time, look sharp, manage your time”- Okay but one needs to know that time is something extremely impersonal. It waits for none while it honors everyone. Wastage of time may be a barrier to all progress and the wise use of it may give us the joy of progress and freedom.

Time bewilders in conclusion

Here one has to pause; what is progress? What is defeat in life? Is it best to always run to gain something materialistic or is it better to wait and see, to look back sometimes? These are some of the very important and core points to ponder over. And they take us to the other areas away from time. All these are part of our literature, the literature we create in ourselves which mostly remain unexpressed. Time is in literature and beyond it. Time is in us and beyond us.

Notes and References

1. Stephen Hawking. “The Future of the Universe” in Black Holes and Baby Universes and other essays. Great Britain: Bantam Press (Bantam Books). 1993. 140. Paperback

Work Cited

1. Hawking Stephen. A Brief History of Time. Great Britain: Bantam Books. 1989. Paperback

2. Yogananda Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. Mumbai: Jaico Publishing House. 1997. Reprint. Paperback

3. Sri Aurobindo. The Upanishads. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library; Sri Aurobindo Ashram. 1972. V. 12. Hardbound

4. Wu Wei. Translation: Shyamsundar. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo’s Acion. 1997. Paperback

5. Sri Aurobindo. The Life Divine. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library; Sri Aurobindo Ashram. 1970. V.18. Hardbound

© Aju Mukhopadhyay, 2020 

The word 'woke' is now used in a pejorative way. Sadly, some conservative-fringe speakers use the word to evoke the idea of that people have false beliefs that conflict with their own. The use of the word began in African-American populations where being 'woke' meant to be aware of the systemic danger you are in just from being a racial minority with little power.

"Woke" is now defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)," and is regarded as a U.S. slang term. It originated in African-American English and gained more widespread use beginning in 2014 as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Since 'woke' seems the proper way to be in the modern world, the question becomes: "Why is the state of being aware of the facts and issues be something that anti-liberal personalities condemn?"

The reason is that anti-liberals foster lies and mistruths about their opponents. In its contemporary use, "woke" means social awareness, being alert to social issues, racism, discrimination and injustice. The anti-liberals add false goals to "wokeness" such as: dissolving the nuclear family, abolishing capitalism, eliminating religion, re-writing our constitution and raising children gender neutral.

The right-wing fringe now assigns a false ideology to "wokeness". They claim that that 'woke' means having certain far-left views regarding social-and racial-justice and believing that any who disagree are under the thought control of the oppressive capitalist system.

The idea that all who do not believe the 'woke' ideology are subject to capitalist mind control (“asleep”) is central.

What are these false ideas about "Woke Views Social Justice?"

1. Social construction. All ideas and knowledge are “socially constructed,” by the oppressive capitalist system, especially ideas about race and gender.
2. Thought control. It is the job of woke revolutionaries to suppress these ideas and replace them with woke ideas.
3. Power hierarchy. The system has created a hierarchy of power and oppression with white, straight men at the top and black, non-binary women at the bottom.
4. Victimhood culture. The woke must invert the power hierarchy, placing those who have been most victimized at the top. From [https://timefortruth.blog/2021/05/04/the-woke-culture-its-origins-and-agendas/]

Is any of this true? There is a strong power hierarchy of racial/ethnic groups. For centuries whites have been at the top and African-and Native-Americans at the bottom. There is a power hierarchy of biological sex and sexual preferences. Even more insidious is the idea that 'woke' people want to invert this power hierarchy. "Inverting the power hierarchy means the least powerful identity is given the most prestige and respect in woke culture. But lack of power is demonstrated by oppression, which means victimization. So, in practice, greater victimization means you deserve more respect. In other words, you have higher status in the woke community."

"This causes the woke to compete for status by proving their victimhood. And since victims are automatically seen as high status and virtuous, venerating victims also increases your own status. Hence woke culture is fundamentally a status culture based on victimhood." [https://timefortruth.blog/2021/05/04/the-woke-culture-its-origins-and-agendas/

It should be obvious that the entire debate about "wokeness" is a substitute for the lack of a political platform that serves the people as a whole. Its purpose is to hide the bigotry of the bigots, the racist views of many.

How I used ChatGPT to Brainstorm a Story

By Professor James Musgrave

Most savvy authors who’ve been published know that writing tools are just that: tools that enhance your ability to create but not replace the actual act of “crafting” the work. This includes the latest in the long list of tools, ChatGPT.

What’s quite encouraging about the software is the fact that it is very amenable to using the “microscope technique” of focusing your story’s content so that you have fresh, original ideas. In this article, I will show five ways to use ChatGPT, and I will demonstrate the techniques by using an actual story I crafted for an anthology.

The usual process of storytelling requires the writer to first get an idea to craft by searching all kinds of resources online, and then, once you’ve focused on the concept you want to use and the characters you’ll create to work with your concept, you must create the dreaded “first draft.”

Depending upon whether you’re a “pantser plotter” or an “outliner plotter,” this draft can be chiseled, the way Kurt Vonnegut said he “edited as he wrote,”or you can delineate your story ahead of time.

Maybe you like organization and planning; using all the tools being sold for this, including outlines, character lists, and personality features/details, and actual plot suggestions. You can then create an outline and/or note cards that are used to methodically “flesh out” your outlines of scenes before starting your draft.

ChatGPT can work for both methods. I’m more of an impromptu guy, but I’ll show you five techniques that you can use, whether you use outlines, scenes, and character descriptions beforehand, or just dig in, keeping your idea about the plot/conflict/character motives in your head as your write.

The best first step is for you to come up with an idea that you can handle well and use to create the most “original” story you can craft. Again, this is where ChatGPT can help better than most writing tools out there today.

The editors of the anthology want a story integrally connected with music. I can write in any genre for the anthology, including fantasy and horror.

For my example, I chose a popular Native American character, and possible evil character (his positive aspect was called a “trickster”). My great-great grandmother was a Native, so I have a personal stake in doing this well! So, I chose a well-known cultural character from the Southwest tribes named Kokopelli.

You may have seen this little hump-backed, flute-playing dude decorating many tourist trinkets being sold in Arizona, New Mexico, California, and other Southwestern states. He is also a cultural symbol of fertility, with all the positive attributes, like rain, agriculture, and human sexuality (the original artifacts drawn on caves had penises displayed, until the missionaries got rid of them).

The above two paragraphs were my Step 1: Searching for details about your main character and narrator.

What I did was ask ChaptGPT about the focused feature of Kokopelli that fit the character I already had hibernating on my mind:

How was Kokopelli a trickster?

In my devious writer’s mind, I wanted to write a story that was not especially gory or even violent, which are the usual tropes of many horror stories. In fact, I happen to know that stories with humor contained in the horror plot are very popular with many editors. Why? Because humor is difficult to write well. Of course, you can go in any direction you wish. I just want you to see how ChatGPT can help you focus upon a direction from which you can get usable ideas with which to craft your story.

This is the actual readout by ChatGPT as its answer to my very specific question:

Kokopelli is a fertility deity commonly found in the mythology of various Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States. While Kokopelli is often associated with fertility, he is also known as a trickster figure.

As a trickster, Kokopelli is said to use his charm, wit, and music to manipulate situations and people for his own benefit or amusement. He is known for playing tricks on others, such as stealing food or playing pranks.

In some stories, Kokopelli is portrayed as a shape-shifter who can transform into different animals, such as a rabbit or a lizard, to trick others. In other stories, he is said to use his flute-playing to hypnotize people and make them do his bidding.

Overall, Kokopelli's trickster nature is a reflection of the complexity of his character, which embodies both creative and mischievous energies.

So, as you can see, I have many concrete ideas I can use in my story when I begin the draft. This is the genius of using ChatGPT. The human brain is great at focusing on details and crafting them, but it is not a big storage house of random-access memories. What I do, and you can as well, is to choose those concrete ideas contained in the readout and “make them work for you,” which means I insert them in my plot wherein it will serve the overall purpose of my narrator and major characters.

This comes to Step 2: Who is your narrator?

To give you a fast idea of what I plan to do, my character, who calls himself “Cockopelli,” as a slur to his culture, purposely lives off the “rez,” in a trailer. Cockopelli, instead, stays drunk much of the time, and dreams of becoming all the positive things he was “supposed to be,” instead of what he is, a down-and-out drunk and dreamer who likes to taunt his people and trick them rather than help them.

I am beginning to visualize him. However, I want a bit more to assist me when I craft him in the scenes, so I ask ChatGPT, What is the 2023 term for slacker?

Here is the readout:

As an AI language model, I do not have personal opinions, and language is constantly evolving, so it is difficult to predict exactly what the 2023 term for "slacker" will be. However, there are some possible alternatives that have been used in recent years to describe someone who is seen as lazy or not putting in effort:

"Chiller": This term is sometimes used to describe someone who is very laid-back and doesn't seem to take things too seriously.

"Moocher": This term is often used to describe someone who relies on others to support them, either financially or in other ways.

"Loafer": This term is a bit more old-fashioned, but it is still used to describe someone who is seen as lazy or not productive.

"Slouch": This term can be used to describe someone who doesn't have good posture, but it can also be used more figuratively to describe someone who is not motivated or productive.

"Coaster": This term is sometimes used to describe someone who is not putting in effort and is just going through the motions.

So, cool. I know that my character has a curved back, from hauling all those babies to their mothers, so I am going to use “Slouch,” which connects with this aspect of his former life bringing joy to the tribe, but which he no longer aspires to be. It is also both physical and psychological in my mind, as I craft my story, so I can use it in description and in humorous situations, like quoting Keats’ famous poem (in the public domain!) The Second Coming, most specifically the lines: Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? My character has a drunk’s tendency to exaggerate his self-worth and feel sorry for himself at the same time. I visualized a Native version of the old movie character of “Arthur,” the alcoholic rich white guy, who was both lovable and sarcastic. You can even ask ChatGPT about Arthur’s character traits, and you can steal a few and make them fit your plot in the right places.

I now come to Step 3: Why is your main character/narrator in trouble? As most creative writers already know, conflict and extricating your characters from trouble, or getting them deeper into trouble, in this case, is the best way to read your most important ingredient: the climax (turning point) and the resolution of the conflicts (or not).

So, I again ask ChatGPT a focused question: How could Kokopelli be damned by tribes? I got an excellent readout from my pal:

In Native American mythology, Kokopelli is generally seen as a positive figure associated with fertility, music, and the arts. However, there are some stories where Kokopelli is seen as a negative or dangerous figure, and in these cases, he could potentially be "damned" or shunned by certain tribes.

One common version of this story involves Kokopelli as a womanizer who seduces women and then abandons them, leaving them pregnant and alone. In some versions, Kokopelli is punished for his behavior by the tribe, who reject him and drive him out.

In other stories, Kokopelli is portrayed as a trickster who goes too far, causing chaos and disruption in the community. In these cases, he may be punished or shunned by the tribe for his actions.

It's important to note that different tribes have different versions of Kokopelli's story, and his character can vary widely depending on the tradition. While some stories depict Kokopelli in a negative light, many others celebrate him as a positive and important figure in Native American culture.

So, for my plot, I want Cockapelli to be already banned by the Hopi tribe, so the so-called “common version” concerning his womanizing seduction fits my Arthur image, as well as thinking of himself as a lover boy. I can also bring some romantic conflict into my story with the introduction of the woman he seduced and perhaps her relatives.

Finally, my Steps 4 and 5 entail crafting my climax and resolution. I asked ChatGPT an important question: How can Kokopelli redeem himself from being a womanizer to his Hopi tribe? This specific question will aid me in forming the final conflict in my story as well as a possible way he can redeem himself from all the troubles he has caused. I decided a more positive resolution would fit with my humorous character, but I can also leave a “hint” in the ending about his possible “back sliding nature,” or the “trickster” effect.

Here's ChatGPT’s actual response to my question for Steps 4 and 5:

Kokopelli, a figure from Hopi mythology, is often associated with fertility and music. While some versions of the Kokopelli legend portray him as a womanizer, other versions depict him as a messenger of love and fertility who promotes harmonious relationships between men and women.

If Kokopelli is to redeem himself from being seen as a womanizer, he could engage in actions that demonstrate his respect for women and their autonomy. For example, he could work to promote gender equality and advocate for women's rights within the tribe. He could also demonstrate his commitment to monogamous relationships and promote healthy and respectful relationships between men and women.

Kokopelli could also apologize to those who he has wronged in the past and seek forgiveness from them. By acknowledging his past behavior and making amends, he could show that he is taking responsibility for his actions and is committed to being a better person.

Ultimately, Kokopelli's redemption would require a change in his behavior and a sincere commitment to respecting women and promoting healthy relationships. By working to promote positive change within his tribe and demonstrating his respect for women, Kokopelli could redeem himself and earn the trust and respect of his community.

So, this readout gave me some very cool ideas to possibly craft into my climax and resolution. But remember. You use this information only in the way it fits your purpose. In this case, I need to maintain the horrific element, so it is not a romance. However, the result can show Cockapelli “taking responsibility for his actions,” without losing most of his impish or fiendish personality traits. I do know that “giving up the booze” will be high on his girlfriend’s list, so I’ll have to make that work in a special way that will be both funny and appropriate to both characters and their idiosyncratic motivations.

For example, I wanted my two characters to have different beliefs. So, my main character who turns into the evil aspect of the Kokopelli I want to be raised Christian. Therefore, I wanted to know if there was a Hopi myth that explained the Christian belief in the return of the Savior.

I asked ChatGPT: What myth does the Hopi have about Jesus returning?

I received the following:

The Hopi, a Native American tribe primarily located in Arizona, have a prophecy about the return of the Great Spirit, or Pahana, which some people have interpreted as a reference to Jesus Christ.

According to the Hopi prophecy, the Great Spirit will return to the Earth in the form of a "true white brother" who will come to restore balance and harmony to the world. This brother will possess great knowledge and power and will teach the people how to live in peace and harmony with one another and with the Earth.

While some people have interpreted this prophecy as a reference to Jesus Christ, it is important to note that the Hopi have their own distinct spiritual traditions and beliefs, and the prophecy should be understood within that context. The Hopi have long held that their way of life and their connection to the Earth are integral to their spiritual identity, and their prophecy about the return of the Great Spirit reflects this worldview.

The main use of ChatGPT is to get specific ideas to craft within your story. Asking focused questions is the main method of “microscopic querying” to get what you want. This leads to the “result,” and since I have a crafted example from the story, for you to see, I will reprint it here, and then discuss how ChatGPT helped me understand how I wanted to show why the horror elements came about in my imagination:

My tribe calls me a Kokopelli because of what I used to be, before I fell in love with Kaia, which means, quite ironically, “sea,” when I met her at the University of Arizona. My Hopi name is Chunta, which means “cheat.” And Bolton was my family name. We all got baptized, so we made Jesus into our returning Savior. In fact, my parents attended the “Cry of the Earth Conference,” at the United Nations in 1992, where the Seven Nations attended. They led the Hopi delegation of Christian believers.

Hopi prophecies speak of the return of Bahana, our True White Brother, who left us in ancient times, promising to return. So, we wore our hair in bangs to form a window, by which to see our Elder Brother when He returned. It was also an identifying mark for the Elder Brother to recognize us. I don’t wear my hair like the Beatles anymore since I was banished by my family and my tribe. Today, Wednesday, it’s long, stringy, black, and littered with Frito crumbs and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

When I was a child, I often visited my So’o (grandmother), Ethel, at her home in Flagstaff, Arizona. She and my Kwa’a (grandfather), Lloyd, lived in a small three-bedroom house on the east side of town, not far from historic Route 66.

Never do I recall a time when So’o did not have in her refrigerator Wonder Bread, Oscar Mayer Bologna, and Sunny Delight. While happy to feed us, she realized that Christians also needed spiritual nourishment, and believed that her grandchildren could not live on Wonder Bread alone. She was happy being raised at the Catholic Mission off the reservation, and she taught us the songs of the church. But she was also the first one to listen to my singing and my playing of the clarinet, and she called me by the Hopi name of Kokopelli.

I wasn’t a Kokopelli then. I was a sober rez graduate of the Hopi Junior-Senior High School in Keams Canyon. Kaia was also, but we never met there. I was too busy getting high with stoners, playing the clarinet, and writing and rapping songs for our Native group, “The Scalpers,” but my grades were still good. I’ve always seen myself like my favorite white author, and fellow rebel, David Foster Wallace.

At the U of A, we saw each other across the huge cafeteria, filled with white faces, mostly, and we knew at once we were meant for each other. I was majoring in English Literature and Journalism, and she was taking Agricultural courses. Her family raised sheep, chickens, and goats in the shaded valley beneath the First Mesa. She told me she wanted to help her people stay fed in the desert near the Grand Canyon, which is the usual way with these reservation homies. At that time, I didn’t think of myself as a player, so I was drinking every trite little bit of the traditional Native bullshit she told me. She is a stupendously attractive woman.

I could go on and on describing how her brown eyes glistened with emotion when she watched the sun come up. Or the way she laughed like a mother quail who sees her chicks cross a stream for the first time. I could listen to her speak for hours, and that’s what I did outside the campus, in the desert, with the full moon shining down on us. That’s when she saw the first image of the Kokopelli on the moon, playing his reed instrument, his bowed back curving around some gray-white craters.

“Why did you name your group the scalpers?” Kaia asked me that night in the desert. “You know our people never made war on the Wasi'chu. We never scalped anybody.”

Obviously, you can see how I incorporated the ChatGPT information about the myth of Jesus and His return. I also “made it my own” by adding character-specific details. I also got the information about the attraction of my main character Chunta Bolton to his girlfriend, Kaia. The last sentence in this passage also alludes to the coming horror transformation of Chunta and his rap group into evil “scalpers,” which will lead to his banishment by the Tribal Council and his need to get back into their good graces. I have in mind that they will not actually scalp their victims, who are Hopi females, but just a ritual cutting of their long hair, which is also a very bad thing for even a Cockopelli to do.

This “rebellion” will happen in a supernatural or magical realism scene when my narrator transforms into the evil aspect of the Kokopelli, and he and his group “scalp” the women at a reservation dance. He does this because his girlfriend, who is pregnant by him, wants him to stop drinking and settle down, but he is indignant.

This will lead into the climactic scene whereby Kaia and the rest of the tribe perform an intervention, so the result is what the ChatGPT suggested. Our horror story becomes a more softened story about tribal and gender equality but with a hint of Chunta remaining a bit of a trickster.

I hope you enjoyed these suggestions, which will also be included in my upcoming tutorial and textbook. You can learn more about this text here.

Case Studies in Modern Life is my first published book and it has been a long time in writing.

I have been writing all my adult life. I was eighteen when I discovered I could write stories. At first I was writing sketches for a drama group. It was an amazing feeling turning an idea I had into something written down that worked and then watching actors perform my words. It was also the first time I realised I had an ear for dialogue. I would hear people talking in public and remember how they spoke; later, I would be able to write in the style of their dialogue.

I also experienced something else. If people enjoyed a sketch, they didn’t call “Author, author!” They really weren’t interested in who wrote it; people usually heaped their praise on the actors, and I liked that too. I could happily hide away in the shadows and carry on watching people and writing about them.

The first piece of writing I sold was a short monolog to my then local radio station. It was about someone who stole pillows, and only pillows, from stately homes. It was about getting away with the “perfect crime” because no one cared about missing pillows. It was a silly piece but again, when it was broadcast, I could hide away behind the knowledge that the vast majority of people who heard it knew nothing about me.

The first short story I had published in print was a story about a gay couple spending Christmas apart because one wasn’t out to his family. It wasn’t a happy story; I’d wanted to capture the reality of life for some people. But as I saw my own story in print, with my name attached to it, I had a marvellous feeling. The vast majority of people who read this story had no idea who I was. I could communicate with people and all they knew about me was my name on a magazine page. People read it without any prejudice against who I was. They would like the story, or not, based solely on its content. That felt so good.

You’ll be sensing a theme by now; I like to hide behind my writing. My writing isn’t about me rehashing my life as fiction, rewriting my life so that I always come out on top, re-writing history so that I am always the winner. My writing is my way of exploring themes and events that fascinate me or make me angry. I want to find the people behind a subject. I don’t want to be the focus of my writing.

The theme of Case Studies in Modern Life also took a long time to come about. Coming out as gay changed my life in many ways and it certainly gave me something to write about. As I explored my gay life, I found there were so many different things to write about. At first, I wrote wish fulfilment stories. I was in my twenties and wanted the best of all possible worlds. As I grew older and experienced more of life, I saw the ways in which gay men adapt to the challenges of their lives or don’t, and this started to fascinate me. How do gay men maintain relationships with lovers, friends and relatives? How does being gay affect our attitudes to health and illness? How and where do gay men find a place for themselves in this world? After reading some of my stories, a friend of mine suggested that I put together a collection about gay life that didn’t focus on the typical subjects of dating apps and finding a boyfriend. I am so grateful for her advice.

The stories in this collection cover some of my favourite themes to write about. There are stories about sex, not sex stories about people’s attitude to sex, which I find endlessly fascinating. There are stories about relationships. Not stories about trying to find a boyfriend, but stories about how relationships work or don’t work; the compromises we make inside relationships and that unique moment of joy that I thought we might never see. There are stories about the issues gay men can face in our modern world, some that only gay men face and some that are universal to all people. And there are stories about how health, ill health and a change in health can affect someone’s life, but this is something I have seen first-hand (though all the characters in this collection are fictitious).

If you read my collection please leave a comment about it, here on Goodreads or even on Amazon, and if you are minded please write a review of it. Comments and reviews drive people to my work, as they do for any author.

Case Studies in Modern Life can be found here on Amazon.co.uk and here on Amazon.com

Drew

Almost seven years ago, I made a decision to go against the church doctrine of monetary tithing. This article is a testimony about the events that lead up to my decision to resign from monetary tithing to grace giving.  

That's Ridiculous, Said Nicholas, a children's picture book for ages 3 - 8, has been added to the Maryland State website's Kids Pages under Maryland Authors. Nicholas Jon Paul Martin William Annabelle Tydings is an energetic young daredevil who walks to the beat of his own drum. He wants to be treated like a sensible child, but people often tell him things he knows cannot be true like don't make faces, your face will freeze like that, or you broke this mirror, it will bring seven years of bad luck. Then he always said, “That's ridiculous,” and moved on. With the help of his parents, Nicholas learns to be kind and that he can do anything if he puts his mind to it. This book is about how to handle those kids who are strong-minded and a little outspoken and how we can direct them onto the right path so they will become more focused and productive. Beautifully illustrated.

Whenever I look at my body of multi-genre work in English, the underlying human possibility intrigues me no end, and why not for my mother tongue Telugu, touted as the Italian of the East, has no linguistic connection with it whatsoever.

To start with, I was born into a land-owning family in Kothalanka, a remote Indian village, of Andhra Pradesh to be precise that is after the British had folded their colonial tents from the sub-continent, but much before the rural education mechanism was geared up therein. It was thus the circumstances of my birth enabled me to escape from the tiresome chores of primary schooling till I had a nine-year fill of an unbridled childhood, embellished by village plays and enriched by grandma’s tales, made all the more appealing by her uncanny storytelling ability. Added to that, as my great great maternal grandfather happened to be a poet laureate at the court of a princeling of yore, maybe their genes together strived to infuse their muses in me their progeny.

However, as the English plants that Lord Macaulay planted in the Hindustani soil hadn’t taken roots in the hinterland till then, it’s the native tongues that held the sway in the best part of that ancient land. No wonder then, well into my secondary schooling, leave alone constructing an English sentence, whenever I had to read one, I used to be afflicted by an unceasing stammer. Maybe, it was at the behest of the unseen hand of human possibility, or owing to his foresight, and /or both that, in time, my father had shifted our family base to the cosmopolitan town of Kakinada to admit me into Class X at the McLaren High School. And with that began my affair with the English language, facilitated by Chinnababu, my classmate, which, courtesy Abbimavayya, my maternal uncle, found fruition in the continental fiction, in translation, however to the detriment of my mechanical engineering education to the chagrin of my vexed father.

Nevertheless, even as the Penguin classics imbibed in me the love for language that is besides broadening my outlook of life, my nature enabled me to explore the possibilities of youth. That’s not all, all through; it was as if destiny tended to afford my life to examine its intrigues while fiction enabled me to handle its vicissitudes with fortitude that stood me in good stead throughout. Besides, in those days of yore, as letter-writing was in vogue, I was wont to embellish my missives to friends and the loved-ones with the insights the former induced and the emotions the latter stirred in me. So to say, all those letters that my latter-day novels carry owe more to my ingrained habit than to the narrative need of my muse.

Providentially, when I was thirty-three, my eyes and mind seemed to have combined to explore the effect of the led on the leader, and when the resultant ‘Organizational ethos and good Leadership’ was published in The Hindu; I experienced the inexplicable thrill of seeing one’s name in print. Enthused thus by the fortuitous development, I began to articulate my views on general, and materials management, general insurance, politics, and, not to speak of, life and literature in over a score of published articles. But fiction writing was nowhere near my pen and the thought of becoming a novelist was beyond my horizon for Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Emily Zola, Gustav Flaubert et al (I hadn’t read Marcel Proust and Robert Musil by then) were, and are, my literary deities, and how dare I, their devotee, to envision myself in the sanctum sanctorum of the novel.

All the same, when I was forty-four, having been fascinated by the manuscript of a ­satirical novella penned by one Bhibhas Sen, an Adman, with whom I had been on the same intellectual page for the past four years then, it occurred to me, ‘when he could, I can for sure’. It was as if Sen had driven away the ghosts of those literary greats that came to shadow my muse but as life would have it, it was another matter that not wanting to foul his work, as he hadn’t obliged the willing publisher to pad it up to a ‘publishable size’, that manuscript remained in the literary limbo.

So, with my muse thus unshackled, I set to work on the skeletal idea of Pardonables, the working title of Benign Flame, with the conviction that for fiction to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil, not the hotchpotch of the local and foreign caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas, the then norm of the Indian Writing in English. Yet, it took me a full fortnight to make the narrative flowing with the opening – ‘That winter night in the mid-seventies, the Janata Express was racing rhythmically on its tracks towards the coast of Andhra Pradesh. As its headlight pierced the darkness of the fertile plains, the driver honked the horn as though to awake the sleepy environs to the spectacle of the speeding train.’

However, from then on, it was as though a ‘novel’ chemistry had developed between my muse and the mood of its characters that shaped its fictional course, and soon I came to believe that I had something exceptional to offer to the world of letters, nay the world itself. So, not wanting to die till I gave it to it, I tended to go to lengths to preserve my life that was till I delivered it in nine months with a ‘top of the world’ feeling at that. Then, when one Spencer Critchley, an American critic, thought that – “It’s a refreshing surprise to discover that the story will not trace a fall into disaster for Roopa, given that many writers might have habitually followed that course with a wife who strays into extramarital affairs” – I felt vindicated about my unique contribution. Just the same, as there were no takers to it among the Indian publishers and the Western agents, I was left with no heart to bring my pen to any more paper (those were the pre-keyboard days) though my head was swirling with many a novel idea, triggered by my examined life lived in an eventful manner.

Nevertheless, sometime later, that was after I happened to browse through a published book; I had resumed writing, owing altogether to a holistic reason: while it was the quality of Sen’s unpublished work that set me on a fictional course from which I was derailed by the publishers’ apathy, strangely, it was the paucity of any literary worth in that published book that spurred me back onto the novel track to pursue the pleasure of writing for its own sake. It’s thus; I could reach the literary stations of - Crossing the Mirage and Jewel-less Crown that was before my pen, in the wake of the hotly debated but poorly analyzed post-Godhra communal riots, took a non-fictional turn with the Puppets of Faith.

Thereafter, as if wanting me to lend my literary hand to other genres, my muse heralded me into the arena of translation, ushered me onto the unknown stage, put me on a stream of consciousness, took me to crime scenes, dragged me into the by-lanes of short stories, and driven me into the novella fold. However, as a prodigal son, I took to my first steps into the Telugu short story field with my ‘Missteps’ తప్పటడుగులు.

Whatever, it was Michael Hart, the founder of the Project Gutenberg, who first lent his e-hand to my books ever in search of readers. But who would have thought that life held such literary possibilities in the English language for a rustic Telugu lad reared in the rural Andhra, even in the post-colonial India? So, the possibilities of life are indeed novel and seemingly my life has crystallized itself in my body of work before death could dissipate it.

My body of work in varied genres is in the public domain: https://g.co/kgs/iA9zkd

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BS Murthy is an Indian novelist, playwright, short story and non-fiction writer, translator, a 'little' thinker and a budding philosopher with "Addendum to Evolution: Origins of the world" published in The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal, Vol. 05 Issue 18, Summer 2004 that's republished in Academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/21434144/Addendum_to_Evolution_Origins_of_the_World

All his fictional work was borne out of his conviction that for fiction to impact readers, it should be the soulful rendering of characters rooted in their native soil but not the hotchpotch of local and alien caricatures sketched on a hybrid canvas.

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thoughts and thought has found words,” that is what Robert Frost wrote about poetry.

Prose, poetry and drama, the three main genres of literature have through their creative expressions enthralled the readers since ages. Each has its creative value in entertaining, inspiring, carrying social messages and storytelling in general.

However, poetry has unique attributes. While prose includes novels, short stories or non-fiction that’s written in the day-to-day language used or heard by us and has a paragraphic structure, the distinct constituents of poetry are its lyricism with poetic imagery. As for theatrical dialogues in dramas, these need to be supplemented by physical elements like stages and props for conveying stories impactfully to the audience, though there is some poetic flavour.

Also, the great differentiator for poems is that they depict diverse kinds of emotions like hope, joy, grief, anguish, romance and compassion with outstanding characteristics of artistic expression, rhyme and rhythm that appeal to our senses in a different way, permeating the chords of hearts and touching our souls intensely. The flowery language of poetry is ornamental with a perceptible sonorous appeal and feel which is enriched by its important constituents like assonance, alliteration, consonance and onomatopoeia. As an extended analogy, we can consider the appeal of jingles in advertisements that has a profound emotional impact on the audience as compared to textual messages.

‘Emotion’ is the hallmark of poetry. Poetry can move our hearts, make us introspect and reflect, at times make us laugh and at the same time it can also infuse hope, inspire us, and motivate us towards greener pastures.

Take for example, ‘hope’. It is the positive emotion that is evoked when despite hard and struggling times, we keep on visualizing streaks of a brighter future that keep us enlivened through the challenging times. The below stanza from Emile Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” portrays this exquisitely.

“Hope’ is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all-”

Here, the poet very artfully visualizes and inspires the readers that hope is the element that ‘perches in the soul and sings the tunes without words’ and thus keeps them enlivened. It also portrays that aspirations are great companions of human beings and that they should always sustain them in the most precarious situations.

Talking of other emotions, I am also reminded of Rabindranath Tagore’s classic literary work “Where the Mind is Without Fear” (excerpt below), which carries a galvanizing message for the society to use its enormous power of transformation to achieve the ‘heaven of freedom’.

“Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection:
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action–
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

In the end, I would take the liberty of the concluding stanza from a poem “Existence or Extinction” from my recently published poetry book, “The Morning Glory”. It conveys a strong emotional message that if we don’t take expeditious steps in resolving the global ecosystem degradation, we are surely heading towards extinction.

“Unless we join concertedly,
And clean up the mess of our misdeeds swiftly,
We are doomed to become extinct,
and like the old civilizations become defunct.

It is now or never.”

**Ratan Kaul is a published novelist and poet.
His poetry book, “The Morning Glory”,
has been launched recently. He can be contacted on:
[email protected]; www.ratankaulauthor.com

John Perkins recounts times spent hoodwinking developing economies out of their resources for the US and warns how his Chinese counterparts are raising the bar.

I was an economic hit man (EHM) for the US through the 1970s. My job was to dupe other countries into believing that what the US did would be a benefit to all the people in those countries. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

This same hit-man strategy continues today. And now, China has taken it to new levels.

The strategy US employs involves identifying low-income nations that possess oil or other resources but lack sufficient means and/or the political will to develop them. It then sends EHMs to convince the resource-rich nations to accept large loans from what’s known as the Washington Consensus (the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, US Treasury Department, and related institutions). The target countries must use their undeveloped resources as collateral.

An important condition in our strategy is that the loans are earmarked to hire US companies to build power grids, ports, industrial parks, and other infrastructure projects that drive economic growth. These companies reap huge profits, a few local elite business owners benefit from the improved infrastructure, and everyone else suffers because funds are diverted from health services, education, and other public sectors to pay interest on the loans. The debts are so large they can’t be repaid and the countries default on their loans. This process is often referred to as debt-trap diplomacy.

As a first step toward addressing the default problem, the EHMs demand that the low-income nations sell their oil, minerals, or other collateralised resources at rock-bottom prices to US transnational corporations (which often don’t pay US taxes but are supported by US policies), with few (if any) environmental and social regulations.

When a country’s collateralised resources turn out to be insufficient to pay off the debt, the second step is to implement what are known as neoliberal policies. These include imposing austerity programmes that reduce taxes for the rich and cut wages and social services for everyone else, reduce government regulations, privatise public-sector businesses and sell them to North American investors, and discourage collective bargaining — all of which support “free” markets that favour transnational corporations.