Don't Worry, Be Happy
and other May thoughts from South Asia
by Kulpreet Yadav

First, the good news. My fiction title, A Waiting Wave will be out soon and it is slated for publication during June 2011 by Pustak Mahal, India, one of the largest publishers in the Indian subcontinent. My first novel, The Bet, was published in 2006.

The beauty of a slow world

As part of my novel writing, I have been living for the past year in a rather remote part of India called the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This Indian Territory is comprised of a cluster of over five hundred islands stretching along a north-south axis from south of Myanmar all the way down to Indonesia. As someone who is used to living in larger Indian cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, this has been a rather different experience for me. The people here, I have noticed, live life at a slower pace: they walk slowly, talk lesser, eat sparingly and laugh at things I can’t quite find a humor in. Survival is not a challenge here, competition is absent and the crime rate very low. So I wonder: Can our world become a better place if we dismantle larger towns and disperse the people far and wide?

Happiness: Who has a larger pie of it, the rich or the poor?

Ever wondered who is happier: the poor or the rich? If you have visited India, or are planning to do so in the near future, you might have an opportunity to find out. Start by observing the street children when they are not seeking alms at the city’s countless traffic signals. Here’s what you are likely to observe: that they are always laughing, playing pranks with one another or talking with others, all smiles and cool. Quite on the contrary, the children in the cars, who are comfortably seated in air conditioned spaces where a favorite song is playing through the perfumed air seem invariably lost in thoughts. Their minds seem to run ahead of them, working out future plans considered very important and in which they have no choice.

I always find it strange that people who have lots still desire for more, and the ones who have nothing want nothing, save the next meal. The rich too have
their share of happiness, you may argue. Sure they do. And I too, like you, have seen them laugh at parties and receptions. But happiness can’t be time bound and premeditated: okay, I am going to have a party on Saturday afternoon and I will be very happy then. The poor never plan to be happy, they just remain happy, whereas the rich plan to be happy and they don’t remain happy. Happiness is instantaneous and therefore no amount of planning can do any
good.

Online Magazines vs. Print Magazines

Right now, I think print and online magazines are equally poised in popularly among readers. The fulcrum is in the middle. The rise of the online magazines and the decline (I am looking the other way if anyone chooses to swear at me) of the ones in print stand at equal levels of popularity and appeal. Am I suggesting that the online magazine will, in a not-so-distant-future overwhelm the print? Yes. So how does the print magazine survive, as no one wants to be wiped out forever? I think accepting e-mail submissions can be a good starting point. It’s eco-friendly, it's fast and it’s convenient, but we need to shed that we-want-only-hard-copy attitude. Second, it might be a good idea to make the magazines available online too, at a cost of course, while the print edition continues. This would ensure the guys on the web and those smitten still with the feel of paper in hands both get to read the magazine, and not just the latter. In short, the print magazines will have to transform slowly into an online format as the traditional paper format fades away.


image: Swastik Harish
Kulpreet Yadav is an Indian novelist who also loves to write shorter fiction and travelogues. Many of his works have found place in some of the best publications from around the world. His new novel, A Waiting Wave was conceived and written at Port Blair where he lived alone for a year researching the islands and imagining ways to sustain love. Kulpreet can be reached at kulpreetyadav@gmail.com.