📝 I'm writing a screenplay

Hey friends,

I’ll be really really honest.

The whole idea of starting my blog earlier this year was to start writing more so that I would start writing a screenplay. It has been four months since I started this blog and I haven’t gotten anywhere with that idea. So here I am making another announcement:—

Starting this week, I am going to write a screenplay… in public.

What that means is, every Saturday I will post either a character backstory/a scene/an episode/a revised draft or something related to my own screenplay I will be working on.

I have never written a screenplay before.

Still reading this? OK.

I have a very very faint idea for what I think, as of now, could be a web-series. I have had this vague idea bounce around in my head since September 2020, but I don’t know if that is because the idea is good or if I can’t think of anything else. And I am not willing to wait any longer. Besides, the whole damn thing will change as I start writing it anyway.

I thought of coming up with a log line (a one line summary) of the story for this newsletter but stopped myself, because that will take me way more hours. So I am going to throw in bullet points of what I know about this story.

All I know as of now is this:

No I won’t be harking back to DCH or ZNMD. And its not nice that you thought that 😐… or that I thought that.

As I said, I’ve never written a screenplay before (apart from film school and some forgettable scripts for clients). And you will be able to that tell this Saturday. I will be messing up. You can have a nice laugh while I get an egg on my face. And watch me, hopefully, improve. And cheer me on, maybe.

I got interested in the ‘build in public’ movement from Tech twitter; which is putting out everything in public while you are doing it, as opposed to only showing the finished product. I think it’s great.

The only caveat is that these Saturday posts will be for subscribers only. Meaning, only if you have subscribed to this newsletter—which is free—will you have the great privilege of reading my crude and underdone screenwriting every Saturday.

So just add your email here or at the top of this page and you are set.

Gosh. This is scary.

Lastly, you are always welcome to give me feedback at any point about anything I write. And if you give me feedback specifically when I ask for it, please know that you will be doing me a favour for carving out your precious time.

My guiding principle for taking on this herculian task of embarassing myself in public will be this quote from my hero Phoebe Waller-Bridge:

I hope you have a good week.

Stay masked!

Sumeru

Old millenials will be annoying (1 min)

A gentle nudge (1 min)

Reflections on India’s second covid wave (4 min)

I added two pages on my site: Now and Top Articles

Angelina - Lizzy McAlpine I stumbled upon Lizzy McAlpine while I was browsing something on Instagram last year. She is an exceptionally talented singer-songwriter and guitarist. Highly highly recommend.

The unmaking of India: This piece by one of my all-time favourite thinkers Ram Guha, on how India got to where it has with the pandemic.

Death has become numbers: This piece inspired me to write my first political article this week. Vishal Dayama is a writer I like very much. His articles gave me the confidence to start writing online. My WhatsApp article (that I first wrote in July 2020) was inspired by his writing. See his newsletter.

A viral tweet asked “What happens in your brain when it comes to adding 28 + 47?”.

I wrote the process in my brain below.

What happens in your brain when you add 28+47?