Just a quick note to say that the blogging here will / may be a bit sporadic for some time – more off than on. Apologies to the four people who read this blog — yes, it’s increased — for not writing this note earlier.

Hope to be back soon.

The Indian Institute of Cartoonists is currently displaying Mario Miranda’s cartoons at No. 1, Midford House, off M.G. Road. (This place is in the lane next to the Kids Kemp on MG Road.) The exhibition is on up to 24 October 2009.

I went there today and it was a really nice exhibition of his work, from stuff he’d done when he was younger (his diaries) to his more contemporary stuff with everything in between. I had forgotten about Miranda’s cartoons that used to appear in a magazine — I can’t remember which, it may have been Illustrated Weekly — with the characters Miss Fonseca and Miss Nimbupani who I had completely forgotten about. Those cartoons were brilliant and it was fun to relive a few of them.

Mario, like all great cartoonists, has a unique style and you can recognize his cartoons the instant you see them. (One interesting thing was that some of the work displayed at the exhibition were slightly different from his “regular” work, which was a nice surprise.)

The other great thing about the exhibition is that you can buy some of his cartoons and other work – there are small postcards, covers, collections, and bigger stuff that you can frame. And, it’s not all that expensive either, at least I didn’t think it was. I got a couple of things and I’m looking forward to framing them.

If you liked Miranda’s work, don’t miss the exhibition; it’ll be worth your while.

(Gets on soapbox) If you read a book that you like, take a few minutes and send a note to the author. Most likely, you’ll be able to find the author’s email address quite easily now-a-days. (There are some authors who don’t list their information and if you like their book a lot, you can always write to the publisher.)

My point in telling you about all this is that writing is a terrifically lonely business and writing a book, any book, is hard work. So, if you read a book that you appreciate, take a few minutes of your time to tell the author about it. They will, in all likelihood, be happy to know that you enjoyed their book.

While you’re at it, don’t expect a response. Some authors do respond but some may not be able to. You’re not writing for a response anyway, right?

I’ve written to authors quite a few times and I always feel nice about it, so that’s another reason to do it. I suppose that I could write more to more authors though.

P.S. This goes for other writers as well as bloggers but that feedback can be given via comments now-a-days, which is why I didn’t explicitly mention them.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you realize something that’s been staring you in the face but haven’t realized till that moment and you want to smack yourself and say, How come I didn’t notice that? That’s kind of how I felt after I started reading A Perfect Mess by Abrahamson Eric & David Freedman.

Consider this: Conventional wisdom tells us that organized is good, order is good, we must put things in their proper places, clutter is bad, etc. But, have you ever stopped to wonder why we tend to, in varying degrees, be messy with our homes and our offices or workspaces. Yes, it’s easy to be messy but is there something more to it?

That’s the subject that the authors of A Perfect Mess explore. And it’s stuff worth thinking about: how much time do you spend organizing files (real or virtual), keeping things a certain way, etc. If you like to organize stuff and keep things “clean”, you’ll be surprised at how much time and energy — physical and mental — you may be throwing at the mess problem. (The authors take a dig at David Allen (GTD) and Steven Covey (Seven Habits) for their productivity principles which lean towards the organizing side.)

It’s not like the authors are telling you to be untidy and throw things around but that there can be some good to having things, for lack of a better word, messy. And, if you think about it, we’ve been told to be neat, clean, tidy, organized, but never to be messy. The core idea of the book is that there’s a certain level of mess that we can tolerate in our lives and it won’t hold us back – in fact sometimes it can be helpful.

If you’re one of those people who like to read about productivity or about personal organization or clutter or has OCD, this is a book that you must not miss. You will look at mess in a different light and it won’t be negative.

Atul Gawande’s second book Better is a collection of his experiences as a surgeon. (If you’ve not heard about Gawande, Elizabeth Gudrais’ article (An unlikely writer) for Harvard magazine is a must read.)

Gawande divided the book into three sections based on what he thinks a surgeon should be and in each section he draws from his experiences as a surgeon and an observer to produce some compelling writing. There’s stuff in there about hand washing in hospitals, polio vaccinations in India, the absolute miracle that is the birth of a child, and other wonderful stories.

Gawande’s strength is that he writes simply and he explains stuff clearly, which as any writer will tell you are the hardest things to do. Did I mention that the man’s a surgeon too — some people get second helpings on the talent buffet before they are born. (If after reading the book you want to jump off the nearest cliff because your writing isn’t anywhere as good as Gawande’s, you’re not alone.)

You can find a listing of Gawande’s articles via his web page. Now, if you’ll excuse me there’s a cliff I must get to.