Tomic Riter

Tag: writing

  • Understanding Your Feelings: A Path to Emotional Clarity

    Understanding Your Feelings: A Path to Emotional Clarity

    I wasn’t too busy. In fact, I had ample time to write something every evening. No, I wasn’t busy. I just have this strange feeling. I feel as if I am starving for something I cannot put into words. I feel like I haven’t felt anything in quite some time. This isn’t about love. No. This is something else. I could blame my boring day job for this feeling. But blaming doesn’t help me in any way. I don’t want to dwell on who to blame and how much to blame. I want to understand this feeling and it’s not easy. I don’t know where to begin to understand this feeling. It has been with me for so long now, like a shadow. I want to understand this feeling and I want to feel better. I want to feel good. Is that too much to ask for in today’s world? To feel good?

    – Tomic

  • The Impact of Bonus Inequality on Workplace Morale

    The Impact of Bonus Inequality on Workplace Morale

    As I reached my workplace this morning, my boss was already there in his chair. As I entered, I greeted him and he greeted me back. We shook hands. Immediately he asked me if I knew about the discrepancies being observed recently in bonus credit among employees. I said yes. I didn’t care much. I don’t care much about the office politics.

    As the hours passed, I got calls from several friends and colleagues working in the same industry, and they were all talking about the same thing as my boss. Apparently, the employees higher up in the chain are getting paid more percentage-wise compared to the employees working towards the lower end. It looks like the divide-and-rule formula is in play here as well.

    As of now, I cannot comment much on the topic. Some things are clear. Employees lower in the chain do more actual hard work compared to the employees higher up in the chain. Also, the discrepancy in payout of bonus is huge and cannot go unaddressed.

    The reason for me talking about this issue isn’t just because I want everybody to earn more. The truth is that the policy of divide-and-rule hasn’t been successful in creating happy people, happy workers or happy employees. I think if the employees work happily, they will work in a better way too.

  • Long Week and the Need for a Vacation: Weekly post

    Long Week and the Need for a Vacation: Weekly post

    Today is Monday. For a moment I thought it’s wednesday. Damn. This one’s going to be a long long week. The good part is that I work for only four out of six days. I need a really long vacation away from here. I need a new place with new faces around me. No work. Just slow hours passing slowly. Me having a few drinks in the evening until time to get in warm bed and sleep. Much is happening in the world. Much more happening with me. I’m burdened beyond anything. I don’t know where my days are going. Damn. Eight months are almost over. I’ve done nothing. Nothing. Now, listening to Cohen. I love his voice and his poetry. He was a solid man.

    Today is Sunday. Night already. I thought I’d write something here every day. I failed. I hadn’t much time in this week. I did manage to write more regularly. I travelled but not too far from home. I had two short trips. I’ve started giving more time to photography as well. I’m cutting down on my drinking habits. I’ve stopped smoking cigarettes. September is soon. By October, I would love to bring my life back on fast track. Now, listening to Dylan. His voice takes me to a place that’s peaceful.

    – Tomic

  • Cultivating Daily Habits for Personal Transformation

    Cultivating Daily Habits for Personal Transformation

    Murakami hasn’t published any new book in quite some time. Strange! I admire his writing stamina besides physical stamina. Dude runs 10 kilometres almost every morning, and then sits down and writes for hours each day. I call that true discipline.

    It’s the kind of discipline that I want to cultivate in myself – to work towards being fit every day, and to write something every day. Besides these two habits, I want to cultivate a third habit as well – to be meditative for at least forty minutes each day. I think these three habits can bring a 180 degrees transformation in anybody.

    But merely thinking about building these habits won’t help. I need to act on them as well. I need to wake up in the morning much earlier than usual, which means I need to sleep no later than midnight. That’s the tough part. To sleep much earlier than usual. As of now, night time is the only time that I can get for myself. It’s a difficult situation but not out of my hands. I know that I can make a new routine for myself and stick to it. The question thus remains – when to begin?

    Once I wake up early, I’ll have ample time for a 7-kilometres walk. It’s what I’d begin with, and gradually increase the distance to 12 kilometres of daily walking. Once my body gets used to it, I’d begin jogging 3 kilometres and gradually increase the distance to 6 kilometres, and finally to 10 kilometres of daily running.

    Coming to the third habit of meditation, it’s the easiest one for me to develop. I’m used to meditation of upto twenty minutes at a stretch. I just need to be regular on it and gradually increase time from twenty to forty minutes, and finally to one hour of meditation each day.

    I won’t talk about the second habit of writing each day since I’m at it on most of the days, and I love to write so much that I hardly skip doing it on any day, however late it gets.

    The road to building this new routine is hard but doable. I know it is. It’s something that I need to do to get better at everything, at life.

    – Tomic

  • Reflections on Non-Eventful Days

    Reflections on Non-Eventful Days

    Hadn’t much to write about yesterday. I worked until late evening, and later, got drunk. Fell asleep. This morning, woke up early. Talked to god for sometime. Took bath. Got dressed and went out for a couple of hours. Couldn’t find anything good to eat. Drove back home. Got in my bed and slept again. Woke up in the evening. Got dressed and stepped out to eat. Looked at the sky. How couldn’t I. The sky was bright orange after a really long time. Took some pictures. I got on my motorcycle and drove to this cafe. Had warm bread with butter. Hot coffee. I paid and drove around the town for some time and then back home. Even when nothing is happening, something is happening.

    – Tomic

  • In the sky tonight: A poem

    In the sky tonight: A poem

    in the sky tonight
    moon is round and bright
    too round
    too bright
    the witches on earth
    looking up at it
    with hair open and clothes off
    and eyes wide
    and asses swaying
    as if summoning the electric current
    unbelievable!

    Copyright ©Tomic. All rights reserved.

  • Why Expression Matters: Life Beyond Struggles

    Why Expression Matters: Life Beyond Struggles

    Almost half of life of a man is spent taking shit. Isn’t it so? Think about the last time you took shit. I’m sure it wasn’t too long ago.

    I don’t know what more to say on the matter. Look at everyone’s face. Looks like each one of us is betrayed in existence. We have been baited. We have been deceived. We have been dumbed down and made compliant. Sometimes I feel that I can see more than others. It hurts to be able to see before others can. It’s hard to tell anybody anything. It’s impossible to forewarn about anything. It’s hard to keep quiet as well. I cannot thank enough the medium of writing as a way of direct communication.

    It’s one thing to take shit all your life. It’s another thing to have an outlet, a way of expression. I think it’s necessary to have a way of expression in one’s life, to have a way of venting it all out. For me, that way of expression is writing. Although I do not always write to vent out. I just write. It just so happens to help me in venting out what is sometimes pent up within me for days and years. Writing is discomforting but there’s some joy in feeling that discomfort. The joy of being able to put something into clear lines is something else.

    So what if half life of a man is spent taking shit. All lives aren’t equally fortunate, but all lives are worthy.

    – Tomic

  • I feel better: A Poem

    I feel better: A Poem

    how beautifully fingers press 
    the piano keys
    black white black white white white
    white white black black white black
    black black black black white
    white white white black white
    or in some other pattern
    no clue but
    a pattern and then another
    another and
    nothing is random 
    nothing is chaos
    here's another one by the fabulous Paterlini
    something that the ears do not believe in
    when they hear
    and when they hear, they melt eyes
    and resurrect this stone heart
    I feel better.

    Copyright ©Tomic. All rights reserved.
  • Finding Inspiration: Lessons from 9 Years of Writing

    Finding Inspiration: Lessons from 9 Years of Writing

    Each night, as I sit to write, something always comes out. Isn’t that strange. I’ve never not been able to write so far. There’s always something to write.

    The year was 2017 and now it’s 2026. I’ve been writing regularly for nine years now. On and off. Mostly on though. I’ve got two published poetry books. Besides that, more than thousand poems scattered here and there. And still, as I sit to type, something always comes out on the paper. I find it quite strange.

    Sometimes I wonder from where all of this comes, the things that I write. Personal experiences of course. But it isn’t just that. I believe one must get out there and put himself in all kinds of situations. It demands certain courage and not just that. It demands a certain level of madness too. Were I not a bit mad, I’d just stay indoors and eat and sleep and one day, die. But I don’t want that. I want conversations, experiences, challenges. I want to earn a good long sleep.

    But not each day goes in the way in which I want it to go. Most days are spent doing slave work. It hurts. Hurts a lot! But such is the situation sometimes. One’s got to do stuff to get money so that one may live a little of the life that one wants to live. And one does all of this while getting hurt. Absurd but true. Life is absurd. Is it so difficult to live the kind of life that one wants to live everyday?

    I don’t know. I cannot say much about that. I believe that life is to be lived well, and it is to be lived so despite failures and successes.

    But why am I suddenly talking about life. I was talking about my writing journey and suddenly I started talking about life. I think that such is life. It seeps into everything, into all the aspects. Life is one and whole and should be lived so.

    – Tomic

  • Rum down: A poem

    Rum down: A poem

    rum first and then ice cubes
    ice cubes first and then 90 ml of dark rum
    nothing first and no cubes
    a little fizz on the top
    soda will do
    or some carbonated drink
    or some other sweet poison
    I'm here
    I'm not going anywhere
    when have I ever gone?
    make me a good drink
    tickle me with a forgotten song
    a memory
    a something on and on
    get me drunk
    make me feel alive
    and when I'm atop the highest summit
    throw me down from there
    punch me into my grave.

    Copyright ©Tomic. All rights reserved.