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<\/p>\nINDICA Ritambhara Retreat is a small, reasonably quiet, largely isolated and pleasantly green piece of real estate; a huge and majestic banyan tree in its midst silently dispenses its benediction to all sadhaks fortunate enough to reach the Retreat.<\/p>\n
The weekend starting 06 January and ending 08 January 2023 was witness to \u201cA Writers\u2019 Retreat With Dr Aditi\u201d --- the coming together of a cluster of aspiring writers to garner some pearls of wisdom about the craft of creative writing; the diverse group included two Chartered Accountants, one veteran, professionals from various disciplines, and only one full-time writer.<\/p>\n
Dr Aditi Banerjee, who was the lone faculty for the Retreat,\u00a0works as a corporate lawyer in a Fortune 500 financial services company in the US, but her real passion is writing.\u00a0\u00a0She\u00a0was born and raised in the US but has travelled extensively in India. She has spent much time thinking, writing and talking about Hinduism and the Hindu-American experience in the West. She has co-written a book --- \u2018Invading The Sacred\u2019 --- with Rajiv Malhotra about academic distortions of Hinduism in American Universities. Her first novel, \u2018The Curse of Gandhari\u2019 was published by Bloomsbury in the US in 2019 and is a successful bestseller, while her second novel \u2018The Vow of Parvati\u2019 was also published by Bloomsbury in India. She also published \u2018Hindu Love Stories: Dharmically Ever After\u2019 in February 2022. She is currently working on a non-fiction book about the history of Kashi. She\u00a0has authored several essays in publications such as The Columbia Documentary History of Religion in America since 1945 and Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America: A Short History (Religion in American Life) (Oxford University Press). Her articles have also been published in Outlook India and many other publications.<\/p>\n
Dr Aditi put her rich experience and knowledge into designing a programme that approached creative writing as a sadhana.<\/p>\n
The Retreat took off quite informally on Friday, 06 January, over a late cup of tea\/coffee with introductions and insights into how each participant realised their calling to writing.<\/p>\n
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The next day (Saturday, 07 January) started at 8 30 AM with an unusual exercise: five minutes to sit or walk around and observe nature followed by five minutes of writing anything that freely flowed from the mind. Dr Aditi exhorted everyone to free-write regularly, at least once a week and let subconscious thoughts provide inspiration and solutions. She referred to the writing of Mahabharata and drew a quaint picture of Veda Vyasa as the muse and Ganesha as the scribe, using the imagery to encourage the participants to use free writing to discover their inner muse.<\/p>\n
Next, she introduced some excellent ideas from \u2018The Writing Life\u2019 by Anne Dillard and cajoled participants into pledging themselves to write daily and, on some impossible day, to at least think about their writing work or project on that day. She briefly touched upon the eternal debate about plotting versus painting and rounded up the discussion by telling the participants, \u201cYour book should surprise you!\u201d<\/p>\n
The next session was on \u2018Writing With Emotion\u2019, for which Dr Aditi had\u00a0circulated a printout of a 21-slide PowerPoint presentation in soft copy; the contents invoked Bhava and Rasa as modern writings on the subject.<\/p>\n
This was followed by a session on \u2018The Story Genius Method\u2019 by Lisa Cron and \u2018The Snowflake Method\u2019 by Randy Ingermanson; Dr Aditi explained the nuances of each and emphasised that these two were but just two of the many story writing techniques available on the internet and in books on writing. She encouraged participants not to use any one method exclusively but to see for themselves which one approach or which combination of methods suited their idea best. Participants were given rationed time to practice the various steps inherent to these two methods to apply them to their ongoing projects.<\/p>\n
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The remainder of the day was spent on \u2018workshopping\u2019\/discussing write-ups or stories submitted by the participants in advance of the Retreat (these had been collated painstakingly by Dr Aditi and made available to all participants on google drive). Her deep knowledge of the writing craft elicited many lessons from each submission to the immense benefit of all participants. The day ended only when all the participants\u2019 writing work had been discussed, which was past 10 30 PM. A long but beneficial day, at the end of which every participant appeared to be eager to go on longer!<\/p>\n
On the following day (Sunday, 08 January), there was a short session on publishing, literary agents and editing, which ended the Retreat, leaving the participants hungering for more.<\/p>\n
Personally, I learnt a lot about the nuances of the writing craft and also garnered some practical tips on starting my novel. Aditi\u2019s depth of knowledge from her personal writing experience was a windfall. And the icing on the cake was how she inspired us all to take a\u00a0Sankalpa\u00a0on producing an anthology on the\u00a0Dashavtaras. A superb weekend was spent gainfully and delightfully.<\/p>\n
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Post-event feedback quotes by the other participants are given below:<\/p>\n
\u201cWriting is\u00a0saadhana\u00a0<\/em>for me too,\u00a0so<\/em>\u00a0this workshop on 'approaching writing as sadhana'\u00a0felt like it was tailored\u00a0to help me grow\u00a0further in that direction.\u00a0 The techniques shared by Aditi ji helped me unblock undiscovered creative pathways.\u00a0With her coaching along with the discussions with fellow attendees, I walk away with a deeper understanding of myself, my\u00a0art\u00a0and my vision.\u201d\u00a0-Aarti Pathak<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis is just a short note to express my gratitude to all, specially\u00a0Aditiji\u00a0and you, to give me a platform to express my passion of writing with the aim of inner\u00a0urge\u00a0to offer the external\u00a0experience. And now the action will\u00a0be a team work in the form of a book publication with the objective of our Nation's characters to the\u00a0masses. This\u00a0and the retreat offer me the same for my other projects in mind.\u00a0The\u00a0workshop\u00a0expanded with valuable insight in writing book,\u00a0its techniques,\u00a0way of thinking,\u00a0speaking\u00a0and doing.\u00a0It provided the platform to create the same.\u201d-Anjan\u00a0Nandy<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe writers' retreat with Aditi ji was an\u00a0absolutely amazingexperience in itself. Her insights on Bhava-Rasa and her in-depth knowledge about the craft of writing have left us enriched as aspiring writers. I thank Indica for facilitating such a wonderful opportunity for us!\u00a0Thank you!\u201d-Madhavi Girish\u00a0Kunte\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI feel blessed to have had an opportunity to participate in this unique writing workshop where Aditi Ji generously shared her knowledge about various aspects of writing. My biggest takeaways were how to approach writing as a 'sadhana', how to stay true to the Indic ethos, and how to incorporate Indic writing techniques such as 'bhava', 'the nine rasas', and 'the four\u00a0pursharthas' in my stories.\u201d\u00a0-Parag Shah<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAs beginner,\u00a0i\u00a0was able to learn a lot of things from the workshop.\u00a0I would like to thank Aditi ji for her invaluable lessons & insights.\u00a0It was an amazing experience interacting with fellow writers and learning from their thoughts.<\/p>\n Thank You Indica, for such an opportunity.\u201d\u00a0-Praneeth\u00a0Gala<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a0two day\u00a0workshop retreat organised by\u00a0Aditiji\u00a0and INDICA was nurturing to a writer's soul. I learnt a lot of things about the craft of writing and how to approach it as Sadhana. The enthusiasm shown by the co-participants was very inspiring.\u201d- Raghu Ram Sola<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAn Indic approach to writing incorporating the rasas and\u00a0purusharthas\u00a0with alternative methods of plotting structuring and writing made the workshop unique. Taking a\u00a0sankalpa\u00a0to write - writing as a sadhana - and a writing project at the end, ensures that we put the learnings into practice.\u201d\u00a0-Ramananjeya\u00a0Sharaph<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe atmosphere across all the writing sessions was relaxed\u00a0and\u00a0informal.\u00a0Aditi Ji adeptly blended both approaches to creative writing:\u00a01.Bharatiya (Vyaasa-Ganesha\u00a0paradigm & the\u00a0Raasaframework )\u00a02.Western ('The Story Genius Method' and the 'Snow Flake Method ' of writing exercises.).\u00a0I look forward to reading the work of fellow participants after making our writing.\u201d\u00a0-Rohan Raghav Sharma<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cVery productive and interesting sessions with lots of learnings. Aditi Ji\u2019s insights into writing were\u00a0really helpfuland so\u00a0w\u00a0were the inputs from the participants. Not to mention the retreat is an ideal location for deep thinking. Bhima Ji\u2019s hospitality was 5\u00a0star. Looking forward to visit and spend time at\u00a0Ritambhara\u00a0retreat.\u201d\u00a0- Umesh Mohanty<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe retreat was filled with many aha moments. Aditi\u00a0ji's\u00a0depth of the subject and interactive approach made it transformative at several levels. 'Writing as a Sadhana' is one mantra that I am carrying back from this retreat.\u201d\u00a0- Vishakha\u00a0Khetrapal\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INDICA Ritambhara Retreat is a small, reasonably quiet, largely isolated and pleasantly green piece of real estate; a huge and majestic banyan tree in its midst silently dispenses its benediction …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":12106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/indicabooks.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-01-07-at-08.22.24-2-1024x766.jpeg\")
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