Thursday 19 April 2012

No Signal Savita Kalhan






I’ve just returned from an old friend’s 50th birthday weekend in Shropshire where we stayed in a youth hostel, a first for me, for a weekend of walking, talking and celebrating. The hostel was in a valley without internet connection, mobile phone reception and television. We had taken books, walking gear, food and drink, and that was about it. It was a sort of reunion too, with many of us not having seen each other since Uni almost thirty years ago.




A twelve mile hike across the Long Mynd was the biggest challenge. Some of the hills felt like mountains, the ravines were deep and treacherous in places, but the views were stunning and the pub at the end of the walk felt like a haven. On a difficult descent one of the group lost his footing and slipped right in front of me. We both heard the doom-laden cracking sound his ankle made! With no phone signals, some of us trekked ahead until we found reception, and an air ambulance was called. He turned up later at the youth hostel with a pair of crutches supporting a broken ankle.
There were about 50 of us for the big dinner on the Saturday night, which was followed by a trip to the local pub where turns were taken by those of us who could sing a good story, and it turned out there were a few who could do it very well. I can’t sing, so I listened and wished that I could sing a story with as much aplomb!


What really struck me, apart from the beauty of south Shropshire, was how I’ve been spending much of my spare time over the past couple of years. I’ve been raising my profile as a new writer, tweeting, blogging, google plussing, tweeting some more... Some of that has been very, very helpful. I’ve made lots of wonderful friends through it, developed contacts, got to know the industry far better than I knew it before I began, all of which have been absolutely brilliant and much of it necessary. You do have to know as much as you can about the industry you are in. But the working day became increasingly stretched out so that writing and all the things associated with profile-raising and being a writer could be crammed in.


Spare time was no longer spare time, and somewhere along the line the balance tipped too far in that direction, and I almost wish I didn’t have a smart phone, which allowed me to access my emails, my twitter account and all the rest of it, at weekends and strange times of the day and night, or made me feel that I should be constantly checking in just in case I missed something important. Well, I couldn’t check in at all this weekend, and I don’t think I missed anything, did I? So I’ve decided not to check my emails late in the evenings or at the weekends, unless I’m expecting something urgent. Nor shall I tweet, unless I’ve got something interesting to tweet about, or retweet.


I’m not going completely cold turkey, or #goingdark in tweetspeak, but I do feel the need to rebalance everything and claw back some precious hours to write another book before I forget how to write anything that’s longer than 140 characters!



11 comments:

Elen C said...

I know how you feel!
I went to a weekend wedding recently and it was such a funny/lovely/beautiful experience that coming back to work seemed, well, like work.
At the time I resolved to spend less time thinking business and more time thinking creativity. But it's amazing how easily you get sucked back in.
Keep your resolve!

Mark Jones said...

I grew up around that there Long Mynd! Hope to move back*, not just for the scenery but, as you say, you can also cut yourself off there quite easily.

*Well there or the Pembrokeshire coast.

Savita Kalhan said...

Elen - Yes, finding the balance between business and creativity isn't easy. Let's see how long my resolve lasts...
Mark - You're so lucky growing up around there. I go up there a couple of times a year, maybe one day I might even retire there, but first I think I should see the Pembokeshire coast.

Mystica said...

I can well believe you. The first weekend I had without internet access was very hard but I made myself come to terms with it. It is now a weekly occurrence! no withdrawal symptoms now.

Savita Kalhan said...

Mystica - The sad thing is that I didn't even realise what an addiction it had become. It was second nature to check in on everything several times a day! I'm working on changing those habits now!

maryom said...

I think having teen around makes me use the internet more. When she's constantly checking messages and fb - even while watching DVDs with me - I'm left feeling I'm missing something. We're just back from Pembrokeshire (and you MUST go, it's fab) and even 10 minutes without phone/internet access for her was agony!

Miriam Halahmy said...

Excellent post and I think you are quite right. I feel I've been doing far too much of all this stuff lately - you get sucked into thinking you must do it when you have a book out. So next week I'm off to Devon where I won't have any signals except the one in my brain to WRITE THE BOOK!!

Ann Turnbull said...

I try not to switch the internet on till midday. Once it's on, it's so hard to switch it off again - it really is addictive.

(I also live in Shropshire and love the Long Mynd!)

Savita Kalhan said...

Mary - I have a teen who does the same thing! Although he coped far better than I did without internet - and enjoyed the break so much that he thought Shropshire might be a good place to retire to one day!
Miriam - doing lots of tweeting and networking is fine when you have a great book to promote! Have a good break in Devon, and I hope the weather improves for it...
Ann - I'm going to do the same and not get plugged in till later in the day. The Long Mynd is wonderful, but I'll wait for drier days the next time I go - I can't spend six weeks with my feet up nursing a broken ankle...

Linda Strachan said...

I agree it is addictive and often you don't realise how long you are spending on it and what a freedom it is not to have the facility and to spend time away from it all.

I have started going out to my shed in the morning before I turn on the main computer. I take out the house phone, not a mobile and an old computer, great for word processing but it packs in if I try to go online.

Savita Kalhan said...

Linda - I used to never ever have the internet on while I was working - that was in the old days before wireless broadband, and before I realised that as a writer in this day and age it's important to engage on the internet. I will still do that, but not with the same level of addiction! The writing has to come first for a while, so I'm striving for a balance. I think I need a shed like yours!