What do you write about?

A question I am learning to answer.

I have always been wary of answering the question: What do you do for a living?

Ever since graduation, my career choices have often required extensive follow-up questions to help others understand my path better.

I’ve always tried to view these questions positively, seeing them as expressions of genuine curiosity and, in a way, opportunities to normalize career options that are less conventional.

On certain days, when I’d be with friends who were CAs, engineers, or doctors, I’d feel my stomach churn at the thought of explaining what I do. The issue wasn’t the other person’s judgment of my life; it was mostly my own. For a long time, I struggled to understand what I was doing and where I was headed. While I wasn’t restless in my mind, situations like these would stir up a bit of unease.

When I started working at Teach for India right after graduation, many people were still warming up to the idea of working in NGOs. I often had to break down parts of my daily life, roles, and responsibilities to help others understand my job. My role fell somewhere between an NGO volunteer and a full-time government school teacher, so explaining that I was neither, yet both, was challenging.

More often than not, I received appreciation for my choices, along with words of encouragement which would make these efforts feel worthwhile.

Later, when I started working in the CSR department of a well-known retail brand, and then in an edtech startup, it gradually got easier to answer this question.

Things took a U-turn again in 2022 when I left my job without a plan. I was quite clear and confident in my mind about being okay without a plan—in fact, that was the entire plan. Somehow, this didn’t sit well with most people I met. They’d feel worried for me, sometimes suggesting I was lost. I was trying too many different things at once, and some people thought I seemed confused and unable to focus.

The point of not having a plan was to explore and not settle, to gather varied experiences.

In the past two years, I’ve encountered an interesting pattern. There hasn’t been a single event or gathering for which I haven’t practiced my answer to this question. And each time, the answer has varied. On some days, when I feel lazy, I say I’m an engineer with a remote job in a corporate. Other times, I say I’m into marketing, managing social media for brands. If I’m comfortable with the company, I’ll go ahead and say I’m a writer.r.

It has taken all my strength to muster the courage to say I write for a living.

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A question that I am now learning to answer is “What do you write about?”

For me, this question is even harder to answer than What do you do for a living? Though a natural question to ask a writer, it makes me question what I truly write about.

Frankly, I’m not sure. In recent years, I’ve written:

Short stories
Newsletters
Children’s Books
Thousands of pieces on Instagram
Articles for Financial Institutions
Storyboards for an edtech startup
and some cheesy poetry from my time in college (almost a decade old)

When I worked as a content writer at a startup, it was probably the most recognizable form of writing I did—but it also meant the least to me. It was mechanical, lacking in substance and heart. I did it for the money, to save up and hopefully do some real writing later.

I used to say I write short stories and children’s books, but it’s been a while since I’ve done either. Today, I write on social media platforms, but that doesn’t fully answer what I write about.

When all else failed, and my mind, despite having done so much writing, couldn’t help me find an answer to what I write about, I turned to ChatGPT for help—and it did help.

ChatGPT helping me understand what I write about

In the past few months, I’ve used ChatGPT extensively to help edit my work, and now it has read enough of my material for me to trust it.

I actually loved what ChatGPT had to say about my work. Sure, it sounds a bit romantic, but it’s also fairly accurate at its core.

Since I can’t recite an entire paragraph to anyone who asks, I turned to ChatGPT again to help me condense it.

And now I have my answer!

Thanks to a computer program, I can sit with a smile on my face, having a firm answer to one of the most pressing inquiries of my life.

The mediums and platforms may change, but as a writer, I write creative nonfiction.

In an age of niching down to a single skill, hobby, passion, or voice, I’ve allowed my writing to flow freely between worlds and mediums. Some days, I feel like writing about how adding curry leaves enhances the flavour of upma; other days, I want to explore religion and spirituality.

Some days, when I feel especially enchanted by a travel experience, I don the hat of a travel writer, and on other days, I reflect on the beauty of a solitary, creative, stationary hermit life.

I’m okay not being known as an expert on any particular subject, but I’d like to be trusted as a writer. I may not be the best, but I write with my heart on my sleeve—and that’s exactly what I write about and what I do for a living.

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I invite you to reflect and write on the following prompt:

Reflect on a time when someone asked you, "What do you do for a living?" and you felt uncertain about your answer. Describe the emotions that came up—was it pride, hesitation, or perhaps a mix of both? Explore why this question stirred something in you. Then, imagine answering not with your job title but with the heart of what you truly do in the world.

As a feature of all my newsletters, I share one song, one book, one plant-based meal, one film/video that inspired me, and some photographic updates from my life.

• Song: I recommend listening to Kaise Keh Dein.

• Book/Newsletter: I recommend this beautiful piece by

  Sakhi Singh
  .

• Meal: I’ve come home for Diwali, and there have been two family gatherings at my place in the past three days. I can’t even begin to document the amount of food I’ve had! I already put on some extra pounds over the past few weeks, and now I think, after this trip, my jeans won’t fit me. Having said that, zero regrets :)

• Film/Video: Watched this absolute masterpiece of a film: Baraka.

• Photographs:

  

  

  Photographs from the past week

Thank you for reading my newsletter! I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you liked my work, please consider subscribing. I write weekly on topics ranging from photography and nostalgia to loneliness and living as an artist. If you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you—feel free to email or comment! Wishing you a wonderful week ahead, and I look forward to seeing you next week!