It’s a very good incentive to keep writing: Shamir Reuben

At just 22, Shamir Reuben has achieved quite a lot. From writing about football to covering IPL 2014 and FIFA World Cup 2014 for Star Sports, he has done it all. Going by the name of ‘the Devastated Dreamer’, his blog posts can make grown men shed a tear or two. Tragedies have played their role in his life too. Losing his mother to cancer at the age of 18 was one of them, but he trudged ahead and has become one of the most approachable and kind people you will ever have the fortune to meet.

On meeting, Shamir Reuben puts you at ease as soon as you are in his presence. Laidback and casual with a ready smile on the face is how one can describe him. In this interview to Spectralhues, Shamir speaks about social media and how he cut his teeth into blogging. Below are the transcripts:

So, tell us about how you got into blogging.

I think I was 17 years old and what started out was happenstance. I had just started college and it was two months in and there was this really pretty Turkish girl in my college and she was older than me. Everyone in my class had a big crush on her because she was really beautiful and she used to give these amazing smiles and you’d just go like, what just happened? I started out writing this really funny poem on her about how she never gave me a second glance and I put it up on Facebook and luckily she wasn’t on Facebook (laughs) and the next thing I know, everyone in the college is talking about the poem and they said that I should write one more, so, I started off with this series called the weekday series about how I messed up on seven days of the week, my experience at the gym and how it was like living with a sister who doesn’t like listening to you, which is still happening by the way (laughs again). And everyone said that all this should go on a blog and that’s how I started blogging.

You are pretty big on Ask.fm, which is a community of mostly teenagers. So, since joining Ask.fm, has your perception about teenagers changed in any way?

Okay. Now that’s a tough question, but I think it sort of reinforced my certain stereotypes about what teenagers are. It also changed in a lot of ways in how I interact with them or talk with them, now that I am out of my teenage. There are a lot of teenagers who are friends, whom I met through Ask.fm and I talked to them about stuff that I wouldn’t talk to with conventional teenagers. In a way I was very relieved to see that there is someone else on a social media platform that thinks and functions the same way. Then there are people who do exactly the same thing that I expect from teenagers, like going out there and putting up nonsensical stuff and looking for attention. When you have the power of anonymity, it’s a certain power that you should respect, but a lot of people don’t tend to do that. So, according to my perception of Ask.fm, there are two schools of teenagers, on

Shamir Reuben at RC Ruia Editorial event Talk-A-Thon Photo: UmangSampat

e that knows their stuff and the other one that knows their stuff.

I read your TEDx talk. Tell us about the responsibility on being looked up to in a community or even a social platform and the responsibility that comes with it? You spoke on cyber-bullying and how people come up to you and talk about these things.

I think it is extremely important. As a person who has around 9500 followers, it sort of gets intimidating. Every time you type out something, an entire community of 10,000 people is looking at you and gauging what you say. I think it’s very important that you say the right things because when you say the wrong ones, people tend to interpret it in a really wrong way. So, if someone says that they are feeling suicidal and I make a joke out of it and if one of those 10,000 people is going through issues, then they are going to feel extremely alienated, especially when it comes from someone that they look up to. So, I take my social media extremely carefully. I say things that I don’t want people taking in the wrong sense and I want to be approachable. That’s the thing when you have such a nice following behind you and whenever you say something it tends to have a magnified influence.

What do you think is the frustrating aspect about blogging?

I think that the age that we exist in now, the difference between getting an idea which you think will go big and it actually going big is a huge thing. Sometimes, I wake up in the night thinking that, this is it and that it’s going to make a beautiful piece! And then when I put it out on the blog I am like, what just happened? It was something brilliant in my head, but it never got off. The frustrating part about not just being a blogger, but any creative person, you start off thinking that there’s an idea worth converting into words or into a picture or photograph, but it generally doesn’t translate into what you perceived it as. But in a way it’s a very good incentive to keep writing, to keep pushing yourself. Whenever I write a poem or when I am performing, I write it and rewrite it at least 13-14 times, because something in it always has to change.

Is writing a form of release for you?

I think it is the only form of release for me. See, I have had a tough life growing up as a kid. When my dad had a plane crash, he was bedridden and as a kid I had to see him go through a lot of pain, stuff that I see him going through even now. And, then I lost my mom to cancer. It’s been an upbringing where you have been conditioned to keep things to yourself; you don’t talk about it to the family. If you have a problem in your life then you generally tend to tell yourself that it shouldn’t show. Your dad shouldn’t know that you are going through this; your sister shouldn’t come to know that you are struggling, so it becomes a very rigid sort of existence. And, I think, in that sense when I put my words out on paper, I know that no one else is reading it and it’s like a conversation with myself. I think that I trust myself the most, so writing is something that gives me that and that is my only form of release.

Shamir Reuben while addressing the crowd at RC Ruia’s Talk-A-Thon event Photo: Umang Sampat

Any message for those wanting to start a blog?

I feel very bad when I read writing that is sub average from me. When I see writing and say it’s a half-hearted attempt or if I wasn’t thinking straight, it goes out in the bin. So, for me it’s always about trying to make sure that all your posts have the best from you and sometimes that comes from taking a lot of stuff from the worst things that you have written. Sometimes you end up writing a 500 word article and find one line that stands out, so then I keep it aside and the rest of it goes up. And, I think as a message for writers, I would suggest that you start off writing today. A lot of people tend to dilly-dally and think that they will find their niche later on and find what they are interested about later on. And, the interest comes from eliminating your options. But, for that you have to start working with options first. First, if you try and write and say that you can’t write about food because it tends to get really monotonous, say that this tastes good and this tastes awesome and that tastes nice. It actually takes talent to describe a certain amount of food differently. So, start off doing that and if you think you are good with it then keep doing it! The best part is that you start off at a point and a few years down the line you look back and then you say, ‘I came from there’. Its one of the most wonderful feelings that you will get. It tells you how far you have come.

Transcripting: Pratiksha Acharya

Photographs: Umang Sampat

This interview was done at the venue of RC Ruia’s Editorial event Talk-A-Thon

• About the Author

About Pratiksha Acharya

Pratiksha is tolerating her progress into adulthood with great difficulty. A bookworm to the core, she loves reading and debating. When her head is not stuck in a book, she likes to cook, dance and shop. For her, reading is more than a hobby. P.S.- She hates losing out on arguments.