This comes straight to me from one of my friends; he asked me, “You are a writer. How do you earn?”

I was a bit puzzled by the question. He knows where I work.

I told him, “You know where I work. I don’t quite get your question.”

He grinned at me, “You know that’s not what I am asking. How do writers earn for a living?”

I was sure I still didn’t get the question. He was of the opinion that I had some kind of secret life and there I was a superstar and was minting name and fame.

The truth is that writers are never superstars – they are always in the background while their characters take up the front stage. Writers can never be the stars. They are all about that insignificant emotion and that unknown feeling that existed but you didn’t ever know about it.

Well, here is quite on the face. I work on a full time job, I work in a software company like my contemporaries. My boss does not differentiate between me and others how much ever I am a writer and yells at me when I do something wrong. That’s pretty normal!

I work along with some of my friends and do some pocket money earning. This is to fulfill my small dreams and wishes like buying a huge book or getting a dinner at the new joint with my close friends or buy gifts for them when someone gets hitched.

Yes, I have huge amount of loans that needs to be cleared out of my account. There is a huge queue of EMIs that needs to get rid off. There are responsibilities that always need your attention. I also feel like buying that awesome, expensive dress or going off on a long trip but then the liabilities of life ring and you silently, go back to your hole and curl up.

Writers are not made of loftier things. They are not made of pink teddies and hearts and lots of roses to go with it or the tears that come with it. Writers are made of little things; Writers are made of watching your dad get worried about his business/job being insecure and go to bed and not getting a proper sleep.

Writers are made of the long face that your mom has when you innocently ask for something and she is not able to give that you and it pinches her.

Writers are about watching your siblings struggling with grades and peer pressure or that average stomach ache and you have no comforting words to offer them.

Writers are all about a normal life that everyone on earth lived and they are the ones who make you aware of your own life and how you are able to connect with life itself. They struggle and they come out clean with life.

I earn for a livelihood and yes, I write for living…