<p class="title">Whether it is a leisurely Sunday or a busy Monday, it makes no difference to historian Ramachandra Guha, who has a habit of writing reams of pages daily, but come to a test match and the writer cannot help but put down his pen -- even if it means "2-3 days" at a stretch.</p>.<p class="bodytext">An acclaimed cricket aficionado, Guha has written extensively on cricket and was also a former member of the CoA -- Committee of Administrators -- appointed by the Supreme Court to run the BCCI.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I write everyday... I never take time off, Mondays and Sundays make no difference. Except when there is a test match, then I might take two days off or for that matter, a match in Bangalore -- a particularly exciting test match -- and I might decide 'Ok 2-3 days I am not going to work'," Guha told PTI.</p>.<p class="bodytext">And, for Guha the test match need not have India playing in it necessarily, in fact, on the contrary; he enjoys it more if India is not playing at all.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"When India is not playing I find I enjoy it more because then I am not emotionally involved. For example, a really good competition between Australia and South Africa is always a treat to watch," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The author of best-selling "India After Gandhi", Guha, well-known for his penchant for writing non-fiction tomes, follows a very "sturdy routine" which includes writing from "9 am to 1 pm" everyday and "2-3 hours in the afternoon" also.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Of course, all this is done with no distraction either from mobile phone or internet.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He recently came up with a new book, "Gandhi: The Years That Changed The World, 1914-1948", published by Penguin (Allen Lane). The book is a sequel to his earlier book "Gandhi Before India" (2014).</p>.<p class="bodytext">Throwing light on his writing style further, the 60-year-old writer said his professional life is composed of two parts: "research on the road" and "writing in Bangalore".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"If I am out of Bangalore, I am doing research in the archives. So I will be in Teen Murti, National Archives (New Delhi), British Library (London) or Sabarmati Ashram looking at old files and letters from 9 am to 6 pm taking notes. That is one part -- the research and travel.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Then I go back to Bangalore with all those notes, and classify them, categorise them, make sense of them and start writing," said the Bangalore-based author.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Guha, who otherwise rued the fact that Bangalore has no archives or "materials library", said it is a place well-suited for him to write.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It is a very good place to write because I am with my family, have that comfort zone, the weather is always very nice.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"And also because you are distant from the clutter and the noise, far from Delhi. This way you don't get distracted, so essentially when I am in Bangalore I am reflecting, writing and re-writing, and when I am in Delhi I am doing my research," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The writer, unlike some other writers, does not have a writing ritual per se.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But that said, he too has his own little idiosyncrasy -- the one he just can't do away with when writing -- "printing everything that he writes".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Whatever I write I print even if it is unfinished... let's say I have written 1000 words I will print out those pages and look at it. I have to look at the printed word to revise.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Maybe I am wrong, I know many young people who tell me that it is an 'old-fashioned thing' and that they do the revision on screen, but for me, it works this way only," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Having mastered the craft of communicating academic research work to people in an accessible language, ask Guha, the story-teller of contemporary India, what is the mantra behind it, and he replies with a smile, "No mantra. Just hard work and experience. And anyway, I think one gets better with 40 years of practice, right?".</p>
<p class="title">Whether it is a leisurely Sunday or a busy Monday, it makes no difference to historian Ramachandra Guha, who has a habit of writing reams of pages daily, but come to a test match and the writer cannot help but put down his pen -- even if it means "2-3 days" at a stretch.</p>.<p class="bodytext">An acclaimed cricket aficionado, Guha has written extensively on cricket and was also a former member of the CoA -- Committee of Administrators -- appointed by the Supreme Court to run the BCCI.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"I write everyday... I never take time off, Mondays and Sundays make no difference. Except when there is a test match, then I might take two days off or for that matter, a match in Bangalore -- a particularly exciting test match -- and I might decide 'Ok 2-3 days I am not going to work'," Guha told PTI.</p>.<p class="bodytext">And, for Guha the test match need not have India playing in it necessarily, in fact, on the contrary; he enjoys it more if India is not playing at all.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"When India is not playing I find I enjoy it more because then I am not emotionally involved. For example, a really good competition between Australia and South Africa is always a treat to watch," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The author of best-selling "India After Gandhi", Guha, well-known for his penchant for writing non-fiction tomes, follows a very "sturdy routine" which includes writing from "9 am to 1 pm" everyday and "2-3 hours in the afternoon" also.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Of course, all this is done with no distraction either from mobile phone or internet.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He recently came up with a new book, "Gandhi: The Years That Changed The World, 1914-1948", published by Penguin (Allen Lane). The book is a sequel to his earlier book "Gandhi Before India" (2014).</p>.<p class="bodytext">Throwing light on his writing style further, the 60-year-old writer said his professional life is composed of two parts: "research on the road" and "writing in Bangalore".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"If I am out of Bangalore, I am doing research in the archives. So I will be in Teen Murti, National Archives (New Delhi), British Library (London) or Sabarmati Ashram looking at old files and letters from 9 am to 6 pm taking notes. That is one part -- the research and travel.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Then I go back to Bangalore with all those notes, and classify them, categorise them, make sense of them and start writing," said the Bangalore-based author.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Guha, who otherwise rued the fact that Bangalore has no archives or "materials library", said it is a place well-suited for him to write.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It is a very good place to write because I am with my family, have that comfort zone, the weather is always very nice.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"And also because you are distant from the clutter and the noise, far from Delhi. This way you don't get distracted, so essentially when I am in Bangalore I am reflecting, writing and re-writing, and when I am in Delhi I am doing my research," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The writer, unlike some other writers, does not have a writing ritual per se.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But that said, he too has his own little idiosyncrasy -- the one he just can't do away with when writing -- "printing everything that he writes".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Whatever I write I print even if it is unfinished... let's say I have written 1000 words I will print out those pages and look at it. I have to look at the printed word to revise.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Maybe I am wrong, I know many young people who tell me that it is an 'old-fashioned thing' and that they do the revision on screen, but for me, it works this way only," he added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Having mastered the craft of communicating academic research work to people in an accessible language, ask Guha, the story-teller of contemporary India, what is the mantra behind it, and he replies with a smile, "No mantra. Just hard work and experience. And anyway, I think one gets better with 40 years of practice, right?".</p>