Nishant Kaushik @nofreecopies Twitter profile

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Nishant Kaushik

2 years

Join Bhadresh Mhatre as he hops aboard the Nostalgic Nineties Express in a quest to rediscover old relationships. Arriving soon in your nearest @crossword_book store.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

18 REPORTED rapes in Uttar Pradesh in the last 48-72 hours. 6 of them on minors. You can build sky-high temples for all you care, you won't find God even there.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Brief, nonchalant thread about my auditioning experience at Indian Idol 2012 and why I think it is a perfect platform to destroy your dreams as opposed to its common perception as a breeding ground for talent.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

1 month

I've stopped attending music concerts since KK's death in 2022. Wife attending Shaan live in Melbourne tonight. And look what she has sent me.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

3 years

In 2012 I wrote a story. All publishing houses in India rejected it. In 2020 the self-published version landed at America Tonight who called me for an interview. In 2021, it is slated for a global release by a UK-based publisher. Here's to 9 years of not giving up.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

I don't see how I could have a perfect Sunday if I had a freak with a camera hanging by my chandelier.

Filmfare

@filmfare

5 years

Here’s what perfect Sundays look like! @nickjonas @priyankachopra

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

My summarized observation of Indian Idol was that it decorates and recognizes maybe 10 or less, very worthy participants annually. But en route it quashes a million people's hearts by disrespecting them, ridiculing and abusing them, denying them a conducive atmosphere to contest.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Thank you all for your responses. We have amazing people like you who have the wisdom to understand that artists flourish when they foster positivity and an atmosphere of mutual encouragement. And we will never let TRP hungry channels tell us otherwise.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

True talent is rare. But every aspiring artist's pride stems from the encouragement it gets from its colleagues and friends and mohallawallahs and family. In those little nooks and crannies, each of them is a "star". Reality shows have no right to disrespect that. <END>

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

At this point one of the aspirants lost his shit and stood up, demanding to see where the auditions were happening, to see the judges. One of the crew members charged up to him and slapped him. In front of thousands of people. SLAPPED.A.CONTESTANT. Yes this happened.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

I crashed out in Round 3 of the auditions close to midnight, and was nearly relieved when it happened. But I went home satisfied that I got a taste of a show that on TV had always appeared alluring. Shocked as I was by its reality, I was a wiser man by the end of the day.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

At 1 PM we were herded toward a stage on the school ground where the previous year's winner Shriram was lip syncing to Desi Boyz. A volunteer amongst us was sought to go and grab Shriram's feet mid-performance and shout "I wanna be Indian Idol!" Reward promised : early audition.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Not to mention the labourers who were hired to install and then disassemble the equipment at the venue. I don't even have the heart to mention how we were witness to the abuses they were being subjected to by the present staff.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

May. Mumbai. I rocked up at the venue more out of casual interest. On joining a queue 2 km long I noticed enthusiasts who had arrived there as though their lives depended on them. Some with their mothers holding Prasad, other rebels who had braved odds and traveled alone.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Sure enough, one aspirant fell to the bait. Fell at Shriram's feet. Dozens of retakes demanded by the director. When the aspirant said he couldn't do any more retakes, assistants on the set abused him and threatened to have him off the auditions if he didn't comply. He complied.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

(Quick digression to let you know that the contestant who fell at Shriram's feet like a hundred times in the lure of "early audition" never got an early audition. I bear testimony).

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

8 years

So as to avoid planting an egg.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

That mockery went on. The judges relished that fellow's naivety, asking him to keep taking a pitch "higher and louder" till his voice turned into frail shrieks that sent them into peals of laughter. He came out in tears. Elsewhere in the corridor we heard of contestants fainting.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

I joined the queue at 7 AM. There were people who had arrived at 5 AM. Others who had camped overnight. False notion that early arrival = early audition. No one from the crew to dispel such notions. Gate opens 1 PM.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

When none of his responses flew, they drafted a "response" on his behalf and read it out. Roughly, "I miss my mother and I wish she were here to see me, but I hope that when I sing tonight she can hear me up there." They made him repeat this even as his voice trembled.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

These staged gimmicks went on till 5 pm. By this time, we had noticed that for a venue as large as a school and for a crowd in tens of thousands, the provisions were: 1 canister of water with a steel glass bang in the middle of the ground, and 1 toilet.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Then they asked about his family. He said he had a mother who was now dead, leaving him orphaned and all by himself. Sudden twinkle in crew's eyes because they now had meaty content for a camera shot. They probed him in several ways on "what brings you here".

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Hours passed by. At around 8 PM, we were finally given badges and ushered in. no auditions yet. We were taken to the basketball court where for hours at stretch we were made to scream "We LOVE INDIAN IDOL!" right before our voices were supposedly going to be tested.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

In those long hours of waiting, no accessible toilets or food stalls or drinking water taps. If you step out in search, you risk losing the queue which you'd then have to rejoin. Anyway at 1 pm the long wait ended right? Wrong.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

Some abuses in response to this are a good explanation of the statistics in the original tweet itself.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

When we asked the crew if we could step out to get lunch and water, we were told to do so at our own risk. As if auditions would begin any moment. Contestants who made enquiries about the actual commencement of auditions were either not responded to, or showered with vile abuses.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

During all this I met two interesting aspirants: one med rep from an Indian village I don't remember the name of, who dragged his right foot in a broken slipper. And another, who was blind in both eyes. And then I saw the crew make a merciless meal of both of these kind souls.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

First the vultures came with their mic and cameras to the blind man, who said he had a scene's role in The Slumdog Millionaire. They first asked him to give a little speech about the history and status of his blindness, how does it feel to be blind, and what have you.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

The naive thought this was a smart way to quicken the filtering process of worthy contestants. The smartass crew knew better. They giggled at the contestants who sang horribly, and directed them to the only room that had a camera inside it. The rest of us got non-camera rooms.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

(Take a moment to reflect that by the time of the first round of audition some of us had been standing at that venue for almost 24 hours). Crew walked past us, randomly picking some of us to sing a couple of lines. Just like that, in the corridor, with no judges present.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

The med rep with that broken slipper I told you about sang atrociously. Through a half-open door of the room with the camera, I overheard his "auditioning". A painfully bad rendition of "Likhe jo khat tujhe", to which the judges kept going "wah wah! now try a higher pitch?"

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

A scuffle followed. Crew members rescued their colleague who was assaulted, by dragging the contestant along the floor and evicting him from the room. Late into the night, we finally arrived in a corridor that had a line of rooms hosting the auditions.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

3 years

Honest admission. For several years I thought Blyton's first name was Gnid, thanks to the weird fonts on her book covers.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Tanushree's zen stance while her car was being attacked in 2008 is more heroic than any superhero stunt shot till date.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

@KiranManral Dean had asked some of us to walk the girls back from NMIMS to their Juhu hostel. Ten feet short of the hostel, a girl slipped out of our human chain and went underwater. Hrithik emerged from Prateeksha and rescued her. A lesson that heroes don't need the camera on to perform.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

1 year

Rarely ever seen a crowd flock outside the cinema gates like this out here. The euphoria is real. #Pathaan

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Thanks for acknowledging this Mini. My intention was only to objectively share my experience and I am glad you have lent credence to my voice. Thanks @randomthakkar

Mini Mathur

@minimathur

6 years

@randomthakkar This sucks. Thanks for forwarding me this thread. I wasn’t part of the 2012 season but I know most of what he has articulated is known to happen on reality tv. One of the reasons I bowed out. This incessant need to create false emotion. RIP Organic, pure TV.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

In 2012 I wrote a book that had no takers in the Indian publishing market. I went ahead and self-published in 2014. 8 years on, an agency in the USA contacts me about it. "Can we talk?" I have never learnt a sweeter lesson in persistence.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

@Naina Thank you so much Naina. I had begun giving up early in the day but then chose to wait it out so I would never have to wonder "what if I had stayed".

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

A remake of Arth is being made with Jacqueline Fernandez in it. I have heard it will be titled Vyarth.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

8 years

No, @ndtv . Shweta, who won hearts in Makdee and Iqbal and yet wasn't lucky enough to Be Human, co-stars with...

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

7 years

Just about to breathe the same air as Aishwarya Rai. #IFFM2017

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

3 years

If you think you have a tough job, think of the intern who has to sit and draft those tweets for Kangana Ranaut.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

An MBA lecturer once asked me a question on his subject. I said "I don't know." He said "You need to stop saying you don't know if you want a 7-lac salary." I want to tell him I have been doing ok, and my readiness to admit I still don't know things is my badge of honour.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

1 year

If you are angry about this toxic-work viral video of HDFC, there was this consulting firm I worked for in Mumbai. I told our program head one of our colleagues couldn't join the meeting because his sister had passed away. His response: "Oh. No worries, take him on con-call."

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

#Hichki team, good luck to you. I am sure you will earn millions. I hope all the money you make is good enough to numb you, because if I were you, my conscience would be pricking me sharp. RANT ENDS.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

I say IT Consultant, they hear Sure I Can Fix Your Modem For You.

Nistula Hebbar

@nistula

5 years

I say Mangalore, they hear Bangalore.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

Forget savage. The comeback did not even salvage anything. Plain stupid.

DNA

@dna

5 years

#FarhanAkhtar 's savage comeback after being trolled over tweet on #SadhviPragya

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

3 years

Someone known to me in Delhi has passed away due to Covid, leaving behind a wife and 2 kids. Wife is a home maker but has skills and qualifications that she now needs to put to use. Can someone point me to an authentic org/NGO in Delhi that can help with this?

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

Quitting jobs to pursue dreams is rightly equated with heroism. But chugging along on a job that is not your true calling is an equal act of courage, and often underrated. Risk of stepping down on career vs Risk of making peace with unrequited dreams. Both hurt.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Does this mean Hichki is my story? NO. Does it mean I worked on it and was owed the courtesy of a response or acknowledgement of the effort I invested? HELL YES.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

2 years

So the 8yo is in Covid isolation but he has made good use of it by reading a fair few books and asking me to send this note to @wimpykid . Hoping it reaches you Jeff.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

8 years

Eat, Pray, It's Complicated. #Scalebackabook .

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

3 years

Cute how it is assumed that if a celebrity speaks up for a protesting group against a bill it is of her own will but if another speaks in favour of a bill it is only to appease the government.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

Cute that Abhay Deol is exposing the hypocrisy of his industry when he has little left to lose. Show half of this boldness when you are in the prime of your career and you have my attention.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

@IamOnir @MasalaBai Sad, and true. Luckily I have my books to get me my bread and have only casual interest in music but there were a lot of people out there whose lives depended on singing. To have their ambitions be made fun of was upsetting.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

@Naina Absolutely. Well said.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

The fact that you abruptly cut off from the writer who put in months of hard work to deliver a story to you without a word of feedback, gratitude, or even a "regret to inform" message rankles me.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

For those saying Prithvi Shaw's century against a weak WI team was easy as pie, remember: He is all of 18. This is his first international game. The country has taken notice of him. Not everyone can achieve this on debut. A century is a century, regardless of who it is against.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

People who were advising the world not to peddle debates about political events from the 80s as current election propaganda are now discussing...Nathuram Godse.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

No, @republic . I did not get physically abused or humiliated. I was witness to others being abused and humiliated. All it takes is carefully reading the thread, really.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

A treasure for me. Two seats to the right of Ms Kiran Bedi is my father, Retd DGP K R Kaushik. Thanks for sharing this gem.

indianhistorypics

@IndiaHistorypic

5 years

1973 :: PM Indira Gandhi Meeting Indian Police Service Officers. IPS Kiran Bedi Can Be Seen On The Right Side of Indira Gandhi

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

7 years

The biggest mistake I see people commit while dealing with each other is mistaking politeness for subservience.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

More than 2.5 years later, I watch the #Hichki trailer and notice a rather similar storyline, a protagonist with the same speech disorder I had described, and other nuances that I MAY NOT own all by myself, but are undoubtedly similar to the ones I portrayed.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

In my mind, this episode just validates all the stories I have read of anon/little known writers making claims in media reports that their stories were shamelessly flicked into major motion pictures without giving them due credit.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

My father took over as the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner at the peak of 2002 riots when the city had been burning for months. Worked round the clock to restore peace, brought miscreants to justice, issued our home phone no. to public access so anyone could DIRECTLY reach him.

Amanda Deibert at Comic Con Revolution #E2

@amandadeibert

5 years

What’s a cool bit of family history you know? Can be family of origin of family of choosing.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Siddharth gave me a one-liner brief. I began working. Over a month, I developed characters, motives, plotlines, and a story synopsis. Despite being in Australia, opened all channels of comms to keep him abreast with updates.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

People rebuking me for not knowing this is a camera drone at work, really sorry. My job as a telecommunications consultant in the space of Digital solutions and AI leaves me with no time to stay abreast with tech trends.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

In March 2015, director Siddharth Malhotra spoke to me about a story that needs to be written. I was excited, and thankful for being considered to take a stab at the opportunity. I mentioned I had a day job. I was told time is not a constraint.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

Cases in Australia jump from 514 to 1000 within 24 hours. A different level of bizarre that is hard to digest. #coronavirusaus

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

7 years

Journalists who should never try journalism.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

2 years

Don't ruin your friendship with the expectation that your friends will boost your book's sales. They will like your post. They will meet you at a party and tell you it's incredible that you write. They will tell others at the party that you write. But they ain't buying your book.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

@gulnazsheikh Thank you! Writing is my mainstay so going to focus there for now :)

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

My written material, which has been nonchalantly consumed (and possibly forgotten), and all my communication with Siddharth Malhotra is saved on record. Happy to present evidence. But the question is what am I to expect of it?

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

Watching Zero for the second time and 10 days on, the hall is still packed. For those who think SRK has lost his charm, eat your words with some caramel popcorn.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

1 year

@mimansashekhar I used to love this show. I also remember the Karz parody "Marz", and the even funnier Karan-Arjun parody "Garam in June". The Salman guy used to keep roaming around in vests because he used to feel very Garam in June :)

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Amused by the "Anushka blasts/lashes out at commuter" headlines. To a person littering the road, she was as polite as one can be. Calling out a mistake does not amount to 'blasting' someone. If we think it does, we have a problem with positive feedback and that isn't nice.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

7 years

Tough life.

dna After Hrs

@dnaAfterHrs

7 years

#ArjunKapoor has no smooches in #Mubarakan !

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

After submitting the material over email, I waited. Dropped emails and texts. No response. This could have meant 2 things: 1) The project was not taking off. Or, 2) My work was not fit for purpose. I conceded with whichever of the two was true.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

1 year

I don't want to name the consulting firm. Let me just say it was a firm run by men in blue.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

For what should I expect of the person/s who did not so much as show courtesy to provide a line of correspondence to indicate what course my months of effort was going to take thereon?

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

8 years

People can watch Mohenjodaro but can't stand outside ATMs.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

1 year

Bade miya chhote miya.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

@bladenomics @Indian_paradox I am on Smule off and on but with the books and a day job don't get that much time. Thanks for checking in :)

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

Loveyatri is about an aimless boy who falls in love with a talented girl and when he can't stand her superiority he grabs her by the arm in front of friends in a restaurant and humiliates her. A Salman Khan films presentation. Makes perfect sense.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

People who don't respond to texts or emails, you do realise that your lack of etiquette is just raring to bite you in your time of need, right?

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

7 years

@ndtv 1. A girl embroiled in "alleged" prostitution is conveniently branded. 2. A man jailed for known offences is a star. @ndtv at your service.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

3 years

Be a writer if you are ready to brave rejection, criticism, long dry spells with poor ideas, uncertainty around income - amidst the trickles of joy from telling a story. If you are looking for instant gratification from your words, you might want to be a reviewer.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

Cash-rich employers who are firing their workforce without notice, I understand you are legally entitled to do so but your ethics are in the trash can. When the dust settles, the world will remember your lack of sensitivity and you will starve for goodwill.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

8 years

This thread.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

6 years

1. I did not understand the power of Twitter then. 2. Did not occur to me that sharing my experience could help others aspiring to contest.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

3 years

Web series makers, I know that smokes and liquor are your only tropes to depict the modern Indian woman. But please note, no one smokes inside offices in 2021. We are not in the 80s any more.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

8 years

P1: Gurugram fellow - "Aaj L lag gaye bc" P2: Whatsapp from optimist NRI - "Proud Indian; Diwali pic taken by NASA"

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

Stand up to the passive bullies at work. Those who ignore you because of your difference of opinion. Those who set up meetings at 5 pm because you have a child to pick from school. Those who chip away at your mental health with little evidence to substantiate their wrongdoings.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

2 years

Ah, the joy of writing a story set in the 90s and organically bringing in elements unique to the decade that you had almost forgotten once existed.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

1 year

I highly recommend training 'em young when it comes to household chores. They understand the value of labour, bond with family better, and you don't have to break your back at all times.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

5 years

Fed baby. Shopped with baby. Bathed baby. Put baby to bed in afternoon. Changed baby nappy. Drove baby to a birthday party and kept him there for 3 hours. Fed baby and ensured he did not cry looking for his mother. I don't know why I felt I didn't have it in me to crack IIT-JEE.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

3 years

Friends on my TL, do you have any motivational stories about having accomplished fitness goals during this pandemic? Do share so that I can quickly unfollow.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

4 years

I moved to Mumbai in 2004. The city took me into its warm fold, found me great friends, made me scoff at the WEH traffic, then made me fall in love with it some more. But what I love about it the most is the candyland dream it offers to people - even the ones who call it names.

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Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies

1 year

@TheViditsharma Can it be confirmed that the dog has been rescued? This video is extremely disturbing and painful.

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1

29

Nishant Kaushik

@nofreecopies