The First Post of 2014

I had been away for over a month, but now I am back. Back from the festivities, the gaiety that comes with meeting friends after more than half a decade. Back from lazing around like a sloth and gorging on amma’s cooking to pulling myself out of the bed before the Sun does and start rattling around in the kitchen. And more importantly, back to my dear laptop and writing. For while writing was never out of my mind over the past month, I did choose to enjoy the other things that I love while my son had his vacations. So we went to the granny’s place, I took him to beach (where of course he sat petrified and flatly refused to enter the waters), visited a play gym, made new friends, went concert hopping, and a lot of shopping. In short, I had FUN.

I had opened up this post to write a rant, but then decided otherwise. Why start the year with a rant? Life will always give us something to rant about, to fret about, to worry or cry about. Why then do it in the first post of the year too? So my first post is a look back and a peek forward. A look at the year that went past in retrospection, and the year that stretches ahead in anticipation. Some of it may only be loud thinking, or even wishful thinking, but then, what is life without any thinking? So without irritating you further with my silly rhyming, here goes – 

The Look Back

Well, quantitatively, I did not write or publish too much last year. Wrote a couple of short stories, which are very close to my heart, but are yet to be published anywhere. The year started with excitement of completing my novella, which reached the crescendo of publishing right on Valentine’s Day. And then, the free fall came, with technical difficulties marring the website where it was published and postponing the launch. But launch we did, and in style, and we, the writers and the publisher both, have been steadily gaining strength through the last year and well into the future. Alongside, my writing too has gained strength, and I as a writer have gained confidence. Now a lot of my readers say, and I too can feel, that my writing style has come a long way from where I started.

As an individual too, I was able to set my priorities right. The start of the year saw me wavering between full time motherhood and full time job. I did equate self confidence with a full time job for sometime and also joined a small firm. Which was in a way good, for it made me realize that no job can give me peace of mind if it makes my family struggle. I saw no point in running from pillar to post just for the heck of it. I realized that while different people might have different opinions or priorities, my priority was giving a comfortable home to my family, to make things easy for the primary bread-winner of our home. For if I had been in his place, he would have done the same for me.

Also, the short stint at the full time job seemed to squeeze out all the creativity out of me. I figured I needed my own time to blossom creatively, and gave myself that time. I quit that job, started sending the sonny to day care for few hours after his school, and started using the time at hand to work on writing assignments. Now I have a great client who likes my work and is comfortable working with me. I have also started a new blog (this!) and am making an effort to blog as regularly as I can. Working from home gives be the double pronged advantage of declaring holiday for myself whenever the kid has holiday and spending quality time with him while still keeping me connected with my creative side and taking up only such work that I love to do.

The year was quite happening for our family too, with lots of things happening, some happy some sad. The greatest good that came out of it all though, was that we bonded more closer than ever and shared a lot of memorable moments together. This was the year we made a lot of effort to take our son to very different outings, so from model trains to origami exhibition, from zoos to beaches to Mohd. Rafi concerts… he saw it all. And enjoyed it too!

The Peek Ahead

Well, let me confess I don’t have anything unusual or drastic in mind. Just the usual, but many a time, it is the usual that makes life unusual (there I go again!). So in 2014, I wish to…

Get back in shape

Go on a great vacation

Get more good clients and projects

Get out of the vicious cycle of EMI

Write, Write and Write more!

Make more writer friends and connect more with the friends I have made

And above all else, keep smiling and have FUN!