Authentic Thanksgiving :)

Heya!

Now I couldn't find any suitable title for this post. ;) After, all the efforts that Sarah Hina took to come down and give her best for her post, I couldn't find any better way than this to thank her for this kind gesture.

It was her sincere instant response that made it possible. It was a great feeling to find a guest post from someone whom I have been following for quite sometime. Frankly speaking it was not long back that I knew Sarah but her first article on Aniket's website had made me an instant fan of her writings. And finally as she accepted my request, it made my day!

As it all went fine and got posted, the first thing I checked in the morning was my blog and it was there! I had never done so in my whole life even if it was my own blog! But that I was expecting to see her post I couldn't wait and it was a super duper moment! And I thank Sarah for making it so wonderful that it was.

@Sarah: I have been on and off my blog but this was the best moment which I have experienced through these 4 years of my blogging experience. It was my blog's 4th Birthday on 16th August and I too hadn't realized this until now when it struck me suddenly. So, nothing better gift that I could have expected on my blog. A BIG THANKS to you for making it so very perfect! Coincidentally it was the 4th year completion and what a way to celebrate it!

I extend my heartiest thanks to you for your gesture and efforts that you have put in to make this possible. Having book signing and releasing your first book this month 2010 is not a small thing. I understand how busy you must have been. You contributing to my blog during this rush hour of your own life, I suppose there can not be any better act of humbleness and hats off to you for that. If you could do this for someone else i.e. finding out time to publish the article and follow it closely answering to the feedbacks, then I should also at least do that for my own blog.

Thanks for giving me a reason to have a refreshing start to this blogging arena, and I hope I can take this further with all the energy that you have infused within me. You showed me that we should give our cent percent to our passion even if there are hurdles and we don't find much time to invest in our day today life. Blogging has always been my passion and I got a reasoning to pursue this ahead just because of the confidence that your post gave me.

Thanks again Sarah!

Best wishes for the release of your book and be it a huge success.

God Bless You :)

Signing off,

Abhi

P.S: Happy Birthday to Swati (one of my best friends from my College days). She happens to celebrate it on 19th of this month. My best wishes to her and may God bless her! Miss You DEAR :(

Great News - Guest Writer

Hello All,

I would like to make an announcement! We have a guest author on the blog and she is none other than SARAH HINA who is a 34-year-old writer, wife, and mother of two. Her debut novel, PLUM BLOSSOMS IN PARIS, is now available from Medallion Press.

It's an honor to have Sarah post an article on this blog, and I suppose this gesture from her has made me really ecstatic about it.

I would request all my readers to participate and pour in their comments for the post from Sarah.

First Attempt at Prompt Writing

I had never tried my hand at writing blogs at some other forum. Somehow I never felt comfortable. May be I was afraid to fail at the first go. Being a shy guy (yes that's what I consider myself to be :P), I refrain from going out and attempting to write something which may turn out to be a complete flop. The comfort zone is a major factor. I have been blogging on my blog since Aug 2006, so this has always been my place. A lion's own den. This reminds me of a saying 'A dog is even a lion in his own lane'. So that's how I have been.

Surfing through different friends' and fellow bloggers posts has been my hobby since long. I thank Aditi for her recent post regarding such a forum/site where bloggers post their write ups. The thing that attracted me was the concept of prompt writing. I need to give a bow to Aniket for taking the initiative to start something like this. Though I was aware of writing contests across the blogger community, I had never realized that if I give it a try I could even do it. I had never thought over it much. There are such good writers and bloggers on WWW that it feels a bit humiliating to post something as a competitor out there. There comes the best feature in Flash Fiction. There is no winner and there are no losers. I hate being called a loser by my inner voice.

Thus came the warrior within me to give it a try. I had my first attempt at prompt writing. I would require all your support in letting me know how I performed at this. It felt like writing in an examination hall in school. It took me about four hours to create the whole thing. I wouldn't consider it to be one of my best though. And personally speaking I feel I did justice to the attempt but I failed at one point. Limiting no of words within 1000. I've always failed to keep it short. And once again I struggled hard to make it within 1000 words. Finally the post had 1700 plus words. I consider myself to have done well. Pat on the back for that (chuckle). ;)

View my first post here.

http://www.flashfiction.in/2010/04/28/like-never-before-the-heavens-terrace-2/

Closest to My Heart

Few people turn to their saved photo albums, letters and what not to get back to their good old days. Their present of course is a reflection of their post. But it really feels great going back to those days which are always memorable. I too get back sometimes to my good old days. But not mostly in the manner people would generally do.

After a long time, as I have said earlier as well, I have been finding time with myself. To feel the best of your own life. Recently on one of my fellow blogger's post I had commented on how you can always enjoy with your own self without being bored. Bibhash thanks to you for writing that one on your blog. I could feel the need to be with myself. It had been really long time that I could find sometime. I visited my own blog reading different posts. Having read most of my favorites, I was taken back to my old days where I lived a life which can never be recreated. Something I left behind is never going to be the same ever again. It really feels great! Nostalgic is what you can say but it was a coincidence that I happened to do it on a day which I too hadn't realized until I had a look at the time stamp. I was reading one of the posts which is a fiction. I consider it to be closest to my heart. May be it had some resemblance to what I went through when I left Kolkata. Though there wasn't anything similar to the love story but yes, the theme that Apurv was leaving his place for his career was quite similar to my leaving Kolkata when I had options to stay back and compromise with my career. Though nothing great occurred as anticipated or I would prefer saying it was a wrong notion that everyone had regarding Pune center. But of course, my leaving Kolkata was quite similar to Apurv's circumstances. And the best part of coincidence is that I had written this fiction exactly two years back on 20^th April 2010.

Well, I would surely like to insert the link of my post which is closest to my heart. I expect a comment on the story, of course only if you like it. :)))

http://intangibleabhisek.blogspot.com/2008/04/take-care.html

Take care and sleep well!

Reaching out

How about making this post more interactive? Its just an attempt to connect to those people who have been following my blog for a while. Been a long time that I have been into this world of blogging. But perhaps this is for the first time that I am trying to connect to you all by having your take on it.

Now that I have been in and out of this world quite many times, the main reason that for this is I'm not quite sure about what would intrest you as a reader. Over these period of more than 3 years I have come across change in my style of writing, the stuff I have concentrated on and the agenda of every post. There have been suggestions to reduce the length of my posts and I have been trying hard to acheive that. So there have been quite many factors which have directed my posts. Sometimes, its just my mental state and circumstances in my life which have made me post my writing over here. But there is this missing link. That's you no doubt.

So, guys all I need to know is what is it that you think I should post more upon? Which category should I connect more through my posts. You can pick them from my labels cloud for your convinience. There have been posts on fiction, non fiction, peotry, philosophy, politics, sports, reviews, my fav topics related to relationships. So request you to come up with your thoughts and make a contribution to what you like reading and for what you land up here.

Yeah, I do sound a bit more democratic than my previous ways of posts which were comepletely autocratic. So guys hurry up and give me something to write about.

Eagerly waiting for your valuable response on this. Thanks

Commitment in LOVE

Okay, guys! I know not many readers follow this blog, but the very fact that I love blogging and getting down to write what goes through my mind here I am with my new blog. My last blog had come long back in July which is more than 6 months from now. I suddenly realised that the total number of posts for the year 2009 has come down to a single digit. A statistical data would reflect that it has been an exponentially decreasing graph perfect for research like the falling sensex. You can surely have a complete analysis on different trends of posts and all that mathematical calculations. So, if it continues it might soon touch the zero point. Thus an attempt to get back to this world of mine. Blogging has always been an amazing thing to do. But of course writing anything and everything doesn't make any sense. So I had been off for this quite an obvious reason.

Moving on with the fresh beginning, I would wish everyone a very Happy Valentine Day to all. Lets celebrate this day just for the sake of love but not for any form of it. It should always be taken as a reason to celebrate love. Do we really give ourselves the time and chance to let our near and dear ones know that how much we love them? May be you could use this as a medium to let others know how you feel about them. It's of course the right day to do so! Hence, do find out some time, and luckily today being a Sunday, you can't even complain for not having time! Go ahead if you haven't done it yet.

Of all the things that occurred to me during these more than six months duration I would surely consider few things which changed the way I perceive things around me. One of them being the word Love. I have always believed that it's love that makes everything worthwhile. No doubt about it though. But when we come to the point of commitment in love, I believe I had failed to understand what it was. It isn't about just the literal meaning of it. Quite a controversial thing to say and I know many may come up with different versions of the word 'commitment in love'. As I now understand this in a clearer way, I can say that it is about accepting one and everything about the person and his/her world. It's not the only person you commit to. You need to commit to the whole world around her (from now her would mean both he/she). Accepting doesn't always mean that you need to compromise. If you compromise then its not commitment in love. Its just an adjustment, and life doesn't run by making adjustments. You need to feel it internally. You need to prioritise how strongly you feel to take everything along with her in your life. Just having her to spend your life with isn't sufficient. It's also about how she takes your world with you. There needs to be a reciprocation of this event. I may love someone from the depth of my heart, but what I too need to know is how much I love her family and friends. I need to get everything right by knowing the same about her as well. That's when you say it as perfect couple bonded in love. I have had experiences of people around who keep continuing in a relationship just because they love each other or should I say they feel they love each other. But on the contrary I would often rather more than often find having differences, fights and arguments over the silliest of the things in the world. That is due to the fact that you have not yet started loving the world around her. As simple as that. And however you try, you end up some day walking in your own direction when the situation or should I say burden is too heavy to be over headed. Thus commitment and love are two different things which need to be looked at very carefully. I would define ‘commitment in love’ as companionship. How well you can give company to the one you love till the eternal without making any adjustments or compromises is the key to success of it.

AM I Being Myself ?

As I was walking down the road to my office building which sits close to my flat, I don’t know how and why I felt like writing things up which came shooting into my mind. It was after such a long time that I felt like writing. There was a gust of thoughts which had not come to me since long. Thoughts which were regarding me and I was thinking all this being a third person to me. The way I have been over these two years after leaving college. How I have changed as person personally, physically (may be not much as per others but I have: P), professionally and most importantly emotionally.

So what are the changes that I am talking about? A few observations recently on me put forward this thought that yes I have changed a lot over the period of time. But please don't ask me if they are for good or bad. Whatever it may be it is me. They say "the only constant in life is Change..." and how true has that proved to me! I had always imagined Abhisek i.e. Me as a person who would hardly come across changes when it comes to accepting it. I am resistant to changes may it be change of bed or room or seat at office or food point or anything you may say. And with this I remember I have changed my number! Gosh that is what I had never intended to do. Well, logically speaking I have not changed my number. My previous number still exists and I would continue to use that once I get my cell phone repaired. But for the time being that number is switched off and I have been using a new number which is not with anyone else except for few who have been in regular touch. But, after all I have changed my number and it’s been more than three weeks now. I have not given it to any of my friends from college or from yesteryears. Not that I don’t care about them or don’t want to be in touch with them. But I have not made an effort to circulate my number which I would have done by mails, orkut and sms to all of them few years back the day I would have got a new number. But why is it that I have not done it this time? I too don't know!

It was amusing to get a call from Parul yesterday yelling at me on my new number. She had been trying my old number since three four days but hadn’t got it connected. And finally somehow she got my new number from someone, I still don’t know who. But frankly speaking it was actually surprising to know this. I never expected her to try my number until my bday :P. Even that seems to be a bit over expectation but I never expected her call. Why I mentioned about her is that, this thing made me realize that I have not given my number to anyone and that’s how change has come within me. I have stopped listening to music! Whow !! That is impossible. But yes I have. I have stopped orkutting for hours now! I have learnt how to spend time alone at home; I have learnt how to enjoy a good book. Never thought in my wildest dream that I would complete reading books over night. Have been reading different books and the latest is of a different genre altogether. Its "Games Indians Play - Why We Are the Way We Are by V Raghunathan". That a great book and a must read for everyone who is an Indian.

Well, lets move on to something else. I told you, today I was in a writing mood after a long time. Visited few of my old friends' profile early in the morning. It was Adwitee and Sumandeep's profile that caught my eyes. Well yeah, they have been good friends from college but we weren't that great friends either. It was just by chance that I landed up in their profiles and many good memories came running to my mind. And this was the point where thoughts shoot up from all directions. Even if I had got a notepad to jot down I would have failed to do so. Anyways.. Having visited Adwitee's profile specifically took me back to my first year at college. I had roll no 1 and hers was 5. So we were teammates through out the 4 years in labs, vivas anything done in groups on the basis of roll numbers. So, she was a very good friend. The best days were when Sumandeep, Biswajit, Ajay, Dibya, Adwitee and I were involved with our attempt to create and publish a year book for our IT 2007 passing out batch. Those were the times when I realized how good these people were. Among the people I admire from the core of my heart, Sumandeep, Biswajit, Ajay, Adwitee and Dibya are the names that I must not forget to mention. The year book is still with me but I realized today that I have not opened the same since a year or so. The book which we had created for this purpose only to have a remembrance of those beautiful days is still lying in some corner of my cupboard. And it hasn’t caught my attention since long. That’s why I feel I have changed. Recently a very good friend of mine, Himanshu, had sent me a sms regarding the completion of 2nd anniversary of our engineering. Now when I had got the sms I felt nice to remember that day i.e. 27th April 2007. But somehow I didn’t feel anything different. No one to share it with who would understand its importance. There are hundreds of such dates which come across people. So how does it matter to others? It did to me on the first anniversary. But not on the second. And moreover, I too have moved on. I had always thought that I would miss my friends, college and those days. And I was not wrong. But I was wrong when I used to think that life would be nothing without them. Now I am living a life without all that. Nothing is similar to what used to be two years back. Prachi has been there through out but our relationship has also changed and this I can say is for the best. But we are no more like we used to be during college days. But somehow I feel I have been ditched by time. I didn’t have the guts to look back and take a turn. I did turn initially but like others who had preferred to move on I too did chose that path. And here I am writing this about my college days after 2 years of leaving. Now that’s what I had never expected. I had reached Kolkata and from there to Pune. But in all that I never wrote anything about college on my blog. It all was regarding my new life, new friends and new environment. I am guilty in this regard. I could have made a better effort to be what I wanted to be. There have been times when people have complained me for not being in touch. Now that’s harsh. When did I stop them from being in touch with me if I was not? Did I deny them not to be in touch with me? Well, I would prefer leaving this topic here. But somehow I feel I could have been more generous and not changed.

Well, as I said, lot has changed over these two years. Pallavi got married on 28th April! And that’s news!! I still can't believe that I wasn’t a part of her wedding just because I am hired by a god damn company which pays me some 20K odd bucks. This is what I had never thought. I always feared this life and life has proved itself over and over again. How true my parents have been in such matters. I remember when in college my mom saying me "beta, yeh sab dost wagera jo bhi hain...sahi hai lekin jab tum log alag jagah pe rahoge..no one would be around...n u wouldn’t even get time to meet them for years together...what will only matter is your life and your family"... and then I used to be so irrational in my thoughts... I never agreed to what mom used to say. But today as I see myself I somewhat agree to her words though not completely. May be I need to reach her age to agree completely. I had been to b'lore to meet pallu before she got married. and it was really great to be with her and himanshu. there were days when we all used to be with each others for more than one third of a day... but now we met after more than one and half years...that too just because pallu was getting married and she would be leaving India after that. And look as I write this she has already got married and has left India. So that’s how life has been changing. So how come I won’t change?

Well, all these thoughts have come across several times in bits and pieces. But I never had the will to pen them down. I had lost the zeal to write as I used to have few months back. I feel really weird now remembering that two days back I had updated my orkut profile and in that for the passion section I had written "none for the time being". How have things changed me really makes me wonder if I am the same person as I was. AM I being myself?

Inspiration

I have been blogging since long. Didnt realise that it has almost been two years from now that i posted my first blog. Believe me its not easy to continue doing this unless there is some inspiration to do so. To start it was a big task for me.
How did it start then ?
Well, i had plans for getting into this world long before i posted my first blog out here. Had even created my own account. I remember, then blogger was a different identity altogether with nothing like google behind it. Somehow one day when i was just logging in i found that it has been taken up by google. Became easier for me to transform my account to gmail a/c and thus more easier for me to forget about blogging as life used to be on a different track with other priorities. Never did i realise why should i go for this world.I was curious to give it a try since i had heard a lot about it then.Life was orkut much more than anything else though on the later stages orkut still continued to play a good role in my life. But thanks to orkut that i got my inspiration(in person) who could explain to me my real priorities and the true potential that this world of blogging has. I agree that blogging practices are of different types. And my expectations initially was to address a huge audience with something really innovative and different. Somewhere i was waiting for something different to do. Make it really Big! And thus i kept on waiting and waiting than going for it.
But things changed so rapidly that i never realised that I was into my first blog after waiting for over a year. Thanks to the person who inspired me about blogging. It was she who actually had been blogging since long. After going through her blogs i realised that i didnt need a big theme to go for it. it can be kept simply simple. Interacting with her about everything in life gave me a complete different idea about how i looked at things. Though my writing skills can never match her type but what i realised was that i need not be a big writer or a scholar to start it. What i needed was to be truthful to myself in carrying it further. Many small things inspired me from her blog which i had never realised ever in my life. Every aspect of her writing was different from the other.
Thats how i started my journey which i was not sure of where was i heading to. how was it going to help me. Only thing that i had, was to write my heart out. lots of encouragement and support with every post from her actually kept on pushing me. As the journey had stated it was just a process which i needed to continue. I had started loving what i was doing and slowly i realised that it was what i had been looking for. Posting frequently became a habbit as she would keep waiting for my next post. This always gave a reason to go ahead. Things started to roll on and on. In the process, i got to know a different person. It was none other than me! And thanks to her for making me realise what i was.It was her endeavour in giving me very truthful feedback which helped me get better and better. She had always been a perfect critic of my posts.
For over a period of six months i kept on rolling the ball which i loved to play with. And during that she hadn't stopped writing either. Her blogs and few more blogs suggested by her helped me know what it exactly meant to write it on the blog rather than a diary. I know what i write generally does not have much of interest to people who are not connected to me. But it hardly matters. I don't write it out here for someone to read. I write it for the reason that i wanna write it. Just putting my perception to everything that goes around me. Tellig you all this has definitely has a reason. Reason to thank the person who helped me come so far. Giving all the credits to my source of inspiration. Hadn't she come into my life i would have never ever started this beautiful journey. Hadn't she figured out me and understood me as a person i would not have been writing this today. Its all credit to her that I stand here. She came into my life as if it was only for this purpose.To make me start this journey and continue it futher. Today as i sit down to think about all that occurred, she isn't there in touch with me for more than one and half year now. She has even stopped blogging. I can't accept that she has left writing. Reasons for these changes are unknown and i have no scope to find it out either. But i am not convinced that she has left writing. She could never do so. Just like air that we breath, writing was life for her. She could live without air but without writing i suppose it would raise quite a few eyebros who knew her deep down.
For her there may be many reasons for not coming into the public with her writings. But for me i can't even find a single reason for which she has not kept it going. With all my curiousity i still wait for her blog to get updated someday. I hope she still goes through my blogs and finds this today. Its impossible that she wouldn't be going through this because i know how she used to read my posts as soon as they got posted. Sometimes this really bothers me. Restlessness creeps in with many different fears raising their heads like demons within me. Fears which i can't explain. But there has to be something wrong with her.
Even after contacting her after such long period i couldn't make out the reason. Just like a mystery it has denied to unfold itself. Unfold the real truth which i am unaware of. Awaiting time to give me a chance someday to know the reality. But supposedly those of my fears shouldn't come out true. Praying God for everything to be fine.
Finally, I would thank her once again for making me get into this journey. If you are reading this Neha, then I would appeal to you to get back to blogging. Come back to this world and if you don't intend to then at least let me know the truth. Now its not under my senses anymore. And please give a second thought to your decision. Do get back.
Don't have any other means to convey my thanks other than this. Hope you read it someday.

Life so Far

Don't know where to start from.....life has finally started showing its true color...

how can i live so comfortable life ????

can i ever do so ?

do i have the right to enjoy dat life ???


thoughts and emotions sometimes are speechless..and today same is the case here...no words to express what it is.
Seems like its been ages I have spoken. Dat i have had a night's good sleep. why is it so always with me ?
why does life can't give me a chance to live ?

why why why ????

As i move on and look back to my last post i find nothing the same. everything has changed and taken a drastic turn.

who is it ?