~~ Committed ~~

This was originally written on Nov 29 2015 in an attempt to start a blog marathon (which ran its own course during those 31 days of December). I will be syncing those posts per day here starting today :)

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Okay, So I have been wanting to do a blog-marathon since ages! Most of you may know what it is all about and few of you already do it by not naming it as an exercise or a marathon! But for those who don’t, like me, it’s about writing every single day without a break!! There are not many rules, in fact, other than writing daily, there aren’t any other rules, unless of course, we ourselves want to set some more. I have seen many bloggers run blogathons on themes where the posts are centered on those specific themes, but well, I am not going there at least for now and trying to keep it simple! So, I have set the following rules for myself –

• This blogathon is going to last a month – so basically I will write every single day in December 2015
• Write anything – but no one word, one/two/three liners or filler type posts allowed. Basically no just-because-I-have-a-deadline-to-post kind of posts!
• Photo posts, 55F posts, movie reviews, book reviews, recipes, rants & such – Allowed

So why am I doing it? Well, to be frank, I had attempted to start a week-athon in 2014 here, wherein, knowing I will not be able to do it on a daily basis,  I set a realistic goal of writing at least once per week!! But well, that slipped down to a month-athon and then I got pulled away by a myriad things – Marathon just lost its meaning and became a long lost dream!! So to make up for the lost goal, instead of a week-athon, I am aiming at every-single-day post this time! Second of all, I also want to end this year with a positive feeling of accomplishment, by achieving a milestone in my blogging journey – a century of posts   ! Lastly, it’s a huge responsibility, a great fun-but-learning process & probably a tiny step towards progressing in a disciplined way at what I love to do the most – read and write!!

I know, it’s not going to be easy! I know, it’s going to a long 31-day-journey with work commitments, personal commitments, busy weekends, holidays and planned vacations!! There are just a lot of things to be taken care of without any impact! I know – I am so so so not ready! I know, it will require a lot of discipline, great planning and of course a lot of thought-provoking-thinking  to get me out of the writer’s block every single day! Yet, I still am very much excited for the next month to begin!

There are going to be those times when I would feel I want to write about a hundred odd things, but my mind will go blank when I open a notepad or a word document! I don’t really have any plans on how to keep my ‘commitment on’ during those times, but I strongly intend to!! Hoping you all will cheer me on :)!!!

It’s definitely not a meme but more of a personal goal, but then, I would be glad, if any of you want to take this up too(of course with no impacts to your work or personal commitments), if not now, maybe in a later point of time :):) If you do, just be sweet and don’t forget to mention this post in your blogathon journey  

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~~ And a tiny step forward ~~

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy – I cannot believe that I have done it! A dream that has been nothing but a dream for soo soo soo long has finally found its shape in the form of a collection of short stories and is published here! (Amazon.in link, change it to .com, .uk based on your location)

The feeling of being published is euphoric and the support that the short book has received till now is overwhelming!  Blogging here in this forum and your encouragement in the form of comments have led me to this post today and I am eternally thankful to each one of you who visit this page and motivate me to write more!

I would love to hear your reading experience with the book and so, please do buy, read and do not forget to rate and review   !!  Looking forward for more encouragement and motivation  

Here’s a blurb on the book to help you decide –

“Life is a journey of so many small moments. Moments of happiness, of laughter, of love, of care, of warmth, of regret, of pain, of hurt. Often times in these moments, we speak in haste, damaging a relationship beyond repair and repent afterwards. Quite often, when situation demands that we speak up, we merely crawl back to silence, withdraw into a shell propelled by some unknown fear, but realize later, that, all the other person needed was a comforting “hmmm” or a simple “I’ll be there for you” gesture as some sort of understanding or more often than not, an acknowledgement even to their existence. There are many many many such moments in each of our lives which could have been probably different, if only, if but only, a small step was either taken to remain silent or speak out the golden words, depending on what the situation had demanded then! There is no rule book, definitely none on what fails or what works when it comes to when to choose silence over words. If there were, there would be no heart breaks at all.

This book is a collection of such short stories which muses on how communication and more often even miscommunication affects our lives in so many different ways. Communication, be it in any form, a gesture, a smile, a hug, a simple message, a letter, a phone call, an email or just an idle conversation is very important for any relationship to survive, to thrive, to move forward. It is also important to avoid any miscommunication and presumptions which most of the times adversely affects one’s life. At times, silence is indeed golden and it helps that the words are not spoken. But at times, it helps much more when the words are spoken clear and loud! “