Writefully Yours: 2016

December 31, 2016

#YearInReview: 2016 - The Year of Marriage, Re-branding, Travel and Books!

Dear 2016,

In a few hours, you will be History. Strange are the ways of Nature, that the Future and the Past lie on either side of that tiny fickle Present. One would think that if the concept of Time was so critical, Mother Nature would let us breathe a little and embrace a moment, before moving on to the next one!

Alas, that's not quite Her way.

But you, dear 2016, still managed to get a whole extra day in your name. It's no mean feat to get a phenomenon, that happens once in over 2 million moments! Kudos, to you mate!

Please, pardon my myopia, but I can look at your greatness only through your impact on my life. This is a limitation of "being a human" where we tend to gauge the greatness of time by its consequences on our meager selves.

On me, you had 4 major consequences:

1. Getting Married

No matter how you get judged by historians, you would remain a memorable year for me - the one that got hitched to my destiny!

The single greatest highlight that you gave me, my dear 2016, is this lovely lady - how did you pull that off! Seriously, how! 💓

Happy New Year, New Year, YearInReview, #Blog, #Blogging, #writefullyyours, #Amwriting, writingtips, #vlog, #Photoblog, Marriage, Wife, #travel, Faith, Family, #Love,

Marriage has been a blessing and feels like a gift that would keep on giving! I had many moments this year when the simplest of things left me awed, just because of the person next to me. The wedding itself was an unforgettable extravaganza, not just for us, but for everyone who attended it. It was a dream of our parents that was very beautifully and meticulously executed. It was also captured with equal diligence by the lens. I compiled that experience in my most famous piece this year - here!

2. Rebranding of Blog

Well, 2016, while you brought me within dangerous reach of the big 3-Oh!, my 7+ year blog reset its counter to 1 ! It was time for "Me and My Darkside" to make way for "Writefully Yours" ! The name and look change seemed inevitable to encompass the wider range of topics that I wanted to write on.

And I did!

2016, you saw my first #photoblog, my first #vlog, 3 posts on #DonaldTrump and a few #Instablogger posts specific for #microfiction.

The blog also got some cool widgets, share tools and finally, a subscription option.

Not bad for a part-timer, eh!

3. Travel

As a newly wed couple, we got really lucky to have got many opportunities to travel in one year.

You, my dear 2016, did something that your past 7 predecessors couldn't! You got my parents to the United States!

With them being here for a limited time, coupled with our wanderlust, we covered 7 states and over 10 destinations, in about 3 months. That's almost one destination every weekend! Now, that's an American Summer!

In My Favorite City of Chicago, IL !

4. Books

Of all the accomplishments, this is the one I am most proud of! I developed a reading routine during my office lunch hour and was therefore, able to read almost every working day. My schedule and routine, coupled with a new marriage and a few other hobbies, do not leave me enough time for reading at home. Hence, this worked perfectly. I read everyday for 20-40 minutes and found it incredibly relaxing and satisfactory.

I cannot recommend enough to read Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. My abilities as a writer are not enough to describe the experience that was reading this magnificent book. For politics buffs like I, The Wilderness by McCay Coppins is a good read too.

I finished the classic Jonathan Livingston Seagull on my last working day of 2016, hence bringing a perfect closure to a good habit. I already have books lined up for 2017!

Thank You, 2016

It's always fun to sit down in December and recount 12 months of a year. Barring some irreparable loss or a family tragedy, everything, quite funnily, seems in control, in these days. There is something in our attitude, as humans, that makes us stronger with every passing year and for that reason, come every January, the World seems more hospitable and within reach.

For renewing my belief in myself, yet again, Thank You, 2016. How 2017 would go, would depend a lot on the lessons that you have taught and the tests that you put us through.

To Faith and Belief, Cheers!

I Dream... #Microblog #Blogchatter

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November 26, 2016

#26/11 - This Time I will Remember

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Image: oneindia.com

26/11 was personal for me. No, I wasn't personally struck by tragedy on that day, but it did blur the lines of whose tragedy is mine and whose is not. I had never been to Mumbai, still haven't, and didn't know CST or Leopold Cafe or the Taj Hotel. Quite embarrassingly, even at the age of 21, I was not aware of any Jewish population in India either. Yet, those images and those people seemed, known. No other terrorist act has had that impact on public life. In 8 years since 26/11, only #UriAttack probably comes close to have created such waves of public emotions. The terrorist infiltration had come to our backyard and this no longer seemed like a war, just for the army.

The reason I am focusing on the aftermath, rather than the attack itself, is because an attack does not fundamentally change the course of a nation; The reactions to the attack do!
How we react and rise or fall, determines the destiny of a country.

And that is where 26/11 feels personal.

Every year, this day brings a ripple of introspection. I always knew we would survive a terrorist attack; The nation would not lose itself to separatists; The economy wouldn't crash and people would not lose their belief in being safe. That is what being Indian entails. But I remember 26/11, for this was the day, when India evolved. We united against the terror, never to back down. The public learnt to accept that, for all the ugliness in our polity, the governments and the army still know how to protect us, the best. India could have stumbled and crumbled under the weight of vengeance but we chose to act how a Republic should, and for that, I am immensely proud.

The words of Prasoon Joshi, a remarkable poet and noted Bollywood lyricist, sum up the emotions of that fateful day with haunting beauty. These words are the reason why I feel so personally connected with 26/11.

Hope they will resonate with you too -