%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |
I have a few things to say and I am gonna say them here ... |
|
This book has been specifically created to enter thoughts, opinions and at times, the mad ramblings of my insane mind. Musings of a more serious nature may also find their place here, as also angst, temper-tantrums, spiritual mentions and so on and so forth. As a rule, I am going to keep intensely personal items and thoughts outside the realm of this journal, but you never know ... WELCOME TO THE INNER DOMAIN OF MY CRAZY MIND! |
| Continuing what I left unfinished in the previous blog. Hannah is the most pretty, most loving and loveable and also the most crazy daughter of all! Hannah means "Compassionate". She is that, I can tell you with confidence and pride. As she grew, she bloomed under the "tutoring" of her elder sister, and today, she does and behaves a lot like the elder one. However, and this is a fact, she is unique in many respects. She has a better rote memory, likes to read story books, writes her own short stories and is very good at art and colouring too. You better believe it, dear reader! At about the age of nine, we shot a photo portfolio of her and went about submitting it to ad agencies and film agencies. She was so enthusiastic about going for audition, she would drag me all over Mumbai for this audition and that one! I was at my wit's end, but did not let up. Finally, she got her chances and participated in two or three advertisement campaigns. After this, something went wrong and she stopped getting any offers. In audition after audition, she gave her best, but her best wasn't good enough for the directors, who short-listed her but did not select her in the final analysis. Finally, she started getting frustrated. In mid-January, she told me that she was fed up with modelling and auditioning and would like to skip any such thing when it came up the next time. I had to respect her wishes, so I started saying "NO" to audition calls. We spent nearly 17K Indian rupees behind her modelling, but failed to recover even 5K out of that. However, I think this insight into the ad and movie world has definitely been a lesson to all of us! |
| In my last blog, I told you about my wife and a bit about Inas, my elder daughter. Today, with Allah's grace, she is fourteen, looks beautiful, is clever and a fun person to be around with. Addicted to Hindi film songs and music, she is a typical Indian girl who repsects elders, will not shout at her parents and loves her younger sister Hannah. But we are getting ahead of the story ... let me backtrack a little. As the years passed and Inas began to grow up, Nish and I began to debate about whether or not to have a second baby. The reasons were twofold: Nish did not fancy going through the pregnancy pains and effort again and two, it would be a dreadful financial drain on our budgets to raise two children in the best possible way. Ultimately, my wisdom and bravado won out and we decided to go ahead and plan the second child. Nish wanted the baby to arrive in May, when the schools have summer holidays in India, so that we could devote our time and energy to both the kids properly. We also thought that that would reduce our birthday celebration expenses as there would be no school celebrations. In retrospect, this was a very bad way of thinking, and even now, Hannah is sore about the fact that while Inas gets to celebrate her birthday at school, she cannot, because her friends are out of town on a holiday! The problem with Hannah's delivery became apparent to us when we went for Nish's ultrasound exam at three months; we discovered that there was a central placenta previa - a condition where the placenta is situated centrally in the womb and obstructs the birth canal and the delivery process. Now, it is also true that many a times, such a placental anomaly rights itself spontaneously, but in our case, the problem persisted till full term, so that our obstetrician finally recommended a Cesarean delivery. Hmm ... you must be wondering why I am telling you all this. Actually, I cannot stop myself as the fingers are typing away as if they are possessed! I was certainly worried that there would be an operative delivery. I was worried for the unborn baby as well as the mother. What got me (and my wife) through all this was the support and prayers of my parents, the confidence of my wife's obstetrician and the brave attitude of Nishrin herself. Hannah was delivered by C-section on the morning of 14th May 1994. She too was a thin baby, just like Inas, and vivacious from day 1 - again, just like her elder sister! From the time she was about six months old, we, that is Nish and I, observed that she was as different from Inas as chalk is from cheese! Different feeding techniques, different cry, different sleeping habits, different skin complexion and hair structure - I mean, the differences were so striking, others who came to see her often ended up cracking jokes at our expense. What was really different though was her temperament. She was not as jovial as Inas. She was more calculating, more reserved and more manipulative. More on this later ... |
| Let me begin by saying that this will be my penultimate attempt to complete the commitment of 10K for sherrasq's NoWriMo - the commitment level. I am thoroughly pooped by now. I have written over 8000 words in the last one and a half or two days and I am quickly running out of things to write on! Hence, this entry: It is always easiest to write about one's own loved ones, and I hope to write quickly and effortlessly as I serenade my memories and thoughts about my better half, Nishrin, my elder daughter Inas and my younger one Hannah ... all jewels on my crown! I married Nishrin, a Sikh girl, then called Kamaljeet, in January 1990. It was a typical doctor-nurse romance. While I was working in a large public hospital as a resident-in-training for Pediatrics, she was a full-time nurse there. How we met and how the romanceactually bloomed is a story that I will tell some other time, but let me say that we never intended to marry: actually, we had met as stqand-in escorts for our friends - my friend V and her friend M, who wanted to go out on a date. As they were a bit shy, we - that is, Kamal and I offered to chaperone them on their first date. Queerly, neither V nor M turned up at the desired date, and K and I decided to take a walk and ended up having tea and snacks at a local restaurant. Back in 1990, people in India did not "make out" when they went on their first dates. Pre-marital sex was something no normal people did ... (albeit things have changed now and almost 25-30% of daters do indulge in some form of sex ... though they may not all go all the way, there is kissing, necking, groping and perhaps other forms of sex such as oral or fellatio etc.) So. whether you believe it or not, we did not even touch each other except for the handshake that we started and ended the meeting with. However, we decided to meet again a week later. And that is how we began to meet, periodically, over the next two and a half years ... but the relationship remained platonic and no physical contact of any sexual nature was made. Sometime during the second year, we began to go to public places, and on one or two occasions, we met up with individuals who went and told my younger brothers and on one occasion, an aunt of mine that they had seen me with a girl. Imagine the time, and imagine the fact that I was generally perceived as a studious, straight sort of chap beyond the yearning for having girl-friends and such! In fact, one of my brothers did not even believe the whistle-blowers! Back to the story: we decided to go on a one day picnic to a garden-cum-amusement park on one Sunday in 1985: that day, I finally asked Kamal if I could kiss her. She said yes! I kissed her for the first time then, under the shade of a banyan tree and the lingering kiss went on for a long time. However, we were in a public park and our personal morality would not permit us to take this farther than that, so we cut it off then. By evening, Kamal and I began to discuss a possible marriage. In our country, inter-religious marriages are frowned upon and not given a free social sanction. On top of it was the fact that Kamal came from a very traditional Sikh family. Sikhs will generally not mingle with Muslims, as Sikh spiritual leaders have been murdered in the past in well-organised pogroms by Mughal kings in the 17th Century A.D. Thus, Sikhs, as a rule, do not like Muslims. And here I was, a Muslim asking for a Sikh's hand in marriage. My parents also were a bit hesitant initially, but they went along after a bit of persuasion from some of my progressive relatives. They, however, insisted that Kamal convert to Islam and take a Muslim name. Thus, she became Nishrin instead of Kamaljeet. Her parents rejected her and immediately left Mumbai to settle in their home town in Punjab, a place over 800 miles away, to escape social ostracism. Our marriage was solemnised in front of a court appointed person on the 10th of January 1990. Ten days later, Nishrin and I became man and wife through a religious Nikaah ... marriage by Muslim rites. An uncle of mine stood in as Nishrin's father and agreed to give her hand to me in front of a Kazi (judge). We took a small apartment on hire and shifted there after our honeymoon was over. Life was hectic and quite strained as we did all the house-work ourselves. Nish went for her nursing duties at different times each day ... while in her absence, I did whatever house work I could. Conversely, when I went to my clinic, she did whatever she could. WE loved, we fought, we cried and we laughed. Within six months of our marriage, we fought so badly that our marriage came to within a few inches of breaking up. However, life went on, and in March 1991, we were blessed with a 5 lbs. baby, who was later named "Inas" (sympathetic). She was our bundle of joy and she was so lively that she brought happiness to every single soul who came in contact with her. Born a small baby, she remained slim throughout her infancy, but she developed her milestones so well! By five months, she was crawling and by ten, walking with support! By nature, she was hyperactive, though not pathologically so. She was inquisitive, bold, daring, smart, and clever too! She is all that even today! Her delivery was a normal one, and we were back to our household routine within a month of her arrival. We appointed a baby-sitter who stayed in the same building as us. She was about 55, with grown-up children and financially in need of some help. We were only too happy to appoint her as she was a kind, considerate and loving person who looked after Inas as she would look after her own children. In the meantime, both Nishrin and I progressed in life and in December 1992, when Inas was just 9 months old, we shifted to a slightly bigger apartment with a better view and many other good features. Nishrin feels that all this was because of Inas's arrival in our home. I am not too sure about that, as that acknowledges magic and I do not believe in magic! More in the next blog ... |
| Dear Diary, I have crossed the halfway mark just now in my race to finish 10000 words by the midnight of 31st March 2005, EST. I just created a rather nicely worded 1000 word entry in my journal "Some Writing and Writing Work in progress". The entry is based on the real incident of a family of three that jumped out of their high rise apartment building in an apparent suicide pact. You must read this! Look under the said item which is in my "My Books" folder. As I think about the incident that has shaken Mumbai for the second time in six years, I am prompted to think how good or bad I have treated my own parents, from whom I separated at the time of marriage. I do continue to provide moral and financial assistance to them as well as medical assistance - which is also a significant one, since I am a doctor too. However, the fast pace and lack of time that have continuously plagued me now make my visits to my parents a bit infrequent. Even when I do go, I stay for a very short spell and I am out of there as soon as the work for which I went there is over. I do feel guilty. After all, both of them are over 71 now and need more from me and my two younger brothers. That's it for now. I am feeling a bit sleepy, so I must close now. |
| I am really trying hard to reach my goal of 10K, but don't know if I will make it. To understand what I am doing, go to my previous blog and see why I am committed to this target and by when I have to accomplish it! Argh! Why did I give myself such less time to do this commitment work? Actually, things went out of control when, instead of finishing the novel of 50K by the 27th of March, I only finished it one and a half days later, that is by the night of 28th of March, my time in India. Even so, I will try till the last day, last hour and last minute to fill up this blog and the few that follow, so that my target is reached. Wish me luck! T |
| Hi dear reader! Prepare to face one of the longest blogs in history of weblogging! I am faced with the unusual prospect of writing nearly 7000 words in two days and this blog is an attempt by me to do just that! You have the right to not read it and I won't blame you. As you read on, you will realise, my dear reader, that more than half of this log is inconsequential and you are not going to learn anything about life from it. However, the remaining half does hold promise. Perhaps, if nothing else, you will at least discover the secret of how to be verbose and say nothing of importance. Seven thousand words, you ask. Why in heavens should I want to write that many words in just two days? Am I crazy or what, you might well wonder. You would be not far off the mark if you applied the "loon" label to me. I am the ONE who committed himself to writing Ten Thousand Words to SherrasQ, one of this site's very endearing Preferred author, who is currently running the "March NoWriMo". "No Wri Mo" is short for "Novel Writing Month". It is supposed to be similar to the National NoWriMo that is run in the month of November in the United States of America ... but here, there are no cash gifts, just merit badges, loads of encouragement and fun, and an oblique sort of recognition that one can do it! I mean, look at this: In the last year's July NoWriMo, run by the same kind individual, I wrote "The Great Downpour", an adventure story set in a Wildlife Reserve in Central India, to wit, Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India. Can you believe it if I tell you that I did a lot of research in the days leading up to the start of the NoWriMo - and finally churned out something that I haven't read or edited till date! As a medical person, some of my writing contains a lot of clinical stuff that others have to research on, but otoh, (Oh, sorry!) ... on the other hand, I have to research EVERYTHING else but medical stuff. And, actually, I do have to do research at times EVEN on the medical stuff, so that's that, I think. If you read my "With a Cherry on the Top" which is within the folder "Awarded Items" in my Port, you will see what I mean when I say that even medical stuff is not always easy for me. I decided to continue my work on a novel that had been lying idle in my port since the past two years. It is called "The Price of Friendship" and it is within the folder "My Books" in the main port ... which is where this Blog too resides on Writing.com. This novel is based on the interrelationships between the majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities in a small town in central India - a town I have called "Afzalpur" - a town that has been peaceful through the past ten or fifteen years - years that have seen a lot of Hindu-Muslim fighting and killing all over the land. However, this fictitious city had so far been more or less unaffected - but all that is about to change now, with the story's focus on this fragile peace. The setting is the house of a middle-class small, motherless, loving Muslim family comprising a father and his two teenaged children who are a 14 year old boy called Zaheer and a 13 year old girl called Munira. The third angle is provided by Laila, the best friend of Munira and the "object of admiration" of Zaheer. My story begins on a typical school day after Munira has returned home. It winds its way through the way in which Muslim families live, goes past slippery love tales, encounters misunderstandings, mystery, retribution and so on, till one fine day, the problems reach a head and there is high drama all around. The police, the executive and the judiciary are all involved. Deaths do occur (I am not going to tell you who ... it will be a nice exercise for you all), as do break-ups of friendships, double-crossing and what not. I have taken pains to use easy-to-read language in the novel as well as in this blog so that everyone can enjoy the blog as well as my novel. In fact, at present, I have not updated my Novel on the net. It lies with me as a MS Word Document in the hard disk of my drive ... Whatever I have written as a novelist, I have at least checked once for grammatical errors, syntax mistakes and problems of memory causing serious narrative mistakes. In spite of this, I am sure that there must be at least a hundred small to intermediate errors scattered all over the document. Why is it not on wdc? It is too tedious to transfer from the HD to the web-site. Also, it contains over 28 chapters, so that its size is quite large. Compared to the last attempt to write a novel (in July 2005), this is a much better effort. The story is coherent, reasonably interesting and funny, but serious at times too. I have described a lovely game in the story: Munira loves to play it when she is alone. It is something that involves peanut pods which are roasted and sold all over the country in open carts by hawkers. You can purchase these peanuts at real down to earth prices and costs - even take large quantities - then you sit down and open a pod, remove the peanuts nestling inside, hold them one by one between the thumb and the first finger and throw them up in a small arc so that they come down directly in our mouths. This is a really enjoyable pass-time and I urge bloggers and readers to definitely try it once - that is, if they can get their hands to nice, roasted peanuts! From this very innocent activity, Munira and her father are introduced, as is their home and their simple and lovely lifestyle - a lifestyle marked by good precepts, good teaching and good morals, marked by the setting up of a good example by Mufazzal, Munira and Zaheer's father. We learn, over the next two or three chapters about how modern day Muslims preserve the faith by observing fasts, praying Namaaz etc and at the same time succumbing to the celebration of birthdays of their children in a typical Western way. In fact, the first three or four chapters are some of the best chapters in the book, not only because the story is fresh and the characters are well-etched, but also because I have had these chapters looked at by some of the senior members of wdc, who have painstakingly gone over each word and suggested so many ways to improve the narrative. Among these stalwarts are Kim Marie and Andrea - both friends and great authors and very good critics. Their constructive criticism has been of invaluable help to me. I wrote three more chapters after those four and then just got bored of it. Over the next one and a half to two years, the story remained inactive in my port, except that some more readers read it and offered their ratings and their comments. Earlier, this book was in the form of static items with two chapters per item, and all the three or four static items within a folder called "The Price of Friendship". Later on, when wdc started a new type of item called "Books", I converted these seven chapters into the chapters of a book, but in reality, I did nothing else to them and just forgot about them. I feel as if destiny wanted me to complete the novel. So along comes SherrasQ, the most amazing woman here on wdc and starts pushing the limits! I had initially planned on writing something in some other genre, romance and sci-fi being my two options, but then, I thought to myself - why not re-open my incomplete book and try to complete that? Thus it came to pass that on the first of March 2005, at precisely 12:00 midnight EST, I restarted work on my novel, "The Price of Friendship". Over the next 29 days, I took it from just 9269 words to 59271 words - adding 50002 words and achieving my target of 50K words in a month or less. Hurray! |
| Wow! It is such a heady feeling! I have finally completed writing 50K words in my novel "The Price of Friendship". The novel itself is far from complete and I think I might add at least another 20-30K words to it over the next five to ten months to complete it! Readers who would like to see its first seven-odd chapters may look in my Port under the folder "My Books". So far, I have written about 60K words in it, of which 50K were written between 1st and 29th of March as part of the item "March Novel Writing Month" run by sherrasq. I have also committed myself to writing another 10K words in other assorted genres, and I don't yet know if I will be able to meet that commitment or not. Anyway ... only the next 3 days will tell ... My children are about to start their final examinations, and there is tension in the house. My wife gets annoyed if she finds me sitting before the computer and doing things that are not contributory to my daughters' efforts in the exam. This made the novel completion even more of a challenge! As readers of my blog already know, she - that is Nishrin, my wife - is a qualified, practising beautician and has her own salon, where she employs 2-3 staff members and herself does all the advanced beauty treatments, cuts, facial massages, etc. She is an expert at giving a very soothing and relaxing massage. Recently, she is training for the traditional Indian Ayurvedic body massage - something that tourists come to India, and specifically Kerala and Gujarat states - to do upon themselves. She leaves home by 10:30 daily morning, IST and returns only at about 7:45 p.m. Amazing dedication and an overbearing sense of accomplishment have made her one of the top beauticians in our area of the city. Thanks to her, we have been able to raise our standard of living tremendously. I owe a lot to her. Taher |
| I got a call from one of the hospitals where I had a serious patient. Started off at 8 a.m. One thing led to another, three more patients seen by me, two more admitted... finally returned home at 12.30 p.m. Then, a little bit of this writing and back to attend to my patients who have not yet stabilised. More later, when I have more time. |
| It has been a busy week. Professionally satisfying, and personally taxing, this March NoWriMo has completely sapped me of my energy! There have been other things too such as my own birthday, my daughter's birthday, the two parties, the kids' approaching final examinations, and lots of other things! Sometimes, I wonder how I have managed to write so much in spite of these limitations! I have done over 3000 words in the assorted category, where I am committed to 10000 words, AND 44600 out of the 50000 words I have promised for my new novel, "The Price of Friendship". Isn't that great? |
| It is true that I devote a lot of time on the computer. But it is not true that I am racing away with my novel. Often, I am busy checking mail or playuing billiards on www.carom3D.com, or writing this blog that helps me to reach my 10K commitment on SherrasQ's MarNoWriMo. It is true that my family means a lot to me. But it is not true that I am able to give them a lot of quality time as I am busy doing so many other things at the same time. It is true that I am a doctor and a specialist to boot. But it is not true that I earn loads of money or that I have a limo or a condo or take holidays abroad. In fact, I am always juggling my limited funds each month to meet all my commitments. It is true that I love children. But it is not true that I pray that they all stay healthy and happy. For, if that happens, my practice will dwindle even further. In India, we practice in a system where our income depends purely on the number of cases we see. There is no fixed salary. Health insurance is not something that is always available or even opted for by most patients. It is true that I am faithful to my wife. But it is not true that I don't admire beautiful girls or look at them sometimes with lust. This is an introspective entry. I invite comments from you, dear readers. |
| The word "Misaaq" needs an explanation: it is a religious ceremony similar to the "coming of age" ceremony that is a norm in many societies of the world. A girl who has started having regular periods and is a fully-developed adolescent (physically, that is), and a boy who is into puberty for at least one year (mid-way in development of male voice, sexual hair, genital pigmentation etc) takes an oath, accepting his/her religion as a guiding force and promises before a priest to do all that Muslims are supposed to do - that is, give Zakaat, perform Namaaz, do fasts in Ramadan, and perform the Hajj (if possible) - plus accept the Qur^an as the Holy Book, accept Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as the Prophet and accept Prophet Ali (S.A.) as his Wasi ... and many more vows. This was done on my daughter Inas (now renamed Insiyah) on the same day as her 14th Birthday, that is on 15th March 2005. We gave her 14 gifts, among them, a complete jewellery set, dresses, a wrist watch, a Nokia 2300 Mobile phone (activated with Prepaid credit), greeting cards, undergarments, flowers, etc. She was thrilled to see so many gifts. My wife Nishrin felt that as the next year for her would be her last crucial school year with Board exams, she should get a birthday experience she will never forget. It was a brilliant idea! In the evening, we invited my other brother with his family, but he was unable to attend as he stays quite far from my house. My parents came, and quite fortuitously, my father's birthday, as per our indigenous Islamic calender, will fall on the 16th; so we had a real blast with cakes, Pepsi, etc. and the most lavish dinner we could lay our hands on.  |
My elder daughter's birthday    falls on the 15th of this month, that is, tomorrow. We arranged a surprise party for her yesterday, that is, on the 13th of March, Sunday. My wife, Nishrin, my daughter, Hannah and I arranged everything - the guests (her school friends and the girls in our residential colony), the eats (samosas, pedhas, wafers - potato chips to the Americans, potato-wadas, Pepsi and a glorious chocolate cake that everyone enjoyed eating. Besides this, we had games like dumb charades, singing of Hindi songs and a bad talent competition that had everyone rolling in their seats.I must say something more about the last one since I conducted it in a unique, surprising way: I first divided the group into the two groups I have already mentioned above: school friends and colony friends. Then I asked them to nominate, from each group, three members who felt they were sufficiently talented to participate, and three members who did not want to take part. We had the twelve of them. Then I asked those who "did not wish to take part" to go into the other room. Finally, I disclosed to the remaining twelve girls that it is those six girls who would be performing and these twelve would be the audience. We all returned to the hall where the six of them sat complacently. I disclosed to these astonished six that they would now sing/dance/act "badly" for us and win prizes. Their points would be decided by the number of girls who stood up and left the room while they were performing. They hesitated initially, but after being prodded, they assented. It worked great and the winner was a school friend of Inas who sang so badly that eleven of the sixteen guests ran out before she had sung only two verses! LOL!   |
| It is going fine, and I am past 33% of my target of 50000 words before the end of March. I want to finish it off earlier if possible, because I have also committed to 10000 words in any other category on wdc. I plan on fulfilling that commitment in the last three or four days of March. In other news, we are planning a surprise birthday party for Inas for the coming Sunday evening. Actually, her birthday is on Tuesday, but as that is a working day, we will do the party on Sunday. We are planning to call nearly 25 of her friends. Eats, games and what not. Each child will get a return gift too. So let us see what we can trump up for her! |
| I am just managing to meet my targets since the last two days. Anyone here who sees Hindi movies? If yes, please don't miss this great movie called "Black". It is loosely based on the life story of Helen Keller. The heroine is a deaf-mute blind girl who is being played by an actress named Rani Mukherjee. She has a teacher who is played by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. I am sure everyone knows who HE is! The duo have acted marvellously. It is a story of joy and a story of sorrow, a story of victories and defeats, a story of pass and fail - in short, a must see. I saw it with my family on Sunday evening in a theatre. I tell you, it is incredibly well done. The movie opens with the teacher lost in a world where there are no words, no knowledge and no truths. He is old, doddering, and suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease. Rani, his ex-student, begins to train him to re-recognise the world around him, and in the process, she remembers her own childhood, where she had been struggling to comprehend the world. The journey is really well depicted and the director, Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali deserves kudos. |
| Isn't it amazing how we continue to celebrate our birthdays even when we grow older and older each year, every day, every hour, every minute and every second? Time moves on, not waiting for our dreams and aspirations to catch up with it. Now that I am 45, I think a lot of my dreams may never get realised. I had plans to go to USA, to Europe, to so many other places in the world. I had plans to do many more things. I never learnt to fly a kite, to pilot a plane, to paraglide, to snorkel, to climb rocks, to do so many other things ... the list is endless! In return, I have been blessed with two very lovely kids, a more than nice and well-earning wife, and a profession that keeps bringing me joy and happiness as I go about treating the children who are brought to me. So then, do I need to complain? Should I continue to cry and snivel about the things I don't have? Maybe yes, I should? Maybe no, I shouldn't? What does the reader of this blog think? Do let me know. |
| What a pleasant, nay, splendid surprise Nishrin and my children had planned for me! When I returned home at 9:00 p.m., what did I see but a well-lit house with nearly 15 of my very dear, old friends waiting for me to welcome and celebrate my birthday! They even brought a large cake for me to cut (in addition to the cake I had brought!). Nish had organised the whole show, a first for me! They had apparently planned it several weeks ago, and managed to keep it secret right up to the final moment! Bravo, I say. It changes my perception of her considerably. I wish I had the intelligence to do something like this. The food was "catered" chicken biryani, soup, "white" chicken (cashew gravy), bread-milk pudding, Pepsi and the two cakes. We all had a good time. The friends all liked the newly renovated house as well as the unique plan of Nishrin in organising this shindig. I love her, pals! |
Yes, it's third of March here already, and it's my birthday! So, I celebrate! Yippee .... I plan to eat moderately, shun all but a small piece of the cake, continue my other dietary restrictions as far as is possible, and maybe have a whale of a time doing what I do best: keeping busy at the clinic.   |
| Two days of the NoWriMo have almost gone, and I am busy trying to find time to write, write, write. I have given two targets: 10K on miscellaneous items, and 50K for the novel. I am worried about these targets since my life has been a bit hectic since the last several months. On top of that, an uncooperative wife and demands of the kids to play games on the PC doesn't help. I request all readers to pray that I get my tasks done. Thanks for reading this. As a result of this blog, some words from my 10K have been cut. Taher |
| I don't know how I will do it, but I plan to add 50000 words to my unfinished novel, "The Price of Friendship". I am keeping my fingers crossed. A very quiet Sunday. Played a lot of snooker games on the net on www.carom3d.com. Not much to write about. |
| Yesterday, I received feedback from one of the authors here on wdc. He completely agrees that there is a lot of back-patting and condescension on this web-site. People are more interested in harvesting gifts, awards and merit badges than in good writing. A clique of writers goes about supporting and rewarding each other. I won't be as blunt as he has been, but in a way, what he says is true. I mean, look at it this way: I honestly feel I should have been rewarded long back with some good appreciation for the amount of work I have put in on this web-site: I have run so many contests, written poems for the Slams, anti-Slams, and what not, joined campfires, got to within winning the first-ever Short-story slam, made groups of like-minded people, run surveys, mad-libs, word-hunts,written a 50000-word novel in the JulyNoWriMo, written over 10-12 stories, reviewed more than 250 items in the Endureview ... I can go on and on ... and yet, the recognition eludes me, barring badges and gift-points. Truly, I am disappointed. And I have been a member for over two years. |
 Log in to Leave Feedback |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
