Melange

100 words – Secrets

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Archana K B / 12 Comments

“You going out?”

“Just nearby.. going to meet Gita.. will come back in 5-10 mins..”

“As if she is going to allow you leave so soon.. I can bet it will take 2 hours”

Amma was smiling at her daughter,”Close the door now..”

She did as told and rushed to the guest room, to get him out from under the bed.
“I am sorry that I had to hide you like this..I just don’t know how do I tell her about you..”

She picked up the cute little body wagging his tail and licking her face, and stroked his head.

—————————————————————————

Written for the 100 words on Saturday writing prompt at Write Tribe.

blogathon/Stories

55 Fiction – Beautiful

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Archana K B / 11 Comments

Three stories.

She walked with folded hands with bated breath. She looked most beautiful on that day for them. The jewellery and sweet-smelling flowers that adorned her hair were heavy.
She asked herself,
“Are you nervous?”
“I don’t know”
“Your life is about to change”
“But I don’t feel anything. I just have the stage fear!”

***

He hated her. He had wooed her for so long and she still ignored her. But she looked so beautiful that he could not avoid her. She was bright and smiling all the time. He never could comprehend that smile on her face which invited him to follow. And so he followed her.. his Life.

***

It was an old photo of hers. She looked very tall, clad in a saree, with the pallu flowing over her slender arms. The bindi acted as a kaala teeka in that black and white picture. She looked still very beautiful in real world too. All mothers are always beautiful for their daughters. Aren’t they?

***

Written for the Wednesday prompt at WriteTribe.

Articles/blog-related/blogathon

8 lessons from the Blogging Challenge

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Archana K B / 1 Comment

Today is the last day for the daily blog post challenge by UBC, NaBloPoMo and Blogathon. This is the first time I am completing a challenge. Yes I did miss two days, but then I back dated the posts immediately. I came across several new blogs who I realized are writing good content and that I need to improve a lot. Some of the posts I did this month were just fill-in posts and reminded me of my initial posts, where I just blabbered like a teenage young girl, chirping away her innocent thoughts. The pressure of writing daily, is like that of writing an exam, where you know you just have to write out answer to the point when time is ticking away. It may not be the perfect answer, but you write in somehow.

Write short posts. The other members who would be supporting you in the challenge are quite busy with their own challenges. Long posts may shrug them off. The theme of the post and the points which you put across the table matters the most.
Schedule your posts in advance. If not for all days, this gives you room to write for the oncoming days. And usually, writing streak comes in waves. This also frees you up on weekends.
Its okay if you are unable to post one or two days. Its not the end of life, and there is no punishment. Do not feel bad about it. Instead focus on making up for the posts on missed days by writing more.
Few people are very creative under pressure. Consider the challenge as a writing course which helps you to form a habit of writing daily. To get into a routine where you make time for your writing creativity and honing the skills.
Memes and tags are handy to fill up the post when you are having a bad day. Keep them ready beforehand, and then drop it at the click of publish button.
Unless you make the effort to comment on other blogs, no one would notice that you have read their blog. Leave your imprints in some way or the other. It may bring a smile on the writer.
Do not get disappointed if the readership does not increase to your expectations. Relationships are not formed in one day.
Do not attempt experimenting with back end of blog like changing themes, plugins and other works in the midst of a challenge. You may be knowing this already, but take care not to give into temptations.

And mostly enjoy writing. I did every bit of it. It has given me a hope that I can write more and more, if not daily, once in a week. There may not be any monetary benefits, but some experiences are priceless. Ain’t it?

blogathon/mommy/Thoughts

The touchy issue

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Archana K B / 2 Comments

On some days when the motherhood love flows outward uncontrollably, there would be a lot of hugging, kissing, cuddling, and even stroking between us. She would sometimes ask to let go, but I would hold her and cajole her, saying that I feel like doing so, since I love her.

At the same time, I realize how I am laying a trap for myself in the future. As she grows up, how will I distinguish the unwanted touch. These days as we can infer from the newspapers, more than the touch from the strangers, the advances coming from our own family members or the neighbours needs to be scrutinized more. And to add to it, babies as young as 2 years or 14 months are being affected. In this hectic schedule, daycare and nannies are not avoidable. At such a young age, how are we going to make them realize that some touches are okay and some are not. Today’s children are somewhat smart, and may avoid strangers. But can we pinpoint that she needs to be alert and inform me if the driver uncle carried her for a while, or if she was asked to sit on the lap by the neighbour? I know its being overcautious, but prevention is always better.

In Facebook, the following video were making rounds for the education of the kids recently.

Every time I go out with her, she gets a pinch on her cheek for her cuteness. I myself have been guilty for doing the same, when I was younger. But now, I refrain. Atleast I try to. If I do not like a stranger stroking my cheeks, even if it is my father’s friend, why should we do that to the young people. Shouldn’t the society who is raising its voice slowly these days understand these explanations implicitly?

Like any other mother, though the fear is increasing gradually day by day, life moves on holding onto that simple word called hope. The hope that she would trust me, the most. The hope that she will reveal everything to me. The hope that I would be able to protect her. The hope that humanity would still exist and will never die.

Here and there

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Archana K B / 4 Comments

…This month, I stumbled on many personal blogs, mostly blogs hosted at wordpress.com blogs, but ended up not following them, since those blogs had partial feeds in my Feedly reader. I wonder whether they know that you have an option in WordPress Dashboard – Settings – Reading (/wp-admin/options-reading.php) asking you “For each article in a feed show summary or full text”.

…Every morning the question of “what to make for lunch/dinner” runs in the back of my mind automatically. And today I ended up customising Aloo Mutter for Nayana, as there were already leftovers for others. I noticed that you need not add mustard seeds to every single dish; the taste is way better without them. I realized its one of the biggest mistakes made by every South Indian woman. Don’t you think so? (Yes, I have read Chinese recipes with mustard seasoning!)

…The popular story for the little one currently is that of Baby Bahadur, the sleepy elephant. This book was received as part of Little Reader’s Nook reader’s kit. The story is very simple and involves many animals apt for the age. I have literally read it out innumerous times, that I can memorize all the words and sentences of the book. And still Nayana wants to read it every single day. I am just awaiting for the fresh lot of books for the February month.

…The January month was also a politically active month. From AAP getting into power in Delhi to the interview of Rahul Gandhi two days ago, with the infamous dharna and now the Twitter retweets. Though I don’t know much on Modi, I am sure of my not-so-good opinion on Rahul Gandhi. I believe the goals of AAP is comparatively better than the others, but I doubt whether they will sail through the storm of real dirty national politics. But it has already stirred up our interest to register for voting this year.

…There are days when I feel I should move out and get a self-hosted wordpress blog. But I still am not sure whether I can really afford it just for personal purposes when I am not any making anything out of it. Over the years I have changed hosting, changed the domain name, but still, I have not able to build up a good network. Every time I comment on a blog, I wonder which identity to choose. I miss installing themes and plugins.This year, my focus is to improve the writing. So I feel I need a base ground which would remain as the home for the blog for the next few years.

What do you recommend? Should I go for the self-hosted one, or just build up my content on this wordpress.com? And which categories or niche do I fare better? Please let me know in the comments on any suggestions you can think of. And did I mention that I started a Facebook page for this blog? Please shower your likes on that page too.

blogathon/Webscape

Webscape Tidbits revived

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Archana K B / 3 Comments

Few days to go to complete the blogathon challenge. And I am still in rambling mode. More than as a challenge to write everyday for just 30 days I believe its kind of a nudge to wake up and do something creative. So I keep telling myself the challenge is not going to end here, but has just started. From February, the challenge would be to keep the momentum stay or not to let the spark switch off again. So instead of rambling again on my personal day to day happenings, I guess I would just share what I have been doing, when I am not thinking or creating a post on its own. I used to do Webscape Tidbits long before to share the links in this blog.

Though I am not that into cooking, I like to approach whatever love I have towards it, in a technical manner. Hence I was searching today for the cooking basics, like how to hold a knife, how to julienne vegetables etc.

The first thing in every single social media platform to fill up is the bio or profile. Something about yourself. And then you start thinking what to write. One of the keywords in twitter I used in my bio is introvert, because I thought I am not outgoing enough to talk to strangers in the real world, but recently I stumbled across the word “ambivert” from this blog. And then I found this assessment to find out whether you are an introvert, extrovert or ambivert.

I am slowly realizing, that its not worth to use the short form N for my daughter who has a beautiful name. Though it was brought to my notice by my friend two years ago, I was reluctant to use her full name in the blog. The same reason applies for why I use RK in this blog to refer to the man in the house.

After Nayana was born, I rarely listened to the new songs, or get updated with the movies. Between the minutes here and there, today I got to hear this song Zehnaseeb from Hasee To Phasee which is catching onto me for its music, video and the beautiful voices of Chinmayi and Shekhar.

Which song is on your mind these days?