Last week had been quite a eventful one for us as a family. Saraswati Puja was on January 22nd – my toddler who turned twenty-eight months on that very day had his hathekhori (introduction to the world of education/writing/alphabets). We had come down to our native town on the auspicious occasion but decided to prolong our stay because I got this amazing brain wave of covering the heritage town of Murshidabad through a travel series. Despite limited options, I have also been trying to experiment with the available eating out joints here. Thus quite a few of pending write ups in the categories under restaurant reviews, travel diaries and personal have been piling up which should be out anytime this week.
Just when I thought I was ready to pen down my thoughts on the significance of Republic Day, Karni Sena attacked a bus of school children in Gurugram. I haven’t even watched the movie Padmavat and neither do I intend to do so because nothing can be a good enough reason to risk the life of a bunch of hapless kids. What could I possibly write about a country where lynching, rapes, molestation, acid attacks, attack on children have become a rampant scenario! An eight month old baby gets raped in the capital but that is not a good enough factor to protest but the attire of a young woman is a reason to draw flak. As a mother, I feel outraged. As a woman, I feel numb. As a human, I am worried about the kind of world we are leaving behind for the future generation.
Amidst all these chaotic thoughts and utter hopelessness, I spent half the day in the local Passport office to undergo the application process for passport renewal on Monday . What normally takes an hour to two maximum ended up being a four hours trial for me. The number of applicants felt humongous against a visible shortage of manpower in the office. Yet I was pleasantly surprised to see that despite such a large crowd, the processing went on smoothly. Some of the officials skipped lunch surviving on cups of tea to ensure that there were no hiccups or breaks in functioning of the system. I was a witness to some real heartwarming gestures of people who were strangers for each other. Despite standing in the queue for over two hours, the crowd unanimously decided to let a young mother and her exhausted sleeping toddler move ahead out of empathy. A senior citizen had come all alone to get her passport – she could neither read nor understand the ongoings. A young boy took it upon himself to wait till she got her formalities completed. I saw him accompany her to the bus stand so that she could safely board the bus. Amidst strangers of different caste, creed, religion and color, I saw a country that still had its humanity intact. I came back drained of energy but hopeful of a better future.
This week had begun on a personal high for me and I would love to share few updates here –
- My blog has crossed 100 subscribers for the first time. Huge thanks to everyone who have chosen to read and subscribe.
- I was nominated for the Blogger Appreciation Award.
- My article and Vlog on the campaign #MoreToMe by Momspresso was selected for featuring on their site, Facebook page and Twitter handle. I have eight posts on their site as of date,
- My write-up on Women’s Web was published and featured as a trending article making the count of published articles to four.
- My write-up was published on Readomania taking the total count to five.
- Youth Ki Awaaz published my fifth write-up on their site.
- Tuck Magazine selected my article for featuring on their page making this my first publication
- Bonobology published an article of mine and just yesterday morning, I found myself featured as a Star Blogger on their site.
Every subscription, like, share, comment and appreciation encourages me to work harder and write better. There have been so many fellow bloggers from the community pool who came up with ideas for improving my site when I had asked for suggestions. I have no words to express my gratitude to you. Be assured, I am working on each of the suggestions.
If you have read till here, I can only say thank you for being a part of my journey. I hope to come up with better topics and stories for you to read.
Also stay tuned for some upcoming surprises on my blog. Till then, keep reading and keep enjoying.
soniasmusings 
Already so many publications – amazing. Many congratulations.
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