Thank you for the wonderful wishes on my birthday yesterday (29th May).
From being the one arranging and organizing surprises to receiving a midnight birthday surprise from the son and the husband, my heart feels full today. Quite impressed with the kid ordering all the books saved in my cart without letting me know.
Here’s to another year of surprises, more books, trips, food adventures and quality time with friends and family.
The last couple of weeks have been way too hectic. My second book is getting ready for launch, and I’m excited about the cover image that landed in my inbox this week (I can’t wait to share it with the world now). As the book goes for printing in another couple of weeks, I’ve started proofreading my third book, which should be ready in a few months. Hopefully, the third book will be released in the first quarter of 2025.
Amidst all the chaos and my son’s upcoming first-semester exams this month, I’m worried about how I’ll deal with everything happening together. But that didn’t deter us from celebrating my birthday last month on the twenty-ninth.
With the cake-cutting at midnight followed by opening the gifts from my in-laws, Baba, the husband, and my darling son, I had a lot of fun throughout the day.
Continue reading “Celebrating my birthday on the 29th of May”I have always been an enthu-cutlet when it comes to birthdays, be it mine, or my close friends’ or family members. Of late, I celebrate it with the same enthusiasm as my son. It wasn’t supposed to be any different this year but like every thriller story that I write, there’s a twist in the tale.
Last Thursday, it started with a fever which led to a sore throat, nasal infection, breathing problems, and many more complications. The husband diagnosed it as a viral infection and medicines were prescribed accordingly. Sunday seemed a little better and I was almost sure that I would rock it as a birthday girl on Monday. I forgot God writes better thrilling stories than humans. The right lower side of my face started swelling on Sunday night and I woke up on my birthday morning with a face that looked stung by bees. Needless to say, I was devastated.
It’s in moments like this that one realizes the importance of close friends and family. It began with one of my son’s closest friends and his mother turning up with a cake to surprise me. They brought unusual happiness to my gloomy mind.
The husband returned with my favorite cake and a bunch of gifts that he and my son had been planning for a week now behind my back. My father was the only one aware of their plan. By then, my face was so swollen that I refused to let them click me while cutting the cake.
With a change of medicines, the swelling was in control by evening, though the face still looked disproportionate. However, when my husband’s colleague and our dear friend surprised me with another cake, I decided to dress up and cut the cake with them.
While most planned outings and adventures had to be postponed, I’m sure they will happen once I recover. Who says birthdays should be celebrated only on the special day? To everyone who wished me here, on any other social media platform, on WhatsApp, through calls, messages, and in person, THANK YOU for making my day extra special.
The year was 2011. I turned thirty on 29th May and was about to get married in three weeks. I had taken a week off in April for the engagement (ashirwaad, as we call in Bengali), and had applied for 2 weeks’ leave in June for the wedding. So, the birthday celebration was restricted to office colleagues and a couple of friends in Mysore. When I spoke to Ma that afternoon, she insisted that I buy a new set of clothes for my birthday. I laughed it off, saying that I was already getting an ensemble of clothes for my wedding. That was the end of the conversation, or so I thought.
On the day my husband and I left our hometown to begin a new chapter as husband and wife, Ma handed me a new salwar kameez set. During the peak rush of wedding preparations, Ma and Baba hadn’t forgotten my birthday gift. Little did I know that it was going to be my last birthday gift from her. In five months, her love and gifts became a memory for my survival.
In the last decade, I’ve restricted my birthday gifts to usually books, journals, pens, cakes, or items related to my writing journey. I never accepted a dress for my birthday. But this year, I made an exception. When Baba asked me to purchase something of my choice, I asked him to buy me a new dress. It took me a decade to get over the fact that Ma would never coax me to get a new dress for my birthday again. Besides, 1.5 years of the pandemic taught me that it is essential to savor every moment with those who mean the world and hold on to them as tightly as possible.
Amidst all the gifts, the kid gave me the most thoughtful one. While drafting the second novel, I wrote the plot, updates, and scenes in a journal simultaneously. By the time I sent the story to my literary agent, I reached the last page of the journal. While I got a few amazing notebooks/diaries as gifts, the child made his father search for an identical journal and pilot pen sets so that I feel happy and write a story for him next.
Tender moments and thoughtful gestures like these make me believe that we still have hope left in the world.
On 29th May, I celebrated my birthday with the three men in my life – my father, husband, and son. After a decade, I asked my father to buy me a new dress on my special day instead of my usual requests for books and journals. When Ma was around, she refused to listen to my resistance; birthdays always meant a new dress. After she passed away, I never found any joy in the ritual of a birthday dress as a gift. Eventually, Baba let it go.
But this year, I decided to celebrate for two reasons – I had finished writing my second novel, and I finally had the three special people in my life under one roof on the day. From cutting cakes to ordering food, we indulged in small moments of happiness. But we also shared these little joys with those who keep us going through their support – our cook, house-help, driver, security guard, and a few more helping hands. I’m going to cherish these memories for a very long time.
On the professional front, I completed numerous rounds of editing the book and sent the initial documents to my literary agent. We are working on the marketing plan and publisher details. But, I finally decided to take a break from the second novel (BTW, it has a new title; stay tuned for the announcement). The next item on the priority list was to get my first dose of vaccination. Getting a slot on the Cowin app seemed tougher than cracking UPSC exams.
Fortunately, my residential area organized a paid vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group in collaboration with Apollo hospitals. Thanks to an alert and aware husband, we managed to get a slot for me for 3rd June. From document verification to getting jabbed, it took me less than twenty minutes to complete the process. Except for the pain in my left arm that subsided after nearly two days, I didn’t have any side effects.
June is a month as precious as May since we will complete a decade of our married life on the 20th of this month. While it’s been more than twenty-two years of knowing each other as friends, best friends, and a couple before making it official, the past one-and-a-half years have taught us both to cherish every opportunity of hope and togetherness.
While I’ll resume the work related to the launch of the second novel very soon, I also intend to start writing for magazines, digital platforms, and other mediums going forward.
I hope you have taken the vaccine and got your friends and family vaccinated as well. Please help out your support staff who might find it difficult to use technology for booking a slot. And keep the mask on; we can’t afford to lose this battle.
April is one of my favorite months since we celebrate my father’s birth on 1st April. As a banker, I looked forward to a relaxed April month after a grueling financial year-end in March. For the last three years, April represented the A2Z challenge daily blogging for me. But this year, I bowed out of the event in the last week of March after realizing that editing 1 lakh plus words of my second novel would require longer time, dedicated efforts, and undivided attention.
I began the first round of editing by March third week. I finished the third round of editing in the wee hours of the morning today. It is a hard-earned day off for me after twenty-six days of working at a stretch. I’ll go back to the final round of manuscript editing tomorrow before mailing it to my literary agent.
On the personal front, we celebrated Baba’s birthday together. Last year, the sudden lockdown stranded him at Berhampore, while we stayed in Kolkata. My son started his second year of online classes on 12th April. Who would’ve thought that a year later, we would still be fighting the second Corona wave? The situation is worsening every day as election rallies get precedence over the need for social distancing. It’s painful to see kids adjust to yet another year of no friends, no classrooms, and no playground. Never did I imagine that a new uniform that was to bring joy to a class 1 kid wasn’t going to get dirty with pencil marks, crayon colors, and shared tiffin for another year.
We had one year to prepare for another pandemic. Instead of strengthening the healthcare sector, people in power spent money on election rallies, religious institutions, and statues. Now that people are dying due to an acute shortage of beds/oxygen cylinders/vaccines, will those who justified the expenditure on unnecessary structures take their families to such places instead of a hospital? My husband and his colleagues in the medical fraternity are back to war mode. And their families are back to where we were last year.
People in power have failed us, but it is the indomitable spirit of the common people that gives me hope. Yesterday, a bunch of us collated lists and reached out to authorities seeking help on Twitter. We aren’t giving up so easily. However, now that we know we are on our own, please wear a mask (or a double mask, if needed) and maintain social distancing protocols.
I’ll be back next month with the next update on Raya Ray’s second case. Until then, stay safe, and stay at home.
I celebrated my birthday two days ago and it was heart-warming to see my friends and relatives trying to make it special through their messages, calls and wishes. My family made it memorable through cakes, gifts and gastronomic adventures. had been a great but hectic month for me as I wrote daily for the A2Z challenge. I had decided to allot more time for reading in May. There had been a sense of restlessness in my heart for the past few months and I decided to finally attend to it.
In the recent past, there were times when I felt stuck in my writing journey and couldn’t concentrate on reading either. Instead of identifying it as just another phase and waiting for it to get over, I have chosen to face it heads on by taking a professional decision. This June, I am planning to get back to academics once again as I commence my third masters degree program. After a M.Sc & a MBA degree, I have decided to enroll for an online MFA course in creative writing.
Continue reading “Announcement – The year ahead at soniasmusings.com”
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