Why I write..

Well, for one I love the way it makes me feel every time I jot my thoughts down.

Image courtesy http://writetribe.com/why-i-write/

It makes me feel immensely liberated when my thoughts find an outlet through my writing. I feel words that flow through my hand do far more justice to my emotions, to my sentiments than the words that get uttered through my mouth!

I have been an introvert all my life. So I am not very comfortable getting into fierce discussions in a group or with anyone. I am one of those who rather prefer being the listener. I do have my own opinions which I voice when I feel I need to, but largely I avoid confrontations and stay in this side of the fence as an observer. So there are times when I feel I should/could have voiced my thoughts a bit more vociferously, which is when I turn to writing. And I pour my heart out then. The words that I long to say out loud but fail to, find their way through this page of mine in a way that makes me want to write and more.

Not only bigger discussions, sometimes I also take note of the smaller conversations, the littlest of moments that I experience or indulge in. And I love the sense of gratification I get as I pen my feelings down.

I feel empowered when I get to touch upon issues that I feel strongly about. I have been able to talk about issues like gender bias, education, parental predicaments, prejudices over menstruation by way of writing. Even those catchwords that I scribble in my diary or the notepad of my phone, that crop up while a post takes form in my mind, give me a strange kick of satisfaction.

Which brings me to the next reason why I write. Interaction. I love the fact that writing or blogging allows me to interact with those who come and read what I write and share their thoughts. They help me to see my viewpoints from their perspective and widen my horizon.

I realize that this very aspect of writing and interacting has made me far more assertive and participating in real life interactions as well.

Even now as I type these words I am humming a song, sporting a smile, indulging in some playful banters with R because I am feeling wonderful at having been able to set my thoughts into words.. so what if they are gibberish!

PS: Image courtesy http://writetribe.com/why-i-write/

HELP: Google Reader shutting down, can someone suggest an alternative?

Please!

I have noticed that every time I log in to my reader, the alert about Google Reader discontinuing its services from July pops up on my screen!

I remember a few of my blogger friends breaking the news about this a couple of months back, but I didnt pay much heed to the warnings because my google reader was anyway lying dormant for months and I was going through a major lull in blogging. So I had no inclination to open my reader and check. Also I vaguely remember an article doing rounds about the news merely being a gimmick initiated by google to fool its readers on April Fool’s Day! Correct me if I am wrong, people.

Anyway, post the May photo challenge l revived my blog-hopping( quite vigorously at that ) which made me log in to the Reader only to be greeted by this not so welcoming message every other day.

Hence seeking your inputs.

Now I have already added all the WordPress blogs that I follow, to my WP reader. What I am clueless about is the Blogspot blogs that I have listed there.

Where do I shift them?

What reader do you all use?

Any suggestions will be highly appreciated

HAARAM.COM, STOP POSTING OUR POSTS ON YOUR SITE WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION

A bunch of us bloggers have noticed that you have listed our blogs and have been copying our entire posts on to your site for which we neither signed up nor gave explicit permission. Hence would appreciate if you could stop doing that and take our blogs off your site ASAP.

Consider this a gentle reminder from our end..for now.

We may not be so gentle the next time, for this is a serious issue of copyright violation.

Thank you.

The lights that travelled from Smits’ abode to adorn Deeps’ garden

Smitha, who I fondly call Smits, had this picture of beautiful solar string lights up on her blog a few weeks back.

One look at the picture and I was pleading with her to visit me on her way to India next, with a huge carton full of these lights .

But the darling that she is, she didnt want to wait till she’d made that trip, instead offered to send them to me the very next day. I jumped at the idea!

She mailed in details with other designs on offer so I could choose the one I liked. I ended up choosing the one that Smitha had on her blog, though. Anyway a couple of mail exchanges later, here I was calculating the amount I would have to pay to her for the packet along with the shipping cost, etc. and there she had already shipped them to my address!

Not just that, when the courier reached me, I discovered to my utter delight that she had sent not one but two packs of garden lights as a gift!

And also, a beautiful D-I-Y art & craft kit for Namnam, which she was so thrilled to get that the few hours that followed were truly peaceful, sans any pestering, any nagging to play with her, to watch TV or go out..for all she cared was to open the kit and make the butterfly wands that were in it .

Smits, she loves the wands and they have already been placed by her in the favorite space of her room- her art corner .

Coming back to my solar lights, after about two weeks of pondering on where to adorn them, which angle to position them so they get enough sunlight to get charged- hah as though sunlight is in dearth here – I finally got around to hanging them in my backyard where the sun shone the most.

Here are a few pics of the lights taken during the day and some taken in the evening when the lights were fully charged and ready to glow into the night.

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Unfortunately because of my dokku camera-settings the images havent come out that sharp. Hence inviting you to my abode to see for yourself how the garden looks when adorned with these beautiful lights!