"The time has come ," the walrus said,
 to talk of many things:" ,
 Yes indeed . The year is about to end , and I  cannot resist the temptation of saying a few things , besides shoes and ships and sealing wax .. cabbages and kings ......
Well indeed , high time .

 This is just a big thank you note from a small fr.[ just five feet tall] , who , at times , has felt like a giant because of your immense love , support and  encouragement
I scribbled insanely , relentlessly , unstoppingly , right from class 6 , but it is only the love of my facebook fraternity that makes me feel taller than my actual height , now .

 Fifteen years back , i wrote  Mystery novels , which gained unprecedented popularity amongst my students , so much so that , our theatre group , Navankur , staged many scenes from those novels , and one full length play , Meri kahani sunogey , loosely based on my first mystery novel ,' The Mystery of the Relic , which I translated into Hindi , and was directed by my husband , Lalit Magazine ,[ who , also had a very important role in the play.]  This play went on to receive many laurels.


Well that is old hat now.   
No one had heard of me , beyond Bharatpur ,in particular  and Rajasthan, in general till then .

.But then Facebook happened , so did the literary groups that i became part of : Rejected Stuff, headed by the versatile Dr Ampat Koshy , where I received the First Reuel Award for my long poem , Oh hark ! ,  and went on to be part of  the anthologies , The Significant Anthology , and  Silhouette 1 and 2 ;  Poets , Artists Unplugged , headed by Driftwood Ashore , aka Col Shyamji,  where i became very snug in the company of many literary gems , sharing my meanderings with them , and featuring in their anthologies ,Pentasi B World Friendship Poetry , headed by the dynamic Dr Pen Pen , who was gracious enough to invite me to Accra, Ghana , and confer the Universal Inspirational Poet Award in 2016 ; Dr Madan Gandhiji , who , magnanimously conferred the Poet Laureate Award on me in 2016 . for Ballad of Bapu, Oh Hark ! and Where are the Lilacs ?

I was indeed fortunate enough to get in touch with some very sensitive poets and wonderful human beings as an admin of Koshur Qalaam; Mushtaque Barq, Wani Nazir , Perveiz Ali , Neha Sharma , Monika Ajay Kaul , Sunayna Kachroo , Aijaz Wani , Imtiyaz Assad , Danish Hassan, Badee uz Zaman , Suhail Malik  and many other young, brilliant minds, who are very close to my heart .

 Thank you friends , for reading and supporting me all along , and also reviewing my books : Ballad of Bapu , [ It has been almost two years since Ballad of Bapu was  published ,but  the reviews still keep pouring in , and total strangers , still call to congratulate me for having written the book. ] Where are the lilacs ? Under the Apple Boughs , and Flights from my Terrace .I don't have the words to thank all of you .


 In my virtual journey , I was fortunate enough to strike life- long friendships with many wonderful souls, Aruna Edula, Satbir Chadhaji, Dr Ampat Koshy, Sarathi Loke Nathji ,  Ashok Bhargava ji, Raj babu Gandham , Rajesh Joshi , Reena Prasad, Pratima Apte, Mallika Bhaumik , Sarala Balachandran ,Sudeshna Mukherjee , Gauri Dixit , Vineetha Mekkoth , Vineeta Narulaji, Dr L sr Prasad, Himali Narang,Vansikha Kapoor, Pamposh Dhar , Kiren Babal, Lopa Banerjee [ with whom i collaborated on two anthologies , Darkness there but something more Blue Pencil , 2017 , and Cloudburst , 2017 , Global Fraternity of India ] Meenakshi Singh , Renu Misra , Seema Jayaraman , Madhumita Banerjee, Luz Maria Lopez  , Armeli Quezon, Hilal Karahan , Virginia Jasmin Pasalo,   Sunila Kamal, Susheela Kaushik , Sarada Kuchibhotla, Geethanjali Dilip , Padmaja Iyengar - Paddy , Samrudhi Dash , Neelam Saxena Chandra, Lily Swaran ,Deepti Singh , Sunita Prasad , Nandita Samanta , Sunita Singh , Deepti Menon  ,Joyce Yarrow ,  Sunil Kaushal , Dev Mishra ,Kabir Deb , Himanshu BT, Neel Kamal , Subhojit Sanyal,  Aakriti kuntal , Minerva Sarma , Swapna Behera,  Vinita Agarwal , Antara Nanda Mondal , Aabha Vats, Avijit Sarkar [ who graciously illustrated Oh Hark ! and designed the cover of Under the Apple Boughs ,]Ananya Chatterji, Anu Mahadev, Bindi Sharma , Daipayan Nair, Joie Bose , Ipsita Ganguli ,Shalini kashyap ,Sikandera Mir,  Monica Oswal,Mary Anne AV, Sarah Mehdi , Jhilmil Breckenridge ,Kamalini Nats , Radhika Tabrez , Avanty Sopory ,Kirthi Jayakumar, Nalini Priyadarshni , Elvira Lobo , Yaseen Anwar , Praveen Sethi,Firdaus Pervez, Nidhi Popli Shirin Hasrat, Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Pramila Khadun,Nikhat Mahmood ,  Shashi Kothari ,Dr Shaista  Irshaad , Dr Nikhat Bano,Dr Anand Kumar, Dr Rashid Pelpuo , Dr George Onsy , Ibrahim Honjo and many others , who, if they are not mentioned here inadvertently  , it is because they are comfortably nestled in my heart .

 Thanks a ton for your love , support and encouragement . Had it not been for you love and good wishes , i would not have been able to write a single word .
 Thanks Renu Kaul Verma of Vitasta Publishers , Delhi and Sudarshan Kcherry [ AuthorsPress for publishing my ramblings .

Friends ,  I have met some of you  , and have felt that i have known you  all along , and  hope to meet some  of you in the coming year .
 May the new year help me in realising my dream of meeting all my virtual friends who have cheered me on, in my literary journey.

The year 2017 , saw me as one of the delegates at SAARC SUFI FESTIVAL ,JAIPUR , where I had a great time interacting with some wonderful literary luminaries from the  SAARC nations .
 I  also delivered a Ted Talk on a very interesting topic : THE CYCLIC NATURE OF CREATIVITY AND CURIOSITY at Pathways School , Gurugram , and enjoyed every moment of it .
Also received the Literary Excellence Award sponsored by Bharat Nirman at Asiad Literature Festival , Jaipur[ July 2017] 
I was also one of the delegates at Pentasi B World Poetry B festival , in Hyderabad  [October 2017], which was indeed a spectacular event , where I got to meet  some of the great writers of the world .

As the year is about to close , all this leaves a warm glow in  my heart , a huge Thank you on my lips and many more dreams .

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