Pens and Pages

First published on Springtide on 12th December 2014 Perhaps it is not the right time to share what I faced in Delhi, not after “the Uber incident”. But then, there’s never a right time. And no matter what hour it is, reality is always the invincible truth. I’ve been staying in Mumbai from the past one year. I’ve been to Delhi before, but from Mumbai my first visit would be only last week. It was at around 4:45pm when I took a train from INA metro station to Kashmere Gate. I had to transport my luggage from my friend’s place at Yamuna Vihar to another friend’s place at Katwaria Sarai. It was my first evening there in Delhi and I did a quick imprecise calculation and assumed that I’d reach Katwaria Sarai after picking my luggage, at around 7:00pm. I assumed that dusk would fall at around 7:00pm like it is the case in Mumbai. I was a little disappointed to realize that by the time I reached Kashmere Gate it was almost dark although it was only around 5:30pm. ...

In a lazy afternoon, my friend and blogger, Rafaa Dalvi called me up to ask if I'd like to go to attend an event the next week. I was too sleepy to be excited about it. I said no. He, then, explained that the event was not a regular one but an exclusive meet with author of Chanakya's Chant, Ashwin Sanghi. A year back, I had participated in a story-writing contest and Ashwin Sanghi was the judge. My story bagged a position in the list of top 25. The memory of the book, Kaleidoscope, where my story was published, was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard the name, Ashwin Sanghi. I changed my lazy mind and said, "yes, I'd love to attend the event."  The next ten minutes was spent telling all my colleagues that I'm going to meet Ashwin Sanghi at Vivanta by Taj, Cuffe Parade. Proper Invitation (including mails and phone-calls) by the Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest Team followed. The feedback on their way of inviting - great...

When I had just started blogging I planned to write fictions only. Eventually, poems happened and then articles. True stories, there were none until “Was She Raped?” happened. People reveal their inner selves in their blogs and I still do not have the guts to. Nor do I intend to (Nope, I don’t :-P). But then sometimes a diary knows too much of you and you just want it (which is basically you) to shut up. These are the times when you need to blog. Acknowledging the fact that not many people read your blog helps you even more (Not now, they don’t. The number of my readers, of late, has only decreased :-/) It so happened last weekend that I just couldn’t face my diary no matter how much I tried. So at my time of despair, I just couldn’t find the solace of it. I couldn’t because I didn’t want to, being aware of the fact that confronting it, would only break me down into smaller pieces. Yes, I was broken and I very much wanted to escape the fact and yet, face it at the same time. ...