Dear Neel #9

Oh! this month has been eventful, not really back to normal but eventful. I have written more this month than I might have written in the whole of last year. I don’t know if it is a general excitement of my exaggeration or not, I really don’t know, I haven’t really measured. All I know is I have written more than 50k words for NANOWRIMO and I have drafted at least 25 short poems as a participant of NANOWRIMO. The whole point behind the participation in both projects was keeping myself busy and I think I excelled in it even if I might have not shared it with anyone, secretly enjoying the imperfect words. I am not going to lie by saying that I followed a strict schedule and was very diligently writing every day. Nah. I wrote mostly in the morning, sometimes writing more than 2k words a day and then some days I just wrote about 500 words and turned off my laptop. And here before someone praises me for accomplishing this, I have to say that I just wrote it, the quality of the writing is highly under scrutiny and questionable. I am not really priding myself in the completion of my draft but I am happy with the outcome nonetheless.

I have also read a couple of short books this month and finished Night and Day by Virginia Woolf. The other short book that I listened to while working out was the series from Anne of Green Gables and I don’t know and neither do I care if it is meant for kids. That book has brought back picturesque reality of innocence, rawness and childish naivety, which I needed back so much. So in all April was a good month in terms of literature.

I also went on a short trip to Kolkata and I would be lying if I said that it was only because of work purpose. My hidden delight lay in listening to a famous and a favorite poet/comic live. The show was a two hour-long experience that I will never forget. I laughed till my cheeks hurt, I cried because he used emotions the way I see no one else using, and lost my heart all over again to the same man. The poet resides in my heart.

And now to the very small but very important part of the last month. April gave me a gift that I never imagined I would be given. I don’t know if you know this, but there are a few pages that share people’s stories on their platform, they are usually named ‘officialpeopleof…county’s name, city’s name)’. The page I am talking about is named ‘Official People Of Jamshedpur.’ This platform has been kind enough to publish my life story and journey as a writer. I am not sure if I deserve this, but when I see my picture and my words there, I have a feeling inside me that is not unnamable, but I refuse to name.

Before I say good-bye, let me tell you another incident that occupied a major part of my April. I ordered a product online which to be honest I could have got here in my city itself, had I searched for it. But I purchased it online and they sent me a different color that I really didn’t like. So, I talked to their customer service and placed a replacement. The replacement was again of the wrong color and I again talked to them asking for a refund. The refund definitely had a glitch and all of this took about a whole of 15 days to be resolved and by the end I wanted to scream at them saying, “Had I wanted to involve myself so much with people, talk to people, meet people, I would have gone to a store or the mall like normal people and bought it there. But no I ordered online. Why? Because I don’t want to socialize.” Obviously I didn’t say this to them and obviously I wasn’t angry at them either and I might be laughing right now about the whole hilarity of the situation, but I was sure frustrated with them for a while.

But then that’s how things work. Wasn’t April eventful after all? Normal or not, it sure was something. Not talking about the problems obviously and definitely not avoiding them but they will be settled when they will be, for now, I am hoping one of these days you will turn up with your own letters and call me ‘Anne Girl’ just as Gilbert Blithe does.

Take care of yourself.

Love.

Link to my published story: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb4NBCWpSkw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Read More: Dear Neel #8