A little something to be grateful for

You know how it is when you open social media and sort of in a moment when you are to being mindful begin to feel sorry for yourself. You get into a rut and keep lamenting about things that could have been. You keep thinking about how good things only seem to be happening to people who take snapshots and frame them for Facebook posts and Instagram feed. Maybe they do it for the Twitter and Tumblr and Snapchat and whatever else there is, what would I know, as I can barely handle those two.

So to cut a long story short, lying in the bed till a few minutes ago I was lamenting the lack of holidays and holiday pictures as well parties and party pictures and cursing my luck how I never seem be able to do anything 'fun' and being stuck in this unenviable spot like forever since 1990s. then I began to think of the most momentous thing that has happened to mean the last 1 year and it was like opening the floodgates of memory. I began to realise how giving this whole year had been and so here I am with a totally unplanned list of things that worked for me this year.

1. Moved into a bigger and a better house. We moved in end 2017 but actually started to live in here in Jan 2018
2. I travelled with my babies to new places- Amritsar, Jammu, Orissa and it was so much fun.
3. Read some awesome authors for the first time. The Japanese author Keigo Higashino tops my list and I read two of his translated books- Malice and The Devotion of Suspect X. The Devotion completely blew my mind off and I look forward to mindfully devouring everything else by him. A very close second was Michel Bussi's After the Crash. Beyond murders and mysteries I also discovered two Indian female authors Vibha Batra and Andaleeb Wajid whom I quite liked. I also read short stories by the acclaimed Paro Anand but can't really say that I was shook. In fact I read another set of short stories from Ashok Banker that completely were edgy, shocking and  very entertaining.

4. I won a contest hosted by the publishers Karadi Tales and landed a book called The Insect Boy which really opened my eyes to the fantastic job that Indian publishing houses especially the ones dedicated to children are doing.
5. I also discovered a new genre and the fact that I really liked it. I am talking about the Young Adult genre and some of the fantastic books that I read from this were- Children of Blood and Bone, Goodbye, Perfect and I am Thunder. Goodbye, Perfect was love at first read and I look forward to reading the next part of the Children of Blood and Bone trilogy.
6.Some of these books happened due to the generosity of a couple of publishing houses and I dared to call myself a book blogger all thanks to them and the books that they sent me.
7. I was given a push to start my writing classes by one friend and another coerced me into starting story telling sessions for little kids.
8. I made some serious money from my writing in the last two months of the year and I am so grateful for this opportunity which sort of validated my skills.
9. A couple of people, writers, actually sent me their books for reviewing and I have only gratitude (besides the review, of course) to offer them to have picked me.
10. Found someone to coach me in terms of body love.
11. Also showed my body some kindness by shifting to the cloth pad.
12. Made friends with strangers in a small resort in Puri.
13. A few plants in my balcony were a constant source of joy.

I am sure there must be a lot more good that has happened to me while I was not paying heed and I have one word- Shukraan- for anyone who got my back or looked after me when I needed that. I do plan to add more to this list if I can. I hope the year 2019 is kinder, giving and