happiness and food

Have you read Inside Story, part 1, Meet the Bloggers? If not – don’t miss the chance to know who we are 🙂

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A lot of people say I love to analyse things and may be it comes naturally to me but I found the following stats about us interesting to share and hence before I dive deeper into revealing a little more about us, let’s have a look:

• We are a team of 8. You heard it right! No more, no less – just 8
• Gender diversity – Talk about it. The most healthy ratio ever – 2 guys and 6 of us!!
• 50% of us know Bengali
• 38% of us are from South of India (I am included)
• Youngest member of our group is a teenager!
• Eldest member of our group is a teenager’s mom
• 25% of us are from Maharashtra
• 25% of us are currently blogging from different time zones. They don’t live in India

We are an interesting bunch and the best part is we have gelled pretty well (touch wood). Irrespective of distance, languages, time zones and gender – Game of Blogs, a contest by BlogAdda got us together and it’s literally #celebrateblogging this festive season.

This Friday, AS shared an article with me. It set me on a perfect note to begin the weekend. The article talks about how the benefits of writing go far beyond than just building vocabulary.  Research proves that writing improves health in the long-term by reducing stress and depression levels and helps us sleep better. Isn’t that a positive reinforcement? I think it is! I also found one more thing about writing. When you write fiction or something out of imagination, chances are that some fragments of your personal life will also show up in your writing. What’s the proof? Well, I haven’t taken up the topic to research but I can talk about our team – Wordoholics.

Shruti, my teamie and I took up this fun task of asking each one of us to share little secrets of their personal lives and how they think it also ties to the story (Nights of White Satin) we are writing for Game of Blogs. The results were in fact correct.

Remya: Remya is from Kerala and she loves watching rain. While she does that, her favorite pastime in this pastime is to think of good old days. Jennifer in Chapter 1 of our story imitates Remya. The reference to bare-chest boys running around, football grounds filled with water and resembling like a pond are little memories of heavy downpours. In Chapter 12, Tara listens to Roohie’s breathing rhythm when she is disturbed. When Remya feels low, she does the same. She hugs her daughter and listens to the beats of her heart and sound of her breath. That is peace and calmness for Remya. Like Tara, isn’t it? Also read Chapter 18 to check what you think might relate to Remya.

Anunoy: He enjoys words like black and dark. Every title suggested by him will contain either of these two words and even his first post brought out the negative shades in Shekhar’s character. He admits, “I love darkness, semi urban, quiet environment and I do escape to such places in the outskirt of my city when I’m too heavy with my emotions… I find solitude more soothing than a shoulder to cry upon”.

Read Chapter 5 of our story and you will know more about what I am talking. Shekhar alone in his car, drives to a lonely part of the city and yes, it was black and dark all around. Even in Chapter 13, you will witness some charm around that golden liquid – the only other color Anunoy likes other than black!

Bhakti: A kid a heart, she shaped Roohie’s character. Like Roohie, Bhakti admitted to be a naughty little girl. Bhakti revisited her personal childhood memories throughout the post. When in school, Bhakti was popular among her seniors and she use to run to get a window seat on the way back home. Sounds familiar? Well, read Chapter 3 of our story and know more about both Roohie and Bhakti. Chapter 16, she talk about Open Source OS – and why not? It’s her favorite subject 😉

Bienu: Bienu is a romantic at heart and I also think she loves Bollywood.  But most importantly, when she was shaping up Tara and Shekhar’s characters, she had her own youth dreams at heart. Like out story says, Bienu wanted to spend her life in the lap of Himalayas. Like Tara, Bienu has a daughter and she manages home and professionally life in the best possible manner. Bienu feels the character sketches she drew were a way of revisiting her past.

Coming over to Shekhar, when you read Bienu’s post – Chapter 4 and Chapter 11, you will notice Shekhar’s love and respect for his mother. Over a candid revelation, Bienu mentioned that only a guy who respects his mother can really respect other women. This was one important quality out of many others she was looking for in her life partner. Glad, Bienu’s wish got fulfilled.

Gitanjali: Our POC is awesome. Gitanjali keeps us together all the time and like Cyrus, she also studied in Jawaharlal Nehru University akka JNU, Delhi. References of Ganga Dhaba and its famous chai and egg parantha, Parathasarthy rock and place of adda, Prof Chenoy (he is lecturer in School of International Studies) everything is from her own college life. She admits that she felt a part of her in Cyrus’ character.

In personal life, when Gitanjali is under stress and fails to find an immediate solution to her problems, she often blankly stares at my bookshelf or the fan and somehow that gives her some sort of solace. She did not hesitate to add this personal angle to her piece when Aryan and Tara are introspecting about an impending issue in their life. Don’t believe me – Read Chapter 6 and Chapter 17 of our story.

She told us, “We draw inferences from real life and that is when fiction comes alive.” Beautifully expressed!

Depanjan: Well, who is the most humble person of our group and who makes us ladies feel so elderly? Of course Depanjan! Depanjan loves clicking pictures and he wants to buy a DSLR very soon. Read Chapter 7 of our story and you will notice Jenny’s love for her camera, her most faithful companion. Depanjan’s dreams of being a proud owner of a camera become a reality we he writes. Isn’t that such a beautiful form of hope? An open challenge for all – Read Chapter 8 and Chapter 19 and tell us what more do you know about Depanjan? 🙂 Go wild in your thoughts. We won’t mind!

Shruti: Shruti to me is a simple girl and I think she is a dreamer. She loves the sea, the saline air kissing her lips, the sand slipping through her fingers and everything else about the sea. Looking at the waves, the water touching the shore and retreating gives her so much happiness that she forgets all her sorrows, fears, and anything that troubles her. Sounds familiar? It should if you have read Chapter 9 and Chapter 14 of our story. Like Cyrus, Shruti maintains a treasure chest which is full of things dear to her and contains a lot of memorabilia since her school days. She is a dreamer. Told you!

BTW – she also deals with insomnia like our very own Cyrus.

Parul: So, now it’s my turn. Well, I wrote 4 posts during the two rounds of Game of Blogs and every time I was writing these – I could relate to my dreams or personal life. To mention a few – Tara has a beautiful voice and she sings. When I was growing up, I dreamt of being a singer. My voice is decent but singing was not my cup of tea. You can find this in Chapter 2 of the story. When I was writing about Aryan Ahuja, it was VT’s birthday that day. I could not help but start the post about a birthday gift for Aryan in Chapter 15 knowing very well that I hadn’t got even a cake for VT! Mean me!

In Chapter 10, I talk of jogging early in the morning on bandstand in Mumbai and watching the Sun rise. I was in Mumbai for 6 months but unfortunately I could never see this sight so these lines were like living a personal dream. “When a woman puts her heart into something, she will get her brain to follow her heart.” Copied these lines from Chapter 20 of our story as I truly believe in this one. I think women are strong and they can reach their goals. They just don’t try hard enough. Go women!!

So what do you think about the 8 of us? Read our story and stay behind our back. We need a lot of support and encouragement!

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Shruti has worked really hard on all the animated images and I am glad I had her support on this post. Enjoyed working with you girl!!

Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs’ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.