Fatherhood Tales

I live to eat and sleep well, and most of the people I know will agree to one if not both; one of the biggest opponents of my life-mantra is my dear daughter. Why does she hate sleeping? And why does she hate eating good food, and no I am not talking about the baby-goop that is branded and sold as full nourishment for your kid, I am talking about absolutely tasty food made by the wife in shuddh-ghee. I would lick the plate clean if presented with that, take a nice loud burp and toddle off to sleep, not my daughter – she would take a look at it, scoff at the insolence of her parents that they gave her food, turn to the closest non-food object, pop that in her mouth and toddle off to tear apart another paper in small pieces. At least for the sleep part I can understand her logic – why waste it sleeping when you can spend that time making mom-dad turn tricks for you?

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I don’t know how, but she seems to have picked up a few political genes as well. She won’t do anything until her palm is greased. “Want me to take a bite of food? First give me your mobile-phone.” ”Another bite? Jump up and down for me.” “Another one? Only if you let me go out of the room after this bite.” ”More? I need Dad’s glasses before I can promise anything.” “Are you trying to stuff me? I need to watch that video on youtube.” ”Are you kidding me? I already ate 5 bites and I refuse to yield with even all your pressure. I am not a politician that I will agree if you promise me more.”

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I remember some research that kids start lying early, I can provide conclusive proof to that. If I am ignoring the kid, and she wants my attention she will resort to all tricks possible. She will blow her nose like it is running so that I check all is well, “OK Dad came and went back seeing my nose is not runny at all. Time to step it up a notch.” Next she will shout putty (no, she is not talking about the ssh client – although can’t be sure with kids of this age) instead of potty and hope for the best. When another check reveals her lies, she will resort to the safest bet: shout “dudhu” or “pani” – after all which Dad can ignore a plea of hunger? I will pick her up and get a glass of water for her. Mission accomplished!  :-)

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Absolutely enjoying this phase, should have started writing these fatherhood tales earlier.

Seven Years

More then seven years ago I was introduced to the concept of blogging by @vidit and I was hooked. Started with some url I do not even remember now, moved to spaceofkunal.blogspot and then I received an invite for WordPress and got the url – kunal.wordpress and have been at the same address for a while. Many times I thought I’ll buy a domain and shift my blog, but two of my constant companions – procrastination and laziness – never allowed me that liberty. Guess I’m stuck here for a while.

When I started blogging, all my initial posts were about my life or the college days. Sports made an appearance some time later (and so did two failed attempts at writing sports-centric blogs), then the topic of Hyderabad. There were months I would blog daily or at least once in two days, and then there were months when my own visits to the blog could be counted on one hand. At times blogging was a stress buster when a pathetic day at work would make me visit this blank canvas and just type away without thinking. After all this was the internet and I was anonymous (not anymore!).

I started writing short stories sometime in 2006, and to my delight people actually enjoyed what I wrote. This boost of confidence allowed me to write more – sometimes pathetic short stories (which even I hate upon re-reading now), and some short stories which I absolutely love even to this day. And then there was a time when I stopped writing about my life, I stopped watching any sports, and I did not have any opinions on anything. At such times bereft on any ideas I turned to posting photographs, and then moved to the most obvious recourse – book reviews. After all I was a voracious reader, and there was no better place to opine my comments! My blog had turned truly eclectic.

And then somehow my book-reviews clicked with the authors, my short-stories got more appreciation. Authors started contacting me for book reviews, my short stories got published in two books – Urban Shots, and Down the Road – and even got interviewed; my blog shifted from being a personal blog to one dedicated to books and book reviews. Well I don’t mind writing book-reviews but I don’t remember the last time I wrote anything which had nothing to do with (a) Books (b) Sports. But then these are the two things in focus right now in my life; since I’ve stopped blogging about my personal life.

This post is quite a change for me, this is a throwback to those years when I blogged without thinking. And true to those days I will not proof-read this post. Seven years of blogging – don’t know when will I, if ever, stop blogging.

Urban Shots

What-a-feeling! Seeing my name on the back-cover of a book is exhilarating

The book Urban Shots – where I am a contributor – would be out by November end. There are 29 stories being told by 13 disparate writers. As I was looking through the authors’ page, I found myself in very good company.

Cannot wait to hold the book in my hands, till then I’ll have to do with the book covers

Urban Shots Cover

 

Urban Shots on twitter, and on facebook.

update life set …

I just hope Life had taken a course in Economics. Last month when there was a severe dearth of time the demand for it was astronomical, now when for the past few days there has been a constant supply of time, the demands have waned.

The house hunt started in early December, took a back-seat for 15-20 days owing to me trusting an untrustworthy person’s words, went on full-fledged for again some 15 days which culminated with me getting the same house that I had set my sights on earlier in December. Worked hard, really hard – devoted many hours to the trials and tribulations of the sometimes mundane, sometimes invigorating office work. Shopped a lot, and by “a lot” I really mean a lot – an impeding wedding does this to you. And now, I have shifted in my new house, the office work has been done, the shopping is all done – all there is left now is the wait to lose the Bachelor’s degree.

Two announcements – We [Rakesh, Utkarsh & me] have started a cricket-centric blog – Cricket Shastra. Many posts are up, go check them out, and catch the feed here. And Felicity – the annual college fest of my alma mater IIIT-H is scheduled for this coming weekend: 8-10 Feb; if you are in Hyderabad, do not miss it.