I am back to Bangalore after a week long vacation to home. Even though my mother kept complaining that it was too short a vacation, I had the most of out that time.
Highlights from the trip:
- Surprised the brother with a wallet, as a gift for bhai phonta, which is observed in Bengal to celebrate the brother-sister relationships. He literally flipped when he saw the gift. His expression was priceless – made my day
- Had a long-planned lunch with the brother and a good friend – it was a treat from me. It feels really great when you get to feed people who love to eat
- Gorged on too many lovely dishes made by Mom. It had been so long since I ate a meal with more than one side dish! Absolutely relished it
- Visited my maternal uncle’s place. Gifted sari to Grandma, bought from my salary. Feels like an achievement
- Met cousins, chatted and had some good time with fried snacks. Had my fill of junks for a month
- Spend two hours each on two consecutive days standing in front of State Bank of India to deposit old currency notes
- Started writing a short story while standing in the bank queue. The first draft is now ready – will polish it some more and send to some people for feedback. I am hoping to send it to some magazines once I have the final version ready
- Finalized an offer to host a guest post by a published author on this blog. If all goes well, the post should be live on Nov. 25th
The trip really refreshed me! I met so many people, was part of so many conversations. It felt good to step out of the shoes of an analyst with an ID card. In fact, so many times, unconsciously, I was feeling for the missing lanyard – have gotten so used to have the ID card around the neck.
I am especially happy about the creative liberty this trip gave me. I have a couple of ideas that might flesh out into short stories in near future. I promised myself I will try to finish the non-fiction WIP on Fear and publish it by end of 2016. Hope to get some work done on it this weekend.
Have you been on any trips recently? Do you want to talk about how a trip rejuvenates the mind? Share your experience with me in the comments below.
Until later,
Write On!
Scribbles@Arpita 