Twenty- five Seven

My #Favourite posts of 2016

December 26, 2016

Day is done ,Gone the Sun

From the sea, From the Hills

From the sky

All is well

Safely rest

God is nigh

I was reminded of this close of day Taps that we used to chant as Girl Guides way back in school. (Does this organisation even exist today)

The year is coming to a close and this is the last Monday in 2016! This is also the ideal time for #MondayMusings and recall my favourite posts for 2016.

My Most Popular Post

It is strange but one of my most popular posts remains the one on Mutton Street or Mumbai’s Chor Bazaar? Admittedly, old is gold and this is a great place for antique hunters. I have written several posts about this area which are equally popular. While I am flattered that these posts have staying power, I feel a bit disheartened that my recent posts have not met such success,

I have come a long way in my blogging journey and there are several posts that I feel ought to have had more footfalls. These are some of my favourite posts:

My favourite posts of 2016

The #AtoZChallenge was the first challenge I attempted this year. Unlike last year when I decided to wing it, I thought I’d make my life easier and chose a topic I thought would be a breeze – writing about the favourite objects in my house. That turned out harder than I thought especially when it came to the last letters in the alphabet. I definitely didn’t have a Yacht in my backyard because I don’t even have a YARD! Nor do I have a favourite X ray and as for Z ? That will always remain difficult unless you have a Zebra in your zoo. My best blog post in the month of April has to be T for teacup where I describe my special tea cup for my special Chinese tea.

My best posts were my video blogs written during my trip to the US. Travel blogs are always more interesting especially when you have great photographs. Sadly my limitations with my iPhone prevented me from churning out first class posts but definitely my favourites have to be the photo blog of my trip to Ellis Island and the video blog of my visit to the red wood forest outside of San Francisco. Apart from the photographs, what I really loved was discovering and playing with Ripl and Snapseed, two photo Apps that I discovered while I was away.

In fact I enjoyed posting all my blogs from the US and am disappointed that they didn’t get many visitors . Perhaps I hadn’t hash tagged them properly.

All in all, 2016 was a decent year where I blogged despite several challenges – including three months where I was locked out of my WordPress account!

What was your favourite post in 2016?

I’m linking this post up to Corinne’s #MondayMusings
These Circuses that Sweep the Landscape #Book Review

December 20, 2016

Life is a circus

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be lost in a giant shopping mall? Have you ever watched in amazement as blue flames danced over a banana pudding ? Or have you ever been consumed by an irrational love that affects your daily life? Life seems to be a series of circuses that sweep through the landscape of Tejaswini Apte-Rahm’s collection of short stories in the book of the same name.

“These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape”is delightful book recently launched by Aleph Book Company . Furthermore, Trilogy, the quaint bookshop and curated library tucked away in the labyrinthine mess of the Raghuvanshi Mills compound was a complementary host to this event.

Meet the Author of “These Circuses”

Despite the fact that it was late Saturday evening, the book launch was well attended. The audience enthusiastically participated in the Q & A session after each of the two book readings . An unexpected treat was the sonorous “Sway With Me” by Dean Martin , an inspiration for one of the stories.

Tejaswini Apte-Rahm is the author of the short story collection “These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape” published by Aleph Book Company in December 2016.

She is a full-time writer from Mumbai.

Her short stories have been published in Himal Southasian (Nepal), BLink (Hindu Business Line, India) The Big Chilli (Thailand), Six Seasons Review (Bangladesh) and The Daily Star (Bangladesh), as well as in Monsoon Midnights, an e-book anthology of stories about Bangkok.

Tejaswini worked as an environmental researcher for ten years, during which time she wrote two non-fiction books. She was also a journalist in Mumbai, and has written on cinema, photography and environmental issues for Screen, The Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Asian Age.

She studied at the JB Petit High School for Girls (Mumbai), the United World College of South-East Asia (Singapore), the University of Sussex and the University of Kent (England).

Tejaswini has lived in Serbia, Israel, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh, spending a year or two in each country with her husband and daughter.

Currently she is based in London.

The Book

In this collection of ten diverse stories, the common becomes uncommon. And the author’s rather unconventional approach, slowly peels back the layers of complex human emotions through ordinary characters with a dark and quirky side.

I found this book an interesting read and relaxing despite its somewhat twisted characters and unexpected endings. Where else would you find ten stories with different emotions? Through ordinary situations, the author reveals fear, greed, passion and love.

An excerpt from the book

“A loud crackling breaks through the dust and then melts into a deep voice, mellow like wood-smoked honey, gentle and heartbreaking as lips against skin… he sings a song of seduction, how playful, how tantalizing his invitation to fly to the clouds, to sing together and find a rainbow away from the crowds. He switches to Italian. I have no idea what the words mean.”

End word

Sadly, many people give the short story the go-by. But it is a form of prose that should resonate well with Millennials and a digitalized audience. It’s length and pace is just right for readers on the go. The beauty of the short story is the pithiness and distinct economy of words. And Apte-Rahm displays a distinct aptitude in conjuring characters and retelling stories with just the right words.

[Tweet “Definitely a must read this holiday season. Let the surreal world of these circuses sweep through your landscape as you sip a hot cup of tea”].

Order your copy today on Amazon or Flipkart.

E-book now available on Amazon.in as well as on international Amazon sites.
What went wrong in 2016

December 19, 2016
What went wrong?

Looking back at 2016
As I woke up this morning, it suddenly struck me that today is the second last Monday of 2016!

The last 50 weeks have literally flown by.

Of course there were times when days seemed to crawl but as the year draws to a close, I feel it’s gone by all too fast.

It’s that time of year when the weather is cooler and everyone is feeling cheerier with the thought of year end festivities.

it is also that time of year when one looks back and reflects on what went wrong and what went right .

Looking back

Unfortunately despite the fact that my traffic has doubled and my engagement increased, I still have not reached the dizzy heights that other bloggers have reached in the few years that they’ve been blogging.

I barely have 122 people following my blog!

What is going wrong?

My mistakes and how to avoid them

1 Chewing more than I could bite

There are numerous challenges posted throughout the year and I foolishly participated in several of them without really considering my time crunch. Juggling three babies, managing a household, travelling ,and entertaining makes blogging very difficult.
- In order to do justice to a challenge, one needs TIME. So the first thing I am going to keep in mind is not to accept a challenge unless I am sure I’m going to stick to it.
#2 Not looking before hitting publish

A major mistake I make is hitting the publish button in a rush. No sooner do I write something than I post it. This often leads to parts of the meme/theme/challenge left unexplored. Later on, when I re-visit the post, I find I can’t really understand what I meant by something. e.g. the context changes or the relevance changes; or sometimes I’ve referenced something that only I understand!
- So I am now only going to publish a post after I’ve read it and re-read it a couple of times making sure that everyone gets the point.
#3 Too many Gurus spoil the blog

In an effort to improve my blogging skills and largely to monetize my blogs, I’ve followed several Blog Gurus. But I find that I have not followed their instructions to the T. For instance if you have to write 31 days with Darren Rowse, you should do that before joining Michelle on University of Blogging.

This mistake is closely related to #1 where I join several programs at once. Often times these programs have conflicting exercises so I easily abandon one for the other…….
- I should follow ONE guru at a time
#Diving into the deep blue sea of social media

Being inept at social media is a disadvantage in this digital world. Sadly, I leapt into the unknown when I publicised my blog automatically via WordPress.

Leaping into the world of social media without understanding how it works is as dangerous as jumping into the deep sea.

While Millenials may not be my target audience, they are the ones who are totally digitalised. Social media is attuned to their interests and effective use of social media so if I want a better Alexa ranking I have to master Social Media.

Last word

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

Linking this post with #MondayMusings

Posts with the most footfalls

814 views Surprisingly, the post with the most views was my visit to Mumbai’s Flea Market. This is one fascinating warren of streets and back lanes in one of the most crowded parts of Mumbai. At one time, it was the whole sale meat market ( hence the name Mutton Street) that doubled up as a flea market on weekends. With a more regulated market for fresh provisions, this soon became the permanent home for the Flea Market or Chor Bazaar. Mumbaikars joke that if you find something missing at home, you will definitely find it in the Chor Bazaar or Thieves’ Market where new stuff sits cheek by jowl with the old. These days many of the antiques are reproductions (which the sellers will proudly tout as genuine fake madam) but you can get the occasional bargain if you look hard enough and know your antiques.

With many old buildings being razed to the ground, several architectural beauties like carved archways, door knobs, ornate cast iron grills and railings, seasoned Burma teak panels and exquisite porcelain tiles are found at this market and at Jogeshwari where there is more space to keep all the wares.

518 It would seem that my posts on shopping were the most popular with my recapitulation of the traditional shopping district scoring a close second. Extending beyond Chor Bazaar is the higgeldy piggeldy mess of wholesale trade in the Island City of Mumbai. This place too is changing gradually with shiny brass and copper ware slowly giving way to the more pedestrian stainless steel and (sigh) all pervading plastic!

My favourite posts

However, during the last quarter of the year when I was visiting the US, I discovered the joys of two Apps – Ripl and Snapseed. These two allowed me to make quick posts with just a photograph or two.

Seeing the sunset at Carmel was not only a calming experience but the perfect end to a wonderful day. The sun smiled on me during my brief visit to San Francisco and I was lucky enough to enjoy the sites and sounds in the company of family.