Category: Blogging

Posted in Book Review

Book Review | The Enchanted April

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Once again, I hit gold with Project Gutenberg online library. I found “The Enchanted April” by Elizabeth Von Arnim.

Disclaimer: It is not a book you would read in a readathon and enjoy. It is a lazy book to take on a long journey or may be daily commute for a month, or may be, to read by the bedside when you have time to introspect.

Set in 1922, a group of women–strangers to each other, totally different in ages and circumstances–hire a castle on a whim to get away from everything they considered as their lives. Starting with friction that often comes when a bunch of head-strong people are fitted together too close for comfort, it becomes a beautiful journey of finding oneself, and upon finding that, realising that forgiving oneself is the first true step to happiness.

This book is a window into the soul of all who feel unloved.

Enough said, you can find this book here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16389

Let me know what you think.

Posted in Blogging

It isn’t what it looks like!

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Once again, I missed her.

My siren.

There she was singing to me about new stories,

Sitting right beside me,

While I plodded on with office work,

Waiting for it to be over,

So I could write down what she was telling me.

Now I sit with smartphone in hand,

Clueless of what

I was sure to have memorized.

My siren is long gone,

Disappointed at being ignored,

Suspecting of my love.

This is what happens when

You spend too much time with Work.

I hope she knows it isn’t what it looks like!

Posted in Blogging, Random Thoughts

New excuses: Marriage(s)

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

The best part about my blog posts is how I come up with innovative excuses for not posting anything. I think half of my planning time (I get around 20 minutes a day to plan and create posts, if any) goes in thinking of excuses for not posting this time and the rest of the time goes in typing it. Like today. My latest excuse is marriages… that is, in plural.

Not mine, of course. I got married nearly 10 years back…Gosh! 10 years!? And have no intention of repeating the experience of an Indian wedding. To know my thoughts about an Indian wedding, you can go through my previous posts (I do: Part 1 and I do: Part 2). To say that part 3 and 4 are still being written says volumes about the amount of time and energy that goes in describing an Indian marriage. For an immersive experience, you can watch the movie Hum Apke Hain Kaun. If you survive till the end, you can tell me what you think of it 🤣

Getting back to the point, everyone around me is suddenly getting married. For 10 years, I had been cocooned in a false sense of safety which was suddenly torn away from me when one of my husband’s cousin got engaged in August. Considering we are Indians, obviously everyone was involved. I played the clueless bhabhi (brother’s wife), and played it well. So, people decided to take it up a notch and another close cousin got engaged, then my own brother-in-law and then one of my older nieces. And since, it is inauspicious (and potentially unsafe) to keep a marriage waiting for more than three months (lest the bride or groom decide to elope–alone, of course), the marriages had to happen soon.

Ramadan is anyway a busy time but with three weddings–one in each weekend after Ramadan (one of them being my brother-in-law’s)–we were cleaning up, shopping, hosting guests, shopping, hosting guests, booking, hosting guests, attending marriage, attending guests, cleaning up, attending guests, cooking, hosting guests… hosting more guests until we couldn’t stand and couldn’t walk. Ultimately, I decided not to visit the third marriage. (I still need to talk to my aunt and apologize for bailing. I hope she forgives me.)

And did I forget to mention, I had to look nice…perfect…immaculate…polished to shiny perfection…

Especially me, because I am the eldest bhabhi of the clan. I had the duty to look like someone who was holding herself together perfectly well while all I wanted to do was whine about having to run up and down the stairs all day. I had to put on face packs while cooking and apply make up while attending guests who were filling the house to seams. I would apply blush on one cheek and go meet someone, apply shadow on half an eye and go help someone, apply lipstick on half a lip and deal with my daughter. And then I would apply mascara. And spread on different spots of my face. Then I would wash it and start over.

Sometimes I think that make up brushes are equipment of modern torture. They can’t beat you anymore so they tell you to apply make up– there are brushes for everything blush, highlighter, powder, liner, eye shadow application, shadow mixing, mascara, eyebrow… And they always poke you in the eye. You apply eye shadow–it throws powder in your eyes. You put on liner–it is more inside the eyes than out. You clean it and put on just mascara and it pokes you in the eye until you drop the brush (on your cheeks, of course) and howl in pain and swear to god’s that you would never do it again. Then you wash your face and do it again!

Not sure if I got the order correct. I never got the order correct so I got a Color Correction (CC) cream to avoid primer, foundation, concealer, highlighter… It didn’t do anything but it made it look like I was trying, so no one commented. My pathetic attempts to make up were lauded as “Well tried!” “Look at you, you have actually put on make up!”

As far as I am concerned, I looked like a pink-faced monkey. Well at least, I wasn’t looking like a silver-faced monkey like nine years back when my sister-in-law tried to do my makeup. That experience was what drove me to do my own makeup. Of course, I could have got a professional help. But I didn’t have the time in the many days of festivities.

So, I just trudged on. I would say, I did well.

Honestly, in retrospect, it wasn’t so bad. I met a lot of nice people I couldn’t recognise (because of make up, of course) but it was nice to see smiling faces and spend time with my sister-in-law who lives far away. We had a housefull of kids and loads of drama going on that it part of every Indian marriage, but it was fun.

Now, I still have laundry to deal with, which is a remnant of the marriages that started three weeks back. So, goodbye for now. I hope I have given an excuse good enough that you will excuse me for not posting for another few days! 🤣🤣🤣

Posted in Book Review

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Ever since I went on self-imposed bookaholic-rehab, this is the first book I read. I did open others but didn’t go beyond first page because they didn’t call out to my soul. The Blue Castle did.

May be because I was going slow since I needed to make it last the whole month, but I was able savour the book bite-by-bite.

Right from page one, I could feel Valancy’s colourless life and insignificant existence. The book is beautiful because the heroine is not. But finally when she finds pluck, colour returns to her. I hailed her for her choices. I wanted her to find her Blue Castle. I was glad she was trying; that she had tried to live…

The description of Mistawis river in all seasons left me breathless and I crave to see the place with my own Barney, of course.

It is a book for everyone. I would not call it the best book in the world. But it is the most heartfelt book about an everyday person who wanted more from life…

Three cheers to L.M. Montgomery!

Posted in Blogging, Random Thoughts

Inspired

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

My hands are smeared in wet flour from my semi-finished dough when the inspiration strikes. I look around for somewhere to write it. I can spot a paper. Now, where is that pen?

My daughter must have taken it to draw…why can’t she draw with her own pens is a mystery to me. She must have pens in all the colours ever created by humanity and yet, it is my pen she seeks every single time an inspiration strikes her.

I frantically search around, lest the muse leave me behind to be with those better equipped to deal with her. Where could my daughter have kept my pen…or her pens, or pencil, or pencil colours…? Where does she hide writing equipment after using it is another mystery I am yet to unravel.

Suddenly, I spot a crayon lying under the bed and reach out for it. My back is complaining as I grab for it! Now it is covered in dough as well as the bed where I had put my hand to support my weight and the floor where I picked it from. Ugh!

Well, at least I have the crayon now. Okay, where is that paper? I try to write but anyone who had ever kneaded dough can stand witness to what I experienced next. The tiny crayon was slipping from between my fingers that were still smeared with dough. But washing off dough and drying them will take time.

I need something longer.

I lunge for my husband’s pen–this one with a special grip. He is better organised than I, and, for some reason, my daughter doesn’t take his pen. There is a silent treaty between the two of them–I buy you toffees and other stuff, and you leave my stuff where it is. So it is right where it always is.

So, I take his pen quickly and dash for that scrap of paper. The pen behaves as all reasonable ballpoint pens do during the times of need–it splutters several times creating illegible indents on the paper without much ink to call it writing. I feel like a viking trying to write on rocks with a chisel. I have to create loops on the piece of paper to make the pen work properly.

Now, my paper is ruined with indents and smears of dough. But I don’t have the time to look for another. I will have to write in the corners or wherever I can find the space.

Okay, so what was that I wanted to write?

Uhh…

umm…

I was saying that…umm…

Ugh…

It will come back to me, I swear it will. It always does. I will just have to prepared this time. I will carry a pen and paper in my pocket…

Only my dresses don’t have pockets…

I will take notes on my phone…

If I can only remember where I kept it when the muse arrives…

Sigh! I pick up a rag and begin cleaning the dough–now dried–from my hands, the bed, the floor, the crayon and the pen, wash my hands again and go back to my dough…

Author’s note: From years of working in a highly creative field (Instructional Design), I have realised that inspiration strikes at the most unusual moments when you don’t have a pen around–cooking in the kitchen, taking a bath, driving a scooter, hailing a taxi, preparing my daughter for school and, especially, when sleeping!

Posted in Blogging

I had a dream!

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

I had a curious dream last night where I was about to star in a movie and the day before we flew to the shoot location, I hurt both my eyes and had scratch marks over my eyes and puffy under eyes.

And when the producer saw me on the flight, he instantly regretted his decision and tried to get rid of me without making himself look bad. So, he went lobbying with the superstar hero, trying to make him see how bad it will look for him to star with someone like me. :D

The craziest part of the dream is that I never harboured a dream of becoming a movie-star. I can’t act to save my life! Also, I was looking at the dream from a third person point of view, as if I am watching myself (Too beautiful than myself even with scratched eyes) in a movie–no emotions, only entertainment!

Well, it was good while it lasted! :D

Posted in Blogging

Inclusive posts

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

I have recently read a post in where a fellow blogger had to resort to bold font because one of his readers had a difficulty in reading the default text size in grey colour. So, here is how you can increase text size and change text colour in your posts.

Changing text size

You can change text size either all together or one para at a time.

One para at a time

  • Once you are on the said paragraph, go to your post settings.
  • Under the heading Typography, Select M for medium-sized font (which I would recommend) and L for large. For example:
  • This is Medium.
  • This is Large.

All together

Once you are done writing your post, press Ctrl + A keys together to select all the content. In Block editor, you will need to keep the Ctrl key pressed while you press A key thrice. Once you see all your content selected, select the text size as explained before.

Changing text colour

  1. In the very same way in same post settings, under the heading Color, select Text.
  2. Now, select the colour of your choice. I can see various shades of grey, plus white, green, orange and yellow here. (The combinations depend on your selected theme. I can see that mine is quite ugly. 😃)
  3. You also have the choice of changing background colour.

As a sort-of-expert in adult education (Instructional Design is about building training courses for adults.), I have found Black print on White/Cream background as the most readable combination.

I am not sure how it works for Classic Editor. I think it should not be that much different, except that you must manually select the text you wish to change. Or maybe the change happens for the entire post.

Let me know how it works for you. Please share with others struggling with text size.

Posted in Blogging

Sorted | Lost all Subscribers: Are the Aliens Behind it?

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Hey everyone! Thank you for the responses!

I finally found the list of subscribers somewhere in the Stats page. By that time, I swear, I was about to have a stroke! It is not the fear of losing readers but losing friends…your comments keep me going.

You see, I am a work-from-home Instructional Designer by profession.

The job itself is lonely since I just keep looking at the documents trying to decide how to best design them for the maximum impact. And I am working from home, so my only connection to my colleagues is via once-a-week virtual call which often gets cancelled. I do have a joint family, but not everyone understands the rumble inside my brain! :)

Your messages keep me afloat. Since you all have a creative streak, it is like having our own Writer’s Club. You remind me that I am more than the work I do. I joke with you. I often reply to message not directed to me and it makes me smile.

So, losing all of you is not an option. I just realised that I don’t thank you all enough for standing by my side through all these years!

Thank you! I love you all!

Posted in Blogging

Lost all Subscribers: Are the Aliens Behind it?

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Hi folks,

Not sure how it happened but somehow I have lost all my 500+ subscribers–well, at least I can’t see anyone of you on my list. It seems that WordPress has been busy as usual!

If you think my blog is worth it, could you please subscribe back? :)

Also, please forward the message in case some of my old followers are seeing your posts.

Thank you!

@Beetleypete, request your help. :)