Things that matter

Are you like me? Or am I the only one? I suspect many are like me, except that they don’t think about it as much as I do, and don’t analyse and dissect things as much as me. I don’t know. Or maybe they do, but don’t talk about it.

Two great things happened to me.

1. I got a mail saying that my poem ‘Who killed imagination?’ had been shortlisted and will soon be published in a Poetry book series, being launched by Sulekha, in the month of May. I was asked to send my contact details, full name and a short bio about myself.

I was excited and happy. I shared the news with three of my closest friends(non-bloggers), who were happy for me too. But somehow I felt blogging about it would seem like boasting. Then I spoke to Guru . He was excited as well, and said I MUST blog about it and that he would definitely buy a copy of the book.(Thanks Guru!) But of course, I have to dissect everything—and he is a man after all. (Sorry Guru!) So I mentioned it to Prats. And she was delighted as well. She said that of course I MUST share it on my blog. (Thanks Prats!) And so here I am, telling you all. The book will be out in May—and can be bought online. I shall put up details when it is launched. Even if you don’t buy it, please flip through it if you come across it—and please look at my name in print, in a book. :-) Thank you. :-)

2. I met this wonderful guy called Rohit Srivastwa.(Yes that's his picture) Now, now—don’t jump to conclusions. It’s not what you think (or don’t think!). Rohit is an ‘ethical hacker’. His expertise and knowledge completely bowled me over. I was interviewing him for a newspaper article, and we ended up spending about 3 and a half hours talking. The kind of things he told me about hacking and about other things were a real eye opener. Rohit assists the cyber crime cell in Pune (It was fascinating to hear the kind of cases he has handled) and is also the visiting faculty at Asian school of cyber law and Symbiosis. He has set up this community called Clubhack and his mission is to make security a matter of commonsense. He had read my blog and seen my paintings. For very long I had wanted all my stuff (My newspaper articles, paintings, articles which will be published in books etc) in one place. And guess what – (Yes you guessed it right)—Rohit set up my own site for me. (A BIG Thanks, Rohit!) (Click on the coloured words to go to the sites)

I am so thrilled to have my own domain name.

It is preetisatish.com (Click on it and tell me if you liked it. I simply loved it.)

Rohit tested it first—kept asking me what I want and kept making the changes. Then it went live today afternoon. I was delighted and emailed S and Niall. They responded almost instantly).Then I texted three of my closest friends.Only one responded. Maybe the other two were really busy (I know everyone has their own lives to lead and I know it does not mean that they don't care)—but somehow it disappointed me a tiny bit that they did not even reply to my text saying they will see it when they log in.

Do small things like these bother you?

Sometimes I feel I am still mourning for my dad. If he was around, I would have called him up first and told him and he would have been as happy as me. I would not even have bothered to tell anybody else. Here I feel, subconsciously I am looking for some kind of affirmation like he used to give me.(Yes, I dissected why I felt disappointed. And if I met you, I'd probably have dissected each and everything you said too, and why you said it.)

It was this deep need filled with a kind of despair to reach out that made me start blogging in the first place. I am so glad I did, and it has opened up a new path for me and made my life so much richer.

Thanks for reading—and most importantly thank you for responding.

It matters.

Such a lot.