Preeti Shenoy's blog.

The last day of the year. I thought I would do a post on the best movies, songs and books of 2012. When I say 'best', it is just my personal choice. It isn't based on sales or any official figures. It is stuff that left an impact on me, stuff that I felt was worth remembering. First the  movies. I do not watch Television at all but I do watch movies. Three movies that i totally loved were: This one really made me cry. I could so identify with the protagonist. If you haven't watched, do watch it. It is a story that will touch your heart. Another movie that I loved was: Surprisingly most men I spoke to didn't like it. They said it was neither a typical James Bond movie, nor was it a 'very good movie'. Me--I totally loved it! Daniel Craig was just wow :-)  Another movie which blew me away totally was: Since I have lived in Pondicherry (I love the place) some of the frames were very places I have been to innumerable times! Life of P

                                                   photo credit: Alan Cleaver via photopin cc 12 lessons I learnt from '12 '12 has almost ended and '13 is nearly here. End of the year always feels emotional for most people. A new year brings new hope. It is almost as if a notch has been made in the annals of time. I am no different. I take stock at the end of the year, look back, reminisce and make my resolutions for the new year. If you want to read about 5 powerful tips to follow those resolutions, read the earlier post that I wrote. A newspaper called me up the other day to ask what were the highlights  for me in 2012.I have had a good year career-wise.(two published books, both doing really well--touchwood). But more than the career, I think what makes a difference is the lessons that we learn, as we go through life's experiences. Here are 12 lessons that I learnt from '12. 1. If people really want to keep in touch with you, they will alw

Apologies for the one day delay in 'Wish list Wednesdays'. For Wishlist Wednesday number two, the winning entry is:  http://shachi18.blogspot.in/2012/12/wishlist-wednesday-2.html  Congrats Shachi! Please send me an address (In India) and your book will reach you.  A special mention was also made of this entry:  http://coziamagypsy.blogspot.in/2012/12/my-one-wish-that-came-true-and-gave-me.html A big thank you to all who took part too! Here is the writing prompt for Wishlist Wednesday number 3.  The one thing that I wish everyone would learn is.................  Write as much as you want or as little as you want! And please link only the specific post, and not the whole blog. And it will be nice if you carry my banner too :) Leave your links below: Happy writing and I hope you are all enjoying it as much as I am! _________________________________________________________________________________ If you like my blog, you might enjoy my book

  My post for Wordless Wednesday __________________________________ Wish list wednesdays will be back tomorrow! ____________________________ If you like my blog, you might enjoy my books :) Grab them   here .   (You don't need a credit card. You can pay cash on delivery) or if you are an Amazon Fan, you can grab them   here  And you can interact with me on my   FB page . I always reply :)

Many of us make new year resolutions  and by 16th or 17th February (sometimes even earlier), we fail miserably. I used to  do it too--make resolutions and fail to keep them. However, over the years, I have devised some fool-proof methods to keep myself going. They work for me like magic and I am sharing them here, hoping they work for you too. They key thing here is that you must really want to achieve them--want them so badly that you are willing to do anything to be able to say 'Yes, I did it.' Here are my top five tips: 1. Identify your time wasters and plug them: All of us have our 'time wasters'. My biggest time waster in my early years of a career as a writer used to be the Internet. It was a double edged sword as my writing needed me to be on the Internet for research. However, I would begin reading something interesting, then there would be a nice tweet which popped up, or a blog-post i absolutely  had to read and before I knew it, three hours were g

The day began with a really tragic news that hit me like a ten tonne truck ramming into my heart. For  a few seconds I couldn't speak. We had been saying  our prayers for a little girl, a friend's daughter, who had been fighting for her life for the last three days. I was certain she would recover. But I was wrong. She succumbed last night. She was only three and had contracted the swine flu. Satish left for Pune to meet her parents. Life is so darn uncertain. And I say this often--'LIVE each day.' And what better day to 'LIVE' than your birthday? Then the phone calls and wishes began pouring in. I was flooded with messages of love.And gifts. And more phone calls. And BBM messages and whatsapp pings and many many SMS. An old friend called from Mumbai. I was so happy to hear from her. A childhood friend whom I had lost touch with and got back in touch recently called. A close friend called from the U.S. Another called from Chennai. Another from Pondicherry

Usually I refrain from commenting on current affairs in this blog. This blog is a ‘happy’ place, a slice of positivity and it has been a conscious effort to keep it so. But the recent brutal rape of the 23 year old girl has really got to me and I feel compelled to write this post. What occurred on the night of 16 th December     can only be described as dehumanizing, horrific, brutal, non-condonable and that will only be putting it mildly. What causes rape? How can it be prevented? The answers to this are multiple, in several layers and would be very varied, depending on who was answering this question. There have been umpteen discussions and hundreds of articles written on this. From bad parenting, to societal conditioning,   to the knowledge that you can get away with it, to the laws that are not so stringent and the worst of all to the attitude that ‘the woman deserved it, after all she was out late with her boy friend’ are some of views which have been aire

Wishlist Wednesday is here again! If you are not a regular reader  do not know what it is all about, read this post. This is a writing prompt I am hosting each Wednesday till the end of Jan, in association with my publishers Westland . All the entries that were posted last Wednesday were read--they were all really good and it was wonderful to know your wishes. The entry which got picked (one entry will be picked and  Westland will mail them a copy of 'The secret Wishlist) was this one:   http://tarangsinha.blogspot. in/2012/12/i-wish.html (please e mail me your postal address  on ps(at)preetishenoy(dot) com and Westland shall do the needful) There were a two more which got a 'noteworthy' mention . They are:     http://www.yashuu.blogspot.in/ 2012/12/my-wish-list.html and  http://dipisblog.blogspot.in/ 2012/12/the-three-things-i- badly-wish-i-could.h  But  please do not feel bad if your entry isn't among these I am sure , the joy is in w

And so I have just finished signing a 3000 copies of 'The Secret Wish list'. My hands are still numb. My neck, shoulders , back, eyes, head--everything hurts. I have indentation marks on my fingers. I have never signed these many books before. It took me more than 35 hours. each carton had to be opened, shrink wrap removed,   the book opened to the right page and I had to sign.      Satish kept pushing me and motivating me and after a while I couldn't tell the difference anymore.   He would open each book and hold it to the right place and as soon as I signed he would put it in the carton and place it away. Not easy lifting each carton (there were fifty of them). I wanted him to be irritated as well, so I would feel better about showing my annoyance, but he was the personification of calm and helpful. That did not even allow me the liberty of a good grumble.  So I shut up and continued the business of signing. I told him that many couples bond over g