Tuesday, May 6, 2014

In Retrospection : The AtoZ challenge days

Reflection is sweet when a demanding challenge like AtoZ- simultaneously arduous yet invigorating, is successfully done and dusted.  It tastes sweeter when a few awards, in the form of appreciation from your fellow friends, are thrown into the mix.

When I retrospect on my decision  of 25th March,2014 to join the writing experiment  from a write tribe post of  Corinne, I have no hesitation in concluding that this not-so-well-thought-out  jump covered quite a distance and it helped me validate myself. I was neither aware of this event earlier and nor was I in a position to pre-write a single post. Only thing that pushed me to take up this task was my blogging journey that had initiated just a couple of months ago. It did put me into a web zone with a set of like minded people- accomplished in their own merit, with whom, given a chance, I would sincerely like to trudge along, any day.  I don’t want to sound artificial and untrue with mere mention that everything went hunky dory and I enjoyed every minute of it. Yes, I had my own highs and lows, laced with myriad emotions running high on different days.

The zeal and zest for the initial few days, with so many thoughts to talk about, soon gave way to the dreadful deliberation of trying not to sound monotonous, repetitive and painful to others. The thought about not ending up being a burden on my fellow bloggers, did cross my mind from time to time. While in the mid game, I was close to feeling penitent on the choice of the topic – commented at the beginning by Beloo as a tall ask (!), but somehow I held the fort with spirit and continued.  

 It has been a great learning curve for me and helped me mature towards rearing my long cherished passion to take up the pen again- just for the sake of writing.  On the jagged corners of the course, while I was pushed to the brink to withdraw during my nocturnal writing sessions, the soothing zephyr of dawn through another read coupled with the motivating comments kept me going. The dollops of zing poured through the kind support of the facebook group mates, not allowing me to give up, were at times the only succor to stay put. Sometimes, I faced an internal dilemma if a theme based writing, on a daily basis, does suck out one’s creativity which was then countered with getting over the anxiety of going blank on writing and overcoming the dreadful syndrome –the  writers’ block.

Today, while writing this post, I feel immensely gratified that this series opened up a whole new world in front of me and I got to know and exchange thoughts with people across the world, from all the continents. There were so many beautiful writings keeping me hooked and glued day after day, such breath taking snaps introducing the places I might not physically visit and awesome food, philosophy, short fictions, haikus, festival tours, nostalgic diary of college and school days, amongst many more thought provoking contributions from the participants. While any kind of particular success was not in my mind other than challenging my own self at the beginning , I am fortunate to come closer to so many wonderful philosophers, educators, linguists and other personalities, all of them, I collectively and fondly call as friends.  Yes, friends – Beloo, Eli, Tom, Vishal, Carol, Kathy, Usha ji, Damaria, Philip, Rajlakshami, Proactive Indian, PravashPheno, Shailaja, Shilpa, Vidya, Richa, Sunila, Srilakshmi, Shesha, Sreeja,  Sheela, Sitara, Sugandha, Inderpreet, Tulika , Shalini, Maniparna, Nabanita, Angela , Danny, Dr Sushree and many more , it was only because of you that I could sail along and this poor soul remains indebted to all of you for making me a part of your journey.  Though unintentional, I am sure I have missed mentioning quite a few of the names who have visited my pages from time to time and encouraged me. I sincerely apologize for the inadvertent oversight.

I also thank my wife, Sharmistha, for putting up with me while I was in the zone and helping me with her timely reviews and comments.


Thank you all once again for being there. 

26 comments:

  1. Congratulations on completing the challenge! It was fun to do it with you and cheer you on. So pleased we both lived to survive it and tell the tale afterwards. ♥

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    1. Thanks, Kathy. Yes, we survived this together :-)

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  2. Thanks a ton for the mention, Jayanta and, thoroughly, enjoyed ur inspiring posts. I am happy to see how you making a difference in the world you live and appreciate ur efforts. It's superb reading a talented person like you:)

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    1. Vishal, Got to know you in the last leg...You were awesome transporting me to my college days :-)...BTW, I follow your blogs now :-).

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  3. Wow! Great. So, the great blogging festival is bidding goodbye! I was enjoying reading different ideas of different bloggers that the single letter made to think them about. I hope your blogging journey gets a boost with participating in this challenge. :) Happy blogging!!

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    1. Yes, Namrata, It is over..Thanks for visiting the blogs and supporting. Next year, hope to see you as a participant as well. It is a different experience altogether..

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  4. Good. I feel happy watching those who complete such challenges.
    I never take up any

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    1. Thanks, Mr. Chowla. Request to take the plunge...It is better to get the ring side view than outside :-).

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  5. Congrats on completing Jayanta! You are a good friend! And thanks for the mention - I mention you also - really learned alot from your theme-. and so happy to connect with you:-)

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    1. Thanks Eli for considering me a friend. That is the best gift for me out of this series :-). Let's stay connected through our blogs...

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  6. Jayanta, this was a great reflection post, so honest and from the heart. You managed to do really really well with your theme! Congratulations. And thanks for the kind mention. Happy to have made the connection via this challenge. See you around :)

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    1. Thanks, Beloo. Yes, I also look forward to exchanging thoughts going forward..

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  7. Congrats on successfully completing the challenge! Really cool, Jayanta :)

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    1. Thanks, Ma'm. Appreciate for being there and your support..

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  8. Jayanta, it was good to connect with you during A-Z! Looking forward to more interaction.

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    1. Thanks, Pro. I do look forward to future interactions. I am fortunate to get connected to you as well.

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  9. Jayanta, your reflection on the A to Zers is appreciable. As a new entrant in the sphere of blogging, you have done wonderfully well. I liked the sincerity with which you write. You will surely get many accolades in the days to come. Kudos!!

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    1. Thanks, Usha ji. Your words and blessing carry a lot of meaning to me in this journey. Thanks again.

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  10. Your experience sounds like mine, 4 years ago, when I jumped in head-first. I'm so glad it ended up being a transformative experience for you, this is what we cohosts work for each year.

    Congratulations !!

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    1. Thanks, Damyanti, for your time on my blog. Yes, I have learnt a lot. Hope to carry the learnings along...Look forward to your support.

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  11. It is fantastic that despite the challenges, you had a rewarding and satisfying experience this April, Jayanta! And congratulations for completing it too. Good to meet you through this challenge and thanks for the mention :)

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    1. Thanks, Shilpa. Yes, it was indeed rewarding in the company of you all experienced friends :-).

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  12. Like you, with daily blogging- I have faced writers block that too with panic attack sharp at 8 pm (four hours before 12) Lol! But seriously this was a vast topic you picked up and there was 26 different issues to talk about. I salute to everyone who blogged with a theme and like Beloo yours was tough too! Congratulations for completing the task so wonderfully :)

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  13. Hi Jayanta,
    Good to be here again!
    Great Going my dear friend
    Congrats for touching the finishing line. As I mentioned in my first post in this series the starting trouble continued in the finishing post too, yes, your comment appeared at both places, since this was the problem with me this year i could not visit many of my friends pages and the return too was not good, I think in the blogging sphere the give and take policy is still prevalent. I could only visit very few and comment on very few, Jayanta you did a tremendous job here. Thanks a lot for the wonderful shout out here. Thanks for the mention. Unfortunately some of the link are not working like Beloo Philip, please check and fix it,
    Thanks
    May you have a happy weekend
    ~ Philip

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  14. Hello there.
    Thanks for sharing. Just stopping by to congratulate you on completing the A-Z Challenge! I'm making a short pit stop from the A-Z Road Trip!

    Entrepreneurial Goddess

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