17. Sharing your work online is a service, not a promotion.

Year-end contemplation ka mazaa hi kuch aur hai ❤️

Dear reader,
I haven’t published on Substack in a long time. But wanted to quick sneak in an end of the year post. As proclaimed on multiple occasions, I love this time of the year for its journaling potential.

Here is a list I made, inspired by Aishwarya Shrivastav and

The Alipore Post

and written in the warm space of Ochre Sky Writing Circles.

23 THINGS I LEARNED IN 2023

1. Dressing up takes only ten minutes and one smidgeon of your creativity. It gives at least four hours of feeling fancy.

2. People who take risks are the best company. Time is never wasted with them.

3. If you want to write poems, keep a pen in every purse. Poems like to meet you outside.

4. Bookstores and stationery shops show your next true desires.

5. Take your inner dog on a walk every day. It will bite less, and bark less. Bum will continue to wag.
   

   

   plant cuttings I received from my therapist in June 2023

6. If you see someone you love struggle, you will go to any length to learn how to help them. Yet, only those who ask for help can be helped. Anything else is mutual abuse.

7. You are never completely blocked creatively. I mean, just look at the excuses your mind makes. Such innovative pieces of fiction.

8. Courses and workshops are perfect for dating yourself, trying out different outfits to seduce your creativity, and falling deeper in love. Bonus: meeting other people who are self-dating is life-affirming.

9. Wanting to finish everything - a meal, a book, a movie is foolish. Stop when you have received the nourishment and stimulation you need. If the first page of a book has turned some knobs in your brain and inspired you to DO something, don’t force yourself to read more.

10. All lamps are magic lamps. Tubelights are untouchable like gods. A lamp? It gently bends its head like a lover, reads your books with you, and turns a harsh day into a soft evening.

11. Taylor Swift se zyada zaruri hai ek Swift Tailor. Someone who can put a nada in your pyjamas, alter everything until it fits, and turn your mother’s sari into a dress.

12. If you’re lucky, you will find people who will let you be. If you keep being yourself, you will find people who celebrate your being. Leave the first gang (only a little) to find the second one. You deserve it.

13. Going out of your comfort zone also means going out of your friends’ comfort zone. Their discomfort suggests who they are. Your action, despite their frowns, suggests who you are. If you can find one, two, or three people who are proud of you for doing uncomfortable things, you are freaking rich.

14. Some people doubt and dislike themselves so deeply that if you appreciate them, they start doubting and disliking you a bit too. I have been there. It is a desolate place.

15. A mentor who knows everything about everything is great. But a mentor who continues to learn from every student and every situation - now that’s a rare treasure.
    

    

    the plant grew up this much by September 2023

16. You are not bad at money, you are bad at feeling the emotions money arouses in you.

17. Sharing your work online is a service, not a promotion.

18. Having a parent who keeps abreast with your search for meaning, takes interest in your pursuits, and loves you is sheer luck. Having another parent, who does not have a clue why you do what you do, and still loves you, is its own beauty.

19. There are good reasons for bad behaviour. Discuss the case, with all the witnesses, but keep postponing the final hearing. Keep one window open. It’s like how some people block their ex on all apps except email. Drawing porous boundaries is an art.

20. You need to meet as many people who are successful WHILE ALSO BEING kind and grounded AF to rewire your silly thinking that you will lose your sweetness if you get ahead in life.

21. Privacy is sacred. Secrecy is burdensome. Don’t waste time hiding something that is meant to be shared and forcing yourself to share everything personal.

22. People who want to write about their lives want to take responsibility. Hence - they make good partners, good friends, good colleagues.

23. Simplicity is hard. Simplicity does not win applause. Simplicity is if a pillow were also a weapon. It takes time. It is an achievement.

That’s it. 2023 was pretty terrific. Hope 2024 shall be even more warm and shandaar…for all of us… Wishing you a happy new year!

Warmly,

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PS: Write with us in the new year, at Ochre Sky Memoir Workshop. ❤️