Reflection Post for #AtoZChallenge 2021

 

Photo made in May 2019 at Sunder Nursery Heritage Park, New Delhi

One day, in the first week of March this year, I was browsing through the aisles of our local book shop when a hint of turquoise caught my eye.

A small, squarish book wearing a pale blue jacket was perched on a shelf in the poetry section. I left my aisle in the Children's section and picked the book. Felt the grainy cover. Read the blurb. Admired the artwork on the cover and went straight to the till to pay for it.

It was The Book of Ichigo Ichie. 

I'd have to come back to the store the next day to buy books for my friend's four year old daughter. 

By the middle of March, I had decided to participate in the A to Z Challenge, but had no clue what I'd be writing about. I even put a post out on fb to ask for suggestions. But nothing stuck.

On the 22nd of March, while sipping tea under the neem tree, an idea flashed. I wrote to Hector Garcia, co-author of the book, and asked for his permission to use quotes from the book in my posts.  I thought if I get a reply, I'll use the book as my theme and if I don't, I'll wing it somehow.

He wrote back saying, "I love that you write a blog. Feel free to add quotes from our book." within a day. 

And that's how the A to Z series based on the concept of Ichigo Ichie came to be. My theme this year was based on the Japanese concept of Ichigo Ichie which means--"What we are experiencing right now will never happen again. And therefore, we must value each moment like a beautiful treasure."

I had 7 posts prepared before I started. I wrote 2 drafts every day after posting and visiting other bloggers.

This year, I was very comfortable with my visits. I visited all my old blogging friends first, I'm loyal like that:) and then picked 2 or 3 new blogs every day. 

I'm happy to say that this year the quality of comments received were exceptionally good. 

I believe in quality over quantity in every thing I do. Blogging is no exception. Whichever blog I visited, I tried to spend enough time to read the posts and leave a comment but if no comment came, I didn't leave a one-liner to mark my presence.  

As always, I wish I could've visited more blogs. 

I found quite a few new gems this year. I've added all the blogs I liked to my blogroll. 

Here's my THANK YOU 
to all the bloggers who made 

my April truly spring-like: new blossoms and ideas sprouted

on sturdy, old branches and nodded 

to the new growth that May may bring

and perhaps this year of one more than twenty-twenty

will bear sweet fruit borne of curiosity and camaraderie,

despite a virus infinitesimal that's causing such exponential misery!

 A is for Arti, my namesake who writes short fiction on my space

Best mention Vidya and Ruchita who didn't blog but visited regularly and B is free:)

C is for Barbie's letters to herself. You can read them on Crackerberries.

D is for Deborah.

She loves the fact that her name means a bee.

Her topic of Ludic lexicon added new 'old' worlds to my vocabulary.

And like always, every single post of hers is magic perfumed with floral, dreamy imagery.

E is for Ellora Mohanty. After you read her poetry,

you'll thank me (for mentioning her here). You'll see.

F is for Farida. I found her by chance on

the chapters of her life which are full of inspiration, grit and wit.

G is for getting hooked on to a new discovery this year. 

He's called Tomichan Matheikal. He writes about politics and philosophy.

 Gail who is also a new find for me blogs about her writing process from 

H for Hawaii.

I is for Iain, a writer and Scotsman who visited me often. 

He writes fabulous fiction.

More about his trilogy of books is on: Iain Kelly.com

J is for Jayashree Writes.

She wrote about Harry Potter vis-à-vis life's light and not so light sides.

K has to be for Keith's Ramblings.

His humorous tales carried musical notes this time.

His short pieces always bring me a smile.

L is for another new find. It is Love, Laugh and Reflect.

A blog by Purba who's poetry is sublime.

 

M is for the missed opportunity of bloggers who visited me but I couldn't return the favour.

 N is for all the names I cannot list here,

  on account of only a couple of visits this year.

P belongs to four: Pooja, Pinkz, Pradeep 

and the funny Part-time working hockey mom.

 Old blogging friend Pradeep told us about Bangalore's history, 

while Pinkz supported me with her commentary.

Newly found Pooja used words from different languages to write Covid-poetry

and part-time working mom wrote witty pieces based on proverbs, verily.

Thank heavens for Quilting by Frederique.

I got my Q for this list and her posts were fantastic:

check them out for recycling and repurposing stuff into many things stylish.

R is for Rajeev, who I met this year on Spontaneous Overflow.

S, too, belongs to three: Srivalli, Sanskrit and Satabdi

While old friend and now little sister Srivalli 

took us on amazing temple tours in India on Amore Natura,

Durga Dash's Pebbles and Waves shone like a beacon on Sanskrit's 

language and literature.

I'll be going back for more for sure.

Satabdi's posts were all about words to do with the business of creating books.

T is for Trudy who I met very recently.

In fact, in the last week of the A to Z.

She writes about Films beautifully.

Unable to find a suitable U, I'll move on to V.

V is for a Visitor who visited sporadically but I loved the wisdom I found on her/his posts.

I don't know their name. 

The blog is called: Diary of a Sunday Visitor

W belongs to an old blogger friend whose immaculate posts always make me be more like her:

organised, skilful and sorted.

She's Karen from Weekends in Maine

Trust me, you want to visit her to see how she creates WOW! from something plain.

X is for kisses to all the readers who read the posts on Facebook and commented too.

I love you.

Y for me is always, always Yamini. 

I write down her comments in a notebook you see.

Because they're so precious. 

She writes about things that my soul seeks. 

Find her on:

Doses of Wild Yam

And she's even a cool cat of photography!

Z is for Zalka Csenge Virag,

an amazingly resourceful  storyteller from Hungary.

She brings you tales from all over the world in The Multicolored Diary

And with that my dear readers, I end this year's A to Z.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the team at Blogging from A to Z whose hard work and vision has helped me to write so regularly.

Thank you Arlee Bird and J Lenni Dorner and team.

If I've missed out your name, I apologise. I think I've included all those who I continued to interact with right till the end.

Leaving you with this delightful cartoon that my dear friend Sharon shared with me. I knew I'd like to share it here on Reflection day.

Till we meet again amigos.

Stay safe and healthy.

And happy:)

I'll put all of my A to Z s in a  single post soon for convenience.

For now, I'm going back to my bowl of freshly harvested mulberries:)

This year, I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z  powered by theblogchatter.com