2016 has been a year full of surprises for me. So many things happened that I never thought will. The year started with a pleasant surprise when on 14th of January I found this surprisingly pleasant mail in my mailbox congratulating me for winning #TweetYourStoryIndia. It was a surprise because not in a million year I thought I will ever win something, I mean ever. All my life I have been an average student and not so good a writer. So this come as a surprise.
I remember when I won, I was surprised and somewhat happy but the thought that I won't br able to accept my reward was disheartening. I remember it was depressing time for me. From 15th to 20th I tried a lot to convince my parents to let me go to the ZeeJLF and to accept my reward but to no avail. The most depressing time for me was 21st to 26th Jan. I spent most of my time either crying or checking Twitter for the updates on the book festival. I know I was doing the wrong thing by keeping a vigil on Twitter but I couldn't help it. It was like taking drugs for an addict. That addict knew drugs were not good for him but at the same time he can't help taking them. I was like this I knew it wasn't good for me, yet I didn't wanted to miss the things I could know through the media available to me. Missing this chance, going to ZeeJLF, is one thing I regret in my life. It's not like I could never go to the festival again in future but I regret because it was my reward, my first reward in life and I missed it.
Like my first reward January brought another first for me. First time in my life I went on hunger strike. On 20th Wattpad officially announced the winners of #TweetYourStoryIndia, and that day I made a last try to convince my parents but again I failed. That day was my last attempt to convince and it's failure left me disappointed in myself. This disappointment lead to anger and the anger resulted in my hunger strike. I faster for 32 and a half hour that time. First time in my life I stayed hungry for more than a few hours and it felt like an achievement to me. Never in my life I thought I will think of staying hungry, that too willingly. But 2016 showed me that a fat person like me could stay hungry and without fainting.
It was quite a good experience for me and made me realise that I too am capable of not eating and still living, which seem impossible previously.
In all that depressing, hungry state of my mind I never realized that I won a national level contest. A National Level Contest and I didn't realize it until March.
I knew it was a jury based contest but out of the four jury members I was only familiar with two names and they were Tisca Chopra and Amish Tripathi. But I was unfamiliar with the other two judges. The names were unknown to me and I was also unaware of their importance. Those were just two names, even though I knew they must be some people of importance to become judges of a contest arranged by an international website like Wattpad but still they were not much to me.
And then one day in March I felt like I should know these names. I must know the person who like my poem 'Bas Itni Hi Ilteja H' enough to choose it winner of a national level competition. I Googled Neelesh Mishra first because out of the two names it was the one that sound Indian and as my poem is a Hindi one, I thought I must google him first and the result I found was one that have me excited, too excited.
Neelesh Mishra is a Bollywood lyricist and the thought that a good lyricist like him like my poem enough was thrilling. I remember the only person I could share this excitement was Nilam and she was even more thrilled than me. I can just recall how many times she said OMG-OMG in our chat.
I can't explain what I really felt or how excited I was that day. That was the moment I remembered the words Kaya, our co-ordinator from TwitterIndia, said to me that I was one of the only two winners. One of only two who were chosen out of thousands of entries. It was that moment that Kaya's words sank in, really sank in my mind. It was a truth that I was selected from thousands of works and I really won a national level competition and it was not a dream either.
I remember I couldn't bring myself to Google William Darlymple. I knew he too will be of some significance and at that moment in my excited state I couldn't have handled it so I deliberately chose to not Google him. It was much later that I finally Google him and found out that not only Mr. Darlymple is a Historian, who have authored several books on Indian History but he is also co-founder of ZeeJLF. This too was an excited revelation, one that have me thrilling. I haven't just won a national level competition but I was chosen by a panel of some really good authors, celebrities and lyricist. If that wasn't the highlight of my life then nothing could be.
Another surprise came in the form of the announcement of #Wattys2016, and this year it was early. In June 2016 Wattpad not only made announcement of Wattys but also surprised us that entries from different Languages were allowed this year. And this announcement induced me to write my first ever short story in Hindi 'Ha Mujhe Dar Lagta H'. So far my short stories were in English but #Wattys2016 proved to be a great inspiration for me and my Hindi short story came into existence. It was a good experience for me and I realized how bothered I was from all that happened around me. And writing was the only way I could get all those things off my chest.
I have two similar stories one in English and another in Hindi. Where 'Ha Mujhe Dar Lagta H' showed the molestation and harassment women feced today, Anamika, my English short story, present the tale of a raped girl and I don't know how to go on with it. After months of starting it, I have come to a standstill. I know what I want to write. I know where I want to take this story from there, still I'm unable to write it. Maybe I'm not adequate to write it. Maybe I'm not a good writer at all. 2016 has ended and gave way to 2017 but my story is still far away from ending. But I hope the year will be an inspirational one.
2016 was full of surprises for me and the last surprise came in the form of the announcement of Awards #Wattys2016. I entered Palchhin-2 in Wattys but without any hope of winning. Truthfully I was sure I won't win. Palchhin-2 was not a success like Palchhin. Where Palchhin git more than thousand reads, votes and comments in mere six months, Palchhin-2 was still to reach that point after more than a year of its publishing. It won't be wrong to say that I was disappointed. There were any times in the past year when I thought of stop writing. I felt like no one wanted to read it but the support of my friends kept me going and I completed the book after one and half year of its start.
I never thought that there will be a day when I will see Palchhin-2 as a winner. It came as a shocking surprise that Palchhin-2 was awarded with Collectors' Edition Award in #Wattys2016. I wouldn't have believed it if not for getting a Private message from official Wattys page. I would definitely have thought of it as a prank if one of my friends have told it to me but as I was informed by the official page I had no reason to doubt it.
But you know what was most shocking and surprising than winning? It was people congratulating me on both here and Facebook that surprised me most. Everyone said that I deserve to win, not one person questioned it and said that Wattys had made a wrong choice. It was then that I realize that no matter if I have less votes or reads, what matter is that people like my work and nothing could be better or meaningful than that. The recognition I got is all that matter and that's all that I must think about.
2016 has been most eventful in my life and I'm thankful for my friends and their kind support.
Thank you all for this wonderful year. I hope to have your support during this new year.
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Hopefully 2017 will bring Lots of Happiness and Prosperity in your life and it will be filled with joy :)
