Three Hundred
A Thank-you Note
Symbols, numbers and signs have always fascinated me. I seek them and they seek me out. The number ‘3’ and the number ‘7' are of particular significance to me.
I do not think that it is only chance that this, my 300th article on Medium, should be both a prayer of gratitude, and a summary of my Medium journey.
For, yesterday, the 5th of March, I have been awarded the signal honour of my words being granted recognition by ‘Promptly Written’. I went through a brief period of suspended animation when I read the notification, before my heart beats increased to a rate that would cause concern to a cardiac specialist…
🥁DRUM ROLL, PLEASE… AND THE WINNER IS…
💥🎇🎆Suma Narayan💥🎇🎆
As a rank outsider, staring in awe at the ‘stats’ of the eminent writers on Medium, I posted my first piece on Medium, on 24th August. The very first pub that gave my words a home, was Promptly Written. The very first writer and pub owner who told me that she would CREATE a pub so that I could serialise my seventh book, ‘All My Sisters’, was Ravyne Hawke. Her comments and responses gave me hope and inspired me to continue writing.
The very first writer who honoured me by giving me a shoutout, was KSHernandez. And the very first person who started me on my journey with my first 50 ‘claps’, was Sujona Chatterjee, the student I had taught in my English language classes, in the college I taught in.
It gives me a sense of great achievement to have made the cut: it makes me delirious with delight to have won such a prize. To be featured for a whole month on ‘Promptly Written’ and to be also featured on all the major social media websites for a whole month!
Ravyne Hawke has requested me to furnish ‘Promptly Written’ with a list of all my stories across ALL pubs. So here goes.
I don’t just have ‘likes’. I have magnificent obsessions. The man I live with is vaguely uneasy about what he calls my ‘fixations’. “You must not,” he tells me earnestly and solemnly, “be stuck on anything like this.” We were wandering down the aisles of the Coles supermarket and I was trying to find my brand of banana-and-walnut cake that I love. I look at him and nod just as earnestly and solemnly…and continue searching. He sighs and follows me. I think, perhaps, he has given up on me. He has the feeling that I am disobedient and indisciplined, and very, very stubborn.
He used to try and talk me out of these things in the first couple of years of marriage, when he felt that I was meek and submissive. We had this silent showdown in a saree shop, when he tried to ‘persuade’ me that I should buy sarees in his favourite colours : white, off-white and beige. I like those colours too, but not when they are rammed down my throat. I look at him soulfully. “Ok”, I say. Then I turned around to the salesman and requested him to show me a saree drowning in the darkest colours in the shop: a violently violet saree, slashed in cadmium green. I wore it every time we went out together.
He doesn’t advise me about clothes any more.
Which brings me to three of my favourite obsessions: colours, food, and family, among others.
Below these are the other categories I theme my stories on.
Family ‘and other animals’:
https://medium.com/illumination/coming-home-98ec774439
Book reviews:
Gratitude:
Movie and TV Serial reviews:
Nature
Mental Health, Spiritual Concerns and Relationships:
Travel:
Teachers and students:
The Joy of Words:
Poetry:
Food:
These are 113 of the 299 stories and poems I have written and published on Medium, through various publications.
For a period of 30 days in November 2021, I have written a series of articles with ‘Gratitude’ as the theme, for the pub ‘Promptly Written’. I have also written 23 instalments of my serialised novel, ‘All My Sisters.’
I am still in a state of shock, awe and elation and it is going to take me some time to process everything.
Thank you, Ravyne Hawke, and the entire team of ‘Promptly Written’, for this recognition and affirmation.
Thank you.
