I got a dream one night, I was a child in it. I was at play and came in with my hands and feet muddied. When i entered my room after I had cleaned up, I saw my dad poised at my desk with some sheets of blank paper and pencils. I stopped in my tracks and stared blankly at him with my mind racing to figure out the why of his presence at my desk. Had I forgotten an assignment and had my school phoned him to complain about it? But no, I was a topper in my class and had a spotless record of being a responsible one at that. I had never till date delayed or missed submitting an assignment, neither had I ever let my marks drop from the best. So, what was it then?

He beckoned to me to sit by his side. I walked up to him, unsure but did all the same sit down close to him. He took my hand, wrapped my right palm-fingers around a pencil and made as if to guide me to write! I was stumped again and looked up at him silently. For heaven’s sake, I was in my fifth grade and what exactly was that? He was silent, but gestured with his eyes towards the paper to start writing. While I was still in my state of confusion, dad vanished because my dream ended abruptly!

I woke up and actually did look for my dad around, but realized was in my bed and turned to my side with a smile, happy to have got a glimpse of dad, for its years sine he has moved on to another realm. For all of the following day, my mind kept going back to the dream. I dismissed it as a random dream sometime close to the end of the day and while I drove to work the next day, I think I kind of put some meaning into it.

Dad aspired me to be if not a writer, at least to write. Write my thoughts, write my experiences, for that is how one begins, he would tell me when I entered my Grad. He saw the spark in me, he told me often. But youth had other attractions. I also had fallen in love then and all my energies were invested in the relationship. He sounded his disappointment quite often, but never gave up reminding me. I would say, “yes papa, soon”, but that soon got so delayed and he moved on…..

So I decided….this was it. It was yet another reminder, a silent one from another world this time. And so I took up pen and paper :), that’s just a way of saying – I opened my desktop and the first thing that came to mind was blogging. I had always been curious about blogs, but had not an iota of inkling about the how of it. Big Daddy Google led me to WordPress and in no time, I had registered and set up My Thought Lane.

Did I know what I was going to blog about? Kind of yes. Since the inspiration came from dad, it had to be sharing….sharing views, sharing information. I couldn’t be a poet or a storyteller, but facts and research I could write about. He wrote a few books himself, documenting people and places in and around Dharwad, the place we lived till I got married. It was then a quaint town, known for its musical and literary heritage. He was mighty proud of his town and has even penned a short poem on how he would like to be buried in his beloved birthplace. In it, he assumes that he would live on forever in spirit in the town. After I began my stint in blogging, I did translate that short poem into English from Kannada, as a tribute to him. Would you like to read it here?

That was just an attempt at reproducing a poem from a regional language to English in the form of a word song.

I took to blogging like a fish takes to water and read and researched, wrote and enjoyed doing so. I over-shared and I still do, because I love disseminating all that I learn and know every day. I am not a paid blogger, I am a blogger by passion and my areas of interest are wellness, fitness and beauty. I do review beauty products and the reason I provide links to them is to just let my readers access them easily. I am since March 2021 working with a natural skin care e-commerce company called Aardae, which retails In Singapore only at the moment. I am their Product Strategist and I so love my job, being a skincare addict or junkie, term it as you may. A few of my blogs are linked to businesses, but again, that’s just for awareness. I am currently reading up and locating a lot of Korean and Japanese beauty products and oh, its sheer pleasure to be learning more and more everyday. I still have a long way to go in learning how to blog better, how to connect better. I do find a lot of inspiration in the hundreds of bloggers that are a million times more passionate than me. WordPress is a great space to be in and this journey of a blogger feels great with you all as my co-travelers.

I hope my dad is looking from above, from wherever he is and has finally seen his daughter don the writer’s cap. Is he smiling? He must be.