Supriya's Banter
The origin:
What are stories?
The Cambridge Dictionary says it’s a description, either true or imagined, of a connected series of events.
When Blogchatter announced the submissions for their Anthology of Love, I wanted to explore the fine line between the true and imagined. The grey zone where truth blurs and imagination begins. Exploring that transition zone while sticking to the theme was a challenge that I was excited to undertake.
The evolution:
Further digging into the subject led me to another cryptic topic—the mysterious world of dreams.
Some say dreams are stories and images that our minds create while we sleep. Then what about people we stumble upon in our dreams? Are they just random imaginations of an overactive mind, or are they people we met in some forgotten past lives or, better, someone we would meet in our future?
As a 90s kid, I have grown on a staple diet of Bollywood actresses crooning and swaying to numbers about dreams, true love, soul mates and lost lovers.
One such popular song- Mere khwaabon mein jo aaye… Aake mujhe chhed jaaye (a song from the Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge) is basically an ode to an unknown lover who frequents the heroine’s dreams, making her wonder if she is in love with him.
The song unfurled from somewhere in my buried subconscious and unfolded before me as I thought about my story. What if, instead of the girl, her partner wonders about the person visiting her dreams? What if he loses sleep over the secret rendezvous of a stranger and his wife? What are some of the imagined realities a husband’s jealous and insecure mind can conjure?
The execution:
Of course, it was a struggle to contain all these sub cluster of concepts in a 2500 worded story. It could get confusing for the reader and lose its flavour. And that is exactly the feedback I received from the Blogchatter team after sharing my synopsis.
I used the feedback as a yardstick and tried to stick to the plot while allowing myself a minimal yet essential exploration of these threads.
The story was finetuned after another round of feedback from the team. Given my work schedule, I missed out on all three workshops organised by the Blogchatter team (Author Anita Nair’s seminar on writing a good story, an editing workshop by Readomania’s editor, Indrani Ganguli, and another marketing workshop by Blogchatter and Happinetsz co-founder Richa Singh) and suffered a major FOMO. Though the recordings helped, I missed the energy of a live session.
The feeling of missing out continued and intensified multifold when I couldn’t attend the launch of The Blogchatter Book of Love in Kolkata on 27th September during the Blogchatter annual retreat.
The unparalleled joy:
The sight of the dazzling yellow cover shared by the Blogchatter team immediately after the launch did wonders to calm my pining soul. Though many of us attended the launch remotely, the thrill and excitement were no less.
To say the least, the experience of penning a story on the theme of love, exchanging ideas and learning on the go, all while being a part of a thriving community of like-minded writers, has been truly gratifying.
I’m super chuffed to find my story amongst the other shades of love explored by 18 talented writers.
An excerpt from my story (One True Love):
How did Teji know? Was that why she asked me to spend my birthday with Beeji? Where were the forecasts coming from?
I coaxed Teji till she yielded.
“I got the messages during my sleep—somehow, I was asleep but still aware. It didn’t feel like a dream, but it can’t be anything else,” Teji said, bunching her forehead. “An old man appeared by my bed. The first time—the night before your flight—he told me that the flight was unsafe. Then, two days later, the message was to ensure you spent your birthday with Beeji. He didn’t open his mouth, nor did I, but strangely, we could communicate.”
“An old man? Eh?” I scowled. “Did he look like someone familiar—like your late father or relatives? Did he tell you about Beeji’s visit, too? Was he scary?” I bombarded her with questions.
More about this book:
What if love isn’t just a single, defined emotion? What if it’s a spectrum of feelings that transcends borders and defies societal expectations? This is where the magic of romance lies, and our journey begins.
A woman who had to leave her motherland behind but passes on the legacy to her granddaughter, a sister who has to prove her love and worth on an impossible mission to save their kingdom, a husband obsessed with his wife’s dreams, a woman navigating motherhood in the times of AI, star-crossed lovers with love blossoming anew among books—be prepared to traverse different worlds in these pages.
Love beyond marital ties, borders, acceptable gender norms, social structures, age, beyond distance, or the realms as we know them. Dive into 18 stories from Blogchatter’s community writers that celebrate the many hues of love and life.
Authors: Lalitha Ramanathan, Harshita Nanda, Varunika Rajput, Careena Mesharam, Supriya Bansal, Don Joe Martin, Chandra Sundeep, Arpita Sharma, Inderpreet Kaur Uppal, Nithya Sashi, Felicia Nazareth, Mayuri Sharrma, Prisha Lalwani, Ojas Jain, Ambica Gulati, Dr Rehana Sultana, Aarti Punjabi, Swarnali Nath
The book is available as a paperback on the Readomania shop here
It is available on Kindle, too. Check it out, here.
****
If this got you interested, check out my other books here and on my Amazon Author Page.
