Cent-imental & Grateful!

Sentiments: A collection of 10 poems written by me came without an 'Acknowledgement' page. Not because I believed the book to be the result of solely my efforts but because I wanted to "keep it real". 

I justified myself by saying, "It's not like I'm accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature here" 

With time I learnt that's not how gratitude works. The endless supply of support I have received over the past four years has nurtured my love for story-telling and boosted my creative confidence to a point where I no longer hesitate to put my work out there on a globally accessible platform. 

As this post marks the first century of write-ups on my small corner of the internet, I want to mention the incredible people who have encouraged, inspired and sometimes- just put up with me. 

To my parents, for sitting through reading sessions and story-idea discussions at odd timings after your day's work because I was "too excited to wait". 

Thank you for making me feel as though my writing truly matters. 

To my grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts- thank you for consciously making it a point to read my work. 

To my loving teachers who patiently endured my novice writing.

Thank you Niharika teacher, you were the first to tell me that my short story "Years Apart" had potential. I knew I was a very lucky student when you read a poem of mine to the entire class. 

Thank you Preeti teacher, for taking the time from your busy working hours to not only read but admire "Years Apart". I was overjoyed with your kind words that day! 

Thank you Pradip teacher, for being the greatest supporter of us, students in anything we decide to pursue! 

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to write a poem on a project so near and dear to your heart. 

Thank you Mamta teacher, for your warm wishes and blessings. Thank you for always giving me reviews on my poetry! 

Thank you Manasi teacher, for pushing me to target greater heights. 

With the weekly assignments in your class, I often felt challenged to venture beyond my comfort zone. 

Thank you Maninder teacher, for the values your influence has inculcated in me. I owe you my ability to express gratitude (as in this very post) and stay humble. 

Thank you Aparna teacher, for having faith in me. I can't thank you enough for all the ways in which you have boosted my morale and enabled me to reach my full potential. I will always aspire to live up to those expectations. 

 

Thank you to my fellow content creators, Arushi, Sanika, Piya, Vidisha, Anu, Sharyu, Sachi and Aditya- during my writer's block you are my go-to place to get the creative juices flowing. Thank you for being as dramatically poetic as me. 

Thank you to my artistic buddies, Aanshi & Nitya, your illustrations bring my words to a whole new third dimension. Thank you also, for being my forever cheerleaders. 

Thank you to the friends enthusiastic over anything new I write- Aarya, Gazhal, Ishwari, Sakshi, Soumya, Jessica, Maitrayee, Prakhar, Bhagyashri, Swarangi, Saanvi, Janhavi, Tanisha, Jinia, Rashi, Rheemy- you all practically give me a world-class-author treatment and status. So much of what I write is inspired by our discussions. Don't be too surprised if I happen to immortalize one, or many of you as my future fictional characters! 

Thank you Lavanya & Shruti, for being the sweetest seniors who can completely relate to my writer-geeky mind. 

Thank you to the earliest readers of my blog who have stuck with my writing since its initial stages, namely, Shreya H., Shreya P., Dhriti, Kriti, Srija, Abhishree, Vaishnavi, Niyati, Rucha, Pranshu, Dhairya, Om. 

Thank you to the proofreader, advisor, source of inspiration and alpha reader of every piece on this blog- Armaan Kothare.

Thank you for talking me out of deleting my content several times impulsively. 

A special thanks to all those friends who let me have my sweet time and cancel plans only because I was "in the zone". Shubh, Tushaar, Marz and Rutuja- Thank you for being so understanding.

Immensely grateful to every single reader,

cheers to a century and here's to being cent-imental over it!! 

Palavi Karnik

Author of 'Lexicon: Your Literary Escapism Pill'