dreams, destiny, and other stuff
Why I believe in them.
It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration if I say that dreams come true. Well, to put it in a better way, not all of them do. But the ones that are "destined" to - yes. There would be a lot of debate going around the topic of "destiny", but first, let me tell you why I believe in it.
I wrote a poetry book.
Ever since I was a kid, I had always wanted to write a book, especially after reading the Harry Potter series. I wanted to understand how the creativity juices of authors flow when they sit down to write. I wanted to feel the adrenaline rush while writing something that imaginative, that authentic. Poetry was never on the cards. The idea was always to write a fiction book.
Back in 2019 when I had started writing poems (and I won't mention specifically what triggered just because it's so silly), I did not write with the intention of publishing them anywhere. I only wanted to sort my thoughts out and words came pouring out of me. You see, I tend to incline towards overanalyzing any situation. Basically, I overthink. At times, a lot. I just thought - "Why not write it all out?" And that's how it began. I had been journaling on-and-off for a while then and had never considered poetry to be one of the channels to release my energy into. I decided to give it a try and not think much about it. And that is pretty much how I got into poetry writing. Slowly and steadily, it became one of my favorite past-times. I would stay up late at night writing my heart out. That is the reason I decided to call my newsletter "Under the Moonlight". (If you're not subscribed yet, please click on this link. Thanks.)
On one fine evening, towards the end of October 2022, as I was lying on my bed and scrolling through my phone, I came across an Instagram promotion post from BookLeaf Publishing. They had this writing challenge going on wherein you were supposed to write one poem every day for 21 days and they would publish it as your individual poetry book. I thought of enrolling in it at first but then blocked it out as I had semester-end college exams along with the infamous (or otherwise) CAT exam next month. The next day, I shared this with my sister and she literally forced me to enroll. "This has been a dream of yours for so long! Your name will be on a book, Didi!"
"Didi" is a respectful form of address given to an older sister, an older female cousin, or any older woman familiar to the speaker. Although my sister calls me Didi out of duty more so than respect, I still somewhat admire her.
And I enrolled. I didn't know how I would be able to do it, but I did. I wrote those poems, and submitted them. And I gave my exams as well. Kind of aced them too, lol. Felt like a champion at the end of the month. The book got published on the 3rd of January, 2023 and all I can say is that it was so surreal. Now that I have the physical copy of "my" book, I feel gratitude at its extreme.
The book, a small collection of musings, will take you on a roller-coaster ride inside the mind of a dreamer. There are a total of 19 poems which sum up 19 years of my life. (Yes, I didn't submit the remaining two because I wanted this to be my teenage years' repository and thought of writing only 19 for that.) That is how the whole concept was put together. When you read through the pages, you'll feel like I'm narrating a story to you. My story. The highs, the lows, and everything else.
So why do I believe in destiny, you ask? Well, there is no concrete answer for it from my end. But all I can say is - "If it's meant to be, it will be." (Quote-on-quote, my grandmother.) Just make sure that whenever it does, you embrace it with all your heart, whatever it may be. As my mom says, everything happens only for the best. Grateful to have such strong women in my life who support me in every walk of the way. This one is for you all.
Give it a read!
Click on the following links to buy my book -
I would love to hear your feedback after you read my book. Please feel free to reach out to me at yugandhara2002@gmail.com. Here's a little something from my end -
An excerpt from the book:
"Where are you headed off to?" - they asked.
"Over the Horizon" - I said.
Yugandhara Patil, 2022.