Sunday, January 18, 2015

My journey from OR to AND


For most women, priorities guide them in all of their decision-making hours, especially after she gets married and more so after becoming a mother.

Like many mothers, I too faced the dilemma of choosing a career over family. I was reluctant to leave my little one in the care of a stranger and return back to work. I had seen in person, the kind of work a hired hand does and I was selfish enough to want the best for my little one. No hired hand can ever replace the love and care of a mother.

I am a Civil Engineer, my work hours tend to be erratic and if I joined work, I cannot return home before eight in the evening and might have to leave before eight in the morning. I enjoyed my work but I could not choose it as the work hours made it impossible to take care of my child. So without much ado I left my job. I had to choose either career or family.

But the endless hours of running behind my little one and household chores took a toll on me and I began to feel depressed and I took up hobbies. I learnt embroidery, crochet, painting and portraiture. All through the way I used to journal about my day and hence thought about starting a blog.

Once I started blogging, I participated in story contests organized by Blogadda in association with Gillette and this awakened the writer in me. I had won prizes for story writing while in college and this new platform gave me exposure and appreciation from fellow bloggers and friends. That was the beginning.

I began to get content writing works and I became a freelancer. A contest conducted by Write India publishers made me a published author when my short story was selected to be published in the anthology ‘The Second Life’.

Being a grammar Nazi, one of my friends insisted that I edit the anthology that he was putting together of which I was already a part and I ended up being the editor of Blank Space. It has 100 stories written by 100 authors. It was a tedious work but I learnt a lot from that experience.
Now I have my own solo novel in the process of being published, two more anthologies in the making and editing works flowing to my desk.

I am passionate about my work and as I work from home, I have enough time to take care of my family too. Now I am a professional editor, an author, a wife and a mother. I am proud of my journey and my family is proud of me.


My journey from OR had ended in AND.

  “This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus“.

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