Monday, June 29, 2015

Plagiarism woes and the songs of my life!





"Golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai!!!..."

This was the song that was ringing in my ears constantly since the last two weeks.

Do you wonder why?

One of my articles 'Love, Rotis and apinch of wisdom from a mother' on Womensweb was copied and shared blatantly online on Facebook, Whatsapp and Blogs without my consent. I was not even acknowledged as the author.

I had written the article originally for an Indispire prompt, where a mother writes an email to his son asking him to not laugh at the shapeless rotis that her daughter-in-law makes. It was a top post on Indiblogger. I then shared it with womensweb where I am registered as an author. It was published on June 16th 2015. There too it was very popular. The total number of page views on my article is now nearing 10,000 there. It was shared more than 400 times on Facebook and got more than 3000 likes.

I was pleased beyond words. Even boasted about it to all my friends and relatives. And then the Golmal began.

Some person copied it from the women’s web page and made it into a Whatsapp message. It went viral there. I got it from a friend in Dubai who forwarded it to me without knowing that I was the author. Another friend from Mumbai messaged me that my article was going viral on Whatsapp and that she saw it in 4 different groups in which she was member. A few others too told me the same.

I was still okay with it as it showed that the article was being loved and the message it conveyed was reaching more people that way. And mostly because Whatsapp is a very mad world. No one has any control over the things going on there! I couldn't do anything.

Then another friend on Facebook messaged me that a certain lady Manju Verma had copied the article on Facebook and that it was going viral. It was copied word by word from the article on the womensweb.in page. It has been shared on Facebook almost 30,000 times now. Check the snippet below.


I was furious this time. I tried contacting her, messaged her through Facebook but there was no response. Then I put up a status asking for help from friends to report the post to Facebook.

But Facebook merely told me that the post did not contain anything that violated their community standards. I was so miserable seeing that message. It just declared that anyone can copy our articles onto Facebook and pass it on as theirs.
( What does that even mean?!!)


The post is still up. But I have reported it to Women's Web and they have promised to take definite action.

Though the last two weeks were hard on me, I found out during this period as to who my well wishers were. I wish to thank fellow bloggers and writers Aathira Jim, Roshan Radhakrishnan, Ganga Bharani, Sreesha Divakaran, Jaibala Rao, Vishal Bheero, Sid Balachandran, Rekha Dyani, Sachin Prabhu, Simran Kaur, Jyoti Menon, Deepti Menon, Sundari Venkitraman, Dinesh Radhakrishnan, Gayatri Aptekar, Anmol Rawat, Sumeetha manikandan, Shrruti Patole, Rhiti Bhose, Bill Bartlett, Devika Fernando and many others for supporting me.

And a very special Thank you to my husband who commented on each and every place that he saw the article being shared, mentioning that it was plagiarized and that I had the copyright. You are a gem!

So the song has now changed to this!

Too na jaane aas paas hai Khuda!!! 

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Enter this Giveaway on Goodreads

Here is a chance to win free copies of my book 'Without You' as part of a giveaway on Goodreads.
Click the link below which will take you to Goodreads.com. Register for the Giveaway and you might just end up winning a free copy of my book which is getting rave reviews even before it completes a month after release.

So what are you waiting for?



Goodreads Book Giveaway

Without You by Preethi Venugopala

Without You

by Preethi Venugopala

Giveaway ends July 23, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter Giveaway

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Do you dream?

"If I can dream it, I can do it"- Do you follow this Walt Disney saying in your life? #Life

This is the Indispire prompt on indiblogger this week.

My answer is Yes, I follow it.

Dreams create our tomorrows. When I look back to my past, a little dreamy eyed girl looks at me and smiles. I am living in her dream world now. I am a product of her imagination.


I have become a published author and my book 'Without You' is listed among bestsellers on amazon.in, besides some of the authors I love and adore. I am getting rave reviews.

I remember how I used to dream about being happy, absolutely and insanely happy. I am happy these days. When a dream comes true; happiness follows. It gives further wings to my imagination and I let them soar high and far.

Many more dreams, many more tomorrows await me to take me towards every destination and every scene that the little girl years ago visualized.

There will always be people who will laugh at my dreams. There will always be people who would make every effort to see that I never achieved my dream. But all that dreamers like me can do is to dream more colorful and daring dreams.

Don’t they teach us in school to aim at the stars, and then you will reach at least on top of a mountain? Let me do that. Won’t you join me?

Let us dream more. Not only for our own individual growth but for the entire humanity. 

Let us dream that our tomorrows will hold rainbows on every dark cloud. That every storm will soon pass and that even the harshest winter will end one day.

Let us dream that there will always be a guiding star that will pull us towards light.

Let us dream that one day, all our dreams will come true.

And let us follow our dreams and prove that dreams make our tomorrows.

And if you want to buy my book,

Buy it here:



Tuesday, June 9, 2015

First Reviews of Without You




Every writer looks forward to hear from her/his readers.
Today morning when I checked Facebook at 6.45 am, I was pleasantly surprised to see a post on my timeline and happy tears filled my eyes immediately.

Author Shrruti Patole Clarence had stayed up till two am to finish the book. 
According to her, she couldn't put down the book till she finished reading it.

This is what she posted on my Facebook time line.



In the afternoon when I talked to Gayatri Aptekar, another accomplished writer, blogger, story teller and artist, I again floated onto cloud nine. She said she finished reading 'Without You' in a single sitting ignoring the hungry protests from her stomach and even her darling daughter. She has written a full length review about it on her blog.

In Gayatri's words,
"This book has everything that a bibliophile looks for, simple language, nice narration, drama and a good story. If you are looking for something light to read on a flight or train journey, then this book is a perfect companion. And yes if you have ever been in love or felt the light touch of love, then I do recommend reading this book. It will surely take you down the memory lane and you will fall in love, once again."

Read the full review here:
http://www.outsidethekitchenwindow.com/2015/06/book-review-without-you.html

There is a contest happening on Facebook page of the book and my own personal page, that offer a chance of winning free books worth 500 Rs till the 12th of this month if you order my book.
So what are you waiting for?
Buy the book here:
http://bit.ly/BuyWithoutYou-Amazon

Thursday, June 4, 2015

When I miss you : Quotes from Without You





"I relived those memories repeatedly until I could breathe in his presence all around. The thought that I had lost him forever was a constant dull pain. May be poets had it right. Love was pain in disguise. I revered it, as there was pleasure in that pain."





"Days began to pass in monotony from then on. The same rush hour in the mornings, the boring lectures, surveys, and labs kept me busy. The moment I paused, I remembered him, and the fact that I had lost him. I was grateful that I had those things to keep me busy. An inch long scar on my left wrist, reminded me of an enchanted world of love, which had vanished like a mirage. Although, I craved for any contact from Arjun, all I got was silence, no visits and no phone calls. I searched for him in crowds and every tall person reminded me of him."


If you liked these quotes, I sure you will love Ananya and Arjun's story.

Buy my book Without You here: 


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