neelwrites/thanksgiving/24/11/2016

 

By Neel Anil Panicker

Today is Thanksgiving Day.

Hey wake up man, this is India and not America, I am sure would be your response to this.

I mean agreed, today being the fourth Thursday of November it rightly qualifies as Thanksgiving Day but not here only in the US of A.

But so what, I would say. Haven’t we as individuals benefitted from God or whoever is that superhuman ‘special someone’ that controls and directs our lives?

Yes, and big resounding Yes, I am dead sure would be everyone’s answer to that.

If so what are we waiting for. Let’s go and express our gratitude for all the blessings  that we have received in the past one year including this ongoing month of November.

Speaking for myself I need to express my gratitude to the Almighty for a lot many things that have happened over the course of the past one year.

 

First of all I am thankful that I have managed to retain my optimism and spirit of evergreen positivity

Despite the financial turbulence that is currently being witnessed all over the country.

Everyday I go past long, serpentine queues filled with men and women fighting, inching, pinching and  doing everything to move ne measly inch ahead except short of lynching one another.

And when I see the same weary faces full of anger and hunger for days on end clutching a torn out much used and abused 500 rupee note in their razor thin hands from which can be seen their frail veins, I feel thankful that I am blessed with a little money, if not more, that allows me some breathing space’ money enough to ensure that I am able to survive for a few more days without the dire urgency of standing in line to receive or exchange what is but the only source of money for those who are less fortunate than some of us.

I am thankful to all those who have opened their hearts and wallets and kitchens and are helping others, in ways, small and big, to help circumvent and even survive through these highly testing times.

The last entire year has been a lovely year on the personal front and I am thankful to all for bearing up with my extravagances and indulgences including several acts of omission and commission.

Much like everyone of us, I too have gone over and committed my fair share of errors but it gladdens me tremendously to see that a few of you have moved ahead forgiven me which only shows that I have been extremely lucky to have a circle of family and friends who vigorously practice the centuries-old adage ‘To err is human but to forgive is divine.’

In the year whose last leg we have just about entered, I am thankful that I have been able to explore my inner self through my writings.

I have been extremely lucky to have found not just the time  and will but to also have ignited the deep seated passion within me to convert my myriad thoughts into words.

Speaking of which, my blog has taken off really very well and thanks to my writings today I am friends with a very diverse and hugely creative grouping of some of the best creative brains in the world of creative writing.

I have been also able to explore some new genres of poetry such as cinquain, quatrain, tanka and of course haiku. The last I find extremely liberating and  am hugely blessed to have interacted with some of the poets from around the world.

I am also thankful that in pursuit of my ‘fictional’ dreams, I am steadily and surely moving ahead and collecting an eclectic bunch of flash fiction writings which I hope to string together into some form of a book sometime in the future.

I am extremely thankful to each and every single person who has enriched me in one or the other into becoming the better person that we all aspire to be.

Lastly, to answer your question as to why I am doing this, I would like to end with this beautiful quote: Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

(c)neelanilpanciker#thanksgiving

 

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