Theme Reveal -A to Z blogging challenge 2026

 Theme Reveal

 

Ato

It will soon be April, and quite a few bloggers, including yours truly, will come together to participate in the humongous but delightfully chaotic A to Z blogging challenge. My theme this year is autobiography. I aim to give a voice to the everyday commonplace objects lying around our homes, on our shelves, desks, drawers, or in our bags, forgotten or taken for granted.

Along with these tangibles, I shall also explore a few intangibles—emotions and states of being that are a big part of our lives.

Stringing them together, I hope to weave a quirky and thoughtful tapestry of 26 brief but vivid posts.

 Happy writing!

Music: Melodies of my days.

I sing out of tune, and I cannot play any musical instrument, but listening to music always makes me happy.

Growing up, listening to the daily request programme broadcast by the Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) Broadcasting Corporation was mandatory. I vividly remember the singing classes at school, in both English and Hindi, the Chaayageet on television, and the Binaca Geet Mala on the radio. MTV and Channel V were two channels I often tuned into.

Adolescence saw me enjoying the then-current favourites in Hindi and English, buying cassettes by the dozen, and shaking a leg when nobody was looking. CDs came later, and I remember my sons, now in their twenties, using them.

Now, it's music I turn to when I’m stressed and when I’m cooking. Music helps me cook up that storm in the kitchen, because cooking isn't one of my favourite activities.

My dad was musically inclined—he loved to sing, and now that I’m married into a musical family, every day is ‘music day.'

My son and husband have studied Western classical music and are pianists. I enjoy listening to Pop music. I like listening to gentle Jazz too. The Girl from Ipanema is one such Jazz song that puts a spring in my step.

ABBA, Vengaboys, Michael Learns to Rock, Big Mountain, and The Pussycats are among my favourite bands. The Games People Play by Inner Circle and That Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles, Perfect by Ed Sheeran, You Raise Me by Josh Groban, and Beautiful in Your Eyes by Joshua Kadison are some of my hot favorites, and I never tire of listening to them. This post would be incomplete if I didn’t mention Usha Uttup.Being an oldie –goldie, I also love listening to catchy and soul stirring oldies sung by oldies like Kenny Rogers, John Denver, Jim Reeves and Neil Diamond. Jerusalema sends my spirits soaring.

I know not much about Ghazals or Hindustani classical music, but I enjoy a few Bollywood hits like Kabhi Kabhi, Chu kar mere mann ko, Yeh Ajeeb Dastan Hai, and Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Chodenge.

Among the spirituals and hymns, One Day at a Time, Precious Lord, Abide with Me, God of the Mountain, and What a Friend help me during tough times.

Music is inclusive. It goes beyond the barriers of colour and gender and there’s music for every kind of mood and any kind of situation that you may find yourself in, so happy listening! 

image credit: Freepik

This post is my entry to the weekly Blogchatterbloghop challenge

Happy Birthday Blogchatter

 Happy Birthday Blogchatter

 

Blogchatter is one of the best things to happen to a writer. It’s a user-friendly platform with lots to do. Opportunities to read, write, learn, and be educated and informed are galore.

I joined Blogchatter about 4 to 5 years ago after hearing about it on SHEROES. I’ve been writing, reading, and sharing posts on Blogchatter ever since. It welcomes the young and old alike. 

My biggest moment on Blogchatter was when I received the Top Post badge for my very first post.

There are these five lovely ladies who keep the platform running and our grey cells ticking 24/7. They are also  never too busy to clear a doubt or make a clarification.

Blogchatter hosts activities for both readers and writers—the weekly blog prompt challenge, Write A Page A Day; the Half Marathon, A to Z challenge and TBR challenges, to name a few.

I have participated in several of these challenges, and what makes them even more exciting is the redeemable reward points I earn for participating or winning.

I have yet to attend an offline retreat, but I enjoyed being part of a local offline Blogchatter community gathering.

Being part of Blogchatter has proven to be an awesome journey, and I wish the A-team and community members a long life at Blogchatter. 

The This and That of Colours

  We are surrounded by color—in the beauty of nature, in the ugliness of war, in the clothes we wear, in the décor of our homes, in photograph albums, and just about everywhere. 

We do not live our lives in black and white but in varied colours that life unfolds in. 

Science and psychology both hold the view that colours are an integral part of our lives and influence everything we do or feel.

Colour psychology is the study of how colours affect human behaviour. It’s that burst of orange, splash of blue, stroke of red, and the other colours in the rainbow that add that zest to our lives.

A depressing day may be associated with grey or black; red symbolises your passion and energy, while blue creates an aura of calm and tranquillity, not forgetting that blue is also associated with sadness and a style of music called “the blues.”

 

Can you communicate with colors?

Colours silently communicate moods and emotions and are a reflection of your temperament. Be it our clothes, art, home decor or digital spaces, the colours we use are reflections of what we like, dislike,  and our temperaments

As a child, I veered towards muted shades. I hated bright tones. Gradually, I was drawn to bolder hues, and my current favourite is a vibrant green. My son went through a phase when he loved only one colour: purple. Mom hated pink and swore by blue. Dad was a ‘Khaki’ man.

I have a colour fetish. I remember asking my husband what colour of car he planned to buy before asking him any more important questions about the purchase. The same goes for the rotary phone. The colour was my priority. To my delight, my husband has recently bought himself a red keyboard.

 

American businessman Allen Klein once said:

“Your attitude is like a box of crayons that colour your world. Constantly colour your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colours to the picture by including humour, and your picture lightens up.’’

 

Life continues to add colour to our palettes, some bright and cheery, others dark or muted, but every colour goes into the creation of our messy, imperfect, but beautiful journey of life. 

What was your favourite colour

as a child? Has it changed? 

This post is my entry to the weekly BlogchatterBloghop challenge. 

Image credit: my personal picture (Chiuli glass museum , Seattle)