Category: Uncategorized

Hello October 🍁

Manita V

Through all ups and downs of the year, different phases and moods, crooked bumps and smooth rides, there comes a month that brings loads of positivity for me… every year!

It’s the October 🎈✨🎀🎊

Something about October is divine and calming. Maybe because it is the festival month. We declutter our homes, meet friends and extended family, make sweets and decorate our world. It’s also the time of new beginnings.

For me, it is my birthday month too 🤩🤩

And this year, it comes with loads of surprises, achievements, good news… that I’ll keep sharing here.

But more than everything… tadaaaaa….🎉🎉🎉 Spark & Spice is releasing this month!!!!!

I’ll be posting a lot about it… deleted chapters which didn’t make it to the book ( you can read them here) sample chapters, character posters and trailer videos.

I’ll be posting about many giveaways. If I had my way, I would have given a book to each of my readers. But I’m bound by so many constraints. Yet, I’ll try to give away all my copies, and more to as many as I can. So, please stay tuned 😎🥰

I’ve been planning to post new stories on the blog, but I didn’t begin updating them because I wanted to be regular. I don’t like to leave people waiting for updates. I’ll hopefully have more time now, after Spark & Spice releases. This is my second paperback and I’m more excited about it… even more than The Masquerade 😀

I have no words to express gratitude towards all of you for being there… with me… through thick and thin… through the journey of my writing …through the ups and downs I’ve faced in life… and more…
Thank you 🙏
I may never be able to express…but I want to send LOADS of LOVE for all of you 🤗🤗🤗💖💖💖

So, I’ll be here, every night, to post something or the other… and let you know the exact dates related to Spark & Spice in coming few days!

~ Let’s celebrate this month as Spark & Spice month… yayyyyy ✨🌻🍁🎉 ~

My interview in The Asian Chronicle today: 10.09.2021

Manita V

Hello,

First of all, a Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all those who are celebrating it, including me 🙂

May Ganpati Bappa shower His mighty blessings on all of you and your families, and keeps you safe, happy, and peaceful. Every time Lord Ganesha comes home, I can hear the footsteps of good times following Him.

For years, I have been following the ritual of making the most crucial decisions during this time,  taking up new ventures, finishing pending works, and trying to make the most of the presence of Bappa in my home 🙏🙏

Hope things turn out the way I have planned for this year too… 🤞🤞

Some days are prettier than the rest. Today is one of them. I’m here to share with you, my interview that got published in The Asian Chronicle today. It’s always so much fun talking about my books, journey and the process of writing.

 

 

I’m posting the link for my interview in the comment section as the links posted on blog post are not clickable.  Also posting screenshots for all those who can’t access the link.

Above everything, I can never thank you enough for being there for me, through thick and thin, for supporting and motivating me, for reading everything I write, for lifting my spirits in low times and cheering me up when I lose hope, for sharing my joys and moments of small and big wins. My journey would have been incomplete without you. And I mean each one of you whom I treasure like the most precious earning in my writing journey… Thank you… 🙏🙏🙏

May God bless you all with happiness, love, success, and good times… 💖💖💖

 

I know, you will now ask me about Spark & Spice. It’s slated to be released in Mid October 🤞🤞🤞

It got delayed tooooooo much. Totally my fault. The delay was from my end. I apologise.

I hope the wait will result in something good. And I really hope the response will be as good as The Masquerade and even more 😀😀💖💖

More about my other stories, very soon.

Thank you for everything.

Take care. Lots of love 💖💖💖

M.

About Spark & Spice

Manita V


This book was supposed to be released in February, this year, around Valentine’s day. But life doesn’t go as planned. Things happened one after the other, and it kept getting delayed.

From a long time of alternating good and bad times, I’ve learnt that we shouldn’t lose heart when we are with busy days, low days, or difficult days. Nothing stays for long, and life does take a turn back for the better.
That’s what life is.
And all we need to do is embrace both good and bad times, easy and tough times with grace. Enjoy the good times, and keep faith in God during all times. Keep patience and continue to do your work.

I did the same. And finally, I can hope for things to return to normal one by one.

I write similar experiences in my books. They are pieces of my life and soul during all the times when I’ve felt like saying something. And ended up creating something I would love to share with you.

Now, coming to present – Spark & Spice is finally going in print 😀🌻
And I have no words to express what I’m feeling. There’s nervousness – yes, I know it was published twice, in 2018 and 2019, and a lot of people have already read it, still I feel jittery. And I feel soooooo excited 🙈😀… and more than everything else, I feel pangs of detachment of a mother whose baby is going to school for the first time, or a teenager’s mom whose kid is performing for the first time on stage 😂😂… yeah, I know that’s crazy. But that’s how I feel.

I’ve always loved Spark & Spice like I love all my books. It was one of my blockbusters on Wattpad… haha… with 1 million reads in a short span of 7 months  and I received so much love from readers, I feel so so so proud of it.

1 M reads on the book are not my clicks, or my friends, or few people… it’s thanks to ALL of you together who not only read it, loved it, and recommended to their friends. I am and will be eternally grateful to each of you for that love which gave me the confidence to bring this book to you in paperback and ebook format.

I believe, more than anything, this book deserves to be immortalized in a paperback/ebook form so that more readers read it and it gets more love. I’m sure all of you want that too.

I’d had to make a few changes to convert it in a book form as previously I’ve posted as episodes/chapters. This time, it’s a story as a novel. Also… there’s a SURPRISE for you… that I’ll tell you in a while…

Firstly — The biggest challenge was ‘wordcount’ – I’ve divided the book in 3 parts and will be released as a series. To adhere to word count, without compromising on dialogues, essence, etc is the main hard part. I didn’t want to change anything. And it wasn’t possible to publish a book of 1500 pages. Yes, it’s a big book 😀🙈

Second Change — As all of you know, they are Virat Malhotra and Niyati Reddy this time. Along with other characters, of which I have changed the names of almost all, except Samir and Maya.
I’ll post initial few chapters and a few parts so that you know how it reads with different names. I’ve been editing the book for the last 7-8 months and for the 6th time, last month. So, I’m kinda loving Virat and Niyati.

Now the surprise element – I have added at least 7-8 NEW scenes of Virat and Niyati, a couple of dates, and few office scenes with lots of dialogues. Added 3-4 scenes of Maya, Dadi and Dadu… 2 scenes of Meera and Niyati… and her sisters… to highlight their character…  And one scene of Dadu and Virat.
I love that scene so much!!!
I wanted to give you MORE in case you decide to buy the book. You should have added experience, that’s what I believe. That’s the only way I can thank my readers.

(I’ve only deleted one scene, and that didn’t have Virat and Niyati, so probably you won’t miss it.)

One long scene, which was written new, that is one of Virat and Niyati’s date did not make it to the final draft, because I had exceeded wordcount like always, and since I had already written a few dates, I had to take it away. I’ll post that here for everyone to read 😊

Starting today, I’ll keep Sundays as Spark & Spice Days!! I’ll post tidbits, scenes, sample chapters, videos, and posters… you may ask questions and I’ll answer.

I’m announcing names of Beta Readers. Please use the contact button and send me your email address and phone numbers –

Simar Manu
Aasma Ul Haq
Samvidhan Roy
Samruddhi K
Krinzel D

Others, please don’t get disheartened. You are all very precious to me. So, like last time, I will be doing lots of giveaways. Participate in giveaways every Sunday and I will send you a signed book.

To thank people who’ve left reviews on Amazon for my debut book – The Masquerade, I will randomly pick up 5 readers from there and send them a signed copy of Spark & Spice. So, if you have read The Masquerade and didn’t leave an Amazon review, please do so. I’ll pick up readers from there next week.

Thank you for standing by me through thick and thin, and through every phase I’ve been 🙏🙏
We have made it till here. Together, we will hopefully go far. I’ll keep writing. I hope you keep reading too 💖💖💖

Will tell you more, next Sunday… Stay tuned 💖✨💖

Wishing the best of health for you and your families. May you all stay blessed, stay happy, and stay safe ✨🌻

Take care 🤗🤗🤗

Love you all,

M.

 

 

 

Heart To Heart

Manita V

 

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the all the wishes, messages, and prayers you’ve poured in for my family and loved ones after my last post, and messages and emails you wrote when I was not active… I have no words to pay gratitude 🙏🙏

I sincerely apologize for not replying to each of you because I couldn’t. I was tied up on all sides. But your messages made me smile, and made my days more bearable. May God bless each one of you.

Hope you guys are doing well, and your families are fine. Now since we are seeing a regular decrease in number of Covid19 infection, I am looking forward to a bit of normalcy and return to routine. Please, please don’t be complacent. Corona hasn’t gone. The number of patients have reduced as people in India were in a constant lockdown. People abroad are still doing better. But we, in India, can only hope that we have been through worst.
Please follow all the guidelines of distancing and masks. We don’t want a third wave. Right??

Get yourself registered for Vaccines. Whenever you get a slot and are eligible, go get your shot. Anyone who has a query about any vaccine or doubts, can contact me. I’ll try to solve your doubt. But please don’t promote vaccine hesitancy.

A lot of people mail and message me for various issues. I try to deal with the most urgent ones first. So if you have sent a medical query or a serious issue, I try to reply it even if I have to stretch for a bit.

Some of you have asked for my previous books. I’m sorry, I feel really bad refusing again and again, but this is one decision that I took long back for my peace of mind. And I want to stick to that decision. I don’t have time and energy to deal with issues of plagiarism, uploading and deleting stuff all over again. I prefer to move on and do new things, write new books, explore more.
The older books that I have removed will be published as paperback and ebooks.

The last 1.5 year has been a roller coaster for all of us. In my last post – Hang On For Some More – I’ve spoken about how I deal with the most distressing of situations. Apart from all of those things that I do, there is one thing that comes under – things I love to do – Writing is the most important activity that makes me really really happy.

I’ve been writing random short stories, and I will post them probably from next month. I’ve edited Spark & Spice and it is finally complete. You must be thinking why it took so long…
I’ve added more scenes – LOTS of them – without altering the story or changing scenes or dialogues – More about that in my next post on Sunday afternoon… ie 13. 6. 2021... day after tomorrow.

I’d asked about beta readers in the month of April. And then, things got delayed due to personal issues. I’ll be announcing list of beta readers on Sunday.

On Sunday, I’ll tell more about Spark and Spice, changed names of all other characters, and announce some giveaways  too. That’s my way to thank you from the bottom of my heart for standing by me through thick and thin.
I’d never thought these stories will give me friends for life.

May you all stay blessed. And stay happy.

My wishes and prayers for everyone in your families 💖💖💖

Take care

M.

Anyone Up for Beta Reading Spark & Spice?

Manita V

Hello Dear Lovely People,

As I am nearly done with editing Spark & Spice, I’m looking for people if anyone is genuinely interested in Beta Reading the book before it gets published in ebook and paperback format.

What do Beta readers do?

You need to read the book like a novel from beginning to finish. I’ll give you a set of questions to answer – so that you know what to look for – like the discrepancies, blunders, flow of story, or something that doesn’t go well according to you – it could be a place where the story is dragging or characters not behaving as per their arc.
Since I have already finished and edited the story, the work done at your end is mainly for finer nuances.

Please drop your name in comment box – Only The Name – I’ll inform in 2-3 days about 10 beta readers who get to read the book before everyone does. Though, many of you have already read the longer version posted on wattpad and here on the blog. But I have tried to add new scenes, add more gravity to side characters, and some situations.

It’s going to be a 3 series book. So, Part 1 is up for release. Keeping fingers crossed 🤞

I’m asking for beta readers here because I don’t want to pressurize those few people regularly in contact with me. These are difficult times and everyone is busy in their own lives, exams, family responsibilities, and so many other issues. I don’t want them to say yes to me even when they are not free, just because they don’t want to say no to me 😊

So, kindly drop your names —
if you are in India
are free to read the book
will be able to do it in one week max
and will answer a few questions that I send you.

I know, it’s a bit work for you, but I will make it easy for you by sending specific questions so you know what I am asking for.

Also, I’m making it fun for you –
I will be sending a signed copy of published book once it releases 😀😀
And guess what – Your name will be mentioned in the acknowledgements too 😍😀

So, please drop your names. I’ll pick 10 people randomly.

Hope you’ all are doing fine. Please, please stay safe. Mask up. Follow social distancing. And if not necessary, don’t go around roaming the world. We need to keep patience for few more days.

Loads of love 💖💖💖

M

Regarding Beyond Every Border 😊

Manita V

Hey there, everyone,

This message is for all those waiting for an update of Beyond Every Border, sending me messages and writing to me.

I apologize for the unintended delay.  I had not planned to keep it hanging for this long. I don’t like dragging sad parts myself and I try to get through them.

But some personal and professional responsibilities came up.  All is fine. Only a bit hectic.
So, I could neither write nor post a note here. I am not active on any social media since almost a week. I had decided to stay offline until all pending work is finished. Logged in today to post this note.

For the same reason, the release of Spark & Spice might be delayed too. But some things are not in our hands and I have always believed that we should keep doing our work, and leave the rest for God to take care of.

Regarding Beyond Every Border – This story is very, very special to me, too close to my heart, more than all other previous stories of mine… and it is at a very crucial stage. The initial parts were about Manasvi’s struggles, followed by Anshuman’s ordeals… this is a stage beyond which it will be about both of them…

The last thing I will ever do is rush and destroy any of my story… whether it is BEB; or Love, Lies, Etc, or even the short story – The Size of Love;
If I don’t have enough time, I will not post just for the sake of writing and posting anything. As a reader, if you have invested time and emotions in a story, you have every right to read what could be the best version of that story –  ‘according to me’…

So, please have a little patience 😊 I promise, you won’t regret having read it. Beyond Every Border is going to make up for all the delay, and the tears shed for Manasvi and Anshuman.

Love you loadddssss 💖💖💖

Take care.

M.

PS – Hopefully, I will post in a day or two 🙈

A MaNan Short Story

Manita V

I’ve been editing Spark & Spice, these days. It’s a big responsibility to weed out the grammar, spelling errors, repetitions & blunders from a longggg story without messing with the storyline, deleting dialogues, or playing around with the characters.

Only I know how I control the writer in me to stop writing it all over again 😃

Because, every writer thinks that he/she has written crap ( I definitely, do) and so every single time I read my own work, I feel like deleting all of it and writing it in a better way🙈🙈

I don’t want to mess with Spark & Spice. I haven’t, till now 😃

Coming to the point, I have decided to shift all my urge to write about MaNan on other stuff so that I don’t play around with Spark & Spice and strictly stick to editing only!!

Today evening, I started writing a short story with MaNan as parents. Let me know if you want to read it. I’ll post it here tonight 💖
(Around 12:00 am, because I am not feeling sleepy and tomorrow is Sunday)

………………………………………….

{PS: I will post Beyond Every Border: Tomorrow
I will start posting Love, lies, etc – After this short story is finished }

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi🙏✨

Manita V

Ganpati-Bappa-Moraya

 

Wishing all of you a very Happy Ganesh Utsav 🙏✨💖

May Ganpati Bappa bring with Him immense love, peace, happiness, and calmness for all of us. May He take away all our obstacles, forgives our sins and mistakes, teaches us to be patient, and fills our homes and lives with an abundance of good health, prosperity, good times, and peace.

May situation improves worldwide and covid19 leaves the planet soon 🙏

I know I am late but glad that I could wish you all before the day ends. Ganpati Bappa, anyway, is with us for next 11 days and I hope this Ganesh Festival rings in positive vibes in the air around us.

Stay blessed. Stay Happy!!

Love you all.

M

Leaving you with a painting of Bappa in watercolours that I made today. I wanted to share because I painted after a long time…

EgCUHX3UwAA5qR_

 

PS – Due to covid 19, the grandness of the festival has reduced but that is okay. We need to be responsible about the world and people around us and not contribute to the disease. We celebrated in a simple manner by praying with family and cooking delicacies for puja. Do let me know how you celebrated the festival at your place.

The scale might have reduced but our spirits will never 😃🙏

……………

Hey!

Manita V

Every night I decide to update and right after dinner, I get so many phone calls that I get free only by midnight 🤦‍♀️

Other things also pile up throughout the day and I am not able to finish the next part of BEB. I just dropped in here to inform you all that I will update soon. I feel guilty when I make people wait.

Thanks for the patience.

Love you all!!💖💖💖

M 😊

Little Cheers: My Corner

Manita V

Old post republished by mistake 🙈… sorry!!!

Hello dear friends,

It’s Saturday and from today, I’m planning to write one post under ‘my corner’ every Saturday to chat with all of you connected to me in some way or the other.

This blog is like my second home, I always say… A place where I go to every day, without fail and feel like a big part of my heart resides here. Whenever I want to pour my heart out, I know that there are some people with common thinking pattern and similar love and interests who are there to share my thoughts, pain, disappointments, happiness, achievements, and love…

Love you all for being ‘that’ circle of friends who connect to me and with each other in many ways – Our common interests, love for reading and writing, our varied passions but almost a similar fire.

Everyone of us works – either at the office or home; for kids and for other relatives, in-laws, for society, etc… We never realize when that work becomes a duty and a responsibility to be carried on a day to day basis. Kudos to those who do all that with a similar fire every day. For the rest of all, the majority, we dwell on our passions to remind us that we are still alive and kicking.

A passion is that little cheer in life which brings so much security and warmth that you develop a feeling a belonging – To your own deeper self, to a higher being, to nature, and to the world. It gives ground for you to stand and smile, for this is YOU! This is real you!

It’s like that glowing warmth of a fireplace that keeps you hooked to it on a chilly day. This ‘me-time’ is actually the only time, capable of giving you a sense of purpose. Of re-energizing you for the rest of the day. To be back to your duties with regained energy.

You always want to go to a certain place, person, thing … again and again… for all the love you get there and the way they make you feel.

For me, it’s my desk and laptop.
My characters and my books are people, I want to spend most of the free time with. They are my ‘go-to’ people, other than my readers who often tell me that some word, some thought, some sentence from any of my story made them smile or made them think. It just makes my day. That’s my little cheer through the entire hectic day.

Last week, we were talking about the subtle connection we develop with the material things around us and find our lives incomplete without them.

This week, let me know what are your little cheers in life…
( I’m not asking about family/kids/husband/friends/ parents etc… They are and will remain our lifelines and the very basis of our existence – they are the Big Cheers of our lives )

But, I want you to write about those ‘little cheers’ where you find solace in something when you are alone… you are just you… when it is your ‘me-time’…

It can be anything – music, watching films, reading, sleeping, knitting, sketching, painting, dancing, etc. Call them hobbies, call them passions, call them timepass – the nomenclature varies only in the zest with which it is followed and the intensity of your love for them.

Let’s cheer for those little things which make our lives happier and prettier!!

Cheers everybody

Lots of love and millions of wishes for anyone and everyone reading this.

Keep smiling and make everyone else smile too :))

Take care.

Manita

……………………………….

It was an old post republished by mistake

All That We Have…

Manita V

stones-2043714_1280.jpg

Good evening everyone,

Like I posted last night that I had lots of things to share… so here I am!! To share all that is going in my life and keep you updated with the developments at the book front, different blogs, and everything else in my life.

First thing first, I have hopefully replied to everyone on the last post. If I haven’t, tag me there. I might have missed your message. It feels so great when all of you read the updates and write back. It gives me feedback and also keeps me updated that you are reading the story.

I love replying to you. Since always!!

So, when I don’t reply, I feel bad more than you 🙂

Coming to my novel The Masquerade – Thank you for the amazing response to the cover and the blurb. It has been incredible. I knew that you will like it but the positive responses have been tremendous and so motivating. It feels so so so good. Because it took me so many days to finalize a mask for the cover. I had a set picture in my mind – greenish background, a jungle, a mysterious setup, and a mask with a metallic finish. I must have scanned around hundreds of masks to zero in on that.
So, yeah! it feels great to see it being accepted. But the entire credit goes to the cover designing team who took that mask and elevated it to a higher level, altogether.  I was awestruck at the final result.

Once the Writing part of a book is completed, it goes for multiple rounds of Editing, followed by Quality Check, followed by Interior Designing, that includes font, size, setting, chapter setup, etc. Cover Design part happens in parallel to the above. When all that is done, the book is sent to be Listed at Amazon, Flipkart, etc for sale.

From our side, ALL that is done and the book is sent for listing. In pre – COVID times, listing and availability took only a few days. But my publishing manager told me today that Amazon has closed its listing as the delivery of books is a big issue during this time and the lockdown has extended for another month. At this stage, I don’t even know what will happen.

All I know that the book is queued at Amazon and once it is listed, it will be available to us to have it. On my part, I have decided not to think much about how it could have happened smoothly if corona wasn’t there, how it got delayed, and kept getting in some issue or the other, how the delivery and other services will be affected. There is no point in thinking about all that.

Neither the disease is our fault nor the lockdown. It’s always important to do your part well, in the best possible way and leave the rest for God to take care.

That’s all we have. And we need to make the best of all that we have. Instead of cribbing for what we don’t have. So, yes, hopefully, it’s 15th July, but really not sure if this date is the final one. Whether it will be listed before or after that. But hope for the best and hope that the book is released somewhere in July, at least.

Other than that, my medical blogs and online consultation is running smooth so I’m peaceful there.

I’ve finished all that I had to do. I can finally breathe in peace. And the best part is that I have kept myself comparatively free for this month – to promote the book, post creatives, posters, giveaways, trailers,and teasers, and to interact with all of you.

I will be here on my blog every night, after 8:00 IST, to talk to you and post something about the book and writing.

And yeah… updates too 😀 😀 

Now, that I have segregated time and kept myself free, how can I not write 💖😀 I will be writing my stories and write-ups here.

Let me know if you want me to write on any topic. I will take that topic and write about what I know, in case you want to know about something.

I’m also planning to read a few pages of The Masquerade as a podcast as a promotional strategy to let more people know about my book. I might start posting tomorrow, depending on how it goes.

I don’t know what else to do – maybe ask a few book bloggers to leave honest reviews once the book releases. And post the videos I made on my social media handles. I didn’t do it last time.

That was all about the book and the blogs.

Regarding Covid, my area is no more in the containment zone. However, it is still on high alert. the cases are on a rise. But better than other parts of India. Do let me know how things are going at your end.

Most of all, the mental health issues, depressions, anxiety, and frustrations are on an all-time high during this pandemic. Suicide rates have gone up and psychological disorders are up by 200%. In case, any of you is feeling low, restless, or depressed, know that you are not alone. Talk to someone close to you. Stay calm. Eat well. Sleep well and try to make a routine that helps you stay on track. Just don’t lose yourself in this stressful situation.

We have to do our best with all that we have in hand… that’s all we can do…

Have patience. Things will be better soon.

Stay safe. Stay blessed. Take care.

Love you all.

M.

 

Blog Issues…

Manita V

Hello everyone,

I am getting a lot of emails and messages that people are not able to see the latest uploads or last few parts of BEB. I can’t reply to each one separately, so I am making this post.

I have not removed any parts of BEB or any sections from the blog. In case, you are unable to see some parts – there are ways to do it –

Go to the TOP – there is a Menu bar – Click on Recent Uploads – There you will find the parts of BEB as well as posts uploaded under ‘My Corner’ and ‘The Masquerade’

Another way — On the TOP – there is a search icon – click on it and type – Beyond Every Border. You will see all the posts under the category that you want to read.

I couldn’t post the update as the site has been crashing for some reason. Maybe that is why some people are observing some issues. Nothing to worry. This is only a temporary thing. I will try posting the update again, today.

To all those asking for Spark & Spice / Tangles & Ties – I am overwhelmed with the love but they are currently offline.

Thank you.

Lots of love

M.

 

Till Eternity And Beyond: On Hold

Manita V

Hello everyone,

I had announced a new book ‘Till Eternity And Beyond’ a few weeks back with one chapter uploaded.

Due to a lot of unavoidable reasons, I have decided to shelve it temporarily.

I try not to repeat myself and try my best not to write any story in a cliched manner. I have a new and different concept in mind for TEAB but since the male character is an army doctor and the female character is a chirpy young girl, I believe that it will be better that I continue with them after my current ongoing stories are over, mainly to avoid any unintentional overlap or similarities.

I hope you understand. Like you always do 🙂
Since only 1 part of TEAB was uploaded, I hope the attachment to the characters wouldn’t be an issue.

Thanks a lot.

Take care. Stay safe.

M.

……………………………………………..

PS – That leaves us with Beyond Every Border ongoing currently and a manan story in the pipeline, to begin when I have time to write more. Hopefully soon.

 

Urgent

Manita V

Hey people,

I don’t know whether to say this as urgent or whatever, but this is the first time that I am using my phone to post something.

I’m a laptop-kinda person who is not usually on phone. I am not addicted to phone and usually keep it away, so that my younger one doesn’t want it. On laptop, she knows mom is working. People who know me know that I am not regular on phone-based apps like Instagram and WhatsApp. But I am okay with blogs and Twitter as I have them on my laptop.

Anyway, so this post is to let you know that this is the third time in last one year that my laptop keyboard is not responding. I tried my best to fix but …nada… it refuses to co-operate. And that is how I am here through my phone.

Basically to inform you all that I will not be updating today.

By tomorrow, I will find some way. Either my laptop will start responding, or I will do something to download wordpress app on my ipad, or maybe use this phone to write.

I’m used to typing fast on my laptop, so it is going to be a pain to use any other device to write. So, I’ll wait for one day to decide what to do next.

I’m trying not to panic at this stage. Let’s hope for the best.

Just yesterday, I said to someone that apart from basics if I have coffee and my laptop with me, I can survive any difficult situation.

Spoke too much, too soon 😊 I guess!!

Anyway, let me know what are you doing in this lockdown and have you learnt something about yourself that you never knew before.

Stay safe. Stay blessed.

Lots of love to all of you.

Take care

M.

Gratitude. Patience. Growth: India Lockdown

Manita V

Hello everyone,

I wish for good health for each one of you and your family. May this catastrophe of coronavirus subside soon and the human race wins over it with as minimal damages as possible.

I hope the quarantine is treating you well. However it goes, please do not panic. Do not give space to negative thoughts and people in your life. Let’s be patient in these times of distress.

I have been reading all the comments on my blog, on various posts, including the finale of Tangles & Ties. It overwhelms me to have you all reading my work and feeling connected with it. I have nothing but deeply felt gratitude and love for all of you.

I wish I could reply to each of you. But I can’t.
During this lockdown, as maids, helpers, cook, and staff are sent on leave, I am currently cooking, cleaning, washing utensils, washing clothes, teaching, and entertaining kids like all of us are doing 😀
Not that it is any problem. I am okay with doing all that stuff. But it takes away a lot of time and leaves you tired. I am not able to type individual replies.

When I am free, I love to write and edit my stories. Reading your comments and emails brings a wide smile to my lips but I am unable to reply to each one of you. Hence this post 🙂 🙂

Your comments, big, small, detailed, one-liners, pouring all the love for me and my stories is the major earning that I made with my stories and I treasure and cherish all of you.

Today, I’ll share with you three principles of life that I always try to achieve and improve at. I hope I am able to practice them and make them shine brighter in this period of lockdown as well.

Gratitude has always been the first thought whenever I do something. I begin my day with gratitude. And it has increased in this period. I am grateful that my family and I, and all those who I care for are safe and healthy. I am grateful that our country is doing well so far. I am grateful that we have food and water supply, we are safely locked inside our homes, with family, with electricity and wifi still working. Things are not bad. Let’s pray for those who don’t have these basics and those who are still going out to work as frontline warriors.

Patience is the second most important thing that rules my actions. We can achieve nothing without patience. If we are patient, all that is meant for us will slowly sway towards us. Do your best and let it be. Your hard work will bring you results. Equal patience is required to shun away negativity from our lives. We cannot explain what we really feel if someone wants to deliberately misunderstand us. We cannot make them understand. Let’s just be patient. And wait. Things will fall into place.

Last but not the least – Growth. If we wish to attain anything in life, especially experience, expertise, and excellence, then we will have to focus on consistent growth. If we are getting time now and if we are safe and healthy, we should give it back to God and society by doing our duties well and be the best version of ourselves.

I hope I can practice these three values and become a better cook, better mother, better writer, and a better human being in these few days.

Other than these three abstracts, I am planning to –

Write more
Read more
Cook new recipes
Catch up on sleep
Pay more attention to my health – exercise regularly, meditate
Pray more
Read stories for my kids

The list is endless 😀

Do write to me about what you have planned for yourself while you are locked down in your homes.

Stay home. Stay safe. Save lives.

Lots of love to all of you.

M.

 

Be Patient: India Lockdown

Manita V

Hello everyone,

Hope each one of you is in good health.

I am really glad that our PM has announced a complete lockdown for 21 days from today. If you see the pattern around the globe, even the most developed countries which were late in doing this, lost significantly in terms of time. The corona infected count kept increasing. And so did the death count.

I was really, really worried about us as we are a densely and highly populated country and the kind of selfish people we witnessed in last few days – skipping quarantine, taking paracetamol to evade thermal screening, meeting people and organizing parties – I realized that as a society we are not serious about this issue.

I kept telling people around me to stay at home as much as they can, as long as it is possible for them, but I received replies like – ‘You are worrying unnecessarily. There is nothing like that. It is a media hype.’

You have no idea how frustrating it is. For a doctor, nothing is as frustrating as a patient losing life due to carelessness. I sincerely prayed for a pan-India curfew. All doctors did  as there is nothing else that can stop us, Indians, from roaming around needlessly except a strict lockdown. Obviously none of us wants to go the route of highly develped countries with exceptional health services who have now lost hope on corona control. Trust me, if we had taken that route, it would have been a big BIG disaster for us.

The count has been rising. And it has spread all over India. But I’m glad this decision of lockdown has been taken well in time.

So, yes, it is uncomfortable. It is difficult. It will be very very tough for some. Mainly daily wagers, farmers and poor. But if you have to choose between life and discomfort, anyone will choose life.

We will be patient and kind in this time. We choose life!

So stay home. Don’t even try to break the quarantine, especially in closed apartments or building complexes where there is no one to monitor you. Please be safe. Tell others to be safe and educate people to not roam around unless emergency.

Grocery items, dairy, vegetables, and fruits are exempt from this lockdown. And many more emergency services are exempted. Please read the Home Ministry guidelines circular and deal accordingly.

Let’s be together in the fight, accept this emergency situation and support the govt in tackling this menace – coronavirus.

We shall win. Amen.

Love you all,

M.

PS – DO NOT PANIC. Things are under control.
Do not stock up more than you need. Be kind and share with those who are desperately in need more than you.

…………………………………………………..

 

A Small Note

Manita V

Hey everyone,

Sorry, I am absent here and not even replying to people.

Actually, few days back, I received the final draft of my book – The Masquerade from the publisher for Last and Final Check where I am supposed to check each and every line for the go-ahead!

And you have no idea what kind of torture it is.

Like a kid who has an exam, I run away after every few pages, waste time on twitter, as I don’t have my phone with me for some reason and phone apps like Instagram and Whatsapp are out of the question. So, I tweet here and there, pass time, feel guilty, go back to editing and checking… and the cycle repeats…
Behaving unpredictable, I am worse than my kids right now… lol… 😀 😀

I will not crib about clinic work & family responsibilities… those are constants… no point counting them again.

But whatever it is… What could have taken 4-5 days, has taken me almost 10 days.

That is the reason that I didn’t write the updates of Tangles and Ties; haven’t started updating Beyond Every Border; haven’t made the video for The Masquerade – I will do all of it in 2-3 days.

Thanks for putting up with my ups and downs… and all silliness…

To compensate –

~ A lot of stories have been ringing in my mind. I will begin writing them once I am done with this work 🙂

~ I will make available ALL my old books as and when I get time 😀

Love you people,

Stay blessed. Stay happy.

Take care

M.

Clarification

Manita V

I have been adding – ‘Next Chapter Link’ with old updates as a lot of people were having issues in finding the chapters & reading the story in a flow. Now you can click on the link at the end of each chapter to read the ‘next chapter’

An old update got reposted in the morning while doing this. Apologies for creating a confusion. When you click that link – it says – You are not authorized to see this chapter

It was enough to have me bombarded with messages since then… No…. there is no new update. You are not able to see it as I deleted it immediately!!!

Sorry for creating this confusion!!!

Also –

I am writing Beyond Every Border and will update today… Sorry for keeping you waiting…

2/9/19 – 12/9/19: Spark & Spice Festival

Manita V

This year Ganpati festival is to begin on the 2nd of September, 2019. Each year Ganpati Bappa arrives at our home and fills our lives with peace and happiness. So this year, I decided to spill over that peace and happiness in the lives of all those who love my works and have loved my book Spark & Spice – My most celebrated book on wattpad with 1M+ reads.

I have hundreds of requests every day to post Spark & Spice, but the last few experiences always had me wary of it. So, this time, I decided to publish it on my blog during the Ganpati festival for 11 days – From 02/09/2019 – 12/09/2019.

The book has 110 parts, so I will post 10 parts each day, beginning on 02/09/2019.

Everyone who hasn’t read it, read half of it or wants to re-read can join the journey. I have added a countdown to the main page…

Let the countdown begin 🙂

Small Note: 26/8/19

Manita V

Some people are facing issues regarding the older chapters of Tangles & Ties. When I checked it on my phone, even I couldn’t open as it said – ‘Page Not Found’

It happened because of high traffic on the blog and the increased number of posts which clog the space, or something like that, which I could understand only in parts as I am not a techno gal…

Anyway… I have enabled a ‘Search bar’ on the blog ( Sidebar on laptop and desktop & bottom footer on mobile) Type the story name and chapter number and it will direct you to the link.

Let me know if the issue is solved or you are still facing problems.

Also, the VM that I uploaded last night shows the ‘play button in the center’ … it happened with the phone app but not in laptop, from where it was uploaded.

Let me know if anyone else is facing the same issue.

Failed Efforts: A Chat Post

Manita V

Hello Everyone,

It is a general chat post. Nothing special. So you can stop reading wherever you feel bored.

I was missing you all. So, I thought I’ll drop a few words and talk to you about me and my routine these days.

I hope all is well at your end.

It has been a hectic fortnight for me – Schools opened, holidays ended, clinic resumed and workload is back. But with that, I decided that I will not let anything come in the way of writing so I allotted a set time for writing like previous times and now, I will try to update my stories on a frequent basis like I used to do during Fire&Ice and Spark&Spice on wattpad.

Don’t worry, I won’t tire myself. I try to maintain a healthy sleep-wake cycle, eat healthily and exercise every day. So, I hope it works for me.

On my last post when I was talking about my break, I had said that there are four more things that I wanted to achieve. I had made a list of 12 things to do – out of which I achieved 8 and I discussed them in my last post – Read them here: Holiday Moments

The rest 4 flopped big time. And I failed.

So, you don’t really get success every time. I tried hard but I had to give up. The things I couldn’t do –

  1. Shed 3 kgs of weight in 20 days and get in the desired shape – While I may say that we should accept ourselves and love ourselves the way we are, but having achieved that level of self-love, I don’t mind losing some extra kilos to achieve a healthy weight, increase stamina to stay energetic throughout the day, maintain activity levels and also, to get in that awesome dress that I wanted to buy. But alas, despite a good, healthy routine and regular exercise, I am not able to do it. And I know the problem. That is, more than occasional indulging in desserts with my kids. Phewww!! But I will try to get into the mold again this time. I have an event coming up in October and I have 80 days to go. My target this time is 8 kgs and that is last and final that I need to achieve to be maintained forever. I am 68 kgs right now and I want to be 60 kgs… Achievable isn’t it??!!
  2. I had to set a row of plants in my balcony and I didn’t get time to do it – I am writing it here so that I send the vibes in the Universe that I wanted to do it and couldn’t. Hope I get that time, energy and right resources to spice up my balcony space with beautiful plants and flowers. If I am able to do it soon, I’ll post pictures here. For now, I failed to achieve it.
  3. I wanted to binge-watch a TV show: I haven’t been able to do it even now. The closest I got there was asking twitter friends to suggest a TV show and I made a long list of TV shows to be seen. I don’t know when I will do it, but I will definitely start watching a TV show as KYY was the last show I watched and I am still stuck on it.
  4. I had to organize some paperwork – Income Tax Returns/Investments/ Banking work etc etc … When it comes to writing, I am the most prompt. But when it comes to important paper-work, I am the laziest. I HATE that work. Hate is a strong word, but Be It!! I wish someone did all that for me. But these are the things that I have to do and I keep running away from them. All those who know more about this field, please give me some tips!

So, that was all about my failed plans which I write in my to-do list every month and fail miserably month after month!

Things that I love to do are going Super Smooth!!! Like my writing… I love posting updates frequently and that is what I have been doing since last 2-3 days. Expect more updates like these.

More about my writing and introducing new sections on this blog in another post tomorrow! 

Love you all,

Manita.

……………………………………………

PS:

I will reiterate again that I write MaNan fiction for MaNan fans. I don’t like to horde them in a folder on my laptop. A story without readers is a painful asset. 

The sole reason for removing them is to safeguard them in My Name… so that no one else gets the credit for plot, dialogues and feels that I have in my books.  They are my babies. 

But, they are waiting to be shared. I will definitely post the links here as Manik-Nandini version and not as names changed, so that you lose nothing. They are as much yours as they are mine. But only to read. Not to copy 🙂

I will ensure that you are able to download the pdf links here. 

Few Things!

Manita V

People are still asking me about the password, even after making a full post about it. That says how no one reads my notes *sulks*

On a lighter note – “So that means that I am allowed to post long notes… No one reads anyway :)))

*Long Note* alert!!!

Hey everybody,

I just felt like writing to you about so many things which were being piled up since sooooo many days. Hence, this post…

About my books – 

Yes, I have once again archived all my books except the current ongoing books. There are a lot of reasons. The most important is that I have been getting emails from different apps and websites if I want to shift there. I don’t know why wordpress is promoting my site. Probably, due to really high traffic on all days. ( Thanks to all of you for this but the number of hits and subscribers on this blog has been incredibly phenomenal in just 2 months)

So, I first got a mail from ink*tt, really longggg back to ask me if I want to shift to their platform with Spark & Spice as the word got around that it was a popular FF with over 1 million reads. They offered to pay me per user-view, that is how they work, but I was not interested so I refused. Then, when I shifted to wordpress, I am getting mails from wordpress to host advertisements here on my blog. Again, I refused them. So they started promoting my site for no reason to more people, regular readers, and non-manan bloggers. Again they asked me, if I would like to post advertisements.
To make it very clear, I’m NOT GETTING PAID here or anywhere else.  In fact, I have paid 10K to wordpress team to get access to a lot of plugins and features.

I was advised to join dreamee and few days back I got a mail from an app I have never heard of — It is called : peek’ed. I was asked if I wanted to post my stories on that app and again the same story. Two more mails from unknown sites, I don’t remember the names of and few messages from unknown people had me worried about the access and reach of my books.

A reader messaged me to tell me about the girl who had posted a story similar to mine at another site and later deleted it. She started posting again. Currently, it is a different story and she has every right to write but we are being cautious. She HAS my books already and now, I don’t want to leave things on fate. Leaving anything online for a long time ASKS for people to simply LIFT it.

I know I sound paranoid… and that is why I was not writing about it since so many days. I hate my notes myself. I don’t like to write these, but this is it! I don’t want to sound like a grumpy grandma whining about the same thing again and again. It’s so embarrassing!
But I become a baby when anyone talks about stories.

For the same reason, I will remove Tangles & Ties, initial chapters from here as well. Leaving 67 chapters open is a risk. The story will continue as such from where it is…but older parts will be taken off!!

WHY ME??

Many people ask me this – Why you??
My answer is – No. It’s not just me. It happens with everyone. LOT of writers. Just that others don’t get to know of this. I am lucky enough to have readers who immediately spot it and all the times, the plagiarists were silly enough to post it as manan story only… I’ve known about a writer in India Forums, whose Sujal-kashish fan fics were copied to make Shantanu-Khanank fanfics and the poor girl didn’t know for years. Only when a fan discussed with another about how good it is, they realised, it was the same as the other one.

Also, I am a case of many-times-bitten… I’ll be worried more than any of you can think.

So nothing happened this time. But I don’t want to take risks anymore.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW?

Before you ask – Let me tell you about the fate of Twisted Minds, Spark & Spice and Fire & Ice

I have sent them for copyrighting long back but the Govt. Copyright thing takes more than 12 months… so you know how tedious is the procedure.

I believe that a reader has every right to read the completed story once she has started reading it. The time and energy and emotions invested by a reader are precious and I am grateful to you for that.

So, I take the responsibility and will see to it that you finish the stories you were once reading or wanted to read. I will start posting them one after the other after Tangles & Ties and Beyond Every Border are towards the end and taken off. I want to keep only one story or max two stories online.

The ones that are taken off, like Tangles & Ties and Beyond Every Border will be published as books in case you missed them, or were busy in personal issues/ exams etc or you want to re-read. You can be with me in my present

Readers of Twisted Minds – I have made so many changes in the book that it is useless and irrelevant to post the remaining chapters here. You won’t understand a word of what happened as it is a mystery and there was more to it than you have already read at wattpad. I will suggest, you read the book in entirety.

It is unethical and unfair of me to ask you to buy the book just because you want to finish a story. I will never do that and I won’t compel anyone to buy. It will be up for release in about 3 months and after the contract with publisher ends, say in around six months, I will post links to PDF format of the entire book here to be downloaded. It will be once I get a green flag from the publisher.

I hope, I have answered all the queries. If there are more, kindly drop your questions in the comment box below. I will answer all questions ONLY if they are different to what I have posted above.

You cannot skip this note and just ask the FAQs :)))

Thank you for being soooooooooooooooooo patient with me!!!

Sorry for being such a pain!!!

Love you all…

 

Hey :)

Manita V

I think half of my life will be wasted solving the issues of this app and making it user-friendly 😀

All those who are not receiving notifications on emails even now … I’ll be adding their names from the backend…

Kindly fill your email id here and send it to me

 

If you are facing any other issue, even then you can use this form. Or you can write below in the comment box!!

Also… about something to celebrate – 

It has been 15 days since I created this blog and this is what we have as a family –

 

Stats

This is HUGE for me… As it means the trust and love for me and my stories/books

Thank you…thank you…thank you…

From the bottom of my heart!!!! You all are too special!!!

Test Post For Email Notification

Manita V

This is simply a test post to know if you are receiving notifications on email…

If you do, you must know that you have missed these three notifications previously posted today…

A Few Announcements

New Story : Beyond Every Border

Beyond Every Border : Prologue

 

Let me know in comments that you received this post’s notification on email!!

Thank you and sorry for this inconvenience 🙂

A Few Announcements…

Manita V

I had to make this announcement post as I constantly live in a fear that readers will get irked by my constant notifications and leave me…

So please, if it bugs you, switch off the notifications for this blog ( you can do that from settings!)

This post is to prepare you for the same ( next few bombardments of chapters of different stories tonight… )

Also to clarify some points regarding this blog which I am still trying to understand.

  1. I’m not sure why some of you are not able to comment or like the chapters… I have switched off every obstacle that stops readers from doing it. Still…Let me know what troubles you are facing.
  2. I will start updating Twisted Minds on Monday… and will update one part every day from the beginning till it is completed.
  3. All bold updates will be password protected on this blog. I will send the password on email as notifications. You can share it with your friends. It is not to restrict the update… it is to stop it from that part to be picked up by search engines and to avoid the needless traffic that doesn’t belong here.
  4. I’m not making this blog private right now, as a lot of readers are not able to create an account here and have problem with signing in. But I get every ip address when it is clicked on any page of this blog. Any untoward activity and I will know it. Please support me, behave well 🙂 and avoid getting blocked. It wasn’t a threat. It’s a request :))
  5. Bold parts are password protected means first 12 parts of Fire and Ice are protected. Which I will start posting tomorrow. Let me know if you got this notification on mail. If you did, you will get a password tomorrow… for both Fire & Ice and the next update of Tangles and Ties…

Remember – It is TOMORROW!!!!

Don’t message me to say that you didn’t receive any password as I HAVE NOT sent any :)))

Love you people… With you, I will definitely go crazy like you all are…

Hello

Manita V

You can turn off the notifications if you get bugged by notifications from this blog. Otherwise, please ignore my frequent irrelevant posts… as I’m reformatting few things…

I have been trying to format the blog in a way that it becomes simpler to read and the pages are easily accessible to readers, once they increase in number.

I’ve had people telling me on wattpad message box and other social media that they are not able to access this site or not able to understand it. Since it’s inception, I’ve tried to solve each and every query or problem that was addressed to me. I’m trying my best to make this blog as a simple reading experience for you. Please let me know if it is still an issue to access the blog/ to read chapters etc.

Now you can access all books on the top of the page, like you did at wattpad. One click will take you to all chapters of that story and you can read from there…

Tangles and Ties, I’m now posting under one head… please track it with chapter numbers…

For rest of the stories, I’ve created categories for them to see how it turns out but I haven’t started posting chapters of any other story. I will soon post all my stories here.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for standing by me in every phase of life …

Love you all 🙂

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