Gratitude - By Harini Nagendra

This week's topic is on gratitude. In honor of Thanksgiving, share something you're grateful for. Specifically, something that helps you do your work as a writer more effectively, efficiently, or joyfully.

I know what's on the top of my mind - gratitude for good health. I've been dealing with a family health crisis for the past few weeks - and with that getting closer to being resolved, I am very thankful, very very thankful indeed. And indeed, joyful - enough so that I'm going to be able to return to the draft of book 5 in my Bangalore Detectives Club series, which has been sitting quietly for a while, waiting for me to return. 

And bonus - I was struggling with a plot point that didn't seem anywhere near as interesting when I wrote it down, as it had seemed when I dreamt it up - indeed it was becoming somewhat laborious and uninteresting. But the short break from writing seems to have brought inspiration with it. Last night I suddenly had an idea - what if, instead of x happening to the princess, y happened instead? (yes, there is a princess, which means I also get to have fun describing the palace, and the king's birthday procession, on an elephant, and the bullock carts adorned with streamers which went house to house in 1920s Mysore, delivering sugar candy to all the residents, in honour of the special day - true story!).

So I'm also very grateful for inspiration, whenever it strikes. I'm also grateful for being able to find some time, despite all the crazyness of life, to dream up a book and write down a series of adventures that take me into a different time, a different place. I'm very grateful for my readers, for without their love and support of Kaveri, Ramu, Uma aunty, Inspector Ismail, milk boy Venu and the other members of the Bangalore Detectives Club, I wouldn't be able to write all the way from book 1 to book 5. 

I'm grateful for the books themselves, and for the stories that swirl in my head. For they are the best therapy I can think of, keeping me smiling through the rough times and the good times in these past few years.   

And most of all, I am grateful for the love and support of my family, who have been my biggest cheerleaders, keeping me going even when I think there's absolutely no way I can finish the book I'm working on - especially when I'm approaching the mid-way mark and I'm sure that this time, of all times, will be the one instance when I will be forced to admit defeat. Until... a miracle happens, and I find the way out through to the end of the book.

Happy thanksgiving week, for my friends in the US celebrating. For others, like myself in India - any time is a good time to reflect on the importance of gratitude, and the need to remind ourselves of everything we're thankful for.