Praise for My Books


"Manreet Sodhi Someshwar is a gifted writer of great promise. I have a gut feeling we have a new star rising in Punjab's literary horizon. She has an excellent command of English and a sly sense of humour."
- Khushwant Singh on The Long Walk Home

"An enjoyable tale of a sassy girl's headlong race up the corporate ladder."
- India Today on Earning the Laundry Stripes


Thursday 1 December 2011

The First of December


A whiff of winter in the air,
It’s the first day of December, I’m aware -
Is the weather intimate with the calendar,
The way it’s announced the onset of winter?

We’re done with autumn, I know,
For the X’mas decorations are in full flow:
Tinsel and holly and glitter and red -
They’re signaling a birth and an end.

As each year, I wonder at this time:
Where exactly did it go, this year of mine?
A year in which I’d promised myself -
I’d finish a book, become a better mother, writer and wife.

The book is done, the rest is same ole myself...
A constant work in progress,
A year older, wiser - perhaps?
For I do know this much -

The wisdom of age has less to do with the passage of time,
It is, instead, what I did with that time.
Eventually, in the great crucible of life,
In that long walk home that we call life,

Love is the arbiter of all our acts.
Was I loved? Did I love well?
Did that sentence convey what I meant to say?
Shouldn’t I be more patient with my daughter every day?


If, at the end of a day of writing,
I still have nothing I’m happy with,
Surely, hubby can be spared forthwith,
My tetchy, grumpy hedgehogy-writerly being?

So, come December, I welcome you!
You’re my chance to renew, regrow and revise.
I am mine to make over and over -
End-of-year, you're my saviour!


14 comments:

  1. Wonderful.
    That was exactly what I was thinking today. Where did this year of mine go?
    Like the fifth para a lot.

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  2. where did the year go?Exactly thats wat i wondered today morning seeing the calendar.
    Days,weeks,months,and at the end its year. Pour into each day so that at the end of the year you have wonderful memories of the year gone by..Beautifully put together thoughts for the first day of December..

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  3. Amazing poem. Never looked at the end of the year with this perception.

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  4. :) see a sudden upsurge of posts re the 'last month of the year' this year!

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  5. So many lovely lines, especially loved - The wisdom of age has less to do with the passage of time,
    It is, instead, what I did with that time.
    Eventually, in the great crucible of life,
    In that long walk home that we call life

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  6. A brilliant poem weaved on wide array of thoughts and yet conveys so much!Each word is a gem.After reading this I too am left with the feeling
    Where exactly did it go, this year of mine?

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  7. @ mona gill: Thanks! It's the end-of-the-year itch I guess - we suddenly see time has shrunk until the moment hits that there's another year to follow, inshallah :)

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  8. @ Purba: Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed it :)

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  9. @ Rahul Bhatia: Thank you! I guess a bit of year-end introspection will keep us all healthy :)

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  10. Lovely poem. The days just do fly, don't they? Always hoping, the next year is better than the current one.

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  11. @ Richa: Thanks! Yup, bird like :) Cheers to a great 2012!

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