Narcissism, Blogging and a (not-fainthearted) Resolution for 09

What have I been writing in this blog mainly? Pretty self-centric stuff, I admit. Then, what's wrong in that? Nothing. But it's true, I also wanted to write more about other issues than my own life and writing, and post more of other's works of which I've done just a little bit. Okay, no handwringing though. 2008 is over and 2009 marches on breathlessly. And I'm not the one to wallow in self-pity or whatever. I am angry about the Mumbai terror attacks, the bomb blasts in my homestate of Assam in northeastern India, and also about the reckless plundering of the Palestinian territory by Israel (the "only democracy in the middle east"? Ha!). I am worried about my parents' failing health, about getting jobs for us whether in the US or in India (need money to eat, right?), about whether Obama as the new US President will become a magic wand at all for the world's agonies, about the environment, hunger and other age-old stuff like the blunders of Capitalism that don't go away unless we work in an organized manner to keep these at bay.

I am also happy. I made new friends who give me courage; around me I have motivated people of all ages who motivate me no end, and the world is still a lovely place with its offer of love (platonic or otherwise!), trust and bonding. On a narcissistic note, I've been published in quite a few North American and Indian journals -- more poetry, a bit of fiction. This gives hope that I can get what I want. So, it might interest my blog readers to recap that:

• SHEHER anthology (Frog Books, India) is featuring my poetry, alongwith names like Meena Alexander and Imtiaz Dharker.
• I have a short fiction forthcoming in Mirage Books anthology (India).
• Poems forthcoming in The Liberated Muse anthology (Washington DC).
• Poems in The Toronto Quarterly in spring 09.
• Quay Journal of Arts and Poetry (Texas) will also publish my poetry this spring.
• Poems in Lit Up Magazine: http://litupmagazine.wordpress.com/poetry/nabina-das/
• Poems in Kritya: http://www.kritya.in/0404/En/poetry_at_our_time.html
• Poems in Muse India: http://www.museindia.com/showfeature12.asp?id=1141
• Poems in The Cartier Street Review (The Ink Blot poetry forum): http://modernpoet.proboards98.com/index.cgi(also click "page 2" above for more)
• and a poetry commentary on Kritya: http://www.kritya.in/0408/En/name_of_poetry.html
  

In 2008 I have read my poetry at CSMA gallery, Ithaca, with former Tompkins County poet laureate Katharyn Machan. Probably I'll read again on January 24. I have been featured on the sites "And So I Sing: Poems and Assorted Flotsam: http://eileenmoeller.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-poem-vertical-footholds.html", "Poets who blog: http://poetswhoblog.blogspot.com/", "Birthdays of Poets: http://birthdaysofpoets.blogspot.com/" http://www.blogger.com/www.sulekha.com, and "Joy's Poetry Blog: http://joyleftowsblog.blogspot.com/" and my credits have appeared on Flor Del Concreto: http://flordelconcreto.blogspot.com/". Search by my name. Ooh, so much for self-love!

I have to thank some special people for all the help and encouragement they have lent me, sometime even without their own knowing: Joy Leftow, DubbleX, Roxanne Hoffman, Bernard Alain, Debra Castillo, Ted Wheeler, Rati Saxena, Eileen Moeller, Abhinav Maurya, John Burroughs, Farahdeen Khan, Roger DuPuis II, Tikuli Dogra, Ritu Lalit, Meena Kandasamy, Tanuj Solanki, Rhett, TMTL, Arvind Joshi, Gulnaz Sheikh, Mukti Lakhi, Aniket Alam, Sunita Bhadauria, Andrew Christ, Katharyn Machan, Anu Pujar, Parsa Venkateshwara Rao Jr, Don Coorough, Sara Marie, Subir Ghosh, Mary Gilliland, Laurie Stone, Sunil Poolani, Priti Aisola, Visi Tilak, Poonam Tanmayo, and of course my family.

Coming back to the world around, my resolution this year is to listen more, understand better and celebrate creativity from all quarters. Also, blog more meaningfully, an old promise. If I've forgotten someone or something, please remind me, please.