My short Story "In Search of Durga" getting published

Hello,

I believe all my reading and writing is finally paying off.

My second short story "In Search of Durga" is part of the anthology "Vanilla Desires and other Stories" where I share space with well established and experienced writers.

When I had started on my jourey of writing short stories I had never thought of such a day. In fact I'll be honest and tell that I did not give myself any chance of getting published. When my first story "Victim of the Stock Market" got published in the anthology "The Shrinking Woman & Other Stories", I was over the moon. But, soon some comments from some of my supposed to be friends and well wishers brought me down to earth. The attack was so vicious and full of hate that I started feeling that I was not good enough and was just plain lucky to have found a compassionate publisher.

Friends said that "Victim .." was too short a story and was published because of the exotic idea of a writer residing in Kuwait would help sales.

I later analyzed the statement and felt that it lacked logic. First, the story was short but it was complete with detailed human angles. Second, an Indian writer writing about Kuwait would be exotic. But I was an ordinary Indian writing an Indian story and the exotic factor did not jell.

During this spell what kept me going was the encouragement I received. My brother Sanjay, my friend Sanjoy, my daughter, Ruchira and several other readers loved the story and said that I was capable of better stuff.

Without being immodest I must add that twice I have been told that I am a better writer than Chetan Bhagat. Although for me Chetan was a good writer only till 'Five point someone', I do believe that the guys who do rate me above him are complimenting my writing style.

I know I can improve a lot and think better but the journey till date has been fulfilling.

In the beginning my dream was to be published once. I got it with the publication of 'Victim..", the negative comments from some quarters about my actual ability as a writer and the positive feedback from some quarters made me modify my dream slightly and I had now dreamt of a second publication with a longer story.

It is about to come true with the publication of "In.." and now I believe that it is time I altered my dreams a bit more.

Am I being greedy? Stupid? Overambitious?

Let me think over these points as I ponder on my next dream.

Till then all those who read my blog keep reading and sending in your feedback.

Your reactions are valuable.

Best regards,

Manoj