30 days. 26 posts in 26 days, with 4 Sundays off, for obvious reasons – Exodus 20:9-10! what I mean is “It’s Sunday!”. Three years in a row. That would be something, if I manage to complete it. But when I first started this challenge, it was to see how well I work under pressure and with a deadlines to meet. Along with that, I wanted to understand what kind of a writer I was. The first year was a complete disaster. Believe me, it was. I am telling you to believe me, because there is no one else who could vouch for it. I will give you a moment for the sarcasm to set in. But, I don’t work well under pressure and don’t even talk about deadlines. The broken pieces of couple of things at home know the pain, I mean knew the pain.

So, having realized my true potential, I thought better not to indulge myself in this the last year. How did you know I was out of things to break? No, that wasn’t the reason, okay? But then as I was doing my bit of work in motivating the people who did sign up for it, I found a person who was mocking me for not taking up the challenge. First of all, I was all in support for the challenge, because it proves one’s agility, consistency and over all their skills as a writer and that was the reason I was supporting all the people who did take up the challenge. But then some smart-ass comes along to mock me for not taking up the challenge. I don’t really take people seriously. I mean I take people very seriously. Real seriously. Even though, I want to get them out of my mind, I just can’t. Manufacturing defect, Doctors on the internet have told so. Anyhow, I got real pissed. I started my own challenge – ZtoAChallenge, to counter the person who was doing the AtoZChallenge. Though it was a disaster, more disastrous than the asteroid that hit the earth a few million years ago that made an entire race go extinct- Yes, that bad. But, at the end of the month, I managed to do the needful, I completed the challenge.

I was a little surprised when a good friend of mine appreciated my attempt, however stupid it was. Well, that’s what friends are for, right? Why am I stressing so much on something that doesn’t even make much sense? Well, I have to reveal a blog-theme for this year, like always. And my usual go-to theme was Random. It didn’t even make sense to a lot a people (2-3 is also termed as a lot, in case you had no idea). This time I was planning something different. By different, you should already know it is a stupid thing already, especially when I say it. So, here it is : “Real Life Fiction”.  “What the fuck!?“, was the response I got when I told someone about it. “There are real stories, there are fictional stories, what in the gods’ name is real life fiction?” *Pats myself on the back for not considering a normal-simple theme which made sense*. 

So, I guess you are still in a bit of dilemma of what the hell it is. So, a could of years ago, when I had a friends group, I started writing about them, which was a way of telling how much I appreciate them and likewise. But then again, after the formal introductions of the people in my group, I jotted down a couple of things that happened that stood out. I made a story out of it. You could call it a diary sort of, but with a little added story ( I guess to make it a little more interesting ). And obviously, I changed the names. That’s why it’s called fiction, sort of it involves real life stories. And last year, I started off again with a new batch of friends. It’s again a recollection of the incidents that I need to write because the real life characters are kind of waiting for the stories to come out. “Why am I doing this”is the most obvious question. What if I told you that these people sometimes use the names I gave to them in the story in the life outside the blog? I considered it as my accomplishment, and it is a tribute to the people I work with and most importantly the amazing friends that they are.

However, this would me primary agenda of the theme. But 26 stories is a lot. I mean my brain can’t handle to recollect that many incidents. So, I was hoping to squeeze in the fictional stories that I had started a few years ago. I will restart them and hopefully finish them by the end of the challenge. *Fingers Crossed*.

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If you want a glimpse of what I was talking about all this time, follow the links :

a. The Lunch Box Journal 

b. I still haven’t figured out the title for the story

– ak, MMXVII