John and SITARA, So, it's my turn then to let myself wallow in the plaudits you shower me with - undeservedly so perhaps. Thank you both so-so very much for your kind words. Yet more excuses for my wofflings if I can use that slang, that you're having to put up with! John, about the 'aesthetic environment'. Thank you for your comments - yes, it was my immense fortune to have been brought up in that sort of setting. I owe it a great deal to my uncle who created for me a creatively conducive environment to grow up in and be active as a reader if not as a writer. When I now look back and think, it was this familiarity with that setting which offered me the outlet to think for myself and explore a world beyond what I was perhaps incapable of imagining myself doing - stepping beyond the boundaries of my own comfort zones. And reading naturally became part of the greater design, and the books its means. And before long, it became a habit - a monstrous one - slowly turning into an obsession blown out of all proportion, and I have still got to live with it, though it has mellowed down somewhat over the years. I don't read these days as much as I used to. More commitments (career, family) as you grow older, and this inevitably leaves you with a very narrowed range of choices to contend yourself with. Mine may well be a case in point! Oh, well. Now about my being a writer. You've got to be joking. Okay, I am comfortable with words, but then when it comes to writing something original ie. creative work, I get a complete mental block. I used to write a few bits and bobs in the past, but not any more. Might try my hand again, especially now that both you and Nirman have started nagging me! Might write travel memoirs for all the places I have been too: Paris and Mexico springs to mind immediately. Something I have always wanted to do. A tall order for me - a very tall one indeed but we'll see. Now about your curiosity regarding my pseudonym. I wanted to give it a rather elusive charm, so people kept wondering whether I was indeed what my name said I was. A curious cliff-hanger, deliberately placed - something of a red herring! Now that you ask me, I am left with no choice but to spill the beans! Yes, I am in the military - British, not Nepali. And yes, I am at Sandhurst but not as a student - on posting, this being my second one. Glad to hear that you have heard about the name. Sandhurst - let me blow the trumpet - is the world renown academy, the mil equivalent of Oxford/Cambridge. The academy's lecturers are among the best of world authorities on conflict studies, international affairs etc. Its former alumni include Winston Churchill, Jordan's both late & present kings, many Arabian royalties and many more famous names worldwide. The most famous of literary names are Wilfred Owen & Rupert Brooks (both war poets) and the novelist, Evelyn Waugh (he wrote 'Sword of Honour'). So, the place has got a bit of history. I'll leave it there for now, will talk about it at some other time. SITARA, so very nice of you to comment on my postings. Didn't think you were actually following the posts in this thread, honestly, but it turns out, you were. Delighted to know that. I regret missing your posts in Sajha for whatever reasons, though my experience with Sajha is relatively young. Whenever I am free, I have tried and read your threads which I can locate via your name, so a little bit of a back-tracking to do, but will get there, sooner or later. So, no worries. And you ARE indeed, to quote John, a writer par excellence. No doubt about that. To reiterate what I said earlier then: our very own Jhumpa Lahiri in the making, though I know, this is a pretty daft comparison to make given my limited knowledge on your works, and especially because, your stories could be more interesting to us your readers, than Lahiri's for all sorts of obvious reasons, and by extension, it will be wrong to use her literary standing as a yardstick to measure the merit of your creative works. So, SITARA could be only SITARA, no one else. And we - your fans - want that from you rather than any thing else: the originality, the SITARA prose rather than Jhumpa Lahiri. And your own pedestal where we can put you onto with pride - the road to that pedestal is paved with just so much promise, Sitara. Don't let your talent go waste, and don't let us down. (ps: the same goes for John) Now, Nirman, thanks for your comment. Kunai din post garam la - pratikchha sanchnu hola. Btw, did you get to read my comments on your toilet door? Jackson Pollock/Tracy Emin comments! Amusing eh! Okay, this is by far the longest post I have written. My apologies. I have got to shoot off - it's already 6:30 pm here in Belaayat. Have a good day. Carpe Diem Ps: If you lot happen to be in this part of the world, pse do let me know. I will be delighted to show you around the place - the academy. I'll be here until next June.