About Me — Chembarathi (Priyanka)
Tags: Personal, About Me, Personal Story, Reflections, Life Lessons

That dream in which I saw myself to be a flower - a wild - blooms and wilts in a day - not for anyone - but for herself

All my virtual personas go by the name Chembarathi. It means Hibiscus in Malayalam, my mother tongue. I started using this name around 2009 and it has stuck with me since then. Hibisicus is something that grows in abundance in my part of the world, which requires no nurturing from anybody. It grows on its own, blooms and wilts away. A small life with its own joys and sorrows.

In the real world I go by the name Priyanka. I am from the southernmost state of India, Kerala. I have a day job as a coder which extends beyond the 9-5 timelines on most days. But whenever I get some spare time, I love to bury my head in a book which has been my way of escaping the reality since childhood. Reading remains a way of life rather than a hobby. Favorite quote that resonates with how I feel about reading is :

"Until I feared I would lose it , I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." - To Kill A Mockingbird

I have done a bit of traveling around India and China. Honestly I started traveling because of the job hunting. First two years after college were spent in traveling to different places in the hope of finding a job. To my surprise, I fell in love with the liberating feeling solo traveling offered. In the years that followed I found perfect companions for longer trips. So 20s were mostly about finding a stable job and traveling.

I got an opportunity to travel to China in 2017 and stayed there for almost an year. I had always romanticized about living in a strange city where nobody knows me. I never thought that it would come true. But I believe some of our innermost dreams have a way of manifesting in our lives. It is like they have a will of their own. I lived alone in Shanghai and whenever I look back in my life, I feel like it was the spring of my life. I have never been that much happy in my entire life. I plan to write more about my experiences in Shanghai in the coming days. For now, you can get a glimpse of my life there in this post.

https://chembarathi.medium.com/day-10-the-romanticism-behind-living-alone-939ae69f325

Why I write?

I am that sort of person who always kept a journal/notebook. It is a habit that my father instilled in me. It is not like I wrote everyday of my entire life. I wrote whenever I felt like it. In 2019, one friend recommended Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, where I came across the morning pages and life took a different turn when I started following that. It was not an easy journey. It made me confront many of my inner demons and after two failed attempts I completed the 12 weeks of The Artist’s Way this year. I still write my morning pages religiously. I don’t think I will ever let go of that habit. It has given me the strength to write in medium.

https://chembarathi.medium.com/day-7-the-wonder-of-mo-u-rning-pages-d46320612ba8

I write to make sense of my nonsensical thoughts. I have always resisted writing because I thought that it would fuck up my already fucked up mind. But I have finally understood the therapeutic effect of writing and I am pushing myself to write daily. I started writing in medium towards the end of October and managed to whip up something everyday. I hope to continue that in the coming years. For now, I am happy that I am able to find words to pin my thoughts.

What I write?

I don't have any niche as of now. I love to write about my own experiences, the books I read and anything that took my fancy. I am simply following my favorite poet, Mary Oliver's instruction when it comes to writing.

Instructions for living a life: Pay Attention. Be Astonished. Tell About it.

Contact Me:

If you would like to know more about me, my entire profiles across different platforms is available here.

https://linktr.ee/chembarathi