First trip to Mumbai from Vadodara by road

 Start around 9.30 am from home. 45 minutes later, near Karjan, a biker veers into our lane, we brake, hit the bike, bike in splits, biker on the road, traffic halts. Our car's smashed and I still can't get over the fact that the biker walked, unscathed. Toddler wonders why car is not moving. He has never heard the word accident, until this moment. Mob gathers but dissipates after news of a huge explosion in Vadodara trickles in. We wait for another car, while the toddler runs to the swings in a foodcourt. A dosa brekkie, a late lunch at Burger King in Valsad and Christmas Eve traffic jams from Dahisar to Powai, it has been an 11-hour journey to home after 2 years. The toddler squeals with excitement when he sees his Dida 😘

60 Years of the Liberation of Goa from the Portuguese after 451 years of colonial rule

It's Christmas around the corner and as tourists make a beeline to Goa for some susegad, let's not forget the freedom struggle that makes it possible. When we think of freedom struggle in India, we almost only think of the freedom movement against the British. Gandhi, Sardar, Netaji, Nehru, Bhagat Singh, Savarkar, etc, are our heroes but we have scarcely heard of those Goans who fought against 451-years of Portuguese rule in Goa. Today's Goa Liberation Day, it's 60th year of Independence. This year, I launched a fiction series called The Goa Saga which showcased different aspects of Goa and some of the conflicts in the state - the struggle to emerge from its colonial past, the influx of north Indians and migrants from other states as labourers, tourists and settlers and how it's changing the socio-cultural fabric of the state, the role of the Church, environmental degradation because of mining, drugs and human trafficking, foreigner-run establishments, etc. The idea was to look beyond beaches, beers and babes into a culture that is so diverse and multi-ethnic. For me, Goa's less about the beaches, more about the river, the Mandovi,  that needs to be cherished, protected and loved. People (including publishers) asked me, why Goa? Why not? Why did I write the books? Well, to live in the place I love when I couldn't be there because of the pandemic. I write for many reasons. The Goa Saga opened my doors to many authors, historians, freedom fighters, Portuguese colonialists from Goa and Lisbon after it was published. While promoting my books at The Goa Book Club, I discovered writings on the much feared Agente Casimiro Monteiro who carried out state-sanctioned assassinations in Portugal, Mozambique and Goa. That's the thing about writing and reading books. They open doors to worlds and people you never knew existed. 

#goaliberationday #thegoasaga #goa #booksongoa #portuguese

http://www.amazon.com/The-Goa-Saga-3-book-series/dp/B09H7S82P5?ref=dbs_m_mng_awm_0000_ext

More praise for The Goa Saga

The Write Creed E35: Eisha reads out the rhyme How to Hug a Cloud by Jacqueline Vollat

While browsing through an Indie author forum on Facebook, Eisha finds Cincinnati-based Jacqueline Vollat's post about her children's book, How to Hug a Cloud, which is available for free on Kindle that day. Who doesn't like a freebie? She downloads it and reads the 36-pages from cover to cover, illustrated beautifully by Noor Alshalabi, a freelance illustrator based in Jordan (https://www.noorillustrates.com/). Will the dreamy rhyme about chasing a cloud and not giving up work for her almost-four-year-old toddler?

#jacquelinevollat #childrensbook #selfpublishing #kindlebooks #nooralshalabi #illustrator #jordan #cincinnati #cloudycastlebooks #indieauthors #indiepublishing #podcast #books #thewritecreed #rhymesfortoddlers #agesfourtoeight #rhyme

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3DaXOJP1YMG5BDIb0U6KFz?si=ZGtta0KsQPW1kc0RWm71gA&utm_source=copy-link

Knight

The Write Creed E34: Eisha talks about Spammers, Scammers and Cyberbullies

Eisha religiously empties her Spam and cleans her Inbox to reduce load on the servers. It's one of the tiny things you can do for the environment and save power, she says. Before she hits "Empty Spam Now", she glances through the subject lines, some humourous, some not. From eggplant emojis in mails about penis-elongation to Russian women trying to sell her sex, to lottery and casino wins to blocked PR to hate mail from people she knew or didn't know, she finds them all. Then she talks about the spammers and scammers in Facebook writers' and podcasting groups and cyberbullies who can or cannot be blocked and how she deals with them. Amusing and informative, this episode of The Write Creed is dedicated to the pages of mails we never read or want to ever read.

#thewritecreed #spam #junkmail #inbox #gmail #mailaccounts #spammail #scammers #spammers #facebook #podcasting #writing #sex #lottery #casino #hatemail #cyberbullies #trolls #bots #selfpublishing #ebooks #publishingscams #traditionalpublishing #digitalbooks #thegoasaga #books #writersforum #betareaders #eggplantemojis #spambots #bots #phishing #fraud

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3WclIFhi04nChFOQ3n6YIV?si=hjO0k9lwTs6nNFiOamTZRQ&utm_source=copy-link

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82NjIwMjlkYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/ZTBkNjkyOTctNjk5Zi00ZjcxLThjNDItNTJhNTU1ZmM1MjA5?ep=14

My talk about The Goa Saga, The Write Creed, storytelling and human rights at FJC

A 40-minute session about #thegoasaga books, #thewritecreed podcast and human rights turned into a 1.5 hour talk at Faculty of Journalism and Communication (#fjc) at #msuniversity weaving in personal stories, human interest stories and fiction on the occasion of Human Rights Day. Answered questions in English to journalists from Gujarati and Hindi media because I realised that's the language I am most comfortable with while talking about my talk. Discussions about writing, ideas, chapterization and podcasting with my former students and faculty members followed for another hour. Exchanged notes with a teacher who has just published a book of short stories in Gujarati about partner-publishing and self-publishing. 3.5 hours, one cup of coffee, a sip of water and lots of catching up. Tiring, yes, but if you have a passion for writing and telling stories, this is what makes it worth your time.

https://gujarati.news18.com/news/madhya-gujarat/vadodara-exhibition-of-infographic-posters-was-organized-by-journalism-students-on-the-occasion-of-international-kb-local18-1159573.html

The Write Creed E33: Eisha reads out a chapter from Mad & Moonly (Book 3 of The Goa Saga)

In this episode of The Write Creed, Eisha reads out a chapter from Mad & Moonly, the third and final book of her new romantic thriller series, The Goa Saga.

James, Aeram and Saysha are lying on the bed. Aeram recalls the time Danny belted him in the room and James gave him a hiding. He tells James that he loves him more than anyone in the world and he will take Oleg down. Only he can, because Oleg and Svetlana like him. Why?

Mad & Moonly is available on Kindle, Amazon, Notion Press and Flipkart

#thegoasaga #authorreads #readings #madandmoonly #booksongoa #contemporaryfiction #romanticthriller #russian #russiansingoa #miningingoa #podcast #thewritecreed #author #eishasarkar #spotify #googlepodcasts #audible #amazonmusic #applepodcasts #goa #goatourism #youngadults #fiction #childabuse #mentalhealth #trauma

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QQMhS3HiEpOZ6iYgXmPnf?si=_c1JGjm6TZC_vJCyoCkd3w&utm_source=copy-link

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82NjIwMjlkYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/NDZhOTVmNDQtMzQ3Ni00MTE2LWFiMTktYmJmNDJlYWFhY2I5?ep=14