Sid Balachandran hardly needs an introduction. Chances are, if you are in the market for quality reading and edge-of-the-seat fiction, you’ve come across Sid’s blog I Wrote Those. That he is a core member of the very popular Project 365 team is just the proverbial cherry on top.

A few days back Sid asked me to write a guest post for him- his 101th. It would become a part of the Project365’s daily posts written in response to the prompt of the day. As if that wasn’t enough, he asked me to Tell us something most people don’t know about you.

I’ll be honest with you. My first reaction was one of stumped silence. What people don’t know about me? Oh man! That would be the size of a house!

The second reaction was, ‘Why should I tell people things they don’t know about me? If I wanted them to know, I’d have told them already, wouldn’t I? Don’t be so daft!’

But Sid has zero affinity for a NO. He insisted on being daft. He would have that post. Let me tell you, in the strictest confidence, that the man does not fight shy of emotional blackmail to achieve his nefarious ends. I hope you are shocked and outraged. Yes. He gave me to understand that if I didn’t write the 101th post it would never get written. He’d go straight to 102 leaving a great whacking hole in his blog for the whole world to mock at. What could I do? I had to write.

Then he asked me, ‘Do people really know about each other?’

That was the hook. As the cliche goes- You may know my name but you don’t know my story.

Nothing opens your heart to the world than to bear witness to the story of a fellow human- no matter how different from yours, no matter how small, no matter how ordinary. Their story gives you the permission to be different, to be ordinary in your extra-ordinariness. It reminds you that you aren’t alone.

The deal clincher was, “How did you feel growing up as an only child? Was it as bad as most people make it out to be?”

Bad! Oh NO!

The credit for this post goes entirely to Sid. It is a testimony to his persistence; it is a proof of his tenacity. He knows what he wants and leaves no stone unturned until he gets it. Combined with his talents and his passion for excellence, it makes him into a formidable force.

Here’s a taste of what you will read on his blog (to which you must subscribe if you appreciate quality reading):

 I’m an only child.

It might be a fairly common thing now, but in the time I was born, it was as inconspicuous as a vibrantly colorful bird of paradise in a colony of sedate penguins. Striking, if you know what I mean.

Actually when I think of it, nothing about my life conformed to the rest of the beige fabric.

Only child? –Horror!

Only child in a Nuclear Family? –Double Horror!

Only child of a working mother in a Nuclear Family? –Horrors on top of horror!

Only child of a working mother like my mom? –Speechless! And Scandalous!

Read the rest of the post on Sid’s blog HERE

Picture Mine... as in REALLY mine. :)
Picture Mine… as in REALLY mine… all of three years old. 🙂