Serenity...!!!

5^th MAY -1999:
It’s a blistering hot summer…everything seemed static as if even the shadows have gone for a hiding and a tiring chirpy sweet voice of a rather restless  5 year old Anubha welled up

Anubha: Mamma…Mamma
Anukriti: (Seemed distracted…turned towards Anubha) What happened?
Anubha: Mamma…Ice ceaam…
Anukriti: (Disgruntled…sprained her eyes towards the Ice Cream Vendor) one butter scotch please.

Anukriti took the ice cream and handed it to Anubha... Anubha held the ice cream close to her mouth suddenly saw a girl of about her age in ragged clothes seated on the pavement opposite her, staring at her with pleading eyes. Anubha felt uneasy and went straight to the girl, handed her ice cream to that poor girl and ran back to her mother who was speechless seeing her.

Anubha: Mamma let’s go
Anukriti though didn’t speak anything but certainly wasn’t pleased for something which Anubha couldn’t understand.

Later that day Anukriti told his husband Prakash about their daughter’s behavior…with an abject…I don’t understand Anubha…Today she gave away her ice cream to a beggar…if she wanted to give something she should have asked me…I would have given her 5 rupees but an Ice cream worth of 30 rupees…if she is going to be like this…god knows what she will do when she grows up.

Anubha heard this but didn’t know what to say…so she kept mum.








To read the entire post please click Here










This is my Guest post for thewhitescape

Book Review: The Lost Paradise

Book:  The Lost Paradise

Author:  Anjali Vaswani and Vikas Bansal

ISBN:  9789350880524

Genre:   Fiction

Price:  139 ( I got it directly from the writer)

Pages:  168

Publisher:  MAHAVEER PUBLISHERS
Introduction:
What we do to others comes back to us and it’s our conduct which decides whether it would be hurting or a pleasing one. ‘The Paradise Lost’ proves the camaraderie of our acquit i.e., when we are committed to serve people out of their dungeons staking our lives  we would ourselves be bestowed with those who would stake their life for us. This book would also impel you to reckon the harsh realities of life-‘life is certainly not a bed of roses and more often than not it’s the genuine good people who have to bear brunt the most.’

Cover Page & Title:
 With a glimpse of the Cover page …one could ideate it’s a book invested on woman and the two females in the cover -one proud and confident and the other in her knees, folding arms to herself, looking upwards  gives much insights about the different shades a woman would portray in the story. “The lost paradise” title is as adorning as it could be and it depicts a life which would be a gem worth living as if a life in a paradise but alas it’s lost.

About the Author:
Anjali Vaswani, is working as a Test Engineer in Naukri.dom. She is an avid reader. Her friends describe her as chirping sparrow and person who always wants to lead the crowd, not just be a part of it. She loves to watch Cricket and is a huge Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh fan.
Vikas Bansal, works as an operation Manager in Cilory.com. He is a notorious person by heart. When he is not in office, he likes to watch movies and play games. His friends usually call him a heart stealer


Compostional Report:
 ‘The lost paradise’ started with Anjali narrating a typical day of her life where she was all set to meet Vikas (a person she was in love with)and few other friends at  India gate. It seemed for a moment this would be a story of Anjali and Vikas but yes there was a twist and it was right at the beginning. Here enters Riya Aggarwal who was holding up a peace protest for Justice…and the real story began.

Riya Aggarwal hailed from a typical conservative middle class family from Merrut whose parents (especially her father Mr. Dileep Agarwal) were bent against female education and thus were reluctant to send her daughter to Delhi for her higher studies. Riya’s 12^th result came for her rescue where she topped school and her father finally gave in.  Riya settled in a hostel with one of her Senior Kamini and got finally got admission in one of better known colleges in Delhi (SRCC). It was all like a dream come true as she fell in love with a Senior Vivaan at first sight on her first day at college.  With time closeness between Riya and Vivaan grew and their bond became stronger. Vivaan Proposed Riya on the 20^th birthday in front of the Taj Mahal and it seemed life couldn’t be better than this…and it felt both were living a life in a paradise. Then Vivaan’s ex girlfriend Shaila came into the scene and tried to lament Vivaan’s image in front of Riya but Vivaan like any Bollywood hero came out clean. This wasn’t the end of their problem, a twist in their love story was awaiting them.


No there weren’t any villains from either of the families and the twist came in the form of Kamini’s end, her senior and her roommate. Kamini’s revelation of her involvement in Drug and sex racket and Riya’s dream of making big in the field of politics twined Riya to risk her own life to save Kamini from Hemant a person who was responsible for everything behind Kamini’s demise. Riya along with her friend Chetan and Kamini did manage to put their plan to test and succeeded not only to burst racket but also put Hemant behind bars. But little did she know that she was lurking with danger.  Hemant got a bail within a week of his arrest and in the voyage of revenge tried to kill Riya. Riya Survived the death blow and it was only possible because of Vivaan and his instrumental dedication and love towards her…This was perhaps the beginning of the inevitable.


Riya and Vivaan’s intimacy increased after the mishap and  the fairy tale continued from official reckoning of being a couple followed with the engagement and other customary traditions. But on the day of the Wedding hell broke when Hemant appeared again and this time it was Vivaan’s turn to pay up the consequences and he finally succumbed leading to an inferno for Riya. Riya’s own parents closed doors on her when she refused to abort and when she came up to his father in law’s home she found it locked and thus was left to protest at India gate for a life which deserved to live in the form of Vivaan and Riya’s Son. 


Vikas who earlier enticed Riya into a talk after knowing the entire story dug deep to help Riya and to salvage sympathy from people of the country. Finally all his deeds yielded fruit when a famous Social worker came to Riya’s rescue and finally Riya gave birth to a son and named him Vikas.

As far as the loose ends were concerned I would stress on the unnecessary misunderstanding between Vikas and Anjali right before the end and its advert in the story neither had importance nor relevance. Another flaw according to me is the negligence to cover up Hemant…a person who not once but twice came up to kill Riya and was the sole person responsible for Riya’s fate yet the story didn’t mention anything about his end.

The positives were certainly the showering of True love between Riya and Vivaan along with the story theme which was set to highlight the power of a woman.

On the whole it was riveting story and the characters of Vivaan and Riya were artfully handled, a bit more coverage of Vivaan and Riya initial bonding along with Kamini’s extended role would have been handy. It was refreshing story with passionate ending, delved with the capability and intriguing power of a female, a story inclined for displaying the latent potential of woman. This book is certainly readable and am sure readers would go through it in one go.

Rating:
 I would give ‘The Lost paradise’ 3.5 out of 5

Life Adjudication of the book:
This book is best read at times when one is forced to the wall and needs to overpower the weakness within to come out strong and face the world.
 

Book Review: because every raindrop is a HOPE

Book:  because every raindrop is a HOPE

Author:  Mansi Sharma and Shankalp Kohli

ISBN:  9789380914435

Genre:  Fiction/Romance

Price:  125 ( I received it directly from Writer)

Pages:  182

Publisher:  GENERAL PRESS


Introduction:

One should never let one’s ego to vouch the center stage in Friendship and should always let trust to overhaul all misunderstanding in close friends. When am speaking about ‘because every raindrop is a HOPE’ Trust and Ego would be the two words which would lead up to mearstones.  Mesmerizing plot that will compel you to believe – ‘There’s always time to forget your past and start a new beginning.’  With a power pact moral –‘People say we die when we stop breathing but the truth is we die when we stop Hoping’.  This book is a must for all bachelors who more often than not are carried over by infatuations thinking its love thus ruining their life. A book which will motivate you to have a clear sight of Friendship, Love, Jealousy, Lust, Ego and most importantly Hope, when you are all set to give up. ‘because every raindrop is a HOPE’ is wound around college life but am sure it will give enough leads not only about life at college but Life above all…!!!

Cover page & Title:

With a rather somber looking cover- A man facing backward looking over the woodlands in a mist, readers might think this to be a serious read. Title also gives an indication of something even brainstorming but mind your thoughts as this is as entertaining and fast paced as you can get. This book falls in one of those rare categories where I can profoundly say-‘Never Judge a book by its cover.’

About the Authors:
Mansi Sharma Having a zeal to sail the vessel, till the river runs dry in the chase of her dreams; Mansi is a person who takes the challenges and surprises that life and destiny throws at her, with courage.       
Nesting big dreams from her childhood in the Beautiful City of Chandigarh, post her Graduation in Physics (Hons.) from PU, she moved to Pune for her Masters. An MBA Graduate from SCIT, Pune, Mansi is presently working in one of the top Indian Telcos.       
With a slice of painter, dash of an avid reader, a writer and an unexplored poet, she is an emotional and sensitive person.              
Sankalp Kohli Born and brought up in Kanpur, Sankalp is an MBA Graduate from NMIMS, Mumbai. 
An entrepreneurial soul with an imprint of a perfectionist, he is a workaholic, who believes in turning every single moment of life into something constructive and fruitful. Being an avid reader since the beginning, he eventually began giving his thoughts and ideas, the wings of words in the form of blogs.        
He is a person who holds his parents above all, especially his mother. All his dreams and aspirations are driven by his wish to make his parents feel proud

Compositional Report:
As I said earlier this book will thrust you off-guard by the time you finish the first few pages as you would realize you are about to read about bachelor life, a life in college…And college life can never be dull no matter what kind of person you are…!!!

The story revolves around a teenager Raj Malhotra as the main lead who sets off along with two of his childhood friends Rahul Bhatia and Rohan Awasthi from a small town Kanpur to a fast paced Metropolitan-A city which never sleeps- Mumbai for his higher studies at Mumbai College of Engineering and management studies (MCEMS) for a five year integrated course. Story is divided into 15 chapters and an epilogue but I would categorize it into three Parts.
First part of the story deals with Raj settling in one of the Hostels of MCEMS near the Juhu beach with a windup of his 1^st love Shruti and how he lost her. The story moves forward with the echelons of Ragging night, First day at college, falling in love with a rather simple looking girl Mahek, Cricketing heroics, Exams, Jealousy about a friend reaching a milestone, Ego clashing and all the cliches of about the college life… but the real difference would the way each of this topics is handled… freshness of plots woven around an interesting subplots guiding the story forward. One would feel as if there’s someone whom you know sharing the same traits as its portrayed…whether it’s about the true love Of Mahek, Ragging Blurs, relief of achievement or jealousy of a friend taking over…This part is as entertaining as it could be.

Second Part…or I should say the turning point of the story where Shruti met raj coincidentally. Raj felt as if his lost love is back and in the process ditched Mahek but very little did he knew that Shruti didn’t come to stay and she got rid of him the same way she left him on the first occasion. Unable to bear the brunt and the feeling of ‘None can ditch him’ Raj implied the same for Mahek and Mahek struggled to keep herself up to it and struggled to move on. Meanwhile in a quest of love or I should say lust raj ended with one night stand with a German Cera in his trip to Goa with Rohan, Rahul and Rahul’s girlfriend Preeti . In strive to forget his past (Shruti and Mahek) Raj took to drugs which he himself condemned all his life but that was just a day’ affair and he needed something that could bury his past. He eventually hooked up with Debonita, a foreign exchange student and Rohan’s girlfriend…more for jealousy of being single amongst the three friends and for the growing concupiscence for the NRI Debonita. Debonita held the weakness of Raj perfectly and tuned his ego to hate his friends and thus forced Raj to grow his distances from his childhood friends. She even forced raj to commit a theft in the Funds of college that was meant for the college fest and finally sided her way out of Raj’s life.



The Third and the Best part according to me was the final part where Raj seemed hopeless…everything was lost for him…No friends, No one to share a moment with though he was the General Secretary of the college he had no one by his side. He had already lost Mahek whose love was genuine. Once A topper and a person who had grabbed the best package flunked and his low attendance did come up to his savior. His Impression also demeaned in front of Professor Tripathi whom raj looked up as a fatherly figure as Prof. Tripathi found about his theft though he saved raj from landing in jail…but till then everything was over for him…and it was only of the trio
 1) Rohan’s word before he met Prof. Tripathi. (A friend’s Concern)
2) Prof Tripathi’s realization words for Raj (Realization of what he was and what he is now)
3) Old Villager’s Retrospective speech of hoping and striving against all hope (To get over his past and start with a new hope)




The retrospective realization and hope was very carefully intertwined with the rain drop falling and its importance to  hope of a new beginning with Prof. Tripathi’s Word- “Life Doesn’t End when Every Rain drop is hope”

As for the loose straps it was hard finding out but I believe the start was a bit- beat around the bush as it was concentrated on the college happenings  rather than the main theme. But above all it was a fantastic read both from entertaining and motivating point of view and one can’t get any better plot as this one which was focused on a bachelor life…a life where we often chose the wrong compartment for our destination as such this book is right up there for motivating people to realize the worth of many ethics I described above which if forgotten would lead to a life…better not lived. ‘because every raindrop is a HOPE’ is a book which will surely out number your expectations.

Rating:

I would rate ‘because every raindrop is a HOPE’ 4 out of 5
Life Adjudication of the book:

A Book to read when you are not at your best and striving to get back at life as this will not only entertain you but will motivate you to give your best.

My Interview with Rishi Vohra

This Interview is in line from the book review of  Rishi Vohra's debut Novel -'Once upon the tracks of Mumbai'



A stepping stone for me...my first interview and i must give my heartiest gratitude to Rishi Vohra, who bestowed me with this opportunity which i couldn't resist and grabbed with both hands. Today i am feeling blessed to cover this Interview and i thank him for giving his precious time over the questions...which i selected specially for him and his debut novel.




Here we go...with my first question to Rishi

Me: What inspired you to want to become a writer?

Rishi: I never decided to become a writer and somehow wandered to it. It started with writing guest columns, and went further into the visual medium. I found myself enjoying telling stories and decided to try my hand at writing a book. After I was published, I received positive feedback from both readers and critics alike. In a way, it was these comments that encouraged and inspired me to continue my journey of writing. But it was Babloo’s character that inspired me to put this story down on paper.

Me: Wow! It reminds me of the line -always keep focused to what you like to do and your destiny would  take you up to what you deserve...and there's always an inspiration behind to keep our goals within our reach...

Me: Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first Novel published?

Rishi: As a person who is an outsider to the literary/publishing world, I didn’t know where to start. Since I was in the US at the time, I started querying U.S. literary agents which is the first step in the publication process there. One literary agent advised me to look towards the Indian market. I contacted publishing houses here and several expressed an interest to pick up Once Upon the Tracks of India for publication. So, I would say that the main challenges I faced were those of patience, and more patience. And of course, learning by trial and error.

Me: Patience and perseverance...and i would like to mention that in bold as this is something all aspiring writers should look forward to.

Me: What was the inspiration behind your Novel?

Rishi: I created Babloo’s character based on a friend of mine, and felt a pressing urge to tell his story. On further primary and secondary research, I realized that people are oblivious to the day to day challenges that people with disabilities have to face. Overall, they aren’t well-informed or educated as to how to deal with such disabilities pushing such people further into a corner.

Me: That's the significant point, not only you related your sentiments with a person with disability but also came up with this mind blowing plot which will certainly make people feel for it.

Me: Did you always know the end before you wrote it?

Rishi: Yes, I did. I feel that it’s important to have a starting and ending point as it helps you to give your characters direction and motivation during their journey.

Me: Clarity in thought and destination is the way to success and you are proving an epitome of this philosophy.

Me: Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way?

Rishi: The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger did have a profound effect on me. And of course, there are many more.

Me: That's Inspiring...and i believe there are many amongst us who would consider this masterpiece of JD Salinger to be their inspiration as well.

Me: What was your favorite chapter or scene to write and why?

Rishi: It was the last scene that I found most challenging and interesting to write because it was set in an environment that I had no knowledge of – a mental asylum. It was my favorite because it is ironical as Babloo finds his sanity and identity there rather than in the outside world.

Me: Challenging circumstances do bring out the person you really are...and therefore i must commend you for covering last scene as splendidly as it can be.

Me: Your story is set in Mumbai...why did you chose Mumbai?

Rishi: I have lived in Mumbai all my life and have an emotional connect with all the locations featured in the book. The book was set in and around the railway tracks, which is the lifeline of this city.

Me: This proves your Attachment to Mumbai...and your novel does gives ample examples of your bond with Mumbai City as your description were apt and succinct.

Me: If your book was made into a Movie, what actors would you like to see playing your characters?

Rishi: I could see Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan, Farhan Akhtar, or Arjun Kapoor playing Babloo's role. In terms of the leading lady, I could see Parineeti or Shahzn playing Vandana’s role.

Me: As i was expecting ...you have chosen actors who would comfortably fit with the roles of youth and Valor.

Me: Did you ever feel yourself like the main character...a real life hero?

Rishi: Of course! Every Indian has a hero inside us, and we all want to do something that would change lives for the better!

Me: Exactly and we all want to do something which would change life in a positive way.

Me: Who are Your Target Audience or who do you want to read your debut novel?

Rishi: My target audience for this book is everyone who has a heart, because you need a heart to feel for the main character.

Me: You know... when i was reading the concluding part i was turning the pages with fear as i wanted it be a happy ending...and by the time i finished reading....i realized, i was so attached to it that it felt as if it was happening all around me.

Me: Tell us about your Website?

Rishi: The website is www.rishivohra.com. It features excerpts, videos, articles, reviews, and other information about the book.

Me: i am sure all the readers and all those people who would want to take their hands on your Novel -'Once upon the tracks of Mumbai' would be glued to the site for details...

Me: What are your plans for the future?

Rishi : My second book is ready and has yet to be picked up for publication.

Me: We all are eagerly waiting for your next book and am sure readers would be itching to have the first look at your second book.

Me: Rishi, My final question to you...What more can we look forward to from you?

Rishi: You can look forward to books that are fast-paced, different from one another, and above all – entertaining!

Me: Am sure with the popularity and reputation you have built with your 1st book that is exactly what all readers would be expecting from you-  to be enthralled and entertained...!!!


Well...that comes to an end to an exciting interview ... am sure with those special insights, which  Rishi gave to us about his 1st book -'Once upon the tracks of Mumbai'...it would be an entirely new experience to all the readers as this was something that was beyond the book which i am sure every one of us would love to read ...!!!