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.
 

Debauchers are NOT born in Terrorist centers

Few months back there was a terrible incident in our national Capital Delhi…There were huge protests and rallies across the country and abroad citing for the most gruesome punishment for the person who committed such Heinous Crime. There were people demanding for Capital punishment among others who deemed life time imprisonment to be the most appropriate penalty. In one of my article -Journey of a woman, I too adduced my views as far as punishment is concerned, a penalty which would inculcate the mass, and if any person think of committing anything horrendous their souls’ be stirred thinking of the retribution.  Unfortunately neither our Constitution nor our law making body can impose such a law.

There were Slogans like –“Teach your son to behave before you point your finger towards any girl.”
Yes, teaching is required and it should begin right from home in each and every household of India…As I believe- “Debauchers are not born in Terrorist centers, they are amongst us and we are as much responsible for their wrong doings as they themselves are.”


Now coming back to the point …If you crosscheck the age group of the culprits…you would realize they would briskly fall in the range 16 to 65… which means a culprit knows very well what he is doing and he isn’t worried or ashamed about his deeds either because of ineffective laws or a result of their upbringing.  I would speak to the extent more than the in efficacious policies of our constitution it’s our society, family and the environment where we are brought up is responsible for such alarming rate of increase of these atrocities. I know, no parent would teach their ward for commending such brutal acts but can you tell me when was the last time you heard a parent or the friend circle taught you to look a girl like your own mother, sister or daughter? When was the last time you saw a guy in the corner of a street looking a girl with respect rather than the lustful eyes?

From our School, we have grown by reciting the verses of pledge - “India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters.”  You would hardly find any person abiding by the pledge but will find plenty who would make mockery of our pledge by speaking words like –‘If all Indians are my brothers and sisters than whom will I marry, a foreigner?’  Pledge is not about any daily chores which we do unintentionally but an activity which is being taught in every school so that we may grow up respecting people across genders among various other values.  Sex education is considered a taboo. Neither teacher in school nor parents at home are willing to teach their ward about the essential part of a human life. The result -lads grow by being taught by filthy magazines and movies which erode their mind with soiled thinking. Even C-Grade movies are termed educational. I have seen ample examples where a simple talk to a girl or inviting a friend (girl) to your house is highlighted by friends and society in the wrong way…and I believe –“Female assailants are not a result of a day’s fault…it’s the result of the cumulative impression about the gender female that grows from childhood.”


Onlookers may suspect I am supporting the cause of Women and am speaking as if there’s no fault of females…but I must say I am neutral in my views and this would surely clear all doubts…Yes, Girls are also to be blamed for their fate in many cases…knowing it very well about the mentality of Men around don’t you think it’s their fault by wearing provoking dresses and going out at wrong places at wrong time of the day.  I know it’s a person’s choice of what they wear and where they go but looking around about the society don’t you think a girl should be alert enough to her surrounding by not giving wrong signals?


“A girl today is a mother tomorrow and a mother is much responsible for their child’s behavior be it a son or a daughter.”
It’s said you teach a man you teach a person…you teach a woman you teach a generation. And when a woman is taught (either by circumstances or by society) about the wrong ideals it grows through the generation. How many families you know or seen where there is discrimination amongst their Son and Daughter?  Dowry is considered Evil but you would mostly find a mother in law (who is a woman herself) being the main reason behind an evil system that’s going on for generations. 

“When you cannot control and preach equality amongst your children…it’s useless to think of justice in society”
 It’s said Charity starts from home…it simply means when you have to be benevolent amongst your family members first to shower you kindness to the world.

Another regretful fact about debauchers is that almost 80% of these sexual abuses are committed by known people like friends and distance a family member…which again compels one to look at the root of these evils that is our family and our surroundings.
Therefore I believe the role of parents has increased to a manifold as a parent now, not only needs to teach their children to respect and look up both the genders equally but they should themselves behave ideally. It’s a parent’s duty to know about their wards surrounding like their friends group and the people they meet regularly.  They should take to their task about the behavior of their ward and the language they speak (especially when you found your ward speaking of any foul language) and should keep a close eye on the people they interact via social media, internet or the traits they follow by the movies they see. I am not talking of keeping restriction on all but one should carefully monitor about the timing and clothes their ward wears and places they visit.  It’s said Parents should become friends to their son/daughter after the age of 18 but I believe they should be friends right from their birth as such you and your children share everything with each other and in this way you would know what your child is going through from thick and thin and thus will be able to evade any mishaps in future as I firmly believe -

“Debauchers are not born in Terrorist camps…they are born out from the surroundings they grow in and it’s a cumulative Impression they form right from their childhood. ”