aS Shorts #1: With an Umbrella half opened.

Hiatus brews ideas. Here's a new one.

Presenting to you, aS shorts - short stories that will melt like butter on warm hearts. Enjoy.

-----------------------------------------------------

aS Shorts #1: With an Umbrella half opened.

"Oh no, not again! What's wrong with Mumbai!!!" I exclaimed as a perfectly fine Mumbai evening turned first into a drizzly walk to the bus stop and then with some 100 more steps left, cruelly went on to pour heavily. Talking angrily to myself I begun to open my blue bordered umbrella. "You can't trust anything here. Struggle for everything. This is just not done!" And BEST bus 172 overtook me, quite literally. With an Umbrella half opened, I realised that this was the bus I was supposed to catch.

With an Umbrella half opened, I ran!

more

And the Mountains Echoed

I believe I'm late with the review, but I want to recommend this to those who have not tasted the magical recipe of Hosseini's writing concoctions.
You cannot deny the fact that Khaled Hosseini is a brilliant author who knows how to mould the emotions of the reader as the story demands it.
Although his books always do have a recurring pattern involving minors, pre and post turmoil Afghanistan, and an ending that leaves you neither smiling, nor crying- you never get tired of that. His sentences are interlaced with emotions; paragraphs brimming with the potency of bringing shivers down your spine, and pages encouraging you to turn to the next, even though its late at night and you've cried enough for the day.

more

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

As I read the name out loud, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, I did realize that this book has something deep attached to it, an emotion unexpressed. Plus, the CROSSWORD Recommends sticker on it and a piece of information that it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007, made me take the book to the cashier, and back to my pad.

Most of the scripts and storylines post 9/11 had a typical ink scent that made them cliché after a time.

Mohsin Hamid looks at it in an entirely refreshing way.

First, the writing style of the book is right from the author’s pen. The first person monologue intrigues you more than any multilingual dialogue would be able to.

The Pakistani stranger ,Changez ,talks to an American Tourist at a Lahore Café, unfolding his entire biography about the time spent in the States. How he graduated Princeton with the best of grades, was hired by a top notch company Underwood Samson, and how he fell into the rat trap of the world; how he gradually got in love with Erica, and what led further to a tragic end of a realistic love story.

more

Shantaram:A review

A "Classic" among novels perhaps is a book that everyone talks about,but nobody bothers to read.

So this one day when I was wandering around in hostel,I found the book with one of my friends.Already fed with too much of hue and cry about this classic called “Shantaram” from the VA faculty at my CAT prep insti,involuntarily I went through the epilogue of the book and this is what I read.

"In the early 80’s Gregory David Roberts,an armed robber and heroin addict,escaped from an Australian prison to India,where he lived in a Bombay slum.There he establishes a free health clinic and also joined the mafia,working as a money launderer and street soldier.He found time to learn Hindi and Marathi,fall in love,and spend time being worked over in an Indian jail.Then,in any case he thought he was slacking,he acted in Bollywood and fought with the Mujahedeen in Afganistan…Amazingly Roberts wrote Shantaram three times after prison guards trashed the first two versions.It’s a profound tribute to his willpower..A high kicking,eye gouging adventure,a love saga and a savage yet tenderly lyrical fugitive’s vision."

more

11 minutes-Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho,on every other book of the author you would see the quote "from the internationally bestselling author of The Alchemist".Before Eleven Minutes,the other two books I had read were The Alchemist(quite obvious!!) and 'The Witch of Portebello'.I admired reading both the books and with this one in my hands,I expected a real good read and luckily for me Coelho delivers.

Eleven Minutes is a work by the author aimed to explore the sacred nature of sex and love.Maria: A young Brazilian villager,who is ambitious enough to chase her dreams ;the protagonist narrates the story and I must say narrates it beautifully.The diary entries of the girl who choses her profession to be a prostitute are realistic enough to connect to the nerves of the reader.

The other half of the story is the character 'Ralf',a man who tasted success early in his life.The character who is expected to be happy but ironically who is not, has been portrayed brilliantly.The novel runs around these two characters searching their happiness,their sexuality ,their soul.

The story progresses with the meeting of these two in a coffee shop,where Ralf the acclaimed painter,acknowledges the 'light',that he saw in Maria and later through the conversation of these two ,Coelho delivers the message of the natural need of LOVE.

The strength of the novel lies in the perfection of the author with which,he has dealt the sensitivity of the theme.From page one to the end,the book connects to the reader and he /she reads it as Maria.The natural poetic flow of Coelho's work is worth appreciation too.

Weaknesses though rare to find, yet after reading it,if you analyse in terms of real world,such thinking prostitutes and painters are not the characters around you.The story is a very well written fiction ,yet plays no role in improving our daily lives.

Reading this piece of work is itself an opportunity, as the preciseness in Coelho's writings in showing the world from a woman's point of view is touching.

Mentioning the threats,the book deals with a mature topic and many would not agree with the point of view of Maria/Coelho. A bit less realistic,some may find the story ,but still a MUST READ.

Some quotes that made it into my diary from 11 minutes..

• How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanquish so quickly?
• Sometimes you get no second chance and that it’s best to accept the gifts the world offers you.
• If I must be faithful, I have first of all, to be faithful to myself.

more

Sultry Days

A bit about the Author

Shobha De,the author of the book holds a personality that is typically 'politically incorrect'.Being critical and bitchy about everything is her genre.A well established journalist known for her magazine works in Stardust,Society and Celebrity and her explorations of the social life of celebs;Her TOI editorials also features her typical 'political incorrect' views over current happenings,events,people,situations or films and have been worth reading.

Review

Sultry days is a fiction written around a character Nisha who portrays sort of a no ambition girl;a character very much lost and confused.Nisha narrates the whole story which starts from her late college days ,when she is infatuated by GOD.The author has very falsely tried to generate some thrill by using 'God' as a character.God here is no one but just a 'I know it all' college dude.De has tried hard to portray Deb(God's real name) as hero of the plot,but has failed miserably ,in doing so.Throughout the book,the lack of flow,the lack of the poetic touch and the lack of anything to which a reader can connect is felt quite much.

The story progresses,with Nisha and Dev coming closer and struggling to find their spots in their respective lives.Nisha's workplace is an advertisement firm ,which the author has used as a plot to give a view of the ad-world.De talks about various people associated with Deb's workplace which is some art related work in a magazine.Both places have been described through a flurry of characters.A very distinct and rather call it dismal feature of the book is that in every ten pages you read,two new characters have been introduced which almost do nothing at all in the progress of the story.

The overall analysis of 'Sultry Days' suggest nothing at all sultry about it.

The cover photograph of an appealing model and the epilogue ,which is very much catchy can be sarcastically taken as positives out of the book.

Quoting from the epilogue "On a sultry rainy day,Nisha an impressionable teenager,meets GOD in college canteen ad falls in Love.......". There is not even one percent of the fiction inside of what the epilogue promises.

Mentioning the threats,if you choose this one for your weekend read,you ll neither be reading a good fiction nor it ll be causing any value addition to yourself.

Avoid reading it,if possible.

more

1 Idiot, 3 Legends. Gotta see who's who.

A double trip to Patna book fair got me three books to chew upon this training sem.

1. Forster's Passage to India

2. Gandhi's 'My experiments with truth'

3. The biography of Karl Marx

Apart from that, I am gnawing 'The God of small things' and 'Atlas Shrugged' at full pace these days. Will share my experiences as I go on completing 'em all. A fetish with books even after surviving for 4 years in a place they call IIT.

Well, some habits are never meant to be changed.

Alok.

more

यूं ही कुछ कवितायेँ निकल पड़ी

कभी बैठा रहा जो मैं

ज़िन्दगी से निराश,

सोंचा कुछ भी करने का कोई मतलब नहीं

व्यर्थ हैं सारे प्रयास

खाली बैठे जो मिला एक कागज़ ,दिखी एक कलम

यूं ही कुछ कवितायेँ निकल पड़ी

कभी तोड़ डाली जो

सारी बाधाएं मैंने,

दिखा दिया जाकर आगे

सबकी अपेक्षाओं से

एक पल के लिए जो खिल उठा मेरा मन

भरे उत्साह के थामी मैंने कलम

यूं ही कुछ कवितायें निकल पड़ी

कभी दिखी जो मुझे तुम

कभी पास आती हुई

कभी होती दूर ,नज़रों से ओझल

अपनी ही इच्छाओं को तोड़ते माडोड़ते

पकाते हुए कुछ खयाली पुलाव

हाथ में जो आई मेरे कलम

जो जी में आया लिख दिया

यूं भी कुछ कवितायें निकल पड़ीं …

पिछली दिवाली यूं ही घर पे खाली बैठा था ,की तभी छोटी आई और कहने लगी "भैया,कोई काम नहीं है ना आपको??!!,जो ये सब लिखते रहते हो...!!" मैंने भी सोचा की बात तो सही है ,खाली समय में ही दिमाग इधर उधर भागता है और अगर कलम हाथ में हो ,तो उस पल का कुछ लिखा हुआ ,अपने पास रह जाता है |

अभी जब शिवी ने ब्लॉग का रुख थोडा सेंटी कर दिया,तो सोंचा ये पोस्ट कर दूं |

प्रणव ...

more

better?

I walked a mile with Pleasure
She chattered all the way,
But there was nothing
I could learn From all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow
And never a word said she;
But, oh, all the things I learned
When Sorrow walked with me.

more