A Rose and a New Life

MaryAnn pulled her curtain for the night while eyeing the bud in her yard.  A New day with the hope that all her swelling will be gone thus, allowing her to get back her mobility, flexibility, and her routine back. 

 Alas! She woke up and found her inflamed joints to be around while the rose had bloomed, and eventually withered away in a couple of days leaving her in that sad state.

With tears flowing, she eyed her infant. 

Wiped them off; took a deep breath and spotted another bud in her garden, prior to retiring for that evening. 

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 In 99 words (no more, no less) write a renewal story that proclaims, “This isn’t the end; I will go on.” Join in the fun at CarrotRanch.

Review of Take 2 by Ruchi Singh

Take 2

by Ruchi Singh 

Priya’s idyllic world turns upside down when she realizes her husband considers her dead weight after stripping her off her inheritance for his ambitions and lavish lifestyle.

Instantly attracted to Priya, Abhimanyu knows getting involved with a married woman is inviting trouble. But despite common sense, cautions and hesitations, he is drawn to help her.

Happily ever after has become a myth for Priya and trying to keep the relationship platonic is becoming more and more difficult for Abhimanyu.

In the tussle between ethics, fears and desires... will Priya embrace a second chance at happiness?

My Review

Take 2 is a story that revolves around happiness, peace of mind, and satisfaction that there is someone out there for oneself. Even though man could redefine the planet Pluto from a star to a dwarf planet, he still wants a body to lean onto whether it be during sickness or in good health. This story tries to capture that essence via a young lady named Priya. 

This story revolves around this young girl who wants stability in her life especially after losing her family at a young age. Her attitude was commendable since she was emotionally down after the death of her parent, but could get up, and wipe her tears.  When she found, affection being showered on her by a young man named  Sameer who eventually tied the knot with her. The marriage had its set of problems more so since she was vulnerable at that junction of her life thus, making her fall not only emotionally with loads of tears, and sobs but even her physical self, took the brunt of bruises, black marks, and blemishes. Eventually, these turned into her strength as she got the help of a couple of friends namely Komal, Abhimanyu, Aditi, and Rahul. They helped her get up and walk the path while helping her overcome her failed marriage. Along the way, she fell in love for Abhimanyu who then continued to hold her hand forever after!

The story had some twists and turns with respect to her husband, Sameer and her landlady thus bringing out the ugliness of Indian Society that keeps preaching gullible women to stand by their adulterous husbands. At some point, as a reader I wanted the topic to change since I felt the main character had suffered enough. But, glad the author could bring along a happy ending without losing the elasticity of the rubber band.

The author, Ruchi Singh brought out the happy ending for her central character, Priya while continuing to keep the readers engrossed in the plot. Take 2 a debut novel from the author, and she has done a fantastic job in bringing out the morally revolting and unpleasantness of the rules of the society thus, making it a recommended read.

the author, and she has done a fantastic job in bringing out the morally revolting and unpleasantness of the rules of the society thus, making it a recommended read.

Wordless Wednesday #79

Today's picture says it ALL, and talks about the impact of Colors!



Mantra for today: Choose your colors wisely since it not only pleases the physical self, but also helps in uplifting the mental level. 

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Darkness and my Perspective

Technically, darkness is another aspect of our life just as the brightness is. It usually teaches us to unwind from the day and get ready for the other day.

But, statistics show that a crime is conducted by adults after 6pm to 3am.

Ponder over this: When we are hiking in the forest during the day, we feel that the nature is out to hug us, and we feel blessed to be surrounded by greenery. But if we are returning on the same tracks when it gets dark, we would prefer to possess a flashlight or a lantern.

Darkness is defined as the absence of light.

The preference to have the path illuminated when walking could be due to two factors. One would be to avoid tripping over and hurting oneself and second is to avoid being the victim of some crazy lunatic who considers darkness a prime moment to attack.

As it gets dark so; do some minds. With the intelligence getting dim, it means there are bad thoughts. These evil ideas start spinning like a wheel in motion, and this circulation is difficult to stop unless it hits someone. Immoral or negative thoughts bring in the urge of destruction that leads to sorrow.

While few homo sapiens are going through the urge to hurt someone, there are people who are aware of such vibes around them and are scared. They are afraid of being the target of  reckless behavior; they are apprehensive of being hurt. Who likes to be victims of such aimless targets that are out just for the urge to cause mental and physical pain?

That is unfortunate.

WHY do "some" people start getting negative thoughts when it begins to get dark? Why do all evil things happen once the sun sets?

Is it because the person does not want to be judged, and as it gets dark, no one will recognize him and so, it is easy to go astray and take out one's vengeance?

 Is that justified?

Why does Darkness encourage "some" to become evil? Is it because, with no lights, no sight thus, no one to assess our behavior?

Is this world becoming so competitive and we are scanning each other so minutely that, we feel naked in daylight? But then when the sun dawns upon us, there are some who take out their frustration and put other people's lives in jeopardy just to relieve that tension?

Frustration, Annoyance, Resentment are the causes that man tends to retaliate when no one is watching him. Although, many get caught in their inappropriate actions, there are some who still roam the planet.

My 2 cents
Let's throw away the barriers of intolerance, bigotry and partiality amongst us. Darkness will be embraced just as well as Sunlight, by all.

Mantra for today: Man is born with the same number of cartilage, thus equal in all aspects. But the society that he has created has made discrimination amongst him. 


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The above post is written for BlogAdda.
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

The Smell of Peace

Zeenat woke up to loud screams, sirens, and gunshots. She was quick to peep out the window; after smelling fear, and anger she collected her essential resources and ducked in her basement.

Stuffed her ears with cotton and started chanting. Hours ticked to days and soon to a week.  Finally, everything was quiet.

She came out with her face covered cause of clouds of soot. The residue had turned everything brown and burnt sienna. However, she lifted that cloth and inhaled deeply cause the smell of peace is far more wholesome and harmless than any destruction caused by mankind.

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In 99 words (no more, no less) write about the day the earth turned brown. How did it happen? What else might be going on?
Join in the fun at CarrotRanch.

Wordless Wednesday #78

A mere pin can keep a patio umbrella open while supporting its ribs, and outer shell thus, providing shade to anyone sitting under it.

That affix is the life support of this umbrella.

Ever wonder what keeps our skeleton and mind together on a daily basis? Is it our determination, our tenacity or the willpower to take that extra step towards nirvana!


Mantra for today:  One body, one mind, but numerous thoughts to make us drift away from our goal. 

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Review and Spotlight of And We Remained by Asad Ali Junaid

And We Remained 

by 

Asad Ali Junaid

The Blurb

It is Bangalore in the late 1990’s. There are tremendous socio-economic and cultural transformations taking place as a result of liberalization. How would these changes impact a group of friends in their late teens? How would they cope, find opportunities and what of their original identities would they be left with, after western ideologies are brought in and bombarded into their awareness by cable TV and new media? 

Told through emails and first person account of events, And We Remained is a light and entertaining read of these friends as they experience love, heartbreak, prison, politics, drunken binges, strip clubs, sexcapades, US and Europe during their journey into adulthood

My Review

And We Remained, by Asad Ali Junaid is a story that is guaranteed to give you goosebumps as it takes you down memory lane of college life in India. Those precious days when most of the youth have big dreams to become either an engineer, a business tycoon or a doctor and want to touch the sky; just like that song in QSQT, "Papa kehte hein" Although being smitten by love is another path that most pave upon along with their academics. This book said it all!

This is mainly a tale of five college mates namely Sahir, Sandip, Gopal, Anand, and David. These five batch mates go through thick and thin during their academic years thus making them stick together even once they graduate. Their college lives are narrated by these individuals giving them a complete chapter to themselves.  The author would take us back n forth from their present to the future where they would be interacting with each other via texts, messages, and emails thus, giving the reader a glimpse of what kind of life these characters could carve out for themselves. 

Although it was good to reminisce about the past as college students and that life, but as a reader I kept waiting for a story to erupt. Wanted some climax to make me sit up and take notice on the characters mentioned above. Although the part where the boys were put in the jail for ragging was astonishing, and the atrocities they went through was chilling and horrifying. But, was surprised that even though they were falsely accused, they were accepted back into the college and eventually embraced by all their co-students. The author could have put some twist along with the ongoing good, bad, funny experiences and their aimless lives to keep the readers interested in a "What next" saga. The story was more about crushes with Wardha and the interactions the three young boys, Sahir, Sandeep and Gopal had with respect to her. 

And We Remained is a bunch of good, and funny experiences during college times and how these five young men could carve a niche in spite of the above. It definitely is a recommended read since it takes us all to those lovely carefree yet anxious days when we were younger and enjoyed life yet feared of what our future would be? 

Buy @

Amazon.com |Amazon.in | Flipkart

Watch It 

Meet the Author

Asad Ali Junaid is a design professional in Bangalore working in the area of Human-Machine Interaction. He aims to resolve problems to enable humans interact and use technology efficiently.
Junaid writes whenever there is a compelling story inside him bursting to get out.  Junaid’s first fiction novel –And We Remained – started as a story which needed to be told… and one which needed to be told differently. He joined a three week in residence ‘Just Write’ fiction writing workshop where he got a chance to learn the nuances of and hone his story telling skills from authors Anil Menon, Anjum Hasan and Rimi Chatterjee. And We Remained then turned into a 52,000 word novel with an absorbing storyline and a unique narration style – the story is set in the 1990’s India and is told through emails and first person accounts of events.  Junaid is getting great feedback for the story depicting the mindset of engineering students in that era and the unique narration style it follows.
Junaid is married and his wife is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore working in the area of Molecular Biophysics. Their toddler completes their home while keeping them on their toes.

You can stalk him @

                          

         

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