My all time inspiration - My Father!

Housing.com had been so generous to bloggers like me, that they had forced us to think of almost all the moments when we have experienced the inspiration or optimism through a closed one. Now they have forced me to look back a whole lot of years ago, when I was having my first board exam and the evening I had spent talking to my father. I can’t exactly remember the words quote-unquote, what he had said that day but I still remember the goose bumps I was having that evening. It is truly said that words don’t inspire but the company does.

I was a boy then and I don’t think I have to tell what goes inside a boy when he knows that from tomorrow he will have to give the best he had learnt through all these years. The exams which were about to start will guide his whole career and this particular exam, for which he had to visit a new school will decide his capability and how fierce he is. To be very frank, at that moment I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to study but whenever I sat to study, I felt as if all those things which I had learnt would go outside my head. I couldn’t move around because I was scared that if I move around much and divert my mind into all the other things that are going around me, I will forget my lessons and my exams would go bad.

There is one bad tendency I have that whenever I feel tensed I start sweating a lot and I fumble a lot. I do not feel hungry. That day was one such day in my life. I wanted to hide that from my parents but my father, being a father, understood what was going on inside my head. He sat with me and proposed a game of chess. I have always been good at chess and my father had always been my inspiration while playing chess. I always wanted to be as best as my father in the game and he knew that I can never say no to a game of chess.

After lunch, when we sat for a round of chess, I was still very tensed. My father took white and I took black. He started the game and I continued. The me, who used to take much time before a shot was hurrying things up and panicking at every step forward. My father looked at me, held my gaze and said ‘Son, be calm! Panicking would never solve anything and stuff would only go haywire. Go slow, take your time and free your mind of everything else, focus only on the game. Patience is the key. You know it all, you just need to feel that you know it and you’ll have it’ I didn’t know what magic those words did to me but then I took a deep breath and played the game with the 100% I could give.

Believe it or not, it was that day, the very first time in my life that I won the match and that too with a check-mate. Till date, I don’t believe if my father actually lost the match or was it intentional but all I remember is the after match winning hug that he gave me and told me ‘This was an exam, my child. Tomorrow, just think about today and give your best. Nothing is tough. Patience and calmness are the only things you would need’ I had goose bumps then. My boards went awesome and I went on to score 88% in it. I guess, it was the motivation that I needed. Near and dear ones surely know how to boost you up and show you the power of positivity. I’ll cherish that day forever!

Note: This is a part of https://housing.com/.

Start a new life - to leave the past behind

It’s Housing.com which makes me sit and write about a wonderful topic yet again. I have to say the brains behind the website are doing marvelous jobs to bring such positive and colorful topics to us. It is not a regular habit that I talk about the bold step I have taken a few years earlier. Or I would rather say I was forced to take the bold step. Now I can say that the step helped me to start a new life but back then, I was clue less.

I was twenty four then and had just got the correct job after fumbling with almost four or five companies. Getting a job which pays well to a regular accounts graduate was even tough then but not like now. Now is tougher. It is told that happy times comes together and bad times too. In my struggling period, before getting this job, when I was leaving jobs every day for the sake of satisfaction, now I realize, the unsatisfied mind of mine because of my personal issues was forcing me to leave the companies. Isn’t it the mantra to heal every broken-heart, to become busy? I was trying real hard to keep myself busy with work, but that was not working. Her smiling face was effecting my sleeps and my sleepless nights was effecting my next day’s job. Soon depression started to gulp me down and I started to believe that these images are going to haunt me my whole life and I will never find peace again.

Then came the company to my rescue. I can’t even count how many times I have thanked that HR guy who selected me. That was a few years later, when we became friends after my third promotion. Back then that interview was another interview and another job for me. But they had asked me to leave my city because they wanted me to take charge of their brand new branch in Darjeeling. I was hesitating a bit at first but my parents got on my back and pushed me to take the step.

That was how I started afresh, how I started a new life, a new beginning. I was never a hostel boy and had never spent a night without my parents. That step was indeed a bold step for me. After landing at Darjeeling I was given a room in the company quarter. If I had more space I would have loved to describe the view through the window rather than the condition of the room. The first few nights were terrible, worse than those I have spent in my city. I used to be the last one to leave the office and the first one to reach there. But soon the new atmosphere, the new faces there, the new job everything started to get inside me like I was always wanted to come here. Now I realize that was the place which was not letting me go of my past. A change is always needed, one has to take a bold step to make things better.

Note: This article is a part of https://housing.com/.

Review of 'Rapescars...: They Never Heal...' by 'Gaurav Sharma'

Title: Rapescars…: They Never Heal…
Author: Gaurav Sharma
Publisher: Petals
Page Count: 150
My Rating: 3/5

Blurb: A girl is raped! Her parents insist to report. Police tries to scuttle the case. Her fathers influence works! Doctor, the fourth man, sees her bare. The defense lawyer encounters with obnoxious questions. As if, she had inveigled the innocent boys. As if, shes the one accused and her violators are seeking justice against her. She feels & experiences being raped in public again. Her lawyer manages to seek conviction! Akriti wins the case but refuses her culprit to have imprisonment.

Why does she do this?

What does she decide then?

Is this the decision of her or raped mind?

Rape Scars is the voice of a rape survivor who thrives to stand against the violation of her persona.

Verdict: ‘Rapescars…: They Never Heal…’ is the second successful novel by Gaurav Sharma. ‘Love@Air Force’ was his first novel and I must say I loved reading that book and that raised my expectations for this book. This book is a brave attempt of the author on a sensitive use of current times.

The cover is one of the finest designs I have seen in recent times. I quite obviously don’t judge a book by its cover but now a days the cover looking good has become one of the mandatory requirement for a book to be hit among the readers because of the huge options they have in a single genre. The front cover of this book is a pure head turner. One thing I have to mention is the sheer callousness of the publisher or the designer for not translating the text on the cover to English. The blurb of the book is average and doesn't raise much urge among the readers to buy the book. Overall the first impression is good.

Coming to the storyline, the author has chosen a sensitive topic for his second novel. Rape, the word itself is enough to tingle the sensitive chord among the readers. The book starts with Akriti, a girl in her college life, being brutally gang raped by her boyfriend and his friends. And then follows the aftermath. The readers will love reading the court scenes. I loved what Akriti demands as the punishment to his rapist. The characterization was good and the author has described them efficiently which helps the readers to visualize the scenes better.

The narrating style is average and doesn't match the level of the author’s previous book. The chosen words are not good enough and disturbs the feel of the scenes. I was expecting a lot on the rape scene but the description was not up to the mark.

The storyline is good but could have been framed in a better way. The narrating style and the chosen words are also one of the flaws of the book. Apart from this, the book is one good attempt to raise an important question to the society. I would love to read more books from this author in future and hope he will work on the mentioned flaws in his future endeavours.

Available at:

Flipkart – http://www.flipkart.com/rapescars-they-never-heal-english-1st/p/itme2y9ttqf6fpak?pid=9788192982748&otracker=from-search&srno=t_1&query=rapescars&ref=b3e66745-fe87-481c-8c54-e60e25e256ff

Amazon – http://www.amazon.in/Rapescars-GAURAV-SHARMA/dp/8192982742/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425733676&sr=8-1&keywords=rapescars

Look Up Stories - Being Optimistic

Finding positivity in almost everything is an art itself. It is easy to see the negative side but tough to see the positivity in the same. All thanks to the team IndiBlogger for bringing yet another wonderful topic for the Happy Hours contest, which makes me sit and think of all those incidents that forces me to think positive.

There are quite a few times and quite a few incidents that filled me with the thought, that if they, in this situation, can look positive why cannot we? I wish I could have the opportunity to write about all the incidents relevant to this.

To narrate the incident or the experience, we have to go few years back. It was early 2011. The year when I found out that life can be more beautiful after seeing her. The love of my life. We were new to each other but after the very first meeting in the Kolkata book fair, it was like we were eagerly waiting for each other. Our love had started to blossom even before the first sight. The first few months went by so fast that I felt someone has suddenly pushed me up in the ninth cloud and I was floating in heaven. The distance between our houses were thirty five kilometres and in the first two months we met almost each day. Either I was present in her area with my bike or she came to my place by bus.

But that was the starting or the honeymoon period as we call it to be. Soon those meetings started to turn into numerous unending phone calls and the phone calls into messages. It was not that the love between us was fading but the distance between our houses was playing the villain. Negativity was gulping me down whenever I saw that my friends spent at least two days in a week with their girlfriends, but I couldn’t. I almost started to think that this relation is not going to work out, not because I don't love her but because I can't restrict myself from meeting her and it was not possible except occasionally.

Then Arjun came to my rescue. A new student got admitted in our accounts batch, named Arjun and soon we found a lot of similarities between us and became good friends. After few days he revealed about his love life and I was shocked to hear that. His girlfriend was living in Guwahati from last two years. He couldn’t even talk with her on a regular basis, let alone meeting. And they are happy with each other.

This inspired me a lot. Here I was crying for not able to see her twice in a week and there a boy was not able to see his love for two long years. This taught me to be optimistic about the whole situation. Arjun taught me to see the positive side of the same where I was noticing the negative only. I have the opportunity to talk to her at least and I started thanking my stars for that.

Like this a lot more incidents are there which forces us to become optimistic. But this is one of the best I have experienced. Later in 2014, we exchanged rings and that girl is my fiancée now.

Note: This article is a part of https://housing.com/lookup.

Review of 'Orphan of the Storm' by 'Ravi Dhar'

Title: Orphans of the Storm
Author: Ravi Dhar
Publisher: Blackbuck Publication
Page Count: 227
My Rating: 3/5

Blurb: Countless griefs ago, When the ‘veth’ went red…

The air is thick with rumors. Reports speak of the molesting Pundit girls and the killing Pundit men. There is talk of Nizam- -Mustapha. Kashmiri Pundit families are fleeing the valley in wave after wave. But, one man stands unmoved, refusing to give in to this mass frenzy.

Towards the middle of one night, Nund Pundit’s house resonates with a deafening crescendo. He must pay for his faith. The fury of the mob must be quenched. He must suffer the ignominy of his daughter’s barbaric slaughter. He must suffer the dishonor of his wife and young daughter. He must suffer the mysterious disappearance of his elder son.

The December sky looks too ominous as the School Bus, carrying Siddhartha and his friends, noses down the valley. The queer sequence of events that follow inspire no confidence.

Siddhartha must outgrow his youthful sportiveness to realize the gravity of the calamity that had struck his family.

He must find answers to the barbarity of man as he struggles to build a new world of hope and comfort for his bereaved and shell-shocked parents. He must come face to face with deceit and danger in the hinterland of Nagaland. He must see the barbarity of the civilized and the civility of the so-called barbaric in the petty squabbles of the teachers at Medziphema and the murder of the Dean. In the midst of this maelstrom of events blossoms love not once but twice.

Verdict: ‘Orphans of the storm’ is the debut novel by Dr. Ravi Dhar. This story talks about the struggle of a Pundit family in Kashmir and the unhospitable atmosphere of Jammu and Kashmir.

Like almost all Blackbuck publication books this book also has similar size and nice paper quality. Starting from the cover, I felt the cover could have been designed in a better way. The blue effect is looking good but the man on the cover was making the whole look amateurish. The blurb is pretty big. One who has the time to read the whole blurb after picking it, might buy the book because it’s interesting and gives a good outline of the plot.

The story starts with Nund Lal pundit of Kashmir. One fateful day they are forced to leave Kashmir and have to live like migrants in their own land. Soon the story changes its way and the focus shifted towards Siddhartha, the youngest son and carefree son of Nund Pundit. Siddhartha was burdened with the responsibility of his family and yet he manages to complete his masters and finds a job of a lecturer in the Nagaland University. The atmosphere of Kashmir was described by the author wonderfully. The story doesn’t end there. After creating the perfect satire, the author introduces love in Siddhartha’s story. After getting almost back stabbed by the university politics and the abrupt end of his love story had hit him hard. The end was good but it could have been better. One thing I can say is that the readers will close the book on a good note.

The author hasn't described his characters well. Only the dialogs were the rescue for the readers to help them visualize the characters. There are a few characters who I think have lacked the lime light. After focusing on Siddhartha’s life, the condition of Nund Lal Pundit took a back seat, even the disappearance of the elder brother of Siddhartha wasn’t cleared to the audience till the end. The narrating style was good and goes with the flow. Short chapters always helps the readers to enjoy the book more.

Talking about flaws, the editing could have been better. There are grammatical errors which disturbs the flow of the story. The story line was good and but could have been framed in a better way. I didn't quite like the way the book has ended. Being a full time reader, I don’t think readers will like loose ends or unanswered questions at the end. Being from Kashmir himself the author has done total justice to the description of Kashmir. Overall a nice attempt of a debut author.

Available at:

Flipkart – http://www.flipkart.com/orphans-storm-english/p/itme27k8jhavxnbd?q=Orphans+of+the+Storm+%28English%29&as=on&as-show=on&otracker=start&as-pos=p_1_orphans+of+the&pid=9781630410100

Amazon – http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B00QXTMUMS/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_in-21&linkCode=as2&camp=3626&creative=24790