Book Review : I, Romantic

I usually do not impose my opinion on a book. But this one for sure deserved an attention. I finished this book in 7 days, undesiringly so, because I had to work in between, work out and eat and sleep too. But had I been totally unoccupied, I would have finished this book in one sitting.


This book is one gripping piece of fiction. Written by Rajeev Jhaveri, I,Romantic is a story narrated with all heart and sincerity depicting a picture of life in the army and the labyrinth of human emotions.


It strikes a chord as you turn the pages living the wrathful war the armymen fight against Pakistan, leaving many soldiers injured and dead to the internal tiffs within the army people.


The inaccessibity to all the pleasures of the world, that leads to the army professionals to get into poor means of satisfying their sexual urge. It talks about the dirty things which lies hidden and is seldom exposed to the civilians. Everything exists there, but one common thing which binds the armymen together is the spirit of protecting the motherland from the infiltrators.

The author has very beautifully mentioned the urge of human beings, and how one follows the natural instincts to satisfy it, be it love, sex, food, or survival.


The beauty of the book is the process of self discovery which the reader undergoes along with the protagonist, Avinash Rai. At every stage in the novel one can empathize with certain situations.
The beauty of women is unsubtley, but unoffendingly expressed that it adds one level extra to the word romance.

The transformation of the protagonist, from an army man to a man in love to a person looking for a purpose in life is beautifully portrayed.


This book is a must read for people who are die hard romantics and are in a process of self- exploration.
I strongly recommend this book to people who like some drama and are fiction lovers..


Rating: 3 /5

Next Review: Good Man Jesus and Scoundrel Christ.

Phoren Return

I love my city. Nagpur, am talking about. Not Pune. With Pune I am just a bit possessive because this happens to be my Karma Bhoomi.

Nagpur is like that water tank where I can jump into and be very very sure that I would reach the bottom after 13 steps and I won't drown, despite not knowing swimming.

This is a bad bad example to begin with, but I can't help but sound mad.
There's this friend of mine who returns from The Great Britain and says "Nagpur is really hot, My Gawd!! ".

I felt like giving him nice raptas and taking him to Saoji, immersing his head into the spiciest curry ever, then taking him to the Telankhadi lake, give him a taste of the cool breeze, but leave the curry on his face to dry with the chilli burning on his face, making him realise what he missed for 1 long year, then take him to the samosawala, show him the samosa, make him smell it and not feed him, take him to the civil lines, and show this masterpiece to every single nagpurian walking on the streets, then shout out loud...
"Isko Nagpur ki Garmi 1 saal me buri lagne lagi"..

And then after that, am sure there'd be people who would beg, borrow, steal this friend of mine and give him all that he hadn't seen, smelt or tasted in last 1 year in his Great Britain.

Dare he talk about the summers of Nagpur.. !!!
It's not that we love it so much that we'd spend afternoons under the sun. But if you have tasted your own sweat in the scorching heat of Nagpur, you wouldn't make a statement like that..

Yes, this post is almost a warning for all the Phoren settled (temporarily) Nagpurians..
Come back home..but do not complain. Else stay put where ever you are!!

Hmmpphh!!

Osama WAS Hilarious

Finally "was" succeeds the name Osama and I get a strange feeling about it. The feeling is entirely poisitive. That of peace and happiness.


Now Osama was really hilarious. If we think Woody Allen or Russell Peters or Sunil Pal, or Raju Shrivastava, are funny, Osama surpassed these gentlemen too.

How if you may ask. It was reported that Late.Mr.Osama Bin Laden has asked his children "NOT TO JOIN THE TERRORIST CAMPS".
Why not? if we may wonder. Either he was way too protective of his children, or he wanted them to do something else, have a career in social service, become a doctor, or an engineer, like every father wants his children to become.


He was one funny asshole. This joker also asked his wives not to remarry. He had 4 and the poor ladies had to live with just one, and that one is dead too, and they won't have any more.


He, sure, was something.

But whatever, I am glad he died. :D

In twos and threes

This poor blog was stranded since so long.  I wanted to make sure that this never happened, so I made multiple authors for this blog. Not one but two. But they failed to keep it up as well.

Now  I seriously forgot the purpose of creating this blog in first place. It was a fad then to have a blog. But like we always do.. or do not do... do not settle with one. We want one more, everytime.. I settled with two more.

I had three blogs rolling at a time. But sadly just one survived. This one got avoided big time.
You know what's the math like? It's like you want to go for a wedding reception, and you alone are commonly invited along with the entire office team. But you end up with your entire family. Why? Because you would save the efforts of cooking, would subtract one outing, because you'd already been on one (this reception), and your kids would be really ecstatic to relish the pani puri at the chaat stall and have ice cream totally free of cost, unlimitedly.


Also, we see at times, there's a sale. Do we go alone? Yeah, how we wish. But we take a whole lot of friends along. Not to keep company, for sure, or ya, at times for company too, but to buy stuff in common and help each other in bargaining.


Do we ever pick up a detergent which has no offer, like 20% extra, or a soap free with 250g of Tide. We always look for deals. We do not settle with one. For us things should come in twos and threes.


I got talking to one my friend, a mother of a 3 year old, about how her married life was going on and she complained about the pressure that her elders were putting for conceiving another kid.

 
"A child should have someone to play with." It's always in twos... Children, detergents, outings, blogs...  you name it and there is a math for it.

But since we always think about more, we got to give more too. Like more effort in maintaining 2 blogs (I say this to myself), more effort in bringing up 2 kids, more effort in using up all the free stuff that came along with the detergent.


So it's all about efforts.


I think, I somehow managed to get back to this blog, before it completed a year in isolation.
Dear Blog, since you were in twos, you will always be so... I'll take care..

More Views and Previews soon... :)

Of farewells and goodbyes.

I make sure that I attend every farewell function and say a good bye to my closed ones if they are leaving. I also make sure that I see them off at the railway station, airport or the bus stand.
There have many instances where even I have received beautiful farewells and people have made me feel great when they came to see me off.

I have a strange philosophy, which may sound pessimistic, but I totally live by it.
I think I should try and visit my friends and family when they are leaving one place for another. I may have not met them for the entire time of their stay in my city, but I make sure I see them off.

There are two strong reasons for it:
1 . I may never get to see them again. This doesn’t mean that either they or I would die, but there may be certain circumstances which may not allow us to meet again. It could be because of commitments, frequent traveling, ill health, work, and family whatever.

2. The emotional connect that is generated during the time of departure is the strongest. So that means a lot to me and I guess it matters to the other person too.

I remember when I was going to see off a very close friend of mine, she was going to a new city, for her first job, she kept insisting that no one should come to the station lest she would become emotional and that would make her weak.
But I maintained that the last meeting at the station would be something that she would cherish all her life. So I asked her not to resist any friend from coming and seeing her off at the station. She heeded and I am sure she knows how special Goodbyes can be.

I can still recollect the most wonderful goodbye I ever received. It was when I was leaving one home for the other. All the friends had come to see me off at the station and bizarre it may seem, most of them cried, but I didn’t. I understood one thing, that I was important for them, even if it measured an iota. It was crazy, yet surreal.

There may be some brains who’d be wondering that why didn’t I visit them at the station/airport while they left.

For all the souls seeking the truth, let me tell you, that you guys are an exception and the exception to the two strong reasons I stated above are:

1. I am sure I WILL be seeing you again. I know there’s no surety about that, metaphorically speaking. But here I choose to be a thorough optimist. If you don’t meet me, I’ll meet you.
2. The emotional connect that is generated during the time of departure may reach the acme and may hold you back from departing or leave you with a pain. It definitely means a lot to me, but it should not be an impediment for you.

So, goodbyes and farewell are memorable. They are wonderful. But the hope with which you look forward to meet again, enlightens your life all the more.

I live with many such hopes.

Phoebe Buffay and her Musings.

I love FRIENDS(have seen it over and over a thousand times now) to the core and I totally worship my idol Phoebe Buffay.

Now there may be people who’d appreciate the original actors for the roles they essayed. But I totally believe that Phoebe, Joey, Ross, Rachel, Monica and Chandler are real people. I wouldn’t want to be told about my stupidity… Puhleeez.

Yeah, Back to Phoebe.
The kind of poetries that Phoebe writes and ultimately sings are the best and most sensible ones I have ever heard. :)

The other day, while watching one of the episodes, this rhyme struck me the most. I was kinda minding my own business, but I appreciate this candid attempt and a dedication to all the people who mind their businesses outrageously and for which I have kinda worked sometime or the other.

It only takes two heart attacks
To finally make you see
One of them won't do it
But the second will set you free
Tell all your hate and anger
It's time to say good bye
And that is just what I will do
As soon as those bastards I work for die..

Lalalallalllalalalaaaaa……:) :)

Mwah!! Phoebs… :*

PS: There's an application on the right panel that reads the best of FRIENDS quotes... so..Yenjoy!! :D

What hurts more? Absence of Love or Lover?

Picture this.
There is child who has never stayed away from its mother. But after certain age, he is made to leave the city to pursue further education, as time may demand.
The child loves the mother infinitely. The mother’s love for a child is considerably more than the love of the child for its mother.

An army officer, who stays away from home, seldom visits his wife and children because of his posting at a distant land. He loves his wife. He misses his children. But situations do not permit him to be with his family all the time.

A daughter, who loves her parents dearly, leaves everything behind for a new set of parents (-in -law) and husband.

A couple, in love, immensely so, are separated by distances because of various reasons. They cannot see each other often, they cannot communicate regularly until they get married and they can neither convey their love for each other.

A group of friends – bonded by care, love and affection are separated owing to the different paths on which they are put but the manager called God.

There may be an absence of people in life. You may not have your loved ones around always. Their absence may make you miss them at times.

But what is there that seems missing? The person or the emotion?

Does Absence of love or that of the lover hurt more?

If Love is absent, then there is no meaning to the relationship. If the lover is absent, Love becomes stronger.

I feel , the emotion of love can never fade. The person’s absence may hurt , but the emotion of love can never. So the emotion needs to be stronger than the other person whom you are loving. That makes it easy to love without having expectations.

That’s why sometimes, beautiful quotes such as this make a lot of sense:
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

For me, Love is a noun first, then a verb. :)