Very short stories

After writing many a long prose the idea of short story tickled my mind. I personally love short stories than novels. Here's my first try at it.Do comment your thoughts. It will help me improve.

Story #1
With a mind full of thoughts about her busy schedule as she descends the stairs, a known voice which was not heard for long, calls her from behind and in a while all her past moments flashed in front of her eyes.

Story #2
 The curious child asks his older brother "Why did GOD create this world?" Confused by his question the older one smiled "well I guess he didnt have a choice."

Story #3
 The girl returned from school and called out "Mum, where's the food?" Little did she know that people die but habit remains.

How do you wish to be remembered as?

I was having a casual discussion with dad who had just returned from a "Smaran Sabha" (remembering a person who has died), of one of his colleague who passed by few days back. Dad was a bit gloomy as the thought of the inevitable loomed in his mind and made him realise that probably his danger time has started and one by one all his friends and relatives are bidding good bye.

I brushed up those thoughts immediately and started discussing something else. He then said that the uncle whose Smaran Sabha he has attended , was a man with acid tongue. No matter what he did, though genuine, did little to cut short his bitter tongue image. The people speaking on the Sabha tried their best to enclose his negative behaviour with a positive note yet that feeling which had hurt people was prominent from their words. I jokingly told my dad since the uncle is no more people are making this effort to sound their grievances as sweet as possible. Had he been alive they would have spoken only about the negativity.

This led me ponder as to how we would be remembered when we die. Surely we will not be there to witness everything , yet do we want people to remember us as a person who was jovial, sweet, loving, caring etc etc  or do we want us to be remembered for our anger, poor behaviour. As long as we live we care so much about our image but what happens when we die? Had that uncle been a little sympathetic towards people and had he not spoken ugly words, he shouldnt have been remembered like this.. Nobody is perfect but as they say words hurt more than physical assault, we can always choose our words wisely and think twice before speaking. This is not to say that we shouldnt take stand where necessary. Yes we should and its required. Again we can be only that much strict as required and always look at every possible aspect before giving our verdict. It would gain us people's respect and love.

Music Mania

Music is a part of our lives. It soothes your brain and calm it down, sympathises with your mood and relaxes you, acts as a medicine and help you to overcome grief. So on an so forth.

To describe the genre of music I would say I really dont have a fixed one. I like to listen to soft music mostly but during anxiety or joyful mood its the drumbeats that uplifts them. If I am at my singing class , classical music is what I feel I should rehearse more . I feel mesmerized by the sound of strings caused by the tanpura , the music of flute and never forget to thank the Almighty for this creations.

As I get stuck in the traffic while returning home the soft melodies of 80s and 90s never fail to grip me even I am thorough with their lyrics. Again I find myself dancing to the beats of the sound when I am in a jolly mood. This reminds me of a friend who relaxes mostly by plugging her earphones and dancing to the tune. Sad songs are another favourite of mine. I find great depths of emotions, voice and lyrics in them. It makes you think and related to your personal life.

Music has no limits, no bounds, no gender, no religion. It is simply wonderful in its own way. The day I am writing this post is Saraswati Puja and as an offering to God I simply pulled out my harmonium and sang whatever I felt like. It made my soul enriched with a sense of comfort and pleasure.

My dear Kindle

I was casually watching mobile phones on E-Zone 2 years back when I happened to see the kindle placed near it and people are scrutinizing it. I felt like "how can a device replace the feeling of a book" and thought it to be a waste of money.

1 year later when I was worried with the constant increase in my number of books and scarcity of places to keep them did my husband suggest to go for a kindle. I am a very slow reader as owing to day to day stress leaves me very lil time with myself. Yet book is my necessity. I cannot live without it. Together we thought of buying it with a purpose of reducing cost . I am not comfortable reading e-books on laptop or mobile. But e-books do save money as many are freely available on net.

The day it arrived I was delighted to see such a sleek and attractive thing. I had no problem in inserting my pdfs into it. Its better if you have it in azw3 or mobi format. The readability becomes much better. In one word I can describe my experience to be wonderful. It has its own in-built light and can be adjusted as per need. Its so light weight that it can be carried anywhere specially if you are travelling. I carry few hundreds of books and flip through some of them as per my mood. I even buy books from amazon and also free sample of any books are available before buying.

My kindle is one of my best buys and I am very grateful to it. The battery never dies. Though it depend upon your usage, brightness and wifi, it lasts for weeks not just days. I must say I have saved a lot of money by downloading ebooks and converting them online and finally putting into my kindle. Many would still say that nothing is compared to the hardcopy. Yet this digital device is best compared to any other devices.

Lets think for a minute...

I was travelling back from office via a cab when I read a radio advertisement. It was about Women Education but it has got a beautiful message. "you read about articles on women empowerment, post several of them in social media, follow their news channel but it is YOU who when gets angry will leave no stone unturn to abuse that same women irrespective of relation and age. Is that what your education all about?"

As they say there are few things which touch your heart. The message has touched mine. When we all will be writing about the books we have read in the previous days and think about its teachings, do we ever stop and think what have we learnt from them?

My heart fills with displeasure if I find people so less in moral values that they wont think twice before they react angrily, deceit and be treacherous. Let me ask you what is the true meaning of reading books if you cant take the message it is delivering?  The very next impression that comes to my mind is that they are ignorant and half educated . Half educated in the sense they know how to read and write but dont know how to think and speak. I am not talking about being straight forward. Not all straight forward people are rude. But it is the way you speak to someone matters. Words can hit more than a physical assault.

So while we are discussing about our various experiences in reading books, lets focus also on the teachings they have imparted. Lets make education our way of life. Lets learn as much we can and lets not forget the next time we deal with any odd situation.

Lessons are meant to be learnt and resolutions are meant to be broken

The year 2015 passed by and like every year my comment was "it was as if yesterday did we usher 2015 . It ended so soon."

So every resolution that I take at the beginning of the year is always broken. Not only mine I believe there will loads in the same ship. Definitely a year comprising 365 days, 52 weeks and 4 seasons will leave you with a lot of happy as well as bitter memories. Lessons taught must be applied in the coming days.

1. 2015 made me a lil more older and a lil more matured. I became more tolerant and non complaining. And also my self value increased. I learnt that if you value yourself only then the world will value you. Be confident and people will not dare question you. Raise your voice where needed and people will think twice the next time. Your confidence is what people will fear. You dont always need physical strength but have loads of mental strength. Your mind drives your day, your body. Every ailment can be cured if you think you can deal with it. You can go out of every situation if you are determined to.

2. In sync with point 1 it is also equally important to respect others. Instead of being judgmental allow others to speak and listen to them. Dont say anything rude which you cant take back later.

3. Reinvent yourself. Allow yourself to know more and more. Knowledge is never ending and lets not try to stop it either from coming. Life at every phase will teach you something or other but be knowledgeable so that you can become more wise and a better person that the last time.

4. I used to get angry with my husband for making so much tours all through the year but travelling gave me many ideas and a feeling that I am nourishing my soul with some of God's marvelous creations.

5. Last but not the least remember "This too shall pass".

I will not make any resolution this year just I pray to God to impart me strength to face every odds and come out unaffected. And with this year I am planning to make myself a lil better than the previous me. Fingers crossed.

“I’m sharing my #TalesOf2015 with BlogAdda.”

Book Review: The Bestseller she wrote

I am not very fond of Indian authors when it comes to novel, except very few and Ravi Subramanian is one of them. I have read his earlier books also and expected this too to be giving an insight into banking sector as his earlier books.

The Bestseller she wrote is different. I myself being one of the layman in knowing how the banking sector works found it difficult to understand his first book "If God was a Banker". Now I repeat this book is different.

The book starts from Aditya Kapoor addressing a crowd of students at IIM-B where he is one of the alumnus. He starts with a line saying that it is very odd that IIM has asked him to deliver lecture on something which was his passion and not something which is his profession and is being taught by IIM. He is a reputed best selling author as well as head of branch banking at National Bank. However at his lecture does he confront an arrogant girl who claimed all the Indian writers write shit and crap sells in the name of bestseller. Infuriated by her comments Aditya smartly persuade her to read his books thus winning her and the audience.

The girl Shreya is a voracious reader and very ambitious about writing a story and publishing it. She started reading Aditya's book and became his fan. She mailed him couple of times and the bitter feelings got washed away from both sides. Then came their placement and obviously Aditya selected her as he was somehow molten by lust. Shreya joined the National Bank and started getting closer to Aditya. She showed her the manuscript of her story and started using him to get her book published. Aditya was overwhelmed by her story writing capability and of course the way she praised him and made him superior did Aditya feel he was needed. And of course because of his fame, all the praises made his chest swell with even more pride. Aditya started coming closer to Shreya and their relationship turned into an extra marital affair much to the ignorance of his beloved and devoted wife Maya, who gave him always the space he needed in his life and handled her work and family beautifully having a blind faith on her husband.

Aditya completed his recent book and showed the manuscript to Shreya, this time before her wife who used to be always the first reader. Shreya made a few corrections and editions which Aditya blankly accepted. He was so deeply into her to ignore what she has edited. Shreya followed Aditya at every occasion which lead Maya to start doubting but Aditya was clever enough to fool her.

Maya left for Paris for a special meeting for her school and Aditya left for Kolkata for business work. It is when she returned did she got to know about the entire episode. But as luck would have have it Aditya was not given a chance to forgive as Maya was diagnosed with Ebola Virus and was almost in the death bed. Aditya realised what he has done and was highly apologetic. Shreya came to meet him at the hospital and there also she kept on bringing her book issue which nevertheless angered Aditya tremendously. He understood that Shreya was just using him because of his fame and nothing else. Nothing was worth depriving his family and be a traitor.

Maya recovered and Aditya ended the relation with Shreya. But Shreya now threatened to sue him for sexual harassment and also  of plagiarism.

It was next Aditya's fight against Shreya's vindictive attitude and how he gets back to his family is what the book is all about.

There are few flaws in the book which I would like to mention.

1. There can be no author who is a bestseller but doesnt read. Aditya was a bestseller for writing thrillers and he himself doesnt read any other thriller stories.

2. Aditya though smitten by lust yet he was the head of Branch Banking. He was more experienced than a girl in her twenties to be used by her.

Overall the story was simple as the author has now shifted his focus from writing banking details to more common world and his story writing capability would not let you keep the book down unless you have completed it.

Must mention that the ending was grand and superb. The way Aditya ended and showed his wit and intellect did help to win my heart and I believe it will win all the reader's heart too. The book is a must read. Ignoring the flaws its beautiful.