When Our Worlds Collide - Aniesha Brahma

I just finished reading this book. Long back, I had signed up for Writer's Melon and I have been receiving mails from them frequently. To be frank, I never paid them much attention. Two days ago, I was at home, enjoying my forty five days long winter vacation at home with books and movies. I received a mail from Writer's Melon which was about an Xmas gift - Kindle copy of When Our Worlds Collide by Aniesha Brahma. I immediately replied and in no time, I had a copy of the book in my Kindle. The title and cover gave me an impression that the book might be a chick flick. Left with no other option, I cursed myself for the impulse and went ahead with the book. Looking back, I have no regrets reading the book. Rather I am impressed by the author and indeed looking forward to read her other works. 

When Our Worlds Collide narrates the story of Akriti. She is presented as an introvert twenty three year old girl who lives in a world confined to herself and the cafe owned by her mom to some extend. There are no friends for her except Ayoub, who works part time at her cafe. She justifies the loneliness in her life by stating that she could not be hurt by anyone. The novella is about Akriti meeting Zayn, her friend Nimmi's boyfriend and rediscovering herself, her life and even though the way it ends is unconventional, I would like to call it a happy ending.

I don't want to add any spoilers here and I am not going to write anything revealing more about the story. The story did connect to me as all those characters were well described and could be related to people around me. The story is not an outstanding one. Yet, its something that could happen in any of our lives. The events that unfold as we progress through the chapters are nothing strange. I have to mention the conversations between Akriti and her dad which is the best part of this book for me. Even though we may feel bad for her Dad for making Akriti's life miserable, the author makes sure that he had his reasons too and he was right in his perspective.

While approaching the last pages of the book, I didn't want this book to end in the same old fashion as most of our young adult fiction ends - And they lived happily ever after. Its not something that happens in our lives and when I finished the book, I was glad and hence I started writing this book.

Akriti, her friends Ayoub and Zayn and her cafe will not be easily forgotten.

Thank you Writer's Melon and Aniesha. 

Those Were The Days - N.S. Ravi

There are some books which deliver completely out of the box, unexpected stuff once you finish reading the pages. Those were the Days by N.S. Ravi is one such book where the author attempts to address the present generation about the transitions in lifestyle that took place through the days as seen through his eyes.

The thirty chapters in the book address almost each and every aspect of life, from pencils and pens to bosses and financial institutions. These chapters are written in the form of letters to the author's kids. The way he presents his views and co relate it with the present generation needs appreciation. Many of us, the present generation may find the facts presented through the chapters odd and unbelievable. Yet, it's true. We have to accept those facts. It may sound strange, but we had those days where having a fountain pen or a land line telephone connection at home was a luxury.

The author had worked in India as well as overseas, both in public and private sector and hence the experience he has is huge. The facts presented in the book prove the same. One needs a great observation skill, memorizing power and a good command over the language so that he can sum up those observations, organize and present them in a way that keeps the readers hooked. Mr. Ravi has succeeded in this aspect and it would be unfair for him if the efforts go unappreciated.

Like any other creative piece of work, this book also has its own pros and cons. The only minus point which I felt while reading was the way the chapters were presented. Though it was in the format of letters addressing his kids, it lacked those emotional aspects which would be there in any dad-kid conversations. The book would have been the same even if the address to his son and daughter was not there. This opinion is personal and I am sure many of the readers may find this style interesting.

Hope someone from our generation also brings up such a book years later so that we can also sit back, cherish those moments and say THOSE WERE THE DAYS!!!

P.S. Highly recommended for those who like to get immersed in that feeling of nostalgia and pride of those days as you progress through the pages.

My Rating : 3.5/5

Stuck In Love - A Movie I Watched and Fell In Love with

Stuck In Love - A movie I watched and Fell in Love with

What am I doing? I am supposed to be preparing for my quiz now. Unfortunately i spent my evening watching this lovely film Stuck In Love which drove me to write about it. Till today morning, I literally had no idea there was a movie by this name or it was this damn good. I was busy with room cleaning where I went through an article written by Parshathy Jayanath who happened to be my senior at high school. She is now working for The Hindu and she had written about this movie. I read the article. Not once but thrice. I got hooked on to something. I don't know if it is because of the theme love and relationships or the story was about writers. She even wrote about buying a book that was mentioned in the movie. By the time I finish reading the article for the third time, I had made up my mind. I am going to watch this one.

It was evening seven when I was done with my work. The movie was short - just ninety six minutes long. I don't want to talk about the director's vision or the performance of the lead artists. I have not seen anyone of them before and all I can say is I just loved the Bill, Erica, Samantha and Rusty on screen. The story and screenplay just swiped me off my feet. It is about love, its complexities and human relationships. The way we people in India see relationships is far different from those in the West, but the inner feelings remain the same. At least I believe so. We have a beautiful father-son and father daughter relationship, a separated husband-wife relationship, the usual boyfriend girlfriend stuff and hook ups and one night stands.

Love in any form is the most beautiful emotion experienced by anyone of us. It's the driving force or motivation for each and everything that is taking place on this world. You can fall in love with anyone anytime and anywhere. The way you take it forward is what matters the most. With the passing of the initial excitement, egos, doubts and misunderstandings take over the mutual feelings. It's then where you are left with no other choice other to hold on or let go. None of us can go back in time and relive those moments or correct those mistakes. They were not even mistakes at that point of time. All we can do is give our loved ones a second chance. As Goutham  Vasudev Menon said in Neethane En Ponvasantham, "Sometimes a second chance is the best gift you can give to someone you love and if you love someone, a second chance is the best gift you can give yourself."

Anyways, the Borgens family is not going to leave me in the near future. I just loved this movie and to highly recommend this movie to everyone. To end this without the beautiful quote from What We Talk About When We Talk About Love would be a sin.

"I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone's heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making. Not one of us moving. Not even when the room was dark."

Love In The Time Of Dengue

I am greatly indebted to Gabriel Garcia Marquez for the title of this blog. I haven't ready the classic Love In The Time of Cholera though I do own a copy of that. This blog is about a very short phone conversation I had with my kootukari yesterday.

We, me and my kootukari parted ways against my wish long back in mid 2014 and since then it was a life in solitude for me. To be precise, it's my four hundred and  twelfth day of solitude today. I took pretty long time for me to realize the facts and accept my faults. By then, everything had fallen apart beyond any chance. I never gave up and never will. I hope life will give me second chance, sooner or later.

Days and weeks and months went by. My feelings for her still remain the same. I am still optimistic. Currently, a post graduate student at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Madras,  I have everything to be happy and cheerful as my well wishers say. To their dismay,  on my second week at Campus, I was admitted at the institute hospital for fever, vomiting and severe headache and later diagnosed with dengue.

This was a real test for me. I have never been subjected to this kind of torture by my own body. My head was giving me a feeling of bursting every now and then. I still don't know how I managed to attend lectures. I was throwing up every single drop that went inside my mouth. The only fuel that ran my body machine was the saline drip given to me daily from the institute hospital. The doctors at the hospital were on shift. However they were informed about my case and did everything needed. So were the staff nurses there. My admire and respect for the medical profession grew manifold this time too.

It's when you go through tough times, you miss your loved ones the most. I miss her every second I live. Since my platelet count was declining day by day, I was feeling weak and sleepless. It was the four hundred and tenth day of my solitude. I Whatsapped her about my condition. She might have thought it as a n act to get attention or sympathy. Nevertheless I badly needed to talk to her. The conversation was short, limited to my sickness. The conversation ended with she asking me to take care of my health. It was quite formal. Still I felt good. At night, she WhatsApped me to ask about my condition. Its not very common to get a text from her as there used t be no conversation between the two of us, unless until I started one.

Next day. My four hundred and eleventh day of solitude. I was greeted by a " Good Morning. Hope you are feeling better now" text from that special person. It was the first time in ages she was sending me a good morning text. All the time her reply to my good morning text was just a morning. I saw my phone's notification light blinking as I came to room after having breakfast. I thought it was my Dad's missed call. Upon looking on the screen, I had three missed calls, two from my Dad as expected and the third from the totally unexpected person - my kootukari. I cannot remember the last time she called me. A couple of months ago. maybe.

I called her back. She didn't pick up. She called me back. I don't know how I felt or rather how to write how I felt then. This conversation was also about the infection - treatment, medicines and all. I lasted for about 10 minutes. It was me who did almost all the talking. She was more of a listener, with a few occasional questions about food and travel to class and mess. It was not romantic. It was not even a friendlier one. Very short and formal. Still,   I felt good. If this condition of mine made her call me, i never want to get cured of this dengue. I believe if love is lost, life is lost. My beloved dengue, please stay with me, for me to be with her the way I used to, for the remaining days of my life.

Rahul Mohan