6 Degrees: Game of Blogs review

I must appreciate #Blogadda for conceptualizing the idea of collaborating different bloggers and bring them on a common platform to think and write a story. I would like to congratulate all the 30 bloggers who worked passionately day in and day out to create this piece crafted with precision. What I liked most about the book is that the characters in all the three stories are the same and the reader doesn’t get lost as he/she progresses towards the end. #Blogadda has given a nice platform for the creative bloggers to come forward and pen down their creations in the form of a book and let the world know about it. I truly enjoyed reading the book and being a book critic this time, I would love to be a part of the writing team whenever #Blogadda is launching the second edition. I will review each story one by one. The first story is ‘The Awakening’ is a sci-fi story of the aliens planning to attack the Earth and take it under its control and on the other hand there are good aliens who want to thwart their attack by trying to awaken their long lost noble alien Clariota. The story is beautifully crafted with an apt pace which grips the reader and doesn’t allow him/her to close the book until the story is over. The second story is about a murder mystery. The reader is on his/her toes until the very last when the clouds of suspicion are scattered and the real killer is revealed. The story ‘Missing’ I find it to be apt title for a movie. And the last story is on a very delicate subject especially in a conservative society like India. A young man who turns out to be homosexual is raped by his seniors at college. He couldn’t tell his family due to the fear of rejection; he decides to pursue his dream of casting a movie with Amitabh Bachhan and heads out to Mumbai. In Mumbai confusion prevails when a little girl Roohi goes missing and her parents thought she has been kidnapped by Cyrus. The story is neatly written with a lot of twists and turns. The writer has left the story open ended for the reader to create a chain of thoughts what could have happened next which I like the most. Apart from the good things there are few grammatical mistakes in the book here and there. But in the last story the I noticed a unusual thing that chapter 18 appeared immediately after chapter 8. Another thing in all the three stories which I found amusing is that the writers have shown a role reversal for the man and the wife. I wonder if they are pointing to a gen-next era. That is the food for thought left by the writer for the reader to ponder over. Overall I would recommend this book to everyone who is looking for a material which is sweet, short and simple. Go for it folks. 

6 Degrees is India's first book published through collaborative blogging, written completely by bloggers for the Game of Blogs activity at BlogAdda. Know more about Game of Blogs here. You can buy 6 Degrees: Game of Blogs if you liked the review.

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for IndianBloggers. Participate now to get free books.

P.S. Do comment in the below box with your view or suggestions for further improvement. Namaste!!!

The seat beside her was empty…

Travelling so much fun and the enjoyment is dwindled when you travel in any of the public transport. I have been using  public transport services from past 16 years and whenever  I am travelling alone, I had always desire my co-passenger to be a young beautiful lady. But life has been so cruel to me. 

Until recently I have decided to dump the famous line by SRK,"जिस चीज़ को जितना चाहो ,पुरी क़ायनात लग जाती है उसे पाने के लिए" when the fateful day happened which changed my life forever. It was onset of winter in early November when I was on vacation and travelling to Jammu from Bangalore. I was excited to celebrate Diwali with my parents after 3 long years. I planned my travel in short term and thus I had no other option but to travel by train. Unfortunately I didn't get a confirmed ticket and had to travel on RAC ticket from SBC to NDLS in 3-tier coach of Rajdhani express. I was determined to go and one good thing was that I had got atleast half the seat. I only prayed to God to send some lady as my sharing partner- कम से कम सफ़र में मुझे Suffer नहीं करना पड़ेगा . Yes, I was being selfish :)

As a practice, IRCTC doesn't allot RAC seat to persons of opposite gender but as a luck by chance I was lucky to find a young lady in her late 20s already occupying the berth. WoW! Thank God.  I checked the berth no and placed my luggage beneath  the berth and greeted the lady,"Hello maam". With a great effort I politely asked her to make some space for me to sit. In fact I wanted her to rest her legs on me (I was being courteous as my long desire was fulfilled).  By her accent and skin texture, I was 100% sure, she was from Delhi. She has untied her long curly black hair and a small strand of her hair was disturbing her left eye and she was using her left hand to place it behind her ear. But the stubborn hair kept falling again and again. She was wearing a sleeveless kurti and a off white legging. She was looking damn beautiful and it became difficult to move my eyes away from her and everytime I saw her, I started  loving her even more. After our dinner, it was past 10'o clock and she started yawning. I started the conversation and told her to sleep comfortably and I just need some space to sit. Reality was that I just wanted to observe her forever.  खूबसूरत है जो इतना सहा नहींजाता , the song kept reverberating in my mind. She shook me out of my reverie and said,"We can sleep on same berth."

I said to myself,"If she doesn't have any problem, then why should I worry.

After all she is a Delhi girl and Delhi girls are too extrovert and flirtatious". We spread our bed-sheet and slept on the same berth under the same blanket. After sometime she was snoring loudly and I was not getting any sleep as I was just on the edge of the berth and any moment I could fall. I pushed myself a little and moved my leg over her and hugged her with my right arm. I hugged him so tightly that I could feel her chest and my virgin organ was touching her ass. She didn't wake up and started moaning. Suddenly she turned around and started kissing  me. I reached my climax and was about to burst. Suddenly I came back to my senses to see me all drenched in sweat and breathing heavily in the chill of 3-tier AC compartment.

The lady was staring at me with a question in her mind and she asked,"Are you okay?"

I said," Yes but I need some fresh air and I went outside, opened the door to let the air brush my hair and face".

I came back and told her to sleep until 03:00 AM when I will take my turn to sleep. This way we took turns sleeping and passed the night. The whole episode of my dreams  was in my mind and I couldn't make eye contact with her as I was feeling guilty. The next night also we did the same and early morning we reached New Delhi station. I picked my luggage and said 'Goodbye' to the lady of my fantasy world and left the station as quickly as I can.

I realized that in the journey of 35 hours we didn't even introduced ourselves and I just committed a heinous crime of fantasizing with her. I asked for forgiveness from God and wished not to ask for a lady co-passenger again in future.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’

Chronicles of Monday

            

The joy of weekend among many professionals working 24*5 in MNC has led to the genesis of TGIF concept. One would normally find people leaving office early on Friday evening on one pretext or the other and fixing up party venue with their near and dear. One sees a heavy rush at liquor shops and even in bars and if you are unfortunate you may have to shell out extra bucks to get the choice of brand you prefer- stock finishes up much faster on weekend. For the married folks, Friday night is the only time when they can gulp few beers, relax and live life in their own way lest they have the task to take their wife and children out for shopping and purchasing of daily राशन -पानी over the weekend. And then comes the special appearance- The Big Sunday (रविवार) is a day to rest at home and prepare your mind for the monstrous Monday. The mere thought of Monday suffocates a working person to trauma. For most people Monday is like getting ready for a battle. I have been living in Delhi for the last 10 months and I have observed a choking traffic on every Monday than other days. It seems most people bunk office after Monday. If I were given the power, I would delete Monday from my life. Again it makes no sense as deleting Monday will expose Tuesday as the next day after Sunday. Anyway Monday seems no less than a monster to me. It is the longest day of the week with lots and lots of meetings. It is also true that I have a glance at my watch more number of times than any other days of the week. On the other side of the story I truly sympathize with women who are home managers. At least we professionals or working class have a reason to celebrate weekend but housewives who works 24*7 are not allowed a single day off. For them there is no weekend or Monday. We should think of them and give them at least a day off from their routine duties and serve them self cooked food or take them out for movie and outing. For mothers of school going kids have a tough time to wake them on Monday. I have also observed that when we are happy and enjoying the moment, time flies very fast. On the contrary when we are sad, life just slogs like a tortoise. Same thing happens with Monday. I remember one incident when I had to ask leave for a week from my manager and my Team lead advised me not to meet my manager on Monday as he always had a bad mood on Monday. I went on Tuesday and got my leave confirmed. Monday, thus is a day when employees are low on motivation and as the week approaches Friday, they get a fresh life in them. Hence, it is this reason that organizations keep Thursday as the day to start any new project or asking a new recruit to join them.

I am listing a few funny and humorous messages of one-liners we usually get on whatsapp on every Sunday night. 

 

 
 

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’

The Wrong 'Touch'...

On one regular Monday morning, Sunita woke up to the cacophonic sound of the alarm at 06:00 AM. She prepared morning breakfast for her husband and 4 year old daughter, Iha in a hushed manner. After dropping Iha to her school bus she began getting ready for her office. She kissed her husband on her forehead and left for metro station. As it was already peak hours she didn’t get a seat in metro and was upset over the fact that even ladies reserved seat was occupied by women passengers. As the metro moved closer to the heart of the city, it got more and more packed. No place to even breathe and people jostling to find a square inch to stand. In such a crowd, there are people with filthy mind who tend to find ways to feel women at the wrong areas. But I must tell you, God has given women a special power to identify between wrong and good touch. Sunita was standing holding the bar when she suddenly felt something bony hard moving on her bum. She glanced back with a tough look but she noticed a innocent looking boy in his early twenties giving her a sheepish smile. She ignored him. After few minutes she again noticed some movement on her back now. She turned around and spotted the same young boy. This time she couldn’t control her anger and bluntly told him to be in his limits or less he will get a beating of his lifetime. Meanwhile the train reached Rajiv Chowk metro station. She had to get down to change the line. As a usual scene at Rajiv Chowk metro station, the people outside are more enthusiastic to board than allowing passengers inside to get down. The reason there is always a jam like situation. Sunita was getting down and a man from the opposite direction was coming in and when they were almost few inches apart he pushed Sunita at her chest and went inside. Sunita was left shocked and stunned. She was damn sure it was a deliberate attempt to press her breasts and not an accident. All this is a regular scene in Delhi metro and I am sure this must be a regular scene in any public transport. The purpose of my writing this post is to let all male chauvinist men realize that they do have sisters, mothers at home and someday karma will hit them back. It is high time to understand that women are not mere object of enjoyment but they are also human beings. Learn to give them respect they deserve. They too have the same right to live free on this planet as you have. I hope you have learnt a lesson. 

Please do share and spread to others.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’  

रेलगाड़ी: A messy affair...

I have been a regular commuter of Indian railways shuttling between New Delhi and Jammu quite often. My रेलगाड़ी  story dates back to my college days when I used to travel in sleeper class on waitlisted or confirmed ticket. Those were the days when online booking facility from www.irctc.co.in was not born yet. We used to wake up at 06:00 in the morning and reach the reservation office at least an hour before the window open time. I still remember the time when I slept on the floor of the sleeper coach. I believe it was the joy of going home plus the ‘student bonus’ which pushes one to travel by sleeping on the floor. But today after 9 years I am so used to travelling in 3 tiers that I cannot think of travelling in sleeper class. Moreover the sleeper class scenario has changed today. Now second class which was used to be 9 years back has upgraded to sleeper class status. Sleeper class is now in lot of chaotic condition.

My travel escapade has been more of a 'Suffer' than comfortable 'सफ़र'. It has been a messy affair for me always. On one such journey from Jammu to Agra in Jhelum express, I had to forgo my gifted हिमाचली टोपी and tibetian jacket from 3^rd AC coach. On another occasion, I forgot my glasses in train while de-boarding at New Delhi station. The best part is I always get confused with train numbers- Duronto express and Udhampur AC special to be in particular. These two trains run on alternate days from Udhampur on same time i.e 1920 hours. On one such fateful day I was waiting for Duronto express at Jammu Tawi station along with my father. The train didn't show up. On platform 3, Udhampur AC special arrived at 1915 hours. At 1915 hours my father asked me to check my ticket and to my surprise I had to be in platform 3. I made a mockery of myself. How can I be so careless? I promised not to repeat it again. But I made the same blunder again in a span of 1 month. Since that day I haven’t messed up so far with train numbers but I am not sure how long this will last ;).

We all are aware that consuming liquor in train is illegal but I want to confess that I drank twice and had one of a joyride. Many of us have travelled in Rajdhani train and we must have experienced that the person serving food will come at the end of the meal asking for सेव-पानी. Passengers will give away ten/twenty bucks either willingly/un-willingly. I too used to pay the person ten bucks but yesterday I realized this is wrong. Why should we pay the person? That is his work and he is getting paid for it. सेव-पानी amounts to corruption which we should avoid. Next time keep this in mind and bluntly refuse to pay anything. With all such messy affairs I love travelling by train because every-time I look back at my blunders, I smile at myself but I do learn and try to make it the last error in judgement. 

P.S. Keep watching this space for more travel affairs. Do comment please. 

The Art of Drinking...

It was 08:00 PM on a bitter cold December evening when a TV commercial flashed before my eyes,   ” McDowell’s Soda and Music CDs”. By the time the commercial finished, I had already ordered my servant to make a large ‘On the rocks’ scotch for me with Delhi’s spicy tandoori Momos and peanuts. Cheers!!!

In India, one who consumes alcohol is considered as ‘untouchable’ by one who doesn't drink. It is a subject which people often hide it from their wives, girlfriends or parents. While I was having my glass of scotch, I did an introspection as to why alcohol is a serious problem in India. Let me just list a few problems here:

1.       Alcohol is seen as the main reason of women abuse/teasing.

2.       Alcohol is seen as the cause of road accidents.

3.       Too much intake causes liver cancer.

Why a person behaves irrationally or exhibits weird behaviour in an inebriated state? The reason is that alcohol has a direct effect on our nervous system. In our body there is a master gland known as ‘Pituitary gland’ or ‘छोटा दिमाग़ ‘ which controls the functions of other endocrine glands. Alcohol makes this gland handicapped and thus the person couldn't control his thinking capability or even his walk and speech. The problem lies in the fact that when we start drinking we have a starting point but our finishing point is pushed every time we are nearing it and we stop when we either puke or run out of money. There is a very well know line,” Do not let alcohol take control of you”. If you can do it, then you can truly enjoy your drink and wake up fresh the next morning. Also I have observed in India people gulp their drink in one go. What’s the hurry? Nobody is snatching your drink. Take a small sip, look around and talk to your साकी. And there are people who eat lot more चखना than the amount of drink they take. Always follow the rule of 1:3,”After every 3 sips, take a small amount of चखना”. Now let’s come to most important part of drinking,” How to make a drink?”. Never ever mix cold drink in Scotch/Whisky/Rum. They are to be consumed with Soda/water or on the rocks only when it is premium Scotch whisky (RS, McDowell’s No 1, BP, Signature etc. are not to be consumed raw). Pour 30 ml or 60 ml in a standard whisky glass and then add soda or water according to your preference in the ratio of 1:3. It is very good if you know your limits or if you are not sure then stick to 3 or 4. Always remember never drive after consuming alcohol, instead book a taxi.

In my opinion, our education system must include a subject on drinking etiquettes. Sooner or later we will be graduating from college and in corporate world we will be attending official parties. With the current drinking habits we will become a laughing stock or we may even face disciplinary action due to our weird behaviour. It is a hard fact that the authorities can prohibit people from drinking in certain premises but they cannot stop anyone from boozing. Rather they should train them how to drink in ‘corporate style’ or the way of Corporate-drinking. We must design a code of conduct for drinking responsibly and remember it by heart. Which glass to pick for which kind of drink? How to hold the glass? How to offer someone a drink? How much to drink? 

Drinking should be seen as a celebration. It is a way to liberate you from all mundane troubles of life. As they say too much of everything is bad, so be in your limits if you want to live longer. I always advise my fellow drinkers to ‘drink responsibly’ and do not forget to invite me for a drinking session with you. 

!!!Happy Boozing!!!

P.S. All the above view are my own and do not target anybody in particular. I have tried to cover all aspects but in case I missed any point do leave it in your comments. 

Citizen Matters Bangalore: My Post

A post regarding concern for my surrounding.

I wrote this article back in 2014 when I was working in Tech Mahindra Bangalore after getting pissed off with the ever increasing garbage filth and stench in Elctronic City Phase-2.

Do visit the link and post your comments.

!!!Life in a Fast Lane!!!

                                                                                                                                
It has been 10 months I have bid adieu to Bangalore to be landed in the ‘Bhaiya’ capital of India. After having lived in Bangalore for 5 years, I have become resistant to the scorching summers and bone chilling winters of North India. The solution to winter season is easy: bunk classes-stay under your quilt-wear woollens and keep a bottle of ‘Old Monk XXX Rum’ all time with you. Thank God I didn’t have to face the brunt of Delhi winters and the season was passed joyfully. But now I am facing the wrath of Sun God. And worst of all I have do my 6-8 weeks of summer intern-ship. God has been very unkind with me these days. I am a late riser and these days I have to get up at 06:00 in the morning to be in office by 09:00. I have been commuting for about 4 hours in Delhi metro plus shared auto daily. I never had any kind of skin problems before in my life but in these 10 months I am getting one after the other skin related ailments. और गर्मी तो ऐसे है की बर्फ की सिल्ली लेकर चलना बेहतर है. Let me share my observations on the people of NCR.

If you happen to travel in a metro during peak hours, you will be astonished to see the crowd in such a rush. People are running from one end to other and making every effort to catch a foot space in metro if not a place to sit. I do not understand the fact that when we have a metro running every 2-5 minutes then why people want to get on the metro which is already jam packed and no place to even breathe. For shorter persons like me, we get crushed in the crowd and worst of all our nose gets blinded by the seat soaked under arms of taller commuters. It gets even worse when a fart machine is travelling with you. Usually it takes me about 90 minutes from Noida sector-15 to Dwarka sector-12 and I have now observed umpteen ways how people spend their travel time. Some prefer to take a power nap while others listen to FM radio, play games, read novels, gossip (very common among school kids or couples) and quite a few like me secretly scans pretty women. And coming to expenses, Delhi/Gurgaon/Noida are damn expensive cities as compared with Bangalore or Hyderabad. Boozing in an AC bar in Gurgaon/Delhi will pay heavily on your pocket. Lastly a  caution to all the first time visitors to the city of ‘Bhaiyas’, keep your eyes and mind wide open lest बंदे यहाँ के कब मुहँ से हाथ डाल के पिछवाड़े से निकलेंगे पता भी नही चलेगा.   

P.S. ‘Bhaiya’ is not to be taken seriously. The word is used just to create humour. Otherwise I have huge respect for people from UP/Bihar as they are better known for building India.