Wednesday 26 February 2014

Just try

The times we waste waiting, What we desire the most flees, If we had only tried our best, We wouldnt be tagged like the rest.
Show what you are,
Dont shy away,
Try your utter best,
For everything is a test.
Time we say is our friend,
Not forever though you see,
When the sand is about to end,
We let out a loud cry,
Alas, time why did you say goodbye?
So rush ahead and take the plunge,
No one will question why,
For you arent a coward now,
As you the warrior that did try.

Monday 24 February 2014

Love @ Air Force by Gaurav Sharma: a review

There are so many love stories in this world but most love stories go unsaid and unwritten. The pain of not expressing the love in the beginning might lead to a very complex situation at the end of the day. Love @ Air Force by debutante author Gaurav Sharma is yet another such story.


According to the book blurb- The Violent romance of the fighter planes with the clouds in sky... the pulchritudinous officers walking around arrogantly... the runway... the logo constituted by the concentric tricolored circles in the background.. Is the spectacle that meets our eyes at the feeble mention of the Air Force but there is more about the air force besides these... An unhappy sergeant- Sushil Awasthi feels that his circumstances dumped him into doing drudgery in the Air Force and he deserved better out of life. Grumbling often, he accuses his wife, his parents and even Air Force for his agonies. When he finds that, the newly arrived medical officer, Wing Commander Shabd Mishra is his best friend of school days, his inferiority complex plunges further down. The wing commander is still hankering after his school day’s crush- Soumya despite knowing of her being married to another Air Force Officer, who too, gets posting at the same station. How do things shape up when the three classmates get together? What fate does the love story of the lovelorn Wing Commander meet? How do others go around, the officers and non officers, react to the friendship between a sergeant and a wing commander? Welcome to Air Force station Agra to know how the Air Force reins the lives of its employees.


The strict rules of the Armed forces or any kind of forces are known by one and all. The scene of officers having ego and despising even the sight of the low rank sergeants is very common in the forces let alone the friendship between a mere sergeant and an officer of an influential post. Among all these difficulties and the nature of the people who work in the Air Force, the friendship of Wing Commander Shabd and Sergeant Awasthi is quite a treat to read in every reader’s eye.


The love for Shabd’s school time crush Soumya is also one of the very relatable and best parts of the book. School time love is mostly attraction but in Shabd’s case it was pure love and even knowing about Soumya’s marriage, Shabd didn’t give up. Air Force became the villain in their story and knowing the officers of Air Force, Shabd knew that Soumya’s parents won’t agree. This insecurity in him made him be quite about his feelings for his lady love. What happens when they meet is something the book is all about.


Sergeant Awasthi joined the force sacrificing his dreams to support his family and he succeeded but he was not at all happy with his surroundings. When he met Shabd after a period of twenty odd years, the people around him venom his mind with deep insecurity of a sergeant’s friendship with a Wing Commander.


Three lives intervened in one Air Force Station and how it goes on from there is something that is looked forward to. As a debutante, the author did his best in writing this novel and it stands out from the crowd. The writing style is very simple yet it keeps the reader hooked into the story completely. Very much unlike the love stories of today's time, the story doesn't give something that it shouldn't, it is very to the point and what we call perfect!



The fun elements of the story were the poems scribbled by him. Wishing the book and the author best of luck, I would rate this piece of work 4 out of 5.

PS- This book review is a part of The Readers cosmos Book Review program. to get free books log on to thereaderscosmos.blogspot.com

Mother: An inexplicable definition of love

Hello friends, had some free time on me and since its been too long writing something for Our blog I decided to throw in a few lines depicting two characters. A mother and a son. This post is not a short story nor a poem nor is it lyrical in any manner. Its basically a few thoughts that came into my mind when I heard from one of my friend a story of a cruel son who killed her mother and took out her heart for the women he loved. Upon hearing the horrifying story I remained aghast for a few moments.
I am sure that you guys might have heard it from your elders or read it somewhere. But the question is are we really what our parents wanted us to be ? Can we be a supporting pillar of our parents ? Do we possess any quality or trait of our parents ? Did we inherit the love giving from our mother ?
I pondered over the same questions a hundredth times, reminding myself to find an answer to these questions !
Alas ! The answer couldn't be found in the fold of our mind. Because parents, and a mother in particular doesn't think before she gives birth to a child, doesn't think before she feeds her milk to her offspring, doesn't think when she teaches her child to talk. Hence the child remains blinded, not realizing his mothers love. Thus the answer to the questions was just a Yes in love, unconditional love. Because all your parents expect from you is love.

"Remember the day that you were born,
Lay in the cradle so helpless,
The world far from the reach of your thoughts,
Your hands and legs weren't yours,
There were no dreams about the world in your eyes,
All you knew was to cry and sob
To drink milk and sleep was your job.

Your mother held your hand and taught you to walk,
Your mother had placed you in the locks of her heart,
In the lap and shade of your mother you grew and flew like a moth,
You started growing within a fraction of time,
Slowly as the time passed by you turned into an adult from a juvenile,
And the whole world seemed graceful to you.

You started showing the strength of your arms,
Started showing your accuracy of speech to the one who taught you to speak,
Started dressing, caressing by yourself.
One day you saw a girl and fell for her beauty,
And then she became your bride and walked into your home,
You started getting away from the people of your own,
Sowing the seed of hatred by your own.
Alas, you started forgetting your mother and father,
Launching the spheres of hatred upon your parents,
Words for words you started a quarrel,
Reading a covenant that was new to you.

Remember the day that your mother had said you once,
That I cannot live without you oh my son,
Upon hearing this your nerves started to swell,
Your anger exceeding the level of your tolerance.

Angry and furious you said to your mother,
I was silent, still and tolerant,
Today I say to you, leave me alone
Break all the bonds that we share,
Go and get a living for yourself,
People die but death never comes to you.
Seated in a corner, your parents had started filling their life with tears,
Yet their tears dint reflect guilt upon you,
And than there was a day that your father left the world sulkily,
How your mother was broken and shattered into pieces.

In the state of helplessness, she kept calling for her death,
Life had now started treating badly,
One day even death felt piteous,
Fate had fell for her sobs and tears,
Shining tears in the eyes, she passed bidding good bye.

Just a hiccup turned to be the reason for death,
There was a faint smile on her lips,
A sign of peace on her face,
And than you were dressing her in a shroud.

Years passed by and you are old now,
Lay on the broken bed you have become week and old now,
Your childrens are now fearless and disrespectful,
Hatred filled they dont love you,
In an agonizing pain you cry out loud, oh my mother, oh my mother.

(Dard me tu pukaare ke oh meri maa).
PS: Be grateful to your parents, without them the world seems nothing.
Be kind to them for kindness is act of worship.
Be respectful, for one day you will have childrens of your own.
- Ayan Khan

Friday 14 February 2014

Will you be my valentine ?

As I sit back to pen many a line,
Glimpses of you sway in my mind,
Though we never did share a kiss,
That cheerful face I'll always miss.
Argue alot we have, that I can't deny,
Yet your beauty fogs up my eyes,
Many a difference we have that's a fact,
But didnt physics teach us, opposites attract?
Friends we are, forever that may not change,
Atleast we can still meet up from time  to time,
Yes, we are many a mile apart,
Alas, you hold a special place in my heart.
Life is too short to dwell upon,
So I don't want this to be very long,
For this might be the last time,
I get to ask, "Will you be my valentine?"
#Asad #Ayanthenewauthor
#VdayPoem

Wednesday 12 February 2014

The Promise by Nikita Singh- A review by Sravanti Ramavarapu

Title : The Promise
Author : Nikita Singh
On the back cover : Some promises are worth keeping...


She smiles wide, and under it, hides pain she barely manages to endure. Her happiness brightens up the room, while inside, her heart drowns little by little.

Elusive, charismatic and incredibly rich, money is the one obsession he loves and hates in equal measure. He runs away from his past and the grief it brings with it.

She is capable of breaking down all his barriers, making his heart implore to give love and trust a second chance. Caught in the waves of alien emotions, a promise is made a promise to be together, to make their love last.

But when disaster hits, does their love prove strong enough to withstand the brutal force of reality?

Or does the promise lay forgotten, as they struggle to regain balance of their lives?


Review : Being an avid reader and a fan of thriller and mystery genre books written by foreign authors, I love reading authors like Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham and Dan Brown to name some. But, occasionally, I love being glued to an Indian author’s book; because it provides me with that one essence I miss in the above stated books i.e. Indian Emotions. My recent pick was The Promise by Nikita Singh. As soon as I finished the first few chapters of the book, I realized that the characters of the book were very much inspired by the series ‘Fifty Shades trilogy’ to be specific ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. I immediately felt a pang of sorrow; because this trilogy was one of my favorites but I started loving it as the chapters unraveled themselves in front of me. Shambahavi’s character in this book was very much similar to that of Anastasia Steele in Fifty shades and Arjun Datta’s ‘dark ‘n mysterious’ aura had a striking similarity to that of Christian Grey’s character. Faisal who is an assistant to Mr. Datta is very much inspired by Jose who is a photographer friend of Anastasia and has an initial crush on her. Anastasia’s best friend played by Kate Kavanagh has been used as an inspiration for characters of Mili and Tutul. There are many instances of the dating sequence between Shambhavi and Arjun which reminds me of fifty shades. Shambahvi, “rolling her eyes” on Arjun, any fifty shades fan will know what that means ;). Arjun wanting to know everything that Shambahvi is thinking is just like Grey being a control freak. What amused me the most was a paragraph in Page 72 where Shambhavi asks Arjun if he has a ‘red room of pain’ (Again fifty shades fans will know!!) somewhere because he seems to her just like Christian Grey of Fifty shades, who was into BDSM. I mean, the reader will know, there was no need of an open declaration. This was the point when I read some reviews about this book and found out that some of them have quoted it to be a “copy” of “Fifty shades of Grey”. Well, I disagree. The characters were inspired, yes, but it was definitely not a copy. As I proceeded, I found out that it was mainly a story of Shambhavi, of how she manages everything single handedly. It was a story of her passion for painting, her love for her family, her courage of facing the world alone and also her confidence. I loved that. The narration was beautiful in the middle part of the book. In fact, a tear escaped my eye too while reading about her, it was touching. I would like to believe this book being a story of “Shambhavi” rather than the story of “Arjun and Shambhavi”. What I mean to say is, where Shambhavi has a strong character Arjun’s character could have been given a bit more of light, so, I would also like to state that the title doesn’t do justice to the book. The title could have been chosen with a little more thought into it. Arjun is only on the two ends of the book and hence ‘The Promise’ means only a little. Had there been a contract similar to that of ‘Fifty shades of Grey’ stating a promise between Arjun and Shambhavi, the title would have been completely justified ;)

Rating : 2.7/5

Thursday 6 February 2014

Nazaqat by Sasha H. Singhal: a review

Prostitution- Yes prostitution is the main topic that this biography deals with. A book of its kind, this book surely makes it to the bestselling charts of the year.


On the back cover: A prostitute turned entrepreneur who hires a ghost writer to make a biography. A murder that she was accused for and her vision to legalize prostitution completely in India. A parallel conspiracy that threatens her life and vision. A forgotten tale of mermaid, that must be told. Time is ticking and history would be altered. What would be Nazaqat? Will she succeed in her vision or she would end up as a victim?


The first book of the publishing house, the book quality surely promises a great future to the house.
coming to the book- the name, the cover, all of it is so eye catching that it grabs the readers attention from the very first look they have on the book.


the narration, the incidents, the way it is written presents Nazaqat as a real character and so it is. Nazaqat is a mermaid, she is a dream; as portrayed in the book. The 'ode to mermaid' at the end of the book and the parts of it in between chapters gives it a very wonderful essence.


The Shakespearean language used in the poem stay inked in the readers heart forever and the biography surely leaves an after effect on every reader or rather every 'client' that Nazaqat has.
The climax of the story was totally unexpected and it was really good.


though, at one point of time I felt that the climax could've been presented in a much better way. The topic unusual enough has added fuel to the spark of Nazaqat.
 To know more, all you got to do is read this biography; while I sit here and rate it 4.5 out of 5,