Marriage of Love

Source: Google Images

‘You remember the dawn, that day, in which our hearts sang in one tune?’

‘Do you remember the dusk, that day, in which our hearts bonded for eternity?'

They sensed their lips widen to their questions as they sat across the dining table of a plush restaurant with a soulful tune from a violin playing for them.

‘The suit looks good on you’, announced Heer; ‘and so does the sari’, expressed Hari with his eyes fixated on hers.

Standing afar and looking at them express their love for each other, a delighted Amarpreet kissed Boman on his cheek and whispered a ‘thank you’ for coming into her life and agreeing to sponsor and give poor a chance to lead a royal life like ours for a day on our every wedding anniversary.

"Marriage isn't between a man and a woman but between love and love." ~ Frank Ocean

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That Epochal Moment

Source: Google

That congenial persona

Exudes a charming warmth

To the relation that is luminous

Brushing past the confusing doors

Wafting through the shores

Of friendship and love

Comes a time to choose

And in an epochal moment

He comes closer

To his heart’s saying

As he lifts, twirls, and admits

His Love

For her

For - dVerse Poets Pub

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Our Dream

‘Savings is the only way that can lead us to our dreams.’ She had once admonished him on his spending habits, now reiterating it.

‘I don’t want our present to be affected while thinking about the future and moreover I believe in living to the fullest’, he reiterated his belief.

You and your beliefs! Sighed Nagma.

Pulling her closer, he whispered, and with a wide grin greeted her, ‘Happy Anniversary Darling!’

‘30 years of hard work, your support and ‘savings advice’ made it possible to own a beach house!’

With an overwhelming sense of achievement they cried, hugged, and celebrated.

Linking it to Write Tribe's 100 words on Saturday #15

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Book Review: Once Upon A Crush

A teaser of the book Once Upon A Crush

Author: Kiran Manral

Published by: Jufic Books

ISBN: 978-93-82473-91-6

Genre: Fiction / Romance

Price: INR 195 / $8

No. of pages: 224

Synopsis: Rayna De, stuck in a dead end job with a boss from hell, zero love life and the big 3-O looming large on the immediate horizon, has started to panic a lot. Enter new object of lust in the office, Deven Ahuja, and Rayna is overpowered by inappropriate visions of Cupid aiming his arrows straight into her heart, with tutrle doves doing their billing and cooing act in the backdrop.

Alas, Deven is completely out of her league despie the contradictory messages he seems to be sending out, and is, as decreed by page three supplements of the city newspapers, the man in the life of the gorgeous, light eyed model-turned-actress Sharbari Raina. As Rayna battles with her crush, shaky employment status and dithers about signing up for domesticity with the approved-by-her-parents Sid Bose, she discovers that life has its own plans.

Review: Once Upon A Crush is a story of Rayna De, born and brought up in the picturesque city of Kolkata, now poisted in Mumbai, fears she will permanently die single with no boyfriends around, forget a husband. Gosh! I managed writing such a long sentence! Yes, this will happen when you complete reading this fresh, witty and long sentence induced, a little sparkle of a story by Kiran Manral. After having read many books, it is for the first time I felt that, yes, long sentences works wonders if used correctly without changing the desired meaning, on the contrary to 'Keep your sentences short' idiom that many preach.

The story is set in today's time where one is not shy to check the chemistry first and then commit on a relationship leading to the couple getting eventually hitched. And Rayna De is one such powerful character in the book who will make you remember things which you have done while in office or when the object of lust is around you. Like mentally aiming poison tipped darts at the retreating back of the boss or the heart suddenly doing things like popping out and dancing.

Each and every character in the story is well laid out with some unique properties that stands out like that of the greasy oiled Mathur, apart from the central characters, Rayna De, Deven Ahuja and Sid Bose.

The plot is tightly weaved and revolves around Rayna's life which includes her office, her  limited friends, and Deven Ahuja  which quintessentially keeps the readers involved.

The writing is exceptional and brilliant with the author possessing a strong command over the language which is quite evident by the choice of words used throughout the story along with some funny lines. 

The editing is up to the mark as I didn't find any proof reading and grammatical errors.

Quotable Quote: "Post this shopping trip, I would be in such deep credit card hock that I would have to sign over my unborn children and hock my womb and eggs in triplicate to the bank."

Overall: You must grab this book for the author's command over story telling which will practically leave you turning pages till the last word and also to feel or to live once again those days of crushes and believe in love. A must read!

Ratings on:

Plot: 4/5*

Characterization: 5/5*

Writing: 5/5*

Entertainment: 4/5*

Overall: 4.5/5*

Please note: This is a PR requested review, given for a review copy. This is not a paid review. All the opinions expressed in  the review remain my own and remain unbiased and uninfluenced. 

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The Dark Reality

It is always a pleasure to write at Write Tribe's prompts and now after a short haitus it feels good to be back to writing for the superb prompts.

This time it is the 100 words on Saturday 2014 #14

“Truth has many faces. Even a simple ‘I Love You’ has many undercurrents which one can never see and feel”. And ‘truth’ when presented to please is often modified to suit the people concerned”, reasoned Arun, his close friend and attorney.

Kabir’s mind wobbled with the twisted facts his father had presented about his mother’s death.

 For almost 30 years he was oblivious to the fact that his mother was murdered for objecting to his father’s unprecedented and ever escalating demand for dowry. Kabir wished he knew then what he knew now.

“Press for death penalty”, hissed Kabir with angst.

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Book Review: Keeping the Promises

Author: Dhruv Gajjar

Published by: Write India Publisher

Genre: Fiction

ISBN: 978-93-84180-07-2

No. of Pages: 212

Price: INR 150

Summary: WORDS are mightier than anything else in this world. Sometimes they serve as liaisons between between two distinct hearts, and sometimes they shatter two people irreparably apart. But when they are woven into promises and hopes, they give rise to something that lasts forever. They change lives. 

I had almost lost myself, when she brought me back to life - with her promises. She was dying with a dreadful tumour, but she had the authority to pull those last strings that brought me back to her. She was gradually dying, and every night before going to sleep - she would take a portion of my heart, my soul and my words. She would take a promise from me every night that made me who I'm today. She gave me a new life. One of those promises was to compile this novel that took me to an eventful journey in which I discovered several people, like me, who too were keeping promises.

Review: 'Keeping the Promises' is one of those books which I can read again and again and relish things about Love and True Love. And believe me each time it will give you some fresh perspective about Love and also ignite few of those memories shared with the loved one. It is a poignant tale of unconditional love, sacrifices and promises through doing things for the person whom you love so dearly. There are times when the words will move you to tears especially the epilogue and the last letter of M. Each and every characters are very lively, endearing and etched out to perfection. The book is difficult to keep down until and unless each and every word has been read.

The writing is very crisp and clean with a good control over vocabulary which is rare among the debut authors although some proof reading errors have been noticed. The page quality is nice but the page colour could have been different instead of white. It would probably give a much better feel and reading experience. The cover design is also apt and goes with the title.

Overall: All those who like reading love stories must definitely grab the book ASAP. Am pretty sure you'll like and relate to the book.

Ratings: 4.5/5*

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An Interview With Author Kiran Manral on Her New Book

Today, at Pondering Two we have Kiran Manral, a multi-talented author sharing with us some interesting things on writing, crushes and her new book, Once Upon A Crush. 

Kiran Manral is an author as well as a blogger who has worked as a journalist before she quit to be a full time mommy. Her blogs www.thirtysixandcounting.wordpress.com and www.karmickids.blogspot.com are both in Labnol's list of India's top blogs. She blogged at Tehelka on gender issues. She is also considered a 'social media star' on twitter by TOI and IBNLive named her as among the 30 interesting women to follow on twitter and among the top 10 Indian Moms to follow on twitter for 2013. 

Post 26/11, she founded India Helps, a volunteer network to help disaster victims post 26/11 and has worked on long-term rehabilitation of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack victims and 13/7 Mumbai bomb blast victims, amongst others. She is a part of core founding team behind CSAAM (www.csaawarenessmonth.com) and Violence Against Women Awareness Month (www.vawawareness.wordpress.com), two very well received social media awareness initiatives across twitter and blogosphere. 

Her debut novel, The Reluctant Detective, was published by Westland in 2012. 

She has also starred in the Dove ad as well as in Tangerine Colours of Life. 

In conversation with her in an attempt to know her more in her own words:

Pondering Two welcomes you. It is a pleasure to host you on the blog and thank you so much. 

1. Tell us something about your journey from blogging to writing? And what made you choose writing and be an author?

                The journey from blogging to writing was actually the journey from writing to blogging to writing because blogging is writing and I have been a journalist and a feature writer in the past before I quit when I had my son. So it was rather like coming full circle for me. 

2. What is your book ‘Once Upon A Crush’ all about and how is the book different from the various other books available in the market?

                   Once Upon A Crush is about a girl who will turn 30 soon, and as is natural, her parents are concerned about her settling down in holy matrimony and searching for the perfect spouse for her. She has a terrifying crush on a man in her office, and the book is about all that happens in the process. How is it different from the other books in the market? Ah well, I like to think it is a story every girl who has had a crush on someone inappropriate at her workspace will identify with it. 

3. How did it occur to you to write this book? Any particular instance or a thought that went into writing this book? And how was the experience writing this book?

                  I was looking at writing something fun and a quick read, and I happened to be chatting to few friends who were single and decrying how difficult the dating scene is and how tough it is now to find spouse material, and the dichotomies where some of them were confused between settling down in arranged marriages or waiting for Mr Right to turn up. The experience was fun, it was putting myself into a different situation completely which was interesting. 

4. Throw some light about the central character of your book?

                    Rayna De my protagonist is a working professional girl in her late twenties, she's living alone in Mumbai and has her parents back in Kolkata. She also is finding herself as the book goes along, discarding old notions and picking up new ways of being. 

5. Since your book involves office romance, what is your take on it?

                 My take on office romance is that it is often inevitable when people are thrown together for extended periods of time to feel attracted to each other, but it can get messy if things don't work out, so keep the PDA out of the office, stay professional in the office, and be prepared to look for another position if the romance falls through unpleasantly. 

6. At times it gets very confusing to identify a crush, an infatuation, and love. So according to you how to differentiate between them so as to get some clear picture?

                   I guess, simply by the intensity. Crushes are ephemeral, then they move on to being infatuations and if the infatuations become all consuming and last for more than a few months, you might wonder if it has morphed into love. But then, I'm no authority on this. 

7. Your first book ‘The Reluctant Detective’ is completely different from ‘Once Upon A Crush’ in terms of genre? So how easy or difficult did it get while switching from one genre to another? Also, what is your preferred genre of writing?

                      I think writing is like flexing a muscle, you need to give it every kind of workout. I enjoy writing whatever flows naturally from the fingers on the keyboard. I read everything and write everything.

8. Do you plan to dabble into writing a different genre, say horror in future?

                    Already have. Now for it to find a publisher. 

9. What authors do you like to read?

                  My favourites are P G Wodehouse, Stephen King, Mark Twain, J K Rowling and so so many more...

10. One thing that comes on your mind when I say the following?

(a) Author - Creator

(b) Books - Life

(c) Blogging  - Connecting

(d) Love - Eternal

11. Any particular advice that you would like to give to new authors on the block especially the bloggers turned authors?

                     Keep reading. Keep writing. The more you read, the more your writing will be enriched by it. 

A huge thank you for sharing some interesting things on writing and here's wishing you all the very best for your future endeavours.

So what's say people? Ready to grab the novel. eh?

You can order the book online from:   Flipkart      Crossword    Infibeam    Amazon

 

 

 

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