Book Review: The Wedding Trousseau and Other Short Stories

The Wedding Trousseau and Other Short Stories
Author: Ankita Sharma
Publisher: Humming Words Publishers
Pages: 135

Price: INR 180/-

'The Wedding Trousseau and Other Short Stories' is a debut book by a fellow blogger and a publisher Ankita Sharma published by Humming words Publications.  The book is a collection of short tales from our day to day lives which leaves a reader with a sense of deja vu. Ankita has judiciously picked up the stories from the Indian society and given them her own perspective with beautiful narration. Her first two stories. 'The Pink Card' and 'One More Bite' intelligently depict the contradictory standards of women for their own child and someone else's child. The second story particularly leaves us in rage and exasperation after the words of shallow sympathy from a mother towards a poor kid in order to teach her son a lesson. Another story named after the title of the book 'The Wedding Trousseau' talks about a girl in her early twenties entering the ties of matrimony. It conveys the surprise or shock a blind arranged marriage can bring into a persons life. Another story 'The Fresh Stock' mocks on the situation in an orphanage about cold hearted insensitive couples coming for child adoption. The stories are open ended with no moral teachings or definite end. Hence a reader is free to make their own interpretation in the end of each story.

The stories are different from each other but quite similar and closely resemble our daily lives, focusing on various aspects of relationships. While the volume excels in narration and language, it lags behind in terms of novelty. This book is a decent read for teenagers as well as adults, in Ankita's own words it is a collection for all age groups.

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

You can buy this book online here:
Amazon.in- http://goo.gl/P8yUGk

Buy Books India- http://goo.gl/hhDwns

Satyamev Jayate- Female foeticide!

Back in June, 2008, I wrote an article about rapid decline in female ratio: “Why more boys are being born to girls?”. That time, I studied much about the problem and thoroughly studied the cases, articles, statastics which were depressingly shocking.

Causes being:

1. Illiteracy

2. Traditional Mindset of people for male child.

Even the educated, wealthy and so called mordern mindset of urban people doesnt help them in offgaurding their desire for a male child. When today I saw Satyamev Jayate, everything from past that I studied about flashbacked before my eyes. I don’t know how this program will do. I don’t know how many of us who are into female foeticide will understand the problem and stop ourselves from murdering those upcoming lives. The case studies, which were presented were  heart-tearing stories. We have to spread awareness as much as we can, killing a life inside us is not the solution to our desires. How can we become anti-girl child after being born to women, being a woman, having women as our sisters/mothers/friends/wives/beloved in our lives. Nobody is God here to decide the fates of soon to be born lives on the basis of their gender.

We should not forget that if the parents of our mothers decided the same long time back, the devils and vampires like us, living on the blood of girls wouldn’t have been born!

A lady in the todays episode, living on the street  said a very beautiful thing, “We’ll accept the child(soon to be born) be it a son or a daughter, as a blessing from God irrespective of it’s gender.”

 I don’t need to present the same statestics, and studies which were presented in the program, I need to register my support for the cause. We don’t need any gender bais society, we just need children around us, who will giggle, laugh, play around, add beauty to the life and after growing up they’ll make this world more beautiful. Both blue and pink together add that bloom and charm to the world. Alone, its a monotony!  We can pledge, we will never promote such a bias in and around our lives, we will try to cure this sickness of minds!

I wish... “Satyamev Jayate!” 

Waiting to see what other 11 episodes will throw light upon...

Navjyoti India Foundation

Its been quite some time since i was wanting to write this post. Got time today, and i feel i should not let the time go wasted. Being a part of Navjyoti India foundation for some time at Karala, inspired this post to come up.
Karala is a village in north Delhi, near Rohini. Its an urbanized rural area and possesses the characteristics of fringe i.e. it has the characteristics of rural area as well urban area.. The occupation of people include agriculture, production and services. There are various factories in that region.
I happened to work with Navjyoti organization for sometime and got to understand the works of social organization and community work and development. The experience was good.
During my stay there I enjoyed different types of tasks and works. Being a graphic designer, my skills were utilized as well. Again the my social skills helped me in linking people and organization to each other. Learning under the supervision of Ms. Chandni Bedi helped me a great deal. She surely is a good teacher and motivator.
Visiting slums and Majri village in Karala, helped me in developing an understanding of people there and their lives. For some time i took beginner level computer classes for children of 11th, 12th and graduation. Just a few weeks ago i got a mail from a fellow colleague that my students were missing me also a few days before that, my supervisor, during one of our interactions on phone said the same thing. I want to tell them that I miss them too. Being their teacher i tried to teach them in the most interesting way i could. I feel worth, when my success pays and hear they still think about me.
Meeting Dr. Kiran Bedi and watching her closely during her interaction with staff and audience was a great experience. I also happened to work at Family counseling center there,
During my stay there i experienced:
1. people were not gender-biased and were keen to educate their daughters with the same zeal with which they wanted to educate their sons.
2. The most common attire among the students there were western outfits as well that shows the village doesn't have sticky mind and girls enjoy freedom and their personal choice.
3. Some of the people came up with inhibitions and fear at NCC and talked in a very rigid and rude manner initially, but soon after practicing some patience before them and further talk a trust was formed.
I understood that people in villages have a great fear inside them that they will lose their identity by the third party intervention and hence show a rigid and rude body language to hide their fear.
4. The married girls also had supportive husbands who encouraged them to learn computers etc.
5. Majority of youth coming there were of girls.
6. The problems at Family counseling center were of very different nature.
7. Being an urbanized rural, the place had pakka Makan and the homes of residents were big.
8. The roads were not built properly but neither were they in too bad condition.
9. I learned when you work in a village and work with a community, they judge you on attire you wear, hence to avoid any misunderstanding and pre-judgemental attitude, one should be in proper dress.
10. Working with people and for people gives a great sense of satisfaction. understanding their problem and socio-psychological issues with them provides a further understanding of life.

Media Shedia Hai Rabba...

On 14th September we went to attend the book release Function of “Hamare Kaptaan: Nayudu se Dhoni Tak.” by my Fufaji Prof. Surya Prakash Chaturvedi. This was his 9th book on Cricket. The Book is about Indian cricket captains till date and it covers 12 of the greats.

The function went well. The compere withdrew at the last minute, hence mum was given the responsibility. Although she is a writer, Prof. in Delhi University and has compered and conducted many `programs in functions and radio but it was somewhere difficult without any prior preparations. Still she managed well. People who attended the functions have been calling and praising her work. Anyhow here the anecdotes by Fufaji were very interesting and attracted and managed to retain the interest of even a non-cricket fan like me. Virender Sehwag was the main guest at the ceremony and he released the book. He surely is an honorable person, full of ethics and courtesy. His speech was wonderful too. He said he will read the book and since he doesn’t have a cricket background and so his knowledge about former cricket players is not rich. He said he will share the knowledge with the children of his family and his team-mates.
Anyhow the blog title as it suggests is about Media and the expression surely doesn’t depict the praises about the same.
Hence here I go further to the questions and answers session, where people attending the function were given the liberty to ask our chief guest the questions they want to. They were as follows:

Q: If you will be given an Opportunity to be the Captain of India, what strategies would you like to follow?
Sehwag: I think there is no need as of now for me to be the captain.

Q: Still if there is a do or die situation and you have no other option?
Sehwag: I will do my best then. If there will be an offer, I surely will accept it and will do justice with it. But I think team is doing great under Dhoni’s Captainship and is making new records.

Q: Who is your favourite captain?
Sehwag: Team is doing very well under Dhoni and Saurav Ganguly was also very good.

Q: Still who's your ideal?
Sehwag: Sourav Ganguly

Q: What is your say about CWG?
Sehwag: All the Best to them.

Q: It has been seen, the players who become Captain in India, their performance level as a player decreases. Is it due to increased pressure?
Sehwag: I don’t think so. This is not factual and its just false perception.

Q: The word “Dabang” has been used for you, how are you feeling about it?
Sehwag: Film is good

And so questions kept on flowing in…



As we reached back home and surfed through the news channels, we were awfully shocked with the news coverage on one of the channels. The Media quoted “ Sehwag said he would love to be the captain and has challenged Dhoni. He feels that Sourav Ganguly was a much better captain than Dhoni. He gave best wishes to India for CWG.”

It’s high time our Media should understand the importance and responsibility of their position.
Anyway I have seen such misquotation of words in real life. In the end its media, the business people and they would of course add some extra spice to sell the news.
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The Thousand Splendid suns - Khaled Hosseini

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls

The Thousand Splendid suns- A beautiful book by Khaled Hosseini on the lives of Afghans. A story based on the lives of two Afghani women, Mariam and Laila who are from different backgrounds, gradually develops the relationship of mother and daughter in the terror of war.

Mariam an illegitimate child of her father (who is rich and has 3 wives), lives far from the city, grows up with an impression of being a burden on her mother. While her father visits her every Thursday and makes her feel important and desired. She wants to live with her father. On her 15th birthday, she shows her desire to see the latest movie Pinocchio with her step siblings. After being promised for what she had asked, when her father didn't show up on her birthday to take her for the movie, she reached there on her own and ends up spending the night at the porch. When deserted Mariam reaches back home, she finds her mother hanged to death, with a fear that her only daughter has abandoned her. Her life changed since then. Her step mothers considering her a burden on the reputation of the family makes her marry much older man Rasheed, a shoemaker in Kabul, who has lost his wife and a son sometime back. After her miscarriage, her husband becomes abusive and cruel towards her. Mariam continues to live with orthodox and abusive Rasheed.

One the other hand, in Mariam's neighbour a young girl takes birth; she lost her two elder-brothers in the war. She is an intelligent girl, who is admired by her father for her intellect and her interest in studies. As she grows up, she eventually falls in love with her childhood friend and neighbour, Tareek. His family decides to leave for Pakistan. After sometime as tension grows worst in Afghanistan, Laila's family too decides to leave the city, when a rocket hits her house. In this accident Laila loses her parents while she recovers in Mariam and Rasheed’s house. Rasheed lays his eyes on Laila, while on the other hand both the women strengthen their bond each day.

From here onwards their struggle for food and survival starts. As story progresses, it depicts how Mariam and laila became friends and from that how their relation grew stronger to a selfless and unbreakable bond, how they supported and stood by each other through their struggles for survival.

The Thousand splendid suns narrates the story of both Mariam and Laila, their struggle for life, their losses, their sorrows and endurances in those tough times and their sacrifices for each other. It depicts the purity and selflessness of their relation and the condition of women in Afghanistan. This story narrates the struggle of people, the laws dictated by Taliban on Afghans and the violent history of Afghanistan and its people.

I would like to recommend this Book to all the people since it makes up for an interesting historical reading. I like it, and I am sure you'll like it too. As it is my first book review, pardon my mistakes and story narration, whichever way I lacked. It’s a novel not to be missed. :)

Moment Of truth

Four or five months back, I discovered a show named “moment of truth” on star world. When I was watching it for the first time, i found the intensity and intemacy of questions kept on rising with the rise in level. It kept me hooked for more and I was extremely frightened and numb watching progression of the game. It left me thinking about the aftermath of the show. I was jittery thinking if the people confronting the truths will be able to survive with their present relations or will others accept them and respect them the same way as before confronting darkest truths. There was a veiled theme inside me, what if they create an Indian version of the same. Will a person battling with truth in a hope to earn some money be able to comply with the norms and the protocols of the Indian society? What if someone will win, will he have the money or the relations or will he succeed in keeping both or will he lose everything he has? No wonder we all have a dark side, but very few of us can commit the darkest truth or the deepest fears buried under the core of our minds. The definition, although, of dark differs from person to person, the kind of life they have had and the kind of atmosphere they have been given. But all truth no lie, is difficult for everybody. Pangs of jealousy, fear of isolation, reaction on injustice, unrevealed betrayal, confrontation with weaknesses, grudges and complains for near ones. We go though many of this and some of us go through rather more. Its easy to share our life with a few but is it that easy to show world how mean or how disturbed we have been? Is it easy to reveal everything we have been hiding since years in just one go? Before truth risking our life seems easy but risking our relations, respect and friendship is hardest possible task. Yesterday I got to know that Indian version of moment of truth has been started with the name “Sach ka Saamna”. We all know Indian society has not yet progressed to the level of indifference. A person’s life is still altered by the relatives, friends, neighbors and even acquaintances. Getting our heads in a show like this is keeping everything at stake with no guarantee for money, with probability of losing what we already have. Although not all the people who are participating in it are in need for money. With obscure intentions some of them must be participating here for making confessions before their people for their guilt and explanation or excuses for their credentials, or may be some celebrities for publicity, simultaneously seeking a medal for their heroic deeds for accepting their guilt, which is not something anyone can do.