Klishmaklaver

Book Title:   # IAm16ICanRape Author:  Kirtida Gautam Publisher:   Read Out Loud My Rating:   ***1/2 About the Authors:  Kirtida is a clinical psychologist turned screenplay writer who completed her education from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, India. Her passion for psychology and writing inspired her into writing psychological thrillers.   This book has been the most unique read of all times. #IAm16ICanRape has been written by an author who seems to have a whole lot of spunk in her. Everything is gutsy about this book, starting from the subject to the style in which the prose has been rendered. I think writing an entire book in the present progressive tense is a mean feat. Also there are a whole lot of characters that are introduced with every new chapter. Each character gives us an in depth peek into their psyche by narrating their own story in the first person. This must definitely have been a brain wracking task for the au

Book Title:  The Guardians of the Halahala Book 1 of The Vikramaditya Trilogy Author:  Shatrujeet Nath Publisher:  Jaico Books My Rating:  ***** About the Author: Besides exploring various business opportunities Shatrujeet Nath has written ad copy, and reported on business as a journalist and assistant editor at The Economic Times.  His first book, The Karachi Deception, was published in 2013. The Guardians of the Halahala, his second book, and the first in The Vikramaditya Trilogy series, was published in 2014. At present, he is writing The Conspiracy at Meru, the second volume of the trilogy.  Like a true blue Indian Mythology fan, one of the first few stories I grew up listening to and demanding of my mother to repeat every other day at bedtime, was that of the 'Sagar Manthan' or 'the Churning of the White Lake' as Shatrujeet Nath calls  it. I remember being enthralled by the story of how Lord Shiva of the Holy Trinity drank up all the

Book Title:  Pradyumna- Son of Krishna Author: Usha Narayanan Publisher: Penguin metro reads My Rating:  ***** About the Author: Usha Narayanan is a gold-medallist with a Master’s degree in English Literature. After carving out an illustrious career in writing for teh Advertising Industry, she made a successful debut as an author with the novel- ‘The Madras Mangler’, a suspense thriller. Before I begin to tell you more about this- one of my latest acquisitions and favourite reads, I must warn you that I am a great fan of mythology. And to add to that I'm already sold on the book cover- illustrated by Jay Thakur.  A large part of my childhood memories include reading book after book and comic after comic on Indian mythological stories. These books were often full of colourful illustrations that aided my imagination but here's a book who's cover singularly provided more than enough fodder for my creative brain to conjure up images as Usha Narayanan unle

The clock atop the Crawford Market, Mumbai tells us that its TIME to end this shopping spree!!!!  ;) This has been submitted for the  December 2010 theme day: Time at City Daily Photo and the ABC Wednesday Round 7 : 'T'

It's very interesting to see these colourful messages written on the back of a racing Tonga at Juhu beach, Mumbai. To read more such wonderful boards from around the world visit  Saturday Photohunt

 http://genderbytes.wordpress.com/  Quarter of a year ago I stood  at the same door and rung the bell. The door opened and there stood  the most beautiful angel. Quarter of a year ago she wasn't my wedded wife But soon as my mother’s daughter-in-law  she lost her life  I'd asked her hand in marriage My family was in much of a hurry A Quarter year later she had a miscarriage And my wife was burnt for dowry Quarter of a year ago, I’d come here to SEE her Quarter of a year later I’ve seen her off, forever! Though this is a piece of fiction it is based on a true life incident. This is partly a fact from a very distant past that has recently become news in the papers once again. Inspiring me to write on it! PLEASE let's work towards eradicating the Dowry system from Indian Society! This post is also a part of the Z-A in 26 days Challenge at 'I Rhyme Without Reason'

Trekking up to the old and formidable fort of PratapGarh near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra.This has been brought out of the archives for Monochrome Mania T rekking through memories sweet H ow many friends made I' m thinking about them N ow, time and again K indly tell me if  I 'll meet them again N eed them to know G od! I miss them This has been written for the Z-A in 26 Days Challenge at 'I Rhyme Without Reason!" And for the Acrostics Only Prompt # 2 for November.

Buy Social Causes T-Shirts online at Myntra.com and visit the largest community of Indian Bloggers at BlogAdda.com Flip, he'd sent the shoe in his right foot flying high up in the air. Gravity was bringing it down now. He ran towards it and caught it, back on the hook of his upturned right foot. Next, Flip went the shoe from his left foot, flying high and back. Walking to school early in the morning through lonely lanes, this was his way of making the stretch interesting. It's amazing how he managed to get to school on time! My Pa-in-Law aka Vijay  was quite a bright student I'm told but he preferred to do things his way. A little too differently for comfort. He always managed to get on the teacher's nerves. Once the teacher had caught him scouring the floor under his desk. "How do you manage to slip off the bench everytime I ask you'll to take notes?" inquired Father D'Mello. Vijay rose off his knees and stood trembling, staring into Fathe

This post is a winner at BlogAdda's “HOWZAT?” a husky voice hollered. A short, curly haired, fair lad raised a finger and declared the batsman bowled. The dark and lanky figure with that husky voice now ran towards the bowler screaming on the top of the lungs. In no time the thin framed, dimple chinned bowler, Rajeev had been lifted up into the air and the team was exulting over their victory. This was my team, a motley crew of young boys aged between 9-14 years old. And that lanky, dark cricketer with the husky voice was me. With crew-cut hair, a terribly tanned face and scraped knobby knees showing beneath those fatigued shorts, I was easily mistaken as a boy amongst the group of lads. I was a complete tomboy who ate, breathed and lived cricket like any other boy of my age. The society where I lived consisted of a ring of 10 buildings. The oval foreground of the buildings was divided into two equal halves by a speed-breaker in the centre. Two rival teams existed in the same

This Thursday was really challenging. First my faithful old lappy crashed and with it went all my data. The doctor was successful in retrieving it for me luckily but I had to sit and transfer it to a safer external hard disk. Then it was quite a task to flick my hubby's VAIO and pretend as if it was always mine and here to stay with me. ;) Then this Thursday Challenge prompt reminded me of one particular temple back in Mumbai that has always been very special to me. So I had to dip into the archives and fish out the album out of a collection of many. This photograph is from my college days when there were no digital cam's readily available. I had to also go through the entire rigmarole of syncing my scanner with the new lappy!!!!! Therefore it was quite a challenge to find one hard copy from the album then scan it and then finally post it here. BUT I DID IT!!  I used to click around the city with a simple manual Minolta SLR in those days ..And I loved the way my cam

The most refreshing beverage I know Tea aka Cutting Chai. Served in short glasses at small stalls around Indian street corners, it's the most refreshing with a hint of Masala or Ginger added to it. You are to sip on this milky brew it, slowly, very slowly. And have the Aaahaaa experience!  Kadak!!! To sample the world's favourite beverages visit here

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 13 ; the thirteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton .   February 1901- In the small Midnapore district of Bengal in British India was born a little brown girl with intelligent beady eyes. The mother used to work as a maid with the wealthy Mukhopadhyay family in their district. She had enjoyed listening to her mistress recite Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry, as she fanned her, one lazy afternoon. So when her own little brown daughter was born she knew what they would call her. She would be Khanika , a beautiful girl rightly named after Tagore’s beautiful poetry. “Eta Lakshmi Maa!” Her family soon began referring to her as the goddess of wealth because no sooner had she arrived that The Railway Company came forward and offered jobs to the local unemployed men along with other additional incentives. H

They say, love is quite enough reason for two souls to be tied in matrimony. It being a sacred and long lasting bond the person who’s being married should have the right to choose his/her spouse. In socially developed countries, it’s usual for people to fall in love and tie the knot. There are also cases of arranged marriage where the families assess each other and agree for the marriage. And then there are cases where matrimony is forced onto the bride and/or groom. When one or both parties are married without his/her consent or against his/her will it is termed as a forced marriage. The practice of forced marriage was very common amongst the upper classes in Europe until the 1900s, and is still practiced in parts of South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Forced marriages are done mostly for family pride, the wishes of the parents or social obligation. In India and Pakistan, a lot of such matches are made in hopes of getting a British citizenship for the spouses mostly

MEERABAI What you see here is a watercolour painting on mount board in its actual size, about 3" width X 5" length So you can imagine how tiny it is. Quite tedious job it is, to work on the detailing in a miniature painting. She appears on the cover of Sandalwood Agarbattis. Thats why have used only pastel shades! Completed this assignment within a day, somewhere in 2002, at college. This is one of my fav artworks, for you'll to review brought out of the archives.  

HI, Check out my entries for the Nat Geo Moment Awards 2010.. This is the first time I'll be participating in a photography contest outside College premises..And am happy to tell you that all my uploaded entries were approved for the contest :D So express your love for photography and do shower my entries with kind appreciation and votes! Just click at the top right or bottom right hand corner of the Nat Geo window to flip the page to the next photograph or entry.

                                                   This is a letter from me to my hubby who thinks I’m nowadays wasting a lot of time farming! This is the husband’s week and I thought I owe this to him. I have therefore decided to give him an explanation along with full idea of the inventory at my farm. I will try to convince him how profitable it is to be a farmer, in today’s days. I share the letter with you here: Howdy Pardner? When I was a kid only Old Mc Donald had a farm! And the rest of us envied him for that. Now most of my friends have a farm of their own. And there’s a cluck-cluck here and a quack-quack there, here a moo, there a moo and everywhere a moo-moo! I have a farm of my own too. As you know, I began not very long ago, with a small patch of land and little seed money. I plowed, I sowed and the harvest gave me lots of money. I was in profit in an instant. The experience over the period of time helped me grow big, fast. And now my small plot is no longer small. Y