Dear Chetan Bhagat!

It was just a dispute quite appealing to mind but a healthy conversation between my friend and me.

I said him, “Chetan Bhagat, apart from novelist, young writer and all, I would rather say him a “beginner”, and changed Indian history of writing to turn by degrees to a different stage of advancement.”

“He is not doing something that’s never been done in Indian history of writing before. I could give examples of love in all its forms in Tamil Literature alone and they are ancient ones too”, he defended.

I laughed out loud and said, “So, you have examples of love in all its forms in Tamil literature. Fine, tell me one such example analogous to Chetan's,”One Indian Girl”. 

Chetan was the first Indian writer who has enlivened feminism that is totally antithetic to Indian society.  And if could possibly find any relating plots to the “One Indian girl”, I would get back my words that, " he is a beginner”.

He came out with two examples. But I argued the toss again and finally, he took the gospel and said, “Okay, I Overdid. I didn’t get my facts straight. But still you idolise Chetan way too much & I don’t see why”.

I think my reply to his supposal needs to be outspoken. 

I’m an avid Bibliophile and I have read books of versatile authors of Indian and foreign countries. I always loved  Paulo Coelho’s books and still love to read Sidney Sheldon’s books n time and no wow I love Harry Potter series a lot. The plain and unvarnished truth is that  I never loved more than four books of any Indian author.  Say I liked only “Midnight’s children" of Salmon Rushdie, “The Shadow Lines “of Amitav Ghosh, “Two lives” of Vikram Seth. I have admired no other books of these respective authors.

Four books of Chetan impressed me, & I seriously lost the count how many times I read his 2 states novel.

So here comes the reason for why.

To my perspective, literature is useless unless it contributes to society.A good book should give the pleasure of reading as well as bring about a change in society. And, CB's  "Revolution 2020", "What young India wants", "Making India awesome" suits it good. 

Writing doesn't mean to be extremely awesome if only you refer your dictionary for every single line. It can be awesome even if it is elegant and can bring about nationalism, fidelity and allegiance.

Basically, Indians have very poor reading skills compared to other countries, especially in English literature. And Chetan  Bhagat’s novels sounds good, particularly for freshers to read and thus develop their skills.  No Indians author’s books are read by the teenagers except his. I know people who have adored books and literature by just starting with CB’s novels.

Finally, this is the way of writing I wanted to adopt but he preceded me. Like it's the way I wanted to gracefully inculcate people through writing. So I was extremely impressed. But no worries I still have my fingers crossed to write on the education system in India and would make people realise what we were doing since years and give rise to a change one day! 

So I would just draft my suggestions for Chetan Bhagat here!

Dear CB,

               Indeed, you are a page-turner writer. Your novels like "Revolution 2020", "What young India wants" really personify you as a sophistication category writer. But still, you are a mere mass writer and not a class writer. When you write for the youth of India, shouldn't you be deliberate that your written work contains the obligatory amount of spicy stuff in it? Aren't you thinking that you are infusing India below the belt?  Your risque story, blue jokes and racy anecdotes depict you as a Philistine with narcissistic personality who concentrates only on money laundering, by best-selling novels.  When people have to leave their prejudices, stereotypes, and conjectures before reading your books, what is the purpose of you writing it? I guess you probably underestimated the taste of Indian youths with your guilty pleasure novel "One Indian Girl". There are many who hate you just because of your toothsome fictions. And your novels cannot be a menace to the society. There are so many issues to be solved and changes to be made in India. So, you have plenty of content to write than a girl making love with three or more guys,Sir! Your nationalism influencing novels could be told on celluloid rather than Half girlfriend. Please do consider it done next up. No writer can reach the level you acclaimed and only a big gun like you can blaze a trail. A public figure shouldn't betray his country and people.  As a fervent admirer, waiting for you next conducive novel to rise a change over again with all my suggestions considered!

My favourite quotes from my favourite litterateur are...

      1.  “When a woman comes into your life, things organise themselves.” 

      2.  “The world's most sensible person and the biggest idiot both stay within us. The worst part        is, you can't even tell who is who.” 

      3.  “Rules, after all, are only made so you can work around them”

      4.  “Sometimes life is not about what you want to do but what you ought to do”

      

             Thanks to HAIMANTI DUTTA RAY who proposed this idea of writing about the favourite author and let my heart point-blank. Thanks, Indiblogger, the community of Indian bloggers, and Indispire which made to aid in the pursuit of intellectual happiness.   

    PS: #Favourite author @ Indiblogger :) :)

.

    With smiles...

    Swathi

   (Investing myself completely in the art of living)

Go beyond...

 Superman, Spiderman, Marvel Girl … Aren’t we in awe of these fictional characters and their magical superpowers? 

Naturally, yes! But that doesn’t mean that our lives are ordinary. Apparently, all humans have an innate superpower that we tend to overlook in chasing our daily goals.

My secret superpower is, 

"Going beyond the FINISHING  LINE" 

Sounds to be crazy! Isn't? 

 Well, I would like to share how this super power works.

Have you ever gone through this experience?

You went for a morning jog and ran for a quite decent time and exhausted that you eventually gave up and sat on a bench. Then, all at once, you see a stranger running and now something inside you excites to lift up and run again for some time?

Life creates an imaginary finishing line on everyone’s path. This is life’s way of differentiating mediocrity from the legendary. The magic and miracles of life always unfold just beyond that imaginary finishing line.

While writing poetry, the poet reaches a point when the next line does not flow. His mind goes blank. A good poet knows that if he can hold on just a little longer to get the next line of his poem, the perennial flow will once again take over.

Life holds on abundance just beyond the finishing line. 

So, I hold on a little longer not accepting what seems to be my finishing line because life sets a trap for us on every path we tread. Mediocrity is trapped by that virtual finishing line and people who strive beyond excel. So now, I will give tongue, how I go beyond the finishing line in all aspects of my artistic life.

First of all, I divulge my goals often and make effort to excel in whatever I venture. When I uncover it, I get an urge to accomplish it without losing the zest for my life. This obsession connects me closely to my destiny which makes me capable of conscious choice, decision and intention. It is an incriminatory testimony I push myself into.

Though letting on the goals is not an irksome task to do, the upshot after disclosing it matters a lot to me! The contiguous step after I divulge is to create my space to excel over there.

I excel when I am intensely involved, & for that intense involvement, I need my own space which I need to bring into.

In any discipline of life, when I create my own space, those who are getting near me, will be eventually be pushed away & when I excel with the space created, even those who are getting near me will watch me with admiration from distance. Of course, they will want to barge into my space, but they will not be able to match our enthusiasm and excellence.

 The moment there is a drop in intensity and excellence, space will start getting filled up & the day may come when I will get pushed out of the very space that was my own one day.  So we need to break our back to stay the same in our space. 

So the secret is, "Go beyond the finishing line. There is a lot of space there; the victory lap is all yours as others have been left behind. Beyond the finishing line, space is huge and besides excellence continues."

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



 See Go beyond and other winners of WOW badge at Blogadda forum

With smiles...
Swathi

(Investing myself completely in the art of living)       

The death knell

"Life is full of uncertainties. Each day holds a surprise but whether it comes to us as sorrow or joy is unbeknownst to us."

As she lounged on the couch with a salad bowl that contained finger fries, she began flipping through the channels. Eventually, she stretched out a bit and before she could recognise the fatigue, she fell asleep. Her husband wouldn’t be home at least for another five hours and the empty house resounded with her soft shallow breathing.

As the squeaking sound of the teak wood rocking chair roused her from her kip, she perceived something wrong and got up from the sofa with a little nervousness, like it is an experience of fear that summons ghosts to us, because it was from the room which was unengaged since a year. When she turned the key and stepped in she was dumbfounded as she saw her father sitting across the room in that teak wood rocking chair. 

As the surprise ended, she was happy that she met her father after years since she eloped. She called a spade a spade and spent cherishing minutes with her father that she didn’t notice the incessant rain outside, nor the bowl hovering on the floor amidst those scattered finger fries, nor the clanging sound of the pendulum clock. All she noticed was her father’s face which was riantly handsome than ever. Together, they put their cards on the table, and spoke openly about what they ventured in all those days they were apart. Between the conversations of her childhood and his advice for her future, she realised how much she missed him. Although they spoke for hours, it still didn’t seem enough for them. She felt as if she could sit with him forever holding his palm and all that mattered to her at that point of time was him. Only him.

She was taken back by her senses when she heard the ring-back. As she picked the receiver, she realised something and gasped! It was indeed the death knell.

“Come back India soon. His body will be taken to the Ghats of the Ganges tomorrow.”

The receiver fell on the floor with a soft thud and the empty teak wood chair continued rocking. 

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

With smiles...

Swathi

(Investing myself completely in the art of living)       

 See  "The Death Knell " from  https://mycrushedwords.blogspot.in/ at Blogadda forum for WOW post Winner badge.