'Three' Cheers for JLF!

The recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival was, as always a five-day heaven on Earth for literary enthusiasts across the world. The magnitude of the festival was larger, the organization was flawless and the crowd was huge. Of course the majority of people who thronged the festival were there either to take selfies, or to eat at the food stalls or to browse through the festival as if they were health inspectors or simply to update a 'check-in' status at the JLF 2014 for a style symbol on Facebook.

But my applause goes especially to the three primary things that made me love JLF 2014 like never before, three special points that need a special mention, and therefore, here are my THREE cheers for Jaipur Literature Festival 2014 -

1. Creating Controversies is easy, curbing them is not - For a festival as enormous in dimensions as the JLF happening in a country like India, controversies are bound to happen. But it is totally amazing to see that JLF and its producers do not ride on controversies for popularity. With the anti-Ekta Kapoor slogans being shouted at the session against her TV soap 'Jodha Akbar', the police and the security ensured that the protesters were pushed outside the venue in a matter of few minutes and continuing the session without any disruption. The event was not highlighted at all and was surprisingly taken in a stride by Ekta Kapoor as well.

2. Absence, but persistence - This season of JLF witnessed a lot of big celebrity sessions being cancelled due to the absence of the speakers, but they were very swiftly replaced with other speakers and sessions which maintained the charm, and no one actually bothered about the absence. With crowd-pullers such as Javed Akhtar, Shashi Tharoor and Mary Kom not turning up at the last moment, JLF rightly justified itself being the World's largest free literature festival.

3. Rain, Rain go away, not an issue even if you stay - The heavy and unexpected downpour in the city of Jaipur early in the morning of 21st January 2014, which was the last day of JLF created an air of doubt among the participants about the management at Hotel Diggi Palace. But on reaching the hotel, everybody realized that the venues had been immediately shifted and backup plans had been effectively enacted upon. In fact, to make the rains even more lovable, a special counter for hot tea with dal ke pakode was set up in no time. The organizers presented an exemplary presentation of 'The Show Must Go on'.

These were the five days of the year which are truly awaited literally like a 'festival'. Going into the sessions and which one was the best or had most to offer would take up a lot of space and time. But kudos to the organizers and a huge cheer for the festival directors for holding yet another successful season of Jaipur Literature Festival.

I also attach some self-clicked pictures of JLF, there are no selfies, no high definition shots, no food stalls, no fashion statements in the following pictures. Just pure, pristine and the real essence of JLF and a glimpse of a few sessions -

The First day at JLF, the crowd starts to throng the venue!

An esteemed panel of C.P. Deval, Mahmood Farooqui, Arjun Dev Charan, Prahlad Shakhawat and Irrfan Khan discussing the epic storyteller Vijaydan Detha

Somnath Batayabal, Raj Kundra and Arghya Lehri about their respective books on white collar crimes and thrillers.

Discussing Bollywood: Vamsee Juluri, Irrfan Khan and Meghnad Desai

A beautiful photography workshop by Dayanita Singh where she beautifully established a link between photography and literature

An intense discussion on 'Why India Votes' by Manvendra Singh, Mukulika Banerjee and Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay in conversation with Sudhir Chaudhary

A jam packed writing workshop by Jerry Pinto where the crowd was literally ROFL!

The most awaited session - Amish Tripathy is a candid conversation on a chilled morning

Amish Tripathy launched "Book of Spice" by Vikas Khanna

A fiery session moderated by Ravish Kumar on 'Raj and Samaj: Democracy and the People' with a panel of Kalyani Shankar, Navin Chawla and Pavan Kumar

A full house at the session "Blue Planet, Green Earth" by Shekhar Pathak, Suman Sahai in conversation with Ahmad Rafay Alam

A session for just laughing out loud - by Indrajit Hazra, Shovon Chowdhary and Bachi Karkariya

"Each Others' Stories" - a session by the TV queen Ekta Kapoor

A soulful session by Sonam Kalra on Finding your Voice!

Not a very clear picture, but a glimpse of the grand finale debate on "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest" moderated by Sanjoy Roy with reputed speakers such as Murli Manohar Joshi, Shazia Ilmi (both can be seen in the background a little blurred), Indrajit Hazra etc. 

FOLLOW ME ON https://twitter.com/PawasJ

This post is about "SEX"...

Maybe the title of the post was enough to give you a shock for once, and then look around you to see if anyone was watching over your laptop screen. Of course, we have been raised in a society where talking about sex is a taboo. Sex is like that bad itching area, which everyone wants to scratch but no one wants to talk about it in public. Obviously, talking about sex in public is against our so called "culture", it is filthy for young children and maybe it will brand you characterless.

But few people will realize that the major lacuna in our upbringing is the lack of formal sex education. And of course, a country where talking about sex brings misanthropic smiles or bestriding looks, you cannot expect to impart sex education. In fact, girls are almost considered to be asexual when it comes to their sexual desires and explicitly discussing sex might not make them a very good prospective daughter-in law.

The question is why did I bring up this topic at all? Basically because I wanted to put spotlight on the taboo aspect of openly discussing sex and sexuality. Yes, it troubles me to see that the highest judicial court of our country fails to acknowledge a form of sexual orientation altogether. Yes, it is very disheartening to see that a girl on menstrual cycle is made to sit in isolation and (in some very orthodox households) to an extent of not even entering the kitchen because she is 'impure'. However we have been extremely unsuccessful as a society to acknowledge the basic facts that people of different sexuality than ours also co-exist and menstruation process of a girl enables her to give the most beautiful gift to the world - the gift of life!

It is this repressed sexual desire that leads to horrendous crimes like rapes and child abuse. The lack of knowledge of protected sex is the primary reason of the spread of HIV AIDS. Two inter-related facts that I read somewhere highlight this - it goes that in Karnataka, only 30-35% women know about female condoms and another study reveals that Karnataka has the highest percentage of HIV AIDS affected population of our country!

People who know about protected sex also fail to comprehend the usefulness once they are married and see it as some kind of power to assert. And the same people when leave their houses shout out loud, 'God, there are so many people around here in India!'. Whoa! Welcome to India!

It is sad that the land of 'Kamasutra' is today engulfed in a thinking so narrow and cramped, that it is almost disgusting. Khushwant Singh once said, "Indians have sex in their heads and not between their legs!"
I can't help but agree, because we think about it so much, that our actions have become furtive now and sex has become something dirty, filthy and tabooed. So let us not ignore the topic with our future generations at least. Let us move towards a more open society which is safe for women and liberal for people with varied sexual orientations. There is nothing wrong in SEX, let us see when the change comes about!

 

Counter Strike-Global Offensive: Will it take the legacy forward?

It might be a little late to be reviewing something as epic as a new version of Counter Strike, but some things never get stale and we always love talking about them. Counter Strike to our generation is not just a game; it is a fierce neck and neck battle, it is a legacy. Global Offensive came like a storm for all CS veterans. For all the CS lovers, Global offensive would be like revisiting their old school canteen or probably meeting an old friend after ages. You will notice some miniscule and some major changes but the basic instinct, the character, the style remains intact.

With few new game modes, new maps and modified old maps introduced for the first time in 15 years, CS GO is going to keep a crazy player like me on his toes. The teams are small, guns are lethal and rounds are shorter but the power and adrenaline rush is much higher and takes the game-play to new heights of awesomeness. Arms race, which is a new death-match based mode, rewards a player with a new weapon on every kill and the player to get a kill with every weapon is the winner. This mode is very exciting and is a definite treat for every CS lover. It's the most frenzied and care-free mode in Global Offensive, with players throwing caution to the wind for the sake of climbing the kill ladder as quickly as possible. It's a disappointment that there are only two maps in Arms Race.

There are new escape routes to discover even in old classic maps (look for the underpass choke point in de_dust). Such minor changes are going to enthral and surprise the hardcore fans. The look and feel of the game is modernized with path-breaking graphics and amazing first person shooting experience. But even in today’s trend of genre evolution and fierce market advancements in technology, CS remains true to its original style, appeal and character........

(Full article with grading and verdict published on http://www.thetechportal.in/Articles/Gaming/CS-GO%20Review.html) 

Visit India's first weekly tabloid dedicated to Technology - http://www.thetechportal.in/ for more such reviews and latest tech buzz! :)

एक नयी सुबह ...

आज धूप में कुछ बात है,
ये नये समय का आगाज़ है,
नयी सोच की रोशनी में,
ये आशावाद का उल्लास है...

नयी पीढ़ी का यह जोश है,
अब नही हम बेहोश है,
ये जीत की गूँज है,
ये बरसों का आक्रोश है...

छ्ट गयी अब रात है,
ऊँचा सुनने वालो की ये मात है,
ये बदलाव की शुरुआत है,
आज धूप मे कुछ बात है...

Book Review: Syahi - Power of the Pen

I got a tremendous opportunity of reviewing the latest short story anthology - "Syahi - Power of the Pen", published by Triumph Publishing and edited by Aman Sharma and Nehali Lalwani. The book is an amazing collection of stories of different genres written by very talented budding authors coming from varied backgrounds. It is a positive trend in the publishing industry of giving new authors a golden opportunity like this to be published at a nation-wide level.

I am hereby posting my story-wise review along with an individual grading of each story on the scale of 5. I would not play the spoiler and will not be revealing the plot of any story to let the readers enjoy it themselves.

Disclaimer: I will be very honest in my reviews, but that anyhow does not mean that any writer is bad. A negative review just means that there is a scope of improvement and the one I got to read, was not the magnum opus of that writer. All writers in this world are gifted people with a weapon in hand! ;)

1. Inspiration, An Odyssey of Discovering Life... Again - By Apoorva Arora
The writer in this story, had a beautiful message to tell regarding raising of a child by a single parent. But unfortunately, the complex story and the weird turn of events leading to that message was totally not required. The story had loads of grammatical errors which made it very difficult to grasp the story and made it monotonous to reach the end. The story could have been shorter and still the strong message could have been put forward. I am sure the writer has some beautiful thoughts in her mind, which can be expressed in abridged and simple forms.
Rating: 1.5/5

2. Better Late than Never - By Hitakshi Bawa
The story is very simple and beautifully written. It is a well written adolescent love story with some nice lines which will leave a lovely impact on the reader. The descriptions in the story are nicely done and the writer deserves a clap for expressing a girl's thoughts in such a nice manner.
Rating: 2.5/5

3. Letting Go - By Aman Sharma
It is a very heart warming story which will make you feel the pain of meeting your ex-lover after your breakup. The awkwardness, the silence, the thoughts, the coldness that you experience on such a meeting have been beautifully described. The supposed monologue in the end of the story is also very emotional and you can literally experience what the protagonist must have gone through. The best part I liked about this story was how the writer has explained the importance of "letting go".
Rating: 3/5

4. 26/11, A Dark Twilight - By Nehali Lalwani
It is a very sad story expressing the unthinkable loss of someone who loses their loved ones in a terrorist attack. However, I just feel that so much has been written about 26/11 already, that it would take something path breaking to gather a reader's attention now. The story is simple, but lacks on emotions a little. The story is long enough but lacks warmth. On this premise, something much more heart-wrenching could have been woven.
Rating: 2/5

5. Life, A Vague Mystery! - By Khushi Gupta
Here is a writer who never fails to astound me. When an 11th standard student, writes amazingly about the feelings and thoughts of a neglected child in a broken home, it has to amaze you. The expressions are flawless, the use of words is perfect and the ending just leaves you in awe (or maybe 'aww' :p ). I would particularly like to mention the scene in the park towards the end, just seems so believable and yet very soothing and of course the epilogue - mind blowing! Kudos to the young writer!
Rating: 4/5

6. Shattered Tatters - By Ayush Agarwal
There are average writers who sometimes come out with awesome stuff and leave you amazed, and then there are awesome writers who maintain their record. Ayush Agarwal comes in the latter category. I had high expectations from the story of Ayush and undoubtedly, he fulfilled them. A very moving story of a little kid Keshav living in jhuggis, Ayush makes it into a riveting tale of loss, social ills, thrill and a thoughtful ending. It is one of those stories, after which you remain absorbed in thoughts for a few hours. A special mention to the scene describing child abuse - only a writer with great talent can pull off such a scene with such level of intensity.
Rating: 4.5/5

7. Sometimes it's not simple - By Neoni D'Souza
This story is an unimpressive tale which tries very hard to keep the reader engrossed, but fails. The ending has been made into a sudden twist but with a weak backdrop and premises, the twist fails to leave any impact.
Rating: 1.5/5

8. The Survivor, U'Khand Flood Disaster - By Omung Goyal
This story is a shocking tale of a survivor of the unfortunate Uttarakhand floods which created havoc in June 2013 taking lives of thousands of people. The writer amazingly expresses the journey of survival of the protagonist. I really do not know if this was a real personal account of the writer or someone close to him, but he does make it sound very believable and captivating. The imageries are poignant and disturbing, but very nicely created. However, only had the grammatical errors been fewer and dialogue composition been better, the story could have simply been one of the best written accounts of the disaster.
Rating: 3.5/5

9. 3 Sins - By Salli Shah
This story is very disturbing as it expresses the weaker side of a woman. The story does not impress and tries to instill pity for a woman in the mind of the reader. The story has a depressing end, which seems to be totally mislead, almost expressing as if suicide is the only option and ends up making you feel sorry for a girl. It could have been a much better story, had it been focussed on women empowerment and discussing about bouncing back of the girl in the mainstream society even after having faced such hardships. The story is disappointing.
Rating: 1/5

10. It all started with a key - By Shrutee Parekh
It is a very disappointing story with an insensitive handling of an issue as delicate as AIDS. The story could have had a better premise. The story shows the protagonist deciding to marry a guy after a day of cheap stalking and without knowing the guy at all. For an AIDS infected patient, life is a challenge each day. It could have been shown with a lot more consciousness and delicacy. Moreover, the grammatical and spacing errors, and flawed placements of inverted comas in dialogues made it very difficult to keep a track in the story.
Rating: 1.5/5

11. It's never too Late - By Aman Sharma
This is a very old-school story line with nothing fresh to offer. It seems to be a bit immature at various points. The fact that a girl who is at the top of her career decides to return to her childhood romance, a guy who abandoned her after one fling of physical love making ages back, it all seems to be impractical and not in line with modern times. After the earlier story of Aman Sharma, the expectations were high but to some extent he fails to deliver. Had there been more of romance, heartbreak or flow of emotions, which seems to be Aman's forte, the story could have been really great.
Rating: 2.5/5

12. A Lesson for Life! By Nehali Lalwani
Reading this story was a real pleasure. It is one of those stories that make you feel very optimistic and blessed. Beautiful choice of words, soft turn of events, descriptions and images that leave you spellbound, are the features of this story. I finally found the typical-Nehali story which I had expected from a writer of her capability. This story was enriching and more of a learning experience.
Rating: 4/5

13. Un-destined Love By Salli Shah
This story is very naive and has been dragged with no content. With the premise that was being set-up in the beginning, the story seemed to have something interesting to offer. But the story disappoints towards the end when two people in love have to part ways owing to religious differences. This is one of those stories where you keep thinking that something is going to happen now, but nothing does.
Rating: 2/5

14. You Amaze Me - By Ayush Agarwal
This is a magical story more like a garland woven together with words. The development of the plot line, the premise, the expression, the turn of events, everything is very well thought and put forward in a beautiful way. This is a masterpiece of a story with an ending that leaves you with a smile, you don't know, is sad or happy. Very Moving! Hats off to Ayush Agarwal!
Rating: 4.5/5

15. That Night @12 By Neoni D'Souza
It is a fairly gripping story with a well thought storyline. Although not as spine chillingly horrifying as you would expect from the story build-up in the beginning, but still a fairly good attempt at a story with positive ghosts. With grammatical correctness and a little editing, this story could have been even more enjoyable.
Rating: 3/5

16. To be Hanged, Till Death - By Omung Goyal
This story is a very engrossing legal-crime thriller which ends up thrilling you even more. Very few writers can write crime-thrillers with that ease, but the writer has done a commendable job. Although, had the pace been a little faster and with a better editing, this story could have been a wonder! Nevertheless, a very fine attempt at crime thrillers where a boy is accused of murdering his parents. Read the story to find out if he comes out tainted or is buried with no charge.
Rating: 4/5

Best Writer (on the basis of writing style, choice of words, and grammatical correctness) - Ayush Agarwal
Best Story (storyline, development of story, story premise) - Life, A Vague Mystery By Khushi Gupta 
Most expressive story (with depth of thought, clarity, philosophy and concept) - A Lesson for Life By Nehali Lalwani

Overview - Syahi is an admirable collection of stories written by authors from different walks of life. Stories from different categories, flavours and moods have been put together. Having said that, I would mark the importance of grammatical correctness, because at some point, it does spoil the fun of reading and makes it monotonous. Nevertheless, it is a fun read with some very exceptional stories and after all I truly believe - every reader is a critic. So grab your hands and read for yourself as there is something to take away from every book you read in your life.

Final Grading (on scale of 10) - 

6.5

Grab your hands on this short story anthology here - http://www.snapdeal.com/product/syahi/2028273247?pos=0;1

 

Whatever went wrong with the concept of Love...

After experiencing the very recent cinematic horror in Ramleela, it was almost a deja vu of another senseless "love story" of this year - Raanjhanaa. After fathoming the underlying concept of such flimsy romantic flicks being made in Bollywood, I realized that there is something terribly wrong in our understanding of the very concept of "Love".

At one hand, a kiss within two minutes of meeting and deciding to get married by the same evening without having a single sensible conversation (as in Ramleela) seems to be more of lust rather than love. Where are the times when love was more about understanding, maturity, being able to link yourself with somebody else's happiness and comforts and putting someone above you? We are a practical generation with a pragmatic mindset. We fall in love, but it is not blind. Yes, sorry, but love should not be blind! There is no such thing as love at first sight, or rather we should rename it to lust at first sight, since it is nothing but a sexual attraction. Love is a beautiful expression that happens when you know somebody in and out, your mental levels strike like a chord, you balance out each other and you feel complete. It is basically much-much more than a warm fuzzy feeling where you just want to be in bed with the other person. 

World would be a much better place if girls could be wooed by wrist slashing (remember Raanjhanaa?). But alas! It takes much more. You need to make her feel comfortable, you need to be chivalrous and not flirtatious around her. You need to understand her, know her and assure her that she will be safe and she will be taken care of. But only if it was not so complex, and if girls could be attracted by stalking them for weeks and getting slapped 17 times even before knowing her name, it would have been a piece of cake, isn't it? Huh!

Sadly, true love has lost its meaning. There is a pretty deep psychology behind the concept of romantic love (which is debatable), but either way, love is about going that extra mile to make someone feel special. And Going that extra mile, nowhere implies doing something special or gifting something precious, but it is about accepting someone with all your heart and let them be who they are. It is not about a first sight, a passionate kiss on your first meeting, stalking, attempting suicides for someone and definitely not about deciding to get married within a few hours of seeing them. 

Love is really simple, but we make it complex and movies like this definitely mislead us and misunderstand this generation. We believe in realistic romance which is a journey of a lifetime with someone who understands you, it is definitely not an overnight bus journey. 

There was an anonymous quote I read somewhere - "Today's generation gets into love because of misunderstandings, and split when they understand each other." I remembered Ramleela when I read this quote, where protagonists either get physical or break into useless dances, and wherever they have a conversation for more than two minutes, they end up in abusive fights with each other (amusingly, their fights also end with sudden kisses). 

Love is not about walking together, it is about growing together. So, fall in love, have a soul-mate, make it work, fight for it, put your efforts into it and create a bond for a lifetime. Love is a long term investment, not an intra-day trading. ;) 

कुछ बातें पुरानी ...

करवटें भी बदली
हरकतें भी बदली
शिरकतें भी बदली
फुर्सतें भी बदली...

वक़्त जो बदला, तो आहटें भी बदली,
ऋतु 'पावस' मे भीगे थे कभी,
अब तो चाहतें भी बदली और आदतें भी बदली...

लोग भी बदले, उनकी नसीहतें भी बदली
ऊँचे पायदान पे पहुच के, उनकी नीयतें भी बदली...
जिस सीढ़ी से चढ़े थे, उसको भी भूले
हवाओं के रुख़ बदलते ही, बोलियाँ भी बदली...

रेत का गुबार उड़ा, तो नसीब भी बदले,
फर्श से अर्श तक, और अर्श से फर्श तक आते आते,
रास्ते भी बदले और मंज़िलें भी बदली...

अब ना तो वो मिज़ाज़ है, ना रिश्तों मे गर्माहट है
ना इश्क़ की खुश्बू है, ना मोहोब्बत की आहट है
बस मंज़िलों की चाहत है, और दौड़ मे शामिल है,
ख्वाब है ऊँचा, पर ना सक्षम है, ना काबिल है....

जैसे जैसे घड़ी की सूइयां आगे बड़ी
अब तो रिश्ते भी बदले
और फरिश्ते भी बदले...