India Unlimited By Kulpreet Yadav: A Review.

Image: google

Book: India Unlimited, Stories From A Nation Caught Between Hype & Hope

Author: Kulpreet Yadav.
Publisher: LiFi Publications.
Genre: Fiction/Short Stories.
Pages: 198.
Price:  Rs. 190.
Rating: 4 out of 5.

India Unlimited, an anthology of 31 short stories, seizes your senses with its simple yet potent writing. The stories capture the reader's attention and wakes up a hunger to read more. Yadav, who has been published in several National and International Literary Journals-the featured stories are part of this compilation, with his penchant for detailing, styles the little elements by lacing the words lavishly.

To give you a glimpse of the author’s crisp artistic use of words, here are a few excerpts from “Faking It at The Conference” and “Samir in Rain”:

"The air-conditioned space I was locked in, along with about fifty others, tasted and smelt of words bouncing off the walls,rolling down gently here and there, before giving place to a just-arrived batch of fresh boring words."

"The sky was the last to give in to the urge, and it did with palpable vengeance, sending silvery cracks in the dissipating blue-black of the dusk."

The amalgamation of these short stories is a voyage that takes you to sundry sides of India, showcasing characters from a beggar to a wicked spiritual leader, from a spy to a man who talks to a fish, from a prostitute to an old lover. The diversity of these stories, the salient delineation of characters with the use of short sentences intermingled with lengthy ones along with simple still striking narration makes India Unlimited stay with the reader. Such diversity makes one wonder whether the stories are penned by the same author.

Picking favorites from such a collection is tricky, however, here are five of my prized ones:

•  Not the Only Peanut Seller Who Hasn't Heard of Osama Bin Laden.
•  The Family of Stars
•  The City of Mirrors
•  The Sahib and the Siesta
•  The Fish and My Wedding 

With his keen annotations on daily life, Kulpreet Yadav presents a set of fictions to cherish. You will adore a character, detest another, love a story, and dislike another but India Unlimited will adroitly hang about with you and you will pick it up again for an unlimited passage of the both known and unknown India.

I thank Kulpreet Yadav for letting me an opportunity to read and review the compilation of his wonderful works, "India Unlimited". 

Breezing Through Roads With Ambi Pur Vent Clip

Ambi Pur Mini Vent Clip Range

A suave paper bag arrived at my abode. A cute little clip filled with lavender fragrant liquid nestled inside the bag. It was the Ambi Pur Mini Vent Clip that was shipped to me for reviewing it.


The 2 ml mini clip, that promises (and delivers it) to do its delightful job for 30 days, is easy to activate and install in the car A/c ventilation grid. One of the great features of the clip is the fragrance control feature. One can adjust it from low to medium to high as per one's requirement. 

Once activated, the scent instead of gushing out with a strong and intense fragrance it fans out steadily with sweetness in its approach. Its no-leak technology helps in achieving this feat. Unlike other car fresheners, Ambi Pur Mini Vent Clip eliminates foul odors quickly while spreading its scent evenly, refreshing the car. Eventually one experiences a clean, fresh fragrance filled drive, even making you smile in the traffic jams.

Add caption

The one reaction I blurted out after my first trip with the Vent clip breezing its way in the car was..."Mood bana de".

Would I buy it? Recommend it? Definitely yes :)

This post is exclusively written for Escape Into Freshness, #FRESHNHAPPY Experience for Ambi Pur Mini Vent Clip, by Indiblogger.

Images: Google

Storme-D Into The Little Known Heaven; Dooars.

It was that time of the year, when sun with its strength compelled me and my friends to plan a vacation. Our motto was to look for a cold region and be miles away from the heat of Mumbai, however, the usual places we had been to or any place that was almost everyone’s favorite were certainly not in our list. The reason was simply to explore a new realm, perhaps a virgin land.

Our search finished on Dooars; not a virgin terrain but not much explored or heard of. Undoubtedly none of us had much of any idea of the place. Dooars or Duars are the floodplains and foothills of the eastern Himalayas in North-East India around Bhutan.

So, we set off for our journey to the beautiful cold valleys. We, total five of us, landed in Kolkata. Our plan was to take the roadways from there to Siliguri; the gateway to Duars. A SUV was our requirement for our exploration. Ergo, instead of the much preferred jeeps or maxi-taxis, we chose Tata Safari Storme, which we borrowed from my cousin to go to Siliguri. It was our plan to drive in the same vehicle to Dooars as it was perfect for our adventurous expedition to the valley, as TataSafarai Storme provides a host of accessories such as fog lamp, canopy, PND, alloy wheel etc., crafted for such thrilling journeys.

We made our way through NH31 to tourist lodges run by WB govt., which we had booked earlier. Taking in the scenic beauty of the tea gardens and the dense forest which lay on both sides of the highway till Dooars, our journey had already developed into a divinely thrilling experience.

Reaching the lodges, we made our plans for the next three days. Chapramari forests were our first destination. We rode our way towards the nature, in our now much beloved Tata Safari Storme. Our citicized bodies kept inhaling the pure air of the valley. Once, we reached we were in for a magnificent treat. The forest thrived in a mesmerizing assortment of flora and fauna. We were lucky to encounter two bisons, though, not lucky enough to say hello to our favorite Royal Bengal tiger.

Next day our host region, saw us at the Jaldapara Santuary, which has the immense uniformity of massive trees with array of orchids. The dense land ringed with chirping of birds and wild animals. It is a land of ecstasy for lovers of nature.

The third day, we went on to discover the local bazaar, the timber industries and the tea gardens; these are the main contributors to the economy of the region. It felt like the heaven had just come down for us with wonderful warm local people. The food, the valley, the land had given us a refreshing life we deserved.

Our three day vacation, however, was over within three blinks of eyes with a promise of many more visits to the place and yes, with our friendly companion Tata Safari Storme, which made our journey more adventurous and thrilling. 

***This post has been written exclusively for Tata Safari Storme-I am Explorer and Indiblogger. To discover more about the thrilling experience of Tata Safari Storme and its accessories, visit Tata Safari ***

Review: Beaten By Bhagath, by S.V. Divvaakar.

The Establishment, The Challenger.

Title            : Beaten By Bhagath! A Tale Of Two Writers.
Author       : S.V. Divvaakar.
Pages          : 191
Publisher  : Frog Books/ Leadstart Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN          : 978-93-82473-03-9
Price           : India Rs. 125/-; Elsewhere US $5
My Rating : 3/5

"He was now the establishment, and I was the challenger."

Often we wish we could  take on the world with our passion and not with our 9-5 job. Many of us do follow the dream to make it a reality. Success, though, comes to not many.
"Beaten By Bhagath" is about a man's passion to make it big with his writing, albeit a result of his ego and encouraging line from his sexy lady boss, he wants to overthrow the big name K-10; a celebrity author and his friend. Its about the dramatic roller-coaster ride of a debutante writer and his book.

The Plot:
S.V. Divvaakar takes you on a journey of a man who wants to dethrone his ex-roommate, an old friend who is a star writer and has ventured into many facets of life, enjoying success everywhere. It gives you a glimpse of the path that one has to tread to publish one's debut book. It talks of changes that come by in life when a writer is determined to reach maximum of readers as soon as possible beating the reigning best selling author. The changes grill him, and brings out the worst of him. As you progress further with the story, you experience BB's passion...his challenges... his judgement... his realizations, along with fate of his debut book.
What exactly does a novice BB do? Does he find success? Do the friends meet? ...

The Characters: 
Not many main characters to talk about. Except BB rest make it in short sketches, including K-10. The main character BB is perfectly flawed. BB made me smile, there was a moment when he disgusted me, some of his decisions disappointed me, he made me want to lecture him on a few occasions. All in all, I enjoyed BB’s faults and flips. K-10 through BB's eyes introduces his intelligence, his determinations, his wisdom. I secretly wished to know K-10 more.

My Experience:
There were times I flowed with the lucid narration while other times I went against it. However, I wished hinglish didn't make its cameo; I am not much of a fan of it. I loved the candid take on the current variety of books that are in fad. Divvaakar aptly points the reason for the new generation writers opting for very plain conversational style. As we see K-10 declaring that he doesn't want to write books that people can read only with a dictionary by the side. He wants to connect, not to overwhelm.The little details that penetrated my mind through the chapters held my attention throughout.

Its a fine read with good insights on the publishing world. Grab your "Beaten by Bhagath" if you are toying with the idea of publishing your (debut) book, and even if you aren't, go ahead... pick your copy, it has a few lessons of life to learn as well.


-Namrota Mazumdar. 
[ tocoffeebeans@gmail.com ]

***This review has been written as a part of the Book Review Program for The Tales Pensieve***

Shop The Future Way

With technology being part of our lives by now, there are no guesses for what lies in the future. Flying cars, space tourism (tours to other planets), real estate booming on moon, five dimensional television screens with images probably interacting with the audience et al could be our future. I wonder how something as important (for us) and commercial (for the companies) like shopping would transform into.

Let's not go too far into 3013-ish but hover around 2030. My fantasy tells me the year 2030 would host a multi-dimensioned shopping opportunities for both online and offline shoppers.


 

Flying Chinese Food Cart (Movie: Fifth Element)

Shopping malls with five dimensional themes with interactive computers to list the sections where to find what you are looking for. How wonderful it would be to just walk into a mega mall, and glide your fingers on the big screen that blinks at you to use it and find what would suit you, your loved ones or your home.Even as you know where to find your treasure, as you stride towards your destined shop, the display windows of other stores would lure you with their own 4-D screens. Here models would capture your senses displaying clothes, perfumes, gadgets, etc. which would also give you a trial opportunity right there showing your image so you would know how you would look like in them or with them. 

Online shopping portals like, ebay, would deliver your order on your door step on their flying carts. After you place your order on your multi-dimensional computer screens, where again the image would pop out before you giving you the options. Then magically (technologically) you would touch the screen below to put your image instead and see yourself wearing that red dress, or the hold the new multi-G android or just the new book you want to read.Ah! future shopping would be so much fun, so much to look for. Hope it shapes sooner than 2030.

***This post is exclusively for The Future Of Shopping, by ebay through Indiblogger. 2030 is far, so if you want to check out ebay collection right away, visit: HERE***

[Image courtesy: Google]