Anyway, thinking that it was a book about management, I decided I had no need to read it. And anyway, it was definitely philosophy and preaching. And I, till a few years ago, had the policy to stay away from all things even remotely philosophical…

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That’s what happens in the disorder called Thalassemia.

Thalassemia is a hereditary disorder that causes shortage of red blood cells in the body of the patients. (The Thalassemia gene can lie dormant for generations. So even you might have it without knowing it). The patients of Thalassemia have to survive by getting regular blood transfusions. Most patients need the blood transfusion monthly or twice in a month…

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Dreams give rise to hopes, hopes push one to endeavour and it is endeavour that gets all things done in the world. Just look around and you’ll see that every discovery, invention and advancement in the world has its seed in a dream of some passionate soul.

But dreams don’t just lead to success and achievements. A passionate dreamer goes through a hell lot of misery and emotional stress till his or her dreams turn into reality. I know, because I have been through that hell too…

Read more at: http://youthdiaries.in/dream-on/

‘No, dude, not so easy as you may think,’ I wanted to tell him. But I didn’t. It would have been no use. After all, only a writer can understand a writer’s travails. Only a writer can understand a writer’s frustrations and fears…

Read more at: http://cupidspeaks.com/writers-travails/

First of January is not just a day
to remove the old calendar
and throw it away
It’s the beginning of a new chapter
in the book of time.
ready to be filled in
with new songs and rhymes
Let’s hope that the story
that would now unfold
would be happy and joyous,
cheerful, good and bold,
A new beginning awaits us,
a blank new page to fill
with new hopes and aspirations,
a new chance to fulfill
all our dreams, desires and hopes,
and with renewed courage to stand
against our troubles, and bravely cope,

So let’s look ahead
with renewed promises, zest and cheer,
and welcome with open arms and smile
the coming brand new year!

Wishing everyone a super 2012!

Image from http://www.clipartguide.com

I don’t know why, but since past several days, I’ve caught myself lost in my childhood quite often. Maybe, with both my sisters married now, I too am suffering from empty nest syndrome and thus preferring to spend time when the nest wasn’t quite so empty

But hey, today is Children’s Day. And today, I have full excuse to look back at my childhood and revel once again in the little delights that made life so lively at that time. It’s awesome how even little, inconsequential things can gain so much in delight, if not in importance, when viewed from the harsher terrain of the adulthood.

But maybe, everything really was more delightful then, perhaps because it was all new and fresh.

Novelty is always exciting. And for a child, the world is full of novelty, and thus excitement. The first taste of a new toffee is exciting. The first sight of a new flower is exciting. The first discovery of a rainbow in a puddle, the first understanding of the moon’s flight across the sky, the first chase of a butterfly’s flight…yeah, so many firsts, so many new and fresh wonders to discover and understand and share with parents, sibling and friends. No wonder stars glimmer in children’s eyes.

Anyway, there’s a special reason why I was taken back to the time past today. To the time when my sister and I discovered the wonders called comics. Diamond Comics, to be precise. And to our friends list were added the wonderful personalities of Chacha Choudhary, Sabu, Billu, Pinki, and Motu Patlu. My parents encouraged us to read Champak and Nandan. But we loved the world of comics more.

And happily, there was a comics rental shop just five minutes’ walk away from home. And all the comic wallah required was 1 rupee as security money and, I think, fifty paise as rent per comic.

My mother used to give one rupee to my sister every evening. Half of it was my share, of course. We used this our treasure in two ways. Fifty paise were spent in renting a comic, and fifty paise to buy toffees, or more often, the beautifully fragrant Priya Supari from Uncle John’s shop.

Well, Uncle John’s shop is still at its place, but Uncle John isn’t there any more. The comic rental shop is gone too. And suparees don’t taste as good now as they used to at that time when my mother always scolded us for eating them.

But guess what I discovered, or rather, rediscovered today? Diamond Comics, available online, and available for free! Oh yeah, here come back my childhood mates again. Chacha Choudhary with his amazing wit, Sabu with his amazing strength, Billy, Pinki and all.

And how did this wonderful thing happen? Well, how are things found and discovered these days? Through Facebook and Google, of course.

One friend shared a cartoon sketch on facebook that reminded me of the Patlu of Motu Patlu comics. I wondered whether these are still published. Well, I googled, and stumbled right into http://www.pyaretoons.com/ And here I found several of my old friends just waiting to give me a good time again.

So hey, time to spend some time with them. You go ahead and take a look too. Maybe you’ll re-discover some of your old friends as well.

Happy Children’s Day to you! And a very happy Children’s Day to me!

Read Intro of Jyoti’s novel Dream’s Sake

Read the first chapter of Dream’s Sake for free

Reviews of Dream’s Sake

I so wish I could become kid for just tonight and dress up as a ghost and a witch and go out celebrating Halloween. Sure, it’s not an Indian festival. But hey, it must be so much fun. Of course, I can still dress up as someone dead or deadly, but from where would I get the super fertile imagination and the ready sense of thrill that’s a special property only of childhood? And without these, I can’t see dressing up being even half as much fun.

On the other hand, when I was a child, I could never have imagined ghosts ever being fun! Ghosts, at that time, were only something terrifying that parents didn’t want us to know about. That was why they kept on telling us that ghosts didn’t exist. But of course, being a smart kid, I knew better than to believe in everything that the grownups said. If ghosts weren’t real, why would my mother say that it was not a good idea to sleep under a tree at night? She may give whatever reason, but I knew well. It was only because ghosts lived on trees.

That, actually, was not really a good thing to know. Ignorance really is bliss sometimes, you know. But what to do? I was a smart and intelligent kid, and I knew everything. So ghosts lived on trees. And we had a backyard where there was a whole clump of banana trees. And banana trees have big and shiny leaves, you know. And when light from a street lamp falls on them, you can sometimes very clearly see a ghost sitting and swinging on those big leaves.

Well, as I told you, I was a smart and intelligent kid, I knew well not to go near the trees or look at them at night. I didn’t want the ghost to catch me looking at it! But then, one night it just happened that my mother left my elder sister and me to our means and went to do some emergency shopping. Father, that day, was out on official tour. So it was just my elder sister and me at home alone.

It is a fact that when left to their own devices, kids always delve into their store of courage and become more daring. And it was the result of just that daring perhaps that my sister and I agreed to play in the backyard.

Okay, so I was smart and intelligent and all that, but my turn at the game we called staapoo somehow never lasted as long as my sister’s. So there I was, sitting on the doorstep and waiting and waiting for my elder sister to get out. And as I waited, I just happened to look towards the banana trees. Maybe, it was the ghost that forced me to do so by its magic. But whatever the reason, I looked at the trees. And there, right before me, I saw it! I saw the ghost! It was bright and shiny and shapeless, but I could see its big teeth. And of course I knew instantly that it was staring at me and would come flying at me any moment.

‘Bhooooooooooooot!’ I shouted immediately. ‘Didi, bhooooooooooooooooot!’

‘Bhooooooooooot!’ my sister shouted, without even bothering to look where I was pointing at. But then, as I said, I was smart and intelligent, and she trusted me. If I said there was a ghost, then there was a ghost, no doubt about it.

In two steps she was back inside the house, and I was right there beside her. And together, with our two heads and four hands, we pressed the door shut against the ghost.

‘You hold it shut, I’ll pull a chair, climb on it and lock it,’ suggested my sister.

‘No! If you let go, the ghost would push at the door and I won’t be able to hold and then it would open the door and enter the house and eat me and then it will eat you too and then when mummy comes, it will eat her too!’ I hissed back.

We couldn’t have risked our mummy getting eaten by the ghost. So we decided to keep holding the door shut and to keep shouting for help.

‘Bhoot! Bhoot!’ the cries echoed from our house. And they were loud enough to reach mummy when she was still half a block away. Down went her shopping bags and she ran to save her darling daughters.

‘What’s the matter? What happened? Why are you crying?’ she asked, bursting in through the front door.

‘There’s a ghost in the banana tree,’ my sister replied.

‘And it has seen us, and it was showing his big teeth to me, and it wants to eat us all,’ I added, giving the full information.

‘Nonsense, there are no ghosts,’ my mother replied. That, of course, was a lie. If there were no ghosts, why had she come running to save us upon hearing us crying ‘bhoot?’

‘There is a ghost!’ I cried out, feeling insulted at being told a lie even in such a situation.

‘Yes, I saw it too,’ my sister added, even though she hadn’t even dared look.

‘Yes, didi saw it too,’ I turned my sister’s lie into a truth. If my mother could lie, so could my sister. She was, after all, a fellow sufferer. ‘It is big, and ugly, and it has big teeth, and I saw it clearly.’

‘Well, I’ll go and see for myself,’ said my mother.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!’ my sister and I shouted in unison. There was no way we were going to let our mother go out and risk her life.

There really are times when grownups behave in most foolish ways. That was one of those times most surely. And despite our screams, shrieks, screeches and howls, mother pushed us aside and went out. Worse, holding our arms, she dragged us out too. There we were worrying about her life. And there she was, dragging us right into the mouth of a ghost!

‘Where?’ she asked, getting angry without reason. We had a reason to be angry, but we weren’t. We were only pleading to her to be sensible. But she again shouted, ‘Where is that ghost?’

My sister looked at me, and I pointed out the leaf where I had seen the ghost sitting and grinning at me.

‘There’s nothing there,’ my mother said.

‘It was there. It must have become hidden,’ I said.

‘Well then, let’s bring it out,’ said my mother. And then, beyond all sensible reason, she walked up to the tree and starting slapping the leaves!

Well, I was proved right and she was proved wrong! Out flew the black ghost!

‘See? See? There it is!’ I said, pointing to the flying object. Fortunately, I think the ghost didn’t like mummy’s slapping the leaves. So it went away and didn’t bother to even taste us. Which was a good thing, of course.

‘It was only a bat,’ said my mother, lying of course, as I knew very well.

‘No, it was a ghost, and it had big teeth and it even showed its teeth to me,’ I said.

But what to do. Mothers are mothers, and when they decide they don’t want to listen to you, they won’t listen to you no matter how much sense you talk.

So I was made to shut up, my sister was made to shut up. And we did. We stopped crying. And we agreed with her that it was just a bat and that there are no ghosts. Though we knew too well it was a lie. Our own mother was telling us to believe a lie. But then, she could make us nod our heads to her words. But our beliefs were our own.

We knew we had seen a ghost.

We believed it.

And nothing else mattered.

Read Intro of Jyoti’s novel Dream’s Sake

Reviews of Dream’s Sake

I had never imagined that having a book published would throw me in such a mental turmoil.

But then, while I was wandering through this tumult, pretty much in a dazed state, life went ahead and zipped towards me  a wonderful surprise. And for now at least, all worries about my novel have been driven away from my mind and I can’t even stop smiling.

What’s that surprise? Ah, just that I participated in a blogging contest…

and WON!

Okay, so that winning post belongs to my other blog in which I just ramble about all the apps, software, programs and gadgets that I love. I so love technology. But as I have nobody to share this my love and enthusiasm with, I decided to pour it all out on a blog. But never, in my wildest dreams, had I imagined that it would win me a Samsung Galaxy Tab 750!

Ah, I’m on cloud nine! For the first time in my life, I’m actually seeing one of my dreams coming true in a really perfect way. Maybe that’s why the news still feels too good to be true.

Anyway, if you are curious, you can read the winning post here: http://techn0treats.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/the-tab-effect/

I have done it! Shedding my laziness and procrastination, I have finally added the first chapter of my novel Dream’s Sake to my blog as a preview to the book. Do check it out! And oh, I’ve also added snippets from the book, taking passages that serve as introduction of major characters in Dream’s Sake. And on the next page, you can also check the reviews of the book by bloggers and members of goodread.com.

Have a look by clicking on the page links given under the header image.