And so on... The Fall

Brownie Prichette was not sure how exactly she reached here. She couldn’t see a thing or move an inch. The thick silence around her was veiling some distant sounds of traffic, and her shoulders were throbbing. Her entire body felt tired.

The last memory she had was of being lost in the lanes of Colaba Causeway trying to evade the drug peddler whom she owed either some money or five fresh customers. Was she forced or did she fall by accident? She was trying hard to remember… anything... anything at all… oh! …Yes…she remembers that she had turned around one last time to check if she had managed to lose him yet, and there he was right at her heals, as if materialized from thin air, his crude bloodshot eyes staring coldly at her, with an almost inconspicuous glint. And before she could blink an eye, she had felt a sharp needle poke the outside of her left thigh. It hadn't hurt much.

Now, against her own wishes, she was finding this peace silently satisfying, except for the hunger pangs just about beginning in her tummy. Given that her life could be in danger, hunger should have been the last thing on her mind. She had, knowingly or unknowingly, reached a point that she always wanted to reach. A point from where her life would change and she could start looking up. Now, from where she was, things could only look up.

She was stuck right at the bottom of a 10 ft deep vertical pit.

The Change & The Difference

There was never a dull moment with him around. A lot of people were in awe of him, many more envied him, and almost all of them dreamed of being him.
“I love women!” he said with a glint in his eyes. It sounded like ‘I love McDonalds!’ or ‘I love Gaajar Ka Halwa!’ something to be consumed at leisure, and at times in friends’ company. Only he could have put something as profoundly deep as it was witty, in such an understated manner. Everyone around appreciated the humor.
“I love the fact that they are, and I love the fact that they do.” More of the applause ensued!
“I am endlessly besotted by the idea that a woman comes with so many avenues of pleasure. Unlike the earlier times, we have been able to filter out the not so pleasing woman experiences, and retain just the pleasantly, and intensely satisfying ones. We shall continue to strive to further the cause of male pleasure seeking behavior with increased gusto, and a day will come, when all that will be left in the world, would be pleasure and peace.” Loud cheers and thunderous roars followed this profound statement.
He was the star of the future. A staunch Masculinist, and the leader of The World Hedonistic Forum.
The world seemed to have changed.

~~~~~*~~~~~

She hadn’t touched a soul ever, but she had claimed lives. She intensely despised even a small possibility of injustice. She was one woman with purpose and was obviously on a mission. The mission of making this world a better place for her fellow women-beings. A less obvious mission that she also seemed to be on was to be on a mission itself, always.
“We must keep moving, keep progressing and keep caring, for each other. We must ensure more venues that aid constructive flow of creative energies!”
Life had changed for the regular man. Literally. Women didn’t have to live in hide-outs, scurrying away from the ever prowling and blood thirsty ‘Femme Guard Forces’. The rapid evolution of the womanhood into this self sufficient entity (politically, administratively and physically) with huge creative freedom, and progressively degenerating motherly instincts, had made the man redundant. And now that they didn’t need them, they wanted to eradicate them. This was borne more out of a need to optimize resources rather than any feeling of hatred. Although, hate groups still existed and were treated more like a break from the routine.
“We must make sure that we only do as much is needed to be done. And that we don’t overburden the world with that which is not needed anymore.”
She was the icon. Epitome of the power of femininity, the leader of The New Perfect World Order.
The world seemed to have changed.

"Ramprasad Rasiya & A Meaningful End"

Jimmy realised he had started sharing his views and opinions by twitching his nose and rolling his eyes, rather than presenting well measured words and logical arguments. After all, you couldn't say much when asked to choose between two almost identical bags, with a minor difference of one being a certain shade of Beige, and the other being a certain other shade of Beige (Or a Buffy amber or Alabaster or Indigo.. and so on and so forth). Beige in itself was too difficult a color to lend itself to measured words and logic. Anything apart from Red, Green and Blue was meaningless for a simple mind like Jimmy's. But it all felt wonderful.
Janice loved bags with a convoluted sense of color, and Jimmy loved words with a convoluted sense of meaning. They both were a true match and thats why they had hit it off so well, but there still was a long way to cover and they would do in their own sweet tme.
Janice would go around picking bags, shoes, books and more bags while Jimmy would provide his jocund company, until of course she turned around and asked, "Which color suits me better?". There was only so much enthusiasm he could gather for responding to a question like that, given his acute awareness of the predicament. Yet, he enjoyed every bit of it and indulged her like he had never indulged anyone before. Not even Gerry.
"I think this looks good on you!" He said as if he knew what he was talking.
"No No... they both look good on me, I know that. But which one looks better?" She chirped, hungry to be indulged.
"Hmmm... this one. Ya... I think this one looks better. It adds that spark of glamor to the bag. Goes with your personality." He indulged generously.
"Nooo... but I soooooo like thhhhhiiisss onnne!!" She purred and cooed and mewed and did all those things that basically meant 'I love the other bag and I will buy it'.
"Oh yes... go ahead... that ones wonderful!"
All this didn't make sense to him but his eyes sparkled brightly and smiled at the thought of how so very simply wonderful and satisfying can meaninglessness be.

Ramprasad Rasiya had fallen in love. And there were things he was doing, worlds he was exploring, songs he was singing, birds he was watching that he had never done, explored, sung or watched before.
And just like everything good in life, love had its strings attached. Sitadevi was one hell of a quiet woman.

Ramprasad Rasiya used to remember his first love, Muniya Maasi's younger daughter Nirali. Something used to happen to him when he saw her. And he clearly remembered that, 'that' something happened somewhere below his stomach. Yes, a little more below.
But with Sitadevi, things were different. Something would happen to him all over. From deep inside to every cell outside. From head to toe. From the tip of the fingers to the center of his heart. And while all this happened, Sitadevi would just sit quietly, or stand quietly whatever was more comfortable for her, and essentially be around him staying quiet and doing nothing consequential. For Ramprasad Rasiya, this was the heaven he had never sought and this was the peace he had never yearned for. After finishing his routine at the new chai dhaba he had started, only because everyone told him he had to earn in order to be able to propose to Sita Devi and marry her, he would look forward to going to the garden just to sit next to a quiet Sitadevi, doing nothing of much consequence.

One day, Sitadevi spoke. She didn't make much sense to Ramprasad Rasiya. But he liked the sound of it. He liked how her lips moved matching the rhythm of her eyes when the sounds came out of her mouth. He liked that now there was something more about her that he didn't understand. There were things she was doing that were making him love her more. Ramprasad Rasiya's entire being felt nice about this pleasant meaninglessness. And it seemed as if this will continue... for good.

"What exactly does Ramu want? What is this supposed to mean?" Janice had a smile on her face as she finished reading and enquired nonchalantly.
"Ok hun! firstly, lets get it straight that my character is Ramprasad Rasiya, not Ramu! and secondly... well the last thing its supposed to do, is to mean anything!"

Jimmy's eyes sparkled and their lips intertwined for another few loving meaningless moments!

Life would go on, behind our backs. Things would never be the same again... for Jimmy, or for Ramprasad Rasiya.

The Beauty and The Stories

She thought she possibly had some vague idea of a half cooked story probably taking a cloudy little shape in her head.

Knowing her, that was enough.

This would comfortably make for a fascinating fifteen minutes over tea. As I relaxed deeper in my cane chair relishing the cool evening breeze after a not so hard days work, she began.

"Imagine..."


For the next fifteen minutes, that was about all I did as she painted images with words while her eyes danced around like little children, having come late for the puppet show, scampering around to get a better view.

And I imagined.

I imagined how life changes, in a matter of moments, from a bland endless desert to a red, blue, yellow, green, and many more colored underwater coral reef.

I imagined how easy it is to just put your leg up and relish heaven, as you look into the eyes that change colors from happy to chirpy to silent to ecstatic with each line of an imagined story.

I imagined how wonderful it is to imagine, when she tells you, "Imagine...".

Blogger Friends Review "Knots and No Crosses"

Guys.. reviews have started pouring in for 'Knots And No Crosses - Heartbreak after heartbreak, he still dreams of a perfect wedding...' and needless to say the reaction has been good. Well, what the heck, its actually been overwhelming! I just hope the publisher is able to make it available across enough bookstores for the the book to pick momentum by word of mouth.

The overall review, in short, has been that everyone liked it. Almost no one who picked it up, put it down before finishing it, and everyone thinks its a fantastic first attempt. Some have rated it a notch above 'Five Point Someone' in terms of the entertainment quotient, and more than a few notches in terms of quality of writing!

Am sharing the reviews of some of our blogger friends. For the complete set of reviews check 'The Readers' section of the book website here.

Reviews

"It (Knots And No Crosses) makes for a compulsive reading. It was after maybe three odd years that I read a book in one complete sitting, oblivious of the coffee getting cold on the tableside.

But getting back to the point, one of the best points about the book was the way past and present were not only alternated but linked too, so as to maintain a continuity.. and there would be no guy walking the earth who would not empathise with Akkie at one point or the other in the entire novel...

...all in all, a wonderful read... amazingly well done, because to sustain the tempo is easy for a short story, but to maintain it over the course of a novel takes some doing, and Hitesha is one person who could have, and indeed has, successfully carried it off... *bows in salute* "

- Words from the wise sage Marvin the Paranoid Android, also known as Flight Lieutenant Rishi Verma, 48 Squadron, Indian Air Force

"Oh Boy! What a book... That’s exactly what I said when I was done reading it. I have read Hitesha’s blog so ideally it shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did... She has clearly outdone herself.

I simply love the way she takes us through Akki's journey. I know it’s a guy’s story but I could just totally relate to it. I felt like I am "IN" the story, living every moment with Akki... taking me through so many emotions. I smiled, I laughed, I almost cried, things tugged on my heart and I almost suffered heartbreak every time Akki was going through one.

Its fiction, and it still felt so close to life... the uncertainty of life, the achy-breaky heart full of optimism, and not just that, how everything we plan almost never happens and how it can take a totally different direction sometimes. I just simply love the way Akki's story progresses from one relationship to another and how Hitesha takes us through his wedding-to-be.

And guess in which section of my library this book goes to - "Once you pop you can’t stop" ... Really! If you ask me to say something about the book in just two words, I'd say - fresh and frothy (considering that I am a coffee lover J)

Best of Luck Hitesha; hope to see many more books written by you, and hopefully a real romantic story too, soon!"

- Expressed loudly by The Silent Beauty Divkiran Kathuria, Delhi based, Sr Consultant at PwC.

"Gosh! I never knew the plight of a marriageable young man who, like so many women of his age, still believes in falling in love and dream weddings. Hitesha brings a fresh perspective by a mere twist in gender.

This book stands as a lone voice calling attention to the miseries of thirty something unmarried Indian men still optimistic about finding a soul-mate and braving the emotional onslaught from family, friends and the world in general.

It is hilarious, well researched, fresh in concept and immensely contemporary."

- Writer of The Red Bathrobe and Other Stories Prapti Banerjee, Calcutta based, Manager at Aanand Bazaar Patrika

"...really nice.. reminds me of myself he he.. it really (is) a marvellous piece of writing. really like the way (the author) instinctively varies sentence lengths for variety, and use(s) flash back to keep the ball rolling right till the end.. considering young men get dumped all the time, (one) can expect a huge response (to this book)..."

- One of the Three Perfectly Normal Guys Flight Lieutenant Shantanu, 48 Squadron, Indian Air Force