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.

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

Knots and No Crosses - A Review

This is a review of the book in the context of the recent "successful debutant Indian author" phenomena.

Debutant Indian Authors
Debutante Indian authors have been making quite some waves recently. The seeds may have been sown with Anurag Mathur's 'The Inscrutable Americans', but there was a hint of a lull thereafter. The current scenario, however, has changed. Right from Chetan Bhagat becoming the reflection of the young Indian voice, to Arvind Adiga picking the Booker on debut, a section of modern Indian fiction seems to be coming of age. This shift is also characterised by changes in language, flow and appeal of the content. The urban woman oriented themes, clubbed as 'chick lit', are becoming more rampant and gaining popularity. Books like 'Almost Single' by Advait Kala, that has sold around 2000 copies by now, or the lesser known 'Pink or Black' by Tishaa, both debut novels, reflect this trend.
To add to this, is the trend of blogging that is proving to be a wonderful platform for a number of aspiring authors to test and hone their craft before attempting anything mainstream. So we have the likes of Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, trying her pen via the blog 'The Complusive Confessor' and then landing a contract with a major publication for her debut novel 'You Are Here'.

Knots and No Crosses - The Book
Hitesha Deshpande, making her debut with the book "Knots and No Crosses", falls in a similar league. Having had a strong following on her blog 'Wild Imagination' (just one of over 5-6 well read fiction blogs that she has created over last few years), she has now come up with her debut novel. The brevity of her narration and her tact of connecting multiple threads of a story, and literally forcing the reader to remain glued to the book is most notable. The way the author connects one chapter to the other and how the story moves back and forth in time in a smooth and exciting manner displays her instinctive craftsmanship at story telling. Amusingly titled as 'Knots and No Crosses', roller coasters could learn a thing or two from this one hell of a reading ride.
The story is about a young small town lad called Akkie and his multiple relationships in life, culminating into the holy grail of an intended perfect wedding. A wedding that nightmarishly turns out to be almost everything except, perfect. The book captures multiple emotions and thought processes of the characters in a hilarious and crisp manner. Right from the comical description of the parental pressure of marital expectations and the ways to avoid them, to the almost insane behavior of a bride getting cold feet right before the day of the wedding, the book pulls you into its plot page by page. Weaved in between the wedding drama, is the past of this small town boy with big dreams, his multiple relationships and how he grows through them. Each relationship teaching him something about life, each relationship giving him something except what he wanted, but all of them ripping his emotions apart with equal mercilessness. The tagline of the book wonderfully captures the thought - 'Heartbreak after heartbreak, he still dreams of a perfect wedding...'.

The story is imaginatively rich with anecdotal details and displays good understanding of the subtleties of human behaviour on the author's part. For eg. this scene at the dinner table where young Akki has decided to boldly express to his father (and uncles) his intent of moving out of Jodhpur, to go to Pune to study Commerce and Germen, while the "women hovered around pretending to serve, but not wanting to miss out on even a bit of this exchange. It would make excellent gossip as they dried mangoes for their pickles on the terrace, the next afternoon."
The book also grips you with an interesting unexpected twist that makes it all the more worthwhile a read. Without revealing much more of the plot, let me just say that this book is a great fun read, where each chapter makes you crave for the next and you can't stop until you are done with it all! If you are the type looking for a light humorous gripping read, and don't care that time flies by while you are at it, then this is just the right thing to pick. Once you pick it up, you just can't put it down!

Book Site - http://knotsandnocrosses.com/


PS.
I am sure all of you will enjoy "Knots and No Crosses". You are welcome to share your reviews of the book. The same shall be published on the book website.

Knots and No Crosses now on Rediff Books :)

Knots and No Crosses is now available on rediff books with free shipping all across India! :)


PS.

And I am quite impressed with the rediff guys. There was some mistake in the blurb of the book on the rediff website, as given to them by the publisher. We sent a mail to them and they have responded promptly!

:) - The website is up!

The update is that we have worked a little to get the book site going...

(For all ameteurs let me tell you that 110mb.com is a wonderful FREE wesite creation and hosting service...)

anyway.. back to the point... Check: http://knotsandnocrosses.com/ for all the details of the book and how to order it...

The story moves ahead...

Yeah… long time haan!

No Ramprasad Rasiya… no Jimmy… no chilling stories either. I missed you guys a lot… However, now is the time to let you know why…. just watch it!



And while the video downloads, let me tell you that apart from a few not so important things, I was busy getting "Beauty and The Beast" published... her first book was out from the printer last saturday ( 4th april 2009) and should hit the market within 10-15 days!

The details...

What's the book called?
Knots and No Crosses – Heartbreak after heartbreak, he still dreams of a perfect wedding...


What's the book about? Authorspeak
The wave of ‘feminism’ has swept over the world and empowered women to shout out from rooftops. They are forever harnessing attention by drawing the mind towards a range of problems starting with PMS, labour pains and now the marital market. The marital market is unfair on the women of today!
Every single time I have read a book about a thirty something single woman warring with the pressures of an Indian prejudiced marital mind set, I have wanted to scream, “STOP!” The marital expectations of an Indian society do not limit themselves to the gender. A thirty four year old male.could also be labeled a ‘thirty something single man’ vexed with his family for goading him into marrying.
So I decided to write about it. I decided to write about, how when it comes to relationships and weddings, life really isn’t all that simple for anybody, male or female. I decided to start with writing about a wedding.

Sneak Peek
"The woman he had no intentions of loving, but who he did love, hopelessly. The woman he had no intentions of dating, but had ended up committing himself to. The woman who had always been four years elder to him, but realized it only when she was about to hit London for a PG course.
The woman who had gotten into the car, without looking back once as he stood there on the empty streets outside the institute, nursing a broken heart."

Akkie’s relationships have followed a trial and error pattern. He finally meets the one woman who completes him. They both plan their ‘dream wedding’, only, the wedding turns out to be anything but a dream! As Akkie, tries to placate his agitated bride three days before their wedding, his past catches up with him, spelling disaster after disaster. The crunching blow, comes when the son of his first ever girlfriend calls Akkie ‘Papa’ in front of a room filled to capacity with the Bride’s family. The wedding gets called off. But Akkie knows, there is no one else for him, but her…

Indian Political League – The Other side

Agreed that the Indian cricket fan is a fanatic, and although there is but a fine line between fanaticism and foolishness, I would like to believe that the Indian cricket fan errs on the side of the lesser evil.

One of the most significant statements of year 2009 would be the one made by our home minister Mr. P Chidambaram. “IPL is a shrewd combination of sports and business. No need to add politics to it.” I am a cricket fan. And if I were to be a fanatic, I’d rephrase it and say, “Mr Lalit Modi is a shrewd combination of sports, business and politics. There’s a need to exterminate pests like him who are harming the spirit of the game.” I am sure there is another set of fanatical cricket fans, who might say, “Oh wait! I love to watch cricket and IPL is a treat. Let it go on.” I don’t know who is right.

Fortunately for Mr Modi, I am not a fanatic and that probably puts me on the side of the fools. Fools, who are too blind to notice the blatant financial and political aspirations of many hinged around their unconditional love for the game. A cricket fan wants to watch cricket. But even the most dedicated of them would realize the unnecessary jingoism Mr. Lalit Modi is attaching to conducting IPL this year. Given the quantum of cricket already happening, one needs an insensitive brattish brain like Mr. Modi’s in order to subject the cricketer’s to harsher schedules. I am sure Dhoni’s men would welcome the break if IPL was to be cancelled this year.

Even more appalling than the ‘small’ headedness of Lalit Modi (Trivia – Lalit means ‘small’), is the sly anti-national sentiments of some of our political leaders. How dumb does one need to be to question the security during the commonwealth games, given that the entire security apparatus will be free of the general elections load at that point of time? And to think of it, there was a time when one thought BJP was a party of the intellectuals, like our well versed and educated Mr. Jaitely. These political stalwarts forget that their statements will be picked upon by media and will contribute to tarnishing India’s image internationally. A small domestic private tournament, which is primarily a money circus, being shifted out of India is not a national shame. I don’t need to say further when Mr. Chidambaram has already given a befitting reply. It’s probably a sensible move. Even more sensible a would gave probably been scrapping it altogether. The team does need rest.

I wish there was some single voice that represented the Indian Cricket Fans. Let us assume that there was one. So what might this voice say at this point of time?

1. I think the IPL is over-rated. But just because everyone in the media is saying it’s a huge success, maybe it is. I don't know. I am still waiting for the T-20 world cup, the Champions League and the 2011 world cup with much more eagerness.

2. I love to watch cricket, but not so much of it that it loses its charm. Rare ODI's used to be so much fun. And these days, we are also getting more results in Test matches. Tactics and strategies are more aggressive. It fun to watch a test match slowly unveil itself like a gripping novel.

3. OK fine, IPL may be fun, but then wasn't there an ICL that started before it? What happened to that? I am sure if the BCCI had not stopped the mainstream players from playing in ICL, by banning ICL, it would have been a success. Who is BCCI to ban them anyway? Is it a registered entity? I don’t know? What the heck, how do I care? Hey wait, but how come BCCI is also banning cricketers associated with ICL from doing commentary in international matches! Whoa, something sure is wrong there.

4. The terrorists are all around us. General elections are deciding the future of the country. If some messy thing ereto happen during this time, it isn’t good for anyone. Why doesn't BCCI simply postpone the tournament? What will they lose? A chance to earn more money?

The only reason why the BCCI is so cash rich, and Lalit Modi so impudent, is due to the huge base of Indian Cricket Fans. I wonder if we have a voice! And I wonder if we want to put forward a point and make sure that our love for the game is not misused for political and financial ends.

And so on...

|
He knew exactly how to express his thoughts.

Its a big thing you know. To be able to make someone else think exactly what you are thinking! But the usual ways were not for him to follow. A storyteller at heart, and sometimes even at other copiously blood drenched parts of his body, he always expressed with a glint in his eyes. Like this one instance where just before gagging one of his victims to death, his eyes glinted the word "murder". And that's precisely what the victim began to think.
Boy! did he know how to express his thoughts.

As all of you huddle together around him, absorbing the warmth of the imaginary fireplace in this mildly chilling night, only as cold as melting ice-cream, he reserves a few glints for what is yet to happen. He shall speak some, and hide some more. These pieces of stories, like the one about that murderer with glinting eyes, and so on...