#55word stories

I have started participating in #55word stories by @vivekisms

He announces a new theme everyday on twitter  and anyone who wants to participate, has to submit their stories till the end of the day. Then at the end of the day, he puts all of  them on his blog as a post.

I found this concept so interesting that even though I am new to writing, I ended up participating and now I am totally into it.

Here are some of the stories i wrote in past days, since my blog was down, I couldn’t post them here.

vacation/holiday

The ice chilling water of Beas and getting ready for the white water rafting was so exciting for her that even though she was dead nervous, she was all set. They started sailing, water splashing and she was enjoying, shouting with the thrill, suddenly her life jacket lock broke and she went into the river.

Chemistry

She was a research scientist and kept experimenting with chemicals and studying chemical reactions. She also knew water compositions and different states of water in different temperatures. She had also read on how humans could survive in ice cold water. That is why she could survive from hypothermia that she got in that rafting accident.

Labels

She always preferred a low key profile. She was a very renowned scientist but never showed off. She never fancied owning brands. She was always clad with cotton sarees, very minimal or no jewellery, regular comfortable footwear and a purse which could hold things she wanted to carry. She always loved to be this way.

Dysfunctional

Though she was back to the routine, there was something wrong which the family members could spot. Unusual forgetfulness, lack of ability to comprehend or understand things, miss out on details, were all suddenly spotted in her. Initially, no one could guess the reason, only later they found that hypothermia had left its side effects.

Obsession

She always thought that she was missing something but couldn’t recollect what it was. Now that she was recovering well, she realized that it was her antique pocket watch which her father got her from london when she was in school. She loved it so much that she always carried it along with her everywhere.

Suitcase

I was her favourite pocket clock, her lucky charm, always with her all the time wherever she went. She always thought I will bring her good luck if I am with her but that one rafting accident made her forget me completely and I am now lying in the suitcase her maid threw me in.

Poison

Once when she was experimenting in the lab, mixing chemicals, some vapours started coming out of the reaction. She got scared and a bit worried as those could be harmful and even poisonous. But when the vapours stopped, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Beautiful colours in separate layers forming a kind of nice rainbow look!

Wish

He loved social media; his life was an open book. Never thought twice before tweeting anything that came his way which started becoming a bottleneck when he cribbed about his professional life and clients he worked with. He wished he had a social network for himself where he could freely crib about anything he wanted.

Please share your feedback on how are the stories and what can i do to improvise them

Khaike paan banaras wala …

(picture courtesy – http://www.flickr.com/photos/rajaukil/3956107994/)

The moment one hears the word Paan, quite many things come in mind like -

1. Famous song from the movie ‘Don’, Khaike paan banaras wala
2. Banarasi, calcutti, saada, meetha, maghai paan and many more varieties
3. People chewing paan and spitting anywhere and everywhere (yuck .. when will  these people stop spitting)
4. Movies depicting Royal times which show the importance of offering ‘Paan’ to guests as a part of hospitality gesture
5. Small paan patti shops at the corners of many roads ..

Book Review – I have a dream

I have been reading books and have some really good one’s in the list already. So when Blogadda announced Book Review Programme, I couldn’t resist myself from enrolling my name there. So here is the first book review as a part of Blogadda Book Review Programme.

Rashmi Bansal, a very well known author, entrepreneur, blogger, who writes a blog called ‘Youth Curry – Insight on Indian Youth’, has three books by her already.

• Her first book ‘Stay Hungry Stay Foolish’ has inspiring stories of 25 IIM Ahmedabad graduates who chose to tread a path of their
  own making.
• Second one ‘Connect the dots’ has inspiring stories of 20 entrepreneurs without an MBA who dared to find their own path.
• Similar to first and second one, the third one “I have a Dream” has inspiring stories of 20 social entrepreneurs, who found new ways to solve old problems.

Being a part of social venture named ‘Socialsync’ myself, I couldn’t resist till I got hold of this book especially because of the title of the book “I have a Dream”. Though the title is inspired by the famous speech given by Martin Luther King, there is also a very beautiful and inspirational song “I have a Dream” by Abba and I had made an abstract presentation based on that song some years back. I happened to hear this song a number of times while making the presentation and playing it for the gatherings and still remember the lyrics of it

“I have a dream, a song to sing

To help me cope with anything …”

This song fits so well with the theme of this book on social entrepreneurs who struggled hard to achieve their dream by ignoring and overcoming all the difficulties they faced.

As I started reading it, I found it quite similar to the first two books by her as far as the presentation and style of narration goes. It has the same format as the first two books with introduction page at the beginning of the story followed by the story and ‘Advice to young entrepreneurs’ at the end. Language is quite simple and again very much like the first two books, with Hindi lingo here and there, the author has tried to connect to a common man but then the avid readers could end up saying – ‘it could have been better’.

When I read the author’s note, I found one particular line very true – “The more you give, the more you will get back”. Isn’t that the same fundamental of giving which we teach the children, we as grownups forget ourselves ?

The stories in the book are divided into three main parts, Rainmakers, Changemakers and The spiritual capitalists. Rainmakers include those who believe in doing good without thinking about profits, Changemakers who take initiative to do something as it should be and The spiritual capitalists who believe in purity of purpose and selflessness of spirit.

As I went on reading the stories one by one, whether it is a story of Bindeshwar Pathak, a brahmin boy who was made to eat cow dung and all to purify himself by his grandmother for touching an ‘untouchable’ who later brought in revolutionary toilets ‘Sulabh’ and changed the complete phenomenon of lower cast and high cast in the society or 23-year-old Saloni, who was given complete freedom and space by her parents to plan n do things the way she wants and ended up with Desicrew creating a successful rural BPO and she says if more parents give such freedom, there will be lot many Salonies. Then there is Ishita Khanna who was a complete backbencher, had no interest in studies but loved only one subject geography and was fascinated about mountains and started orange berry processing unit, known as seabuckthorn, which is richest known source of Vitamin C and Vineet Rai, who began with Jungle and ended up in investing funds for social causes with ‘Aavishkaar’, a social venture fund.
I am not going to reveal any more stories here, all I can say is I found each one of the 20 stories so touching with unique cause and message to give back to the society and could feel the zest with which they went on to make it a success. But one thing is common in all of them, they are inspirational and depict the struggle these social entrepreneurs have gone through to make their dream a reality.

The book is an inspirational read, quite different from the regular stories and makes you realize how difficult it is when someone wants to bring in a change in the society. It is easy to say ‘this is wrong’ and ‘this needs to change’ but how many of us have the courage to get going to bring in the change? We all know it is not easy, it requires thorough determination and will to achieve it and if you have that, you find your ways and nothing in the world can stop you, as they say “when there is a will, there is a way..”

Youtube video of the song ‘I have a dream’

Movie Review – Singham

After a long time, I saw a total entertainer movie – ‘Singham‘.

• Full paisa vasool brainless entertainment
• Ajay Devgan is looking excellent
• New heroin Kajal Aggarwal does her role up to the mark
• Villain Prakash Raj has done his best
• All the other characters fit perfect

Hello world!

Hello everyone ..

I am Rina Chhadwa and this is my virtual space that’s why I call this blog as ‘rina’s virtual world’.

Stay tuned for more on this blog …