Short story: Blackness

This is a horror story, not safe for soft souls. Please read with discretion. 

Review : Catching fire

I was confused about my feelings for this book during my reading hours with it. Now that I've completed it my confusions have been abated. More so, I've become altruistic with the series. Such was the power of the story, both during the days leading to the games and the final seventy pages. The ending just took it to another level.  BEWARE : SPOILERS AHEAD

Appreciation : Liebester Blog Award

Short-story: Rebirth in a train

“Coffeeee!! Teaa!!”
“Coffeeee!! Teaa!!”
The vendor called out as he passed the coupe.
“Thuddd!”
The baby fell on its knee trying to walk to his mother.
The mother ran picked him up and was busy placating. Ravishing young lady sat across him checking her flock of hair in the mirror of her mini clutch bag. The chatter from the group of young boys engrossed in a card game relayed from above. The train had halted at Varnasi for 15 mins. He hadn't moved or uttered a word from the time he got on. The newspaper covered Sanjay"s face; his eyes peered through his bi-focal spectacle and his hair rested neatly combed sideways. A pencil in his hand was losing his grip.

Waking up in dark - current state of aam aadmi

This post has been selected as top post in 'Spicy Saturday's picks' by BlogAdda. 

Review : The Darkest Hour

The movie was not worth the money we spent on the tickets, add to it the cost popcorn and sweetened water called coke I felt very sad losing double of it. Alien invasion, widespread panic and an ending in dystopia, the movie promised a pulp fun and the action junkie in me needed some food for thought. Here is what I felt post the trauma.

Short story : Have I lost him?

Story below is an entry for the 'Picture Worth Your Words Contest' picture prompt #1



Johan bid goodbye to his team and sat in the taxi. He was to catch the eight thirty train to Frankfurt. An hour still remained before the departure and the train station was twelve miles from the camp. He was in time. All his stomach tasted after the victory over Heerenveen was alcohol. The normal club hopping grew into an after party as uninvited guests stormed through the wee hours with disparate liquids to share. His head was so heavy when he tried to wake up that he slept the whole of the next day. It was time to leave, to meet his parents for the New Year. Johan had broken two promises before and was not prepared to hear Martha's lecture once again.

The taxi started and Johan looked at the passing city. Amsterdam was beautiful in the morning and the Sun started to warm his nape from left. The rear windshield was without any light control film and that helped him warm up for the long travel ahead. He took out the chicken salad sandwich from the backpack and had just started eating while the car came to a screeching halt. Johan almost threw the sandwich on the driver's head.

Review : The hunger games

Genre : Fiction/Dystopian

Set in the dystopian world of future America, the ruling city of Capitol selects two tributes(individuals) from each district (12 of them) and pits them against one another in a giant arena to be watched and entertained by the living world. The Hunger games gets its name as the district from which the winner is, gets better food supply for one year till the next games begin. World has fallen and it is Panem that governs what is left. It rules with iron fist that results in discrimination and anarchic freedom less lives in the districts. They in turn go on the offensive to down The Capitol. Set in force to take revenge on the districts who had warred against the Capitol for freedom and to show the districts that the Capitol is still the ruler, reminding them of what would result if they repeat the offensive again The Capitol conduct the hunger games.

Short story: Somethings should never be lost forever.

"What's in a name?" asked Emile with a smile. She was still holding Reny's hands under the bright white bulb.

Short story: Finally!

A detour from my normal writing schedule to dwelve into a feeling every guy experiences once in his life.

Short story in figment http://t.co/zvA3oRVk Please comment on the plus and the minuses.

Short story: The toughest minute

I wrote a short story in figment fiction toward the dailyTheme short writing drive for today the fourth of January. It can be read here. The theme was

Describe in detail the few moments before a character is about to do something he or she is mortally afraid of. How does the anticipation affect her physically and emotionally? How does he gear himself up? And what happens next?


Please do have a read and comment here, after all the author's biggest applause is the comments from his reader.

Amateur writers from India

I love writing, its just that partly because of my procrastinating personality and distractions I don't get to write often. Another flaw I have understood is that I don't edit or even re-read what I write. The latter is being worked upon to be reversed so the posts could have some fluidity in writing, and the first attempt was the last post - the war under a hot sun. 


Here is 2012 and the status updates flooding the social web is making fun of resolutions by pointing out our screen resolution. Jokes aside, I have resolved to write more, for my own fun because I like it, and to take an honest shot at what my ability is worth.

To enable others like me who are interested in writing a novella or short story(not a personal blog post), I have created a sub reddit - 'Amateur writers from India'. If you like writing a story or even like to know what the level of amateur writing is in India please subscribe to it. 
I started working on a fantasy story a year ago and shelved it half way(like I do most of the activities in my life), and am planning to publish one chapter a week this year, mainly on that subreddit. 


I am going to keep tabs on my life this year inspired by this article and hope to get more ticks. 


Again, happy new year and hoping 2012 will pave the way for better society where self passions are grown and negative energies get quelled.  

Short story: The war under a hot sun

The rubble from La Combre's horses continued to rain on my helmet and the broken pieces feathered the eyes continually. It had been four hours since we started for the day.

What sort of a fan is a FAN?

One of the questions I tend to think about more often these days is what does the fan in me feel with the passing of time? There are many types of fans out there, fans who can spot the statistical changes in every attribute of every show and fans who feel for what happens in front of them. Who is the bigger fan and who is a show off and how much can we be in the middle of both?

Protect your eyes

If you are in the majority that stares at a screen(Television, monitors or laptop screens) for more than 20 hours a week please read the below sentence out loud. 


PROTECT YOUR EYES. 

How twitter powers this nerd

Twitter started its life as an online short messaging service wherein people can broadcast anything they want to say in 140 characters or less  and can subscribe (‘follow’) to messages from people of their interest. There was confusion initially on where exactly the service would fit having Facebook/Orkut like social applications doing them already. The Iranian revolution happened and the architecture of the application funneled sharing of news, information and media from the revolution, exposing the dark side of autocratic governance. Even the biggest of cable and satellite media in the United States featured news sections concentrating on tweets from the epicenter and used them on public debates.This was a major marketing boom that spiraled the service so much that the downs due to system overload were frequent then.

Where do you like to go swimming?

Whether it is swimming in the pool the Ocean, thoughts ,ideas, physical or intellectual, it is a fun activity to do. I learnt to swim in the water when I was in my 3rd grade and have loved it ever since.

Photo courtesy Michael Phelps biography

Where would I love to go swimming?

Fresh water. Although I don't oppose intellectual swim, its just that I do the latter in fast paced and short dashes a few times everyday. Fresh water swimming creates a sensation of being free, unconstrained as opposed to the two dimensional planar movement we do bin moving on the Earth's surface.
It is one of the best exercises, it tones more muscles than localized exercises at the gym. The change at the core of the body is in alignment with the other parts that it prevents any long term injuries like the lumbar and back pains that are experienced frequently by localized exercisers.

The stance gets improved, the gluts get toned. We start to stand and move in an open chested fashion that creates an aura of confidence in us. That is a very important attribute that could aid in our social life, be it at work place or at parties.

Where do you like to go swimming?

#Wishlist - Logitech Wireless G390

A good review from Game Informer and an apt pricing makes me wish this was mine.

Won the Ruby on Rails tutorial book

Partook in the online competition that Obie Fernandez, the author of the 'Rails Way' conducted. It was about our goals and how we approach our careers, and how we are trying to learn the Ruby language, what we feel about the ecosystem etc.
As a eresult I was awarded the 'Ruby On Rails' tutorial by Michael Hartl. The book is an excellent and one of the best I've followed, the author seems to read the minds of the new learners.
Each subject is dealt with correct pace and depth and no lazy examples and cramming chapters. Just reading about Hartl makes us understand how the author was able to do this wonderful job.

Here is the link to Amazon's page.

Nokia 5800 Express Music

Shelling out nearly 400$ for a phone is not very high in my list of things to shop. It would've been seen as madness if i had done it in USA, when I was working, one eighth of the monthly salary to get a phone. But in India, the gadgets tell more about your individuality than what they do in big brother's place. So I started short-listing all the possible phones I could get with this money. Following were my points to ponder when I was doing that,
1. the cost should be very near +- 50$ to my target
2. should have great media capabilities
3. should be smart, (more in internet and connectivity)
4. ok, not a big deal nowadays with mm2 cards, but anyways, good memory,
5. mostly the top of others' list, the style of the gadget itself.

It came down to iPhone, Nokia S60 series, N series, 5800 , Sony Erricson P910i, some motorola and LG/Samsung and other lower end players. I loved Sony's 910, had great connectivity, can run Lotus Notes (my work mail), good media (although it doesn't get all attention when going through these kind of phones.

One that caught my eye was Nokia 5800, ok it may not be as great as iPhone w.r.t media, but as ever, I wouldn't prefer to get the most famous one. I got the Yamaha R 15 bike just to get the best, may not be the perfect commuter for this country, but for sheer joy of biking. It has been commented so much, albeit not asked for in the first place, that it could affect my back (if it was true, Rossi should've been dead of backache now), low miles per gallon (Kms per liter in this part of the world)..(as if I don't know when I started shopping) etc. Basically, I like new styles, bold ones to be particular, and ease of use has been out of reach ever since I got Sony's 850 couple of years ago.



So it was decided, Nokia 5800 Express Music and I should say it has been the best phone I've ever got, 3 MP camera (Carl Zeiss lens), great music (why wouldn't they tag it with a statement like 'Express Music' anyway?), superb styling with 3.2 inch display/touchscreen that helps me put awesome photos as wallpaper, fast and fat wLan connectivity, very fast file indexing, 8 GB card, and great software. I've been using it so much I feel I'm back to my teens, always doing something with my mobile, texting, music etc etc. I've captured many photos, loaded my entire music collection (well, almost), pictures, and even an xvid version of my favourite action movie. I've loaded all my web feeds, bookmarks from laptop's chrome, podcasts, and I should say, I'm havin a whale of a time. Even now, am listening to http://www.sidepodcast.com 's first podcast about this year season. Go multi-tasking, go connectivity.