What started with a simple question ended up in a ROFL chain of mail. Just go through the mail chain, to get an idea of how imaginations can run wild among the people working in IT :P ...it also proves they dont have any work (ok now don't kill me I also belong to the same elite group!)

Hi ,
I saw a snake in my lawn.
How should I persuade it to go away from my lawn.
All kind of suggestions are invited

Thanks n regards,
Sachin Ahlawat

Lawn se bahar jakar BEEN bajao….
Wo bhag jayega…..
Nahi to lawn ke bahar jake ek doodh ki katori rakh do.
Hope this helps
- Inderjeet Singh

It will get addicted to milk
Been can be an option but even snakes in neighbourhood will also get attraced to same
- Sachin Ahlawat

Been is definitely NOT an option as snakes can’t hear any sound.
I’ll suggest call some professional, either some snake charmers or zoo people if you will, they might help you in it.
Snake probably has dug some hole within your lawn. Wear some high neck thick shoes and mow your lawn very neatly.
You might be able to see the hole if it’s there. I’ll suggest you to leave it to specialist as they know how to handle with these kinda situations.
As a precaution avoid strolls in your lawn specially during nights.
Hope it helps….
- Harsimrat_Suppal

Simple
Dress like a peacock and start dancing in front of the snake.
Snakes being afraid of peacocks will immediately flee away.And in the process, you will learn some dance too. :)
- Sumit Govil

Play movie Doodh ka Karz in lawn snake will become Senti and leave from there.
- Shashank Bhardwaj

Sneeze once or twice in front of the snake … I hope snake will leave immediately as a precautionary step against flu
- Nikunj_Garg

Bring a pet “nagin”…….outside your lawn……and once the snake see her….
They both might go on a long date …. And leave the lawn…
- Sahil Jain

Bring a naughty nagin who will make that snake fall in love for her…Then the nagin will betray the snake. Snake, in turn, will not be able to bear the betrayal, will commit suicide. Problem solved
-Ankit Bhargava

How r u people so sure that it’s a “Nag” and not a “Nagin”…. If it happens to be a nagin then above mentioned plans might not work…
- Rohit Sharma

Then bring both Nag and Nagin and then it will be a love triangle…
-Harshit Kapoor

First there was a single snake. Now you have added two more.
-Ravinder Singh

Added two more to take away the first one..
See in love triangle one has to sacrifice…be it nag or nagin …
So the third one will leave and the pair will do as Sahil has written and the problem raised by Rohit is also solved…
-Harshit Kapoor

Watch No Entry and try to imitate Sallu’s act from the climax scene … sing ‘ Mera mann Dole , Mera Tann Dole ‘ in front of Nag …
- Abhishek Sharma

Get the snake appointed in any of the top IT companies…He will have to work for 12 hours will reach home late..prepare for Certis....have dinner and will go to sleep.
No time to frighten you and others in your home. As he’ll hardly be seen.
-Apurv Agnihotri

Put your TV set in the lawn and play movie “Kaminey” on it.
Snake will leave out of boredom.
-Tejinder Singh

U can try putting up banners and placards reading "SNAKE LAWN CHORO"...
U can even go on a hunger strike ...(in ur lawn ;-))
I m sure the snake dude wud be considerate enuff..!!
-Laveen Pawar

Make the snake watch back to back movies – kambakht ishq/tashan/cash/yuvraaj/CC2C—
next day you can collect its body from the lawn.
-Ankur Arora

Itni saari movies ki jarurat nahi hai….EK hi movie kaafi hai - “Ram Gopal Varma ki aag”
-Gaurav Kumar

If it’s a “Nagin…” , you’re gone…‘cause
“Nag ke Qatil ki tasvir, Nagin ki photographic Aankhon mein chhap jati hai…”
(courtesy: Nagina, Nigahein, Jaani Dushman)
N poor Nagin might have come searching for Qatil…Just try to remember “what you did last summer??? “
Nag ko to nahi mara tha kahin??? N likewise ask for apology from Nagin…
Apology letter templates: available on google…

-Ashish_Saini

The greatest pain that comes from love is loving someone you can never have..

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-a
part pain.

Life is so full of sarcastic situations. It always makes a joke at our expense and we blinded by the feeling of being in a fool's paradise just play along. Strange isnt it that when we feel this is the end of the world...just like a blackhole sucking out all the hopes and happiness...suddenly we meet someone who just like a messiah saves you from all your agony, makes you smile and makes you fall in love with life all over again. You bring out your dreams from the hidden chest in the dark corner of your heart and start adding colours to it again.The person hold your hand as you do so.Encourages you to come out of the closed corners and face the bounty of life that awaits you. He helps you to know yourself like you have never known. The essence of freindship soon melts into the overtone of something you dont admit but is love. Love? Now you know you are again treading the forbidden lanes, which had left you bruised before. You halt for a second, apprehensions fogging your mind. You can see him already crossing the thin line and beckoning you to hold his hands. There is a silent question written on his face -

'Do you trust me?'

And you say - 'Of course yes'

'Then what is holding you back?' he asks.

Is is an illusion or reality? - you say...but you say that silently, so that he cannot hear. You look again...the path ahead surely looks colourful and promising. Dreams and happy faces fluttering all around. Your hesitation melts away and you step ahead.

It feels different, it feels good again...the waves of happiness almost drown you with them...You flutter around with him immersing in the aura of the blissful moments. He seems so real, so like you...just like a part of your soul...Too good to be true...but you can feel his face so near to you...then it really must be the reality...You can feel his heartbeats...you can feel the warmth of his hug.You can feel the exact comfort and security that a child feels in the presence of his mother. You close your eyes and just lie there feeling complete and secure in his embrace. and then....

...you wake up...

The golden filigrees of dreams have vanished...its only dark in front of you...before you can understand what happened, you see him walking away from you. You run after him calling him back...he disappears behind a lane and you still follow him.

When you turn around the lane, you see him surrounded by so many faces....some known some unknown...the faces are crowding him more and more...you try to wade through the crowd to reach him...but the faces push you away...you desperately try to move forward...just to reach him once more...but the faces block your way. Suddenly you realise these faces are the people to whom he belongs...he is rightfully theirs and not yours.At this moment of realisation, you stand transfixed as more and more face keep increasing the distance between you two. You look at him, he also looks sad...the feeling of need is mutual...but he cannot move from his position as the faces have blocked him from all directions.

There are two options in front of you - to reach him despite of all the resistance or to just walk away holding your heart. The first option sounds good at first but then you realise, the futality...he belongs to all these faces and not you...so how can you even think of claiming him from them...

Contd..

This time I am back with a non-veg recipe for the weekend.
Dahi (Curd) Murg (Chicken) is typical bengali preparation and very easy to cook (remember I always go for less hassel preparations :) ). The dish tastes awesome and can be served with rice dishes n also can be a side for parathas, kulcha or any kind of indian breads.

Note:Vegetarians can use Paneer or Cauliflower for this dish. Just add a little water too along with the other ingredients .... as these do not release much water by themselves to cook in.
Vegans can make this with coconut milk.
There is always a vegetarian alternative to every non-veg dish :)

Ingredients:

Chicken Pieces - 500gm
Dahi - 300gm (You can add more if you want)
Onion - 3-4 medium sized
Ginger-garlic paste - 2 table spoon
Dry red chilli - 3-4
Ghee - 2 table spoon
Refined Oil - 3 Table spoon
elichi, cardamom, cinamon, clove,jaitri - 3/4 pieces
Diced Potatoes - 1 medium (optional)
Salt and sugar according to taste
Garam masala - 1/2 tea spoon

Method:

1. Wash the chicken and keep it aside in a bowl.

2. Grate the onions finely

3. Fry the diced potatoes till the edges turn light brown and keep them aside.

4. Add the grated onion, ginger garlic paste, curd, salt, sugar, a hint of red chilli powder to the chicken in the bowl. Mix it uniformly and leave it for around an hour to marinate.(Maybe you can finish off some other chore in the meantime)

5. After an hour add the oil to the marinated mixture and mix it well. You can use less amount of oil also as the curd and the chicken will release oil on their own.

6. Heat the ghee in a wok and add elichi, cardamom, cinamon, clove,jaitri (3/4 pieces each. cinamon according to taste). Split the red chillis into half and add to the wok.When the flavour of the garam masala starts to come pour the marinated mixture into the wok and cook them until the oil floats up on the gravy.

7. Now you have two options either to cook in the wok in medium flame till the chicken and onion becomes tender or else if you want to save cooking time you can transfer the contents of the wok into the pressure cooker and cook till two whistles.

8. After that again transfer the contents into the wok and cook for sometime till the excess water dries up and leaves behind a thick gravy. Add a hint of powdered garam masala before removing from the flame.

9. Serve hot.

(For more pictures on the different steps visit my album)

Have a relishing weekend!

This is for a very dear friend who will always be the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me (Its a song from the movie Life in Metro)~

Chupake se kahin, dheeme paao se
jaane kis tarah, kis ghadi
aage badh gaye hamse raahon mein
par tum toh abhi the yahin
kuchh bhi na suna, kab ka tha gila
kaise keh diya alvida?

jinake darmiya gujri thi abhi
kal tak yeh meri zindagi
lo un baahon ko, thandi chaanv ko
hum bhi kar chale alvida
alvida, alvida, meri raahein alvida
meri saansein kehati hai, alvida
alvida, alvida, abb kehna aur kya
jab tune keh diya, alvida...

sunle bekhabar, yuun aankhein pher kar aaj tu chali ja
dhundegi nazar humko hi magar har jagah
aisi raaton mein leke karvate, yaad hamein karna
aur phir haar kar kehna kyun magar, keh diya alvidaalvida
koi puchhe toh zara, kya socha aur kaha alvida
alvida, alvida, abb kehna aur kya
jab tune keh diya, alvida

Hum the dil jale, phir bhi dil kahe
kaash mere sang aaj hote tum agar, hoti har dagar gulsita
tumse hai khafa, hum naaraaz hai, dil hai pareshaan
socha na suna tune kyun bhala keh diya alvidaalvida
koi puchhe toh zara, kya socha aur kaha alvida
alvida, alvida, abb kehna aur kya
jab tune keh diya, alvida

kyun socha aur kahan alvida
dono baahon ko, thandi chaanv ko
hum bhi kar chale alvida....

"Sitting here, alone in the dark, I cannot help but think these disturbing thoughts. I apologize in advance for this. I would never dream of forcing my sorrow unto another’s spirit, so I will warn you now, burn these pages. I only write these words in the futile hope that these thoughts racing through my head can be lessened, if only in the slightest."

I was standing in my balcony holding the cold railing; raindrops fell from them as my fingers moved over them. The moonlight was creating filigrees of light and shade on me through the patches of rain clouds. The wind was quite strong making me close my eyes, but i was forcefully keeping them open.

Such silent dark nights always make you reflect and prick up some long buried pain in your heart for no reason at all. Same was happening with me. I had just come to the balcony just to water my plants and the beautiful rain drenched sky held me captive and mesmerized. The lights of navi Mumbai shimmered in dark like fireflies. There was something magical about the night. Or maybe just that i had looked at the night sky after a long long time.

As I stood there for sometime conflicting feelings of happiness and sadness were cascading like waves inside me. Don’t know why it happens, but it just happens every time I stare at the silent night sky. Suddenly the darkness becomes the clear mirror of our souls. And the questions that we keep running away from reflects back to us. We generally bury all our pains in the humdrum of daily life, but now we stand exposed - alone, well not exactly your shadow always accompanies you.

I was again drowning in the sea of self inflicted sorrow when from somewhere the song lingered to me -

"Nahin samne yeh alag baat hain...
mere paas hain..tu...mere paas hain
mere sath hain..."

It brought a smile on my face. The music made the feeling of pain melt. I looked at my shadow. It stood there silently.

"Shall we go for a dance?" I asked with a mischievous smile.
And I thought it nodded silently.

I hurried into my room and came back with the ipod .I knew exactly which song I wanted. I scrolled to Jhankar Beats folder. I held out my hand, my shadows imaginary hand slipped into mine and I pressed the play button. The melodious refrain filled the air around me -

"Hume tumse pyar kitna ...yeh hum nehi jante magar jee nehi sakte tumhare bina...."

Amidst curious glances from the moon and the few passing dark clouds we swirled into motion. I could still feel a pin prick of pain in my heart, maybe I was missing a friend or some moments from the past. I closed my eyes and just immersed myself in the ecstasy of dancing away the blues. My shadow was an understanding companion. We moved along in perfect harmony, tilting our bodies at the right beat, spining in circles or moving in asymmetrical shapes on my balcony ballroom. The wind soon joined us in the rhapsody. The three of us were creating magic.

So I'm dancing alone
Dreaming solo
'Cause your love's the one worth waiting for
It's just like heaven

Nobody's gonna break my heart
And hurt me like they did before
No one can even get the part
Not until I know it's deep

We finished our performance and bowed down before the panoramic audience. The nature applauded with a light rumble of the thunder and the sky started showering on us. For a moment my shadow moved aside and let me enjoy the centre stage and bask in the limelight. The little drops of rain felt like glittering specks of stardust from the heaven.

I stood in that shower feeling liberated.

Six months ago I had committed the biggest mistake of my life - I agreed to co-author a novel! It was a fine wintry morning of January. I had just posted something on MS. The comments were tickling down gingerly. By around afternoon a friend, who is a prolific writer in MS called me up to praise me for the post and proposed the grand idea - Let's write a novel together. The idea interested me but I was not quite sure how can two people author the same novel. But he seemed quite confident. Finally after a short discussion I decided to go for it.

Now the first task was finding an engaging storyline. Some disconnected ideas were floating in my mind and I discussed it with him. He heard my part then he explained his take. Both the ideas blended well. Slowly we played around with the idea for some more time before I jotted a few pointers and mailed him. After that for some days there was absolutely no communication from his side. I was beginning to wonder what happened to this great idea of his. Seemed he had vanished into thin air. Slowly my enthusiasm had also started to wane, when one fine day I got a mail with the subject line: “Check it out” and an attachment of 56K. I opened it and was surprised to see 30 pages of text. I started leafing through it and was more and more mesmerized by the scribbling. Barring the small mistakes, it was just a near perfect summary of the whole novel that we had discussed. In fact he had added overtone of many incidents and quips which made the narration quite interesting. I could not help but praise him wholeheartedly for the effort. This gave me a kick and I finally started seriously framing up the story in my mind.

Writing is my greatest passion and a good story line always invigorates me, so much so that I can spend hours and hours after it, till I reach the perfection level. I am more of a story writer than columnist. Writing DPs are not my cup of tea, but writing story is. I began to give as much time as I could to this thing. And at the end of the week I would send him the week’s work for an overview. The initial idea was that we will break up the work into separate chunks. The part I was comfortable with would be written by me, and the part wherein his expertise of technical nitty-gritty is required he will handle. Till February things were going great, I mean the inter-communication. We had almost 20% of the whole thing done.

But soon I discovered this friend of mine had the exact opposite traits compared to myself. I would consider the fact that he was terribly busy in his work so could give very little time to this novel, but whatever time he got he would either fool around or sit glued to MS, as if MS would meet the end without him marking his godly presence everyday! Whenever I pointed this out he would come up with a convenient excuse “Aare that’s the place I chill out, no deep thinking just enjoyment. But this project needs much thinking” or “I don’t want to hurry things for this” or “Just give me a day I am almost done”. But that day never came.

I realized things are not going to be easy if we really intend to finish this novel. Shouting, crying, screaming, yelling, coaxing, pleading, begging everything fell into deaf ears. He was as unperturbed as a polar bear in hibernation. The days were passing by with no output from his side. And the worst part was that I was stuck because of the dependency on him. I have never seen such a shameless person in my life who would not write a single line of the novel and would come up and brag about how many hits he has got on his recent post and expect me to applaud him for the same! Moreover a peculiar trait of his is to meet with freak accidents every week which will keep give him more excuses to sit in front of MS.

With no other option left I had to resort to emotional blackmailing which yielded results. He sent me a three page doc as his weeks work. I was very happy initially but the moment I started reading it I understood it was nothing but a half baked scribbling which really made me hit the roof.

“That’s it. You may as well go to hell with this novel of yours but please don’t expect me to tag along. It WAS very nice knowing you!” I sent a howler. That did show its effect on him and he came back saying definitely he will put his effort this time. So I decided to give him another chance and last Friday I gave him a weekend assignment which he promised to send me on Sunday.


Knowing him fully I knew without poking the work was never going to be done, so i called him up on Sunday morning,

"Have you started with the work?"

"Ya ya I have already finished it!"

It took some time for the news to sink in.

Contd in comments ....

I had just returned from office looking harassed like a drowned rat. It's really pouring cats and dogs from last night. I had just returned from a weekend trek where there was not a moment without rains. And seems that I had brought the incessant rains to navi Mumbai with me.Good for everyone, especially after reports of the municipal corp. cutting down on the water supply by 30%.

A quick change and I was ready to curl up in the bed with a book. But it was one of those rarest days when I was in the mood for a food adventure. The cold rain was beating on my window and nothing sounded better than hovering over the stove, watching anything from the fridge simmer into something that will keep me warm. I prowled to the kitchen to have a raincheck. You can say it's psychological but I always felt that a bowl of steaming soup goes well with cold rainy evenings. And specially if you are having a nagging cold to back up. I looked into the freezer and was happy to see some chicken left over from last week - perfect for a hearty chicken soup.

The general way for preparing chicken soup, is to simmer a whole chicken, debone and flake the meat then return it to the broth and boil with chopped carrots, peas and cabbage. But since I didnt have the veggies I decided to keep it simple.

Ingredients - (Serves 4)
Chicken bones - 500gm
Oil - 1 tblspn
Boneless chicken - 100 gm
Cumin seeds - ½ tspn
Water - 1ltr
Refined flour (maida) - 1 ½ tblspn
Chopped garlic - 1 tblspn
Finely Chopped Onion - 1 tblspn
White pepper powder
Black pepper powder
Butter
Salt to taste

Method

Chicken Stock: Clean and wash chicken bones thoroughly.Put chicken bones in a pot and one litre of water, chopped garlic and cook till water is reduced to half the quantity.The idea is to transfer the flavors from the bone to the water so that you get a broth that is simply bursting with aroma of chicken.Taste the broth and add more salt if necessary.Strain and keep aside.

Main soup:
Cut chicken meat into half centimeter cubes.Heat some butter in a pan and stir fry the shredded chicken pieces till it becomes tender.Remove and keep aside.

Take a deep heavy based pan and heat oil. Add the cumin seeds and let it splutter.

Add the chopped garlic and saute for 10-15 seconds.

Add the white flour and fry for a minute stirring continuously until the mixture begins to turn golden brown.

Add the reduced chicken stock, chicken pieces, white pepper powder and salt.

Add half a spoon of butter

Cook on medium level for about 4 minutes while stirring all the time.

Serving Tips:
Ladle soup into bowls and top it off with a teaspoon of thick cream to make it a little rich. Sprinkle a bit of black pepper over it and serve hot.

Add-ons:
Generally I prefer bread with my soup. Take two slices of bread and spread a generous coating of butter on them. Heat a pan and put the bread in them. Take it out when the breads begin to turn golden brown.Serve it with the hot soup.

The homemade chicken shorba is always a good way to chase the dampness away. The rain will feel heavenly to you if you can soak yourself with some real rainy music as you sip away the delicious chicken soup.

Footnote: This is specially dedicated to my mommy(Tanna) who is suffering from a bad cold today:) Hope this helps her a bit.

Something I came across...

Listening to the pitter-patter of the rain
Alone in the middle of the night

My ol'heart begins to feel the pain
Of missing you with all my might

Sadness purveys the heart
The tepid lake splits the moon in half

It is not ill begotten hope
It is not the last fall of rain

It is the last embrace of tomorrow
Releasing shadowed pain.

The rain's only an indication of my pain
And eternal loneliness I've found.

I am such a person who will go crazy at the mere sight of cats. For me they are the most beautiful creatures on the planet earth. A week ago when I was entering my building I heard a faint ‘mew’ from somewhere. I stopped and looked around. First I couldn’t place the origin of the sound. Then I looked carefully and found two tiny dots blinking in the dark from the store room window in the basement. Then two more pair of dots joined the first one. I moved in the direction and all the dots vanished at once. And a black and yellow cat stepped out. She had suspicion written large on her face, as to question what I was up to. No doubt it was the mummy of the kittens who didn’t like me snooping around. I lurked there for some more minutes to catch a glimpse of her tiny tots but she covered the way and stood at guard. Finally I left the place disheartened.

Three days later when I was about to enter into the lift of my building I saw a fluffy orange thing duck behind the wall at my sight. I peeped there and saw a lone kitten standing there. I could not see its mom anywhere, nor were its siblings anywhere in sight. I became a bit worried. Soon I heard a ruffling sound just outside the window beside the lift. The mom had changed its residence to another part of the store house and this one must have wandered off when its mother was not looking. The mom again looked at me disapprovingly.Why does this idiot keep on disturbing us? I decided to prove myself to her as a good Samaritan and decided to help the kitty. It was pretty easy cornering the kitten and I brought it out holding it by its neck and placed it near its mom. I searched my bag; usually I had some biscuits with me always. Broke the bourbon biscuits into small pieces and gave it to the family. For the first time the mother came near to me and rubbed it head against my hands after eating the biscuit in acknowledgement of my good work. It made me quite happy.

After that everyday i used to peek outside the window to see how the family was faring. But I couldn’t see them. Maybe they had again changed their address i told myself. But still while coming back from office I regularly checked out of the window.

Going by the same ritual when I looked out of the window yesterday I saw all the four kittens for the first time. They were sleeping on the seat of an abandoned scooty hugging close to each other. The mother was nowhere in sight. Since it was raining outside, i felt sorry for the kittens and thought of giving them something to eat. I came to my flat, dipped a generous amount of bread in milk and came down. By that time the mother was back. But this time she identified me from the last day and came straight to me purring. I gave her some of the food. Seeing her, one orange kitty courageously jumped from the sccoty onto the window sill. I gave it some food separately. A black striped one was trying to follow suit but was unsure of scaling the height so I extended my hands out of the window with a piece of bread and held it in front of him. It smelled my hand and then licked off the content hungrily. The other two kittens were on the ground and i could hardly see them, but kept on occasionally dropping the bread pieces there. It was hard to keep up with the momentum of feeding 5 cats separately, but somehow I was managing. Meanwhile the over enthusiastic mother cat pawed at the bowl of food I was holding and the whole thing fell on me. On one hand I was trying to be discreet so that none of the other inhabitants of the building would see me and complain of me encouraging strays and on the other hand this stupid cat had now spilled the milk over me and on the floor. I wiped off the thing as fast as i could from the floor and just as I was done an uncle walked in. I gave him a pleasant smile and tried to look inconspicuous. He looked at me suspiciously as he waited for the lift. Then he came floating towards me as if he was just looking around. I knew he wanted to know what i was upto. So when he tried peeking, i said sheepishly, "cats, uncle" He gave a purple smile and walked off. To avoid any more such encounters I emptied the bowl fast. The cats were really hungry and gorged on the food. I patted the two kittens and the mom and left the place after cleaning the window sill.

I felt very happy and satisfied for being able to feed them. I remembered the time I used to feed my own cats back at home. They had the privilege of a shelter and food, but these poor things have none. I cannot do much for them but at least giving them some food daily is within my limits and I promised myself that I will continue to do so till the babies become big enough to fetch for themselves.



P.S. Poocha is a Malayalam word for cats. Seeing my fascination of cats Sajith(hermit) had told me about it long ago. Loved the word so much, couldn’t help naming the post that way.

The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds throughout the day and by the time I reached home it had started to rain. The kind of rain that makes your heart smile and pushes you towards the plate of garma garam kanda bhaji and samovar of creamy adrak chai.

I stood in the balcony of my apartment for sometime. It was drizzling. The beads of rain were settling on my hair, kissing my face, hands...it was surreal. It was getting dark. The pale orangish blue was turning a dark shade of purple-grey. Rains always caused the dusk to descend early these days.

After replenishing my soul with the caress of the rains I came back to my room. Making adrak chai was too much work for a lazybones like me, so I made some hot chocolate with cinnamon. My warm nice bed beckoned me with the longings of a lover. I grabbed a book from the towering stack of books on the table and curled up in bed like a kitten. The cover of the book showcased a blurred close up of a rain caressed white flower lying on road; adding to the romanticism of the rainy evening.

Rains, romantic novel and hot chocolate. Perfect, I thought. As I leafed through the pages I remembered the lines I had read somewhere -

“Love is like swallowing hot chocolate
Before it has cooled off.
It takes you by surprise at first,
But keeps you warm for a long time.”

The storyline was quite interesting and the warmth of the cocoa heightened the indulgence. The central love story was shaping up slowly with side stories tagging along. It was a good read but suddenly the writer’s try to be explicit to the core jolted my reading pleasure. For some unknown reasons people have started including shades of gayism in the stories now-a-days. Maybe they expect there readers to get a high by exploring the unexplored horizons. Or maybe they do it just for adding more masala to it. I don’t have anything against anything as long as it has an aesthetic appeal to it. But seems that writers are least bothered about the presentation and more inclined towards being explicit. Again a desperate attempt for creating that extra bit of titillation among the readers. Not only this one off case, but I have noticed the same in many of the recent novels. Trying to forcefully plaster something onto the readers mind when it is absolutely not necessary.

Writing is an art and art should make you appreciate the beauty not cringe in discomfort. For expressing sensuality one does not need to be explicit rather it should be artistic, eloquent. Therein lays basic difference between a good and a publicity yearning writer. A good writer’s description of even the most intimate situations would not give you a sickening feeling instead it will make you feel the oneness with the character or situation. The artistic way of expressing things is what makes one stand out in the sea of writers and the thin line of decency makes the reader respect the thoughts of the writer or denounce him right away. Stories are like windows to the heart and mind of writer, so what he writes shows how he perceived things. He is like a craftsman carving out a figurine from his imaginations, giving form and shape to his ideas; the slightest fault can give it a permanent blemish. I know myself, if my thoughts get tainted in between while reading, the rhythm breaks and if the material is really not out of the world, I cannot reconnect wholeheartedly.

I was just wondering whether my musings are just one of a kind or does everyone feel the same way sometime or the other?