I Finished it to Win these ;)

Like I wrote here, I had also participated in CB‘s story-finishing contest – Finish it to win it. I finished it to win…these following awards. Well, my story was so lame, but I had fun participating, writing, commenting and then commenting again on the first prize winner’s post 😀

Here’s the link to the first half of the story. And here’s what I wrote, the second half 😀 Bear with me (and the story).

And here are what CB gave!!! Yey!

For participating...and writing a story 😉

...and for guessing who wrote which one 😉

Contest, stories, comments and character

Chatterbox, lovingly referred to as “CB”, ran a contest at her blog. Named Finish it to Win it!! (yes, you see the badge on my right panel here?), she gave us one half of a story…and asked us to complete it the way we liked, in less than 1200 words. Check out the contest, the rules, the first half of the story CB wrote, and the entries by a bunch of enthusiasts at the Finish it to Win it!! page of her blog 😉

It was a load of fun. Or, should I say it is a load of fun, since the entries are still being posted as per the order she got them in…

What’s most amazing about this contest is the fact that ONE STORY — of a husband, wife, daughter, an ex-girlfriend and a particular situation — could end in 19 different ways! The husband, Will, now has 19 personalities; Rose (the wife) has over 10 (‘coz she came out as a loving, innocent wife in more than one entry) and Mary (the not-so-virgin ex-girlfriend) has over 15! 😀 Betty, sadly has only two: one of a sleep-a-holic and one where she’s a naughty poet! 😉 Isn’t it stunning, that the same people and the same situaton, can end in uniquely different endings when different people look at it?

Some of the entries are so transparent of its authors’ characters: you read them and you know who wrote them :D, while others have tried to portray a scenario which so does not portray them. Some of them made it humourous, some went for unexpectedly awesome twists, some tried the romantic route, some the whacky! And one, the utmost nonsensical ROFL-material: indeed shows his/her “Will Power” !!!! 😀

Now, I guess the only sad outcome would be that I went mad when it came to comments and was highly critical. I’m sure I’m gonna lose ALL my blog readers for the comments I’ve put up on their stories. Sigh! 😦

If I’m allowed to defend myself, let me tell you: I was only being nuts. The past few days saw my most jobless and crazy days in office. Though not entirely jobless, I made more friends there, and became close to quite a few crazy ones 😀 Which effected in us having internal chats on the most craziest, LOL topics ever. And in between all those chats would come up one of the new stories. Well, crazy chats can be contagious over to WordPress too!

And when Gyanban commented, I think provoked by my looong comment, in one of the stories about how people turned subjective about these things and said “we cannot not like this story because some of our personal belief system disagrees with the concept. “, I realised maybe I went overboard! :DFor an argument’s sake, I can certainly say “I can not like something because it’s against my personal beliefs”, but well, it’s not a point to be arguing about in this context.

I apologise if I’ve been rude and have hurt any of you authors (no, no one gave me a hint that they’ve been hurt; I’m saying this because I felt I may owe it to some people).

Again, let me tell you, I’m not against any of you personally…or your thoughts, for that matter. It being a contest, and it being about having fun, I was just conducting postmortems on the different characters portrayed by Rose and Will and Mary and the rest. I reread some of my comments and felt I sounded awful — well, at least to the authors, I must’ve sounded awful! 😀 Those authors — whose story I criticised too much — must think “And she’s so good to me when she comments on my blog: because she knows it’s me. Here, when she doesn’t know, she’s being honest and herself. Hypocrite”

No, am not a hypocrite 😀 If I don’t like a story, I’ve been honest about it. If I’ve liked it, I’ve been honest about it 😀 Just like I do when I comment on your posts on your blogs too 😉 If I’ve said “I don’t like this story”, that’s all I’ve meant: that I don’t like the story; it does not mean I don’t like you or your character. In one particular story, which was against my ideals and principles, I’ve been vocal about it. Again, that does not mean I dislike the author; it only means I don’t necessarily agree with his/her idea. Again, maybe that was just a twist the person came up with, irrelevant of his/her ideals. Except for one or two stories, I have no clue who wrote which 😀 So, there’s NOTHING PERSONAL about any of my comments.

If I’ve inadvertently hurt any of you, I seek your apology!

P.S.: I’m honestly not as bad as I sound in my comments 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
And pPlease vote for me, for I wrote the best one 😛 😀 😉

Finish it to Win it!!

I wonder what…

I wonder what it takes to convince someone to take care of their health (the loss, finally, is theirs, isn’t it?).

I wonder what it takes to make someone shed their negativity and shift to positive paths.

I wonder what it takes to make two people love each other (in spite of years of its absence).

I wonder what it takes to stop someone you love from being that one person you dread to have to live with.

I wonder what it means, to live your life for someone else forever, and never be valued for what you are.

I wonder what it takes to make people realise that God is in your minds, actions and thoughts; and not in how well you display and talk about it.

I wonder what it takes to convert a non-believer (and I don’t mean just the belief in God) to become a believer.

I wonder what it takes to make people look at the bigger picture than at the pixels!

I wonder what it takes to imbibe a sense of ‘togetherness’ in someone.

I wonder what it means to not be loved, but be expected to slave.

I wonder what it takes to make someone shed their ego and arrogance (even after suffering for it multiple times).

I wonder what it takes to make someone you love walk WITH you (and not lead, follow or tread).

I wonder what it takes to make someone accept everyone else as idividuals with their own lives.

I wonder what it means when you finally give up on someone:
     is that the end of real love?
     is it the beginning of disinterested acceptance?
     is it a sacrifice of your own interests as well?

I really do wonder…

“Light; it plays an incredible game of hide-and-seek with us.”

“Light; it plays an incredible game of hide-and-seek with us.
The earliest memory of my childhood happens to be a very happy one – sitting on my grandfather’s lap, listening to stories of our mythology, of demons and gods, of good and evil and walking down with him to the library to catch up on the adventures of Mickey Mouse.”

And as I first read these words sometime in the middle of a busy mid-2008 afternoon, I was awed! Awed by the author’s ability to play with words. Nikhil; he plays an incredible game with words!

When the story ended as abruptly as it had begun, after scrolling down just 4 or 5 pages, I was left in a confused state of mind. I was lost — I knew I just had to read the full story.  When I pestered him, he told me that was the full story; he’d written that to send in for some short-story-writing competition, he said.

Now, almost a year later, when I clicked that nice little “Download” button on his blog, all excited to be reading his new book, I saw myself reading those same words…and wondering where I had read them before. To have been able to read what led to and what followed those words was one of the best things to happen.

After I read it, I told him that “Simran” had left me all confused…and a bit torn apart. Confused, because such serious and mind-numbing words were from a guy whose posts are always a slapstick, humourous entertainer. Torn apart, because one could almost see and feel Nihal’s agony and loss.

“Simran” is a beautiful story that cajoles you lovingly to go forth and get yourself right in the midst of that fierce battle between emotions and logic; mind and heart. It’s the story of a passionately intense relation between the protagonist, Nihal, and the mysterious Simran. From life, love and passion, to hurt, anger, hate and death, Nihal travels through an entire spectrum of emotional turmoil — while Simran becomes the testimony for all that.

Definitely an ‘unputdownable’ work of art! And rightly so, because you live, love, get hurt and hate along with Nihal and Simran. When a reader empathises with a character, it’s undoubtedly the result of a  brilliant author’s incredible penmanship!

Well done, Nikhil! Look forward to the next one! 🙂

Book review: Life of Pi (yann martel)

A novel. Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2002.

Winner of my heart! (I’m now feeling ashamed that I did not read it much earlier.)

Anyone who likes reading and lives the life of a passionate bookworm, please crawl into this one at the earliest! And it will crawl into your heart as effortlessly as Richard Parker twitches his ears! 😀

Life of Pi has been a book I’ve been wanting to read for as long as I can remember…but somehow, never got my hands on it. Until recently, I went to Crossword with a friend who insisted I read it — and actually bought it for me!

The day I opened it, it gripped me. I sacrificed breakfast, lunch, dinner and sleep so that I could feast myself on Pi’s interesting life. And after the first two pages, I realised with shock that Pi was the name of the protagonist, a little boy; and not the name of the tiger on the book cover (“inspired by Calvin & Hobbes, perhaps, but on a more serious note”, I’d always thought!) 😀 😀 😀

I’m generally a very fast reader…and usually complete a 300 page book in less than 5 hours (yes, if I start on a book, I always sacrifice on food and sleep 😀 😀 …can never keep one down till I’m done with it). But with this book, I couldn’t bring myself to ‘want to finish’ it…in fact, the fact that the book would soon get over made me paranoid! I took 4 long days to finish it…calling up / messaging my friend now and then to say “This book is amazing…love it…” and the like!

Yesterday, I completed it. I was sad. I was thrilled. I was grateful. I was elated. I was angry. I was furious. I was in awe. I was stupefied. I was amazed. I was repentant. I was extremely thankful..and indebted.

I was sad the book was over; thrilled that I finally managed to get it and grateful to my friend for giving it to me; elated that Pi survived; angry and furious at 2 characters for not trusting Pi; stupefied at the realisation of what ‘life’ can turn one into; amazed that Pi could live through all of that; repentant to all my friends for not listening to them earlier and reading this long back; thankful to my dad for instilling reading habit in me…and highly indebted to Yann Martel for writing this book.

Oh, all you people! You just have to read this book. No other book has moved me the way this one has (the only other one I still vividly remember is The Da Vinci Code, but that was more of a stupefying effect than such a turmoil of emotions!) I still haven’t recovered from the exhilaration of Pi’s experiences, which one would automatically experience too. I still can feel Richard Parker, can still see his muscular body, shining coat and prusten 🙂 I wish I could meet him (though it wouldn’t affect him in the slightest manner; that much is evident in the way he walks off as the story reaches an end)…I cant imagine any other living being to be as amazing as him any more! 😀

Oh…I wish my brain (I do have a small one, how ever idle it may be 😀 ) would soon wash out all memories of this book so I can read it all over again!

Life of Pi…awwwwwh! I loved it…and forever will be in awe of Yann’s penmanship!

P.S: Post inspired by Nikhil‘s post on a book he is reading. I have never done a book review (though this can hardly be called one) ever before….and hope Its not as bad as I think it is 😀 😀 😀