Category: ललित

  • Grandma’s alluring recipe

    Grandma’s alluring recipe

    Grandma's Alluring Recipe with a sketch of an old lady

    When I think about my life of almost three and half decades, I find that my grandma has a lot of influence on me. She developed all the soft skills which makes life pleasurable. She has mastered the art of cooking a perfect recipe which will entice all your senses and bring joy when you are finished with it. This is the one recipe which I find most fascinating and yet alluring at the same time. This is a perfect serving of something which you can enjoy at a table, or when you are lying awake in bed in the wee hours of night, or while lazing on a couch on a Sunday afternoon. Basically, you can just devour this at any moment of your liking. Can you guess what it could be?

    It’s not what you think

    I am definitely not talking about any of cake, bread or some other complicated dessert or some exotic dish from Mediterranean or European cuisine which my grandma cooked. In fact, it’s not anything related to food. I want to decode and recreate her master recipe of a perfect story. There are hundreds of best and renowned storytellers around the globe. However, for me, she is The OG storyteller. I have grown up with her stories. 

    Her stories featured very common characters. If it’s written for children to read, the protagonists will be someone whom you will find playing with you on community gardens or playgrounds. Her stories for an adult audience, plot points were about the general life situation. Even though she wrote stories based on mythological characters, her stories were never fantastical or portraying anything larger than life events. Lord Krishna in her stories would be as human as you would be. And yet his deeds fascinated you.

    I want to create the same magic one day

    I had tried my hands on writing some stories yet I could not find her secret ingredient which makes the story exciting yet relatable. In 2021, my grandma passed on to tell the stories to the gods and demigods above. And I have lost the opportunity to get trained by her, it would have been a perfect masterclass for me. Yet I dream that one day, I will stumble upon that mystery ingredient which makes the recipe of storytelling fool-proof. I will always wait for that day, and in the meantime, will keep trying my hands to perfect this alluring recipe.

    This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop. If you want to read more such posts, click here.

  • One of the finest Poirot story by Agatha

    One of the finest Poirot story by Agatha

    No wonder Agatha Christie is called the queen of mysteries. Even though my earlier book from this series didn’t meet the expectations swt by Agatha’s earlier work, Cards on the Table has lived upto the mark. Infact, i would go a step further and say this is by far the best Poirot story I have read.

    The way story plot is woven to make it a thick fabric with finer design with plot twists and unexpected turns, it has taken the book to the new height.

    I don’t think I am worthy of commenting the narration of Hugh Fraser. I am his fan and have skipped picking up any other audio-book of Poirot series if it’s not narrated by Mr. Hugh.

    Blurb

    Mr Shaitana was famous as a flamboyant party host. Nevertheless, he was a man of whom everybody was a little afraid. So, when he boasted to Poirot that he considered murder an art form, the detective had some reservations about accepting a party invitation to view Shaitana’s private collection.

    About the book

    Title: Cards on the Table
    Author: Agatha Christie, Narrator: Hugh Fraser
    Length:
    Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

    Where to Buy

    My rating

    Story: 4/5
    Narration: 4/5

    Overall rating: 4/5

    Should you read it?

    You should not miss this one if you are a fan of Agatha Christie’s work.

    If you want more book recommendations, click here.

  • Zero Day: Masterpiece of Thriller Mystery

    Zero Day: Masterpiece of Thriller Mystery

    You guys by now must have understood my liking for good mystery, crime and thrillers in the book world. I enjoy reading a good fiction novel or a story having crime, investigations, espionage and all the thrill attached to it. This new book by S. Hussain Zaidi is a masterpiece and sheer pleasure for any bibliophile who enjoys these genres. 

    What makes this masterpiece unputdownable?

    Any mystery or thriller works on three points, what crime is committed, who committed it and why? Generally opening with a crime scene story or novel moves through the maze of clues and challenges to reach the pinnacle where investigators reveal the identity and motive of the perpetrator. But hold on, Zero Day beats this stereotype. You know who the criminal is as well as why he’s doing what he is doing. Yet you will just keep reading to know the missing links. This is a very unique style of writing crime fiction.

    Language used by Zaidi is so simple and the narrative so fast paced, readers just get hooked on to the story. Once you start reading it, you won’t put it down until you have the answers to all the questions by the end of the book. I have finished this book with little over 200 pages in 6 hours. That too because I have to keep completing my tasks for the day on my job. If I could, I would have loved to finish it in one go.

    Blurb

    Mumbai is in a state of chaos. All traffic signals across the entire city have stopped working.

    Shahwaz Ali Mirza, head of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, receives an anonymous email claiming it to be a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. He quickly puts together a crack team that includes his protege, IG Cybercrime Vikrant Singh, and gets to work trawling the dark web for more information on this mystery attack. However, a move to bring forward the hacker backfires, leading to a second, deadlier attack on Mumbai’s lifeline, the railway system.

    It is their first brush with cyberterrorism: a zero-day vulnerability in the Indian government’s system that could bring the country to its knees. Racing against time and investigating a case unlike any other, in Zero Day, Mirza and Vikrant face the most dangerous mission of their lives.

    About the book

    Title: Zero Day
    Author: S. Hussain Zaidi
    Publisher: Harper Collins
    Pages: 216

    Where to Buy

    Should you read it?

    I think I have found the first 5 star book of the year 2022. I can not recommend it enough for you guys to read. If you are a sucker for good investigative stories, you should not miss zero day. I have given you the link to grab your copies above. Do let me know how you like it if you have already read the book!

    This review is powered by the Blogchatter Book Review Program. Also read more book reviews penned by me here.

  • Poetry: a beautiful creative craft

    Poetry: a beautiful creative craft

    Every poet, writer or storyteller has been asked some typical questions. In my last article, I tried to give my answer for one of them; “Why” of the writing. But for the past week, I have been thinking about a particular duality in the literary realm. Creativity and crafting. It’s another form of a classic dilemma just like “Chicken or the Egg”. The only difference here is that creativity and crafting are not struggling for who came first. They are struggling to maintain their importance or righteousness in poetry.

    Let’s begin at the beginning

    Creativity and crafting have been two loyal hands for her majesty, the queen Poetry ruling my mind. But her realm is facing an internal turmoil. These two counsel are trying to one up each other. This was triggered during a discussion at an event. Recently at an event of our regular literary meetup called साहित्यकट्टा, we celebrated a fantastic poet Shekhar Damodare from our group and Prose Publications published his poetry collection अक्षरांचे शब्द होता as a surprise to him. During this event, this debate of whether poetry written with pure creativity is the best or the crafting makes it better.

    Publication of अक्षरांचे शब्द होता by Shekhar Damodare

    Incidentally, yesterday I got a chance to ask this same question to another accomplished and prolific poetess Sampurna Chattergy during an exclusive author session “Getting Started with Poetry” of BlogchatterWritFest. Her reply on the issue kept the debate going in my mind. 

    Who’s the champion of the duel?

    So, this is how I witnessed this duel. There are purists in poetry too just like every other field. They look highly to a poem born out of the spontaneous bursts of creativity. I have no problem considering so highly of these poems. However the way they look down upon poems which have been edited, rewritten, crafted after the initial creative spontaneity. 

    On the contrary, there’s one more side on the other end of the extreme. They believe anyone can write a poem, they can teach poetry writing. These people are ignoring the fact that poetry is not just an arrangement of words in a particular order or set pattern. It has to originate from deep within. Poet has to see that poem within his or her mind. It takes some form and comes out on paper. If you ignore this part, all it remains is a mechanical robotic arrangement of words in some order which doesn’t have a soul.

    Non-duality of poetry

    What I personally believe is the realm of poetry is a true example of non-duality. It has to have both creativity and crafting. You can not craft if there’s no creative basis to polish upon. And you cannot write a complete, structured masterpiece poem purely on creativity (Excluding some exceptions). Meters, formats and forms of poetry demands that poet follow the precise words, syllable counts, and other grammar rules. These forms demand the use of crafting, editing and rewriting. 

    In a galaxy of Marathi literary legends, Keshavsut, is one name which you can’t miss. We consider him as the originator of modern marathi poetry. Tutari (तुतारी) is one of his most famous poems. He had written and rewritten it several times before it got published in 1893. When such legends are not shunning crafting away, who are we to look down upon? On the other hand, we also should not forget that only crafting will not create a masterpiece like Tutari. 

    Let’s make a truce between these two hands of the queen Poetry and enjoy the joys of her people. These poems are pure bliss in every form, format and language. 

    This was a very inspiring session personally for me and I am looking forward to upcoming sessions of BlogchatterWritFest. I have written this post as part of BlogchatterWritFest.

  • because I have to write it… – answering “why” of storytelling

    because I have to write it… – answering “why” of storytelling

    As a creative person, your mind is always receptive. It’s always looking out for inspiration. Sometimes, fellow creators inspire you, or sometimes a particular event triggers a chain reaction in your brain. But every story you tell, has that one seed from where it all began to take shape. Yesterday, 4th of March 2022 was one such inspirational day for me. Season 6 of BlogchatterWritFest hosted its session 1 where I listened to three amazing authors whom I admire. Meghana Pant, Kanchana Banerjee and Kiran Manral were fantastic as always. Even though I have only read Eye on You by Kanchana Banerjee till now, I have been following all of them on social media, tracking their books, etc.

    Story will choose its own place on the shelf; you just write it. 

    There are many points which were discussed during this session. However, the most important thing which resonates with me is the authenticity of the story which you want to tell to the world. I cannot agree more that the story you are writing has to be the one which you want to tell and not the one which the world wants to read or listen to. Trends and best seller genres should not guide the story you write. Recently I tried to take a dive in some storytelling. And it became a wonderful experience when I let the story tell itself through me instead of me dictating the story.

    We often hear this thought about poetry. It’s believed that good poetry manifests itself making poets a mere channel of narration. But the story isn’t any different either. Story chooses its own genre. If we sit to write with predetermined notions, the piece resulting after this will look patchy and pretentious instead of being a literature.

    Don’t rush to quit

    I also like the advice which they gave unanimously about taking writing as a full-time profession. One should not rush to quit the job in hand with a dream to become an author. Even in Marathi literature, all the stalwarts were doing something or the other to earn their living and writing on the side. Most of them were working as faculty at various colleges, some worked for films, etc. Incidentally, on the same day, I listened to one podcast where Dhaval Dange, author of Gandhar, and two other novels, mentioned the same point. Dhaval himself works professionally in the IT industry. And has published three books till now. So, just tell your story, don’t rush to quit what’s in your hand and work well for you!

    This was a very inspiring session personally for me and I am looking forward to upcoming sessions of BlogchatterWritFest. This post is written as part of BlogchatterWritFest.

  • Nature and Culture: the eternal connection

    Nature and Culture: the eternal connection

    Artforms like literature, music and dance are deep rooted parts of cultures all around the world. Human stories are told through these arts. They talk about the experiences we gather in our life. Surroundings in which we live are reflected in our artforms. Today, I would like to talk about the strong eternal connection between nature and cultures. 

    Nature through ancient cultures

    The evolution of human civilization is always triggered by some event, new learning or accident involving nature. Utilisation of fire for our domestic use was the first big step. Next one came in the form of domestication of wild grasses in the form of agriculture. The other one of many was the domestication of wild beasts starting something we call animal husbandry. We started our process of civilization by interacting with nature. On the other hand, cultural aspects of human society were also developing. These first interactions with nature are depicted in cave paintings made by our ancestors all around the world. These paintings further evolved to glyphs which were used to communicate with each other.

    Soon we progressed to the various languages and the birth of fine arts was around the corner. Creative juices in the human mind started flowing and stories and poems emerged. These stories and poems are full of nature and it’s beauty which was around those times. We celebrated nature through our music, paintings, writings and sculptures.

    Nature and Indian culture

    The most illustrious example of depiction of nature in Indian literature is a Kālidāsa’s lyrical poem Meghadūta. It’s a story of a banished Yaksha. He wants to send a letter to his beloved wife back home. He asks if he can deliver this letter. While describing a way to reach Yaksha’s home, Kalidasa has described the nature, the geography of the land in so detail that it could become a guide for a traveller.

    However, nature reflected in our poetry is always a local nature. For example, English kids will sing “Rain rain go away, come again another day” as they rarely get a bright sunny day to play out. On other hand, here in Maharashtra, we have a marathi nursery rhyme exactly opposite where we call out to rain so that it will pour. “ये रे ये रे पावसा, तुला देतो पैसा.” is a classic one. 

    In India, our climate changes in every region. It reflects in our folk songs very naturally. All the rain songs in the Marathi region will talk about months of Ashadh and Shravan. (आषाढाला पाणकळा, सृष्टी लावण्याचा मळा). But the monsoon reaches northern India almost a month later. So, naturally, all their rain songs talk about Saawan and Bhado. (तेरे नैना सावन भादो, फिर भी मेरा मन प्यासा) and so on. And when a kid in Marathi will relate to a poem गवतफुला रे गवतफुला as he can see the wild grass flowers blooming around just as easily as an English kid can see a Daffodil flower from Wordsworth’s famous poem.

    So you also tell me if you find any such examples in the comments below and let me know how you like this post.
    This post is part of Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter. You can find my other entries to this campaign here.