“Adverse Advertisement – Thought of a scared consumer”

Advertising industry in India is growing at a considerably faster rate than ever before and many new talent and cool ideas are getting exposed to the society. Advertisements are the intermediary between the brand and the consumer. Now-a-day it is not only the quality of the product or the services provided by the supplier or the manufacturer that makes a brand successful, but advertisements play a significant role in that. Advertisements could come in various ways; it could be Movie ad, online or digital ad, Print Media, OOH or even mobile ad.

Given the advancement of advertisement industry, the new age ad concepts are getting smarter, cooler and bolder. Intelligent ads as well as sexually explicit ad concepts are now being welcomed by media gurus. But whether the new ideas are coming out clear through the social responsibility test or not that is a question to ask. What, how and to whom are we selling our product is very crucial. What and whom to sell is defined by the existing and prospective market and need of the time. There we cannot do much. But how to sell and what all to tell to the prospective consumer or customer is surely a point which we can definitely look into and take responsible measures.

Take the example of Fair n Lovely. They are fairness cream. And we all know scientifically it is not possible to change your skin color from black to white without any cosmetic surgery, at least not yet. The skin color that every individual has is because of the amount or concentration of melanin pigments in their skin. And these melanin pigments are there to protect our skin from the harmful UV rays and other harmful direct sunrays. The more the pigmentation is the more dark the skin of the individual. And there is nothing wrong in having a wheatish or darker skin color. Beauty is not defined by the skin color. It is in the eyes of the beholder. Though a very cliché phrase, but we tend to forget it more often. Using Fair n Lovely or any other such fairness cream is not going to make a person fair and lovely in reality. Then the African black people would have used that long time back and each and every single individual planet on earth would have become fair. But we all know that’s not going to happen because that is not possible. The only thing we can do is we can use some products which actually burn our natural skin pigments, i.e. the melanin. The so called fairness creams contain mercury, which actually seeps into the skin and burns the healthy melanin pigments, making it look apparently fairer. But as soon as we stop using the fairness cream, our skin gets back to its natural color. Because our skin continues to produce melanin as a protective measure against sun burn and UV radiation. In the mean time, because of the prolonged use of fairness creams, all those mercury which our body gets exposed to could destroy our kidney and other visceral parts.

The main buyer and consumer of any kind of fairness cream in India is mostly the not so aware class of people. Who might not clearly know the science of the skin pigmentation and the effect of prolonged use of a fairness cream! But the manufacturers and advertisement makers know it far well than the rest of us. Even after that they are consciously trying to sell the fairness pill to our society. As Indian society is still struggling to come out of the biased inclination towards the fairer skin, so the marketers find a lucrative market in Indian mass. Without any sort of guilt consciousness, they keep on pushing and poisoning the mindset of Indian consumers. Even in 2012 they come up with ads concepts like, a girl just by becoming fair gets a job, or gets married or becomes a good singer. I fail to understand how fairness could have anything to do with the singing ability or sweetness of voice of a person! If fairness is the only measuring scale for a prospective bride, then where the darker girl would go? Won’t they get married or deserve a good groom to marry, according to the marketer’s of fairness creams?

Same way, I get shocked to see the Fastrack ads. It talks about how to move on. But how fast are we supposed to move on. Rolling stone does not gather moss, I accept. But how fast should we move on, that matter a lot. Aren’t we just rushing ourselves to the same fate of the American culture? Unfortunate but true. Albeit the Americans have realized the adverse effect of that fast moving on culture and now trying to learn our Indian traditional family oriented way of life. We might love to showcase ourselves as a modern Americanized youth, but the American youths are now learning our age old culture and they started to love and live in our ways. In the name of smartness and cool attitude we are promoting infidelity, disloyalty and dishonoring mentality towards the people around us. That is not healthy, at least to me. It is not that I am saying that, infidelity, disloyalty were not there in our society before. But what scares me is the fact that now we are showcasing it as a good aspect and a quality to acquire.

One more thing really concerns me. We all know health is wealth. Having a healthy and fit body is good and desirable. But now a days the way the apparel haute couture brands are trying to sell unhealthy size zero body structure to our youth that is horrifying. Young boys and girls are starving themselves, having crash diets, unhealthy eating habits and completely sedentary life style, leaving least liveliness and energy with them. And they are doing it just to fit in that particular dress and get acceptability in the friend circle! And they do think it is cool and hip, trendy! And the segment of people who can’t just go for a crazy unhealthy crash diet and on their chubbier side, they feel abandoned and become mentally frustrated because of the psychological effect of the trend of size zero culture.

Many such advertisements are there which are either subtly or directly trying to sell the darker aspects of the society as a good one. And not so aware people are eating the bait and molding themselves accordingly. Do we really want to see ourselves in the same fate of the westernized culture? Drug, frustration, unhappiness, loneliness…? At least I don’t want to see myself or the people around me in that same fate. And that’s why it scares the hell out of me.

It is high time to think and act responsibly. The marketers and ad makers need to be more responsible and they must think beyond just sales, numbers, revenues and ad-hype. Ads are meant to make us aware, not to mislead or confuse us.

"Satyamev Jayate - Truth Alone Prevails"

It has been 65 years since we have fought our freedom back. At least it is written so in black and white. But was this what our great grand fathers and great freedom fighters fought for and sacrificed their life for? Surely not. How could they? When our great freedom fighters were undergoing the unendurable sufferings and third degree tortures, did they ever dream of an India anything alike what it is now? Yet we are the leading emerging economy in the world scenario, a flashy made up face plastered with our self proclaimed “India Shining” slogan. If you dare to go deeper and look beyond the glossy make up, you will find the malignant daunting scars of child sexual abuse, girl foeticide, Dowry, Honor Killing, Domestic Violence, Alcohol abuse underneath. In our Shining India, we make sure that the fetus inside the woman’s womb in not a girl. Doctors, nurses, nursing homes all are our aide. But even after all these honest efforts sometimes some disobedient woman keeps her baby in and we are burdened with one more girl child in our society. We all know how meticulous we are in torturing females and we are never in short of our excuses. So we will try our hands on molesting the small girl inside and outside our houses. We will make their lives miserable. They will find it hard to walk alone in the city. We will rape them. Some find their solace in death. Teenage suicide is growing like a wild fire in India. Some girls are so stubborn that they still keep growing against our wishes. No matter how much we try to put a fence around them they somehow manage to find a way out. They dare to fall in love and we get our new excuse to kill them simply to save our honor and tradition. But not all girls are that daring to set their foot out of the boundaries drawn by the society. For them we ask a huge unrealistic amount of dowry to get another reason to kill them. And no matter the amount is paid or not we torture them, beat them, and bruise them anyway in the name of taming our wives.

We discuss in forums, we act in street plays, we walk in various marches, shouting the coveted “save girl child” slogan, but the moment we come back home we expect our wives to be prepared with the proper food, served at proper temperature! A small fluctuation from that makes us very angry. “What do you do whole day sitting at home, when you can’t even get the food properly ready and served?” The same “us” ask for abortion, when scanned pregnant with a girl child. Given a chance the same uncles, brothers, cousins, who are fighting for so called woman rights, try to touch the girl at their home “inappropriately”. The same us who are so called highly educated well settled men, ask for dowry with a sheepish grin on face, and do not go back to torture the wife in case the demand is not met. And even if the demand is met, we simply raise our demand further. As if we get some sort of birth right on the father in law’s hard earned money and life’s saving, just by marrying his daughter!

Even though it is written in our constitution that a girl of 18 years of age have the full constitutional right to choose her life partner on her own. The same is applicable for a boy of 21 years as well. But when it comes to the most important decision of our life, we are not the one to decide. The village panchayat and/or the parents take the decision for the couple. If not done as per their wish they decide rather to kill the couple, than to let them live their life happily.

Do you think we do not know our problems? Do you think our society is unaware of all these? We all know what our vices are. Damn pretty well we know. But yet at the same time we keep on doing the same bad things as if being under the spell of some dark power.

So we are actually beyond the situation of any good advices or message to be delivered or heard. Simply showing the naked truth of the dark stinky society will no more do any good. Rather we have become so barbaric, that we in fact get a source of amusement and thrill from all such kind of programs on societal wrong doings, aired in the TV or radio.

All the problems I discussed in the previous page are not simple problems. These problems are deep rooted, the disease is old and almost settled in the body of Indian society. So trying to find out easy ready-made solutions for those issues will be a childish dream. Airing some TV/ radio programs, each episode for one issue, with some touchy tunes and a teary eyed host with emotionally modulated voice is not going to do much good.

It is not that we don’t know the problem. We all know the problem since long back. What the real problem is that we don’t know ourselves quite well. We don’t want the solution actually. We are quite adjusted and compromised with the existing norms. What we want is to shed some tears while listening to other people’s story who are suffering the same fate as us. Even a molested girl, while listening to the programs does not feel much enthusiastic about fighting for the justice. Instead she will go further inside the shell after repeatedly seeing and hearing the incidents of other molested girls.

We are continuously struggling to survive throughout our life. There are ample pains and sufferings in our lives already. So simply hammering our mind every damn day with some more painful stories of some other people, are not going to do any good to us. After a day full of stressful work and hectic commuting, we all want anything but some more dose of tears and sobbing emotion. People will watch these for some time, to make themselves feel comfy about, that they are not the only one who is suffering. Some sort of sadistic sympathy acts there. But after a few dose of sob and sympathy, even they become frustrated. Because sobbing on TV is not going to change anything at all. The real people, real pain and real cry couldn’t change the concepts and norms of society, and these program makers think that one liner request from one celebrity will make the parliament pass bills like shopping lists!

If uprooting these social problems was so easy, don’t you think we would have done the same long time back? You not only need to change your thinking, but also change your action. No matter how much you shed crocodile tears, if you do not change your real life action, then nothing’s going to change a dime. So changing the action of a person could not be done by making him shed tears for 45 minutes a day or week by showing him some program. Leave alone the mass change of action meant for the mass.

When we watch a TV program our mind and brain gets divided. We watch our program keeping our brain at sleeping mode. We watch TV to relax a bit and so we depend only on our mind while watching and judging any program and its content. That is where Satyamev Jayate is having big time trouble.

"Dreams - Ugly Truths, Beautiful Lies"

Dear friends, have you ever wondered what a dream really is? Why do you have a dream at the first place? What your dreams mean? To tell you that allow me to take help of a cliche...

“Mirror Mirror on the Wall…”

Your dreams are nothing but a cruel mirror; Dreams never lie… Dreams are our sweet little exclusively personal mirror. We cannot taint or distort our share of dreams at our wish. Nightmares specifically are the ugly side our existence.

We all have our own sweet share of dark secrets. We try so hard to hide them under the emaciated layer of our conscious mind. None of us really dare to face the mirror and glimpse our darker side. But can we really sluice away all those stinky, rusty, murky feelings from our mind? You can Run, you can Hide, but you Cannot erase those fades paying around your little mind. They all come back, some way or the other.

“The waking life, with its trial and joys, its pleasures and pains, is never repeated; on the contrary, the dream aims at relieving us of these. Even when our whole mind is filled with one subject, when our hearts are rent by bitter griefs or when some task has been taxing our mental capacity to the utmost, the dream either gives us something entirely alien, or it selects for its combinations only a few elements of reality; or it merely enters into the key of our mood, and symbolizes reality” – Burdach, Psychiatrist.

Dreams are the reproduction of memory, good or bad. We generally don’t pay heed to what our subconscious mind tries to tell. It is sort of dumping bin for our obdurate conscious self. All our socially unacceptable thoughts, malice wishes, pungent desires, harrowing memories, and agonizing emotions come out of mind by the mechanism of mental subjugation. None of us are really beyond the lesser vices like jealousy, greed, narcissism, gender competition, extra-nuptial attractions, over possessiveness, suspicion. Even somewhere deep down we are little jealous on our best friend’s uncanny good luck or own little sister’s shockingly good looking boy friend.

May be not always, but somewhere, sometime! We all crave for good luck, career, wealth, life, look or love at some point of our life. The subtle try to attract the guy wearing dresses with deep neckline, showing little skin and inviting him in the mysterious world physical attraction. We all have our own share of memories, a deep passionate kiss with the slender, tall, dark boy – long lost and all rusty enough to forget. Embarrassing enough to even remember – because it all happened under the cozy welcoming darkness lying underneath a huge eucalyptus tree. The memory of getting bullied by the so called babes of the college for wearing a awkward pink dress in the prom night.

All our secret cravings, moments of fear, horrific memories come out of some or the other incident that happened at some point of time. In most cases we don’t want to remember them, specially the cases like rape, or physical tortures. But not always we hate to remember, especially when those moments are much cherished deep within our hearts. Albeit our consciousness doesn’t allows us to brood over these not more than a minute or so. Yet at the same time, no matter how hard we try, it keeps on creeping into our mind time again, making us more guilt conscious and helplessly angry with our selves.

"If someone talks of sub consciousness, I cannot tell whether he means the term topographically – to indicate something lying in the mind beneath consciousness – or qualitatively – to indicate another consciousness, a subterranean one, as it were. He is probably not clear about any of it. The only trustworthy antithesis is between conscious and unconscious." – Sigmund Freud

When we are awake we try to be good as far as it is not charging us any toll. But once we drown deeper under the thick layers of sleep and the so called sentinel of consciousness starts to loosen its grips, we slowly and reluctantly surrender ourselves in the hands of our darker self. Where there is no rule, no moral values, no righteousness prevailing, yelling at us to behave appropriately.

At that point of time the dreams, good or bad, seeps in and spreads all over like fog. Slowly enough tightens the clasps and binds us with our own fantasies. The good dreams are the reflection of our unspoken and undone good aspirations, whatever we know is going to be accepted and appreciated by society as well if ever done really. But then how many of us really lucky enough to have sweet dreams every night. So what are these bad dreams all about? Our bad dreams, dreaded nightmares are the manifestation of our despicable side. All of a sudden we find ourselves sitting on our bed, heavily pounding heart, panting for air, sweat beads all over our face. All those eerie wishes or much fantasized thoughts start playing around with your mind. Probably you would have tried to abort those at the very moment of conception, but you could not!

We all know about famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud who had written a book naming, “The Interpretation of Dreams”. Let me explain how he tried to relate these subconscious feelings with the attitude and behavior of an individual when he is fully conscious and functional.

"In the following pages, I shall demonstrate that there exists a psychological technique by which dreams may be interpreted and that upon the application of this method every dream will show itself to be a senseful psychological structure which may be introduced into an assignable place in the psychic activity of the waking state. I shall furthermore endeavor to explain the processes which give rise to the strangeness and obscurity of the dream, and to discover through them the psychic forces, which operate whether in combination or opposition, to produce the dream. This accomplished by investigation will terminate as it will reach the point where the problem of the dream meets broader problems, the solution of which must be attempted through other material." – Freud.

Freud believed that the function of dreams is to preserve sleep by representing as fulfilled wishes that would otherwise awaken the dreamer.

"I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in childhood," Freud said

He explained this complex psychological incident with the famous Pleasure Principle which talks about Id, Ego, and Super Ego. Anyway we all know that every human being is a super complex cluster of organism. Human psyche is like a complex nautical knot with many layers, sub layers and pseudo layers. Forget about knowing your parents, boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse, I can bet that you cannot even fully understand yourself!

The three main layers which drive you to behave the way you do, does not work in line. The id is the absolutely unconscious, impulsive, child-like part of the psyche that operates on the "pleasure principle" and is the foundation of basic impulses and drives; it seeks instantaneous gratification and indulgence. Be it physical, mental or pecuniary pleasure. The super-ego is the ethical constituent of the mind, which takes into account no special situation in which the ethically right thing might not be precise for a given circumstances. It is the little governing body within our mind which tries to control and drive us in an ethical way to comply with the civilized society. The ego component is rather rational enough and always attempts to strike a balance between the unrealistic hedonism and impulsiveness of the id and the equally impractical super ethicality of the super-ego. The Ego part of the consciousness usually affects most directly in a person's behavior. When a person comes under huge stress of behaving nicely, and try hard completely out of his / her way, then the ego part starts to employ different automatic defense mechanisms including denial, repression, and displacement. The famous "Iceberg Model" is the best to pictorially depict this complex concept. Id, Ego, and Super Ego play directly with the conscious and unconscious thoughts on a person.

There are different types of nightmares, like; some people see that they are being stabbed by a knife, from back. Some people see they never reach the destination in time no matter how much ever they try. Some others see snakes in their dreams or find themselves stuck under a barrage of water. Many see themselves to fall freely while sleeping and never find anything to hold upon, or sometime running for our lives, but unclear about from whom or what we are running away. And in almost all the nightmare we find ourselves unable to scream, out voice become suddenly muted. But one thing is common for everyone; all our dreams are black and white. No matter how colorful we try to paint them they all are only in different shades of gray.

Though very surprising but indeed sometime we really find ourselves in almost similar situations sometimes. Let me give you some real examples I found from different sources…

"A few days before his assassination, American President Abraham Lincoln, who was very attentive to his dreams, dreamt of his own corpse laid out in a room in the white house."

"Martin Luther King also seems to have had a precognitive dream about his death a few months before his assassination. A day before the Titanic's demise, a woman on the infamous ship dreamt of the horrible event that was to occur the next day. She told her husband, who scoffed at her worries and ignored her pleas. However, the dream so affected her that she secretly prepared herself the night before and had all her children sleep in their warm clothes in order to be ready at a moment's notice. During the night, when the ship struck the iceberg, she and her children managed to escape and be rescued. Her husband, sadly, went down with the ship."

As per Sigmund Freud, very dream good or bad contains two parts, viz. a manifested content and a latent content. Many a times it happened that we cannot recall any part of it, in such a case the dream was constituted with only latest content. The layers of dream is formed with the images captured or sensory impressions stored during the whole day, the images or impressions still lingering from the day before and the id facet of the individual. Super Ego is at its best functionality when you are awake. Ego as well gets a chance to strike a tradeoff between super ego and id only when you are in your senses. But when you are sleeping, you are all alone with your raw instinct and wild id facet of your psyche.

We can analyze an individual’s characteristics and the way he behaves, by analyzing his dreams. You can run, you can hide, but you can't escape your dreams! He might tell ample lies when he is awake, but when he is in way under deep dark sleep his dreams will afloat. And we all know that our dreams never lie. . . ;-)

Dedicated to all the readers of Yellow Torn Pages :-)

If Only...

29th May 2010

Emergency Division, N.R.S. Hospital, Kolkata…

The clock on the wall ticked 3:25am. The darkness outside the corridor is gradually fading into lighter shade of black. Sohini, sitting in the waiting room, shifted on her chair uneasily. Her hollow eyes still trying to search answers to many unanswered questions, even tears on her cheek had dried long back. One attendant was silently entering daily updates of the patients in the desktop computer. The white fluorescent lights seeping out of the artificial ceiling gave the whole corridor a dreamy look. Sohini was waiting there for a long time.

When she first received the call it was somewhat around midnight, the number blinking on the cell phone screen was showing “Baba calling…”. She thought her father might be calling her to wake her up as they arrive. With sleeping eyes she received the call only to hear an unknown voice asking about her relation with Mr. Ashok Roy. Suddenly all the sleepiness rushed away and a blood watering chill ran down her spine. The voice over phone was requesting her to come to NRS hospital. He also informed her if possible then, to get a few elder member of the family with her. With a shivery hand she managed to cut the call and called uncle to inform him about the situation. They stay little away from the main city. She realized that by the time they come to pick her up from home it might be too late for such a grave situation. So she requested them to directly come and meet her at the hospital itself. She had a tough time to get a taxi at that hour of the day, but the taxi driver was good enough to understand the situation and reached her as early as possible.

She barged inside the emergency division, where there were police officers and a few others, might be eye witnesses or passerby. Anyone of them might have called her from her father’s cell phone, she guessed. One of the police officer walked up to her and asked her name and relation with Mr. Roy. Later he only led her to the corridor where there were 4 stretchers kept in a row and none were empty. The officer went up to each and every stretcher and removed the white sheet of cover a little, so that she can identify the faces. First she saw a innocent fair face of a teen boy; her little brother. Dead, her only brother, whom she adored the most, now lying on the stretcher dead as a stone. She touched his small face, still warm. How could he die, possibly he is still alive, if the doctors try a little harder they might be able to save him. She cried for the doctors begging them to look into him once again. Two nurses and a ward-boy came forward to hold her tight. The officer informed her that her brother was still breathing when he was brought to the hospital. But just 15 minutes before he breathed his last. Then he went on to show the other faces, faces of those who were her family. Whom she loved the most, whom she surely never wanted to meet like this. Her younger sister, her grandmother, and her Maa at the last. She cried like a baby hugging her mother’s body. The officer went on telling her something more, but all the worldly sounds started to fade away. Neither she could hear anything, nor was able to grasp the reality. After some time, she didn’t know how long she wept; she suddenly stood straight and asked the officer about her father. She claimed to see her father. He informed her that he was the only one who was still breathing although his condition was severely critical. He was admitted in the emergency department and was taken inside the OT. The doctors and surgeons are attending him. The nurses and the ward boy took her to the sitting area, offered her a glass of water which she inattentively denied. Then they handed over a form to sign. She could not even read a single letter, she just signed wherever they were instructing her. Within 15 minutes her uncle and aunt and her cousin brother arrived there. The police officers were still there waiting to finish the formalities. They informed them about the incident and the casualties and showed them the bodies. All those people who were very much alive even a day before and were as much important part of her life and existence as her own life, all of a sudden they became bodies!

Her uncle and aunt went up to the counter to do the payment formalities. Her cousin was calling the mortuary vehicles and talking to the police regarding body release and all. She was getting drifted away in some other reality, where she thought that all these are nothing but a horrific nightmare and things will just be fine as soon as she will wake up in the morning. She loved the thought so much that at the back of her mind she even started to believe that thought as true. She was already feeling numb; and now suddenly started to feel nauseated and was slowly losing her consciousness. A nurse came out with speeding pace; stood just in front of Sohini. The nurse thought that the girl had slept off because of tiredness and shock. She kept a hand softly on her shoulder and gently shook her awake. It gave her a start, she nodded confusingly. She was handed over a prescription signed by the operating doctor, asking her to fetch 2 bottle of O Negative blood. The nurse said that she needs to arrange the blood immediately, otherwise they might not be able to save her father’s life. She left the hospital immediately for the blood bank nearby. Her uncle and cousin also left for another two blood banks little far from the hospital.

4 hours before…

Around 11:05am, 28th May, the majestic GT Road lay like a giant serpent under the pitch black sky of new moon. A Maruti Zen, speeding from Durgapur to Kolkata. Mr. Roy, 58 years, was driving the car. Beside his driver’s seat his elderly mother, 77 years, Amala Devi was sitting. On the rear seat His wife Shreeparna, 55, was sitting with their daughter Shreyashi, 19, and only son Souvik, 15 on both the side. Both the kids were sleeping, leaning against their mother’s shoulder. The couple’s eldest daughter Sohini, 23, was not with them. She used to stay in Delhi then, working with an MNC as a software engineer. She flew back to Kolkata in the afternoon that day. The Roy family was actually going to Kolkata to meet a prospective groom’s family for Sohini’s marriage. The indicator of the speedometer was showing 70kmph. Mr. Ashok hoped they might be able to reach Kolkata before midnight. Engrossed in his own thoughts he didn’t realize that now the 4 lane road has changed into a single lane and loaded trucks and Lorries are coming with full speed from the opposite direction. With a sudden start he heard a shrill honk of a ten wheeler giant road liner in front of his Zen. And the next moment he was trying to maneuver the car more towards the left to get away from the wheeling giant. But it was already too late. The two moving vehicles collided head on, and the last sound Mr. Ashok heard was a blood curdling mixture of metallic thud and horrified shrieks coming out from the others inside the car. The giant wheeler pushed the half battered Zen a few yards back and forced to a halt with all ten tires screeching sharply against the concrete road. Smoke rose from the engine…

4am, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Emergency Blood Bank…

Sohini was standing on the other side of the counter, her slender body leaning against the counter wall to support her weight. She was holding one bottle of O- blood in her right hand; her left hand was still on the prescription indexing the sentence mentioned 2 bottles. The attendant on the other side of the counter was nodding his head helplessly, and muttering the same line again and again, that there was only one bottle there, he himself went and checked the storeroom. “Madam, you must know, how rare O Negative blood is to get, that too all of a sudden.” Sohini’s mind had taken so much in such a small span of time that she was beyond any reasoning. She found herself shouting over her voice which sounded hoarse even to her ears. She was mechanically pressing her mobile phone buttons to call her uncle for any news of one more bottle of O Negative blood. Her face muscles shagged after she heard the response from the other side. She is not going to let her father die on the operation table, not at least not because of blood deficiency. Her father, whose blood was throbbing in her heart, how can she let him die, till her lungs still pumping air out of her body? If so, she will compel the doctors to take the last drop of her own blood to save her father’s life. She forcefully pushed the thought out of her mind, paid the attendant for the one bottle of blood she managed to collect and rushed out of the blood bank. She called one taxi and headed towards NRS hospital.

5:05am, outside OT, Emergency Division, N.R.S. Hospital…

The morning sky was all getting dressed up with the reddish tint of the vermilion colored baby sun. Dr. Dibakar Banerjee, a veteran in surgery, who was operating her father, was trying to console her. Three mini vans were standing outside the hospital. Two of which were ready to leave with the four bodies. The third one was waiting for the last body. Sohini was sitting on her knees with her face pushed within her palms in front of her father’s dead body. A whole new surge of tears and helpless emotion was bursting out of her big eyes. Her whole world turned upside down within a few hours span. Her voice was already hoarser and all cracked because of pain and shock. Three four nurses, her uncle, aunt, cousin and a few kind hearted relatives of some other patients tried to lift her to sit on a chair. One nurse tried to give her a little water. Even the nurses’ eyes were wet with sympathy. There was only one thing which stood still in that chaos, the bottle of blood which she managed to collect, stood alone atop the counter in front of the emergency division. She was supposed to bring another bottle of blood. But her father solved the problem for her. He left this world before they could pump even the first bottle of blood in his body.

Sohini, 23, was sitting alone, on a chair, with no one of her family left for her to lend a shoulder to cry on. One single night, changed her whole world, her life changed forever…

Time passed by. She needed a change in her life. She applied for transfer. Her company transferred her to Bangalore a year later…

29th May 2012

10:00am, Infosys Campus, Electronic City, Bangalore

Sohini was sitting inside her cubicle. She had an invitation letter lying on her desk. She was playing with the envelope with her slender fingers inattentively. She just opened the envelope letter without any specific thought. Her eyes stuck on the word “blood donation”. She read the rest of the letter with a frown between her brows. When she managed to finish the invitation her eyes were already burning in pain. Suddenly her eyes fell on the table calendar, which was showing 28th May – she forgot to change the date after coming to office today. She felt a sharp pang in her heart reminding her the day – the very day. The day she will never forget, yet cannot remember exactly the time and chronology. It seems like a watermark etched deep in her mind. She mechanically stood on her heels and walked up to the water filter to have a little water. She tried to gather herself together. She had already decided to go for this blood donation camp. She asked her best friend Ashmita to come with her if she wished to do so. She told her where she was going. Ashmita came out with her. Both of them went to the blood donation camp at IFIM B School Campus. While lying on the camp bed with needle inserted in her hand, a sole thought kept haunting her mind, if only she could give her blood to her father, if only her father would have given her a little more time to fetch the other bottle of blood, if only….

She thought, her blood might be able to save a life. At least it will be able save a father and a daughter, if not her’s. A single tear droplet rolled down the corner of her eye, she felt relieved…

*** This one i wrote for my college magazine. My first humble try to write a story. The theme of the story is partly imaginary and partly based on some true incidents happened in the past. ***

A Game of Thrones

Writer: George R. R. Martin

Series: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book Two (I)

Genre: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Medieval Fantasy


Other Books in the Series: A Clash of Kings,
                                            A Storm of Swords
                                            A Feast for Crows

Language: English

Publisher: Bantam Books

Catalog Reference: ISBN 978 0 553 57990 1

Website: www.bantamdell.com,
               www.georgerrmartin.com

Appreciations Received: 
  

I have chosen only a very few...

The Denver Post -
"Martin amply fulfills the first volume's promise and continues what seems destined to be one of the best fantasy series ever written"


"The major fantasy of the decade."

Robert Jordan -
"Grabs hold and won't let go. It's brilliant""


Chicago Sun-Times -
"Reminiscent of T. H. White's The Once and Future King, this novel is an absorbing combination of mythic, the sweepingly historical, and the intensely personal."

Ann McCaffrey -
"Such a splendid tale and such a fantistorical! I read my eyes out."

Awards & Nominations:

Locus Award – Best Novel (Fantasy) (Won) – (1997)
 
World Fantasy Award – Best Novel (Nominated) – (1997)

Hugo Award – Best Novella for Blood of the Dragon (Won) – (1997)

Nebula Award – Best Novel (Nominated) – (1997)

Ignotus Award – Best Novel (Foreign) (Won) – (2003)

Glimpse:

Price:  $8.99 US, $9.99 Canada.

Digital Fortress

Writer: Dan Brown

Genre: Science Fiction, Techno Thriler

Language: English

Translated in: 24 different languages

Publisher:

Catalog Reference: ISBN 

Website: http://www.danbrown.com , http://www.danbrown.com/#/digitalFortress

Appreciations Received: 
  

I have chosen only a very few...

Times -

"Engaged me instantly…keeps up a cracking pace as the mystery deepens and disaster follows disaster."

Book list -

"The National Security Agency (NSA) is one setting for this exciting thriller; the other is Seville, where on page 1 the protagonist, lately dismissed from NSA, drops dead of a supposed heart attack. Though dead, he enjoys a dramaturgical afterlife in the form of his computer program. Digital Fortress creates unbreakable codes, which could render useless NSA's code-cracking supercomputer called TRANSLTR, but the deceased programmer slyly embossed a decryption key on a ring he wore. Pursuit of this ring is the engine of the plot. NSA cryptology boss Trevor Strathmore dispatches linguist Dave Becker to recover the ring, while he and Becker's lover, senior code-cracker Susan Fletcher, ponder the vulnerability of TRANSLTR. In Seville, over-the-top chase scenes abound; meanwhile, the critical events unfold at NSA. In a crescendo of murder, infernos, and explosions, Brown's skill at hinting and concealing the twist will rivet cyber-minded readers."

Sunday Express -
"Fast paced with plenty of twists and turns...the reader remains gripped, trying to guess where its going next…one of the best thrillers on the book stands. Don't miss it."

John J. Nance -

"A disturbing, cutting-edge techno-thriller which should galvanize everyone who sends or receives E-mail or even dreams of navigating the Web. Dan Brown has unleashed a surprise: a gripping story on the frontier of cyberspace which adroitly explores the frighteningly delicate line between defending us and controlling us."

Midwest Book Review -
"Digital Fortress is the best and most realistic techno-thriller to reach the market in years. Dan Brown's ability to paint in living color the gray area between personal freedom vs. national security is awesome. The story line is so good, readers will feel a chilling thrill a minute as the book makes one think who is truly the terrorist and who is actually freedom's guardian."

Publishers Weekly -

"Information age terrorism is the topical subject of Brown's inventive debut thriller about a virtual attack on the National Security Agency's top-secret super computer, TRANSLTR. Although TRANSLTR is meant to monitor and decode e-mail between terrorists, the computer can also covertly intercept e-mail between private citizens. The latter capability drives former NSA programmer Ensei Tankado to paralyze TRANSLTR with Digital Fortress, a devious mathematical formula with an unbreakable code. Tankado then demands that the NSA publicly admit TRANSLTR's existence or he will auction Digital Fortress's pass-key to the highest bidder. Brown cleverly makes ironic, mischievous Tankado (who dies in the first chapter) the most interesting character in the book and its real protagonist, as the programmer posthumously outmaneuvers his opposition, countering their obsessive quest for complex solutions with brilliant simplicity. His favorite saying, "Who will guard the guards?" stands in noble contrast to the NSA agents self-righteous insistence that they always know what is best for America... In this fast-paced, plausible tale, Brown blurs the line between good and evil enough to delight patriots and paranoids alike."


Amazon.com, Thrillers Editor's Recommended book -

"This crisp and pungent first thriller by Dan Brown, who teaches English at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, will delight all sorts of readers--especially anyone who knows anything about computers and encryption software such as PGP (for Pretty Good Privacy). "To make their charade of incompetence complete," Brown writes, "the NSA [National Security Agency, but so secret that it's also known as No Such Agency] lobbied fiercely against all new encryption software, insisting it crippled them and made it impossible for lawmakers to catch and prosecute the criminals. Civil rights groups cried foul, insisting the NSA shouldn't be reading their mail anyway. Encryption software kept rolling off the presses. The NSA had lost the battle--exactly as it had planned." In Digital Fortress, the NSA's secret weapon is a giant, multibillion-dollar computer called TRANSLTR, which can crack any code in seconds. The trouble starts when a renegade scientist comes up with an unbreakable code, Digital Fortress, and then threatens to give it away on the Internet. Along with the techno-babble, there are some very interesting human characters, including a heroic anguage teacher-turned-spy."


Don Ulsch, Managing Director, The National Security Institute -

"You are not going to forget Dan Brown! Comparisons of Brown to Tom Clancy are inevitable and justified. What Clancy has written so convincingly about the CIA and the FBI, Brown has accomplished masterfully for the secretive National Security Agency in "Digital Fortress". Dan Brown has crafted a powerful and memorable novel that is alive and kicking with intrigue, covert action, and more twists and turns than the NSA has underground bunkers. No longer can we think of Tom Clancy as the dominant literary icon with unequaled insight into the intelligence community: Dan Brown has charged that intrepid hill and now occupies the same high ground. "Digital Fortress" is frighteningly real, filled with honor and dishonor, passion and conviction, life and death, the love of country, and the inescapable conclusion that each of us understands deep inside: the complex simplicity of right and wrong and the strength of love are our beacons of hope."


David Pogue, Mac World Magazine -

"A techno-thriller is only as thrilling as its realness--and if Dan Brown's gut-churning story were any realer, its plot turns would hurl you against the wall."


Glimpse:


This is a Scientific Fiction & Thriller about how unsafe your private and personal life is in front of Government intrusion and interference. It puts us facing an unfriendly but true question of Government's Security Department's ethics and so called citizen liberty and freedom.

How much safe your private and utterly personal conversations or chatting sessions with your best buddy are and how much safe your emails or phone calls to your closed ones are - that is under a big question mark now.

The story is woven around some crucial characters viz, Susan Fletcher - The NSA's Head Cryptographer, and the story's lead character, David Becker - A Professor of Modern Languages and the fiancé of Susan Fletcher, Ensei Tankado - The author of Digital Fortress and a disgruntled former NSA employee, Commander Trevor Strathmore - NSA Deputy Director of Operations and main antagonist, Phil Chartrukian - Sys-Sec Technician, Greg Hale - NSA Cryptographer, Leland Fontaine - Director of NSA, "Hulohot" - An assassin hired to locate the Passkey and secondary antagonist, Midge Milken - Fontaine's internal security analyst, Chad Brinkerhoff - Fontaine's personal assistant, "Jabba" - NSA's senior System Security Officer, Tokugen Numataka - Japanese Executive attempting to purchase Digital Fortress.

The story starts with the incident when Commander Strathmore asks Susan Fletcher, ingeniously excellent Cryptographer and indeed an asset of NSA, to decipher the unique and complex code called Digital Fortress and she eventually fails to even crack the very first clue itself. Digital Fortress is the brain child of Ensei Tankado a former NSA employee who became sad and frustrated with the NSA's intrusion into people's private lives which he strongly believed to be extremely unethical to do.

Now the twist comes in the story line when some unknown killer ends the life of Ensei Tankado and he dies without sharing the Passkey to decipher the ultimate complex code "Digital Fortress". There is a second person called North Dakota who claims to know the passkey and makes a call to Tokugen Numataka with a business proposition. Someone hired an ace assasin Hulohot to get rid of some unwanted but crucial people.

What will happen to if no one is able to find the Passkey? Or what risk or threat it holds within its coded lines? Who killed Ensei Tankado? Whether Susan Fletcher ultimately finds a way to decode Digital Fortress?

Feeling curious enough to read the novel, then go get your copy! Happy Reading. . . :)

Price:  £5.99 UK, ₹299/- INR.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Writer: Harper Lee

Genre: Southern Gothic, Fiction

Language: English

Translation: Translated in to 40 different languages

Publisher: Arrow Books

Catalog Reference: ISBN 978 0 09 954948 2

Website: www.rbooks.co.uk

Sales: Sold over 30 million copies

Appreciations Received: 
  

I have chosen only a very few...

Truman Capote -
"Someone rare has written this very fine novel, a writer with the liveliest sense of life and the warmest most authentic humor. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable"

Independent -
"No one ever forgets this book"

Daily Express -
"A rich and remarkable novel"

Guardian -
"One of the best first novels I remember... Uniquely unsentimental"

Sunday Times -
"There is humor as well as tragedy in this book, besides its faint note of hope for human nature; and it is delightfully written"

Time's Magazine 1960 review -

"teaches the reader an astonishing number of useful truths about little girls and about Southern life"

Chicago Sunday Tribune -
"This is in no way a sociological novel. It underlines no cause... To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel of strong contemporary national significance."


 Glimpse:


The story revolves around the old town called Maycomb, Alabama. In this story the main characters are a six year old girl Scout Finch, her brother Jem and their father Atticus. Atticus is a widower. Atticus is a lawyer. They have a weird loner neighbor called Boo Radley. Nobody seems to be willing to talk about Radley.

Incidentally Atticus gets appointed to defend Mr. Tom Robinson, a black man, who was accused of raping a white girl 'Mayella'. The girl's father town drunkard Bob Ewell plans to humiliate Atticus in front of the whole town for defending Tom in the court.

Whether Tom did really rape Mayella or not? Who kills Tom Robinson and why? Ultimately, whether Atticus could prove Tom's innocence or not? What happens to Scout when reclusive and mysterious Boo Radley finds her walking down a dark lane alone with Jem? Who kept those gifts under the tree near Radley's house and why?

One thing I can say with confidence that this novel will not let you down. This is one of the best novel I have ever read. It is an unputdownable novel in true sense!

Feeling curious enough to read the novel, then go get your copy! Happy Reading. . . :)

Price:  £ UK, ₹350/- INR.

The Kite Runner

Writer: Khaled Hosseini

Other Creations: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Genre: Historical Fiction, Drama

Language: English

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Catalog Reference: ISBN 978 1 59448 000 3

Website: www.riverheadbooks.com, www.khaledhosseini.com

Appreciations Received: 
  

I have chosen only a very few...

Atlanta Journal - Constitution -
“An astounding and humbling story of corruption, guilt and redemption. Epic in scope and intimate in its emotions, this terrific novel opens a window into a devastated country and takes us deep into the hearts and minds of those pierced by violence.”

Publishers Weekly -
“Stunning…a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium.”

People -
“Like Gone with the Wind, this extraordinary first novel locates the personal struggles of everyday people in the terrible sweep of history.”


Entertainment Weekly -
“Poignant…The Kite Runner offers a moving portrait of modern Afghanistan, from its pre-Russian-invasion glory days through the terrible reign of the Taliban.”

New York Times Book Review -
“This powerful first novel, by an Afghan physician now living in California, tells a story of fierce cruelty and fierce yet redeeming love…In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini gives us a vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence – forces that continue to threaten them even today.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer -
“From the first lines of The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini shows how an engaging novel begins – with simple, exquisite writing that compels the reader to turn the page. But The Kite Runner, Hosseini’s first novel, is more than just good writing. It is also a wonderfully conjured story that offers a glimpse into an Afghanistan most Americans have never seen, and depicts a side of humanity rarely revealed.”


The Washington Post Book World -

“A powerful book…no frills, no nonsense, just hard, spare prose…an intimate account of family and friendship, betrayal and salvation that requires no atlas or translation to engage and enlighten us. Parts of The Kite Runner are raw and excruciating to read, yet the book in its entirety is lovingly written.”

Diane Sawyer -
“An astonishing, powerful book.”

* A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
* An Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Fiction Pick of the Year
* An American Library Association Notable Book
* Recipient of The American Place Theatre’s Literature to Life Award

Glimpse:

The story is about a boy called Amir from Wazir Akbar Khan district, Afghanistan. He is the protagonist and he is now a grown up man trying his hard luck as a writer in California, USA. The story talks about how the adult Amir goes back to Afghanistan to get answers for some unasked questions and to find solace through this search.

In the story Amir as the protagonist tell you about his childhood days and talks about his childhood best friend Hassan and his Baba's hazara servant Ali. How the society treated the well to do pushtan boy Amir and poor hazara servant boy Hassan differently and how lucky Amir was to be the son of a wealthy merchant.

The grown up Amir turns the pages of his memory's album and tells you how brave, stout and adventurous Hassan was as a kid and how cowered and spineless young Amir was. How Hassan used to run to fetch the cut kites and how Amir let Assef rape Hassan and kept mumb to save his own reputation.

The story talks about the Pedophilia, Nazism, Drug abuse, Sadism prevalent in Afghanistan. It tell the tale of how barbaric and gruesome and sadistic a Taliban could be and how unsafe and tortured the young servant boys are.

The main characters are Amir, Hassan, Assef, Baba, Ali, Rahim Khan, Soraya, Sohrab and some other significant characters like Sanaubar, Farid, General Taheri, Khala, Khanum Jamila, Farzana etc.

It also talks about how grown up Amir goes back to his native to find out Hassan's little boy child Sohrab, and save him from his gruesome painful life. Sohrab was also a victim of Pedophilia and was bought and repeatedly raped by Assef (who also raped Sohrab's father Hassan when they were young).

This is a story of a man who repent for his cowardice of his young age and tries to do something good to make up for that wrong doings by saving his childhood best friend's son.

Price:  £ UK, ₹350/- INR.

The Alchemist

Writer: Paulo Coelho

Language: Portuguese (Original), English (Translated)

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

Catalog Reference: ISBN 978 81 7223 498 0

Website: www.harpercollins.co.uk/paulocoelho
                www.paulocoelho.com

Appreciations Received:  

I am choosing only a very few out of hundreds of so. . .

Madonna -
"The Alchemist is a beautiful book about magic, dreams and the treasures we seek elsewhere and then end on our doorstep"

The Times - 

"His books have had a life-enhancing impact on millions of people"

Glimpse:

This is a story of a boy called Santiago and his journey to the unknown lands of Tangier and Egypt. He is a poor Andalusian shepherd who always dreamt about traveling the world, see new lands, meet new people. He had a dream of discovering some extravagant hidden treasures someday.s

The story tells us how this small shepherd boy travels the world and ultimately meets an alchemist who was actually waiting for him to come.

The Alchemist is a story of our hidden dreams, and it essentially teaches us how to listen to our heart to pursue our dreams no matter how impossible those seem at first. It casts a permanent impression on your mind and after reading this novel you will be a different person, at least your perception about your life surely will change.

Go, get your copy today itself if not yet done so!

Price:  £ UK, ₹250/- INR

Brida

Writer: Paulo Coelho

Language: Portuguese (Original),
                   English (Translated)

Translated into English by: Margaret Jull Costa

Genre: Love, Passion, Mystery, Spiritual

Publisher: Harper-Collins Publishers

Catalog Reference:
ISBN 978 0 00 727859 6

Website: www.harpercollins.co.uk ,
                www.paulocoelho.com

 
Appreciations Received:

I am choosing only a very few out of hundreds of so. . .

Glimpse:

This is a story about an Irish girl Brida and her quest for life and knowledge. It is a story of the transformation of a small shy cocoon into a beautiful free butterfly. Brida is beautiful and has keen interest a undiscovered gift in dark magic or witchcraft.













On her journey to enlightenment she meets a man who teaches her how to overcome all the fear that will come in her path and a woman who will teach her how to dance to the clandestine music of the dark world. She gradually finds out her own path towards the self discovery. But to do so whether she will be able to strike a balance between her loyalty for relationship and the ultimate quest for transforming into something brighter and eternal... Which one she will ultimately sacrifice...



Price:  £UK, ₹299/- INR