Slideshow

Love is not a mediocre thing

One of my favorites quotes for a long time has been, ‘The world is full of mediocre things, don’t make love one of them’. I have found that there are others too who have quoted something on similar lines and so here it doesn’t really matter who actually said it initially or who the quote should be attributed to. The bottom-line is it has a universal appeal and is an inspiration in itself.

The quote, its words convey a thought, a sentiment and a meaning with depth that holds love as one of the most special emotions of the world. This is, of course, true whether it is acknowledged or not, mentioned or not, said out aloud or not.

Moving away, for the moment, from romantic love which is maybe the most acknowledged and spoken about kind of love, I would like to ponder on the various other possibilities of love. It is as vast as the sky itself and I believe, if, as the quote says, we don’t, due to our hectic schedules or whatever other reasons, make love a mediocre feeling, it can make the world a better place to live in. On one hand it can bring about a worldly closeness and understanding and on the other, it can enhance a personal satisfaction of loving and being loved in return.

Love is a feeling that is not underrated but is surely less acknowledged and less appreciated. It is taken for granted in most cases. There are too many kinds of love than can be counted. Actually, love can be felt for all. Both animate and inanimate. People, places, plants, animals and nature.  Humans and animals have the tendency to love and value love.

One of the simplest examples is a dog’s faithfulness for his master. Does that faithfulness come without love? In return, the master’s acute affection for his pet! Is that possible without love? I remember our pet dog’s anguish when dad passed away. The Labrador just wouldn’t let anyone take dad away and he had to be chained to a grill at the verandah to move the body. Later on, he wouldn’t move away from the bed for months and nothing could coax him out of his grief.

Similarly, I remember a family friend who was broken down with sadness and had spent thousands or Rupees in the treatment of his Alsatian which had cancer and looked after it with ultimate devotion until its last breath. That is the emotion called love and it can only be felt. Love in the heart does make one richer.

We know of love in various forms. We have the patriotic kind of love, the examples of which roll in one after another in our history books. The love between siblings, parents, friends, colleagues and so on only enable us to have a better understanding of ourselves and of others, allow for a tolerance to be bred that is very much necessary to make this world a better place to live in.

After all, what does one really want at the end of the day? Something to be smiling about? Does riches and success really have the capacity to bring in a true smile unless love is in the vicinity, in whatever form?

In Soulmates Never Part, there is a portion of the story where Sheila has attained success as per her standards but is she able to really enjoy what she has. Is she able to go to bed with a smile and wake up looking forward eagerly to the next day?

I do think we need to give a thought to love in its many forms. It would make us better human beings and help make this world a lovelier place to live in.

Writing an introduction

Introducing a story, a plot or a book to its potential readers is not very easy and has to be given sufficient thought. The introductory write up has to be interesting enough to hold the attention of the persons reading it. It should provide a beginning of sorts and yet leave the continuation wide open to the imagination of the readers. They should be able to explore possibilities if they like. The main aim of the introduction is to make the potential readers get interested enough to find out what is going on in the story. The briefest introduction to Soulmates Never Part is in the next paragraph.

Twenty six year old Sheila Kumar meets Abel Freeman, a fellow countryman across the oceans, in a chat room, and against all the odds finds a soulmate in him. Five years of intermittent internet chats churn up emotions and expectations that result in the need for a meeting. After an inevitable, passionate encounter, Abel mentions his darkest secret to her from the very bottom of his heart. Is Sheila sophisticated enough to handle it like a soulmate, or is she only human enough to err?

www.shampasharma.com

Mentation on a Sunday morning

A cup of morning tea in the comfort of my garden, a cool breeze touching my face and a newspaper to read has been my favorite start of a Sunday morning for several years now.

Only, over a few months I am just not able to like most the news headlines that I come across. There is too much that is going on that I am not able to find that makes me feel good. What with rapes and murders, terrorisms, ambushes, accidents, illnesses and natural calamities dominating the scenario it seems that goodness and progress has taken a backseat.

There is so much talent around and scores of people who would like to contribute to the development process according to their capacities and yet where and how to do it is still a question. I am thankful to all the good people out there doing all the good work in trying to make the world a better place to live in. There is the law, the police, the doctors and teachers and so many others who work relentlessly in making our society better every single day. The soldiers guard our country with their life.

But where do entertainers, film makers, artists, singers, actors and authors come in. What is their contribution to society? Why are people always looking forward to the next film or the next book that is going to hit the stands? How come before or after we have read a newspaper we categorically look for the daily cartoon? Amongst the seriousness or news, things going on around our immediate vicinity, we look for some kind of source that allows us to relax, even if for a few cool moments. Maybe that is why people go to watch films. It is to appreciate an art, a thinking, a talent along with the opportunity of taking one’s mind off oneself for a while and relaxation.

People have different frames of mind and different backgrounds and make different choices in their preferences and hence we have genres in films and books. While the intellectuals may go for science fiction, adventure and mystery, there are others who like to go in for lighter stuff. That’s actually where the genres of humor and romance come in.

My book belongs to the general category. It is fiction, romance and fantasy to an extent. It is the story of two people who have a long distance connection and the plot hits hard when Abel blurts out to Sheila a secret that he cannot share with anyone else in the world. Where does it take them from there? A good story should be able to hold the reader. It should be able to make the reader ask questions and read on to find the answers.

I hope my readers will enjoy reading Soulmates Never Part.

Love is important

Soulmates Never Part is a romance, a love and a relationship that explores emotions between two people who have never met. And when they meet, they discover more than that they had bargained for. Where do they head from here on? What would they a come across from this point onward and how do they handle it? I am sure my readers would look for clashes and challenges, understandings and misunderstandings, ups and downs, passion and protest. But above all, wouldn’t they like to believe in the magic of romance and the spell that love can cast.

Everyday life is hectic. Sometimes it’s pleasurable to get hold of a good book.  And what better than a good story which can take you away for a good while. Life is lovely when romance is in the air. It is actually sheer escapism. For most readers, the ‘lived happily ever after’ endings is relaxing to the mind. When happiness pours in after all the time it has taken to reach it, it gives hope to many a reader. Hope in achieving what the heart was bent on after the hurdles have been crossed.

What is life and what is a romance that doesn’t have challenges to offer. What is the fun if you haven’t been to the edge of the cliff and have only stared at it from a distance? Sheila and Abel, in Soulmates Never Part do have challenges to face both from within and outside. They are separate and yet very much together. A story of intrigue and admiration, of expectations and disappointments, Soulmates Never Part offers the patient simplicity of love in a complex world.

India: The ancient, the eternal and the ever-new

The following is considered to be one of the greatest speeches of all times and to be a landmark oration that captures the essence of the triumphant culmination of the largely non-violent Indian independence struggle against the British Empire in India. 

The first time I came across it was when I was in Standard IX in KV, Vasco da Gama, Goa. I like to read this speech at least once in a year usually on the eve of our Independence Day.

"Tryst with Destiny" was a speech delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, to the Indian Constituent Assembly in The Parliament, on the eve of India's Independence, towards midnight on 15 August 1947. It focuses on the aspects that transcend India's history.

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity with some pride.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries which are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortunes alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortunes and India discovers herself again.

The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we might fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity.

The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for anyone of them to imagine that it can live apart.

Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.

The appointed day has come - the day appointed by destiny - and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.

It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the east, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materialises. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!

We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrow-stricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.

On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the father of our nation, who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us.

We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.

Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.

We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good and ill fortune alike.

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be.

We are citizens of a great country, on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.

And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service. 

Jai Hind.