Life Inspires

When I started writing the little poems that would later be published as " Loveflakes : Memories of Mirages ", I just wanted to express myself. Yes, I always knew that I would like to see these verses as part of a book some day, but I never thought that the book would move and inspire people of all generations. I was so pleasantly surprised and immensely grateful to Dr Vinod Prakash when I found out that he has been silently translating some of the verses into Hindi.  Dr Prakash attended school in his village, studying under the cool shade of old trees. He completed his Master's, B. Ed, and D.Phil from Garhwal Vishwavidyalaya, Srinagar. He spent his professional life teaching primary, intermediate, and Degree classes Hindi and English, before retiring in 2011 from Intermediate College. He loves reading poetry and is especially draw to the works of poets like Keats, Wordsworth, Kabir and several others. At present he is studying literary and spiritual books such as Geeta ,...

Love has been part of the conversation ever since humanity learnt how to communicate. So, you might think that everything that needed to be said has already been said. Yet many of us who brave love feel the need to share our experiences. Love unifies us with infinity. Only while we are in love do we have the opportunity to absorb answers to our existential questions. The cosmos holds these answers, and love is its DNA.  'Loveflakes' did not begin as loveflakes in my mind. It began as short notes to the Beloved, an attempt to capture the constant inner dialogue that one keeps having with oneself in the absence of an outlet. The collection began with a much more direct and personal title "Dear One". I began putting these notes down in a google drive about 2.5 years ago.  But even at that time I was sure that one day, I wanted to see these published as a book. I ran this thought past my friends and family and was overwhelmed by the belief they expressed in me and these l...

There's Something About You is Yashodhara Lal's third book after Just Married, Please Excuse and Sorting Out Sid , and what we can definitely say about the author is that it is very difficult to typecast her work. In each book she's tried something new. While the first book is inspired by her own experiences of her marriage, the second book sets out on a different tangent altogether - Sorting Out Sid is told from the point of view of a male character and is essentially his coming-of-age story. This third book is again something she has never attempted before - it is a story of a woman in her late twenties with familiar concerns such as career, marriage, a negative body image, and such. Though There's Something About You is positioned as a romance novel, the male lead does not even make an entry for the first 9 chapters. And I find this very interesting because the author is able to draw us in so well that we almost don't miss the hero.  In the very first ch...

Even though the book is categorized under short stories, it has a very strong central narrative that runs through these short stories and connects each to another. All tales in the book pivot around the narrator's crumbling life in the backdrop of the seemingly inevitable disintegration of the entire realm of existence. The drunk narrative sucks the reader into its hallucinatory vortex and relentlessly makes one confront the very real questions one would rather avoid. The imagery used is powerful, disturbing, and beautiful at the same time.  The themes that the stories and the central narrative touches are at the core of many problems plaguing the world today. Without being didactic or preachy, the author effectively makes the readers stop in their paths and wonder about where the world is coming from and where it is headed. Even though the book is a serious work and deals with serious topics, the author's matter-of-fact vocal tone is refreshing and provides a much-need...