Six things that made me happy today

1. So there is this new friend and we had a great conversation together. After a long time found a good mate to talk to, someone who didn't judge me for anything I said. Even though we aren't too close friends but somewhere down the line it felt good to have a friend who would just let you be yourself and not fake things.

2. I had to get my CMAT admit card attested and these people at college were bothering me too much asking me to run from pillar to post till a very kind person at the registrar office got the things done. I'v never seen him before but I am glad he was present, at least there are some good people in the world that still exist. May God bless him.

3. I hadn't eaten anything since morning and finally at 4 p.m chana masala with two of my girl friends after college was totally a bliss. And the yummy rasmalai just made the day.

4. Had this peaceful two hour nap(8 p.m-10 p.m) after long.

5. A call from my best friend with whom I had fought yesterday made the day even better.

6. A very close friend got through all the rounds of the placement drive today, results awaited. I just hope she gets selected.

I’ve shared good amount of my real life experience and incidents in the novel: Arpit Vageria

Congratulations for your book Arpit, how did the idea of writing a book creep in your mind?

Thank You. The idea did strike me in one of my conversation with a friend. One fine day he read some stuff that I wrote and was amazed to see that. He said, “There are some things serious and good enough in your life, you should create a story based on that.” I gave it a casual try and then I started enjoying it. I never stopped after that.

How long did you take to write the story?

It took me 2 and a half long years to write it down. Not because there was much of research work in that but because I’ve always been one lazy soul.

What is the story behind the different kind of title of your book? (Do mention about the reason behind ‘Chockolate’ instead of ‘chocolate’)

Reason is very upfront, I've kept it intentionally.  Because it sounds jarring with an extra "K" and that's what the story is also about. It’s not a cheesy love story and I wanted to keep the same feel with TITLE of Novel. Happy to know that readers are finding it justified reason and been able to relate to it as well.

How has your experience been with your publishers? What was the time span of the book having been written and published?

My experience with the publisher has been great till now and I look forward for stronger association with them in coming time as well. It took me 2 and half years to complete it and a year long wait to see it published.

Is this story inspired from actual incidents of your life or is it fiction altogether?

I’ve shared good amount of my real life experience and incidents in the novel.  So, it’s definitely based on it. But it’s work of fiction as well. Because you need to add good amount of fiction as well to make it an amazing script.

The most captivating thing about a book is its cover page and your book seems to top on it. What do you feel?

Quite true. I am in love with cover page since the day I saw it. I sincerely thank Pinaki De(My cover designer) for designing such a beautiful cover which complements the story well. Though, many people are of opinion that it’s Arpit Vageria in the cover image I’ve kept the answer open.J

Tell us something about your book.

My book’s story goes around three different cities. Indore, Pune and Mumbai. Arnab is male protagonist and Jahnvi is female protagonist. Story revolves around their changing values of relationship with changing cities.

Story shows different stages in a relationship.- Smooth.Dark.Sinful.

Yes, As I said- Story is developed in three different cities. Indore, Pune and Mumbai. It shows the Smooth, Dark and sinful phase of story in respective cities.

What does Arpit do when he is not writing?

I do a lot of music, travelling, reading, photography and sports when not writing.

Do you plan to write more?

Yes, I got excellent response on my debut novel till now. So I would definitely love to write much more stories and address different topics and issues in my upcoming stories. Infact, i’ve already started working on my second.

What according to you is the best field for a writer to earn capital out of his creativity?

Well, Writing doesn’t pay you good in India as it does outside. Still, I think if you want to make your passion of writing a career, one should try and get into screenplay writing too along with writing a novel. It gives multiple and better opportunity.

Who is your favourite author and what are your favourite literary works?

It’s difficult to name one, I love reading stories of different genres. But I like Nicolas Sparks, Mohsin Hamid and Betty Mahmoody the most.

My favorites are-
1). Not without my daughter- Betty Mahmoody
2). The Secret- Rhonda Byrne
3). The last song- Nicholas sparks
4). A Walk to remember- Nicholas Sparks

5) Moth Smoke- Mohsin hamid

Comment on the present scenario of Indian literary circle.

Well, I am too young to comment on it. Still, I think there are many good storytellers coming up and trying to get themselves published, Worst part- In a hurry to see themselves published, many of them aren’t been able to do justice to story, concept and language.

Hope to see much better Indian story, Authors in future.

Best Wishes!

Thank you Arpit, it was great chatting with you. All the very  best for your future endeavours.

Grab your copies from HomeShop18, Flipkart or Infibeam

Know more about the book here

Book Review: 'I Live For You' by Dhanashri Kadam

Title: I Live For You

Author: Dhanashri Kadam

Publisher: White Feather Publications

Price: 120 INR

A story of dreams, love and destiny, I live for you is a tender tale of Shria and Aaditya which will leave a mesmerizing impact on its readers. With breakups and divorces so rampant, I Live for you will surely make the readers think about their relationships again. It could work as a prescription for the broken hearts assures the author. I Live for you is a must read for all the people who believe in love and also who are living their lives for someone. A reader will not merely read it, he will live this book.
The name or the face of the person you love will automatically pop up in front of your eyes promises the author. Missing this book will not be a big issue obviously; however, you will miss the chance of falling in love again. Lets rekindle all those soft memories of the newly in love moments Lets fall in love with I Live For You which is not just a love story, its the love of a story!!

The story revolves around Aaditya and Shria, two people who are already in a relationship and know each other through a common reference, Neha who happens to be Aaditya’s sister and Shria’s closest friend. While Shria is committed to Varun, Aaditya is going around with Payal, Shria’s college mate. But somewhere down the line Shria and Aaditya get too close. Varun’s behaviour with Shria begins to go off track, he tries to look down upon her and all those times she is supported by Aaditya. And one fine Aaditya confesses his love for Shria, he tells her that he liked her since the first day he saw her at his place. Shria has a dream that night about Aaditya and being together. Both of them are perplexed at the situation but there comes a time when they are unable to fight with the circumstances and finally decide to tell the truth to their partners. They face a lot of criticisms but their love for each other faces everything. From Shria and Aaditya, they become ‘Aadishri’. But is life destined to be happy forever. There are some more struggles to come in their way. And to know that, do pick up this 150 page beautiful tale.

I bought this book especially because of the unique title it possesses and the complicated plot it deals with. In today’s times, everyone is into relationships that there is no time to realize true love and when it happens, people get in a dilemma. They do not understand what should be done, whether they should cheat their partners or start anew with the person they live. This book seems to have dealt with the positive aspects of such a situation. Many a times we sacrifice our love for someone else but we tend to forget that unless we won’t be in love, we won’t be able to spread love. The book is a quick read with just 150 pages to go but every page has its own essence. Nowhere does it feel that the story is dragging even though I personally feel the intricacies of the situation of being in love with someone else apart from your own partner could have been dealt more detail. But then it isn’t harming the book in anyway. I found 2-3 errors related to homophones as in ‘career’ was spelt as ‘carrier’ and ‘vain’ was spelt as ‘vein’. Overall the story has a smooth flow and finds a place among the good light romantic reads. Grab your copies from Flipkart

Book Review: 'An Excursion of Insight' by Harsh Agarwal

Guest Post by 'Jyotirmoy Mazumdar'

Title: An Excursion of Insight

ISBN: 978-93-82536-04-8

Binding: Paperback

Year: 2013

Pages: xi, 190

Price: INR 190.00

Book Summary:

Sonam was young of course, but this book does not tell the story of just another young lad!

Sonam did fall in love with Sarika, but this is not just another candid love endeavor!

It all happened in an Engineering College Campus, but still it's not just the tale of another Campus.

Sonam, who had his own dreams and vision, came from the Land of Bhutan to India to pursue Engineering.

A Buddhist ( both by birth and faith), a little philosophical too, but the reader is not given a philosophical treatise on Buddhism..

A story that takes you from the valleys and tea-gardens of Assam, to the hullabaloo of student life and eventually to an Excursion, an Excursion of Insight...

Review:

The Excursion of Insight, Sonam, that's what the author calls it, by the name of the lead protagonist, Sonam Dorji, is a good tale about a young lad who travels miles, countries in his case, to pursue engineering. It is inevitable that a guy won't fall in love during Engineering, as the author describes it. The book gets a little philosophical at times but it doesn't hamper the flow, not to mention the different characters and the character buildups the author has put up. But even after you read the blurb, the book, you cannot make out the perfect genre of the book because it isn't a perfect campus romance, nor a candid love story. It has a genre of its own and defines the definitions of uniqueness to a good extent. Though the book has more conversations but it doesn't loose the track. The book can be recommended for the people looking for a love tale with some extra toppings over it. My personal view rates the character of Salil over Sonam, well that's my view, readers will find Sonam to be an interesting prospect. Overall, a good read, and there will hopefully be many more books from Harsh.

Celebrating February with authors

So, as February came by everyone became all gung-ho over love and Valentine's Day. And with all the buzz around, I didn't want to miss the opportunity of cashing in the love moments. So keeping all that in mind, Dreams V/s Reality had its Valentine fest with bloggers speaking out about their plans and views on the V-Day. To add up the spice, I bring to you an interview with two authors of romance, Aakash Deep and Deepali Nandwani.

Dr. Deepali Nandwani juggles between the tough job of a dentist, writer and a mother but amazingly handles everything so well. She already has two wonderfully written romantic reads to her credit. She has another one lined up for release very soon.

In a conversation with Harshita Srivastava, Dr. Deepali talks about her tryst with the pen.

Click here to read the conversation

Aakash Deep, a third year computer science engineering student from Durgapur has come up with his debut novel ‘Those Days… I Never Cared About’. The novel deals with every sphere of teenage life, committing mistakes and learning from them, teaching us so much about things we consider to be irrelevant but they actually matter a lot.

Aakash is not just another engineering student writer. He is also a great guitarist and is a part of Insignia Band. In a chit chat with Harshita Srivastava, Aakash reveals his humourous side to the readers.

Click here to read the conversation

Hope you guys have a wonderful V Day.

Love

Harshita

For me every day is Valentine's Day, if my love is with me: Alok Vats

What better can it be when your boss agrees to write a guest post for you? Well, it certainly happened with me. I had been approaching a few bloggers to write their opinion and plans about V Day and I told the same to Alok Sir and he agreed instantly and here he is telling us all about his plans. For all those who do not know, I write for a self help website I News India and Alok Sir happens to be the owner of it.

Normally Valentine Day is meant for youngsters. When you hear Valentine day, you assume cards, candy hearts, chocolates, roses, etc. Frankly it all appears for new love, or for first date.

Being a married couple, it’s hard to imagine all that, especially when you just had a baby a few months back. Thinking about Valentine Day does not give the butterflies in the stomach feelings.

But, it’s not true for me. In my opinion all these factors won’t stop me to celebrate the VD with my love. Actually for me every day is the Valentine's Day, if my love is with me.

What’s my Plan to celebrate the Day?

I don’t have ordered bouquets of red roses for the day, don’t have booked dinner at some good place, I planned something new to celebrate the day. I planned something innovative, through which we can travel down the memory lane with my love. I ordered a Flipbook with all the best snaps of our baby, I am quite sure that I will get the same by tomorrow morning, and in the evening we three will visit to a nearby place where she can enjoy the south Indian dishes, as she loves eating them.

My effort is to spend the evening with my love and my little angel so that we can share some good moments together, and always remember the evening. 

A little about Alok Sir:

Alok Vats is presently working as an Online Marketing Manager at Koenig Solutions Pvt Ltd. He also runs two websites namely I News India, a self help website and Tech Acid, a technology blog. He resides in Delhi with his wife and daughter.

Each relationship is precious and sadly in most cases we realize it only when we lose it: Nimi Vashi

As I said yesterday there'll be a few more responses of bloggers in my network and today we have Nimi Vashi, a prolific book reviewer. I personally love the way she deals with book reviews and I generally pick up books suggested by her. And after I am done reading them, I find her views apt. Her honesty in writing has made her one of the best reviewers of today's times in our literary circle.
So let's get to know her plans on V Day.

First of all this is my first article wherein I have expressed my opinion (I have always written poems and book reviews), I would therefore thank Harshita for proving me an opportunity and everyone reading this article for their time, comments and suggestions if any. “Valentines Day” a day that most people in their youth look forward to! I too was fascinated by it as a naïve teenager, as it was the day you saw in movies people falling in love gifting each other, proposing and being together. Love was in the air. However, the maturation of my thoughts coincided with the emergence of westernization and with it the business giants like Hallmark and Archies, who cater to the market need “display emotions with style”. As their business goals went higher we had more days occupying our calendar viz. father’s day, mother’s day, daughters day, friendship day and every other thing day.  This made me ponder what I ask everyone who believes in these even today, “Why only a single day for love?” “Do you not love your partner or the better half or soul mate every day, every minute, every nano second of your life?”  Then why do you have to show it on one day in the entire year. Instead if we try to live each day considering it dedicated to love wont the world be a better place to live? 

Each relationship is precious and sadly in most cases we realize it only when we lose it. In the recent hard and fast life where one rarely has time for one self, spend five minutes with a loved one, talk to your grandparents at the end of the day, spend half an hour playing with your children and forget everything else, deadlines, meetings, exams etc. These are the moments that will be embedded in the book of your life. In short don’t wait for the valentine’s day to say “I Love You”!!!

Something about Nimi:

Nimi is a PhD Student in Biological Sciences at ICGEB , NewDelhi. She is a book lover which apparently shows on her blog 'The Readers Cosmos' where she writes everything related to books and authors. She is also into book promotion and advertising. So all the book lovers you should surely visit her blog. You may know more about her blog on her FB page here.

I totally agree with Nimi, love needs no day for its expression :) But then it is a special day that is celebrated all over the world.

How are you celebrating your V Day?
Do share
And there's another plan coming up from none other than my boss :) I am so excited about it :D 

Plans for Valentine's Day

With VDay just round the corner I got in touch with a few bloggers to know what they would be doing on 14th Feb. For today, we have two beauty bloggers who opened up their heart to share about this special day.
While Neisha has been into beauty blogging since over one year now and has been a regular reader of my works, Megha is a new addition to my blog friends. Over to you Megha and Neisha :)

I have already planned to give roses and chocolates to all my besties: Megha

This year I thought of celebrating my V-day with someone special but alas did not meet my valentine till now L. But no worries J, I am more happy that I will be celebrating V-day with my special friends and one thing is sure that we are going to have loads of fun. We are planning to wear pink and red to have a strong V-day feel. I am going to do a special V-day nail art on my nails.  As all of my buddies are working so we will celebrate in the evening to accommodate everybody’s schedule.

Our celebration will start in the evening with a visit to a mall for fun and purchase some special V-day items. After that we are planning to have dinner at some cool restaurant and lastly will finish the day by watching “Special Chabbis”.

But But But didn’t you feel that I missed out something ??? It’s V-day so how it can be complete without a ROSE and gifts. Don’t worry my dear friends, I have already planned to give roses and chocolates to all my besties J

Something about Megha:

Hi I am Megha Saraf. I am a big makeup, beauty and nail art fanatic. My love for makeup and beauty led me into blogging. I am a gold medalist (MBA) and always eager to learn new things. Apart from makeup and beauty, I  enjoy reading, exploring new places, playing with my nephew and chit chatting with friends and family. I  love my pet a lot and have a deep love for animals. You can check out my blog here.

Every regular day can turn into your day of love: Neisha

Valentine's day is very special for people who love someone or are in love. However, to feel, show or celebrate our love we should not restrict to a particular day. Every regular day can turn into your day of love. Still on my Valentine's day. I would like to spend my entire day with my Valentine, have good food and then tell him how much I love him. We say that almost everyday but when you look into someone's eyes and express your love then, it's altogether a different feeling.
I guess this is the one thing no matter how many times I have heard it before but it feels as if that's the first time.
Now, how can I forget shopping, girls can not have enough when it comes to shopping.
I will give him a card which i have made especially for him, while going back home so that whatever I have written he should read it at home.
Those were my plans for the Vday!! so, what are yours.???

Something about Neisha:

My name is Niesha, owner and editor of Indian Beauty Forever
I have done Master In Science and my passion for beauty and makeup, inspired me to create my blog where I share beauty and makeup product review, makeup tutorials especially eye makeup and nail arts with some online shopping.








I'd love to hear your plans as well. Do share.
I'll be sharing another post on the same tomorrow.
~Stay tuned~
Wishing you all a very happy Valentine Week
:)

'One In A Million' Photography Contest

With the onset of the 'Month of Love' we bring to you an exciting photography contest.

The rules are simple:

1. Send in a pic clicked by you that gives your definition of love.
2. Give it a caption.
3. Like the page
http://www.facebook.com/OneInAMillionTheBook

There will be two winners, one with the maximum number of likes and another one would selected by the author based on the caption and the click
The winners get an author signed copy.

Send in your entries at hsrivastava0205@gmail.com

For more details, check out this space:

http://www.facebook.com/events/107927639388376

I hope you all will actively participate in it.

Good Luck

May the best man win