My Path To Get Published

Once upon a time there was a young man called Nelton D’Souza. Nelton believed he had a very special gift of writing stories that moved one and all. This craving to write didn’t let him sleep at night. Every time and everywhere, be it on the bus or while doing mundane things or when he was by himself, his mind would wander to lands unknown where he would meet people unseen. Those people were like any other, but beyond their faces lay immense pain from the battles they fought on a daily basis. When Nelton didn’t write he would be enveloped by sadness but whenever he did, inspite of a tiring twelve hour workday and another four hours of travel, he would find a new sense of joy and vigour. Nothing made him happier than writing. After all it was writing which allowed him to escape into a world which was not judgemental and where he could be the hero slaying beasts, demons and fire-spitting dragons alike.

Praise for State of the Heart

#1 Best Seller in Short Stories on Amazon (February 2014). Some of the stories will drive you to tears! The writing does justice to the little things in life that add to its beauty and mystery – Goodreads, Average Rating: 4.

The State Of The Heart of the Press is very good indeed

Nowadays, its becoming a common trend for a spare time blogger to take his or her writing skills seriously and produce a book under his flagship in no time. But State of the Heart by Nelton D'Souza is something that goes beyond the conventional. Mixing fact with just the perfect dose of fiction he spins stories around the subtle nuances of life bordering the delicate elements like relationships and love making sure that daily occurrences get a place to talk about and simple acts of gratitude get addressed. Continuously taking the reader through a roller-coaster of emotions while never letting lose his grip, he leaves them with a lesson they never learnt and a perspective they never saw and wanting for more.

To write a story one needs to read a lot. But to actually pen down stories on common people, one requires a keen observation while being oblivious to the world; after all its only then when people are themselves. From Addiction – the dark desire to My Encounter with the Berlyn Wall – where your best friend becomes your worst fear to The Love Letter – which reminds us of love and its various dimensions and forms to The Chief Ministers Independence Day Speech – where we realize how we and the CM see the state of affairs in our state to The Greatest of the All – where love, boldness and intelligence get personified to Its not Easy – which speaks of bondage and the inability to break free from a bad relationship, every story strikes a chord and delivers a punch.

In times where our morality hits a new low every day, Nelton provides a perfect friend at the need of the hour – the Almighty Himself. From lamenting over the death of a beggar to mentioning the plight of a young couple shifting to a haunted house - the author briskly narrates the events just like a bystander while making every character relatable to the reader.

By profession Nelton DSouza is a Consultant at Capgemini. His forte can be well defined as a coder by profession and a free flowing story teller during his leisure time. His writing pad is none other than his blog Just A Minute. It was his long cherished desire to become as author. With State of Heart this dream will fitfully get realized.

For a complete list of stores to purchase the book from visit http://bit.ly/SOTHStore

Book : State of the Heart

Author : Nelton D'Souza

ISBN : 978-93-83271-32-0

Price : Rs.199.00

Publishing Date: August 2013

Publisher: Power Publishers

Language: English

Book Review: Law of Averages

Book:- Law of Averages

Author:- Kshitish Padhy

ISBN:- 978-93-324-2005-2

Genre:- Fiction/Romantic

Price:- 140 (I got this book directly from the Author for review)

Pages: 252

Publisher:- Paperclip Books

Introduction:
Whatever has happened has happened for good, whatever is happening is also for good, and whatever will happen, will also happen for the good only. These are the words of sacred Bhagavad Gita and I am sure the wordings may change the language may differ but these are the principles of all the religions of this world. No I am not talking of any mythological novel, what I am talking is a story of a fiction based on the principle stated above.  Yes this is an art of fiction but based on the biggest truth of life. The story will remind you of melodramatic romantic movie of a person who considers himself looser of life losing at all quarters but at the end realizes his loses were in fact the greatest success anybody can dream off.
This story is action packed sequence of romance, capriciousness, freakish, weirdo acts of a person to win his love.

The cover of the page needs a special mention as it will give you enough requisites about the author or the story that you will confront. The title of the Story “Law Of Averages” is an apt considering the lead’s mentality and his present state. The posters at front are a sure intimation of the author’s link with the comics world and the untagged images will definitely make you appreciate the carefully wound pictures relating to zest of the main story once you finish up with the reading.

About the Author:
Law of Averages is the debut novel of Kshitish Padhy. Kshitish is a versatile scriptwriter, novelist and translator working on various genres like mythology, superhero fantasy, teen fiction and fiction for young adults. After starting his writing career as a translator at Raj Comics, he has contributed to the scripts of their flagship characters like Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva and Bhokal. Completing a brief stint with Campfire Comics, Kshitish is currently working as the lead scriptwriter for Vimanika Comics and on mythological titles like Shiva and Dasavtaar. He is an avid reader of comics and children fiction and is a huge fan of Harry Potter, Tintin, Daredevil and Batman. He loves action movies high on special effects and detective thrillers. Kshitish currently resides in Delhi.

Compositional Report:
This story revolves around a not so lucky person Ritwik (Main Character) who has the gifted ability to lose each and every battle of life no matter how small it may be. Beginning with a brief background of Ritwik, the story bludgeoned when Ritwik’s plan to move up the ladder too fast too soon overpowered his present condition, which finally landed him to give up his dreams after a failed attempt. It wasn’t actually a failed attempt as the journey to Meerut for fulfilling a dream had coincidentally greeted not only Ritwik but also Sushant (Ritwik’s coworker at Raj comics who had an expertise to illustrate) to meet their Dream girl and it was just the beginning of coincidences, as the story moved forward it was endowed with numerous such twists and turns.

Sushant Ritwik’s partner for crime played his part pretty well, commencing from a helping hand to get the deal from the Sunshine comics to being Ritwik’s room partner for his would be father in laws flat. It was Sushant’s luck or whatever you may call; it made Ritwik jealous at times as he was the one who was making inroads to Arpita (Sushant’s Love) by doing the right things at the pertinent moment. One drawback which Sushant had was his open shrillness which often landed both of them into trouble and it was up to Ritwik’s sheer determination to forgo all limits to appease his father in law for the love of his life, which provoked him to bear each and everything.

Shubhangi, Ritwik’s love was kind a classical Indian girl, who in spite of loving Ritwik wholeheartedly wasn’t ready to overboard partly because of his rather orthodox Father Professor A.K Khurana, her younger sister’s(Tanya) revolt and also being adorned without a mother made her extra cautious in her move. But that didn’t deter her help Ritwik to win over her father to consider Ritwik as a future groom.

Professor A.K Khurana, a retired from Archaeological survey of department was a disciplinarian and an obese with hidden treasures was not only mimicked by people around but also had the blame deciphered against his name to almost landing their family to the streets for his obsession.  He had a unique ability of messing up at the critical situations but it was Ritwik who noticed the genius in him and believed in his theories which finally yielded gold.

There were moments which can dissuade a person to fall apart but it was Ritwik and his sheer brilliance which proved him to be a winner at the end mainly because of his spirits and determination which paved his way through to the journey of ‘Laws of averages’.  It would be injustice if I miss the Creditable  efforts of Sushant, Arpita, Shubhangi, Professor A.K Khurana, Wishumaddy (Ritwik’s and Sushant’s Coworker), Sanjay sir (Ritwik’s boss at raj comics), Captain Jayant (Shubhangi’s Sister Tanya’s boyfriend) who carried through their roles at critical times to salvage the most entertaining start for Ritwik’s and Shubhangi’s New Life.

It was a perfect photo finish to the enthralling romantic story written in a totally Bollywood style, which would make the readers go week in their knees to finish it at a single go. For me the last quarter is a match winner as it has all the ingredients of making up to a movie script. It’s a story for all ages. A downright entertainer with crafty twists and turns makes it a very good read.






Life’s Adjudication of this book:
This book is best read to enlighten one’s spirit at leisure time. It has the credibility of a ‘feel good’ emotions.

The Englishman and the African

Love for Arts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

People often ask me why I write on Love. Well here it goes.

Love is an integral part of my blog and shall continue to be. The beauty of love is that it has so many forms and dimensions. In this fast paced world where love is the last thing we know and think of its important we put an effort to inject it. Let me tell you a story about an Englishman and an African.

An Englishman was studying African literature on a journey through Africa. He read the stories, epics, poetry and all that he could find. Every single piece of literature he could find he came across something very common. All of them had a reference to water. It was described as holy, sacred. Love was equated to water. Surprised he asked his helper. Why is that all your literature is based on water? The African smiled and replied, "Because that's what we lack the most. In a land majorly covered with the desert we crave for water. If we have it we have all the happiness in the world." The Englishman was awestruck. He didn't realize that in his world he had something that was desired by so many people in their world.

While the Englishman was pondering the African asked him another question that send him into a tizzy. "Is that the reason why your literature talks so much about love?"

If you're an Indian and you think you speak English correctly, think again.

We are a unique species, aren’t we? Not humans. Indians, I mean. No other race speaks or spells like we do.

Take greetings for example.

A friendly clerk asking me for my name is apt to start a conversation with, “What is your good name?” As if I hold that sort of information close to my heart and only divulge my evil pseudonym. Bizarre.

These are  Indianisms.

Which got me thinking about a compilation, the greatest hits of the 11 most hilarious Indianisms out there. The most common ones, and my favorites among them.

1. 'Passing out'

When you complete your studies at an educational institution, you graduate from that institution.

You do not "pass out" from that institution.

To "pass out" refers to losing consciousness, like after you get too drunk, though I’m not sure how we managed to connect graduating and intoxication.

Oh wait … of course, poor grades throughout the year could lead to a sudden elation on hearing you’ve passed all of your exams, which could lead to you actually "passing out," but this is rare at best.

2. 'Kindly revert'

One common mistake we make is using the word revert to mean reply or respond.

Revert means "to return to a former state."

I can’t help thinking of a sarcastic answer every time this comes up.

“Please revert at the earliest.”

“Sure, I’ll set my biological clock to regress evolutionarily to my original primitive hydrocarbon state at 12 p.m. today."

3. 'Years back'

If it happened in the past, it happened years ago, not "years back."

Given how common this phrase is, I’m guessing the first person who switched "ago" for "back" probably did it years back. See what I mean?

And speaking of "back," asking someone to use the backside entrance sounds so wrong.

“So when did you buy this car?”

“Oh, years back.”

“Cool, can you open the backside? I’d like to get a load in.”

4. 'Doing the needful'

Try to avoid using the phrase "do the needful." It went out of style decades ago, about the time the British left.

Using it today indicates you are a dinosaur, a dinosaur with bad grammar.

You may use the phrase humorously, to poke fun at such archaic speech, or other dinosaurs.

“Will you do the needful?”

“Of course, and I’ll send you a telegram to let you know it's done too.”

5. 'Discuss about'

“What shall we discuss about today?”

“Let’s discuss about politics. We need a fault-ridden topic to mirror our bad grammar.”

You don't "discuss about" something; you just discuss things.

The word "discuss" means to "talk about". There is no reason to insert the word "about" after "discuss."

That would be like saying "talk about about." Which "brings about" me to my next peeve.

6. 'Order for'

"Hey, let’s order for a pizza."

"Sure, and why not raid a library while we’re about it.”

When you order something, you "order" it, you do not "order for" it.

Who knows when or why we began placing random prepositions after verbs?

Perhaps somewhere in our history someone lost a little faith in the "doing" word and added "for" to make sure their order would reach them. They must have been pretty hungry.

7. 'Do one thing'

When someone approaches you with a query, and your reply begins with the phrase "do one thing," you're doing it wrong.

"Do one thing" is a phrase that does not make sense.

It is an Indianism. It is only understood in India. It is not proper English. It is irritating. It’s a translation of the vernacular – “ek kaam karo”

There are better ways to begin a reply. And worst of all, any person who starts a sentence with "do one thing" invariably ends up giving you at least five things to do.

“My computer keeps getting hung.”

“Do one thing. Clear your history. Delete your cookies. Defrag your hardrive. Run a virus check. Restart your computer... .”

8. 'Out of station'

“Sorry I can’t talk right now, I’m out of station.”

“What a coincidence, Vijay, I’m in a station right now.”

Another blast from the past, this one, and also, extremely outdated.

What's wrong with "out of town" or "not in Mumbai" or my favorite "I'm not here"?

9. The big sleep

"I’m going to bed now, sleep is coming."

"OK, say hi to it for me."

While a fan of anthropomorphism, I do have my limits. "Sleep is coming" is taking things a bit too far.

Your life isn’t a poem. You don’t have to give body cycles their own personalities.

10. 'Prepone'

“Let’s prepone the meeting from 11 a.m. to 10 a.m.”

Because the opposite of postpone just has to be prepone, right?

"Prepone" is probably the most famous Indianism of all time; one that I’m proud of, and that I actually support as a new entry to all English dictionaries.

Because it makes sense. Because it fills a gap. Because we need it. We’re Indians, damn it. Students of chaos theory.

We don’t have the time to say silly things like "could you please bring the meeting forward."

Prepone it is.

11.Heighted / Weighted

Adding ‘ed’ to a word. Trust me, these are not alternatives to Tall / Fat. Beware; the person you are addressing will laugh at you. Your reputation is on the line.

There are many more pure grammatical "gems" in what we call Indian English. Perhaps in time I’ll list some more. And perhaps in the near future, we’ll get better at English.

Till then, kindly adjust ;)

What matters most...

It doesn't matter if you know the capitals of the countries or not; or how to get the webcam working; or how to pronounce words correctly. What matters is that by just looking at my face you can tell how I’m feeling or if there’s something wrong; or by gazing into my eyes the things that i don’t know how to express; by holding my hand you give me the confidence to take over the world. A sweet company in the boring times, a partaker in the toughest, a partner in the happy....in short..a best friend for Life!

Happy Valentine's Day

As she walked in, the whole room went still

The valets at the door completely forgot their skill

The cold sounds of stiletto's as they went click click
Turned every brow wet and the air went thick

And then she turned around and gave a Mona Lisa smile
Which helped him to remember that it's been a long while

Since the time she first went completely off the rocker
Since the days he used to visit her alone in the locker

He wished they'd remembered what he'd told them before
That there is no sanity, left in her to look for

They'd asked him to be calm, and to have no fear
One can only wonder how she managed to get here

Sorry to interrupt, but I'm not sure if you noticed
I don't usually do this without a good purpose

Did you forget me? she focused on him and said
He replied no, you're supposed to be dead

You know that I adore you with all heart and soul
Even though my love for you takes a heavy toll

He could never imagine why, she should even bother
Considering he always treated her as cattle fodder

But she dreamed about him even though she'd been spurned
She felt true love never had to be returned

She believed him, even though his tales are phoney
And she always thought, of their future in matrimony

I've heard such lines before, he remarked, 'check please'
And I hope you do not plan to go down on your knees

Why should I be with you? U know beauty fades
I am in heaven! why should I choose Hades?

Because I will love you even though you are silly
My life without you is uneven and chilly

But do you bear any worth more valuable than charm?
He glanced quickly at the light pressure on his arm

Here's an envelope filled with reports within
The child holding you is the product of our sin

Me ME and only me

It's a lovely morning

Sun is bright...

with a touch of chill n light

I feel so bright...

When it's night m scared

emptiness is there...

each second i fear

nobody is near...

Time pass and keeps on passing

passion grow and keeps on growing...

Every night i think

y i m still and cold?

Happy day's are gone

here comes the tough time...

Birds don't sing, Heart dosn't beat

everything is still but STILL i feel the heat...

Beautiful day's full of life

now struggling to survive...

Sky full of cloud

"Please RAIN" anupam shouting loud...

But the story dosn't end here

I have lotsa dream to dare...

Night is over

I can now glare...

When i look back, Down the memory lane

I see the smiling IDIOT, happy and insane...

Now the idiot is enveloped with even more insanity

blurred picture of life is now full of clarity...

I guess this is life...

I dont regret my moment's

YOU made me ME...

look back dear it was WE,

but now it's only ME...

Is this life??

yeah anupam this is LIFE...

keep smiling....u moron :)

The Buddhist Monk Story

Two Buddhist Monks were on a journey, one was a senior monk, the other a junior monk. During their journey they approached a raging river and on the river bank stood a young lady. She was clearly concerned about how she would get to the other side of the river without drowning.

The junior monk walked straight past her without giving it a thought and he crossed the river. The senior monk picked up the woman and carried her across the river. He placed her down, they parted ways with woman and on they went with the journey.

As the journey went on, the senior monk could see some concern on the junior monk's mind, he asked what was wrong. The junior monk replied, "how could you carry her like that? You know we can't touch women, it's against our way of life". The senior monk answered, "I left the woman at the rivers edge a long way back, why are you still carrying her?"

The moral of that buddhist monk story: The senior monk had broken rules but for good reason. Once the purpose was fulfilled he put her down and continued on. He never gave it a further thought. The junior monk however did not touch the woman but he had brought up the actions of the senior monk when it was an action of the past. Therefore the junior monk was carrying the burden of what the senior monk had done as emotional baggage.

We have little use for the past except for the purpose of learning from our experiences, good and bad. Just like in the Buddhist monk story, we need to let go of any burden the past may place on us. It's happened, it's over, it cannot be changed, we can only move forward and create a compelling future.

The Critic Me

“Yash, I am going for a bath. It will take some time for me to get ready. Till then you may read some magazines lying there” Aarti said pointing towards a shelf holding few dozens of novels, many biographies of some famous personalities & entrepreneurs and too many magazines & myriad of newspaper articles stacked in files, seemed almost like a mini library. She went to the bathroom. As Miss Sensuous had already announced that she is going to take some time to get ready, no wonder when it comes to girls, I was left with no other way so I thought of looking at her collection before having a day out with her. I was amazed reading appealing novel’s name, the name of the writers were so tough for me to even pronounce. I wondered how people read. I picked one book, checked the name, author’s name, saw its thickness & then put it back in place. I kept repeating the same until my gaze fall on a book with a Maroon cover page. I opened the book & with that I reached a page; the header of which declared “April 29, 2011” as there was a pen inside the book so by default that page appeared. I realized that it’s a Daily Diary. I had heard that many people write diary but I never knew that Aarti was one of them. Though I never like reading other peoples personal notes and diaries, still I went ahead and started reading her diary thinking I may came to discover something more of her, some hidden secrets, which I may have been kept in dark about. So I began reading……..

April 29, 2011

Dear Diary,

It was another usual day at office, not so unique. I was stuck with all those meetings & calls, this that & what not, just another hectic day! But today, I am here not to discuss about all that professional Jargon, in fact I wanted to share my experience of knowing a species of people whom I came to come across through certain fascinating incidents. Today, I came across the special ability of people who manages to find gaffe in anything & everything around.  I was so amazed at the remarkable flair that certain people are blessed with, to observe & identify each boo-boo in whatever topics that comes across them. Their vast knowledge on each & every theme, be it Movie or TV commercial, fashion or media, Bollywood or Sports, politician or whatever, these people have so much of extended knowledge of each & every arena that they can put forth their expert comments on any of them. These people are also known as “Critics”.

It first happened today during lunch hours. While I was having lunch with my colleagues, some of whom were watching TV with awesome delight, listening to music & also enjoying Pizza at the same time, that was ordered specially from Domino’s with a motive of Team building. Someone complained of not ordering from Pizza Hut, “It could have been better if it was ordered “Deep Dish” with extra cheese at least” someone else added. I was sitting facing my back towards the 31-inch LCD screen, so I couldn’t enjoy like others. Suddenly I heard something from some of my team mates that attracted my attention towards the LCD screen “What sort of crap is this? I don’t understand what these people wanted to convey?” I didn’t understand what he was referring to so I turned back to check out the same. He was passing his connoisseur comments on one of the TV commercial that I missed to watch but the next commercial that was currently playing definitely left a smile on my face in which a guy polishing his shoes asked his wife “Aaj Khane main kya hai?” in reply to which she replied cutely “Karela” & then the guy asked “Meethe main kya hai?” I was just amazed with the simplicity of the commercial & moreover the ad promoted “Dairy Milk” of which I am a huge fan since always. I decided to get a Dairy Milk after lunch & then I concentrated back on my lunch. I was amazed with the creativity of the production team behind the commercial that how smoothly they conveyed their message to the target customers & promote the product sales & why not, they are remunerated in millions for their extra ordinary creative skills.

Few moments later, another expert comment sounded, this time someone commented to the extra pounds on the belly of the girl in an Item number. I wondered of those so called perfectionists, who are blessed with exceptional ability to identify even minute error in anything, these people were strong observers.  I felt bad of being just an ordinary human though I personally felt that the girl was quite fit & well in shape. Moreover she had already proven her worth to be there, where she was today. She stands out of millions of people & moreover she has something that people could talk about of her. Millions of public watch her, listen to what she says, and reads about her; almost following her religiously. But no, I might be wrong, I thought. These “Critics” had a better understanding of the subject so I felt like saying nothing.

We had just finished our lunch when Pavitra, a charming intelligent Bengali team mate asked me something in Bengali “tumi Coke khaabe?” She unintentionally spoke in Bengali, her mother tongue but she wasn’t aware that she could be the next target to the “Critics Panel” She repeated her words in English this time asking everyone if anyone wanted to have her share of coke but it was too late & sets of question started surrounding her from nowhere. “How can be Coke (a drinkable item) be “Khaabe” & why not it be “Peebe?” Someone else asked “Why do you Bengalis use the word “Khaabe” for every eatables & drinkables as well?” The next question was even more typical to be answered “Why is it “Roshogolla” in Bengali which is simply “Rasgulla” in Hindi?” Pavitra was an intellectual with extremely calm attitude, she simply replied “It has nothing to do with non-Bengalis & you are no one to raise question to culture, language or religion of anyone. I may list out myriad of errors in everybody here, in your religion, your state, your language etc. etc... But my ethics don’t let me do so, I rather enjoy finding pleasure in anything good & appreciating the same”, her face still reflecting smile. The “Critic Panel” was speechless then. I was in awe of her that how an ordinary girl has put these experts in silence. These people who were gifted to judge anybody to everybody, their knowledge in every discipline, were speechless today & they had no answers to this ordinary girl.

One more such incident happened while I was checking my personal mails. I received a mail form one of my old college friend who informed me that she has started blogging, that sounded pretty interesting to me & I appreciated her efforts of writing. While reading her mail I got a chance to discover one more “Critic”. One of her article condemned one of the latest movie, another article of her talked about SRK’s performance in “My Name is Khan”. With that it reminded me of certain other write-ups that I had read, each one of which expressed their comments, sometimes complimenting in a rare case.

I am glad that I am not blessed with such special abilities of finding errors & to not behaving like a “Critic”. I enjoy anything good happening around & feel like appreciating it every time. I am happy to be what I am.

Aarti

“Yash!!! How dare you touch my diary? Don’t you have any personal ethics? You must know that you are not supposed to read anybody’s personal diary” Aarti’s words breezed through my ears from nowhere & the next moment she snatched the diary from my hand. I held the expression of a seven year old guy caught red-handed by his mother having orange ice stick at the road side vendor. I tried convincing her but instead she threw a gruesome look to me. I tried to defend myself “I... I was just… I didn’t read anything… please listen to me….” But I forgot the fact that girls are never programmed to listen, she said “just shut up OK”

“Hey listen to me dear, I am sorry… Can I see my sweetheart smiling?” I* said holding both of my ear-lobes.

“Just Go to Hell” she said with a witty face laying emphasis on the last word.

“We’ll go together honey. I’ll follow where ever you go” I took the diary from her hand, put it back on the shelf & added “Now would you let me to take you to The Hell?”

“What?”

“Ya, I have a better idea for today’s outing, lets booze at “The Hell” , it’s a nice pub in Sector 19 market”

She said smiling “You are a Dog, a Bastard, I am not going anywhere with you” Both of us smiled & we walked together to have a splendid day ahead.