C'est La Vie
The Conundrum of the Human Mind
by
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1) MONSOON ROMANCE This is a romantic story set in the rains of Mumbai and the protagonist is a teenager who finds his first love in his new neighbourhood. The entire story is woven around the young man's vivid thought on romance and his lover and his hesitation to spoil it all by confessing to her. I expect most readers to see themselves at that stage of their own lives. 2) BIRTHRIGHT This is a story about the social evils of poverty and masochistic thoughts of men from the lower strata of society in India. The story is set in a government hospital where a young girl of twenty four is delivering her seventh child in seven years. The husband curses himself when the doctor asks him to donate some blood to his wife as she was sinking and needed blood immediately. The man is unwilling to do this as he thinks he will get weak and deems it his birth right to resist the doctor ,lest his precious blood go to waste!! This is a story I was inspired to write in a hospital. 3) COPY CATS This is a scientific fiction on the powerful message of gene cloning and is fired by the scientist in me. It will be thoroughly enjoyed by all. The probability of man creating identical clones of himself and how it could affect his personal life is dealt with in this suspense thriller. 4) PLATFORM NUMBER ONE The story brings out the shallowness of life and how two young people who wish to end their lives by falling under a train end up falling in love at the last moment. The protagonist is however the old station master and his street mongrel who bring to life the narrative. The entire story is set on Platform Number One in a quaint old hill station. Sometimes, all of us need to escape from the monotony of real life. But, can suicide be the only way out? 5) SHACKLES OF LOVE A happily married woman falls in love again. The story shows intense love and a families reaction to this 'new found' love. The husband is unable to explain the futility of this relationship and does not want her to get so absorbed in this new love. However, an accident paralyses the lover and she needs to get him out of his pain by destroying him. This story shows spiritual and platonic love in a nice manner and the end is debatable. Let's get some reaction from the reader this time. 6) ACROSS ENEMY LINES Set on the intense hate relationship of two countries India and Pakistan this story starts with a cricket match between the world champion teams and goes into a tangent when the girl of the house falls in love with her Pakistani class fellow. The common woes and pains of parents for their beloved children and the shame of an awarded national hero comes to the fore and man's helplessness in the face of life situations brings an emotional flavour to this story. 7) OF HUMAN BONDAGE This is an emotional journey of a middle aged spinster whose high flying job in an airline did not allow her time to marry or plan a family. An urchin couple suddenly arrive at her door step one stormy night and she realises that the young girl is full term pregnant and ready to deliver her baby. The story opens out as the spinster condescends to have them in her backyard with a promise that once the rain stopped and the child was born , they would leave without touching anything around. What follows is the drama of child birth and the spinster is a mute spectator to this great journey and she enjoys the moment as the closest she could get to the real thing. The story ends with restoring the dignity and grace of the new parents and making the spinster ashamed for distrusting them. 8) HELPING HANDS Undoubtedly my favourite story, this one brings out the anger and remorse of a breast cancer patient who was once a beauty queen and her meeting with a young lad on the 'helping hands' programme of a hospital. The young lads bubbly nature and beautiful face pokes her as if he was laughing at her disease. His freshness and cool attitude was totally out of place in the cancer ward. He was a total unfit on the 'helping hands' programme where he belonged. The story takes you on an inward journey into your soul and makes one sit up to think of how conceited and negative we can get as we grow older and do things in life and how younger people are positive at any cost and have the best attitude to face the world and its multifaceted problems. 9) GOLDEN DREAMS This is a story about a poor boy and his good value systems . Temptation comes in the form of a golden ornament which he could easily have stolen but his conscience teaches him to keep on the path of truth....only to help him realize his inner strength. The real gold was within his soul all the time while he suffered with the ornament in his hand and his vacillating mind!!! 10) THE RAINBOW Travel with me into the Utopian world of childish fantasy. Help little Naresh catch a special rainbow with the promised POT of gold at the end of it.......believe.....and let the child in you live on!!
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About the Book
The book raises issues of social and scientific backgrounds using the tools of simple language and ends with a lot of food for thought. The reader can empathize with the characters in the stories and the protagonist always has a social message. However the theme of each story has to be unraveled by the Reader. The book rakes up the eternal conundrum of the Human Mind in different intriguing ways. The presentation handles different themes ranging from Soft Romance to Scientific Cloning with smatterings of comedy and the paradox of feminism and the marriage of mind and matter seem to be the most important feature. Set mostly in Indian backgrounds, the stories seem to laugh at the irony of situations and readers will see themselves at different phases of their lives, hopefully. To laugh at a difficult situation and try to find “the other side” is the bottom line of the book and the title “C’est La Vie”.....simply justifies this. The author has a penchant for the unpredictable which adds freshness to the presentation. So…..read on….and just “let it be”!! *The proceeds from this book will go to the campaign against cancer through the Rohit Memorial Trust. Visit www.rohitmemorialtrust.com
About the Author
She is a scientist and social activist and wears many caps. She has won several accolades right from an early age for her written word. Her articles have featured in prestigious publications, and she has won awards in international fora for her poetry and prose. She is an extempore speaker with crisp rendition of her thoughts. She has a funny bone that comes across in a subtle manner in her stories and works on varied topics. Her blog is popular too.