Rose or Thorns



Today, while watching the legendary classic Bollywood movie ‘Mughal-e-Azam’, one of the dialogues in the movie put forth a choice between thorns and a rose. A unique benefit enjoyed by the thorns is that they don’t have the fear of fading away. They are evergreen and stay the same forever. What a unique thought for staying positive forever! Next time when you have to struggle while your counterparts might be enjoying the fruits of success, don’t get disheartened by those obstacles. Remember it is the only the construction of wonders that takes more time than ordinary buildings.

So if you have thorns on your path, keep in mind that God wants to test your courage, the courage to move forward, the courage to achieve their goals at any cost. It is only great men, who have to face tough trials before they get a taste of success. Ordinary men have it without having put in much effort.

The success achieved by the harder way is much longer lasting and permanent, while the easy success is short-lived and even might be just an eye-wash that might go away soon.

Of Valentine's Day and Love

Love is where the heart is. And if you have a heart so big that you can keep your beloved in there forever unconditionally and with full exclusive rights, which nobody else could usurp ever, then you’ll never fall in love, you’ll always rise. Love is an emotion that can make your life so beautiful that you’ll fall in love with your life.

You might order flowers online or shop for soft toys, you might order for a special Valentine’s Day gift or a Valentine’s gift hamper, you might go in for cakes or chocolates but you can never ever put a price tag to even a fraction of a single emotion related to love. Saying that love is priceless is just like saying that the sun provides light. What is needed is that we stop trying to evaluate it. The best way in which we can do that is by watering the plant of love with honesty, dedication, affection, loyalty and lots of care.

When we search on the internet we can find millions of definitions and quotes on love but none of us can define love in words. Even silence can be the best expression of love sometimes. Love is not a slave of words. Love might be hidden silently under the huge heap of verbosity. The inability to perfectly define love in words cannot prove to be an obstacle in our enjoying some of the best love quotes that have been a part of some of the best Hollywood movies from time to time:

“Promise me you’ll survive. That you won’t give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless.” (TITANIC)

“I have crossed oceans of time to find you.” (DRACULA)

“If I had one more night to live…I’d wanna spend it with you.” (PEARL HARBOUR)

“I have no armour left. You’ve stripped it from me. Whatever is left of me, whatever I am, I’m yours.” (CASINO ROYALE)

“You make me want to be a better man.” (AS GOOD AS IT GETS)

DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2011

For the first time award was given at the Jaipur Literature Festival, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. In January 2011, this US $ 50,000 award was conferred upon H.M. Naqvi for his novel ‘Home Boy’, published by Harper Collins India. The Chairperson of the Jury, Nilanjana S. Roy declared that while finalizing the shortlist when all the members of the jury argued about the merits of all the contenders they rediscovered the joys of reading. She said, “As we finalised our shortlist, the criteria that was uppermost in our minds was DSC’s mandate to look for the best and the most interesting examples of the contemporary novel set in, or about, South Asia.”

The following novels were shortlisted for the prize:
• Amit Chaudhuri’s The Immortals (Picador India)
• Tania James’ ‘Atlas of Unknowns (Pocket Books)
• Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s ‘The Story of a Widow (Picador India)
• Manju Kapur’s ‘The Immigrant’ (Faber & Faber)
• Neel Mukherjee’s ‘A Life Apart’ (Constable & Robinson)
• H.M. Naqvi’s ‘Home Boy’ (Harper Collins India)

Apart from those mentioned above the other novels included in the longlist in the previous round were:
• Upamanyu Chatterjee’s ‘Way to Go’ (Penguin)
• Chandrahas Choudhury’s ‘Arzee the Dwarf’ (Harper Collins)
• Ru Freeman’s ‘A Disobedient Girl’ (Penguin/Viking)
• Anjum Hassan’s ‘Neti Neti’ (IndiaInk/Roli Books)
• Daniyal Mueenuddin’s ‘In Other Rooms, Other Wonders’ (Bloomsbury)
• Salma’s ‘The Hour Past Midnight’ (Zubaan, translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom)
• Sankar’s ‘The Middleman’ (Penguin, translated by Arunava Sinha)
• Ali Sethi’s ‘The Wish Maker’ (Penguin)
• Jaspreet Singh’s ‘Chef’ (Bloomsbury)
• Aatish Taseer’s ‘The Temple Goers’ (Penguin/Viking)

Special Prize: The Man Booker Best of Beryl

Dame Beryl (1932 - 2010)



Dame Beryl, who missed out on the prestigious Man Booker Prize for which she was shortlisted five times, will finally get recognized in 2011for her contribution to literature. One of her five novels would be receiving a special prize, The Man Booker Best of Beryl. The winner will be decided through voting by the readers.

“Dame Beryl was a very gracious non-winner and no Man Booker dinner was complete without her. She may have been the eternal Booker Bridesmaid but, with this special prize created in her honour, we are delighted to be able finally to crown her a Booker Bride by letting the public choose what they believe to be the best of her books”, said Ion Trewin, the prize’s literary director. (Courtesy: The Press Association)

The list of books that were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize earlier are as follows:
• The Dressmaker (1973)
• The Bottle Factory Outing (1974)
• An Awfully Big Adventure (1990)
• Every Man for Himself (1996)
• Master Georgie (1988)