The Immortals of Meluha - The book I just read!

I am not an avid reader. However, being surrounded by ultra passionate readers is always an advantage. One of such avid reasons and a treasured friend recommended the book to me. 

There is something different about this book. As far as the premise of the book goes, it simply is based on the belief that the Gods we worship as per our mythology aren't some fictitious characters imagined by some great writer of the past. This book says they existed, and lived on this very earth as mortals. Like you and me. They got elevated to Godhood because of the extraordinary deeds and accomplishments they carried out.

Now wait. Before you start rolling your eyes and cringing your nose, let me mention that the story is no typical philosophical ramble and NOT AT ALL BORING. Our generation is born in an era where philosophical and spiritual content is simply taken as the next worst thing to read after our Course books for exams. But this book is not about any "gyaan". Trust me the language is so simple and modern that I actually took time to imagine lord Shiva using the expression: “Dammit”! So now you know how easy the book actually is to go through.

Basically it's a work of fiction, several mythological beliefs put together weaved into a story. But the way they're brought together is what I was impressed by. 


The book is a story of a tribal, Shiva, who lived on Mount Kailash in Tibet. He comes to the land of Meluhans, the empire of Ram. The book describes his journey as to how he is led towards his Karma, as he becomes The Mahadev, The Neelkanth! 

A splendid story, this book showcases each and every aspect of Lord Shiva we know, a ferocious warrior, an ardent lover and a skillful strategist. I couldn't help smiling every time the time Lord Shiva's character unfolded as this carefree person with a wonderful sense of humor, tremendous strength in his personality and a big heart. Not forgetting how the author intertwines all our mythological character right from Nandi, Veer Bhadra, Sati and carves out the story!

The story is really fast paced. Once you start to read, you can't wait to know the rest of it. Every now and then, you come across a fact and you immediately relate it to some mythological aspect that you have heard about earlier.

Now it's not about justifying if the faith in Shiva is absolutely right and other faiths aren't. No. It's about getting our minds open to the fact that the lords we worship today are worth worshiping because of the rarest of strength, power, and greatness they showed.

I am not really a religious person. I don't believe in worshiping idols either. But I do believe, that supreme power exists somewhere which leads us all towards the path that is right. 

The story goes on to tell you that several 'Avatars" of Lord Vishnu and Lord Mahadev were actually titles given to people who rose to supreme levels of excellence. As per the author on the website “I believe that the words Vishnu and Mahadev are not individual names. They are in fact titles, given to those persons who are the greatest of leaders, who become god-like." After reading the book it dawns upon you that the near perfect empire of Meluha – the Ramrajya is actually the Indus Valley Civilization that we know. Every fact is simple and so believable.

It actually tells you every one can become God. Each one of us can be a Mahadev. Yes, there is where “Har Har Mahadev” phrase actually emerges in the book. “Har ek mein hai mahadev”. Nice!

The author, Amish, struck a chord somewhere in my head through this book. May be because his beliefs are absolutely like the ones I have. I am happy I was forced to read this book. Thanks Irfan! :)

Yo' Brainz and My mind!

This post isn't going to get much admirers. As such I don't expect much, as far as my blog's publicity goes, I have been clicking on the "Good" and "Interesting" buttons all this while to reflect that I have readers. 

I would like to talk about the most irritating habit out of my several obsessive compulsive disorders. And most of you have been victims to it and at one point or the other have cursed me to burn in hell for inflicting such pains on you!

To start with, how many of you have I reminded that you never ever use the past tense of a verb which is prefixed by a "did" in the sentence! (It's not - "I did went there". It's - "I did go there!") YES! I am talking about my (in)famous "English Correcting Disorder". You must be hoping this post is about apologizing for all those bugging unsolicited grammar lessons!

Don't get too happy. Getting a sorry from me on this issue is just as difficult as getting my boss to like me! 

I have recently awakened to the fact that using wrong English is a trend today. And I am just too obsolete to be able to catch up with the latest fashion statements! 

For example: The obsession with the word "Ma"? Somehow everyone is using instead of "My"! I don't understand. Because as far as I know, we are supposed to use 2 alphabets for both of the words. So, is it that typing the letter "a" is easier than typing "y"?

And has anyone tried to read how these sentences sound? "I told ma mother to gimme ma money cuz I want to buy maself a bike of ma own"!! To me it just appears that you stammer a lot. What is this "Ma" fetish? Is it some way to say you are much more cooler? "Ma world"! "Ma friends" "Ma family"...

Trust me every time I read these irritating expressions and sentences, all I can do is say out a hindi expletive in my head which also apparently starts with the word "Ma****"! 

I am not against using short forms, they in a way are easy to use specially in text messaging. But then, the examples here aren't short forms. I am talking about original English terms being twisted and turned and thereby made absolutely ghastly to hear or read! For eg. When everyone around you uses 'Lol' as a shortcut for 'Laughing out loud' it's okay! However, these days I have come across 'Lol' as an expression used very differently. If something very funny happens to someone or someone suffered an embarrassing incident, we use: "Uske saath aaj mast lol hua"! Even when you're embarrassed, they would use "Lol" instead of "Damn" or "Ohh Shit"! Also, these days, youngsters have started saying 'Lol' instead of laughing at your joke! No comments! :-S 

Moving on, recently, one of my friends buzzed me on Gtalk and it read: "Dhappp??" I couldn't  really get that and thought it was a spelling error. However, later on I got enlightened that it stands for "What's up?". Yes. "What's up?" as an expression is outdated. It is now "What Up?" (Thanks Barney!) which has further got transformed into "Whaddduuuup" and hence the short cut - "Dhapp?" As long as an amateur English user like me is concerned, that "Dhapp" is simply one of the expressions used by Diamond comics I read as a child where there were also other sounds like "Dhadaam" "Kadd Boooooom" "Dhamaka" etc. 

Anyway, now that I am trying to get trendier, I have recently realized, all we need to do is use stuff like: "Yo man", "Bro", "Ciao", "Dude" and bingo! It doesn't matter if you are incapable for formulating a single sentence in English. All you need to do is add a "Bro" or "Dude" and you are all hep now!

Amidst all these "Friggin wurdz which neva eva make ny sense to ma mind" all I can do is pray that one fine day I "rise" to these levels and am able to inculcate the latest trends to be one of those "Yo" types! 

God help me! 

About 'piece of land' and 'peace of mind'!

10 followers! Guys before I begin with my new post, I must warn you, don't have too many hopes from this portal. It too has an expiry date. Someday somewhere God will decide to stop making my life miserable cum interesting and that very day, my friend, I will have nothing more to write. (This means no more pestering you to read my posts…So keep praying!!!)

My recent-most adventure was my "apartment hunting spree" that I resorted to, along with my roommate in "Amchi Mumbai". Having done our homework right from calling brokers and finalizing places, we started visiting the places we shortlisted!

The first place was in Bandra at a perfect location. The moment we got down from the rick, we saw the local station right there, main road right there and a market right there! I was happy and elated. Who said apartment hunting is tough? We had a winner already. I was still happily waltzing in my thoughts when all of a sudden, I heard some voices.

The voices sounded strange and unfamiliar. They brought me back from my wonderland and I tried turning around to check what are these voices afterall. Right at that moment, many things happened. My roommate realized I heard the voices and am about to witness what is happening. So she ran from where she was towards me so as to block my vision. While I tried to understand why is she running towards me (as if trying to save me from a bullet that has been shot at me), I heard the actual voice again: "Khachaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak" and simultaneously saw a heavy knife going down in a swift motion. All of a sudden my world fell. I hit rock bottom. How the hell didn't I see all these meat shops before? Right here in the lane where I stood. My roommate and I already knew it’s a lost cause. I have never been able to stand these meat shops and I, till date for the record, have always thrown up if exposed to them for more than 60 seconds. We went upstairs to check the apartment anyway, and I specifically checked out the bathroom! ('Coz I had been exposed to those meat shops for more than 60 seconds! DUH!)

Moving on, we saw several other places. I remember one of them being shown to us and I getting shocked, the same way Circuit said," O teri!! Bhai yeh room toh shuru hote hi khatam ho gaya"!

Also, there have been places in areas which were wonderful but lonely. There were areas that stank so bad, a skunk would have thought twice before living there. There were houses where the Pervi Perverson (Read: Pervert) Makaan maalik simply wanted us girls to give him the privilege to come check on us every second day! We also had houses that belonged to unknown parties. Those whom the neighbors have never ever seen in person and have only dealt with the agents. Quite spooky!

Anyway, we finally settled for a nice place in Khar. The only problem, it has no water storage tank. The solutions: Either buy a tank or keep a big drum in your bathroom where water is kept stored for all purposes including drinking!Dreaming about having to manage water from the drum every time we need to use the loo was frightening. Not forgetting imagining what would happen if someone is suffering from diarrhea!

So, having left with just 3 days to go before we are kicked out of our current house, we decide to simply freeze the 'no tank' place and pitched in money out of our own pockets to buy a tank. Suddenly we realized there are no connections in the bathroom also. I seriously wonder what kind of people lived here before us. For a person with such fertile imagination like mine, I couldn't help cringing at the thoughts that hogged my mind. Anyway, having no other options, all I could do was insisting on getting the entire apartment painted and sterilized before we can move in.

Anyway, the apartment has been painted & sterilized and we have moved into the place. Contradictory to how the finding process for the same has been, the place is really cozy and beautiful. I guess it's all about things and how they end beautifully before they show you a bad...sorry...ghastly times. This post had earlier almost got me into sheer depression but then again, the news of death sentence being given to Kasab came in at the right time and cheered me up all over again. I wish they make him undergo apartment hunting in Mumbai's slums if possible before hanging him.

In the end, I would like to conclude, may the caretaker of this house fall in love with both of us utterly sweet, immensely good looking and absolutely harmless inmates of his apartment and never ever ask us to move out of this one! (Also praying may he never get in touch with the owner of our last rented apartment...Amen!)