Short Story: Closed Circuit

Please note that this is story is a fiction and no such characterss exists in reality.

Closed Circuit

Last week I was driving my daughter to an industry in Branford CT for her visit. The road passes through countryside which resembles Indian landscape especially in konkan. There were farms, hills, winding small roads, cattle, tin covered houses.  There was hardly any traffic either ways. We were using GPS. At one place there was cemetery with many crosses on a vast ground. Road winds through the cemetery. GPS asked me to turn left and take a U turn. It happened few times. I panicked and my thinking was clouded as well. Maybe its human psychology. I thought we were caught in Closed Circuit popularly know as ‘Chakwa’ in Marathi. Suddenly I remembered by grandmother who had once said to break the circuit (chakwa) you should pray god and do take new unknown path. I did that we reached a highway and were then properly guided by GPS till destination.

I remember in my childhood my grandfather Grand Mother used to narrate story to all grandchildren about Closed Circuit. Her native village was in border district of Belgaum between Maharashtra and Karnataka. The incident happened in 1920s. She and her 4-5 siblings were traveling back to her village after attending marriage in neighboring village.It was getting dark and road passed through a Forest area. The driver of the bullock cart asked kids to take a blanket and pray to God. Kids asked questions but driver asked them to be quiet. Later when they reached home the driver told my grandmothers father that he was caught in Closed Circuit. Finally he took the cart uphill on non conventional road and reached their village safely

This experience also took me back 20 years ( Bees saal baad) 

Review of International Books by Indian Origin Authors

This is  my first attempt to review books. I had done analysis of Ayn Rand Books in past and also compared GA and PL school of thoughts and have shared my enjoyment of P G Wodehouse stories. I have appreciate language of  Raja Shiv Chatrapati and memories of Mryutunjay, Swami.  Though they might not be classic in literature, II have been highly impressed by the  Intrigue of Dan Brown In Da Vinci Code, logic of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thrills by Foresyth, Ludlum , legal drama of Grisham, medical crimes by Robin Cook, Scifi of Asimov. On classic I read Charles Dickens, R L Stevenson, Shakespeare (language was tough),

On my review style I will first explain plot and then render my opinion. I have chosen Indian Authors in International stage as that's what we need Indian Author to write globally. But They should not try to sell Poverty in India or Use Underworld/Bollywood combo. These books though end up in same line.

A Distant Heart : By Sonali Dev

Plot:

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Her name means “miracle” in Sanskrit, and to her parents, that’s exactly what Kimaya is. The first baby to survive after several miscarriages, Kimi grows up in a mansion at the top of Mumbai’s Pali Hill, surrounded by love and privilege. But at eleven years old, she develops a rare illness that requires her to be confined to a germ-free ivory tower in her home, with only the Arabian Sea churning outside her window for company. . . . Until one person dares venture into her world.

Tasked at fourteen-years-old with supporting his family, Rahul Savant shows up to wash Kimi’s windows, and an unlikely friendship develops across the plastic curtain of her isolation room. As years pass, Rahul becomes Kimi’s eyes to the outside world—and she becomes his inspiration to better himself by enrolling in the police force. But when a life-saving heart transplant offers the chance of a real future, both must face all that ties them together and keeps them apart.

As Kimi anticipates a new life, Rahul struggles with loving someone he may yet lose. And when his investigation into a black market organ ring run by a sociopathic gang lord exposes dangerous secrets that cut too close to home, only Rahul's deep, abiding connection with Kimi can keep her safe—and reveal the true meaning of courage, loss, and second chances. 

Infused with the rhythms of life in modern-day India, acclaimed author Sonali Dev’s candid, rewarding novel beautifully evokes all the complexities of the human heart.

Nayakgiri: Author captures the reader’s interest in back and forth foray into time in flash back mode. She successfully builds characters like politician, his religious wife detached from family, the orphan Cop and his family. The underworld part is portrayed in balanced unlike many contemporary authors.  The heart transplant issues and details have been depicted in correct manner. Only downside is she eats up many pages with some silly romantic thought process of the girl which at least I cannot correlate with as I found the issues raised by girl as non issues and unnecessarily vague. And the pages and pages of this dilutes the punch of the main plot.

State of Freedom: By  Neel Mukherjee

Prayers: Ganpati Bappa Morya

Let the Lord of Wisdom give all the world politician the wisdom to work towards peace and progress without affecting nature. Let the Lord of Wisdom give all students to be innovative and work hard towards excellence. Let the Lord give working world the wisdom to work diligently and ethically to create innovation and growth. Let the Lord of Wisdom give us wisdom to live a happy, content and healthy lives.

Not so short story titled contemporary as "Bharat Bandh"

 I was in hurry to reach my office on that day in March .  I live in a good locality and have to travel a significant distance too my office. I have to cross a prime junction so avoided using my car on day when Bharat Bandh is called by opposition party in Center who is ruling in state. I had taken work from home option a day before and only key staff was to report to office that too in a minibus rented for the day at premium price.. Unexpectedly due to my past work resulting in sizable work increase and there was urgency for me to reach office. These efforts of mine could possibly earn significant revenue for my company. I had to be in office and would need to be before US west coast evening civil hours.  I immediately called the company for a transport vehicle, but that vehicle would take long time to reach reach me. I started looking for public transport without any result. I started walking. I turned to see a jeep coming from behind. The jeep stopped near me. The driver   asked if he can drop him. I told the office address. He asked for 140 Rs/-. I didn’t care as I had to reach. I jumped on to vehicle and opened a laptop and started making few more notes on points I had to tell the team and the clients. I never noticed a cop sitting near the driver. As soon as I Got inside van , I took out my laptop to prepare and was oblivious to outside world. I did not know the driver’s name of for that matter any of the other co-passenger’s which the Jeep guy offered ride. But as events unfolded I knew each character and their stories later. Lets start explaining with Driver who name was Gopi.

Gopi had an old Mahindra jeep which he had bought from his brother in law who had Midas touch of turning anything that he touched into gold. His BIL was a tout, his business was to manage everything and still aloof of everything. He was was a Politician now as corporator Bharat Jawale . He commanded respect in the society for no apparent reason. He was called Bharat Dada by everyone. He could get someone new gas connection, could threaten someone, get someone out of lockup, manage any procession or riot or a crowd as per need. He was into real estate, he was into food with a small hotel, he owned fleet of veheciles, managed RTO or government work. He used to wear thick gold plate.

Gopi’s sister and Bharat were married 5 years back. It was a proper arranged marriage. Gopi’s sister was a pretty girl.. Bharat seemed to be a man of world with a lot of alleged alliances all over. But when it came to marriage his parents had selected Gopi’s sister Ratna. Gopi was always a loser trying to manage fathers poultry business which one day became nonviable. Bharat on Ratna’s insistence had called one day Gopi to Bharat’s office as a corporator and party functionary. That day corporator Bharat was at inauguration function of a bar. So ofcourse was in his ‘senses’. There was a small tiff between an honest corporation officer and Bharat. So Gopi was welcomed with a usual banter and some unsophisticated rowdy bad words by Bharat.  That day Bharat had made an offer to Gopi to buy one of his old jeeps .  Gopi had expected a fair market price of 25K for that old vehicle. But he said he is obliging him by giving him the jeep for 45K. He should work hard to travel people from his locality to city center. He also assured that he will do the setting with RTO for not harassing him for bribes and allow him to make Rs 300 per day making it 9000 rs per month out of which he can pay Bharat 1k  per month for next 4 years so jeep will be all his own. He knew had been fleeced but cannot say a word against Bharat who was god in his house. That day onwards Gopi used to start his day at 6 am reaching many people and end by 10 pm at night. Sometimes he did night duty to earn extra. On his best day he could earn 200 Rs over all costs. On normal day it could be no more than 150 . Night duties used to earn him 100 Rs extra.. He used to fleece unsuspected passengers, tourists and earn more so he could repay back his loan. Last night he had heard that Bharat’s party which was a national party had organized Bharat Bandhh against some govt policies. So he had requested Bharat’s colleagues to not allow municipal buses to ply and thus he could earn more that day.He asked Bharat to help him with some inside help from system.

On that eventful day in March,  all roads were supposed to be blocked by activists, all shops were forced to close and so on. He went to Constable who was suppose to be in Van to allow smooth package. He had to share his jackpot that was worth. Constable entered jeep and sat next to driver Gopi. He had just picked up a man in white shirt with tie and told him a fare of 140 Rs to his destination  Guy did not care.. He was sure he could get five such more on sharing basis and he could do 3 such more trips. Windfall but with risk. But with Bharat to support he was not  worried.

Whats up: Come September

Whats Up: Come September 2, 2018

Have you selected your Ganapati Idol? Have you planned the decoration? Are you participating in Society/locality Ganapati pandal? Are you performing anywhere during festival or at school? Can you listen to dhol tasha practise? HIS arrival augurs all that is auspicious. Countdown begins.

Asian Games India has worn 15 golds among the total of 69 medals at Jakarta Asian Games. Has our sports administration changed its earlier bureaucracy and non caring attitude ? Or is the something. I think its about young aspirational India. Thanks to few visionary PMs, economic benefits have percolated to masses, across urban and rural regions. This young India knows value of success, they want to excel. They are ready to do hard work, make sacrifices and cannot settle for less. Each of these unknown athletes from hinterlands has a story. Known stars like PV Sindhu whom we highly regard as in last month’s  whats up. When will her jinx with Gold medal end.

India lose series; First test was close, Second was bad, in third we showed character to outplay England. But again fourth though might sound one sided but was fought well by Team India. Wishing they restore pride of a 3-2 result at oval. The main reasons for losses?

1. Lack of preparation: Playing only one 3 day match. Limited over cricket is different and also different set of players barring mainstays like Captain. Dhawan, Umesh, Rahane (who was in reserves).

2. Wrong Selections for test. When we needed 4 seamers at edgbaston we had only  Three, While in second test as well as in fourth we needed 2 spinners but we had one.

3. Batting failure: Openers, lower order did not support Kohli though Rahane, Pujara

and Rahane did that in test we won or we fought. Both tests at Edgbaston and Southampton were won by contributions from Curran. Broad/Anderson pair sounded threatening while Moeen Ali surprised. Their batting sounded shaky except Butler, Bairstow, Stokes and Curran