Day 10-“He grit his teeth and bore the pain…” 55 word story

“He grit his teeth and bore the pain…”

He loved her . She loved him.  He told his parents. She asked her parents.Her parents refused. Religions didn't match. Egos clashed.The girl had to choose.She didn't choose. It was clear.It was 25 years versus 25 months.He grit his teeth and bore the pain.He would wait for the next birth.

My first attempt at a 55 word fiction. Actually my first attempt at fiction. I loved doing it. This is for the 
Theme as given by my favorite FB blogging group 'Marathon Blogging'

'Urban Shots: The Love Collection' Book Review

The toughest thing as a writer is to write a love story. Wait! Writing it easy but to captivate a reader into liking it, is tough! Man - Woman - Love- Sex
How these four words can be different for every single couple on earth is utterly amazing.
Love can be between two strangers, a newly married couple , fellow commuters,colleagues a prostitute and her customer, a dying man and his helpless lover,college-mates,...
Love can manifest into many forms too - superstition , marital , extra-marital,illicit or innocent or admiration or unquestioning surrender or infatuation!
No wonder time has seen so much been written about love and still will see too.
On a personal note, I fell in love with love since I remember. So it was no wonder I would choose a book of love stories to review .

Book: Urban Shots: The Love Collection

Publisher: www.greyoak.in and www.westlandbooks.in

Favorite lines of mine from the book:

'A woman has to be realistic' -Measures of Life and Love By Anant Tripathi

'When was the last time you felt that feeling int the pit of your stomach?'- A simple question by Naman Saraiya

'The best part about talking to stranger is that no questions seem wrong and no accusations seemed right'-Twisted by Lipi Mehta

'Iamginary boyfriends are always more considerate than real life lovers'- Love is Blind

'Life is a quiver full of emotions,Each arrow wasted on the wrong target'- Invibible Touch by Jairaj Padmanabhan

 Favorite Stories
Strangers by Ahmed Faiyaz
      Anything I say about the story might take away the thrill of reading this story. The buildup to the end
was done well.

Coffee?-by Ahmed Faiyaz
       Oh! I just realised. I like this author I guess. :) Storytelling a forte for this one I think. The story is so relatable that I can tell about 10 such real life couples that met and broke up in the same way. Such is the way of life in college.

A good day! By Richa S Chatterjee
   Yes we come across many quotable quotes saying that life is short and we should never sleep over a fight. Never know what will happen. Again a very relatable story and each sentence made me put myself in the husband's shoes and shudder and promise myself to value what I have and cherish the life.

Reality Bytes By Anitha Murthy
   Firstly because I am from AP too.. I know regionalism :P But I loved the premise and the easy flow of words the author used.

Overall
The thing about short stories is that they are short. Ideal for a time-sapped mommy that I currently am. There is no continuity worry and each story takes you through a different thought process.
That way I give a thumbs up to all stories. All of them pass through the one time read barrier. A few are a real gems as I listed above. Overall, a good book to read on the run.
Girls like me will enjoy it a lot! Those who enjoy light breezy reads once in a while.
The thing about these stories is that they are so close to life. Nothing that is outside the realm of a regular urban mind. It is nice to think that the characters could be just living next door. It sometimes reminds you of your own story or your friends. It makes you want to pick up the phone and call the person and tell them 'Hey! your story is a novel,Dude!'

Thanks Blogadda for giving me a shot at reviewing this book.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books
!

What is love? To me

I know! I know! I had a love marriage! I should know. Or you think I should know.
( My mind wandered thinking about the number of words repeated in the above sentence! )

Love has captivated many writers and artists since forever. I am not going to put in words flowing with creative romance like they do. Simply because I cant!

I dreamed of a knight in shining armour sweeping of my feet while secretly reading my Mills and Boons.
I dreamed of a Airforce pilot taking me to the clouds while watching Rick Hunter in Robotech.
I also dreamed of a Raj or Rahul coming and dancing with me to 'no music'.
I dreamed of having a soccer boyfriend like Ned Nickerson to Nancy Drew.

But life took over and prioritised education and a career above boys!

So when I met my husband, love hit me like a surprise.
He wasnt a knight or a hero or a pilot! He was all rolled into one for all I cared!
I wasnt sure initially. I was insecure in the middle. I was paranoid at proposal and I was swooning at his every word at our wedding.Thats love I thought!

How could I , did I live at all for so many years without him? That's Love, I thought in the honeymoon period.
I cooked, cleaned , washed, dusted, ironed. He was something to be pampered! Thats love,i thought!

I put all his needs before me. I bought curtains he liked, bedsheets he prefers and saw movies of his choice. Thats love i thought!

I beared all pain and gave birth to his daughter. I just wanted to see the look in his face when he saw her first! Thats love I knew.

I saw me adjust, I saw him compromise, I saw us fight , I saw me cry, i saw him banging walls in frustation. I saw us make up and fight somemore later! That is love I know!

I get some bedsheets in floral, i get some in plain. I put up some photo frames he doesnt like but I do! I put up with his late night gaming. He puts up with my erratic mood swings. Thats love I know.

We learn as we go to live with each other. We'll learn more and more happily ever after! Thats the love I know.

How I met you father!

Dear daughter,

I know there will be a day when you'll discover that the naughty boys who annoy you are actually handsome and worth a second thought. Around the same time I think you'll also realise mumma and baba had a love marriage. I know it'll be super exciting to you to know about it. But God willing, i am hoping all this will happen atleast 15 yrs down the line. (wishful!)
So here I am penning 'The Story' down for you. Coz 15 years On, your old man and you will make me so many more memories that the initial days may become blurry :D
So... Like, you have ______ , we had a social networking site called Orkut! ( yeah it was there , believe you me!) (right about now, I bet the daughter is thinking we are from the Dinosaur age).
I was fresh into an IT firm with unlimited Internet. At home, we still had a dial up connection. It opened a world of opportunities and timepass. So one fine orkut invite later, I joined the exciting new world of social networking! But like good girls, I restricted myself to add only known people. Strangers strictly off-limits. So no fraandship invites were accepted. ( which I got often and do admit were ego boosting :p) So we can safely say your father could not be some random bloke I met off the internet!
One fine day, 28th April 2006 to be precise, I get this friendship request from a sweet little girl in her teens. Oh! That no strangers rule didnt apply to girls).Plus she was a second cousin to one of my bestest friend. So request accepted and a few scraps ( what do you call them? Messages,tweets, wall entries) were exchanged. Well, I think I got a glimpse of your dad sometime during this exchange.
Then a few days later again to be precise on May 3rd 2006 I get an invite from the brother of the sweet little teen girl who is the second cousin of my best friend :p He introduced himself as a bonus to his sisters's friendship.
A quick look at his profile took me to a flashback. You see when we both were in college together, my best friend and I , she had mentioned about this gamer second cousin of hers who wanted some alpha game testers. I was supposed to go but gave it a miss. Some of my other friends went for it though. Never again was the gamer guy mentioned!
So looking at the profile, I thought 'Hello Mr. Gamer cousin'. I was into PC games majorly you know due to the influence of your mama. So to get to know some one who created games for a living sounded interesting. So i accepted the invite. ( but in my defence, he was not a stranger!)
So then on it was a rollercoaster ride (fun, exhillarating,new,scary). Loads of scraps (sigh yes PDA), we made a decision to move it to the next level! We exchanged our yahoo and gtalk Ids. :D So the increasingly private conversation moved from the social networks to the chat applications and finally to mobile conversations. Phew!
But the title of the blog still remains to be addressed,na! I didnt still meet your father yet!
You wouldn't believe we hadn't even seen proper pictures of each other,apart from the low-res blurry DP pictures. But inspite of that minor detail, on 28th August 2006 we decided to get married soon. Yes you heard it right! No first date or meeting. It didnt matter to us, the physical appearances! Yup! We were two mad people in love and we knew, but didnt care. But practically you know we had to meet to get married , so the first date was set.
I was working on a saturday for half a day. So it was arranged that he'll pick me up and drop me home from office. We had 30mins to each other ( coz i had to reach home on time , your maternal grandparents didnt know yet).
Why i am being so specific as I say maternal is ... Your dad told his parents that he is going to meet their daughter-in-law before coming on the date!!! ( i still swooon wheneva I remember that)
So yes we met first time outside my office campus, in the bike parking area to discuss how to tell my parents about 'US'.
All i can say is that it didnt feel like first time. There wasnt any awkwardness or shyness. We knew each other so well it didnt matter how we looked ( but yes we were secretly both glad that there were no horns or weird stuff :p)..
There you go! Now stay tuned to for the sequel ' How I married your father'! Coz you know now that didnt happen for another 2 years. :D

Love,
Mumma

This is my entry for the HarperCollins–IndiBlogger Get Published contest, which is run with inputs from Yashodhara Lal and HarperCollins India.

Love after a baby!

Amongst all cuteness galore,wet kisses, lots of hugs and heart-melting baby talk! N the diapers,n wipes n messy clothes n toys everywhere! Aaah! The point is where is the time for intimacy with hubby! Gone are the days where we could do anything anywhere anytime! :p
But as they say we had a good 2 years of courting and 3 years of a marriage to do all the crazy stuff we could!
I do miss that! But now i see somethings in the newly minted father that makes me fall in love with him over and over again!
I ll list a few:
1) when he stood by me during labor, held my hand and didnt ask me to 'push' impatiently ! ( it matters)
2) when He held his little girl for the first time and said a quiet thanks to me with moist eyes!
3) when he yelled at the doctors and nurses when i fell sick immediately after delivery and the temperatures did not come down for 4 days.
4) when he sat by me while i fed the baby and had eyes only for the little one ! ( u never know with men :p)
5) when he would come every night travelling 30kms to visit me and baby at my mom's place!
6) when he'd change a poopy diaper so lovely and proudly! Every she does is a marvel to him!
7) when he d get up late nites just to keep me company during a light night feed.
8) when he'd leave everything at a moments notice when i say the baby has a fever!
9) when he looks at my stretch marks and says 'awww! You went through so much' instead of being disgusted.
10) Early morning when he d take the wailing baby so that mommy could get the extra 10 minutes of sleep.(so precious)
11)When he does the dishes without being asked if the maid doesnt come!
12) When he says 'i love you' more often then before!
13) when he says i look so pretty when i am actually looking like a train has hit me!
14) when he says 'family' referring to just us three!

Aah! I love my husband and it just keeps growing day by day! Mushy me!
Ok now i ve reached the mushiness quota of the day! I ll being adding more points for the rest of our journey :)

Love marriage!

Mine is one! N yes sadly sometimes in certain circumstances I have to think twice to tell that to people!
Here are the questions  and reactions I get due to which I am left to ponder:
1) so did you run away/ elope?
    -  Why? I didn't commit a crime!
2) How sad is it for your parents!
    -Hello! Should they be sad because I found a person I love and who also loves me and my parents!
3) What is his caste? Is he a Brahmin?
    - Does it matter in this day or age? These castes were made based on occupations in early times! Which Brahmin these days can recite a shloka decently?
4) omigod Her parents gave her too much freedom!
    - yes! They did! They did so because they respect me and trust me! They raised me so well that they know I can make my own decisions!
5) oh! So he's not from the same state ! How are you going to last?
    - erm! Atleast he's an Indian! Not that it would have mattered anyways! Arent we in the age of globalisation!?!
6) oh! What will you teach your kids- their culture or ours?
    - sigh! My kids have best of both worlds to learn from!
7) She had a love marriage ( the tone implying I am sorts to keep away daughters from!)
    -well! I simply feel sad for your daughters!
8) Do you live alone because his parents didn't like the love marriage concept?
     - Well! My life is not a balaji Soap opera! No such dramas in my life!
9) her mother didn't raise her well! I would have broken my girls legs and made her sit at home!
     - I am so happy I donot have a pshycho mother like you who'd even think of harming her own child!
10) oh did you guys do it before marriage?
     -none of your business! Puhleese!
11)Oh! So you guys did a lot of dating shating before you got married, huh! I toh met him just once in front of parents!
    - What! I mean are you proud of that! Or are you plain dumb!
12) you know most love marriages end up in a divorce!
    - Thanks! Aah! You made my day! I ll call you for my break up party!
13) now what will you teach your daughter!
    - erm! This irks me the most!
Yes! These and many other really irritating reactions! Though thankfully people of this narrow minded group are slowly becoming extinct! But they do creep up on me once in a while and make me cringe!
Yes i have had a love marriage. And yes! I am happy and not thinking about a divorce! And yes!  All marriages are one at the same after the wedding- love or arranged- TRUST and MUTUAL RESPECT are the driving forces behind it!
Also! Yes I am thankful to my lovely parents to have raised me and doing a wonderful job at that. I owe a lot to them and will help them whenever they need me! But I am not guilty to have found and married the man I love!