Ishwarya's Blog, page 2

Imbalance

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As writers and authors, there’s always the
stereotype of reading and writing the same day.

A
writer always needs to read something, anything, at least a paragraph to charge
the battery of the pen they own, I’ve read in countless
articles.

Like every other writer out there, I’m also a book
lover and yes I do love to spend my time curled up on my bed or my favourite
sofa with one in my pyjamas and my hair in two plaits. I also like writing in
the same attire.

But contrary to popular opinion, I really can’t
write and read in the same day.

I don’t know what it is but the result of so many
experiments is that I’ve never been able to read to my heart’s content or write
to my heart’s content when I try to balance the two on a single day.

I either write an insane twenty pages or complete a
200 page book.

It’s a tendency of mine to get so involved with
something to the point of obsession when I’m at it, and it has its own
advantages and disadvantages. I think that’s why my pen gives birth to such
long manuscripts. I become so obsessed with my fictional characters that I can’t
help but dissect every single facet that makes them who they are and make sure
they’re all displayed out in the webs of the story I construct around them. The
funny thing is that I don’t realise they are long, until someone bulges eyes at
me after receiving the answer to the word count. It’s weird, obsessive, and
just the way I like it.

I can never ever
write a short story, believe me.

So, I think that’s why I’m unable to read a book on
the days I write. I’m too busy sculpting characters of my own that I don’t have
time to read how the fictional babies of other writers are.

So how’s it for you?

Are you a writer who can’t balance writing and reading on the same day just like me or do you always make sure you read and write every day?  

Hope you’re healthy and safe.

Best,

Deepika

Excerpts From Dance Dream

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Hey, guys

The Only Thing That Can Make You Happy

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No matter wherever you live, whether it’s a village or a town or a city, you can never go in every single building. Yes, I’m talking EVERY single building, like houses, shops, restaurants, markets …

I was riding on the bike behind my husband the other day and as we passed through one of the streets, I was thinking about how I’ve never been into any of those shops that lined it. I’ve never been into the small streets that web away from the main one either. And I’ve lived here for several years.

That got me considering.

Even though I’ve never visited any of those, it still doesn’t put a damper on things, does it?

I don’t really care I’ve never been inside that place.

True, there are some places I would love to go, but it’s not everything. We don’t lose the meaning of our lives if we haven’t gone into those buildings.

So why do we need to feel small and insecure about ourselves with comparison? Why do we need to bother about who’s doing whatever? Just focus on what you’re doing and where you’re going. That’s the only thing that can ever make you happy.

Love,

Deepika

~~~~~

Check out my debut novel, teen fiction DANCE DREAM, on Wattpad

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“If you want justice for your ambition, you’re the only person who can do anything about it” 

As sixteen year old Nikki Delaine fights an emotional battle with her father who thwarts her from following the career of her dreams, she grabs the opportunity of participating in a famous competition that opens the door to where she wants to go, without him being aware of it. 

With a school nemesis to deliberately lock all the doors as well as stand as a competitor for her love interest, Nikki navigates through all the rocks hurled her way to turn her dream into reality. Will she win in her attempt and become a dancer or will she fail and lose all her loved ones in the process?

Nama Shivaya

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Has anyone ever noticed before that an orange juicer resembles a Shivling?

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So, when we’re squeezing juice, are we actually bathing the Lord, who loves being bathed (abishegams)?

Nama Shivaya

~~~~~

Check out my debut novel, teen fiction DANCE DREAM, on Wattpad

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“If you want justice for your ambition, you’re the only person who can do anything about it” 

As sixteen year old Nikki Delaine fights an emotional battle with her father who thwarts her from following the career of her dreams, she grabs the opportunity of participating in a famous competition that opens the door to where she wants to go, without him being aware of it. 

With a school nemesis to deliberately lock all the doors as well as stand as a competitor for her love interest, Nikki navigates through all the rocks hurled her way to turn her dream into reality. Will she win in her attempt and become a dancer or will she fail and lose all her loved ones in the process?

All Eyes On You

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Failures are like the fat in our bodies.

You can’t avoid them but once you burn them with a determined, focused and undiluted attitude to succeed, all eyes are on you.

~~~~~

Check out my debut novel, teen fiction DANCE DREAM, on Wattpad

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“If you want justice for your ambition, you’re the only person who can do anything about it”

As sixteen year old Nikki Delaine fights an emotional battle with her father who thwarts her from following the career of her dreams, she grabs the opportunity of participating in a famous competition that opens the door to where she wants to go, without him being aware of it.

With a school nemesis to deliberately lock all the doors as well as stand as a competitor for her love interest, Nikki navigates through all the rocks hurled her way to turn her dream into reality. Will she win in her attempt and become a dancer or will she fail and lose all her loved ones in the process?

Dance Dream

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Hey, guys, how are you? Long time, no see.

Hope everyone is safe and healthy.

Back in 2014, I published my debut novel – DANCE DREAM – a teen fiction that focuses on the fact, ‘If you want justice for your ambition, you’re the only person who can do anything about it’.

“As sixteen year old Nikki Delaine fights an emotional battle with her father who thwarts her from following the career of her dreams, she grabs the opportunity of participating in a famous competition that opens the door to where she wants to go without him being aware of it.

With a school nemesis to deliberately lock all the doors as well as stand as a competitor for her love interest, Nikki navigates through all the rocks hurled her way to turn her dream into a reality. Will she win in her attempt and become a dancer or will she fail and lose all her loved ones in the process?”

The book went out of print and I decided to upload the new and revised version of it on Wattpad for interested readers, chapter by chapter

Emotional Movies

I’ve heard
about and seen people cry during movies.

And in my
opinion, it’s just something so very weird. I mean, why do you have to cry at the screen like that?

It’s been
an opinion that’s been stuck with me for a long time actually.

‘How could
you not cry at that?!’ the people who have seen the same tear jerker ask me in
shock when we discuss about it later.

And it
makes me feel like a rock.

I wonder
to myself if I have a serious problem.

But then,
one evening at my house when I was sixteen, tears rolled down my eyes because
of what was happening on screen. I was watching BR Chopra’s Mahabharata serial on DVD for the first
time and during the famous gambling sequence, as I watched the characters sweat
with fear and tremble in agony with each loss of their property and finally Draupadi,
I realised I was shaking a little. And my eyes were prickling. Then when they
lost Draupadi and had Dushasana drag her out by the hair, the tears rolled
down.

I was
alone at home and I was crying, because of what was happening on screen.

I only told my mother after she came back and never told anyone else that I cried at that. Well, now you know.

But it
technically wasn’t a movie.

It was a
serial, of so many episodes and ample time for characters to show every angle
of their mentalities and relationships for me to understand what they meant to
each other on a deep level. Movies only own a span of two or two and a half
hours, with not enough time – in my opinion – to dig through the depth of bonds
characters have with each other.

So when
people who watch movies with me silently cry at such an emotional scene, I
blink and stare left and right at them, wondering how I can sink in my chair
for not reacting the way they are. I discuss movies with my close friends and
when they say they cried at this movie and at that movie, I cringe because I’ve
watched those movies too and didn’t even feel my eyes prick.

I’m like,
what is wrong with me?

Is my
heart made of cement or are people just way too sensitive?

It’s
always a head scratching moment for me.

Even the
scene of Amarendra Baahubali dying in Baahubali:
The Conclusion only caused a slight burn in my eyes. So I don’t think that
counts. (My best friend is going to kill me for this)

And ironically,
the girl who doesn’t cry at movies is writing five books of a series which she
wants to jerk tears out of readers during certain scenes.

Okay, so
all this has been happening over the years.

I’m the
girl who doesn’t cry at movies.

And think
certain movie scenes are utterly ridiculous to be crying over.

But …

Yes, there’s
always a but.

There is
one movie that has evoked tears. By tears, I mean rivulets of them streaming
down my face.

Mom At Sixteen.

It’s a
2005 television movie starring Danielle Panabaker. I randomly watched it on
YouTube back in 2015 while surfing for any movie to watch that evening and by
the end of it, I was trembling with tears.

I couldn’t
help them.

This movie
is about a sixteen year old girl, Jacey, who is the mother of a five month old
baby boy. But since her own mother wants her to still go back to school,
graduate and then go to college to lead a normal life, she brings up the baby
as her own by showcasing him as Jacey and her sister’s little brother. But
people at school soon find out and Jacey is teased and called names. Her only
solace is a counselling teacher who also takes Health Education and as events
and circumstances lead Jacey into taking a decision that she never ever wanted
to take, the climax of the movie unfurls into a highly emotional scene that made
me cry.

I cried
back in 2015 and four years later, as I randomly watched this movie again
today, I cried again.

The
involuntary maternal love that Jacey can’t hold in herself, the strain in the
relationship she has with her mother, the mess all of this creates on Jacey’s
younger sister, the hardships she faces at school and the lesson she teaches to
stop being so reckless at this young an age to the rest of the school, how
cruel it is for young girls to be so stupid, then abort the result of the
stupidity in a world where some married couples are struggling to have a baby …
it was all very emotional for me.

Another
movie that I recently had an eye sting for is Gifted, starring Chris Evans and McKenna Grace. I had the eye sting
during the scene when Mary runs away from Frank and hits him over and over in
anger for leaving her like that, before he hauls her into his arms for a tight
embrace, which she soon reciprocates.

But I think Mom At Sixteen is the only movie to have ever evoked rivulets of tears. I think I will always have that reaction every time I see it.

Rabbit On Crack

Question: Hey, how are you? How’s it going?

Answer by FRIEND: Hey, I’m fine how are you? Everything’s swell here, how’s it going for you?

Answer by BEST FRIEND: Huh? Are you high? It’s way past your bedtime and you sound like a rabbit on crack.

Let’s Be Happy

How many of you find it so hard to stick to this
schedule and perfectly laid out plan for yourself?

Admit it, we’ve all been there. We’ve all had our
phases where we slack off in the activities we thought we’d do. One simple
example is of planning how you’d wake up tomorrow and start the week with that
workout you’ve been aiming to do for a while. Then you wake up, slouch, and be
like, ‘Next Monday,’ you promise yourself. ‘Next Monday.’

Next Monday comes and goes. Always does.

So does tomorrow.

And there’s no satisfaction of living with the guilt
of not doing that workout. It’s always nagging the back of your mind, poking at
you as it keeps reminding you of how you’ve betrayed yourself and your health.

We also plan to wake up at five or six am and get
something constructive done, like write another chapter or at least five pages
of the manuscript you’re working on or read another chapter of the book you’re
currently on, go for a walk, anything constructive. When we don’t wake up at
the time we told ourselves and don’t do that constructive work, it’s seriously hard
to live with yourself the rest of the day.

I wonder to myself.

How happy would we be if we manage to tick off every
single thing we’d made a list of the previous day?

And follow that disciplined routine with perfect time
management from then on?

Nothing ever compares to the happiness of doing
everything constructive planned for the day. And going to bed with an
accomplished smile on my face.

It’s been a long time since I knew what that was like.

Laziness is our worst enemy of all.

Add it to the smartphone whose tyrannical rule we are
all under, well …

If we want to succeed, we have to be organised. Punctual.
And stick to the discipline we set for ourselves. Being organised, punctual and
disciplined to ourselves is the huge leg up in our life. Nothing can ever
defeat that.

I really want to organise myself properly and listen
to my conscience all the time. The voice in the back of our heads is always always right. It keeps telling us to get
up and get a certain activity done but we decide to ignore it and carry on
being a lazy dumbass.

We have to get rid of our distractions and follow our
to-do list with perfect and organised time management to succeed in our lives.

Let’s all make ourselves happy by ticking off everything in that list to do for the day!

And create that success in life!

A Love So Beautiful

My second drama review!

Okay, so I’m not the kind of the girl who likes watching drama series after drama series but I’ve given certain ones exceptions, all of which have won my heart. The first dramas to do so were Korean ones – To The Beautiful You and Personal Taste. And the third one, the one I watched recently, is A Love So Beautiful, a Chinese teenage love drama that was recommended to me by my dear friend, Neerja Di.

It’s about this dorky little sixteen year old, Chen Xiaoxi, who is undeniably in love with her next door neighbour cum classmate, Jiang Chen, this talented class topper who is grim faced yet passionate.

When someone recommends me to watch a drama or a movie or read a book, I love to keep them updated about the progress, since I know I would love to be updated in the same way when I recommend a favourite. And I enjoyed keeping Neerja Di updated about the episode and scene I’m currently in, who loved discussing about the characters and story during my progress.

A Love So Beautiful is an incredibly cute and sweet story that revolves around young love, showing how all the little stuff matter. Most scenes of Xiaoxi and Jiang is just of awkwardness and observation of each other, deepening the relationship between them. And both of them had rational sides. Usually, when it comes to fictional love, viewers always have opinions to criticise the hero and heroine with, putting forth how their actions really should have been executed. But I think this one will shut down opinions.

Cause there wasn’t a moment I felt why they did what they did.

I couldn’t even wonder why Xiaoxi even likes Jiang. She just does, that’s the point.

Bosong, the swimmer who instigates a love triangle, draws out our sympathy and it’s always a known fact the guy who isn’t the hero is the one whose character clenches our hearts the most. He’ll always end up being unfortunate with a broken heart. But what is irksome is that the heroines usually run to this unfortunate guy just to tattle to him about the hero’s upsetting actions, causing him to do something affectionate to comfort her that usually isn’t a good idea if he wants to forget about his love for her and move on. I’ve seen that loads of times.

I was mighty impressed when nothing of that sort happened here in this drama. Xiaoxi never ran off to Bosong for sympathy and never made any move to lead him on. She made it perfectly clear she only liked him as a friend. She knew what she wanted from both guys and she always made that known to them. This was how Xiaoxi won me over, for being strong in her decisions and never wavering from them. She wanted Jiang, and Jiang is the only one she’ll romantically pursue. She likes Bosong as a friend and she shares only friendly moments with him.

She’s the kind of girl anyone could trust things with and be assured she’ll always be there for you.

There was also a cuteness overload from her. The actress who played her has to be given huge credit for how well she brought out the various emotions Xiaoxi goes through in such an adorable manner. Laughs, giggles, goofy grins, longing expressions, jealousy … they were all so cute.

I loved Jiang Chen too, for being a silent hero and proving how his sense of commitment and love goes beyond the guys who quickly confess their feelings to the girl. He had some pretty difficult moments too but he passed through all that with the strength he is capable of. He’s also weird, but a sweet little weird thing.

Everything that Xiaoxi and Jiang go through with regard to their relationship, is just so rational, you know. There wasn’t a single moment I felt like, ‘No, they shouldn’t have done this.’ Everything just fit so well in every scenario.

And it’s not Xiaoxi, Jiang and Bosong that are adorable. We have this tomboyish I-Will-Fry-You gorgeous best friend of Xiaoxi who sticks by her side like she’s superglued and causes another dorky member of their small gang to fall for her for being who she is.

I love this drama and I will recommend it anyone who is willing to watch!!

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