‘Hey Dad! meet my Mom’ book review

“Hey Dad! Meet my mom!” is yet another story that combines all the basic elements of a modern-day books. It has comedy, romance, and mystery. Probably everything what today’s Indian generation crave for. It took me a total of four hours to read 157 pages written by Sandeep Sharma and Leepi Agrawal. This is probably the exact time, which both the author and their editing team might have given to this story.

“Hey Dad! Meet my mom!” follows story of Puneet, a 29-year-old SBI branch manager and how his life takes a D-tour when he encounters with his son who came(offers) to help Puneet to find his mother. Story sounds good. It sure is, but as soon as I finished reading, I thought that why do people always write away an idea which comes into their head? It is so poorly written.

I belong from that generation of readers, who loves to read Sir Salman Rushdie, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy, and Kafka. The author has not claimed at any point that he is trying to write the literature of the year but at least, a reader is allowed to demand something from such a story. There are few points which I liked about the book and few points I hated.

To make this review short and simple, I am going to point them out.

What I hate about “Hey Dad! Meet my mom!”

1. ‘Are you gay, Puneet beta?’ To start your novel with this statement will surely grasp the attention of few people but at the end of the page, Puneet replies to his mother that, ‘I am absolutely fine.’ What does this statement signifies? Are gay people not fine? Is there something wrong about them?
I can understand that the author has not meant to write such statement in that sense but it came out like that only.

2. Few conversations between Puneet and Rishi sounds a little too off-beat but I can give the author a break. It’s a fiction, anything can happen but one should know the fact that there is a very thin line between fiction and reality and when writing a fiction, one should not forget that line. In “Hey Dad! Meet my mom!” both the authors have crossed that line and in all the 157 pages they are jumping from here and there.

3. “There was nothing special about her!”
This phrase has been used in the story for I don’t know how many times. Sometimes in this exact order or sometime in different context.
Suggestion: If you are telling your readers that there was nothing special about her, your readers are going to believe it. Even if you take the train from a different station. You first want to tell us that there is nothing special and then you tend to describe all your emotions? Why to stretch those lines? Why not just be simple? We are here to read something good, something funny, not to watch some daily soup!

4. “Gangadhar hi Shaktimaan hai!” Oh come on! Was this only left to read in this book? Was there nothing inside writer’s head to come up with something witty which actually made us laugh and at the very same time showed the real Myra?

5. Every writer loves to write about love-making scenes. Or to be precise, every current author loves to write about sex.
When a writer who is trying very hard to write a good story writes about love-making, one feels okay! It happens. But when a writer tries hard, very hard to insert the “sex-scene” in the story, all you want to do is to close the book.
‘hairy organ between her legs’ what is that? How can one use this adjective to portray such thing?
‘she moved like a fish over me’ Wait! Hold on! Did I just read that she moved like a fish over me? Like, seriously??? Like a fish?? Or is there something else which I am missing here to understand?

If this was the first part of the book, then wait when the second half starts. The second half is so badly written (read edited) that for a second I actually had to read certain pages just to help myself in finding a way out. In the second half, the author has tried to portray Puneet’s college life which was a good thinking, turning your plot to something else and let us forget all the melodrama and in the end, offered us nothing. There are so many twists and turns and they are so poorly written that anyone will end up thinking, ‘What is this?‘

Hypnosis, drugs, erasing the memory. “Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind?” is poorly written? Come on man! If anything is poorly written then it is, “Hey Dad! Meet my mom.”

How Puneet acquired Roshni’s diary is the biggest mystery in the novel to me.

Things which I liked about “Hey Dad! Meet my mom”

1. Payal Srivastava, who has written some amazing poetry for the story. Few are so good and so well written that I actually had a smile on my face. You go girl! There is indeed a long way for you.
2. Really liked the name Myra.
3. The point when Myra comes to help Punnet in Gujrat is good and it finally showed why and how Puneet loves her.

My only suggestion to both the authors:

Please rethink your stories next time onward. Brainstorm them and don’t rush into writing them. Stories are meant to make you feel alive, not to leave you all in confusion and the desire to ask yourself, ‘Why I read the book?’ There is indeed a good potential in both the authors but only if they will use it correctly.

Thinking varies with people to people and the above review is thoroughly based on my perspective and my learning from the book. I thank the author for sending me the book to review and I understand what it takes to write a book. Have a opinion! Go ahead and read it.

Light the lamp of Hope inside your heart

One of my very close friend lost all his hope the other night. He was too young to lose anything and losing hope was a huge blow for him. What happened to him? What happened with him? I don’t know.

I know one thing though, losing hope is one of the greatest sin one can ever do in his entire life. The girl you like has declined your love? Don’t lose hope, she will be yours if she is meant to. The guy you like ditched you for some other girl? Don’t lose hope in living, there will be more guys and you will deserve someone better. Results came and you didn’t fulfill your parent’s expectations? Don’t lose hope, there are more serious exams you have to face than these school or college entrance tests.

Always remember, if you have hope in your heart and your will is strong then there is no stone in this world which you cannot turn. There is nothing in this world which you cannot achieve.

I understand that, when things do not work out the way we imagined them to be, our heart aches and I understand that the pinching pain in the heart is unbearable but come on, there is an another day. The shining sun above your head belongs to you and when it will again rise in the eastern mountains, remember to sing a song and you will feel alive again.

You will think that I am just blabbering right now. But trust me, I have been there. I did not clear my IIT; I got ditched by a girl I truly loved; I failed my parents many a times and there are tons of other things for which I am not proud of, but I always choose to work harder because if I will sit around crying over my life then I won’t be able to correct my mistakes. I am trying very hard and I will try to work even harder because I know that I am here to do some wonderful things and hope is the only lamp in my heart that has calmed me.

If you have hope, you have the power to give birth to love and if I am not wrong, Love is the thing which we all want, we all desire. Love from our parents, love from the person we love, love from our friends and so on. Just hope! Hope for another bright day and you will find a new version of yourself in you.

Don’t make money, make a life

It was long back in the year 2004 when my grandfather took me for a walk. Let me tell you, he is not the kind of person who prefers walking – he was 69-years-old at that time, with the problem of arthritis on both of his leg but somehow he chose to avoid the pain and took me on a walk on one Sunday evening.

The world ahead of us was bright and shiny and there was a sense of coming summer in the air. We were on the right turn from our place when all of a sudden my grandfather turned towards me and said, “Viraj, I want to share something with you today.” My grandfather, who is a retired from a government office is a kind of person who choose to remain silent most of his days and but when there is a discussion on politics between him and my father, he uses voice over the silent actions. When he said that he wanted to share something to me, I had no clue what he will say to me, so I just looked at him and nodded my head.

“Viraj I have achieved many things in my life. I have built a good house in the city. All of my children are well settled and happy in their lives but I am not happy,” he said.

“Why is that dada?” I asked.

“I never lived my life fully. All my life I just worked to meet the ends. I had so much to do, and in that process I forgot to live my life.

When I was of your age, I thought of starting my own business but then my parents got me married and ever since then I just worked for the family. There were times in my life, when I wanted to quit my job but something always came up.”

Now we were walking towards the temple which my family always visited. I knew I had to stay quiet, there was more to come from him.

“Soon you will be an adult, you will do your graduation and then probably you will get a job but I want to tell you one thing never settle for those things which you don’t love. Find a thing in your life that will make you happy, one can always make money but it needs a lot of guts to make a life. Don’t do those mistakes which I did.”

We visited the temple and then we walked back home. My old grandfather stayed silent and there were thousands of voices running inside my head. It was such a simple message from him. He has seen his life, he has been to all those phases which we have to see and face. He spoke with true determination and there was experience in his every word.

Make a living, that’s what my grandfather said to me.

We are at that stage right now where our small steps decide our entire future but always remember to do that thing or to choose that vocation that you love because there will come a time in your life when you will be walking with your grandson and thinking the possibilities of work which you could have done.

Don’t be afraid. The road ahead is indeed tough but remember it’s you and your life. Wear your favorite shoes and walk. Walk till you reach at the end and has the capability to tell your grandson, I lived my life.

A whisper, A Song and the Universe

Every story comprises of few basic elements: Characters, scenes and the execution of those characters in those scenes. But before thinking ahead, a story always have a beginning, a middle plot leading towards the end. This is how all the stories have been told and this is the most basic way to write a story. But what you call that story that has a beginning in every sub-plots? An ending in every beginning and a beginning with every last word? Ever thought of that story? Is it complex? Or it’s just a mild hallucination by the magical words?

From the early dawn, we knew this fact that this Universe is infinite. There are boundaries for sure but we cannot look at them. However far we travel in the bosoms of the horizon, the boundaries of that Universe will always surprise us. And not only in traveling ahead, but also if we look into the deepest corners of it, we will find unexplored beauty of that Universe.

Universe is here. It will always be here. Long before the words were born and long after the great fall of our civilization, this Universe is going to stay here only; like a summer breeze, like a whisper by our beloved. This Universe is going to stay, because in simpler words, Universe is nothing but a Mother.

This Universe has given us everything. One never have to ask for anything, just a mere thought will bring this Universe by our side in achieving that thing. It is kind and compassionate and is always here to help us, without asking anything in return. In some special cases, if the Universe is not able to provide us the thing which we crave most then at least it will teach us to knock on one particular door that will open the ways for us.

Universe is the most beautiful and complex story ever written. You and I will sit down in one corner and will blabber our thoughts and educations but at the end of the day we will be uncertain of the possibilities of it. Isn’t this the case with ‘Mother’? She is beautiful in her own way, the tear rolling down from her eyes when she sees her child achieving something is the most beautiful form of pearl ever created. She has her own ways of showing kindness and sorrow. Mother is everything, and everything is in her – just like the Universe.

Few lucky ones have a mother and when someone asks them what he or she thinks of their mother they will promptly reply, my mother is the best mother in the entire Universe! Just open your eyes and think the literal meaning of it, their mother is the best mother in the entire Universe. How one knows about the rest of the mothers in the entire world? Answer is very simple, that mother creates the Universe for her child and trust me that’s not a simple story to write. Her actions towards her child has beginning and middle plots and songs of lullaby spoken from her within. Every mother is special in her own way, same as the Universe, narrating a different bedtime story to each and every one of us.

‘Mother’ is a story in herself. A story only meant to written for you. A story which will help you in understanding the basic laws that governs this planet and the rest of them. All you have to do is to sit down next to her, hold her hands and smile – look she is showing you the significance of Black hole! Look she just taught you how to swim in the frozen oceans of Pandora! Look she is helping you in flying and is now showing you how to touch the sun without burning yourself. Look now she is smiling because now she is teaching you how to love.

There is a story inside every one of us. There is a Universe taking silent breathes inside us and there is this mother who is constantly singing the songs of love inside our hearts. Want to look beyond the horizon? Want to be the person this Universe always wanted you to be? Do only one thing: listen to that voice of Universe speaking in the voice of ‘Mother.’

How to sell your First Book!

Being a writer, I always thought that writing alone is everything. All you have to do is to write a good meaningful story and the entire world will crave for it. But this all happens in an ideal world, a world where everyone is an avid reader (read buyer). Believe it or not, your friends and relatives always tell you that they are eagerly waiting for your book to release and few of them will actually buy your book but this is not what you pictured. Before getting published, you knew that you have 800+ friends on Facebook and at least 250 of them will surely buy it. But did they? I have learnt one thing after writing (read selling) my first book, writing a book is 1% task and the rest is pure business. So, here I am going to tell you few pointers which every writer should do in the first two months of his book release. These ways are just my learning and I hope it will help those who are still not hundred percent happy, even after seeing their name on Amazon or in the local book stores.

Use bloggers:

You must have heard it like a thousand of times, but do believe me when you read the following sentence, ‘Bloggers are the angels sent from heavens. Period.’ Try to find some top bloggers online, and send them first three chapters of your book and request them to give you a proper book review. Some of them charge for this service and some of them are here just to read books. So find as many bloggers as you can and send as many copies as possible for them to read. If they host Giveaway contests then more the better. People who follow honest blogs loves to read what their favorite blogger is writing about and if that lucky person is you – BOOM! You will have an access to all the followers of his blogs.

Use Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest:

Yes that’s the harsh truth, Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest are not only to upload pictures, one can use them to actually promote his work. Create a page for your page, ask your friends to like it and if you don’t have any problem then do use Facebook adverts. They really boost up the market for you.

Same goes for other social media platforms. If you are not going to speak about your book then who will? Upload as many quotes, reviews as possible on each and every platform. Ask your close dear friends to send you a selfie with the book – You can actually upload it on your social media pages with a nice caption – Thank you readers!

With my book, I did one thing which you all can do. When you have the cover image ready, ask your close friends to make it as their Facebook profile picture. People on social media platforms are not crazy for words but they want to see what you are uploading! So why not upload your work? It is as simple as that.

Try Making a Short Video:

If you are into all this film making thing or you personally know someone who can shoot a short video for it then please, please go for it. I am not here suggesting to go and use some music and write some quotes on surreal wallpapers and use Windows Movie Maker to edit. There are people who charges in three four digits just to shoot a video trailer for you. You can save your money by shooting it with your mobile phone. Go out with your friends and you can shoot few things which I did and it personally helped me like, just a normal minute video in which you are reading the synopsis of the book, a video in which you are reading one entire chapter of the book and in the end thanking your audience for listening to it (with a link where they can purchase your book).

Once you have made it, again upload it on all the social media forums you are aware of. Send the links with every mail you send. Just speak about your book.

Go to your local bookstores:

Remember the small place back in the alley where you bought all your books when you were out of cash? It’s time to go back to that shop. Talk to the person in charge and convince him to sell your book from his store. Give him a heavy discount and commission, this first book is not about making money but to sell yourself. You want the world to know you. So go to him and keep few AUTOGRAPHED copies of your book and ask him to give it to his regulars. Give him your number in case any reader wants to speak to you or he wants you to provide him with more copies. Don’t shy, just go and talk with him now!!!

Giveaways:

Remember the bloggers you talked about regarding the book review? Mail/call them again and ask if they can conduct Giveaways for your book. In my experience, I have found Goodreads Giveaway very helpful. Just by conducting a giveaway you are opening the gates for thousands of the readers to bid for your book. Even you know that there are only few of them are going to win but look at the brighter side, how many of them are going to Enter in the contest? How many of them will have a little idea about your book? Try it one time, you won’t regret it.

There are many ways to sell your book, the list will go on and on. But you won’t be needing any of these if you have written a good story and you have found a good publisher. An article about, Which Publisher is Good for Your Book is on its way. Good luck and while you are wondering at my blog, go and at least check out my book Derivation of Life in case you like it. I told you, always speak about your book.

Book Review: Derivation of Life, Author – Viraj J.Mahajan, Publisher – Notion Press

One of the book reviews, Thank you Priyanka for the nice words. Really mean a lot to me.

Books News India by Priyanka Batra Harjai

Title: Derivation of Life

Author: Viraj J. Mahajan

Publisher: Notion Press

ISBN: 9789384391997

My review:

I had never cried this much, ever after completing most of the sentimental stories read so far!

Yes, this is true and I am not exaggerating my emotions at all. Derivation Life is a emotional tell tale from an experienced writer – Vira J Mahajan. He aspires to become a Bollywood writer someday but for me, he has become one. I would be one of his numerous fans someday. He shares that his story is based on his personal experiences based in Ujjain during 90’s but the effect it leaves and the trail of emotions that it surfaces is just timeless.

This story is about a lady – Archana. She is an epitome of motherhood and feminism; a symbolic of any other Indian lady whose life revolves around her family – her children. Almost all…

View original post 626 more words

A Young Admirer!

After finishing a lovely dinner at your favorite restaurant, you pay the bill and walk toward the exit. Suddenly someone taps you on the shoulder. You turn around and…
it’s a mother along with her 10 years old brown-eyed son. Her son is looking at you anxiously and has a shinning smile and tears of joy. You look at the woman. She is in her early 30’s.
“You are the one who wrote that fantasy story, right?”

Oh! It’s just a fan, you thought. You just nod and smiles. She looks at her son and he pulls out the book from his hanging bag which you wrote long ago. The condition of the book is mess. It feels like that the book has been traveling from a generation. All those years back when you bought your own book, it was white as snow but now, this book in your hand looks like the evening color of those roads, which shimmered by the big yellow street lights which falls on it in heavy rainy days – Your favorite book color.

“His father used to read him your book every night. It was my son’s favorite bedtime story. After my husband’s demise last year, I started reading him this story of yours but couldn’t match up with the emotions which his father used to convey, I tried my best but…anyways he is reading your book everyday. He goes to school, he takes it. When all the kids of his age are playing in the school ground, he sits quietly with your book on his laps. I think that there is something which he is trying to find out in these pages.”

You look at the boy and smiles at him. An admirer is what you always needed. You see yourself in him, when you were 10 years old and read Harry Potter for the first time, all you wanted to do was to go and meet J. K. Rowling. Ah! what a feeling it was.

“What’s your name?” you ask to the boy.
“Abhijeet” he says and he rubs his nose with his index finger.
“I know you are very busy, but one of my friend told me that you always come here to eat. So we both are coming here from the past one week to ask you one favor.” Abhijeet’s mother continued.

She might be needing an autograph, you thought.

“Can you read him any paragraph from your book? It will make him happy and this is the best thing which would happen to both of us after my husband’s death.”

You met many fans, people always said that they loved your book. They found their own part in those stories of yours but when that young child looks at you with the eyes of hope and excitement, you finally realize that before a writer you were a storyteller. That pen with silver body and those white blank pages only opened a way for your voice. You lift the young boy, the best fan you ever got in your arms and start telling him a story.

Just a brief.

“…but this part is not in the book!” he says in his childish tone. A look of fear on his face – what part did he miss reading?

You look at him and rubs his nose with your index finger and your thumb which had color of dry inks, “I know this is not in the book….this is the start of its sequel.”

First Line!

After erasing the first line I am writing this. It is so simple just to erase a thought in a click. I wrote it, and I deleted it. This one sentence looks so simple but as I mentioned in my earlier post, words do have hidden meaning. Every sentence has a destiny. So getting deleted was the destiny of that sentence? What did it do wrong? As a writer, I didn’t like it so it got deleted and if this is how things are going to be then nobody will ever know that sentence. Nobody will ever have the idea of its existence. Isn’t it beautiful and sad at the same time? I wonder what that sentence might be thinking about me? Did I murder it? Or I took away a chance from it in contributing for something magical?

---

Sitting back in front of my window, I look outside. The night is slowly crawling in and the gates and windows are shutting down like the eyes of an infant just after coming out from the heaven which some people refer to as, womb. There is a cigarette right in between my sore lips and I am trying to kiss every bit of it. I know it will harm me but the pleasure it is giving me at this moment is incomparable. There are few mosquito right under my computer table and my God! aren’t they loving me?

Yesterday, I thought about one thing which I should do without thinking about the consequences. But, we, humans tend to think a lot and when we are tired of thinking, we sleep. I am not in the mood to sleep for now, so here I am. Allowing those little insects to kiss me while I am kissing this wonderful cigarette.

Can I delete that thought from my head as I deleted that first line? Is it that simple?

*Smirk*

---

Make a glass of your favorite drink today. Sit on your best chair with that drink and take few deep breaths and drink on your own name and whisper, Sometimes it is alright to delete something even if we know, it means a lot to us. Tell yourself that sentence everyday and enjoy your drink whenever you get a chance because you never know when will you be that First Line. 

How Derivation of Life Happened!

There is always a reason for something, this line might look simple to its core but it does have hidden meanings. Why there should always be some reason? Why those reasons must fulfill the cause for the happening? And when you think it through, you might add up more questions which I didn’t write. Your heart and mind might contradict to this thought but there is a third entity; a feeling, a whisper right inside your chest which never ask any question. That voice always smiles.

I heard that voice back in the year, 2012 when I was in Ujjain, my hometown. A place which gave me my voice, my language and my thoughts. That voice came from within and smiled and then and there, I understood what it wanted from me. There is a reason for everything. For me, that voice was the reason to sit down and write a story which dealt with the sorrow of a family. It conveyed just a basic thought, that in the end you and you alone has to face your life but you should not forget that there is a sun hidden behind that grey umbrella which is shinning just for you.

I came to my house and sat next to my window. The day was going by and the reign of the night has just started and I was wondering how to give word to that whisper? And according to me words are very important as they have their own destiny. It starts when one write them but it open it’s eyes when a reader feels it. I was wondering in my head with these thoughts when my mother came to my room with dinner. I looked at her and realized that she is getting younger as the days are passing. There were marks of time on her hand and on her face but at that hour, she was glowing. It was like, all of a sudden I could really look into her soul as she has been looking at mine.

A Mother! A mother is that word which I needed to give life to that whisper. After forcefully eating my dinner, I sat down on my bed with my notebook and my black color ink pen and wrote the first line, “There were thousands of thoughts running inside her…”, this was the first line which I wrote and after thinking for another two years I wrote what is currently in the published book.

There are so many stories you might have read or heard. Many simple or yet complex stories which too deals with human turmoil. Mine is not a different one but as an avid reader myself, I can tell you one thing, Derivation of Life is simple story molded with those corners of our heart which we try to avoid.

Book is currently available on all the leading online stores, please follow the below links. Read the story. Try to feel that whisper which I felt in that lonely and meaningful time of my life.

Kindle Google Play