I'll Always Be On Your Mind

 I will always be on your mind

Sometimes as a balm to the sore
and at times, the scar in memories behind
But I will always be on your mind.

You left me, with words unsaid
I kept asking, why 
You though Silences would speak
and you left Us, undefined
But I will always be on your mind.

As a ray of hope,
or incandescent whispers on your pillow
I shall leave some ash lying aside
to remind you of our burning love
I shall always be on your mind.

The day I go away, forever
would be the day I become yours
but till then this journey continues
over and over again, in
sleepless nights and warring rains
I shall always be on your mind.
If only your mind,it is.
I would die.
But if you come back, take those silences
and whisper your voice into words
I'd take you in my arms and tell you,
Yes, You are always on my mind. Always.

Book Review: The Cavansite Conspiracy by Manjiri Prabhu

The Cavansite Conspiracy


Author: Manjiri Prabhu
Format: Paperback
Genre: Suspense
Publication: Rupa Publication
ISBN: 9788129119124
Price: 195




Scene 1: Koyal Karnik lands in India to attend her best friend Jasraj's wedding. She thinks about how the left-handers have a bad time in India. Be it the lane driving, or the usual eating with right-hand, writing with the right hand etc. Things get worse in a society that thinks that being a left-handed person is a sin. She grows bitter out of her own experiences being a left-handed child.Similar incident in the wedding galore aches her mind.

Scene 2: In the wedding, she meets her  ex-flame Neel. Even after eight long years, to forgive and forget seems like a tumultuous task. Is she still in love with him? But she rejected his proposal, years back. Why was she regretting it now?

Scene 3: Jasraj is dead. There is a theft of a precious mineral stone called Cavansite. Koyal is being followed and searched by both the police and gangsters. How and when did she get involved in all this?

Scene 4: Chris Karver the author of the famous best-selling novel series, The Cavansite Conspiracy was to make his first public appearance in a talk-show. Who was this guy? And why were the incidents so closely associated with what was happening in the book as well?

The Good

- Presenting to you, a thriller, a plot that unravels mysteriously into multi-focal boomerangs triggering excitement in the reader's mind. This is a fast-paced novel that keeps you hinged on to it with its twists and turns.It fails to disappoint you.

- Like the lucidity in the language. No grammar mistakes. Easy to comprehend. 

-The Indian and international setting seems real with the author's intricate knowledge about the places she mentions and this adds tot he richness of the plot.

The Bad

- The sub-plots and their spacing are often too segregated. And it gets difficult to connect with it as a reader.But it also makes sense to still go ahead with these parallel streams till they converge into the main plot, when it all "makes sense". :)  The pace slows down in the wedding scene. It could have been shortened.Seems too stretched. 

- The connection between Neel and Koyal seems missing. There are reminisces alright, but they still love each other. That connect, could have been there.Certain moments were there, but we romantics wouldn't mind more, considering they have been apart for eight long years!

The Ugly

I wish you could see the happiness sprawled all over my face as I find nothing ugly with this book. Suspense thriller, not my cup of tea.But this one gelled beautifully with my cuppa of Mocha and choco-chip cookies. The wait..the wait for the suspense was like sweet pain though. With Manjiri Prabhu's skill and articulation, that was meant to be!

I will give it a 4 out of 5, the highest on my scale, till now. Looking forward to reading the other books by Manjiri Prabhu. Well yes, this is her sixth book. To know more, head on to the links below. But trust me, this is one Indian Suspense thriller, that'll satiate your Indian thirst for the Agatha Christie-s and Sidney Sheldon-s.

Buy The Cavansite Conspiracy at discounted rates from the following websites:

                 

        

You can get in touch with the author or know more about her  via the following links

http://www.manjiriprabhu.com/About.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/thecavansiteconspiracy

About Manjiri Prabhu

Dr. Manjiri Prabhu

 Manjiri worked as freelance Film Critic for the newspapers THE INDIAN EXPRESS and THE TIMES OF INDIA reviewing more than a hundred English, Hindi and Marathi films.

By profession, Manjiri is a Children’s Television Producer and a short filmmaker for over 20 years. She has produced over 200 programmes of various kinds, ranging from Quizzes to Drama and Documentary to Animation. Many of them have been scripted and edited by her.
Manjiri’s other major concern is Animal Welfare and well-being. She strives for the care and protection of stray dogs and cats in society.

The Brim.

Photograph Copyright-James Rainsford
Post written at Dverbs

The brim is never reached

The flashes of memories, like thunderstorms

attack, sermon and misguide me

weaken me, and yet I 

gulp it down with a peg of vile.

The grief is at times, too intense

So much that you can hardly breathe

and yet take in, take in

and the kiln is never too hot

the pot never too full,

Ah! what a mighty heart Oh Lord!

Ah! a witty world this is! 

Waste Water..Waste Life!

The last drop settles on her palm
She catches her breath, her lips snarl
the little one stares at her, panting
defeat is not easy to gulp.

The elder one smiles,
and puts her palm closer to her dry lips
The tap shoots one last cry,
before oozing out that last bit of hope.

The little girl stands up,
it is the time to stage an act,
and starts wailing on a pitch so high,
even though her eyes are dry.

The other girl smiles,
settles the drop of water in the center of her palm
with caution, kneels and stretches it
near the little one's lips.

She stops crying, a faint smile urging up
and breaking into a curve, she looks at her sister
without any second thoughts, gulps it down
Sometimes defeat means no loss.

Imagine a world, where such acts
become a crude reality,
where Man dies not of diseases
but of thirst.

Let this not be real,
there is still time to heal.
To understand and learn
the ways of this world,
that Nature has created
not just the concretes made by us.


This World Water Day, Let us Pledge to do our own bit. For our own self. To Conserve is To Save, and Not Waste. Time to Act!