So, here is what it is. As a woman, you have memories – good, nice, not so good, bad. Some of these memories that you associate with your wardrobe – clothes, shoes, accessories.

Some of these you have shared with your parents or friends. Some you haven’t.

Some you have always tried to bury deep down in your mind, never to resurface. Some you have always wanted to shout out from the rooftops so that the whole world can know.

Stories that evoke a smile at your face. Stories that brings back pain in your heart. Memories from home, from school, from the world around. Memories about parents, friends, strangers, about someone who touched your life.

Have you ever felt that you want to share those stories with anyone? Ever felt the need for a sympathetic ear? Have you ever wanted to share some happiness with everyone? Ever felt the need to take that pain off your chest?

Send me your stories, in writing. You can keep your identity anonymous to the world including me, choose to disclose it only to me or choose to share it with the world. I will tell your story to the world through my play.

Even if your story does not have anything to do with your wardrobe, fair enough. You can still share those with me.

A few points to note:

- You can submit your stories at the contact page or email them at riyazusman [at] gmail [dot] com. DO NOT use comments section at this post to submit your stories. You can use the comments section for your thoughts on this project though.
- I will respect your privacy. You can be anonymous, if you want to be.
- I will be more than happy to credit you on this project. But unless specifically asked to, your identity will be kept anonymous.
- But for a few generic project announcements, I will not contact you back, unless if you want to be and give me explicit permission to do so. If you allow me to be contact you back , you can mention that.
- If you want to be anonymous with me, use the name “Anonymous” and email “anonymous@riyaz.in” to submit your stories.

Waiting for you to respond.

“Just out of curiosity, don’t you think people will believe you’re the girl in the picture? I’m just saying… ”

Madalina Iordache-Levay asked me that while giving me permission to use her photograph as my display picture. I haven’t had that identity crisis much even since I started using the image as my online avatar, since 2004. Probably because I never used my real name against it. desertwind (after the then favorite Sting single, Desert Rose) was the name almost everywhere online. I picked the twitter handle riyazusman instead of desertwind, since I was late to the party, but decided to keep the avatar. Since no exponential increase in follower count was noticed, I never had thought of replacing it.

And then this happened.

PS: Answer to the question on title: The Red Hat was a series of photographs by acclaimed photographer Madalina.

This. See you all there. RSVP Here.

Who else wondered why would anyone kick the bucket, just like that? Or why you shouldn’t leave no stone unturned?

For me, once idioms were among my worst nightmares of the English homework. How would I welcome a novel which has two in it’s title and use them as its subject?

A Leap in a Blue Moon, by Ishwar Vedam, is more than it’s intriguing title – a play on two popular idioms, ‘A leap in the dark’ and ‘Once in a blue moon.’ It appeals you if you have a fair bit of imagination, that is waiting to be loosen itself from the reality, and fly off.

The novel talks about a girl in her pre-teens, who just like anyone doesn’t like idioms so much. Her ‘Alice’ experience starts when she landed into her own wonderland of Idioms.

A very simple narrative, with clearly kids in mind – LIBM is just not only for kids. It’s simple, fun and fairy-tale enough for young readers, but also racy and absorbing enough for any0ne.  Quite risky for a novel subject, LIBM never have a dull moment.

For the linguistic in you, you can the challenge of spotting all the idioms used in the book, otherwise, if you’re looking for a perfect gift for your kids birthday, add this to your list. If you are like me, who loved reading the likes of Lucky Starr, have a smile on your face, right now.

The tickets are available at BookMyShow and IndianStage.

So, see you there!

MANCH Theatre staged the famous play by Nadira Babbar, Ji, Jaisi Aapki Marzi, at Infosys Hyderabad, with Violina, Antara, Snehal and Neha playing Deepa, Varsha, Sultana and Babli. What should I say, just watch it for yourselves.

Now I also hear that inspired from this, the police force of Tamilnadu and Kerala are to follow the suit. Brilliant. This could be a slow start, but in right direction. I really hope of a day, where caste became constitutionally illegal.

PS: I was in Bangalore when B.S. Yeddyurappa resigned as the Chief Minister of Karnataka and media was speculating the new man for the post. I haven’t found a single article on whole of Times of India on that subject without a mention of caste based merit. If one has to right a research paper on Kannada castes, they just had to go through that one day’s news paper.

Well, what struck me over about Vikas Rathi‘s debut novel was it’s name – Resident Dormitus. I went to that page, and couldn’t find it over there. Hmmm… So not a recognized phrase. It could be a spell from Harry Potter too. Whatever it means, it sounds nice and intriguing enough to buy the book.

Here I don’t have to buy the book, BlogAdda.com was kind enough to send me a copy for review. So be it.

Later I found from one of the characters in the book what it means. It indeed have a profound and beautiful meaning – ‘something that is sleeping within’. Dev narrates how a slave boy was able to see the solution of a geometrical problem which he hadn’t known even existed. This talks about the knowledge which is inside all of us, which we don’t realize it exist.

I wouldn’t like to give away the plot – to summarize it but, Resident Dormitus deals with the new Urban lifestyles of young professionals; their changing existential and psychological landscape. Humor is what the base is, sometimes dark and mostly cynic, as for many other books published recently of similar genre and authors.

It does try to pose some philosophical questions about self discovery, relationships (or the lack of it), meaning(lessness) of life, it’s ironies et al. Whether those satisfy you depends on how the reader answer themselves. But I’m sure quite a few, including me, could relate themselves to one or more characters and their thoughts in this Novel. It does make you question your own existence, and choices, voluntary or involuntary, that led to it.

I must admit that I enjoyed reading Resident Dormitus. It might not be a witty as Dork, or as simple as Ineligible Bachelors or as thrilling as Chanakya’s chant, but it has something from all in it. It’s not long either, so you could finish it in one go.

PS: I don’t know what’s in this IIMs syllabus that make all of their alumnus want to be a writer. Similar to the famous writer who publishes interviews of entrepreneurs with/without MBAs, I probably should write a book about IIM grads turned writers.

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

I’m super lazy right now. A more detailed post whenever I not this lazy. You can read Me/Anna/Govt meanwhile.

Even though it sounds a very happy news when you hear that the Untouchability wall has been demolished yesterday after a campaign of protest, it is still deeply saddening to hear such news from 2011. And the fact that the wall remained in free India for two decades.

Tagore wrote in Gitanjali.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

What an anthem!

PS: This is doing rounds in the email forwards these days. I haven’t been able verify the authenticity of this qoute.

Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low caliber and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air and water would be taxed in India.

- Winston Churchill, 1947