Meenaxi's Muse

I write to die, To die after pouring life on the paper, To let the creation be alive And float, stay or fly It’s a process of consumption Emotion, resurrection, consummation But I get reborn, anew, lighter It’s a compulsive murder Killing of the wrath or exuberant joy A constant tussle between the heart and the pen The pen pulling out the words like mining something  It’s a fight and my being looks forward to this struggle To get churned, and after it flows entirely I feel dead, neutral as if That poem never belonged to me I forget the words And read it like a narrator reciting someone else’s words I belong till its birth And cut off the umbilical just after it The baby gets raised in other nests Other hearts And I enjoy to die And my epitaph says And she kept dying happily everafter

“Did you try love?” Kanchana Banerjee’s novel “A Forgotten affair” brings this question to the fore so beautifully and so enigmatically. Isn’t this trial, the very basis of leading a happy life? Trying love than anything else and how that becomes the anchor of your life! The pivot to which you can hold upon when all is gone. “Sometimes…you need to forget everything to recognize what matters most”, quotes the author. I really enjoyed reading this book, the setting based in my beloved city Gurgaon and it’s a woman centric story of finding oneself. I liked the end very much which states the choice of a woman and really respect the writer for that ending than having a fairy tale ending of uniting with love. This book, though based on marriage and love offers more than that. There were moments of reflection, self discovery and the purpose of one’s being. Also how it highlights the narcissism of a man and dynamics of marriage. Loved the subtle, poetic scenes weaved beautifully and

  #IAMPINK #PINK I was born as an unwanted guest, a failed attempt for a son. Son came after as my little brother but destiny meant it otherwise. We lost him after 17 years. We all learnt our lessons, grew stronger emotionally but still mostly on Rakhi days, I kept waiting for the so called brothers in relation to tie my Rakhi and eventually overcame that wait too but somewhere that void remains. I got blessed by twin daughters. When they were around 6 months old, one of the old lady saw the pram with two babies and asked, “Congratulations, they are twins?” “Yes, aunty”. "A Boy and a girl!" One of my daughter had less hair and extra chubby at that time. “No aunty, both girls”. “Oh!”….she paused. Her spark fizzled out. “Anyways beta, both are Lakshmis”, She said in a tone consoling me. I was quiet, dumbfounded and extremely angry. Another day, there was another old lady in neighbour, she just grabbed my hand one day and insistingly said,” I wanted t

Meenakshi M Singh #1BookRead #100BooksPact2016 #FlightofHilsa A satiating and beautiful read with the hangover. Flight of Hilsa evokes the Hilsa within the reader in pursuit of purpose and happiness in one’s life. Bringing forward the truth about love, be it with a lover, parents, friend or with life, weaved beautifully through the journey of Avantika, the protagonist , reader is compelled to introspect. “It’s easy to be Kabir than Buddha” pushed me to think and the “basis of love is Faith” is so reassuring. Also it’s a story of an artist who faces the dilemma of choosing the path of heart or what the world preaches, to get tamed, a conflict between the idealism and materialism. Any artist can resonate and relate to the life story of Avantika and it builds the belief on staying true to the heart and earning love than sheer material. Loved the mystic, romantic and philosophic exchange between the Captain and the woman. How the story builds the bias strongly about a community

खून काश के खून भी पानी जैसा होता  न जमता , न जलता , न काला पड़ जाता  काश के खून भी पानी जैसा होता  उन्माद सा बहता , उमड़ता  बिना भेद भाव के , बिना रंग राग के  बस अपने आगोश में ले लेता  फिर एक रंग हो कर लहरों सा झूमता  काश के खून भी पानी जैसा होता काश... - मीनाक्षी

Book Title– Sunlit Hearts Author -  Meenu Mehrotra Publisher - Vitasta Publishing Pvt Ltd ISBN - 978-93-80828-78-7 Price -  Rs 295/- Pages –  238 Genre – Romance My Rating  - 4 / 5 Snapshot “ A wound is the place where light enters the heart” -  a quote from the book Medha, an aspiring writer develops feelings for Nikhil in college but her feelings are not reciprocated. Forced to bury her feelings of true love, Medha agrees to an arranged marriage to Rishi. After sixteen years of sedate and lackluster marriage, she bumps into Nikhil again but this time she is a confident and successful writer and the glamour in her married life is amiss. She could not deny herself getting pulled towards Nikhil and moves with the flow into a passionate relationship with Nikhil. She stands on a threshold where she has to weigh and analyze her feelings as a lover, her loyalties and commitment as a wife, responsibilities and duties as a mother and a daughter. A difficult struggle she