Etchings of the First Quarter of 2020


Sabarna Roy - 2020
    In this two-part volume, packaged with a selection of his poems, Roy explores the concepts of duality and constancy in discussions with his daughter. Presented as conversations over coffee and desserts, the talks extend to diverse topics with Lolita at one end and marine conservation at the other. In his poems, Roy and his alter-ego, Sandy, soothe and shock you in turns until you burst out of the last page, breathless and asking for more.Sabarna Roy’s characters are all around us. He has dabbled in poetry, prose, plays and non-fiction with equal elan and delved into the emptiness and futility of life reminding us of the masters in the trade.Two quotations from Sabarna Roy’s works will prove the above stated point:“A question leapt into his mind: Is it possible to achieve true happiness by living a solitary life or is it important to lead a community life where one instinctively believes that one’s own desires are insignificant compared to the desires of others and one works towards fulfillment of their desires as if they are one’s own?Many questions crossed his mind. Did he secretly crave to believe in god? Was he looking for a god to deflect his loneliness or was his loneliness actually a sense of pride, which was an obstruction between him and his god?-Forbes India

Wrong Means Right End


Varsha Dixit - 2012
    Her focus solely lies on making their ends meet and she has lost interest in love or dating. Sneha's best friend Nandini is now happily married to Aditya, an industrialist. Nandini's concern for Sneha makes her act as a matchmaker, who wants to fill her life with love and happiness. Sneha's regular pace of life is disturbed when Nikhil, a man with whom she shares an unpleasant past, enters in her life. He is haughty and Sneha will go to any extent to keep her distance from him. If these problems weren't enough, another troublemaker, Gayathri, enters the picture to create havoc. Gayathri is Aditya's ex girlfriend who still likes him and is trying her best to jeopardize Nandini and Aditya's relationship. The only person that could help Sneha in stopping Gayatri is Nikhil. Considering their hatred for each other, will Sneha approach Nikhil for saving Nandini and Aditya's marriage?

Last Man in Tower


Aravind Adiga - 2011
    Tower A is a relic from a co-operative housing society established in the 1950s. When a property developer offers to buy out the residents for eye-watering sums, the principled yet arrogant teacher is the only one to refuse the offer, determined not to surrender his sentimental attachment to his home and his right to live in it, in the name of greed. His neighbours gradually relinquish any similar qualms they might have and, in a typically blunt satirical premise take matters into their own hands, determined to seize their slice of the new Mumbai as it transforms from stinky slum to silvery skyscrapers at dizzying, almost gravity-defying speed.

The Terrorist


Juggi Bhasin - 2012
    Little, except which side you are on. Suvir and Murad - both victims of circumstance, both numb with the pain of haivng lost their loved ones - choose to do things differently. While one becomes the most feared of terrorist, the other joins the Special forces. Their face-off is a flight to death as one is out to carry out a major terrorist operation in Delhi and the other has been specially called in to foil the attack... Moving breathlessly, through rugged terrain, this edgy thriller will not let you rest till the very last page!

I Do! Do I?


Ruchita Misra - 2014
    Time to stop doing silly things and start living happily ever after, right? Well, then maybe someone should tell Kasturi that.This irrepressibly irreverent and not-quite-beaming bride-to-be fumbles through a messy engagement and in a moment of indecision, steps across a line that she should never have been near. To make things worse, her best friends are now nauseatingly mushy star-crossed lovers, her future mother-in-law thinks the kitchen-phobic Kasturi is a fabulous cook, her colleague Padma hates her for no reason, her boss wants medical intervention for her imaginary deafness and her mother has become a cyber-celebrity. This was not the way things were meant to go.Smart, hilarious and utterly unpredictable, I do! do I? will have you at the edge of your seat-unless youve already fallen off it laughing.

The Proposal


M.V. Kasi - 2018
    If she didn’t marry the man her parents had chosen for her, they would lose everything. Nandini wasn’t willing to sacrifice her life for the sake of paying her father’s gambling debts. And the groom, while handsome and very successful, was not the kind her parents would ever pick under ideal circumstances. In fact, he would be the most unsuitable groom since he didn't have a long line of royal ancestors like Nandini's family. But something about the groom’s proposal touched Nandini's heart. Will Nandini agree to marry the man her parents had picked? Find out in—The Proposal Note: This is a fictional short story with an approximate length of 4500 words or 25 pages. It is a lighthearted and clean romance that is meant for entertainment purposes only.

The Psychopath, The Cannibal, The Lover


Tejaswi Priyadarshi
    To save my existence, I must kill.”- The Psychopath“You know why I love to hunt? My mind interprets a human’s final breath as his apology: an apology of existence.”- The Cannibal“Can love and friendship push you to the brink of a murderous crisis? ”- The LoverRaj, an aspiring writer, and a full-time engineering student in Bangalore is given the chance of a lifetime; his best friend Ajay asks him to write the biography of a real-life serial killer based on a set of lost and found leather-bound diaries. A few months later, Raj meets Aaina, an accomplished marketer six years older than him, and falls in love. Things take a bizarre turn when the serial killer strikes again after years; and this time, it is in an engineering college in Bangalore.Welcome to the unruly world of The Psychopath, The Cannibal, The Lover. This story is about people who find joy and purpose not in life, but in death. Nostalgic, dark, gritty, and non-stop, The Psychopath, The Cannibal, The Lover takes you through the mangled life journey of two best friends, two lovers, and two serial killers. What happens when their lives coincide at a point from where is no turning back?

The Girl with the Golden Parasol


Uday Prakash - 2008
    . . .The yellow glowed beautifully in the morning light. There was something different about this particular yellow. This one entered through his eyes, dissolved in his blood, and went straight to his heart.” Uday Prakash’s novel of contemporary India is a tender love story—university student Rahul is swept away by a “sweet fever” of love for Anjali, the enchanting girl with the golden parasol. But Prakash’s tale is set in a world where the 3,000-year-old Hindu caste system still holds sway and social realities doom the chances of a non-Brahmin boy who loves a Brahmin girl. The Girl with the Golden Parasol is the first English translation of Prakash’s work to be published in the United States. His audacious novel captures the profound contradictions of India today, where the forces aligned against change outweigh even the power of love.

The 365 Days


Nikhil Ramteke - 2016
    What unfolds is a stirring story of distilled hardship, exploitation, identity, and friendship, and the heartbreaking choices Shiju is often forced to make.So what he sees is not what he experiences when he lands in a world of glimmering towers, fast-paced life, and unabashed opulence. For what he was not prepared for was the dark underbelly of Dubai beyond the shimmering mirage.Shiju’s life is no more the same. But he holds his ground, drawing on ancient instincts of his seafaring ancestry. As things settle down around him, he is inexorably pulled into the canyon of recession…Will Shiju be able to hold on to his dreams? Will he able to pull out himself from the whirlpool? Will he survive against all odds? Will he redeem himself?The 365 Days weaves a captivating tale about the countless Indians and other South-East Asian migrant laborers, who, in seeking to forge their destinies on that gleaming promontory of dreams, end up colliding with forces beyond their reckoning.Nikhil Ramteke unfolds an extraordinary saga about Indian expatriates, their struggles, their alienation, and their dreams. The 365 Days is more than a story of a year in Shijukutty’s life.About the AuthorNikhil Ramteke is an M-Tech in Chemical Technology .He is currently working as a Production Manager in a leading multinational FMCG giant –IFFCO, since 8 years. Born & brought up in Nagpur Maharashtra, he currently stays in Sharjah, UAE. Apart from his passion of writing, he is a qualified painter, nominated photographer & an avid traveller. Intrigued by Indian labor’s situation in gulf, he narrates a heartbreaking story & his experience in UAE. The 365 days is his debut novel.

The Rape Trial


Bidisha Ghosal - 2020
    Nearly a decade has passed since Rahul Satyabhagi, heir to the mega Satyabhagi business empire, had raped Avni Rambha, bested her in court, and gone on to become a men’s rights activist, and the who’s-who of Badrid Bay had breathed a sigh of relief that the sordid mess was over. But now a sting operation proves what many, the three friends included, had suspected all along – he’d been lying. Furious that he has been exposed, Rahul plans to sue the media as well as his long-suffering victim. Now, Rhea, Hitaishi and Amruta find themselves at a crossroad - can they carry on doing nothing? DC Virendra Dixit was among those who’d believed that the Rambha rape case had been a ‘false allegation’, but now the sting tape brings him to a case that promises to be a turning point in his career. Just as he thinks he is nearing a resolution, he finds himself at a crossroad of his own. Rhea, Hitaishi and Amruta have carved out a path that has already affected DC Dixit’s, but do their paths cross? Who is the hunter, and who is the hunted? Can a story of hard questions and difficult choices have an easy resolution?

Diwali in Muzaffarnagar


Tanuj Solanki - 2018
    This is a place where teenage love and friendships are tested by the violence that threatens to erupt at the slightest provocation. A town that always pulls you back into its ways, no matter how cosmopolitan the city has made you.In 'Diwali in Muzaffarnagar' - Tanuj Solanki's new book of short stories after 'Neon Noon' - young men and women straddle the past and the present, the metropolis and the small town, and also the parallel needs of life: solitude and family.

Key to My Soul


Probal Mazumdar - 2016
    He also learns that she had left certain letters for him fifteen years back that never reached him. It disturbs him so much that he rushes to the hospital in his old hometown. There he discovers an eclipsed past buried in time that is riddled with dangerous surprises, trauma, twists of fate, sacrifices that exemplify true love and the real reasons for the tragic end of their childhood love story. But will Hazel ever open her eyes to see him..."

Our Love Story


Rohit Sharma - 2020
    Done trying to make it as a model. Done with getting sexually harassed by casting directors. And done seeing her mother struggle to provide for her family. Tonight, everything ends. She teeters over the edge of the parapet, imagining how the Cold water of the Arabian sea will take her breath away when she drowns. And then, she is stopped. By a man with an endearing smile and a guitar strapped to his back. Enter Aditya Bakshi. Aditya is the son of a filthy rich business tycoon, who lives each day like it’s his last. He seems to have it all, but behind his happy-go-lucky persona, he is hiding a painful secret. Both feel that they can’t be together. But will that stop them from falling in love? Our love story is a sensitive, romantic, and motivating story about selfless love and intricate relationships inspiring tale of love and heartbreak, hope and hopelessness, friendship and hatred, smiles and tears.About the AuthorRohit Sharma is a writer, motivational speaker, and bestselling author. His debut romantic-thriller, Te Amo. I Love You, was released in December 2012, and was an instant hit. It has also been translated in Hindi by him. His second book, 12 Hours—an anthology of twelve engrossing short stories which he co-authored with Mahi Singla—was released in September 2013, and was widely appreciated by the media and the readers of all ages. After working on two completely different genres, he once again picked up the challenging genre of a dark, suspense thriller, with a flavour of romance and patriotism, and released his third book, Love of My Life, in 2018, which garnered praise from readers and reviewers. Born in Amritsar, and brought up in NCR, Rohit has written some of the most-read articles for FilterCopy. Apart from being a Gold-Medalist in Engineering (Honours) and getting inducted into the Hall of Fame of his college, Rohit successfully represented his college at various dancing and sketching competitions. Our Love Story is his fourth fiction book, in which he has touched yet another essence of romance fiction.

In Love with Simran


Kulpreet Yadav - 2019
    She was in love with a business tycoon named Nik Sethi, and Sanjana is certain that he killed her. In an effort to find proof, she decides to get close to him. Good looking and rich, Nik falls in love with Sanjana instantly, but a month later, when he accidently discovers her real agenda, he throws her out of his life. Determined to nail him, Sanjana’s desperation exceeds all limits when she realizes that she too, like her friend, has fallen in love with a killer. After she escapes an attack one night, Sanjana quits college and goes into hiding. Now her only ambition is to punish the killer and her only weapon is her body. In a last, desperate attempt, she uses herself as bait and pursues her best plan. There are only two options: she becomes a victim or she becomes a victor. Through the story of Sanjana and Nik, In Love With Simran explores the boundaries of the basic instincts of the young: love, sex, trust and survival.

Divyastra


Nimish Tanna - 2019
    However, this knowledge could only be transferred from a Guru to his disciple by word of mouth. In today’s world, one mystic, who calls himself Guruji, still possesses this knowledge and is using it to empower an innocent person’s life. Only, this empowerment could be a deception and the innocent person is a thirteen year old boy with a stutter...In this intertwining tale, an ambitious yet unsuccessful Shankar, in search of his identity, is manipulated to embark on a never-told-before fantasy tale; only to rediscover the father he never knew and unmask the mystical Guruji.Amidst this confounding concoction of ancient myths, deluding personas and dispersed emotions, will Shankar ever be able to separate fact from fiction and find his true identity?