Discover the Writer in You

Once upon a time, there was a king. Great and brilliant, his fame spread to all corners of his kingdom. He owned an elephant. A powerful giant, he had helped the king win many a battle. It was said that when he roared, the enemy lines broke off in awe and fear. He was a ferocious war machine who was very loyal to his master. So, the king was quite fond of him and created special facilities for his care and comfort. As time passed and seasons changed, the once mighty titan grew old. He shrunk in size, got wrinkles all over and lost his famed strength. It was the wheel of life churning fast. One day, it so happened that he happened to slip into a mean pool of mud. He struggled but he had grown so weak that he couldn't lift himself up. The king immediately rushed to the site to rescue his old comrade. Many attempts were made to get the elephant out of the brown slush but to no avail. He only sank deeper and deeper. His end seemed to be drawing nearer. Suddenly, an idea flashed across ...

  It was a beautiful necklace. More beautiful, since it was a gift from her husband.  But, Nalini had not put it on even once.  She desired certain changes.  Though everyone who saw the necklace, found it to be exquisite, she was not satisfied.  The necklace consisted of shiny black pearls, the central piece was oval in shape and bigger than the rest. The smaller pearls were octagonal and linked to each other with golden rods. Initially, she got the golden links changed with silver ones. But even that did not look good enough.  Next, she got the central black pearl replaced with a white one but that also did not fit aptly. Finally, she got it back to its original design.  But she pondered continuously on how to get it into an ideal shape. The necklace was presented to her ten years back.  Nalini Mahadevan was a housewife.  And Rupesh was a successful businessman. He had seen her at a family marriage function and it was love at first sight. Bu...

S he was my Facebook friend. I had never met her before. But w e had finally decided to meet that day after being virtual buddies for more than 6 years. To say the least, I was nervous. In fact, I felt weak in my knees. For one, she was drop dead gorgeous. Her Facebook pics revealed a tall and fair woman with full red lips and a domineering attitude. She sported brown, shoulder length hair. A mysterious smile lit up her face every now and then, and I found it so enticing. She was always traveling. Her videos showed her at times amid snow clad mountains of Himalayas and on other occasions, in the cozy lap of lush green valleys of Kashmir. And she was a foodie. The first thing you saw in the morning was a close up of her breakfast table showcasing the delicious yummies she was going to start her day with. And she loved luxury. Her pics at destination spas, night clubs and sultry beaches created an enigma around her. When she was not traveling or socializing, she was at home and a decent ...

Curtain-raiser Dr Abdul Kalam was born in 1931 in the island town of Rameshwaram. He distributed newspapers as a young boy and his sister mortgaged her gold bangles to support his education in aeronautical engineering. Later, he rose to become the Missile Man of India and the 11th President of the country. His whole life is so inspiring but I have selected 3 stories that leave a deep imprint on our minds and serve to energize us till this day. 1st Story - Mastering the Failures In 1958, Dr Kalam traveled to Dehradun to appear in an interview at the Air Force Selection Board. He loved flying machines from an early age and wanted to be a pilot. However, as luck would have it, he failed in the interview. Armed forces are a personality based organization and he had been brought up in a very humble environment by his parents. So, in his early years, his level of confidence and communication skills were low. This incident so intensely affected the young Kalam that he concluded his life had n...