Book Review - "The Fault In Our Stars" - Enchanting, Emotional & Dis-Heartening

                                                             

Name Of The Book - "The Fault In Our Stars"
Pages - 313
Author - John Green
Rating - *****



First of all, i'm not much of a reader but ya can read if something good is recommended to me. Two of my friends said to me, that you should read this book. So, as i got free time to read the book. As soon as i looked at the front cover page of the book, nice-cool cover page in blue with "The Fault In Our Stars" written with chalk. John Green has written other books like "Looking For Alaska" & "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" (with David Luithan). But, his good time or should i say, success time started with "The Fault In Our Stars" which has garnered worldwide success. It became so successful that soon a movie of the same name "The Fault In Our Stars" is releasing worldwide.

                                ("The Fault In Our Stars" Movie Poster with Hazel & Augustus)

As, it was my first novel of "John Green" that i was reading, but when i googled his name & read about him, i got that, he writes novels for Young-Adults & many of them end in tragedy. So, i knew that this book would end in a tragedy. But, here is the "Awesome" part in his books, whether it ends in a tragedy, it does not deepen you into depression but you come to see life in a way & make you feel good about the things, people you have in your life. John Green writes "for" readers not rather "to" readers.

The story starts with a young seventeen year girl, Hazel, full name, Hazel Grace Lancaster, who is suffering from Cancer, who tries to live her life normally besides cancer. She rarely left her house, spent a awful amount of time on the bed, read the same book over & over. She goes to a "Support Group" which she didn't liked, in which all the people who are suffering from cancer & tell about their lives & their story. She has a friend there, "Isaac" which has some sort of eye-cancer, one eye had been cut out when he was a kid & wore some sort of glasses which made his fake eyes, humongous. The life is going normal with support group telling everything about how Jesus loved Cancer patients & they were most close to him. But, the story picks up an interesting journey, when she meets a guy named "Augustus Waters", who has come to Support Group on the request of Isaac & he fears "Oblivion". To which "Hazel" say the most awesomest lines i have ever come across in any of the books, i've ever read :


 "Maybe that time is coming soon & may be it is millions of years away, but even
if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time
 before organisms experienced consciousness, & there will be time after. And if
the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. 
God knows that's what everyone else does"
        

After you see & read these epic lines, the journey goes through the timeline of Boy falling for the Girl, Boy starts loving the girl & the journey of Girl falling in love with the Boy. But, here you see the genius mind of John Green, he just doesn't tell you the story but makes you a part of the story. He tell you the story from girl's point-of-view, which is actually his first book that is based on a girl's perspective. Hazel, is a smart girl, fierce, practice & a little bit pessimist about her life. But, still when you read about her, you fall in "LOVE" with her, I did & i would do anything in this world to have a girl like her in my life. Augustus Waters, is a dream-guy for any girl living in this planet. He looks cool, awesome & looks madly in love with Hazel.

When the story picks up after "Hazel" meets "Augustus", those little talks between them, Augustus's driving, he granting his wish for Hazel & took her to Amsterdam to meet her favorite author, Peter Van Houten, author of "An Imperial Affliction". Well, i won't go beyond this point as it will be spoilers for those who have not read the book. Green, throughout the novel give subtle indications about the tragic ending, when you see the chapters being too short in the end. Green, tells you about the characters & helps you in understand them & he makes you think that if you were in their place, you would probably feel the same as the characters

At the end, there were little tears in my eyes, but i felt a huge amount of pain in my heart. The book is Touching, Heart-Melting, Emotional & Some-what disheartening in the end, yet "It is is the best book, i've ever read & will always be #1 in the books i've ever read. You can get this book from Flipkart & Amazon.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! 

The State Of India, Nowadays: People, Caste & Politics

So, in India it is "Election Season" in here. Everyone is talking about who to vote, who will be the Prime Minister. It is for the people to think for whom they have to vote & choose. But, the state of the people & the people in Politics are putting in everything to form a government in which they forget what to speak when & where & how. In India, specially our politicians are taking the politics into a new "LOW". In, India we have only 2 Major National Parties, "Indian National Congress" & "Bhartiya Janta Party knon as BJP. And, the other regional parties, which are now making big in nation are parties like "BSP" (Bahujan Samaj Party), "SP" (Samajvadi Party), "TMC" (Trinamool Congress" & the latest party to join the politics & also a tornado in Indian politics is "AAP" (Aam Aadmi Party). "Congress" has ruled this country for almost 50 years now or even more, we have seen legendary politicians as "Jawaharlal Nehru", "Indira Gandhi", "Rajiv Gandhi"& no the dynasty has gone into politics now with members like "Sonia Gandhi", the President of "INC", "Rahul Gandhi" (son of Rajiv Gandhi & Sonia Gandhi), the Vice-President of "INC" & "Priyanka Gandhi" (daughter of Sonia & Rajiv Gandhi), being the "Main Player" of the INC, she is the one who is behind the camera, but all the party works are done through her. INC has literally ruled this country, but now the dynasty of INC is coming, after winning the National Elections in 2004 & 2009. Now, we see the downtrend of "Congress", because of all the scams done by Congress in these 5 years. The "2G Scam", was a scam that involved many politicians from Congress & government officials legally undercharging  "mobile telephone" companies for frequency allocation licences which they would then use to create 2G Spectrum subscriptions for cell phones. Th original plan that was to be used for awarding licences was to follow a first-come-first-served policy to applicants. But, A Raja manipulated the first-come-first-served policy would kick in- not on the basis who applied first for a license but who complied with the conditions. The amount of money that was included in the scam was around "1 Lakh 76,000 Crores", it was the biggest scam that our Indian Politics & it's history has ever seen. The other scams that Congress recorded were, "Commonwealth Games Scam (2010), "Coal Scam", "Augustus Scam" & many more. To be honest, i feel ashamed of it.

Now, comes the other main party "BJP", actually infact we have not seen BJP governing the country we have only seen them winning 1998 elections. But, there are many issues that still haunts the party, First, the "Babri Masjid" at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, in which a large crowd of "Hindu Karsevaks" entirely destroyed the "16th Century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya". You see that was a symbol of Indian Secularism, "A Big Mosque on the land of Lord Rama". But, it was really a shame to witness this riot as they were trying to reclaim the land known as "Ram Janmabhoomi". My grandmother, witnessed this scenario & i was almost 7 or 8 years old, being a small kid i only heard about "Lord Rama" as i saw this i said to my grandmother "You must be happy, Grandma?", But, "My Grandma was in tears & said "My Rama is not like this". That thing is still stuck in my mind. Second, nowadays BJP & it's supporters say "There is MODI wave in this country". I must tell you, that "Narendra Modi" is a senior leader of BJP, to whom people say that he has done development in Gujarat, a state in India. All say that he has this "Gujarat Development Model" which he wants to implement in the country. But, what is this is Gujarat Development Plan? Today, if i ask 10 people who they want to see as PM of India, 6 out of them will say "Narendra Modi" & if i ask them, "Why?" They'll look clueless & then they say "Gujarat Development Model", Okay, if i ask them "Do you know what that model is or Do you know how much development Gujarat has seen?" I can say, only 1 or 2 people would know the development of Gujarat & all the other are just taking his name, without even knowing who that person is. He is being looked upon as a "God-Father" to us, when he addresses his rally to the crowd, it is shown to us that as "The Only Secular Person In This Country, Who Can't Be Asked Any Question & will take our fingers & make us Secular", which is Pathetic, by the way. Then, again a controversy emerged that "In the previous elections he left out the column of his "Marital Status", but suddenly this time he wrote his wife's name, to which he said that "I have no body with me & we have departed our ways". I don't have anything to say in anybody's personal life but "Just give it a thought, that they haven't taken divorce, he lives in a big 3000 sq.ft house with all amenities & where as she lives in a 1 room. And then they say of  "Women Empowerment".

Parties like BSP, SP, all they can do is "Caste Politics", they don't have any major influence Nationwide. Leaders in these politics, just know how to divide the people in India with playing the Caste card. I feel really disappointed that leaders like these are in this country who say that "Rapists Shouldn't Be Hanged, Boys Make Mistakes Sometimes". For this, remark he made, he should be the first one to be kicked out from the country, but i would rather say, from this world. I don't even want to say anything about them.

Now, there is a new party on the block "AAM AADMI PARTY" aka "Common People's Party", which came through a long battle against "Corruption" & to give a pure environment in Indian Politics. People like "Arvind Kejriwal" who left his job as "Income Tax Joint Commissioner". In, 2012 after he & some of his fellows who was in the movement against corruption named "India Against Corruption" & 2012, he made his party aka "AAM AADMI PARTY" who took the indian politics by storm & defeated the government of "Congress" in "New Delhi" Elections 2013 which was ruling the state from last 12 years but wasn't able to get full majority, but still came to power after having some allies. "Arvind Kejriwal" became the "7th Chief Minister of DELHI", he himself defeated "Shiela Dikshit" who as the chief minister of DELHI for almost 12 years. Splendid. But, they managed to run the government for just 49 Days. To which i say, that they did well by resigning. The main concept of forming the government as to pass a "Janlok Pal Bill" which was to be tabled to banish the corruption by around 60%. But, then what we saw that, 2 of the major parties "Congress" & "BJP" become 1, to stop this bill even to introduce in DELHI VIDHAN SABHA. So, when he saw that they are not letting him work, Kejriwal & his party resigned, as they were not able to do hat they said to the public. I take it in a good way, in almost all cases we see people just stick to there seats & say, they don't let us do our work, but still i will not leave my seat. Many people would oppose this statement, but everyone has there on opinions. But, yeaa, Kejriwal himself said that "He doesn't have any regret in resigning the government from his soul, but he says that i accept that, i should have had a conversation with the people & tell them why i am resigning." Now after so much days, when he says that why he resigned, People are getting with him, that he resigned for Truth. Some people are still miffed that why did he run away. But, i would say, that it is very good that he ran away, rather just glee himself to the CM seat & blame it on others.

But, the most important part of it, who takes it all & has a lot of anger in their minds, i.e., "The People" of India. Whenever, the election season comes, the roads which are not constructed from 5 years, are magically constructed fortnighlty or sometimes overnighlty even, the prices of Petrol/Diesel come down, which are to rise-high during the other times, Inflation gets down & everything good happnes in the last 2-3 months before elections. But now, people have turned smart & have learned that these thing would not work on them now.

IN THE END I JUST WANT TO SAY TO THE PEOPLE OF INDIA THAT PLEASE VOTE! DON'T VOTE FOR SOMEONE BECAUSE YOU HEARD ABOUT HIM OR YOU LIKE THE WAY HE GIVES SPEECHES, CHOOSE SOMEONE WHO WILL TAKE YOUR MATTERS & DOES THE WORK! 
VOTE FOR CHANGE! 

A Journey I Cannot Forget!

I LOVE TO TRAVEL! So, once a year we all, i mean the whole family we all go to a trip. To erase all the stress from our minds & we all need it, too. But, the most important thing was, "Where To Go?". There are many places that is yet to be seen by me, but actually in INDIA we've got holidays in Summers & we don't want to face the scorching heat of New Delhi. So, we planned to go some place, where we will get relief from this heat. So, we decided to go to MANALI! Let me tell you something about Manali, It's a Hill Station in the "Beas River Valley" situated in the hills of Himachal Pradesh, a state of India. The place has an altitude of 2050 metres, which is approximately 6730 ft above sea level. It is a part of Kullu district & has population 30,000 people and also serve as a trade & travel route to Ladakh. The temperature of that place in Summers is around 27 degree celcius & in Winters it can go down to -2.4 degree celcius.

So, we started our journey at around 4 am in the morning, by road & by our own vehicle. So, we took the highway. The India Highway, NH-1, is the best highway i've ever seen. Smooth. The approx distance from Delhi-Manali is around 580 kms. To reach the place you have to a hell lot of distance & you see many places in this journey. You go through places like Karnal, Ambala, Chandigarh, Kiratpur Sahib & then you reach Himachal Pradesh. Now, from this point the real journey follows, those mountainous zig-zag roads. At a distance, you can see mountains waiting for us. Our Day 1 ended, with us staying in a hotel in Sunadar Nagar. It was around 61 kms to reach our destination. So, after eating our dinner, we had our good night sleep. Next morning, we got our boots back, casually & started our journey & we were just 6 kms ahead from where we started, a massive & beautiful lake came & i was just mesmerized to see it's beauty & how massive it was. The water was all blue, with reflection of clear blue sky on the water of the lake. And it was too bad for me, that i couldn't get my camera at that time. But never mind we were in a treat ahead. The journey from Sunadar Nagar to Manali is a visual treat. Waterfalls, River Beas flowing parallel to you in her full power, with water just ravaging on the big rocks, Big huge mountains covered with trees & you could also catch a glimpse of mountains covered with snow. Now, ahead i will show you my journey through "Pictures" of the journey & that place.

(The scene from the balcony of our hotel room)

















(The Ropeway in "Solang Valley")

BELOW ARE THE PHOTOS OF THE WAY TO ROHTANG PASS i.e., APRROXIMATELY AT A HEIGHT OF 15,500 Ft, ABOVE SEA LEVEL!

IF YOU GET ONE CHANCE TO VISIT A PLACE WHICH IS FAR AWAY FROM THE NOISE OF CITY! THIS IS THE PLACE FOR YOU! IT'S QUIET BUT STILL IT'S HAPPENING! YOU WILL NOT FEEL THE HEAT, THE WEATHER IS ALWAYS PLEASANT & COOL!

IT'S BY FAR THE JOURNEY THAT I WILL NEVER FORGET!  :D  :D