Love 101 for the young

Rikky Bhartia’s maiden book answers various questions about young love, and what makes it different from an infatuation, crush and friendship

Mumbai: Short attention span or too many options at one’s disposal — what makes today’s couples call it quits? Opines Kolkata-based debutante writer Rikky Bhartia says, “Today’s teenagers are totally confused about their feelings. They have no idea whether to dub it crush, infatuation, friendship or love. They just keep grappling with a palette of diverse emotions and don’t know how to deal with it.”

Posing as a modern-day love guru, the 24-year-old Chartered Accountant cites the “indecisive dilemma” amongst the GenY as a major driving force behind his judiciously penned novel Me “N” Her — A Strange Feeling. He observes that “it’s very easy to touch base and interact over the various electronic modules accessible nowadays. So it’s obvious that two lonely hearts will casually bump and break into each other’s personal space and finally get close, and even cosy, if needed. However, the sooner they fall head over heels in passion, the faster they split to go separate ways. This frequent hop in and out of a relationship has become a norm of the day, courtesy the misreadings of human expressions.”

He rues that the failure to detect the differences between infatuation, love and friendship often mars the otherwise congenial chemistry between a boy and a girl. “Until it knocks at your door, love doesn’t reveal itself. It steps in silence, and people often tend to overlook its actual signs. Someone has rightly said that matters of the heart are really tricky to fathom. These amorous fire and desires are nothing, but a game of riddle,” he philosophises.

On a personal note, he adds that his is a part autobiographical story “No maiden piece of any author can be a complete fiction. It has to be influenced by their life’s journey,” he says as he admits that the male protagonist in his book is a true reflection of his own persona.

But this commerce graduate from Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society College in Kolkata didn’t make a cakewalk start to his literary journey. He had to cross many academic hurdles before finally taking the plunge into his creative leanings. Quiz him how difficult was it to push his interests on the backburner for his studies, the chatty Libran quickly sets the record straight: “It wasn’t much of a struggle as I was always a hard-working, intelligent, good student, at least according to my teachers and family. Also, I wanted to be well-placed in life and help bail my family out of the financial-crunch. I knew that a professional degree will give me the basic capacity to fulfill my dreams.”

Currently working for a leading corporate firm, this ambitious man, with plans up his sleeve, aims to be an entrepreneur and contribute to the future publishing industry.

Though writing is his first love, Bhartia announces that he would never make it a full-fledged career. Soaring high on the positive responses he has been receiving for his book, he hopes to see his prospective readers either find new love, or save their lost love after riffling through his fiction. “Then only my hard-pressed efforts will reap its rewarding fruits,” says Rikky.

AAP leader Javed Jaffri's raps Cong, BJP in Bollywood style

Mumbai, April 23: Bollywood actor-turned-politician Javed Jaffri launched his new rap video in which he attacked Congress, BJP leaders over several corruption, riots and violence cases in full filmy style. Jaffri, who is contesting from Lucknow with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket against BJP President Rajnath Singh and Congress's Rita Bahuguna Joshi, was seen in his avataar from the film Salaam Namaste dressed as an 'Indian cowboy', mocking the 'sab chalta hai, sab bikta hai' (everything goes, everything sells) culture of Indian politics and society.The AAP leader, who earlier had admitted that his party may have erred by plunging into national politics in haste, but it did not commit mistakes of indulging in corruption or bloodshed in the name of religion, once against hit out at the political parties in the country over several burning issues of the country.

Mumbai Shocker: Bollywood actress abused, car attacked, accused held

Mumbai, April 23: It seems that metro cities in the country are not at all safe for women who need to travel alone. One Bollywood, TV actress Monaz Mevawala has been abused and her car was attacked by one autorickshaw driver in Mumbai.

Mumbai Police, who tracked the accused after watching a video clip of the attack provided by the actress, arrested the accused. He has been identified as Haider Ali Abbas Ali Mobin, a rickshaw driver by profession who resides at Goregaon west.

The actress, after her altercation with the auto driver, moved the police and filed a legal complaint. Later she turned up to social networking site Facebook and gave details of the incident along with the video of the attack.

I tried to overtake him and he came charging at me: TV actress Monaz

Monaz wrote, "When the signal went green he didn't let me take a left as he was still looking at me and obstructing my way."

"I tried to overtake him and he came charging at me and in the process scratched my car with his side mirror, and apparently his mirror broke, for which he got extremely angry and followed me. He then took out a bamboo stick and tried to hit my car with it and started screaming, 'Aaj toh tujhe bahut marunga' (Today I will hit you a lot)," Monaz added.

"He drove ahead of me and blocked my way. I tried to escape but this he did thrice, and then he approached my car from the right side and hit it with his hand and again removed the bamboo stick and hit my car.

As I was alone in the car, it was impossible for me to get down and hit him back, but I used my presence of mind to click his picture. Since he was not able to harm me physically, he was determined to hit me so he parked his rickshaw and he came running after me," she added in the Facebook post.

The actress also wrote, "I was lucky that I was in my car and it was locked. Everyday innocent girls are at a risk of being attacked like this."

Meanwhile, Mumbai Police issued statement saying, "We have arrested the accused rickshaw driver who was seen in the video footage. He has been several sections of the IPC. The actress has filed a complaint regarding the incident, after which we launched a manhunt. We managed to arrest him yesterday and will produce him before the court."

My M fixation comes from my mother: Subhash Ghai

Times of India

Subhash Ghai was in town on Monday to promote his film Kaanchi.

The lead pair, newbies Mishti Chakraborty and Kartik Aaryan, were with the director. Though the veteran filmmaker hogged all the limelight at the press meet, Mishti too attracted her share of attention. The actress was heard addressing the crowd in Bengali. Kartik looked rather shy and preferred to smile more than talking to the audience.

When asked about his 'M' fixation till this day, Subhash Ghai replied in true filmi style. "It is because of meri maa," he said. Well, one couldn't question him further on that! And his new M, that is Mishti, looked quite confident about slipping into the shoes of Ghai's famed previous discoveries like Meenakshi Sheshadhri and Madhuri Dixit.

Dirty side of Goa tourism industry: Child sex on beaches for Rs.50?

Panaji: Child sex is being offered for Rs.50 on Goa`s beaches, Pramod Salgaocar, producer of film `Baga Beach`, claimed Tuesday.

Salgaocar, whose film is based on the ills of Goa`s tourism industry, said she once got a complaint from a Hungarian tourist, who was reportedly offered child sex for Rs.50.

"Today you don`t even get chicken for Rs.50," Salgaocar told a press conference here, quoting the complainant.

Goa gave India`s first conviction in a paedophilia case involving Freddy Peats, a German who was sentenced to life for abusing scores of children in the 1980s.

Child abuse in Goa is one of the elements explored in Laxmikant Shetgaonkar directed `Baga beach`, along with other aspects which make up tor the underbelly of tourism in this state.

"Every day four children are abused in Goa. These are government statistics," Shetgaonkar said.