The Burning Shepphires--A Review

Anu’s Chatter---

Review of the book --Burning Shepphires

Author--Suresh k. Goswami.

Total pages--259

Genre---Creative Fiction

Partridge Publications

Burning Sapphires” is a creative fiction about one  woman called as Ghulab Sahib who despite all the odds in life takes on the responsibility and leads the entire community towards a progressive solution and revives the injured spirits and minds of Kashmiris. Reads the intro ....

Dear friends this is my first written review of any book...Honestly , when I first started reading it only after  a couple of pages into it (on encountering the details on the heights and kilometers) I thought to myself  ‘Oh God , another research in the name of fiction!But I chugged along...., the whole drama unfolded in front of my eyes slowly and I saw the hidden poet in me surface after each passing page.The language is good; at places it needed further  editing though .I finished reading the book within two days.It runs very fast in spite of the detailing .I must say the book stands up to its proclamation of a --‘creative fiction’ in the end. It would be unfair if I do not mention some poetic pictorial expressions from it---

= ‘deep blue in color and aqua clear, 

= they drank tons to the depths of their souls,

= she felt all warmth and life leaving her as sadness started settling in, gradually encroaching upon her spirit,

 = getting into an intoxicated sleep, Khalid lifted his head and told her, “Ghulab, you are going to be my queen .

Apart from the above, there are some I could not relate to;that really, really needed further work--for more emotion...and effect---ah ah

-There lay, wrapped up in a shawl and stained with blood, a beautiful young girl. 

-As they walked through the city and through the endless rows of beautiful trees, she felt the embrace of her Father. 

-expressed his guilt admitting the failure of his regime.

Overall I would say that it was a good read..On the flip side,it needed further editing...I must also add here that the cover is a total mismatch to the book..I mean a very unimaginative one.I wondered all along about the glamorous girl on it ( besides admiring her beautiful skin..we women are always beauty conscious Chuckle.... chuckle) with lightening emanating from her....uh uh on her ...Umm...Umm from her ...Oh Whatever!---she doesnot matchup to the simple,beautiful yet brave Ghulab in the book.

Uh... Uh umm...umm till my next chuckle sorry Churn...

Big Bucks

Anu’s Chatter....

I came across this shocking piece of news on google....thought of sharing with you people...please leave your valuable  comments...after reading it...

BIG BUCKS------

The World Cup tournament is expected to attract 600,000 foreign visitors to Brazil and they will spend an estimated 25 billion reais while traveling in the country, said the Brazilian tourism board, Embratur.

The championship as a whole could inject 113 billion reais into the Brazilian economy by 2014, FIFA has said, citing an Ernst & Young report.

For its part, Brazil's government will have spent 33 billion reais on stadiums, transport and other infrastructure by the time the tournament kicks off, plus $10 million on advertising.

In contrast, very little is being spent on fighting the sexual exploitation of minors, campaigners say.

Despite more than a decade of government vows to eradicate child prostitution, the number of child sex workers in Brazil stood at around half a million in 2012, according to the National Forum for the Prevention of Child Labor, a network of non-profit groups.

That's a big increase since 2001, when 100,000 children worked in the sex trade, according to UNICEF estimates.

The Human Rights Secretariat earmarked 8 million reais for World Cup host cities to set up projects to fight child prostitution, but not all cities had programs in place to absorb the funds, said Santos.

Santos' department is finishing a review of child prostitution in key locations and will then decide what action to take. But any programs will only scratch the surface.

"We realize we're only touching the tip of the iceberg with these actions for the World Cup, but we hope to build capacity and implement longer-lasting programs in the future," he said.

Beyond the Human Rights Secretariat, the government could not provide data on total spending to fight child prostitution. But campaigners say some programs have been shut down and they argue the government isn't doing enough to address the problem.

"This subject isn't really part of the government's agenda and we don't see a willingness to combine efforts or increase resources to address the sexual exploitation of children," said Denise Cesario, executive manager of Fundação Abrinq, a local partner of Save the Children International.

Rape

Anu’s Chatter....

Two days back TOI reported of  eight rape cases in the city that took place,in the last eight months.All the rape victims were minors. Shocked beyond belief  is a lesser expression for me .....On one hand we are giving capital punishments for rapists( Delhi Nirbhaya case) but on the other, there are more rapes happening everywhere in the country (including our  city). What is happening here? I thought only animals( As people) lived in the far off corners of the world where, there is no education or culture...Am I proud to be an Indian?What  advise of caution can I give a girl child before  she ventures out in my city? 

One of my friends had implored me to write on the topic of  protective measures for women in Mumbai.Sorry! Nothing comes to my mind right now! 

Rape defies all parameters of ------respect  for  boundaries, normal thinking or for that matter a definition of a man .  The rapes of innocent minor girls is so ,so defamatory that it is beyond any tag..that I can even think exists in a normal  dictionary .Were Indian men always like this or we are getting to know about these Vulturous animals  now that women are venturing out or getting bolder enough to report them? At least  my concept of  ‘Indian ness’ has taken a beating guys ...Even in my wildest imagination ( Including that I put myself in the rapists position), cannot understand why someone should rape somebody?Wether it is consensual  or not .At the most I can think of is---- All rapists are sick people trying to express some kind of gender  supremacy( or any kind of sick supremacy I cannot fathom there ).I cannot even tag rapists as  animals.Animal Sex life is seasonal and for procreation. But a  rapists sex  is---- neither  seasonal, procreational or even pleasurable ? So why does he do it? The closest reason I can conclude is-----'Rape is a  sick expression of self denial, low self esteem, mental instability erupting from dark experiences of life that he might have failed to overcome with time.' 

Do you want to add something more to  the topic?  Please feel free to leave your comments.......