Review: Every Day by David Levithan

About a month back, I was looking for a new book with something different not the usual stories. I went to the Internet and found a book called Every Day by David Levithan. The review promised me something different and I decided to give it try. I went on to buy the book and started reading within a day. And I was gripped.

Every Day speaks of a soul which isn't trapped in a body like all of us. But instead it resides in a body of its age for a day, lives the life of that body and moves on at midnight. This has been the case since the birth of the soul. And then one day, the soul meets the girlfriend of the body it is in possession that day and falls in love. What follows is the struggle of it to be with her everyday and somehow make her fall in love with itself no matter what body is it in.

The story grabs your attention right from the beginning and urges you to read on to explore the strange life of the protagonist. However, it turns a bit monotonous in the middle only to pick up pace just before it ends. The ending seemed a bit abrupt to me but it doesn't really matter much. 

We always say to look inside a person and not to judge by their outer appearance. As the saying goes, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." But can we really do that? The author with his peculiar plot raises this question and pinpoints how we might immensely fail if we were to love a soul and not the body. It's always easy to say "I'll love you no matter how you look" because we might never get a chance to prove it. And, God forbid, if that chance comes, I'm sure many of us would fail miserably. The story proves that in an interesting manner using an alternate angle of view.  

Much Needed Break

During the last phase of 2014, my life had run into some complexities or super-complexities I may say. They did get sorted out within days but it kind of affected my life in a whole different level, setting it upside down. It was way too much to take within a very short span of time. Therefore, I needed a break.

A break to rethink things, to set the priorities and goals and set my life in the right track. And to do that, I pretty much went into my cocoon, or in a kind of hibernation mode. I only did the absolutely necessary activities like eating or going to college that too after a few weeks but had cut down all activities like going to birthday parties or enjoying or even talking at times with friends.

Now, I’m all sorted out and I’m back (almost six months later). But I realized one thing in all these. Taking a break helps a lot, you can sort your life out. It gives you time to think, sets your mind free and helps you think clearly. So if you ever feel all puzzled up, confused and cornered, go ahead and dare to take a break from all things. It does help you put your life back in place.

The Scenario Of Pre-Marital Sex in India

A few days back, as I was browsing through the web, I came across an article which listed the over-rated things in India and guess what topped the list- sex. Sex has always been one of the most hush-hush topic in India and most Indians treat it as a crime and thus never name it. Sex Education is avoided and teens don't have the talk here with their unlike the 3rd world countries. This, I think, is the greatest irony for one of the best works on sex was written in this county- Kamasutra.

With this backdrop, little do you expect that people would approve of pre-maritial sex. The scenario over here is so serious that people don't expect couples to have sex even after marriage. The thing is like that they have sex in order to continue their families, as if they are forced to do it for that sole purpose and they never speak about it for it is a thing of great embarressment. And if someone supposedly had pre-marital sex, they are forced to hide the fact and make sure that it reaches no one's ears for that would mean the person would not find a partner for marriage. This may not be the case for all the Indian men but is applicable to almost all women of the Indian society, even today, especially to those not living in the metros.

However, the scene has changed a lot with the 21st century ushering in. But, unfortunately, the changes are applicable only to the cities. A study by Outlook revealed that 33% had pre-marital sex but 50% deny having it. And, Madras has the highest prevalence of it at 60%, followed by Lucknow(37%), and then Bombay (31%), Delhi (27%) and Kolkata (26%). Amongst the cities, Bangalore has the lowest incidence at 22%. In the cities, pre-marital sex is accepted as a fact of life and does not carry the same stigma of disapproval as elsewhere. Hopefully, it would change with time in other parts of India as well but I don't think anything like that is happening soon.

I never get to see what is wrong with pre-marital sex. Sex happens to be the ultimate form of love and if one is allowed to fall in love then why not sex? And, what has marriage anyway got anything with sex? Even marriage these days is not the union of two hearts for seven lives as it was believed in the olden days but a mere legal contract which starts with a sign and can be ended as well anytime with just a sign. If marriage has lost its meaning why stay with that old conception of sex.

Pre-marital sex comes with a lot of advantages. You get to know your partner very well before marriage; how a person behaves on bed tells a lot about him/her. A failed marriage is something you would never want because the trauma that follows hits really hard and thus its better to get acquainted with your partner before you knot your lives together than to arrive at a failed marriage. Sex has many healthy effects on the body as well as on the mind. Therefore, regular practice of sex makes you happy and healthy, lowering the chances of a lot of diseases as well. But to stay healthy by having sex, you need to marry; the idea is just ridiculous. Sex can also be a part of enjoyment of life and to enjoy life you certainly don't need to marry.

Now, you may argue that so much enjoyment can make you pregnant at an early age then I will ask you to give the children proper sex education if you want to them to practice safe sex. Avoiding the topic won't stop them from pre-marital sex. Those who wants to do it will always do it. Better show them the proper way than looking away and pretending that you know nothing. It's better if we move along with the changing times and adapt ourselves than to hold on to our old ways which has been outdated a long time back.


This post is dedicated to Poonaam Uppal's True Love - A Mystical True Love Story on Flipkart.

Blogging Left Behind

A few days back, someone in Twitter asked me why I don't blog regularly? Being a struggling blogger, I was overwhelmed to receive such a question for it meant there was someone out there who cared enough not only to check my blog and but also enquire about the problem behind the long gaps in between the posts. Honestly, I was touched.
But then I checked my blog only to find that though my last post was in the last month, the second last one was in the month of February. So there was a gap of about three months which did shock me a bit. It made me wonder what was I doing all this time that I didn't post anything and not even realised it.
There was a time when I used to check my blog everyday, numerous times sometimes for the number of visitors or for new comments. Hardly, I got it out of my mind. And now I spent three months without even thinking about it once. So what's the reason behind this transformation?
After a while, I realized the reason was always my friends. Previously, in my school days, I used to have a great bunch of friends. Some of them were even the toppers of our school but we, who were not really that good at studies, never felt any barriers in our friendship. We all shared our foods & feelings amongst ourselves and honestly I never felt like I was a black sheep in the group or something of that sort.   But then we all went on to college to pursue higher studies. All of us got different colleges at different places, ranging from the local colleges to foreign countries like US. Distance separated us and no matter how much connected we were through Facebook or the social media it did take a toll on our friendship. Though we all still make it a point to meet and catch a movie together during our holidays and the usual cordiality exists, we all got to know in the back of our minds the intimacy was lost.

The Ideal Old Age

Advertisements are a integral part of our lives. Advertisements of various kinds endorsing different products surround us everyday. However, most of them are blunt and boring and you grow so tired of them by a few days that either you shift your eyes away from it, switch the channel or you just go on tolerating it, having no idea what to do. But there do come advertisements once in a while, which captures our heart and mind, and you can never get enough of it, no matter how many times you watch it.

I came across one such yesterday while roaming around in cyberspace, at YouTube. Its from one of the leading telecom companies of India. The advertisement speaks of an old man who handles technology like a pro and makes use of it in his everyday life to make it more interesting.

The advertisement is a total success and is being appreciated by people from all age groups. Every young guy now dreams to become like him when they grow old.

Enough of jabbering. Here's the video:-

PADE Post #6 (Theme- Shape)

No shape

For you. But

Only power

You've got,

To sustain

Or destroy

An entire species.

My PADE entry for today's theme- Shape.