Transition of Thoughts

Weaving thoughts into words

Month: March 2011

Down The Road: The first time when the world would notice my writing!


After a pretty successful first two books – ‘Another Chance’ and ‘Urban Shots’, Grey Oak Publishers is coming up with their next short story anthology – ‘Down the Road’. While ‘Urban Shots’ dealt with life in urban India, ‘Down the Road’ deals with as the name suggests, life at school and college. Did you like the girl sitting next to you in class? Do you miss the time with friends in the college canteen? Do you miss hostel and school life when you had no tensions whatsoever? ‘Down the Road’ includes all this and more.

After my poor attempt at short story writing for Urban Shots where I was rejected outright, I was determined to do well and work properly on submitting a good short story for the new anthology. But this time too things didn’t work out too well though the story has been selected by Grey Oak to feature on d.ustb.in which is an interestingly named website for short story lovers.

But before I could sit down and wonder what went wrong and what I should improve on, Ahmed gave me a chance to contribute an essay on two decades of Bollywood movies on school and college campuses. And lo, after a lot of editing and re-editing it has finally been included in the book along with the other stories.

I would like to sincerely thank Ahmed Faiyaz and everyone else at Grey Oak Publishers for giving me a chance to get published. I would surely keep working on my writing over a period of time.

The book launches across India in the 2nd week of April

Order your copy @

Flipkart – http://www.flipkart.com/down-road-ahmed-faiyaz-rohini-book-8192040305?ref=aefd7bfc-bd4d-474c-abfe-3d88fdaee50c

Landmark Online – http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/books/down-the-road-ahmed-faiyaz-rohini-kejriwal/9788192040301

IndiaPlaza – http://www.indiaplaza.in/down-the-road-edited-by-ahmed-faiyaz-and-rohini-kejriwal/books/9788192040301.htm

A sneak peak: What would life be without emotions?


Emotions are there everywhere around us. Be it loving your parents, fighting with your friends, laughing at others stupidity, rebelling against the status quo in the society, emotions play their part in each and every moment of our lives. But have you ever imagined what would life be without them? Incomplete, incoherent, confused, stuck in a fix – Are you thinking that any of these would be the case with life? Wouldn’t the puzzle of life be incomplete? Let’s look at the funny side as many of these ten instances would have happened with either of us sometime or the other:

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United Nations: The most useless organization on the planet!

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace.

The above is the Wikipedia definition (accessed on 24th March, 11:40am) of United Nations and the work it does. I am sure all of you must have studied about the United Nations and its mission, goals and objectives while at school. Or if not been to school, you may have read about it somewhere. All of you can be forgiven for thinking that UN has closed down because interestingly it hasn’t been able to do anything useful over the past decade and more.

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6 years of college life – A life well lived!

Going for long walks with your girlfriend or best friends, going to movies after bunking classes, coming late to hostel, fighting with the warden, sleeping while the faculty is telling the most important of things, ogling at all the possible girls in your own as well as the junior batch, coming late to class so frequently that the day you come early, the faculty is shocked out of his / her daylights – College life is about all this and more.

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Over-charging Mobile Operators–More common than you think!

This is one of my recent posts from Trakin – http://trak.in/tags/business/2011/03/11/over-charging-telecom-mobile-operators-india/

If you are a mobile post-paid subscriber, I am sure you may have been surprised one time or the other, looking at your mobile bills. More often than not, they are more than you could have imagined. Most of the times you can’t figure out why the bill is so high, at other times you can spot discrepancies in your SMS charges or phone calls. Sometimes you are also charged for things like caller tunes without having even asked for them.

Yes, that’s the existing scenario and you are simply one of the thousands (or even millions) of victims being overcharged by mobile operators. Interestingly, some of us don’t even realize that we are being looted by the mobile companies.

So how does it work ? Say you have asked for some schemes like free SMSs and cheaper call rates. You are really happy that you have made the best possible deals and talk to your girlfriend ( or boyfriend or wife or husband) day in and day out. Many mobile companies use this as the easiest way to fool you. They sometimes charge for SMSs which have been paid for as FREE or charge a few paisa here and there for some calls which you can just call ‘BILLING MISTAKES’. But then what’s the big deal in a few paisa here and there, right? WRONG! With a few paisa here and there the mobile operators are making millions all the way to the bank. Just think, if each call is billed at just 1 second extra, with millions of calls daily, operators are making a killing!

But, the overcharging is not limited to just calls and SMSes – Caller tunes and other value added services are also cash cows! Lets say, you have taken a new connection and then when one fine day your dad calls you to hear that he was shocked listening to ‘Munni Badnam Hui’, you don’t know how to react. And then you realise that you being charged needlessly for this caller tune despite you not even having asked for it. But in another case you could be encouraged to keep a caller tune though probably not the Munni one.

One could argue saying this is the way mobile operators encourage customers to use caller tunes. But isn’t charging them against ethics? Similarly, value added services are another big money spinner for mobile operators as they charge their customers even after the services have been cancelled. Every mobile operator asks you to deposit some money for the services they provide. All the while you are using the operator’s services, they are earning interest. Once you cancel and are late with your bill payment, you have to pay a fee. And only the money minus the interest is given back to you.

Although hundreds of thousands of users face this issue, only a few of them notice it and even less complain about it. Here are the number of complaints launched against Operators in last 2 years.

The biggest complaints of overcharging have been from Airtel and Reliance. The TRAI has notified the Telecom Consumer Grievances Regulations, 2007 regarding providing some protection to consumers from such errant operators. But no one has done anything and the consumer is left to fend for himself. From trying their best to reject the MNP because it makes it competitive for them to charging customers over the top, mobile operators have been ruling the roost.

How long can they really do this? Is there any way to stop consumers getting overcharged?

Movie Review: Tanu Weds Manu


Tanu weds Manu (TWM) is direct by Anand L Rai (of Thoda Life Thodi Magic and Strangers fame or shall I say infame :P) and has the unusual pairing of Kangana Ranaut and Madhavan in the lead. With some interesting and catchy promos, the unique pairing, Kangana’s fresh appeal where she smiles and dances unlike her usual ‘drugged’ roles and the Sadi Galli soundtrack, TWM has kept pretty good pace with its promotions.

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Can Entrepreneurship really be taught at B – Schools?

Entrepreneurship has been the most abused word around according to me. Each and everyone seemingly want to start their own venture. Each and everyone think making business plans is as easy as writing a mail. Each and everyone think that getting the funds for the same will be pretty easy. Each and everyone want to be his / her own boss.

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10 things to not learn from college life!

Everyone talks about how college life makes you learn a lot many new things in life. Whether its learning to mix with different kinds of people, becoming independent, having a girlfriend, making relationships, college life is regarded as the period when you can make or break your life. There are so many memories that one can live a lifetime. A lifetime of happiness, joy, fun and full of beautiful moments.

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