Awesome Blossoms: Horn OK Please
Read Awesome Blossoms: Horn OK Please Online
Authors: Kartik Iyengar
Awesome Blossoms
Horn OK
Please
Kartik Iyengar
Edited by Devyani Kalvit
www.hopfans.com
Copyright © 2014 by Kartik Iyengar.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Kartik Iyengar
www.hopfans.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental. The collaborators hold the moral right for their contribution.
A collaborative effort, 27 stories from writers from 10 different countries.
Awesome Blossoms – Horn OK Please/ Kartik Iyengar. -- 1st ed.
ISBN
9780615539362
Contents
To every person in the world who dreams a dream to write. If we can, you can.
www.hopfans.com
Artist : Shriya Bisht
Thank you, dear reader, for downloading & reading the eBook titled ‘Awesome Blossoms’
.
The Anthology marks five years of a highly successful & collaborative community online.
I have been blessed with the most awesome community on Social Media
and outside. I dedicate this book to this wonderful community at
www.hopfans.com
Spread a smile and sponsor a child’s education at the Tibetan Children’s Villages at Ladakh, India, today
HOP it forward. May your life be filled with sunshine always & forever at ‘Horn OK Please’
— Kartik Iyengar
G
lobal collaboration is no longer limited by space or time. People to people networks allow individuals guided by self-interest to come together. The power of these networks is more than that of a social media experiment. This is the essence of human experience - connecting like-minded individuals together to share, debate, innovate, and create
.
R Ray Wang
(Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Constellation Research, Inc.)
I
have been listening to a song called
‘Souljas Story’
from an Indie album released way back in 2008 by a group based out of Washington DC. The catchy lyrics include the words, “The Revolution Starts with Me.” And this is what I feel has been the driving force for the HOPpers across the world. They want to revolutionize the way things work, the way we think, the way we perceive, and the way we patronize.
Since, its inception, HO
Pper or the followers of Horn OK Please have wholeheartedly supported the social causes dear to author Kartik Iyengar’s heart. And his heart only seeks genuine smiles and happiness for the children of SOS Tibetan villages, Ladakh, India and Mahesh Memorial Foundation, Chennai, India. Chief Redbull, as Kartik prefers to be known as, decided to not just start with his writing journey, but also revolutionize the world of Indian writing industry when he announced that he would take a journey across the country in
‘Motormouth’
(a.k.a his 4WD) to write his first book ‘
Hopping to conclusions’
.
Moreover, he pledged half of the proceeds from the earnings towards the causes he supports. He also revolutionized the idea of social media marketing through his book promotions when he ga
rnered immense support for his book through social media alone.
Thousands of followers on Social Media regularly collaborate on his fan page and together they conceptualize and dwell on ideas they think will make a difference to the society or the literary world.
I
have known Kartik since the time when the idea of writing a book had still not germinated in him. He used to be a social media junkie engaging all his social media followers regularly with witty comments and tasteful jokes. And now when he has made a mark in the Indian literary scene, he still engages his fans by giving them an opportunity to collectively create something meaningful, something beautiful.
This time around, the proud HOPpers across the world have collaborated under the leadership of Chief Redbull to
create an eBook called ‘Awesome Blossoms’. The anthology contains stories of everyday, of every age and of every kind.
All the collaborators are established professionals or students who have come together to create beautiful stories so that p
roceeds from the sale of this eBook can once again brighten up someone’s life who really needs care. I am supporting this good cause. Are you?
Parimita Chakravorty
Author and blogger @
http://mumbaigloss.in/
W
ith writing, the early man started his journey towards progressive evolution. Overtime, he evolved into what we now have become i.e. the ‘Modern man’ of today. In the past, a multitude of civilizations clashed and fought over kingdoms for power. The ones that emerged triumphant survived and started to flourish; thus paving the way for progress. We have now evolved into a network of nations, ideologies, beliefs and collective behavior that is far more powerful than a single powerful nation. Mankind continues to evolve. Approaches, methods and tools that drive collective, progressive behavior have changed with the passage of time though one, singular value that drives us toward greater thought, remains unchanged. It is the need for communicating, exchanging ideas, fostering creativity and creating a culture that spawns innovation in a cooperative society that is made possible only with the use of language. It is the glue that binds us together and multiplies our cerebral power. One generation bequeaths knowledge unto another, and the cycle continues and is recorded in the annals of history. The glue remains the power of communication. Language continues to evolve and words come together to help mankind communicate. It is the bond that drives collective thought and cooperation that is essential for progress as we move from one era to another. Over time, communication changed its quaint regalia and exuded the panache as suited to the present times towards cooperation. Finally, in the 19th century, the Latin coined this collective, cooperative behavior rendered possible through the art of words as ‘Collaboration’.
With collaboration as
its core building block, the philosophy of ‘Horn OK Please’, also known as ‘HOP’ across the vast fabric called Social Media, manifests in itself an inherent quality of goodness. Started in January 2010 as a Facebook page by Kartik Iyengar, the author of the ‘Horn OK Please’ book series, it has now evolved into an online collaboration tool, a social platform embraced by many writers from around the world to create a book like this one. One collective thought that drives this collaborative behavior in writing is the inherent desire of all collaborators to do their bit for underprivileged children by sponsoring a child’s education.
‘Awesome Blossoms’
is a recent addition to the books of the HOP series. Offering a freewheeling milieu for the innovations to thrive; it welcomes the brave new Millennial, a generation that is changing the very fabric of the way we have collaborated in the past. This book is a digital initiative embellished by the work of around 30 raconteurs from over 10 countries across the globe; namely; Spain, South Africa, Singapore, United States of America, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, India, Germany and Netherlands to name a few. It caters to a wide age group of 8 – 80 years with its pastiche of childhood nostalgia and the rigmaroles of the present. It sets an example of diversity and inclusion with its spread of contribution across the genders.
The journey begins with
Nidhi Chauhan’s
nostalgia of her maiden travel on board a truck when she was still a child. At the end of this bumpy ride,
Aditi
forays into the world of klutzy witches and the beautiful fairies. Sunshine prevails as
Mayank Jain
portrays the strengthening of bonds beyond the blood relations, at the same time
Srinivas Iyer
finally succeeds in shielding the bond of two friends during communal riots. While
Devyani Kalvit
tries to re-unite a father with his son after many years of separation,
Mridulika Verma
reminisces over fond memories of her four-legged mate ‘Sultan’ who taught her a whole lot in life. As
K R Sreenivas
romps through the boisterous alleys and his old house at Chakrapani Street,
Anusha Wickramsinghe
espies the days of fun when the three girls used to hang out together only to become close friends in the present.
Smita Rajan
shares her surprise when she finds her ‘white shoes’ from the days of yore appear in the present all of a sudden, but
Sammy Chanda
doesn’t seem very happy when her best friend comes to greet her after a gap of a couple of years.
Prathamesh Bute
reminisces his first trip to Mumbai as he is overcome by a gust of emotions when he sees his reflection in another boy.
Back in a village far, far away
Pranav K
depicts the dilemma of a child in taking two strangers home, at the same time
Christina Francis
gets to see ‘the gang’ of pachyderms that doesn’t need any permission to trample the village.
Deepa Venkatesh
highlights the anguish of a soldier who loses a loved one, but on the other hand,
Pradnya Mazagaonkar
makes a soldier out of a common man who is determined to prove his mettle.
When
Michael Kögel
proposes improvement in modes of communication and thinking to help minimize the wastage of time in office,
Harshit Kumar
tells you a tale of two friends, one of whom decided to follow the beaten track; but the other followed his passion. And one night,
Ashwin Menon
has an epiphany after having a dialogue with one of his office colleagues who never existed.
Either you can wake up in the morning and got for a walk with
Raquel López de Sebastián
in the Early Morning Park that radiates hope through music or you can have a deep discussion with
Jansi Rani Murugesan
about the sense of right and wrong in human values in everyday life. Getting a Driver’s License was never so easy;
Kartik Iyengar
presents before you a laughter riot that captures his experience in the driving lessons.
Lynn Misquith
gives a message of keeping high spirits even after a virulent attack of destiny while
Shanti Arunkumar
subsumes uncertainty as a part and parcel of life due to which Isha wins the battle and yet loses it at the same time.
You can also read the stories yourselves in bookstores the way
Melani Strachan
does, but you must be ready to get shocking surprises.
Has your search for one particular kind of food made you travel all over the world and then ruminate later in life? If yes, then
Ashleigh Carter
is the right person to share your experience with. But if you just want to travel places and look for adventure in South America, Alaska and what not, hop along with
Ashok Kumar
, he is a die-hard traveler. If you want to have a surreal travel experience,
Christina Francis
will take you to the temple ruins of Cambodia and show you the pictures that she clicked.
Shriya Bisht
, being a multifaceted personality, brings to you her poetry to ponder upon. At the end of the day, life is all about telling stories, hear this prima facie from
Paddy Padmanabhan
.
Pallavi Nagalla
also tells you a story about her ‘green friends’ and their beautiful ecosystem.
This book is titled
‘Awesome Blossoms’
as it is bunched up as a medley of beautiful, colorful flowers from around the world. It is a collection of short stories that lend color to the soul of the book. The sections have been named after blossoms that spread their fragrance around like tulips, daisies, dahlias, chrysanthemums, lilies, orchids, bluebells and bougainvilleas.
This book presents you with a platter of tales from a plethora of topics garnished with
the spirit of collaboration. I take it as a great honor to be a part of this refulgent journey.
Devyani Kalvit
Editor
, Horn Ok Please
