Eliminating Classroom Hunger

Blogger in me loves doing different things, loves experimenting with different topics and what better do you want than knowing that a blog post will make a difference to someone. That’s exactly what it would.

From little Satish who throws the newspaper to my balcony to the tiny chhotu who serves me hot tea in office, we all come across a number of little kids who cannot go to school, just because they need to work to earn a bread for themselves and their families. That is what you call ‘classroom hunger’, a typical scenario we often notice in our daily lives but still choose to ignore, probably since it is not within our own lives. With God’s grace, we have been lucky enough to have an availability of basic facilities in our lives.

While I write these lines, I would like to share with you an incident which made me ponder over the topic I am discussing with you. A couple of years back, I was in Mumbai with 2 of my friends. We were enjoying the serene atmosphere and having fun at the Marine Drive. It would be around 9.45-10 when three kids came to us and started selling some children books. While the books seemed of no interest, we still got involved in asking rates of various books just to pass time. But at one moment, while one of the kids was telling us the rate of Nursery rhyme book, the other chhotu started singing those nursery rhyme. This indeed touched us, since they were selling those books to collect some money to get into a mid-day school itself so that they could learn. They told that they learned whatever their customers taught them through their own books and they were very eager to learn more. But they could not since they have a family to support and they are the ones who are feeding them. Their dedication to education was what inspired us to purchase few books from them, just because we wanted to help them but they refused to have anything in charity. Another thing that touched us was that while they seemed so helpless to us since they could not even learn, they had learned the art of being happy. I also clicked a pic of them to inspire me to be happy unconditionally.

Lets Learn to be Unconditionally Happy!

However. this incident also brings me face-to-face with a reality that many kids suffer from ‘classroom hunger’ and there is a great need to eliminate this classroom hunger. Children in poor families are often made to work to act as a helping hand to the main bread-earning member of the family. Lesser do they realize that educating the children will sow more sweet fruits in the future.  These days, a new serial is also featuring on Colors TV titled ‘Udaan’ which also highlights the need of education to the poverty-ridden families and shows the transformation in the life of a village girl and her family after she is exposed to formal education system. So, the need of the hour is spreading awareness about the importance of education and discouraging the child labour practices in the country.

So, lets eliminate classroom hunger and instead let’s join hands to see in them ‘hunger to learn’. Proud to be associated with Bloggers’ Social Responsibility Initiative.

I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.

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Lucky 6 – Its not all about Being Lucky

www.fatcatgaming.com has come up with an innovative gaming app called Lucky 6. The app has not yet been launched commercially or over Google Play Store. However, I got an exclusive chance to preview the app before it goes live and well, I was pretty much impressed with the concept of the game.

As the name goes, Lucky 6, its about choosing 6 brands for a day. Was it too short? Let's go a bit in detail. The game is basically a simplified version of a virtual stock market game. All a player has to do is choose six brands from a big list of brands. The brands are listed not only from Indian markets but several other markets as well. Hence, one can also invest in US and other international brands. Further, the difference between a virtual stock market game and Lucky 6 is that in this game, the player does not have to perform complicated calculations to construct a portfolio of stocks. The value of stocks/ brands does not matter in this game and only thing that matters is the performance of the brand on that day in real stock markets.

If the bands/ stocks chosen for the day perform the best, the player wins. Prizes also range from cash to luxury holidays which are surely catchy enough to put our mind and brain into choosing our 6 brands. The name 'Lucky 6' might indicate to you that it is just about choosing a random 6 brands and then waiting if they emerge as the winning bets. But the game is surely more about that, you need to calculate and anticipate which stocks will be the best performing on that particular day and then you select the brands.

The app has also impressed me with the ease and convenience of using the app and moving from one option to the other. The registration process is a simple one page form. Once the user is activated through the link, the user can simply move on to select his 6 brands for the next day's game. A timer in the app shows the countdown to the start of the next round. And if you are facing a dilemma of choices between different brands, the app has a solution for that as well. A user can select three different sets of brands as his three entries for the day.

Further, unlike other referral scheme, where the referrer gets a one-time referral bonus, this game has a unique referral reward scheme wherein if my referred player strikes the jackpot, the referrer also gets 25% of it.

As I am writing this blog post, I am already playing my first round of the game. Fingers Crossed for the results. 

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An Accident by the Road – Help or Ignore

This Children’s Day, our friends’ gang was just discussing the childhood memories and we had a great time creating some wonderful moments. One of the friends shared his great memories about the nursery rhyme ‘Humpty Dumpty’ and ‘Jack & Jill’. Before you really scream over your wish to listen it once again, here are the videos:

He interestingly shared some common features of these nursery rhymes:

1.    Both the nursery rhymes have two central characters.

2.    The creators of these nursery rhymes have been very cruel with these lovable characters. In both these nursery rhymes, the characters fell from the height.

And last and the most important,

3.    These characters were not offered any first-aid after they fell.

While we had a great laugh when he made the third point, it also made me ponder over this bad state of affairs on Indian roads. Providing first-aid to an injured on the road is a basic courtesy, which can be pull a person from close-to-dead to being alive.  First-aid is the medical assistance to a person suffering sudden injury to prevent the condition from worsening.

The Indian janta often seems to ignore to provide this basic courtesy. However, since this is not exactly what Indian values advocate, one is forced to think why Indians behave so. This might be possibly due to the reason that people are willing to help the injured strangers on the road but they are afraid of the medical and legal issues which occur in India when one helps an accident victim. Hospitals are not cooperative, they insist for blood relatives. Police isn’t cooperative either, since they have a long list of queries before leaving you with a promise to cooperate with police as and when the need be. Hence, despite having an intention to help, these external factors too contribute in lesser instances of medical assistance to the injured.

In this regard, I feel it important to let all know that Supreme Court has ruled in a couple of its judgements that an injured brought for medical treatment should be given medical aid to preserve life first and only then procedural criminal law should be allowed to operate. However, this helps only once the injured is brought to the hospital for medical aid. There is still no law in India which fixes a responsibility on its citizens to help the injured on roads. Accordingly, the need of the hour is creating a law that offers protection to those who help the injured strangers in road accidents. A strong law will surely go a long way in creating first-aid friendly and helpful society.

And before I end this issue, I will also like to share about an organization, which works for this cause. A few days before this discussion, I came across SaveLife Foundation, an NGO which was formed for improving road safety and emergency medical care in India. As I researched for the roots of the organization, Wikipedia gave me some interesting information. SLF was founded on 29 February 2008 following the death of Shivam Bajpai, Piyush Tewari’s 17 year old cousin, in a road accident in 2007. Piyush soon discovered that Shivam’s death was due to delayed care and that he may have been saved had he not have had to wait for 45 minutes for someone to rush him to hospital. Following thorough research that lasted several months, Piyush Tewari understood the gravity of this problem on a national scale and how prevalent were accident fatalities due to missing emergency care. He then invited his friend and mentor Krishen Mehta to join him in setting up the organization with a mission to enable Bystander Care – the immediate life-saving care that trained Police and community persons can provide road victims. Know more about the organization at http://www.savelifefoundation.org.

And next time you see an injured on the road, don’t hesitate to help him. You might be the difference and help save a Life.

This post is a part of Kids Hut activity at BlogAdda.com.

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Honda is Simply Amaze-ing

Starting its journey on 15th September 2014, Honda's 'Longest Drive through Amazing India' in Honda Amaze, entered the Guinness World Records, registering the longest journey by a car in a single country. The campaign was initiated to celebrate the success of Honda Amaze in the country which reached 1,00,000 units sales milestone which was the fastest in the history of Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL). The car covered a total of 23,823 kms through mountainous terrains, coastlines, flag highways, congested city roads and the interior of India in the 55-day journey crossing over 400 towns. The drive transversed through mountainous terrains, coastlines, flat highways, congested city roads and the interiors of India showcasing the durability and reliability of Honda Amaze through ‘Amazing India’.  

I got an invite for the Guinness World Record Presentation ceremony which was to be held at The Grand in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi on 9^th November, 2014. Being a Sunday, it was easy for me to decide if I will attend the event or not. However, besides the event being a presentation ceremony, I had no clue on what surprises it had for me.

I had reached the hotel well within the time and I was quite happy to see some known faces there. As we spent a bit of time there, we were told that the renowned author, Chetan Bhagat, was also turning up for the event. This got us more surprised and excited. While we were waiting for the event to start, we also collected more information about the Guinness World Record for which we were there.

The World Record Holders with the Certificate

Bunny Punia and Shantonil Nag, in association with Honda Cars India Ltd., had got a Guinness World Record into their names for covering the longest journey by car in a single country. The team working behind the scenes was as below:

·       Rajender Singh Negi - for capturing exciting visuals.

·       Deepak Dhojia - for editing and making live videos.

·       Kanika Sood - for being the multitasker in the exciting journey.

·       The Gaadi Web Pvt Ltd team (including Abhishek Chaliha, Shivank Bhatt, Jeo George, Siddharth Motu, and Kanupriya Bhatnagar) - for handling all the other tasks.

  (Info on behind the scenes team courtesy: Rahul Prabhakar)

We got an intimation from the Honda team that the event was about to start. We moved towards the hall to occupy our seats and just then, we noticed Chetan Bhagat entering the scene. We, the Blogger Gang, quickly stole an opportunity to have a Selfie with Chetan.

Selfie with Chetan and Blogger Gang

Video : Bunny's Jourrney through Visuals, Image : Bunny Narrating His Record-Breaking Amazing Journey 

When Bunny’s video narrating his experience over the entire journey came up on the screen, I was clearly jealous of him of having experienced India so close. Being a lover of India’s scenic beauty, Bunny’s slideshow got me utter a ‘Wow!’ each time the slideshow changed its image. Just have a look at India and its incredibly amaze-ing beauty!

Images of Incredibly Amazing India

After the award presentation ceremony, we, the Bloggers Gang, also had an exclusive privilege to interact with Chetan Bhagat for his association with Honda Amaze.

You don't get such an Opportunity so often!

It was surely an amazing interaction, and Chetan was quick on every question we put before him, be it related to his experiences with Honda and what he felt of the Honda Amaze-ing Drive. Chetan also shared his upcoming campaign with Honda Amaze with us.

The #AmazeLongestDrive will be followed by a series of ‘webisodes’ on 'Drive through Amazing India' to be hosted by Chetan Bhagat, who, after his search of #HalfGirlfriend will now be discovering the #AmazingIndia. In the upcoming compaign, Chetan Bhagat will travel to unexplored locations in India. No wonder, it is an interesting campaign designed by Honda, which will also surely add to the India’s Tourism Quotient and encourage road trips. What an Idea, Honda Ji! The webisodes will also be interactive with its audience in the sense that people will be asked to post stories or photos about unexplored places of Amazing India and the short-listed candidates will further get a chance to travel and explore remarkable places of India.

Chetan's First Destination, Rosary Church

Chetan then shared with us, his first destination on this interesting campaign. His first destination is going to be ‘Rosary Church’, located some 200 kms from Bangalore. The church is submerged in waters during monsoons and as the waters recede, the Church shows its holy appearance. Still an unexplored arena, the place surely seems interesting due to its exciting location and no wonder, Chetan was also excited to be able to experience the place up, close and personal. When he was showing us his first destination, we asked him on a lighter note whether he will like to stay there for the night as well. As expected, the answer was a straightaway ‘No’ given the solitary location of the place. With that note, the interaction ended and we were up from a group picture with the author.

Well, with this interaction and lovely lunch thereafter, the event was officially over, but the memories of witnessing a Guinness World Record Presentation Ceremony live and interacting with Chetan Bhagat will remain with us forever. 

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A Day of the Cricket, by the Cricketers and for the Cricket

- A day when the great Cricketing Legends and World Cup Winners, Clive Lloyd, Kapil Dev, Allan Border, Arjuna Ranatunga, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting were under a single roof to share their experiences

- A day when Yuvraj Singh opens his heart out with his fellow team mates on his fight with the deadly cancer

- A day when India-Pakistan cricketing rivalry displays a friendly face off the field

- A day when the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Saurav Ganguly, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Aamer Sohail, Mohd Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja share their journeys to glory

And there it is, a day to salute the game and the legends, Salaaam Cricket!

Yes, I experienced it all up, close and personal and the day was 18^th October, 2014. The event was a cricket conclave organized by India Today in New Delhi. It was really a great experience hearing them outside the commentary box and seeing them live off the field.

India Today conceived the idea of this Cricket Conclave interestingly 100 days before the World Cup 2015 and surely to set a stage for the ever-enthusiastic Indian fans to cheer for their Men in Blue. Obviously, a biased Indian fan will think it’s only about Team India but a Cricketer within the fan might well believe that Australia will the favorites and South Africa too have a good chance as well and a feel amongst the legends as well was that New Zealand might turn up as a dark horse in the World Cup, given the fact that the tournament is going to be played at their home soil.

A day before the event, West Indies team had abruptly called off their tour in India after some payment issues and the media was all negative about the West Indians. Clive Lloyd made a Gentleman’s gesture by rendering apology towards this abrupt call from his team during the event. He surely earned a fan in me due to this little gesture.

Session with Yuvraj Singh

The event was divided into several small sessions featuring different legends. One of the sessions with Yuvraj Singh was quite inspirational because not only did he talk about his fight with cancer but more so since he knew of it while he was playing in WC2011. Still, he put his country before himself and continued playing in the World Cup while he was fighting something he had read about in his reports. This truly emerged as a true Salaam Cricket moment.

There was a session on ‘Pressures of the World Cup’ where we managed to see the coolest lot of captains we can ever get together, Ganguly, Ranatunga, Lloyd and Border and then there was a session on ‘Thunders Down Under’ wherein the Australian Trio, Border, Waugh and Ponting, shared their personal views on how the Australians just dominated the cricketing world for over a decade and three consecutive world cup wins. I still remember getting heartbroken when Ponting just thrashed India in WC 2003 final.

Indo-Pak rivalry surely deserved its own exclusive session and the players shared their anecdotes on how they felt more pressures before Indo-Pak match. They shared that a night before the match, everyone they talked to behaved like a cricket expert and would only say, ‘Jo marzi karna, par kal jeet kar hi aana hai.’ All the cricketers sharing the stage agreed that those games were high-pressure games, no matter what the present situation was and they just could not afford to lose. On being asked that who was better poised for the WC, India or Pakistan, Aamer Sohail, on a lighter note, marked the question as not applicable, just because Pakistan’s playing eleven were yet to be frozen and this marked the end of the session.

Perfect Testimony to Indo-Pak Friendship Off the Field

However, I believe Indo-Pak rivalry was just on-the-field and they shared some great bonds off-the-field. I managed to witness this on stage as well.

Vikram Sathaye posing as Saurav Ganguly

In between the sessions, we had a Silly Point refresher, wherein standup Comedian Vikram Sathaye who managed to tickle our funny bones and imitated the players on stage, and Haq has always been famous among the mimics.

However, the Session of the Day was the last one, wherein the Seven Captains were supposed to share the same stage. Imran Khan could not turn up, and we had six World Cup winning captains on stage. Surely, it was a photographic moment but what made it more exciting, interesting and lively was the way they entered the arena. All the captains were made to dance on the beats of dhol while the audience enjoyed the winning moments on the screen. It was an experience of a lifetime watching these legends to the desi dhol beats.

Clive Lloyd Dancing to the Desi Dhol Beats

Getting to meet all these cricketing legends, the heart still craved for more. Sachin's presence in this mega cricketing event was surely missed.  Nonethless, it was a great time for me at the event, not forgetting that I managed to click selfies with few legends.

I cheer for the Men in Blue for the WC2015. What about you?

Lets Cheer for the Defending Champions, Team India

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A Perfect Thriller - ‘God is a Gamer’ by Ravi Subramaniam

Book Review of ‘God is a Gamer’

Author : Ravi Subramanian

Publisher – Penguin Books

Genre – Thriller/Fiction

One sentence for the book

Twists and turns throughout the story keep you engrossed enough, but the detective within the reader may not be successful to nail the culprit in this thriller till the last few pages.

About the Author

A career banker and financial services professional, Ravi has worked with various multinational banks (Citibank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and HSBC) for over eighteen years. As a result of his extensive background in foreign banks, writing about banking comes quite naturally to Ravi.  His earlier works, If God was a Banker, The Bankster, Bankerupt are all set against the backdrop of the financial services industry.

Author’s Writing Style

Described as the ‘John Grisham of banking’, by the Wall Street Journal, Ravi has an engrossing style of writing. Being a banker himself, Ravi is not aloof from what all happens inside the financial sector, still a positive of his writings is the way he explains the tiniest details of something technical for not-so technical reader. In a recent book launch event in Delhi, Ravi interestingly unfolded his success mantra, “Put a murder in the first few pages and introduce twists in the tale at the end.”

The Title and Book Cover

I have been away from the world of books since quite a long time now, but then came an opportunity to review the book from BlogAdda.com.  The title ‘God is a Gamer’ was enough to excite the reader within me and I thought to give it a try.

The title indeed is catchy and interesting. It forces the reader to think at least once that how God has gamed with them. The book perfectly displays how the destiny can change your lives in a blink, a lesson to be remembered by all of us.

Book cover has been interestingly designed. A bitcoin image on the cover surely gets the reader interested to know more about what it is actually. The sub-title ‘Is Revenge a Crime?’ is another clincher for the reader to already go into the spreads of imagination of the revenge stories.

About the Book

A small book of 300+ pages conveniently divided into nearly 100 chapters, it helps the author portray different characters and emotions at different locations and connecting the dots seems an effortless task for the reader. Still, the reader does not lose the hold on the story at any place neither does the author gives the suspense easily. The suspense remains ‘a suspense’ till the very last pages. The narration has all been done in third person. Still, one feels as if all the scenes are happening at that very moment. The narratives have been given a personal touch. I enjoyed going through the different scenes in the story, few quite enjoyable, few little avoidable, but the story has its own pace which grips the reader within you.

The book has been widely promoted as a first-ever Bitcoin thriller. Bitcoins, a virtual currency, has been a mystery for a greater part of the world and this book tries to capture this unexplored arena. It has added to the surprise element of the story and also gave enough room for creative imagination to the author.

Thumbs Up

The climax is surely the greatest strength for this game of The God since Ravi connects the dots spread all around the story in an unexpected end to the chain of events. On what unfolds in the end is surely something surprising, at least for me, it was. Given that I am not an avid reader and still getting me finish up a book in a single day calls for another applause for the author.

What could have been better

The plot of the story is so vast that the author has left going much into detailing part for a couple of his characters. The emotional connect between the characters and reader is missing and the reader will hardly care what happened to the characters post the climax.

However, given that the book is a thriller, it is reasonably fine to get the story part demystified and don’t care about the characters in the end.

Rating

Ravi has surely impressed me with his style. I will rate this one a 4.5/5 and I would love to read his other books as well.

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books.

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Shopping Gets Quikr

It was my friends’ wedding and I could not carry my DSLR since it was supposed to be a rail ka safar and carrying an extra handbag just or the DSLR was not really advisable given the care a DSLR demands. Of course, I had my cellphone, but it certainly can’t match the quality a DSLR can fetch us. All the way in the train, I was just thinking on why I don’t have a handy digicam with me, which I can carry with me anytime without caring to carry an extra handbag which I invariably have to carry for a DSLR. While on my way from railway station to the wedding venue, I just noticed a hoarding of Quikr.com which was advertised as ‘Buyer aur Seller ka Perfect Matchmaker’. Since there was already a ‘to buy’ thing going in my mind, the ad managed to convince me to at least test the site once.

Search for the Quikr App

Once I reached the wedding venue, I noticed that I was quite ahead of the time for the function. So, I just thought to try my hands on the Google Play Store to check if the site I had noticed on the way had an Android App. The search was a Success and a cool Quikr app was on my screen.

Product Search

The app has a user-friendly graphical interface showing 12 different categories, including products, services, real estate etc. So, it can be treated as a one-stop shop for any buyer.

For the convenience of its users, it also has a ‘search’ button right on top of the app. Having a friendly app in my hand and a product in my mind, I wasted no time in searching for a camera. Already having a DSLR, all I was looking for was a decent point-and-shoot digicam which can be carried conveniently. The website is also containing an easy-to-use interface and Quikr Digicams in Delhi got me to the listings I was interested in.

Doing a little research about it got me aware that Sony has the best range in this point-and-shoot category. Some more search at Google and Flipkart to get a product close to my range of Rs. 5k-7k got me closer to the model I needed to search at Quikr. So, I made a search for ‘Sony W710’ Digicam. 

There were three sellers for the product and all the locations were within a reasonable distance from my home/ office. So, I thought to contact all the three sellers. Two price tags were Rs. 5,000/- each and one had Rs. 3,000/-. Since the MRP of the cam was Rs. 6,000/- approx. So, the bargain was good enough but yes, obviously the product condition had a role to play in it.

Contacting the seller in the Quikr App is pretty simple. There are three buttons:

1. Call – The app opens the phone dialer for you to call the seller.
2. SMS - The app opens the phone messaging app to message the seller.
3. Reply – The app opens an in-built mailing function to send a message to the seller through Quikr.

I used the in-built contact feature to send messages to all the three sellers. 

The reaction time was quicker from one of the sellers, or I should say, no longer a seller, since he had already got his product sold through Quikr itself the same day he posted the app but forgot to hide the advertisement. Obviously, the quikr.com was quicker for him, but yes, he gave me a thumbs up for the product and he also said that only reason he sold his cam was that he had bought a DSLR. I jokingly said that I was buying the cam for the same reason. Also, this seller was the Rs. 3,000/- seller so, now I was left with two sellers, both with price tag of Rs. 5,000/-.

By the time our conversation through SMS ended, the function I was there to attend was about to start. So, while my first step to shop was already completed, I thought to enjoy the function. After the function, while we were moving towards our rooms to rest for the night and then proceed back home, I noticed that I had got replies from other seller as well. He was willing to sell that product. I asked if it was OK for me to call at that time and finally, after a couple of minutes of conversation, the deal was closed subject to me testing the product for its working condition. What was good for me that he was quite close to my home and also, the seller was giving away a 4 GB memory card with the camera within the same price. Also, he was giving the original purchase invoice from Flipkart.com which was just 3 months old and thus, I could still enjoy the manufacturer’s warranty. While I was moving to bed, there was a sense of happiness within me for two reasons, one for my friend who was entering another phase of her life, and secondly, next time I need a cam, I need not depend solely on my DSLR and I have my Sony point-and-shoot cam as well with me.

Next day, after I got back home, I called the seller who agreed to meet at Domino’s Pizza outlet in the evening where I checked the product, which was looking fresher than a new piece. Possibly, the product had been used just once or twice. Still an Indian heart wanted to save some cash, I tried my hands on bargaining, which although is not something I am really good at. Bravo! The seller was kind enough to give it to me for Rs. 4,800/- and I immediately finalized the deal. Cash exchanged hands, and so did the product. I got the camera, original Sony pouch, 4 GB memory card enough for 800 photos and Flipkart invoice for the warranty part. 

Well, I just forgot that we had a great Pizza time as well and the seller didn’t allow me to pay for it as well.

So, now I am a proud owner of a DSLR and a chhotu cam as well. So, better be nice to me or else I will shoot you. :)

No wonder, with such a convenient and successful experience, I am going to recommend this website to my friends and hopefully, will also try to be a seller myself over there, but may be my buyer won’t get a free pizza, but a big Jaadoo Ki Jhappi. Quikr indeed is a Perfect matchmaker of buyer and seller,

So, No fikar #SHOPQUIKR

This post is a part of Quikr.com activity at BlogAdda.com.

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The Siege Saga - Chapter XXII

This post is a part of the #GameOfBlogs Contest at Blogadda.com.

You can read the first part of the story here and the previous part here.

Jennifer was all very tensed with her heart still beating up for Kareem. She wanted the hostages to be free but she did not want Kareem’s body lying still in front of her either. Between the ‘right’ and the ‘wrong’, Jennifer hoped to save Kareem from the rescue teams. But the fight eventually went into the favor of ‘right’ since the video posted by Cyrus was running continuously in front of her eyes. “I need to go inside, I need to save Kareem from all this and get him away from this materialistic world. We shall have our new world somewhere far away.”

But with each bullet sound, Jennifer’s heart was beating at a faster pace than before. She thought to talk to Kareem.

“Where have you been? Its all over the news that the hotel is getting freed up from the hours long siege. Bullet sounds are all over the outer space. Hope you are fine.” Jennifer went to some private space and called inside the hotel.

“Its all getting spoiled. The army is already within the hotel. But inshallah, we will achieve our mission. Aryan has just managed to get away from the lobby. That bloody Shekhar! Uski wali toh tumhare saath hi hai na. She will come to our rescue if he catches us.” Kareem asked in a tone which frightened Jennifer.

“Huzoor, apki zindgi mere saath hi hai.” Jennifer replied in a manner to console Kareem.

Jennifer was going all in and out to think how she can get inside the hotel. She wanted the hostages free and she wanted Kareem and somewhere her brain was telling her that only one of the two was possible.

Jennifer asked the special cell team on the ground carefully monitoring the situation inside if she could go inside the hotel. “Sending me inside can really help your team. I know one of them really well and I can be go really close to the attackers without any harm to my life.”

Suraj, who was second in command after Shekhar, was all in dilemma whether to let her in or not, or more specifically, whether to believe her or not.

“I know its hard to trust someone who has already tried to deviate you from the prime agenda, but please trust me. Shekhar has trusted me till now, the prime concern for me is just the safety of the hostages.” Tara said in a tone to convince Suraj further.

“Give me some time.” Suraj said in a stressed tone. He knew he already had lesser time.

“Delta to Alpha, come in Sir.”

“Delta, come in.”

“Jennifer wants to get in the hotel. She says she wants the hostages be freed.” Suraj seeked guidance from Shekhar.

“We already are clueless about the location of the terrorists. Our team has already cleared two floors and only thing we can find are dead bodies. Lets play blind. I think we should let her in. What do you suggest?” Shekhar said, though in a bit unconvincing sound, but his heart knew his intuitive ability has never let her down.

“Sir, we don’t seem to have a choice. I think we may take a chance.”

“Over and out.”

Suraj now seemed to have a fair idea of what his course of action was going to be.

“Jennifer, our team is already in. So, if you think you will be able to fool us around, you may be wrong. We are attaching a secret cam to your earring. It should not get broken at any cost. Just remember that.” Suraj tried to assure Jennifer that it was their choice and not helplessness which was allowing her to go in.

That was a really smart call from Suraj. Getting a cam in the earring also meant that he could hear everything whenever Jennifer conversed with anyone over phone.

And bang on! The very first call gave them the location of the terrorists.

“Kareem, I have managed to get in the hotel through kitchen area at the back. Where are you and our team?” Jennifer tried to know his whereabouts.

“Ahana, we are all spread out on different floors from 4^th to 8^th floor. I am on the 5^th floor. However, Aryan is still untraceable. But you stay away from the scene. The army seems all within the hotel and we are close to reach Jannat, inshallah.”

“No, I won’t. I have done the recce of the hotel earlier and I know a way out. I surely can help you get out of here safe, Kareem. I need to meet you.”

While Jennifer aka Ahana was trying to convince Kareem to get out of the hotel safely, Suraj heard all this conversation through the secret cam.

He immediately conveyed the information to Shekhar. “Suraj, make sure, our team should not go to Floor 5. We can nab this one alive. And till the time Jennifer is there with him, I think he will do no harm.”

Was Jennifer worthy of this much trust? The question was getting back on Shekhar’s mind again and again but he just remembered Roohi’s silly facebook status a couple of days back which read ‘Listen to your Heart. Itmay be on the left, but it’s always right.’ 

Finally, he decided to trust her.

Read the next part of the story here.

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