Parrot under the Pine Tree

Hi Friends,

* After a long struggle, Kindle edition of my book, "Parrot under the Pine Tree," is being published by Amazon on 09 Feb 2017. It will be available on Amazon site all over the world. I'm indeed very grateful to you all for visiting my blog regularly and encouraging me to post on a variety of subjects. Writing fiction remains my first passion; the other being painting. You all have read excerpts from the books many times in the past. Finally, the book will be out in the digital market on 09 Feb 2017. 

* The first few paragraphs:

From the pagans of the pre-Vedic period to the faithful of the post-Vedic era, only the Sun God hasn’t lost its eminence in the daily lives of the human beings. It’s held in reverence by both the believers and the atheists. The heliolatry has persisted from the prehistoric times. No natural phenomenon has captured the imagination of so many people as the sunrise, which has provided intellectual nourishment to the educated for generations. 

        And it was the sunrise of a divine kind that drew thousands of enthusiasts to a lesser known place in the Himalayas. These were pre-dawn hours. From behind the snow-capped mountains, hidden under the veil of brume, the sun prepared to rise. It was taking time to climb those lofty peaks with precipitous gradients. In the valley below lay a sleepy little town. 

       A long road winding through effulgent valleys, dotted with huts and fields, approached Kausani, a quaint hamlet perched atop the ridgeline. Thereafter it cut through the place splitting it in two unequal halves and then vanished into the Katyuri Valley, overlooking the white sentries. The two ridges-halves spread like the wings of a gigantic dragon. More huts adored the forward slopes. For centuries Kausani had loved and revelled in its aloofness. Throughout the year it covered itself in a blanket of obscurity, as if it hated civilisation. Of late, the hotels and resorts like pockmarks had sprung up all over on the forward slopes and destroyed its beauty and tranquillity. Kausani resented their presence on its soil and often shed tears in the calm, dark hours, but each morning with a smile awaited the day’s arrival for itself, its inhabitants and its guests.

https://www.amazon.com/Parrot-under-Pine-Surendra-Singh-ebook/dp/B01N9SP1UQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484752989&sr=8-1&keywords=parrot+under+the+pine+tree

My Latest Painiting......

*     Tried copying "Summer Sunset" by Von Gogh.

Some Indian Generals Refuse to fade Away !!!!!!

Gen MacArthur during his farewell address, part of which is given below, said: Old soldiers never die, they just fade away...

          “When I joined the Army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all of my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that ‘old soldiers never die, they just fade away.’ And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye.”

*         It's one of the greatest addresses by any general of any army. Sadly, in India more lt generals and generals lately after retirement are refusing to fade away and joining politics, as MP or MLA. Though it's their individual decision and but in the eyes of majority of soldiers and civilians, it's a big climbdown. After being the Chief of the Army Staff, one of the biggest armies in the world, the man donning a politician's garb is something that doesn't go down well with the men in uniform. 

*       The Army is the only secular organization left in the country and largely remains insulated from the social ills that affect people on the streets. A general joining one party or the other casts doubt over his ideological moorings when he was in the service. And it surely affects the morale of the troops on ground.

*       To safeguard the interests of the army it's imperative that general officers after retirement learn to fade away.

My Latest Painting.........

*        There's something about Von Gogh's paintings that fascinates an art lover in many different ways. Street in Auver-sur-oise by him is one such painting.

*         It's been a humbling experience for me to attempt to copy it. I guess I can't say more than that.