Sid-O-Scope

Cover Image: Eternal Love by Deepika Kabe Two teens were pitched against the greatest killers in the kingdom. The rigged match was however won by them. One of them grew up to become God, another founded the principles of Yoga.  “Hurry up, Jaimini,” said the poor old farmer as he stepped out of the house. He tried to shut the door of his small hut but the handle was broken, “We should have got this handle fixed.” “Forget about it now,” Jaimini, his wife, said, “The handle is not the only thing broken in this house. The roof is leaking, we have food supplies only for a couple of more days. But what is it to you? You spend whatever you earn on booking tickets for those wrestling matches or drinking alcohol.” “Stop with your complains already,” he said, “Today the match is free for all. It is not always that the king invites the entire village to watch the match of Canura and Mustika.” “Aren’t those the two topmost wrestlers in entire Mathura?” asked Jaimini, remembering ...

If you have never met the Runner, you probably are one of those people who live a fulfilling life. Have kids, play it safely till retirement and then wait for death. Not runner, nope. He has met Death, twice by some account, messed with God's, raced from stone age to the future and is running forever since the beginning of time. Runner is the messenger for those who did not want their messages to be read by Government, Gods and Ghouls. Extremely resourceful with the knack of escaping the law, bullets and even death, twice so far. All his adventures begin and end with one conclusion. He is mysterious. This adventure began when the hooded figure arrived at Runners lunch table few days ago. “You are here,” said the hood looking at the Kheema Pav, Runner was gobbling. “What the f***,” Runner spat the morsel he was eating looking at the hood, “You again? I told you I am not available.” “You come with good credentials,” the hood said, “My brother Death speaks highly of you.”...

1. Have I read anything you've written?  Lets start with the obvious, unless you have good taste in literature I would probably say no. But then if you have you not read anything at all, I don't think you have. Stop wasting my time and pick up my book.  2. How much money do you make?  That's plain rude. It is one thing to ask a CEO how much money he makes and completely different for a writer. Remember writing is a job like others. 3. Where do you get your ideas?  I have a magical crystal ball that churns out ideas every-time I want. See this is kind of stupidity is why we writers write. There is no extra organs in my body that churn out ideas nor do I have a shrine dedicated to getting ideas. So where do I get my ideas from? I take that as a compliment, stop staring. 4. Will you write my great story idea or  If you help me write my life story, I'll split the income with you after we sell the book?  Unless you are Shahrukh Khan, the chances ...

The final chapter in this journey is upon us. The ultimate conclusion for the ultimate plot for the ultimate power. The sixteen hour concludes from Team Supernova. You can read the previous chapter here  or you can go to the begining on our facebook page and read in sequence . " He just has to make things harder for me ," Jennifer said as she struggled to open the door that Sasha had bolted. She got inside the cabin closing the door behind her, " Damn it. One spoilt apple can ruin the entire apple pie." " All along Sasha was planning the biggest coup of his life, dethrone me. My grandfather established the Xombie empire by using his military connections. My father expanded it to smuggling but when I took over they raised questions. How can a woman lead a criminal empire? I had a singular focus since my Engineering days, I knew I was good at one thing. Computers, the modern equal of oil and gold. Information passing along at trem...

Team Supernova at it again. We are a bunch of bloggers who have decided to write this massive story called The 16th Hour . You can read the previous chapter here . Or go to our brand new Facebook page to read all the chapters. The first light of dawn shone brightly in the distance. The sun was not up yet but it was promising to see the speck of bright light shine. Shekhar glanced at the rising Sun and realize the time was coming to an end. Soon the sun will rise and brightly bringing their safety to a standstill. Shekhar realized that in a few minutes he had to decide if he was going to go down or take the fight back to the hijackers. He knew he could trust no one for what he carried was more important for safety of his country, his family and future of all children in the country. There was only one thing to do. Cyrus was glancing at the end of the door for some time now; there were two guards at each end of the compartment. Even if they snuck past them where would they g...

There is a discussion on the role of Ravan and Duryodhana and their role in the giant epic of Ramayana and Mahabharata. I have also adopted the pen name as 'The Ravan' and naturally people assume I am part of the group that believes Ravan was wrongly defeated. A common argument on Ravan goes, 'Ravan was the best king of the region and Ram attacked him over his wife,' or another one, 'Duryodhana was denied what he deserved, he was tricked into defeat by Krishna'. If you are one of the people described thus, this is a post for you. Well there is no nice way of saying this but, ' What have you been smoking? ' while it is completely understandable for younger generation to question their roots, the best option to clear any doubts you have is to read. There are countless books written on this topic and only when you read a couple of them you come to the true meaning of the books. The thing about Hinduism is that it has got many layers and once you start...

Cross posting from my other blog Halleluah!!!! Three years of writing effort, 80,000 words. First edit, 79,000 words (Doesn't seem a lot but trust me it is) Second edit, 67,000 words (Phew and getting rid of one of a nice piece which had dinosour in it. **Sulk**) And finally typing the two words that would perhaps make sense of it all. -- The End -- But then if only things were as simple in that crazy brain of mine, no they were not. So here is what I ended writing THE WORLD WAS NORMAL OR AS NORMAL AS IT POSSIBLY COULD BE. THIS WOULD BE THE TIME TO QUOTE A ‘THE END’ ON A BOOK BUT THEN IS IT? FOR WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT DON’T WE?   TIME, AS THEY SAY, IS A FUNNY THING. IT WANTS US TO BELIEVE IT MOVES FORWARD BUT SNEAKILY MOVES IN ALL DIRECTIONS.   F INALLY, IT WAS NEVER ABOUT THE ENDING, IT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT THE JOURNEY. Is the end, perhaps not. But a three year effort is laudable. During these three years I.. Got married Moved city twice Went into ...

Did a Tweetathon on #MahabharatPersonalityTypes, these are people who live in todays world but act and behave like Mahabharata characters. What more personlity types do you want to see? Mention in comments below. [ View the story "Mahabharat Personality Types" on Storify ]

This is the 16th part of a story written by Team Supernova. I hate people who walk into a movie hall during climax, this is not where this story begins. Go read the previous chapter here . If you have missed a lot, go back all the way to starting following the links on the blog. Chapter 16th: Capital Crime Tara had acted swiftly after she had subdued the guards. Both of them were tied safely with the curtain ropes in their bathroom. She had secured Roohi room and dismantles the guards gun. Why was Sarkar in Lonavala? She wondered, this safe house was her and her alone, but now Sarkar knew this place. It would not be very safe to stay here for a long time. She decided to pack and make a run for it. But if Shekhar escapes them he will make way to this safe house and walk into the trap as she did. Time was of essense and she decided to leave Shekhar a coded message about her whereabouts and a little surprise for her captives when they return. And indeed in few minutes she sa...

This won't make any sense until you go read the previous chapter here . It still won't make sense there, follow the link back to the first post by team Supernova and read it from there. The most obvious question that was missing in this otherwise ridiculous day was asked by the most ignored person so far. Move over hijacking, move over helicopters, move over everything else but the most important question that remained hanging in the air was, Should she finish her homework for tomorrow or should she watch doremon? Roohi was trying to decide what would be suitable. Today couldn't get any funnier could it? First that uncle came to pick her up in school. She knew him didn't she? Yes she did, she had seen him before, Ravi Uncle had come to their house in Lonavala, didn't he? He even called her by name. Why did watchmen uncle had to stop that uncle, Roohi didn't understand at all. Ravi uncle was going to give her ice cream. Helicopter ride was really fun,...

When I first stepped into London, I was a bit anxious. After being misinformed about almost everything about London and then Googling for ending hours here I was on in the heart of British Empire. Here are few things that are absurdly confusing (OK not absurd, maybe a cultural shock or maybe just absurd) in London. 1. They greet you with 'You Ok', 'Everything alright'. The people in London don't greet you 'Hello' or 'Hi', they say, 'You ok', or 'Everything alright'. Now that is fine in normal London sense of way but the moment someone asks me that, I am like, 'Stop face reading.' 'No everything is not alright, starting with this form of greeting.' 2. Chips are Fries and Crisps are Chips New Mucchad mascot for the blog. No that's true, you ask for Chips and they give you fries. Even in Mc. Donald's were universal code (OK maybe not universal) for Burger is, 'You want to make it a meal with frie...

A while back I moved to London. The transition was smooth, I packed a box of seven clean underwears, a packet of bakarwadi (it's a pune thing), few clothes and was on my way to the land of Queen (real one). It was a new experience altogether. First thing that stuck me was how many people had wrong advise about traveling to London from India. As goes the unspoken law of char log kya kahenge, my journey to London spread across the community of people I knew (and didn't know) and they had to meet me to talk to me. How do these people even communicate? Do they have some whatsapp group that we don't know about? Or do they like have weekly conference call to get status update from each other. "Oh my son just got a job with Xx salary, what about you, report." Anyways these people kept popping everywhere with advise in abundance. "Oh be careful about immigration officers at Heathrow airport. They provoke you," said one wise fellow, "They have a right ...