Book review: Safe Haven By Nicholas Sparks

When my best friend gifted me this book on my birthday last year, like most of my peers, I was under the impression that it would be another one of Nicholas Sparks’ sappy romance novels. This was my first Sparks novel, so I was not in the mood for some mushy love story when I picked it up but guess what? It wasn’t.

First published in September 2010 by Grand Central Publishing in USA and by Sphere in Great Britain, Safe Haven is an epic love story with elements of suspense, mystery, thrill and drama, from #1 New York Times Bestselling author, Nicholas Sparks. Several of his books like The Notebook, A Walk To Remember, The Last Song, Dear John, Message In A Bottle, Nights In Rodanthe have been adapted into major films; The Lucky One is set to release on 20th April this year – which I’m definitely going to watch – and the movie Safe Haven is due to release in February 2013; I’m looking forward to both!

Sparks wrote this whopping 365-page novel in a little over 6 months and needless to say, he has done it wonderfully. After a really long time, I have come across such a beautiful page-turner. This novel has everything – love, drama, mystery, suspense, pain, suffering, an element of danger – simply an entertaining and enjoyable read.

The story begins with a new girl ‘Katie’ who shows up suddenly in the small town of Southport in North Carolina with no money for food or shelter hoping to start over. She takes up a waitressing job at Ivan’s and rents a small rundown cottage working hard on her off-days to make it habitable. She does her job well but pretty much keeps to herself until a very chatty neighbour ‘Jo’ moves in next door and she starts loosening up a little though she is still wary of sharing much about her past. Katie finds herself getting attached to the town and its quiet life as she unknowingly starts falling in love with ‘Alex’, the owner of the store Fisher’s, and his two lovely kids but there is a dark secret that prevents her from getting too comfortable in this close-knit homey community. As Alex and Katie spend time together falling just a little more in love each day, danger is creeping up slowly and steadily to wreak havoc in their lives.

Here’s an excerpt from this amazing novel:
Jo thought about Katie’s answer before leaning closer. "So you’re telling me that – assuming you had food, shelter and clothing and anything else you needed to simply survive – you’d rather be stranded on a desert island in the middle of nowhere, all alone, forever, for the rest of your life? Be honest."
Katie blinked, trying to keep Jo in focus. "Why would you think I wouldn’t be honest?"
"Because everybody lies. It’s part of living in society. Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s necessary. The last thing anyone wants is to live in a society where total honesty prevails. Can you imagine the conversations? You’re short and fat, one person might say, and the other might answer, I know. But you smell bad. It just wouldn’t work. So people lie by omission all the time. People will tell you most of the story…and I’ve learned that the part they neglect to tell you is often the most important part. People hide the truth because they’re afraid."
With Jo’s words, Katie felt a finger touch her heart. All at once, it seemed hard to breathe.
"Are you talking about me?" she finally croaked.
"I don’t know. Am I?"

Katie felt herself pale slightly…

Safe Haven is an intriguing and expertly plotted novel from one of the world’s most beloved storytellers of all time and very different from his previous novels. The preview of the novel reads ‘Love hurts. There is nothing as painful as heartbreak. But in order to learn to love again, you must learn to trust again.’ With this, I urge all you book-lovers out there to pick up this superb novel at your nearest store as this one’s definitely a keeper – you won’t be disappointed

by Tanvi Rastogi, BTech, 2nd Year

Remembrance and Retrieval

And in the remembrance of the fallen time,
the virtues of a new world,
As we begin to pen down
the segments of lost memories endless.
I fade away in my own darkest thoughts.
As i drift above the wind,
A nightingale of time,
A summery tide,
A watchful gliding trail.
As desires stay awake,
And wishes never rest,
I walk with a broken zest.
My moods have bled enough,
Pricked and provoked by the thorny tell-tale
that life has eventually become.
And shall i rise again,
I pledge not to shed another drop in pain,
And shall i rise again,
I shall only hope to rise up
So high that i never fall again.

Tarang Sharma
B Tech 1st Year

Community Connect

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle.
And the life of that candle would not be shortened.

It’s been months now since my first Community Connect visit to one of the two small village schools of Majara Kath and Pratap Singh Pura adopted by NU; but the deplorable conditions of the school and the dispirited education provided to the students there, still disconcerts me.

What came as a respite after seeing such reprehensible learning conditions provided to those few who did actually manage to come to school, was their never-failing, ever-increasing belief in the idea of gaining the most they could. Their sheer zeal to learn took me by surprise, impelling me to give them the best I could.

In the weekly visits to these schools, we had almost an hour long sessions with our mentees. Before my first session of Community Connect, I was deep in thought, wondering how best to utilise that one hour so that my mentee actually benefits from the session. After making sure my mentee was quite comfortable, I helped him with his maths, which he was relatively good at. Learning to communicate in English, which almost no student there is well versed with, is what Tejaram aimed at.

Tejaram, my first mentee, spoke to me of his hardships; him being the only male in the family and having to collect wood in the morning and collect water, being responsible for the marriage of his two sisters which required him to look for a job. He also expressed his major concern ofunavailability of electricity at night because of which he could not study after completion of the daily chores. But still, trying!

Some sessions were planned for the kids to come and visit the campus; look around the place and choose a sport each which they wish to learn. It helped them get a lot of exposure and probably a motivation for many to study hard and be able to join a similar establishment once they grow up.

Through my various interactions with my mentee’s, I realised that not only are the students there very bright minded and hard working, but they realise the importance of educating themselves and are working on it. Even if little, these sessions with the mentors have made a difference. It is certainly a good way to help and educate those in whose hands lies the future of our country.

P.S. There’s hope and we can make a difference.
Ishita Jindal, BTech 1st year

Music and Something

Every time I look in your eyes,
A strange feeling I always get,
Something definite in my head,
That I couldn't figure out yet.

There's something sweet in it,
Something that I'm shaken with,
And in my head it plays like music,
But that's just the half of it.

But at least I know about one half,
Or I must say I have a clue,
But the latter half of what you are,
Is the interesting part of you.

Mystery word defines it well,
'Cause what it is I still don't know,
It never goes the way it should,
The more I learn the lesser I know.

But I guess that was the catch, isn't it?
Now I'm lost in this feeling of doubt,
But when being lost feels so good,
Who wishes to find the way out?

By Ujjwal Syal BTech 1st Year

The Lie You can Defy

Love is the hatred wrapped in a lie

Life is the death which you cant defy


Love is the faith you cant believe

Life is the soul gone for a leave


Love is the innocence that gets bled

Life is the redolence of the flowers dead


Love is the fall that you cant control

Life is the bargain you do for your soul

By Yash Singh

Importance of MBA

It would not be an exaggeration to say that crux of life's learning can be effectively summed-up and implemented while someone is running a business. Hence to be able to successfully run a business would automatically entail having a good grasp of broad concepts like Finance, Marketing, Operations and Human Resource. Expertise in the fields of Arts and Science would only give a competitive edge to it. Hence, doing a Masters in Business Administration, in a true sense, is all about having an understanding on the key aspects that makes life a success.

This was what, I thought, should be the noble reason to pursue an MBA and when I just started my journey down the MBA path, I was thrilled when I learned to play with balance sheets, evaluate business models and understand intriguing marketing concepts. I knew that soon I would be abreast of the latest and the most advanced applied concepts in the field of Business. And that journals, research papers and business magazines would be more meaningful and useful to me. But three months since enrolling myself into it, my horizon of thinking broadened and I got delightfully surprised that these factors would make-up for just the 'Business' part of an M.B.A.

I came to a realization that it is the 'Management' part of an M.B.A. that would become the ultimate test in having imbibed the "crux of life's learning". As soon as the session began, I became part of numerous groups that were formed for the numerous projects, assignments and case studies that were required to be submitted throughout the term. And I believe that moment marked the actual beginning of my MBA. From here on started the struggle to be at the forefront of mastering the concepts and at the same time to be able to convince your teammates to follow a certain approach while working for a project submission deadline.

Sanest projects to work for are the ones having multiple submissions with deadline timings of something like 12 midnight whereas one of the craziest papers have only single submission per term and deadlines like 7 or 8 in the morning. The former ensures that the group sleeps by 1 am and in the latter ones, having a lot at stake, ensures that the group agrees to disagree on everything till 4 am. It is when the sheer exhaustion sets in, that the group comes to a forced consensus and manages to wrap it up just before the breakfast is served in the mess. Of course, the diversity of the batch too plays its part here. One may have to consider the issue from the perspective of someone coming from tourism sector to armed forces, from construction industry to pharma R&D sector, from financial sector to IT sector. Out of this joyous feeling of achievement, of having contemplated on the plethora of concepts just learned and having made a successful deliverable, teammates discuss the possibility of asking their lecturers to include more such submissions from next time on. This realization, of the worth of case discussions and having learned group dynamics, sets in immediately. It is much later that they realize the full impact of this exercise.

Initially when nobody knows each other and the groups are formed randomly, one's focus is towards maximization of their learning and contribution and finally working for a best possible submission. Over a period of time, some groups and some of its key members are recognized as outperformers. They garner short run benefits when, people vie to get them in their group in the next round of group formation. In the long run, they wield a disproportionate influence over the entire batch as alumni and also have strong ties with senior and junior batches as well. In the world of professional and social networking and instant connectivity, this is a major factor in determining the latitude of one's career. To sum up, while doing MBA, 'Management' skills like leadership, planning and time management, interpersonal communication, writing and presentation skills gets automatically sharpened while we learn for 'Business' skills (like marketing, finance, operations, human resource etc.). It is due to this unique blend of learning (both the method and content) which makes MBA different from the league of other courses. Industry and Business world over know this and a major chunk of any organization's management brass are MBAs. An MBA degree involves a lot of rigor (has 700+ contact hrs on an average and each hour requires 3 hrs of solid groundwork) and through various tools (projects, case studies, research, assignments, presentations etc) aims to build on the foundations of work experience (though fresh graduates are also fairly common) and culminating in imparting one with the necessary abilities to make a mark in real-lifebusiness scenarios.

Prateek Khosla, MBA Finance & Banking

LOOKING UP AT THE SKY

Looking up at the sky ,
I wonder how it feels to be up there ..that high,

Sky is limit ,that's what they say,
How ironically in same statement these two words lay,
How ever giving and loving..the vastness open to you ,
How it makes problems look small, letting them all subdued.
It’s a beautiful canvas..a masterpiece of plentifullness,
Million shades dancing along to celebrate the moment with all joyfulness,
A single event changes the whole story ,
Its amazing how every colour formation has a history,
Whether its day or its night,
It still is open ,its still wide..

So paint your canvas..
with all colours let the moment be with you let it caress
For clouds may come they may go.
Its how much you stop how much you let go.

So when in problem
Close your eyes and open them to sky ,
You may see a bird flying or giving it try,
How wide and beautiful he lies ready to give you all love and strength to sail on.
Its matter of choice ,
Whether you choose to stay sad or rejoice
Then sky is not the 'limit'...it’s where the story starts
Opportunities shall find you.. not one but in overflowing carts.


Kamakshi Abbi, B.Tech IInd Yr