ARC Reader Review: Outback Bacelor Ball Series - Powerful, Passionate and Poignant!

Penning down a book – even a novella – as a part of a multi-author series is quite an accomplishment to master. Though in all my experience as a reader of multi-author novels there has never been a time when the personalities of the overlapping characters have changed in between – to the authors’ absolute credit – such perfect segueing of the plot-lines as seen in the multi-author series of the Outback Bachelor Ball series has also been rare for me.

 Joan Kilby’s Win Me; Karina Bliss’ Woo Me and Sarah Mayberry’s Wait for Me deals with the life of three best friends – Ellie McFarlane, Jen Tremaine and Beth Walker respectively, each of whom who have been left disappointed in the romance department. Best friends since school days, they are not only each other’s rocks, but each is also no-nonsense in her ability to call out the other two in case the scenario necessitates it. And though they are separated by distance, their friendship is rock-solid as ever – thanks to modern-day communicational technologies.

Individualistic as the author who created them, each of these female protagonists has a different take on life and what they want of it. Ellie’s love is steady and unabated by distance or time, while Jen’s previous experiences have made her out to be cynical (though I term it to be realistic) yet warily optimistic at the same time. And then there’s Beth, who’s struggling to cope with the fall-out of her celebrity-status-by-association, and trying to come out of it anew.

The three friends catch up with each other, and dare each other to do the one thing each has been shying away from at the Outback Bachelor and Spinster Ball. The event provides the perfect backdrop for start of good things for the three school-friends, with the troika least expecting it.

It’s then with little bit of cautiousness peppered with some amount of daredevilry that Ellie, Jen and Beth – along with Clarabelle, who has a major role in fixing up Jen’s cynicism-infused take on life’s realism – take up on the headiness that life has had to offer them at the Ball.

The winding-down, amidst the settling down of the dust of the Ball's revelry however isn’t as comfortable as each would have hoped for, with the past hurts seeming to ricocheting all over again. But it’s in the face of these demoralising eventualities that the distinctive assertiveness of Ellie, Jen and Beth comes out making the reader fall in love with them all over again. 

 

A Cricket Fan's View of the 'Deflategate' Melodrama

As someone who’s been, for most parts of her life, away from the realm of American football, the past few months have been a rich learning experience. First, I learnt the game – in fact, am still learning the subtleties and nuances; and now, I have had the chance to follow the developments on a controversy that had gripped not just the sport’s fans in the US, but also across the world. 

In all honesty, I have to admit the ‘Deflategate’ incident, as it had started to be called, left me amused and bemused in equal parts. Amused because I have a background of watching a sport – cricket – where players have been known to use special kind of chewing gum to affect the ball so as to impact the play in their team’s favour. And bemused because I really didn’t understand what the fuss actually was about. 

It was said that New England Patriots deflated the balls used in their game against Indianapolis Colts, but the team was primarily cleared – with Tom Brady’s claims that he had had no idea about the balls being deflated – and allowed to contest the Super Bowl. To top it off, in the Super Bowl, Brady ended up putting one of the most brilliant performances of his lengthily productive career that saw him being lauded and fêted in most parts, across the length and breadth of the country. Brady and Co.’s efforts not only saw them take the team through to victory in the dying seconds over Seattle Seahawks, but Brady was also awarded with the MVP to acknowledge his contribution in that game.

Now, close to four months that the Super Bowl was played and NEP won it, is where facts blur with expectations for me. In the past one week, there seems to have been a sudden conflagration in the ‘Deflategate’ story with such sharp revelations and turnabouts that they look partly surreal as they are agitating. 

As it’s pouring out about Brady’s first-hand knowledge about deflated balls being used in the game, he’s become a pariah. I don’t understand why, as I don’t understand why the hullaballoo about the mire that’s come to be unearthed? Brady’s been given a four match ban in the new season – a season that’s yet to start – even as there calls about him being a player who’s accustomed to serially bending the rules and getting away with it. 

All of this look quite hypocritical. 

To me, what he chose to do – I don’t want to get into the specifics of why he chose to do such a thing – is a decision that’s already been taken. Nothing, not even a four match ban can bring about restitution to this antecedent. If he indeed has a past of coasting the line of expected sportsmanship; why such ballyhoo now, as if his behaviour was extremely surprising? 

Also, if Brady’s committed one act against the realms of all that’s sacred in NFL, it’s not as if he’s the only man who’s done such an underhanded deed. The sport’s dotted with players in the past, who have set worse examples of gamesmanship as there are bound to be players in the future, who wouldn’t hesitate to bend the line as they see fit to suit the needs of the team, over everything else.

Condemning Brady isn’t exactly the answer to what the NFL management, at its heart, left open to exploitation in the first place.

This isn’t to say that I believe Brady wasn’t wrong. Rather, I would term it as being ‘not right.’ Not because he was a known party to the balls being tampered, but rather because he chose to hide his involvement instead of accepting it. 

The staunch cricketer follower that I am, having experienced and heard about many-a sly tactics used by cricketers, I believe that Brady should have accepted his role in the ‘Deflategate’ saga, before it mushroomed to such proportions. To correlate from the cricketing world, there have been examples of captains and leading players opting for manoeuvres best suited for the team, but which were equally detrimental to the other side. When the backlashes followed, none of these players tried to shy away from their role in effectuating such strategy. And much as it made them villains, they are still considered to be legends in the sport’s history, going down in its pages for the same reasons that cast them out of the mould of the ‘gentlemanly cricketer.’

In his lack of acceptance firsthand, Brady looked to be lacking something vital. Often times it’s not just about taking a decision, it’s also about how one presents oneself in its aftermath. Unfortunately for Brady, he’s come out to be less-than appeasing in this inferno when he could have well been the grey-shaded hero in the whole showdown to further add to his existing fandom.

Choices, their exercising and their limitations

Every decision in life involves making choices. If one were a woman, making choices to take decisions not only become important, but also become a catalyst for reflection. 

There are a lot of boundaries that are involved, with the differentiating line between right and wrong getting thinner when it comes to women and their presence in our society. But there are some aspects that are common – right as well as wrong – between choices that women and men take, or need to take. 

As necessary and relevant as it is to be a women’s rightist in a patriarchal society, it’s also equally relevant to not substitute feminism with misandry. To quote a cliché, the world is two halves composed of yin and yang, unimaginable as an entity in the absence of one or the other. As such, while it’s perfectly justified to clamour for equality for women, it doesn’t have to be that equality for women is substituted for pulling men down. Society doesn’t need such glaringly ironic contradictions. 

In continuance with this facet, it also needs to be reminded that cheating, whether a man cheats on a woman or whether a woman cheats on a man is wrong; any which way one looks at it, or prefers to look at it. It’s not a display of modern thought process or stepping away from expected practices, but a sheer disrespect of one party towards the other, not to mention an abject abusing of trust. 

The existing state-of-affairs is such that a man’s treated as scum when his wandering eye becomes obvious. If truly there has to be empowerment, there has to be acceptance of a man’s choice to have a physical relationship outside marriage instead of coming at him with all guns blazing. 

Likewise, with regard to man engaging in a physical relationship before marriage, feminism also means extending a simple courtesy of not gagging the man in question and holding him to marriage or worse yet, labelling him as a sexual offender. For, having a physical relationship before marriage was his choice as much as it a woman’s to accept it at that time and enter into it, with her eyes wide open. And unequivocally, the same rationale applies – and needs to apply – to women as well.

But having said so, in utmost truth, a deprecatory attitude towards women vis-à-vis men is largely prevalent in any society – be it progressive or traditional. And as regards empowerment is concerned, the trait isn’t about choosing to cheat or adopting an attitude of superiority over any relationship practice, distinguishing men and women. But is rather about taking a decisive stance against the person who chooses to cheat in case of the former, and not judging the ones who choose to lead their personal lives in a particular way in case of the latter.

Online Shopping: Enriching the Shopping Experience

Ever since I got to know about Flipkart.com, about six years ago, I have been shopping with them for most parts. Previously, it used to be for books, given the site’s initial focus towards the domain. However, in the past two years, I have come to rely on the e-commerce portal as a one-stop destination for every shopping aspect needing to be covered. From MP3 players to tablets, I have used Flipkart.com and have never once been left disappointed. 

In comparison with my awareness about Flipkart’s presence, the existence of 27coupons.com has been far newer, though no less significant. It did take me sometime to understand how the system worked but once I got the hang of it, utilising it came to be quite seamless. Needless to say, it was also natural to pass the information along to friends and family. 

When it comes to carrying out shopping activities through online portals, more than convenience it’s the element of doubt that shrouds every transaction. Irrespective of whether websites offer cash-on-delivery, Flipkart was amongst the earliest to have both cheque and cash-on-delivery as payment options, people still worry about the various aspects that can go wrong than consider about the equally varied facets that can turn out to be perfect. 

Even with the incentive of getting quality goods at reduced prices – economics as a subject in college always comes in handy in this regard – there are many, who fear to explore the realm of e-commerce. Additionally, there are some who tend to cross the boundary of over-cautiousness advocating near-and-dear ones as well to not try the possibility of e-shopping over conventional shopping paradigm. 

This is why making use of sites like 27coupons alongside using recognised e-commerce web portals like Flipkart is worthwhile. For, they not only help minimise the worry that many potential customers tend to have about them incurring more than financial losses, but also help pass the message across that e-commerce and e-shopping is the right way to go forward in a developing economy like ours. 

The coupons and offers provided aren’t tactics to hoodwink any customer – existing and/or potential – but are bona fide and straightforward means to secure the relationship ties between the ‘business enterprise’ and the ‘shopper’ more strongly. In that 27coupons can be regarded as a bridge of sorts, enabling both parties to mutually benefit, in a better manner. The transparency of the potential transaction is made clear right at the outset, leaving no customer in any doubt about any dealing standing to take a turn for the worst. 

Beyond words and explanations however, there’s the definitiveness of actions taken going by the phrase of ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’ Trying out e-commerce websites for the first time, and exploring the various developments that come off it – including bonuses offered by 27coupons – is an element of shopping that everyone needs to experience for oneself. There aren’t enough words to describe the feeling of empowerment that comes with it and the satisfaction gained when all shopping is completed with just one-click.