My book 'A Midsummer's Love Tale' has been published on WriterBabu and has scored well with readers.....While the prologue and some chapters are already out on my page, for the rest of the book you would have to download it at a nominal price.....in this season of Valentine this book would be the ideal choice....

'A Midsummer's Love Tale' is a rollicking love story which actually starts from the small town of Allahabad and finds its love in Nainital.....maybe I had to incorporate these towns as my knowledge of both these places is quite intimate....it goes and peaks in Delhi and finally climaxes in Bombay....I loved writing it and I sincerely hope you'll enjoy reading it....the book is now on Lulu too...and is going great guns having sold lot of copies

Here's a little sneak peek.....(see my diary too)

This is a teen fiction novel - a romance which falls in place in the tiny hill city of Nainital in Northern India.

Vikas is a budding law student and journo who gets to cover high flying assignments in his brief stint. On a vacation to Naini, he stumbles on to his lady love, a bohemian curly haired schoolgirl from Delhi, who plays the game but follows no rules, discovers his simmering passion for her, seals it with their first kiss, the whirlwind romance all starts happening for both of them, until.........

.................................................
(Some excerpts) ......from different parts of the book...but there's lots more which you'll have to 'uncover' yourself....
............................

We settled down on the grass behind a tree where we couldn't be seen by any one. She was extremely close to me and time was at a standstill. I could hear her excited and constricted breathing. She was indeed beautiful,exquisite and delicately carved.....

I slowly held her hand and started playing with her fingers. It was a different feel altogether. We discussed niceties while all this I was holding and pressing her hand. She was sitting just inches away from me. Who would make the first move; that would bell, read neck the cat?

Alina took this decision for me. Suddenly she shifted towards me and as a result was almost perched on my lap. I had no option now, but reach out to her and hold her tight. She was like a fresh flower ready to bloom, and I was so much madly in love with her. My breathing had quickened and I was feeling just a wee bit tizzy at her closeness.

She was so near to me and before I knew it, she slid in to my arms. Her hands automatically rose up to encircle me and I responded by drawing her into my embrace. She was searching out my lips....

I took her face in my hands and traced out her lips as I kissed her, clumsily at first but passionately as I found her drawing close to me. Her lips were soft against mine, like flower petals.

Her breath was fresh and sweet. I kissed her gingerly, just brushing her lips, but as passions increased, it turned into a full blown passionate lip lock........her lips crushed against mine, our eyes closed..........

.............................

The next day we had planned to go out shopping and then finish it off with a lunch date at the famed Maurya Hotel of Delhi. I wanted to buy her some things of my choice; she wanted some things that she liked.

We went to Janpath first, the ‘footpath’ market of Delhi, as she wanted to pick up small export ‘reject’ surplus stuff like trinkets, cotton tops, and scarves.

Alina was a great one for ethnic and aesthetically beautiful stuff and she didn't need anybody’s advice on what to like and also what and who to dislike. Not that she had many people on her ‘dislike’ list. In fact it was just the opposite. She was loved all across in her group and respected.

She picked up a pair of sweet looking trinkets and put them on her ears,

‘How do they look? Do you think I look pretty to you in this, or this, or maybe this one?' She asked me quite tantalizingly putting the other design on her ears too.

She looked more like a model displaying her wares at this point of time.

It was these coquettish habits of hers which I liked, and made me more drawn towards her.

It would also keep giving me hidden impulses to draw her close to me and hug her every now and then.

........................................................

We took one big horse and while she sat in front and I climbed in at the back, holding her around the waist as well as the reins of the horse for support.

The slow movements of the horse were exciting to say the least, and the feel of my lithesome girlfriend sitting in front was even more exciting. Wonder why I didn't try this earlier. I clasped her more tightly and she squealed in false indignation, ‘Ouch that hurts!’

‘Should I leave you then?’ I asked.

‘I didn't mean that did I. Just let me breathe freely.’

I kissed her ear lobes in response and that set off another squeal from her.

‘Vikas Mathur,if I fall you’ll be clueless regards your next move. Would have no option but to stay and give me company till the hospital discharges me,’she chided me.

‘Well I wouldn't mind staying on with you my love, but certainly not in a hospital,’ I bit her again playfully.

‘Don’t worry I’m holding on. Should I hold on more tightly or leave you now, come on fast?’ I was really on a roll and enjoying her skirmishes.

‘Okay you win, hold me tight’ she screamed as the horse on which we were seated started a small canter, perhaps sensing the excitement that was happening on top.

‘Vikas can you please stop this horse,’ she haltingly told me. I pulled at the reins and it responded immediately by stopping short in its tracks.

By that time the owner of the horse who was running behind, had also managed to catch up with us, and cautioning us not to make it run, started to lead us back to the beach house.

It was almost sunset time by the time we reached home. I helped Sohana get down from the horse, and found her only a trifle scared, but she wasn't showing it.

We sat down on the fence of the beach house facing the evening sun and simply watched the fiery golden globe go down. Hand in hand, this was the perfect moment to kiss her.

This time there was more of passion and feel. The setting was ideal, and the lights were just dim enough to add to the ambiance. ‘You know how precious you are for me?’ I whispered in her ear, as I kissed her all over, holding her in a tight embrace.

Her lips felt soft under mine and there was total surrender on her part. I had never felt the feeling of being ‘so much in love.’

It was a wave, a deluge, a feeling which engulfed me and I didn't wish to let go of this moment. We sat there like what seemed eternity before I asked her if we should spend the night at the beach house itself.

.......................................................

She always had the last word in any conversation with me, and before long we were intertwined with each other again.

In the middle of the night I got up with a start. I was thirsty and I thought I could do with a glass of water.

I quietly disengaged myself from Sohana’s arms and headed for the fridge to help myself with some water. It was beautiful to observe her lying on the bed, without a care in the world.

She looked pretty oblivious of the fact that somebody was gazing at her beauty in the dead of night, in the dim glow of the small lamp which we had left burning before drifting off to sleep.

Seeing her perfect figure like that, made me think of the activity we had indulged in just a few hours ago, and it brought a smile to my lips. This was sublime love, I felt.

You don’t need to know a person for ages to get to feel true love. A few satisfied hours are enough to come to that conclusion. I finished my glass of water and went and lay down beside her again.

She somehow sensed my closeness and without a thought just slid into my embrace. I clasped her tight and immediately put my lips on hers, as if to reassure her of my enormous love for her. This was indeed bliss.

.................................................................

Here’s a little reality check on Alina.

Her mother was a Muslim married in a Hindu family; it was love at first sight for both of them, and therefore an inter caste marriage.

However her mother surprisingly was against her daughter wanting to marry inter caste and preferred she marry a good Muslim. Alina had herself told me this.

But she was having none of that. Alina was a ‘rebel’ - with a cause, and was not letting anyone mess up her life, not even her own mother.

Apart from being a Modernite she was stubborn, headstrong, clear in her head and had a very strong sense of identity and individuality. You couldn't goad her into corners or make her compromise a situation she didn't want to get into.

No way, she was having none of that.

“Ma, please don’t interfere in my personal plans like love, marriage and career” she had told her mother in no uncertain terms.

“You have married according to your own choice; I would like to do exactly the same! Good bad or ugly!” Having declared her intention with an angry shake of her lovely head had stormed out of the room.
.................................................

So go ahead and access the book link to download it......looking forward to your comments - both criticism and acclaim.....

Sign In to know Author