Oh What A Falling There Was!

I can't believe it's all over. All the planning, all that stress, all my frantic attempts at reassuring Weed that all would go well...but twas all so completely worth it!

The Event was marvellous! From our waltzing into Pizza Hut wearing robes, to the Router and I sitting on tnt steps acting drunk at 5:45 am, to us leaping up and down outside $%(^$^#$(&#$ showing off our fresh, new copies of HP before theirs had come...twas a night of madness!

The venue looked great thanks to Ninad's brilliance and Weed's lovely lovely posters. The participants were bubbling with enthusiasm...the Router and Shri-Can't had us rolling all over in Elocution and JAM. You guys were really really great!
I was totally impressed by how well-informed the kids were! The Group Discussion would probably never have ended had we not stopped it. Our Petites team tnt-ians were adorable in Gryffindor robes and enjoyed themselves thoroughly, despite having but the barest idea of HP World.
The Quiz went off wonderfully.(yes Nahar, I know I've told you that about twenty times, but so what!) Again, the participants were impressive. Tis amazing how deep theý have entered into Potter World. The Router reprised his role as Quizmaster, with the result that most women over twenty-five( and a few below 25 who kept quiet!) were raving over him before the first round of questions was over! Twas a clear, well-organized, totally committed effort. Pat on the back to you :)
Once the Event was over, we started pushing Boss to get to the distributors already! Finally managed to get her going and we all went back to tnt to open the Store and set up for a long day. Sat about in various stages of drowsiness, till at 6:15, the Qualis drew up...and we all jumped up and started screaming and shoving each other about trying to get to the boxes in the back.
Tape was hacked at, flaps wrenched open...and suddenly....it was the Moment!
Black-and-red, about 600 pages, hardbound, glowing with newness and holding a million secrets!
More impatience ensued. We grabbed a copy each, gazed, hugged, kissed the cover and got ourselves billed.
THEN...sleeplessness and euphoria having mingled and risen to dangerous levels, we jumped into the Qualis, ULM at the wheel and drove to that-bookshop-which shall-never-be-named-on-this-blog.
It was barely open, people wating outside for their HP's. We got off, jumped up and down outside showing off our new books...much to the chagrin of the poor watchman who ran towards us, then halted confusedly, not sure if he wanted to take on this bunch of wild-eyed hooligans! Damage done, we came back to tnt.
Many thanks to ULM for being the Greatest Sport ever!


....and so we transformed one room in a nearby club into a new world and made magic and madness such as Rowling herself would've been proud of.
I love the book. To quote the Router, 'I loved it before it had even released!'
But the build-up was just as amazing.
And this kind of crazed love and enthusiasm is what keeps tnt going...
Thank you, all the witches and wizards, the pixies and elves...all with your own unique magic, your love for tnt and Harry Potter, for creating this night.

Welcome Poorva and Rupa ! Join the gang !

And you what ? Rupa's daughter is Harini !

I have been talking about twistntales a lot in the past one week. First, to the press, then to a few freinds... now past couple of days to couple of new employees... It is leaving me emotionally drained.

I realise that i have given my all in the making of this place and folks who love it - tell me time and again that they are glad we created it ... but we need to get so many things in place.... so much work and so little time to do it.

We have so far got a few things right ... branding, positioning, our books, and our people - both in terms of customers and employees. But we have lots to do..

We do not yet have a billing and inventory solution. Our software on that has to be up and running quickly. Our website has to be up and smooth. Identifying suitable vendors who will sync with us in our thinking and work to our obsessive standards of perfection is a trying task.

Our sourcing needs to get better. We need to stock better ... more variety ... in subjects displayed and sold. Space is becoming a constraint.

Can we withstand more competition ? We seem to have created a niche for ourselves, but we have to sharpen up to face the future. A couple of quick innovative events can catch imagination ... and we have newer and newer walk-ins. We need to capitalise on that. Constantly on our toes, we need to get supply chain better oiled and sourcing more systematic, rather than sporadic.

With availability of office space in a couple of months time, and Rupa joining us to help with shoper and website, are we seeing light ? If operationally, one can free up time, sourcing can start getting refined.

Thanks tia for putting up the teamwork blog in time. Absolutely super ! i am extremely proud of each one of you, who have worked your days and nights in getting this up and running. I think in the end we put up a fantastic show, probably unmatched anywhere else in the world, both in concept and execution. We are way way above doing events with tattoo artists and providing free merchandise!

I think what we have given to the true Harry Potter fan is priceless. Thanks Akshay and Harikrishna and of course kaushik, tejas, rohin, jay, pallavi, shravani, yash ... not to miss, shilpa...Yes thanks for your very active participation and helping us make this mad event an absolute super duper success.

Yesterday, being monday, in my comteplative mood, i messaged everybody on how proud i was, of all of them. Aakash being aakash, called back, "hey u r ok, na ? Not depressed or something ?" !!!!

And i need to specially mention Jahnavi and Aditya. Thankyou jahnavi for pulling that extra energy this month and helping us do this and making it happen both operationally and creatively.

Aditya, you handled the quiz like a stalwart ... this time you have designed, executed the quiz completely independently and all watching eyes/ears were impressed. And you revealed true calling in JAM and extempore with RJ shrikant, making it completely entertaining for all. I have not in recent times laughed as much as i did that night at Anandban.

Yes Shibs u r right. Tnt is being loved and nurtured and it is in good hands !

Remembering 22nd July 2007

Dear Shama.
Hope your birthday was amazing! Stay cool and chalu, always :)
Love from all of us at tnt.

Going back....

I went back. To tnt, its books and its pretty pixies, to J and her home. I was revisiting many special memories. I hoped and hoped and hoped that they will be just as wonderful as they were when I packed them into soft cotton and stored them away in a warm, cozy corner in my head when I left a little over two years ago.

It can’t be easy to keep a fireplace warm all the time. Sometimes cold winds blow, sometimes promises of firewood aren’t kept, sometimes other hearths beckon. But, not here, no. tnt is the little wonder that it always was. J’s energy, darling N & S’s love and support, the pixies’ enthusiasm, the people who the books choose – all nurture and love tnt beyond belief.

I loved being back. And, like always, didn’t want to leave. tnt is always going to be just as perfect. Thank you, tnt.

We've done it again!

Congratulations tnt-ians! We had an amazing show! May our crazy enthusiasm never wane...

Ninad's vision

Quidditch anyone??









The Firebolt at tnt!







I haven't officially met Ninad, but I see him at tnt every day I'm there. His dedication...and its results are overwhelming!
How does he do it???

Nice. thankyou Nandini.

Its cute and touching.

This Harry Potter enthu and energy. Ninad just appeared out of the blue on Sun as we were closing. A student of aircraft maintenance engg., Ninad is a good craftsman. He has created the "Firebolt" complete with welded parts and maroon and gold paint
on the famous broomstick. And has created a Quidditch pitch.

The Firebolt is on display in tnt. Sumitra and me went shopping in Aundh gaon for material to stitch costumes for the event. Top secret. Names registering for quiz going up .. as many adults as kids ! waiting to see how its all shaping up. Mrs. Uma Sarathchandran wrote to entire team tnt praising efforts and enthu. Nice nice feel. Nandita, Manu, Kallappa came... and vernen called ... all offering help !

Come one, come all

twistntales presents...


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!
Join us in an all-night vigil as we count down to the most eagerly awaited HP book yet.
Quiz, debate, trivia and more. Book the 7th book with us and join in the fun!
Call us at the Store for details.

twistntales
Gaikwad Nagar
Ph:25881465/25899745

Selfishness: Part II

When I read you
I will cringe if you lie
I will impound you, if I could.
But, mostly, I will be sad
For you are the wrong page
And you picked me
To read words
I do not believe.

Selfishness: Part I

I can’t tell the entire truth.
Did you know that?

To write a sentence
is to live a precious moment
In a life filled
with words that I know.
With a full stop that brings up walls
with a question mark that contemplates bringing them down
With a comma that keeps me undecided
with quotation marks that make somebody else’s choices
Yet, complete, pure, sacrosanct.

That’s why I write verse.
Because I can tell half-truths.

Anushree's gone :(

Shama's joined :)

Harry Potter draws closer :) :) :) :)

Am glad for my kids !

Thankyou Jahnavi, Anushree and Aditya. And Neena and Reshma.

You guys get so much more life and energy and love into tnt. thanks so much fr your caring. when i look back at each one of them whom i have worked with, in the past 5 years, i realise that though a few came to do a job, most of the others have loved being here.

As i train, put them through their paces, scold, shout, be horrid to them at times, i have genuinely loved each one of them. They have all had their quirks - right from akash to neena to shrikant, but all of them have again and again put tnt over personal priorities. They all gave. I have had a long chat with Ravi and also with Nirmala. I'm finding a remarkable change of attitude in both. After a few years, i feel i have a team going. Initially, i think the stress of making the whole thing work was too much for me. But today, i spent a longish day at work. and i enjoyed it.

Jahnavi has created her own folder preparing for the HP event. And she has color coded it. And Anushree thoughtfully bought color post-its for her. very cute ! I love you guys !

Garden Bookstore ?

Would it work ?

Often i think, what if i move the bookstore into a garden flat... books are inside lets say couple of rooms, and it opens into a courtyard, garden ... with a jhoola, hammock ... easy chairs...

it will require more maintenance and will have its own perils in terms of wet feet etc.... but it will be nice. Will it attract customers, even if combined with just coffee.... it shouldn't becom a Mocha... more folks to do tp than to read. This will dissuade the real reader. Also, the casual walk-in will never know the place ... it wont be spotted, like it is currently, even though its on a sidestreet.

As a second outlet, maybe worth a try ... but managing 2 outlets.... oh! i will give up very easily.

I found this here

Thank you Regina.



She Talks With Books

I am the owner of a little bookshop- shop, not store... where each book is lovingly placed precisely on the shelf of its choosing that it whispered to me during a late night sojourn, thus forcing the prospective book buyer to become one with their bookmate in order to find its exact location in this strange little bookshop that seems to shine from the inside out and where the books talk to each other and invite each other over for tea and crumpets...

Upon finding said bookmate, the eccentric owner of said bookshop- me, dressed in flowers and ribbons, begins to tell them of all the wonders this book has to share and why one can never really own a book- why, it's the other way 'round, you see... and how one must treat their new companion as if one were holding the world in the palm of their hands, which, of course, they are, as this secret bookmate of yours will take you on one long, beautiful trip inside yourself...

I know, I get those kinds of looks all the time, those looks that say, "Is she crazy or am I for walking into this place?" but being eccentric as I have been for lo, these many years, one gets used to being looked at strangely... perhaps that is why I became the owner of a bookshop, where the books merely long to be looked at and I swiftly re-direct their gaze from me to the book they hold and say, "Can you not see all that there is to offer you here in these pages?" and they look and soon become one again with the fantastical smudges on paper called words and I leave them to it...

They walk out soon after, relishing their bookmate, nestled safely amongst the beat of the heart, and as they leave, they wonder if the place where they spent what seems like a lifetime really existed but yes, it must have because here is the book that called to them and they listened and they swore to secretly return to the little eccentric bookshop and the eccentric bookshop's owner that somehow, in the same light, both truly dazzled and warmed the space in between the longing and the wanting...

As for me, I return among the whisperings and secret meetings of historical biographies and romantic fiction and perilous mysteries and sweet poetry and they all quiet themselves as they think, "Here comes the eccentric one again who thinks that because she owns a bookshop that she owns the books as well...", but I hear them and I think...

"I'm not that eccentric..."

Remembering(too late!) June 13th 2007

The tnt Memory went...











Without the 'light' it may always have remained so!!!

Happy Birthday Jyoti, and please feel free to rap us on the head.

Is, will be, has been

The freshly starched cotton sari
says, “you must rush, prove, marry, care, conform”.
The carelessly slipping ikkat dupatta
says, “I will climb mountains, read, dream, defy”.
The crinkly soft chungdi sari
says, “my dear, you must eat, drive carefully, watch”.

Will you wear platinum or rubies?
No, silver or terracotta.
Gold or diamonds?
Will you eat a roti or a sandwich?
No, pasta or falafel.
Rice or curry?
Will you buy a laptop or a mutual fund?
No, a vacation or shoes.
Silks or bangles?

It’s a wonder how,
while living in strikingly different worlds,
under the same roof,
three generations of women,
try desperately to live the same life,
in turmoil, in serenity.


This one is for J, who I trust implicitly.

friends and team tnt

Friends and team tnt will continue for a while.

Vernen.

How does one describe him ? Student? Foreigner? Friend? How do u know him ? Customer ? Employee ?

Well he just walked in one day "for the airconditioning" ! I was at the counter, as usual, i was filling in for somebody. Mid afternoon. And we got talking. After the initial where are u from, why India to study ....I frankly didn't expect to see him again. But he was then staying in Sriram nagar and had to walk to Kamal often. So we started seeing him more often.

Our discussions have ranged from people, attitudes, culture, mythology, girls, professionalism, work front, his sisters, world, business, software ... his parents, backgrounds, cancer and chemeo, bonding, mother's side for family ....... so much. Countless. The Durshet trip was good. He dnt make it to Kamshet - that was in summer.

Vernen's address in Pune ... c/o twistntales. People come to tnt looking for him. Srinivas, Devashish, Ramgopal Rao .... the friends that he has made here .. whats it about him ? Polite ? Gentle to a fault ? No class consciousness ... Krishna, Prashant and Ravi Bhaiyya were his friends too... I m going to miss him terribly. Lunch is never going to be the same !

For Vernen, the degree has come at a cost. I know what he means. Good Luck, Vernen. May you find a great job and that someone to share your life with. You deserve it. And dont forget that Cape to Cairo trip......in a GMC truck with a lot of S. African Indian kids with nan for Company ! Count me in !