Download or read book Stepping in the NOW written by Vaishnavi Dahake and published by Blue Hill Publications. This book was released on 2021-07-14 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stepping in the Now is focused to be a YA contemporary that revolves around the life of Prayaag—a sixteen year old boy who’s walking on the path of pursuing his parents’ dream of becoming a doctor, but secretly he wishes to be a writer and that means crushing and stomping over his parents’ dream; Jeeval—a sixteen year old girl who’s lost both of her parents at a very young age, as a result of which she’s emotionally closed herself off completely until she meets Prayaag at the same coaching centre; Samtha—a lady they meet in a basement slam sort of place who’s stepped out of a horrible marriage—she’d to do because of parental pressure—and that has left her devastated and unable to trust anybody; Abhinav—Jeeval’s brother and a medical repeater at the same coaching centre, who’s also dealing with his past demons along with his sexuality and the current pressure of cracking the entrance test that leads him on to a very dangerous path (drugs); Sameer—Jeeval and Abhinav’s cousin who owns a freaking bookstore so Prayaag envies him downright (I mean, who wouldn’t?); and a stranger they come across with or rather with his diary—Arjav—who dreamt about watching every possible corner of the world. The trio of Jeeval, Abhinav and Sameer enter Prayaag’s life like a hurricane, stirring him from top to bottom, and make him question all the things he’s been doing wrong—Arjav’s diary acts as a very good catalyst. And so, Prayaag mixes with them like hot chocolate does with warm milk; changing its colour and making it taste better. That diary contains nothing more than four pages in which the stranger—Arjav, had written about transcending each and every factor that was holding him back from following his heart, living the life he’d always imagined. That diary creates a chaotic mess inside Prayaag’s head. He is constantly juggling himself between his and his parents’ dreams. In between all this chaos, they discover a place of solace, SOUL’s, an extension of coffee corner—where they all always sit to spend some time together. SOUL’s is every writer’s dream-come-true—where people could take the centre stage and share their words with people who are greedy and needy for them. That’s where they meet Samtha for the first time. She touches Prayaag’s life in a different and stupefying way. The way they both are walking on the path of medical science yet have a secret desire of becoming a writer develops an instant connection between them. Samtha is a frequent performer at SOUL’s and Prayaag never once misses any of her performance, even if that means bunking his classes. She isn’t just a random performer for him; she’s his friend, philosopher and guide, who helps him in clearing a lot of his mess. As time passes by, Jeeval, Prayaag, Abhinav, Sameer, and Samtha grow to be inseparable part of each other’s lives—with an addition of Bilal, Abhinav’s secret companion. Through series of events like—chatting with Samtha on life and philosophy; meeting his childhood best-friend who is a fashion designing student—something she wanted to do all her life; a book launch at Sameer’s bookstore—where a young bestselling author of an inspirational novel shines his thoughts on how taking two steps forward on your account, to make yourself happy, and a step back-dragged by others is still one step forward; meeting Arjav and knowing his story—Prayaag finally gets the courage to write his story, take a step toward his dreams, believe in them and make others (his parents) believe in them too. The story takes a turn when they are on a road trip. Jeeval has issues celebrating her birthday as the day on which the accident that killed her father clash with that day. But trying to shoot it out and to leave all the scars behind, they go on a road trip to meet Arjav. Through his diary they manage to find Arjav, who now stays in Udaipur. On their trip back home, their car meets with an accident as a result of which Prayaag has a near-death experience and an acute memory loss…that leads to some blank spaces on his memory but not enough to make him forget his passion and his love and his I-could-do-anything-for-them-and-that-is-mutual-too friends. Stepping in the Now isn’t just about Prayaag following dreams. It’s also about: Jeeval: who carries her I-don’t-care-about-anyone-but-me façade yet deep down she feels deeply—not just for Prayaag—for everyone around her; who falls for a boy who tries to push her away consistently, but she sticks to her ground and make that boy realize—push-away-s don’t work when the fire is burning with equal intensity on both the sides. Abhinav: who is constantly fighting with himself ever since his parents died four years ago, and even before that by keeping a major part of him a secret. Being a medical repeater he has more pressure on him. Getting involved with drugs, he is almost on the path of ending his life, but with the help of his friends-slash-family he finds a new and brighter path for himself. Samtha: a lady who’s stepped out of a horrible marriage and is trying her best to find an anchor within herself; who thought life’s just a means to wait for death, finally realizes that a flower has to wilt after blooming but that shouldn’t bring a pause to the beautiful phase of blooming. The story ends with Prayaag writing his story and continuing his journey with Jeeval, Abhinav giving himself another chance…giving his life another chance, and Samtha—who initially stopped believing in love and relationships—ending up with Sameer.