Book Review #94: 31 Miles:Can we ever win against ourselves? by Vinita Bakshi

Title: 31 Miles: Can we ever win against ourselves?

Author: Vinita Bakshi

Publishers: Rupa Publications India

Genre: General Fiction

Pages: 220 (Paperbound)

Source: Advanced Review Copy by Publisher

There are certain epochs in one’s individual life where it takes a substantial twirl and the whole thing happens so fast that one cannot fathom the rationale or judgment behind it. And undoubtedly, it poses some vital consequences when this happens in the middle of the life. The book “31 Miles” precisely narrates the midlife crisis of a woman who has lost a sense of control over some events that has changed her entire life.

The protagonist of the novel is a middle aged woman, Manasa, aged about 40 years. Growing up in a traditional orthodox family left her no choice but to give her consent for an arranged marriage at a young age. Now, she is well over 40 years, blessed with two beautiful daughters Malvika and Shonali and an ever loving husband, Abhijit. She considered herself as a regular Indian middle class home maker with the sole intention of taking care of her family and giving the best of her abilities to keep everyone happy. She grew up with no concerns whatsoever. But, an ill-fated episode made her to lose trail of her life and go into deep crisis which occupies the next part of the novel.

Sitting at home doing mundane tasks made Manasa to distaste her life. One day she decides to join a cuisine course. There, she befriends some affluent people that changed her perspective towards life. She now considers establishing her own company that specializes in the nutritious food, new food recipes and everything related with food. In order to keep herself in this advanced technical world, she learns computer and most significantly she decides to make her presence in the social media world. She opens her account in one of the popular social media websites and to her surprise she sees many of her childhood friends. One among them was Rajan Chopra. Though she was quite familiar with that name in her memory, she couldn’t relate this person to any of her childhood friends. Within few days, Rajan Chopra introduces himself as Manasa’s elder sister classmate and befriends her on social media. Slowly unanticipated events started to unfurl between them.

Rajan Chopra, the strange character from the novel starts to communicate more candidly with Manasa. He started sharing couplets, poems and Bollywood songs with Manasa to win over her. This is the important part of the novel as far as I can see. Now, readers shouldn’t judge the protagonist as too naïve and pretentious that falls for a guy at this age. Manasa never experienced this kind of admiration even from her husband. She felt surreal to hear Rajan’s swaying words every day. As the days progressed, Manasa was absolutely immersed with this outlandish man. She started to develop feelings towards him.

In a general sense, befriending strangers online is not advised. Teenagers at present are the most affected people. So, what would possibly happen when grownups, who are new to this social media circle, that doesn’t know the consequences it would have on their life, befriends strangers? Things can get hideous if they start interacting with them. There can be many appalling experiences. Our protagonist exactly faces the same experience in her life.

The next stages of the novel are the main part which I am not including in this review. 

Manasa became too emotionally involved with this man and she started to feel culpable towards her husband and daughters. Was she able to meet this mystery man? What was her thought process when she decides to meet him in person? Was this man as genuine as he appeared to her in social media? Was Manasa ready to give up everything to get back to this person? What happened at the end? Has everything become normal again? To know the answers, read this book.

Overall, the book is quite impressive. As a debutant author, Vinita has done a brilliant work. The language is simple and narration is lucid and engaging. The best part of novel is the emotions expressed by the protagonist Manasa. You can vividly capture those moments while reading. Personally I felt that the novel is bit stretched. It could’ve been reduced by 20 to 30 pages. Apart from this, the novel is quite brilliant and I enjoyed reading it.

P.S: There is a sequel to this novel coming up in future!!

My Rating:

4/5

Note: This book was given to me by the publishers in exchange of an unbiased review.

Book Review #84: The Bestseller She Wrote By Ravi Subramanian

Title: The Bestseller She Wrote

Author: Ravi Subramanian

Publishers: Westland

Genre: General Fiction/Thriller

Pages: 300+

Source: Personal Copy

Reading the thriller genre books adds an extra layer of expectations from the story. Having read The Bankster from the same author had kept my hopes further high and took up this book to read. As the author himself says, this is the first time he is penning a romantic thriller genre novel and I will give the benefit of doubt to the author. But still, Author Ravi Subramanian was left with no choice but to use the same Bank as his prop for setting up the novel. Few authors couldn’t think beyond their home turf I would say. Anyway, coming to the book, it is an easy read kind of book. Broken in to nearly 85 small chapters adds the required pace to the book and you can very well read it in few hours. Language used is quite simple and the narration is good.

Aditya Kapoor a successful fiction writer of the country, who is also an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, comes there to give a talk or speech. An unexpected argument with a girl called Shreya from the audience regarding selling the book as a product, where Shreya had a differences of opinion with the author. The argument led to the intersection of the lives of these two in quick session. After reading a book of Aditya, Shreya becomes a huge of him overnight. She emails him about how his book has changed her perception of him and how she felt silly to argue with the best author of the country.

When Aditya, who is also a successful banker again goes to IIM Bangalore for placements, coaxes his friend cum colleague Sanjay (the HR head of the bank) to hire Shreya. She was hired to the bank and as expected a close friendship develops between Aditya and Shreya. Shreya who was also an avid reader and an aspiring writer, gets help from Aditya to publish her work or as the title of the novel goes “The Bestseller”. Whereas, Aditya, a middle aged married man, with a six year old son, finds himself attracted to Shreya. Thus begins an extramarital affair between both of them.

Few sections in the book could’ve been really avoided considering the audience that this book will be reaching. The book certainly adds the thrill factor to it. But, what is the necessity of an erotic part? I am still thinking, what has author achieved while he described how Shreya’s buttocks or boobs looks like? Or How the Aditya gets attracted to Shreya’s physical features than the actual love that they both thought in reality? Things like these could damage an author’s reputation instantly. As per the author, the famous fiction writer in the country, do not know how to write an erotic scenes in his novel? (What a downfall?). The disgusting part was when Shreya helps Aditya on how to write an erotic scene in a practical way? And that too by keeping an audio recorder that records their wild moaning during the act? (Author certainly needs some introspection here). I am sure this section of the book reminds the readers about 50 Shades of Grey.

Each character in the novel seems to be lacking in moral. Aditya, a successful writer and a happily married man and also a person who had an extramarital affair, finds out that he loved his wife Maya only when she falls sick, and that too after sleeping with Shreya? Shreya on the other hand was an avid reader and an aspiring writer and is all ready to get her work published either by hook or crook? To the extent of sleeping with Aditya and then resorting to blackmail? Sanjay, a college buddy and now colleague of Aditya, who is also an avid reader and has a strange habit of not letting anyone to touch his books, who stands by Aditya’s side always, but turns out to be a conman? Apart from these characters, the rest of the characters were given less prominence. I had expected more from Maya’s character. But, let us agree that this is what the author had imagined.

The narrative is rife with the things that are unnecessary or unbelievable. The love scenes are put in such a way that, it was not all required to go to an extent that, how Aditya unbuttoned Shreya’s shirt or how he pulled her panties or how Shreya unzipped Aditya’s trousers and feel and touch of their reproductive organs is quite uncalled for. The funny thing is, Aditya now stuck in dilemma on how to resolve his love-life crisis, finds out that, his “beloved” wife Maya is suffering from Ebola. Are you serious? Showing Maya on critical illness would’ve sufficed a lot. But, bringing the “Ebola” into the picture was not needed.

As is the case in every other romantic novel, Maya does gets cured of Ebola and the climax revelation will feed Maya regarding the emotional side of Aditya and how “courageous” was her husband. Just because he accepts his illicit relationship with Shreya on an open podium could melt the heroine’s heart (Where are those feminists?). At the end, as everyone expected, Shreya went on to become a bestseller for just one book. Guilt ridden Shreya, who thinks, because of conning and blackmailing Aditya had psychologically damaged her writing brain and she couldn’t continue to write. On the other side, Aditya, having lost everything and gaining back everything (including his lost wife) lives happily ever after.

I sincerely hope that the first romantic thriller experiment of the author becomes the last experiment of him. I loved his other writings but not this one. This could’ve been shaped up really well, had the author not followed in the footsteps of Chetan Bhagat (Oh yea, there is a reference to CB as well in this novel). A soon to be a biggest motion picture in the Bollywood!! Well, I am definitely not looking forward to it. Period.

My Rating:

2.5/5

Book Review #68: Karma By Karanam Pavan Prasad

Title: Karma

Author: Karanam Pavan Prasad

Publishers: Conclave Media

Genre: General Fiction

Pages: 164 (Paperbound)

Source: Personal Copy

A first time debutant novelist, who took greater risk to write a novel on a subject like Death, Hindu Funeral Rituals and practices, etc… This novel is a blend of age old rituals, beliefs and traditions versus the modern cosmopolitan, scientific, questioning generation. This novel deals with a very taboo subject such as Hindu funeral practices, which is also called as KARMA, hence the title of the novel Karma. The book poses some serious questions, at the same time, gives its readers a sense of newly crafted novel. Not that, this kind of novel has ever come before, in fact, it has come at various stages and in various forms. But, the mixture of modern aspects like smartphones, IT, KFC, drinks, parties juxtaposed with that of traditions, practices, beliefs and other things is a new way.

The protagonist of this novel Surendra was responsible to carry out the last rites rituals of his father that just demised. Being working in a city as an upscale Engineer and married to an ultramodern woman Neha, he didn't seem to get adjusted to all those rituals, practices and traditions. He just toys around like a puppet listening to the head priest and following his younger brother in those rituals. During these proceedings, Surendra refuses to gets his head shaved, whereas, his brother Narahari agrees to it. (This is one of the rituals, where, the sons of the deceased person should get their head shaved in order to carry out this ritual, it’s called VAPANA). Day to day proceedings was making our protagonist lose his cool and made him act like a weirdo. He was always suspicion about his wife. He often gets these thoughts that; his wife is cheating on him with another man. This is strongly believed by him due to the past actions of his wife on numerous occasions before marriage. His wife had many partners just like him. However, his manly thoughts were not convinced to agree on such things.

The regular circumstances of those rituals have made him to come to terms with the traditions and he actually starts believing in everything. He often reaches out to head priest to understand the basics of the rituals which he finds occasionally funny. Sometimes, he indulges in serious conversations with the head priest and was asking any ritual practices so that he could father a child and so on. This kind of dilemma and regular taunts from his wife for being too orthodox has made our protagonist weak day by day. He gets mocked by his wife for conducting those ‘pointless’ rituals which was seriously offending Surendra. He also concludes that, he didn’t get a proper wife or he didn't become a good husband. This made him to get back to his last love interest ‘Vaani’ who was his Aunt’s daughter. Even here he faces serious disappointments.

As the book progresses further, we will realize many facets of these funeral rites, and this must be the take away from the book. The detailed explanation and beliefs behind each practice and tradition has explained pretty neat. There is an absolute twist at the end of the novel, which I am not including in my review. I ask people to read and savor the story.

All said and done, the novel has some weak points. Few of the characters were given little space. The entire novel could’ve been extended to about 30 pages. The background story of important characters was missing or was kept low. The Sanskrit verses and their meaning throughout the novel is a good attempt at explaining few traditional aspects.

Overall, a great attempt by the author and a fantastic rendition. He has a long way to go and this is just the beginning. I hope to see more of such amazing work by this author. Though, this book can be easily considered as a contemporary novel. It doesn't exactly belong to any specific genre. A must read novel. I recommend it for everyone.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #62: Two for the hearts By Ekta R. Garg

Title: Two for the Heart (Stories in pairs: set one)

Author: Ekta R. Garg

Publisher: Prairie Sky Publishing

ISBN: 978-0-9909360-1-5

Genre: General Fiction/Short Stories

Pages: 55 (EPUB Edition)

Source: Review Copy

This book consists of 2 short stories that were written pretty well. I enjoyed reading it. Ekta R.Garg has written these 2 tales that is full of emotions, love and care. That’s the theme carried away in this novel. A short book of relatively 50 odd pages, gives us an amazing experience. Stories that is blended with pure emotions and lots of love, makes this book as a unique and a must read.

The first story from the book is “The Proposal”. A young lawyer Akshay and a doctor by profession Pooja was not ready to bother about their individual relationships. However, they both get cornered into a marriage by their elders. But, they both cleverly plan for something else. They decide to get their divorce papers ready right after their wedding. They eventually gets their divorce papers applied and it is one steps behind to get it officially termed as divorced. Some unusual circumstances make them acts otherwise. Akshay finds Pooja the more caring when she took care of his ailing mother who is on the last stages of cancer. Whereas, Pooja finds Akshay the most understanding person, when Akshay agrees to participate in a ceremonial dinner planned by Pooja’s parents where they both have to act as man and wife. These things and other favorable moments made them realize what true love is and they just no longer cared about their divorce.

The above story seems very simple as it looks. But, the intense emotions that each character displays are just more than enough. Author has not wasted time and space to shovel extra description of events, or characters or places in the novel. Author has more concentrated on the human emotions which is very apt to the above story.

The second story in the novel is “The Remembrance”. Helen wakes up in the hospital and she has no idea how she even got there. Everyone in the hospital dodges her question. And, then her sister Rose with whom she has not spoken for 11 long years comes to aid her. Without realizing Rose’s situation or what she has been through just a few days ago, Helen acts in the most unusual way and tries to avoid Rose. Rose visited Helen right after conducting their father Mr. Green’s funeral. She was advised by doctors to stay for some more time. Helen, of course, was not aware of her father’s death or her husband’s death, seems to have lost memory. She almost forgot what happened recently. So, as the story further progresses, Helen gets discharged from hospital and she was gaining her memory back. Soon she realized what she has lost. She started sobbing uncontrollably. Helen realized her loss and Rose’s love for her.

The 2^nd story also seems to be very simple. But, it gives readers a chance to ponder over few little things in life that can actually help to clear the misunderstanding.

I liked the first story more than the 2^nd one!!

There is a slight twist in both the stories. Author is very clever in linking both the stories that gives us a new perspective altogether. There are also surprises in the stories, not so shocking or breathtaking, but author holds back and keeps the secrets for the readers to reveal themselves. The overlapping of both the stories while not interrupting the each individual story adds another layer. A main character in the first story is actually a background character in the 2^nd story!!

These 2 short stories can be elaborated to make them as a novel altogether if tried. But, here it worked so well to keep it short and to the point. The focus was given more to the main characters than the props while not losing out on the quality or content. I recommend this book to the readers.

Note: This book was sent by the author in exchange for an honest review.

You can buy the book from here:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

My Rating:

4.5/5

Book Review #53: Doora Saridaru By Dr. S. L. Bhyrappa

After all, when it comes to philosophy based books, I will not be able to put down that. This book "Doora Saridaru" of Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa sir is a bundle of philosophical thoughts. Each character that the author created is a mountain of philosophical thinking. This novel mainly explores the idea of marriage, or we can put it as inter caste marriage and it also explores the requirement of right thinking or we can say as bonding between a girl and a boy before getting married, how this will affect a marriage etc... We can call this book as philosophy of marriage or literally philosophy of life. 

 

I really liked the philosophical ideas that the author has imbibed in all the characters. “Doora Saridaru” will be translated to English as “Moved Away”. Yes, this novel speaks about the couples who are yet to be married, but they decided they would get married. However, some unfortunate events will make it not happen. Reasons look very trivial for a normal novel reader. For a philosophy student this novel looks like an absolute profound experience. The thought that runs between each protagonist and the dialogue exchange between him and her is an awesome thought process.

The plot of the novel seems like a regular college love story. Sachidananda a studious young man who was studying English (Hons) degree finds a girl called Vinithakumari from his class who was very good looking and like him; she was pursuing her interests in literature and poetry. Soon, they will find interest in one another and expresses their love interest and it goes on like regular love stories. 

In another parallel story, a student called Vasantha a philosophy pursuing graduate and senior to Sachidananda. This Vasantha is a very introverted person. However, when it comes to debates and argument about philosophical subjects there is no one in the college who can match him except for a girl called Uma. She is Vasantha’s junior in the philosophy degree course and she was the one who can match to the qualities of Vasantha. As expected, some favourable incidents will make Vasantha and Uma to be another couple in the college.

As the story further progresses, there is a regular parental opposition to this marriage, there is disappointment, there are resentments etc... However, what I really liked about the novel is the after effects of the incident where their respective parents will oppose to these marriages. Vinitha’s mother rejected Sachindananda and Vinitha was not strong enough to oppose her mother. Sachidananda tried to convince Vinitha for a registered marriage. Even here, Vinitha was not strong enough to make a decision. She believed in philosophy of pain. She often told Sachidananda about how her suffering and pain will help to change her mother’s mind. Dejected by Vinitha’s decisions, Sachidananda will become a maniac, he loses his interest in life, he wanted to become a hermit, so, he leaves his house and goes to some hill station and tries to find solace for his burning soul. There he meets a sage or a person who renounced his life. This person has an important story in later stages of the novel. There he learns something better and decides to stay strong and he heads back to his home and concentrates more on his studies.

In another parallel story, Vasantha and Uma will participate in a debate about philosophy of truth and philosophy of marriage. There in one occasion, Uma humiliated Vasantha. She made his every argument very trivial and stupid. Vasantha decides immediately that this idea will not work in his life. He tries to convince Uma that, she would never argue with him once they get married. For which, Uma slowly said that, it is not possible but she will try her best. Therefore, Vasantha decides to postpone their marriage for about a year.

The real magic of the novel appears now, the huge philosophical thoughts of each protagonist comes into picture. Sachidananda decides to study like there is no tomorrow. He starts to pursue his master’s degree. Whereas Vinithakumari decides to drop out of college and she starts to work as a schoolteacher. Vasantha decides to pursue his PhD and Uma decides to work for an NGO. Will these couples get married or what role the fate will play in these lives? I stop at this point and let the readers go through the book and find out the answer! 

I recommend this book to everyone and for those who are students of philosophy or interested in learning about philosophy. It is a classic attempt by my favourite author. 

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #49: Half Girlfriend By Chetan Bhagat

Half Girlfriend (Pic Courtesy: Internet)

Probably one of the dullest books I’ve read in recent times. This book of Chetan Bhagat’s came after a long gap of not so success Revolution 2020. Everybody said it right; Bhagat has after all come out as a Bollywood writer and nothing else. What if I told you this book “Half Girlfriend” doesn’t even comparable to his earlier novels. It is too predictable and most of the story is either copied from his predecessors or from earlier Hindi movies.

What was more astonishing is he dared to publish this book, though he knew that it is a mere movie script!! There is nothing that one can expect while reading a book, leave alone term it as a novel, sorry, a romantic novel! There are absolutely no surprises, no aha moments or anything of that sort. It’s a mere story of 2 college kids, a Bihari boy and a Delhi girl. And, there is regular love story, college classes, placements, love story, sex, break ups, family problems, etc… these things you might have already read in his previous 2 States, 3 Mistakes of My Life, Five Point Someone, etc…

The plot of the novel is as dry as Sahara desert. A Bihari boy or rather a Bihari prince Madhav Jha who is a state level basketball player gets admission in one of the high profile institute in Delhi, St. Stephen’s through sports quota and took up sociology as his major. His only drawback is he can’t speak the English like the city dwellers. During the admission day he comes across a beautiful girl Riya Somani who is also a basketball player that joined St. Stephen’s for English Honors degree.  There you go, bingo!! He instantly connects with this girl and within next 25 pages of the book; he befriends Riya and pretends as Sharukh Khan. Riya (read as Kajol) is not a serious student; rather, she wants to be just friends with Madhav.

As usual book goes into the 2 States mode instantly, Madhav Jha who is now desperate enough to fall in love with Riya tries all his might to get this chic (Riya). But every time he comes up with a brilliant idea, this will get snubbed by Riya. Later Riya clarifies Madhav that, she is just friends with him and pronounces herself as his HALF-GIRLFRIEND. Whoa!!(Slow claps).

Later part of the novel becomes too predictable. One unfortunate incident makes our Sharukh and Kajol gets separated. One and half years later, she comes to college just to drop out. She invites Madhav to her wedding. That’s it. One part of the story ends here. 2^nd part is a regular movie tamasha; Hero Madhav who is now broken out of his love, concentrates more on his career. He studies like there is no tomorrow. He goes to his placements interview and declines a lucrative HSBC offer citing the reason ‘he wants to go back to Bihar and take over the school that his mother runs and build this school as one of the best schools in Bihar’.

Here, Bhagat plays an 80’s movie director role. Madhav, who is the head of his school, gets an appointment with Bill Gates through Gates-Melinda foundation and gets a grant for his school. During one of these meetings in a hotel, he accidently (really??) meets Riya and they decide to reconcile again. She describes all her unfortunate incidents after college, her divorce with her husband, etc… Madhav also explain everything about his life after college. He takes Riya to his home to meet his mother. There is a slight twist here, like all other regular movies, this should be the end. But, here Bhagat plays an “I am smarter than you” type. Madhav’s mother learns that Riya a divorcee and she scolds Riya and warns her to stay out of Madhav’s life. OMG, What a pity??

So, Riya decides to move out of Madhav’s life for 2^nd time. She cooks up a drama that she is suffering from cancer. She leaves a note to Madhav and leaves India. But, our Sharukh is not a quitter (Yeah!!). He starts his hunt for his Kajol despite the protest from his mother. He goes to New York as an UN delegate and stays at his friend’s house for about 3 months. He knew that, Riya wanted to be a singer and she informed him in her college days that, her ambition in life is to play music at a Bar in New York (Duh!!). Rest of the story is kind of guesswork. Bhagat again plays “I am cooler than you” type. Till last day of Madhav’s stay in US, he is unable to locate Riya. On last day, he visits a bar where she is performing and they see each other and then they lived happily ever after.

Conclusion:

First time Chetan Bhagat readers finds this book with full of surprises. Whereas, his regular readers finds this as a same stuff packaged in a new book. Overall, can be read onetime and can forget that instant.   

My Rating:

2.5/5

Buy this book from Flipkart.com:

Book Review #43: The Fountainhead By Ayn Rand

There are books that are hard to read. There are also few books that are hard to review. And, there are books, which fall under both of these categories. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is one of such important books to the mankind. I may be exaggerating a bit here, but, let’s give it to the author for writing this magnum opus. It is a treat to read this book. It can be easily declared as a must read book before you die!!

The summary as given in the back page of the book goes like this:

“This instant classic is the story of an intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him.”

What I really liked about this book? Is it the philosophical thoughts? Or is it the fight of a relentless stubborn architect? Or is it the unusual romance between the protagonists? Or is it the life lessons? It is extremely difficult to come up with the answers. I liked all these thoughts that bundled up in this book. It seems very difficult to understand it at the beginning, but, as the book flows through the pages, it is overwhelmingly awesome. It covers everything. The Architect, The Press, The Love story, The betrayals, The deceiving characters, The forgiving characters, etc…

At times you may feel like you are not able to continue to read. But, reading this book requires a lot of patience according to me. It takes at least 2 weeks to finish reading it, if you are reading few pages a day.

The book mainly talks about 4 main characters. Peter Keating (A confused Architect), Ellsworth M. Toohey (Guy who wants to control everything but wants to remain as a shadow), Gail Waynand (A conglomerate tycoon) and our hero of the novel Howard Roark. 

The book starts very slowly and takes time to sync in the readers mind. Slowly it occupies your mind and crumbles up into your dreams when you read it. The ideology presented in this book requires a great deal of concentration to read it and understand it. Each dialogue, each prose, each verse is heavily loaded with philosophical thoughts. Every character seems like a mountain of philosophical aspects.

The Fountainhead is written with great eloquence. It is lucid and engaging. It is loaded with the power of wisdom. It you can read it carefully, you will slowly realize the meaning of the all those 4 different characters, developing them with the intense clarity, so much so that, you are left feeling pity for everyone but the hero.

Howard Roark is an unbelievable character. His ruthless yet calm nature fascinates anyone. His tranquilizing demeanor and the aura which he carries around himself is seldom unnoticed. Even after fighting for his existence, he never allowed himself to be robbed by anyone intellectually. He constantly reminds us of the nature “My way or Highway”. He is adamant, fickle minded yet he is a hero. He takes his fight against the world that is still not out of conservative orthodox thinking. When the whole world is against his modern viewpoints, he stood for his convictions and proved what he is capable off. It is such a joy to read the dialogues of Howard Roark. He reminds every one of us on how to live life on own terms. If we all look back into our lives, we lived all of our life living for others, working for others, satisfying others. Howard Roark conveys his message clearly that, live your life that way you want it to be. “Those who mind, don't matter and those who matter, don't mind” kind of attitude is the take away from the book.

Overall, The Fountainhead speaks of one main thing throughout the novel. It is “Individualism”. No matter what happens tomorrow, if you can prove your individualism then it’s the greatest achievement one can achieve in his lifetime. I recommend this book to everyone. It is once in a life time opportunity to get lost in the philosophical thoughts. You would certainly enjoy each page.

Rating this book is beyond my abilities. Anyways, 

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #38 - Who Will Cry, When You Die? By Robin Sharma

I generally don't read self-help books. But, this one book made me to read more of such books. Thanks to the author Robin Sharma. It didn't really transform my life in overnight, rather, it did allowed me to sit and introspect a bit on what I might be missing in life. This book is something that reverberates in your mind for a long time, leave alone giving you an idea of what's most important.

I really loved the title of the book. In a moment you all want to read this book. Who Will Cry When You Die?. A question that everyone must ask themselves when they are alone and contemplating about life and its oddities. Robin Sharma had clearly articulated in this book, the 101 'Life Principles'. Is it just 101 or much more? To answer this, there are more to what Robin Sharma had tried to give to his readers.

The entire book is just about those small changes that we can apply to our lives to bring that happiness that we always longed to bring or see. Collection of these thoughts what makes this book as an unique and inspiring. You may wonder while reading this book, why didn't I realized these trivial things all these days? Well, we are too much deep in our materialistic desires and never in any given day has given thoughts about these.

This book is just about realizing what makes us more happy and less resentful. Robin Sharma had explained in a simple but elegant manner. Author had covered every little details ranging from waking up early in the morning, to have a nice family outing, to have a collection of our favorite books, to see that one life changing movie or to have a gala time with our kids till some of the serious topics like why doing meditation is a good way of silencing our chattering minds, why having a "lone time" is important, why should we start living our day like its our last etc, etc...

We all knew that these things are more important in our life, but, we haven't given a much thought about it. From this book, what you learn is an art of living and an art of dying as well. We are living our life trying to achieve something we don't really like to show off to some people whom we really like. If those people like you really, they allow yourself to get something that makes you live as yourself. Though I don't really say that, materialistic success is not required, I am only asking to not consider those as the real success. There is something beyond in everyone's life that we are failing to appreciate. Well, this book just gives you an idea of finding those somethings and make your life more meaningful.

Robin Sharma regularly uses famous quotes in all his books. That adds more meaningful messages to what he says. Even in this book you find ample number of quotes that adds more color to the book. I really liked this particular quote:

"When you are born the World rejoice while you cry. Live a life in a such a way that when you DIE, the World should cry and you rejoice" - Sanskrit Saying

I recommend this book to be read by everyone. Though it may not bring overnight changes to your life, but, surely, it evokes some questions that every readers can questions themselves.

My Rating:
5/5

Book Review #29: Vamshavruksha By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

There are few books that questions your own existence and the root of your family.!! Yes, S. L. Bhyrappa had written this novel in the year 1965 which is close to 50 years now and still it is one of the epitome of all his novels put together. Written long ago, this book captures the essence of transformation of families and persons from a traditional Indian background to a modern India and the ups and downs that they face while doing so. Vamshavruksha can be literally translated to english as FAMILY TREE.

In the year 1972 this novel has been adopted as a movie under the same title by one of the renowned directors and a great personality in Kannada B.V.Karanth in association with a popular kannada plays writer, actor Girish Karnad. This movie have won the best direction national award and southern Indian filmfare award. The story is so gripping and it is thought provoking.

As I finished reading this novel, several questions arose within me. Who am I ?, Who are my ancestors ?, What is the purpose of our family tree when we are not even sure of who was the first person from our family ?, Can anybody answer such questions ?, Certainly not. This book captures this very arguments through our protagonists and gives us an amazing literary journey.

This novel captures the tale of two families, Shrotri and Rao households, that captures their journey that spans over three decades. In first few chapters, there is introduction of the characters of these 2 families without any twist. Later what follows in subsequent chapters is almost a biographical journey of Srinivasa Shrotri, his wife, his young widowed daughter-in-law Kathyayini (she plays an important role in this novel) juxtapositioning against the literary journey of Dr. Sadashiva Rao, his wife Nagalakshmi and his younger brother Raja Rao.

The journey of Kathyayini and Dr. Sadashiva Rao from their own perspective is a way ahead of time considering the novel's publishing time, where modernism was not so encouraged by the traditional practitioners. This particular part of the novel explores the love life of Kathyayini with Raja Rao that stood on questioning grounds of morality and cultural impact. Whereas, Sadashiva Rao's tryst with Karuna Rathne a research student of him, whom he marries on the sole purpose of completing his research books, after realizing he alone cannot complete his books.

The essence that these stories are narrated by Bhyrappa is a treat to read from the book. Through his characters he explores the age old fight between social norms versus personal happiness, morality versus individual choice, cultural tradition versus modern aspirations, family values versus individual choices, etc..etc..

This book brings us, the readers, into a debate on what is most important in our life. Holding onto the moral values or just be happy with the way we wanted. The re-marriage of Kathyayini with Raja Rao is a phase, where readers will question themselves on what she did was right or wrong. It also brings us to debate on the moral policing by Srinivasa Shrotri, who questions his daughter-in-law regarding her marriage and why its against the traditional social pattern, he also questions her whether she should take the kid along with her to her new house, by citing a reason that, kids actually belongs to the family first and then to the parents. Kids alone can represent the continuation of the family tree and when these tree breaks by a non-acceptable marriage, then it will be a bad name on their family and not on parents. Hence, it is left to Kathyayini's choice whether to uphold the accepted social pattern or to continue with her own decisions.

The ending is a true realization. The realization of Srinivasa Shrotri about his true birth and he himself doesn't belongs to the right family. Kathyayini realizes that, she shouldn't have remarried again just for the material pleasures that has no purpose after sometime. Whether Shrotri is right in terms of his traditional upbringing or Kathyayini is right in terms of her wishes is a never ending dilemma. Imagination left to the readers. Readers can introspect themselves which one is more important.

For sure, author SL Bhyrappa focuses on the moral decisions that people make or the social implications of the same for others. This is a must read book for everyone including the new generation of people. And must read for those, who justify the moral policing based on traditionally accepted societal patterns!!.

My Rating: 
5/5

Book Review #24: Anchu by Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

This is yet another masterpiece novel by my favorite author, Professor, Thinker, Philosopher Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa sir. It is amazing to think that, how he could possibly be able to capture such thinking and ideologies under a single book. Then it struck me like a jolt, this is the theme of all Dr. SLB sir's books. No wonder, the immense feeling I got while reading this book is beyond explanation.

This is a profound book, making the readers to go beyond the material relationships and arrive at a conclusion. Detractors can always bang their head against the wall, but, they can't deny the fact that, this book makes everyone, literally everyone, to think for a minute or two about their own lives.

This book mainly revolves around only 2 persons. Though there are other filler characters for the sake of the novel, readers are not much bothered about those characters. The protagonists of this novel is enough to carry out the story. This book is certainly unputdownable. It takes the readers on a ride, the psychological ride that anyone could imagine. It takes only a man like Dr. SLB sir to write such books.

The plot of the novel introduces us to the main protagonists of the novel. A well educated woman, Dr. Amrutha, a Ph. D. scholar and a lecturer in a college. Though she had a good job to support her, psychologically she is a woman of suicidal tendencies. She was deceived by her own family members, by her husband and her aunt. By their dubious coup, she lost all her properties and she was thrown on the road along with her two small kids Vijay and Vikas. She and her kids lived alone in the house that was left by her father years back.

Another protagonist of the novel is Somashekar, an Architect by profession, who is well settled and came to Mysore from Mumbai in search of expanding his Architect business. He is good at heart and an honest person, but, he is too weak to express his feelings. That leads him to a bigger mess in his life. Having lost his wife and a daughter, and a failed relationship in his mumbai days, he had no plans of another relationship and was quite happy with his job.

The phase that connects these 2 protagonists is a situation, where Dr. Amrutha calls Somashekar for an urgent repair of her house. He finishes of this repair job and finds himself attracted to this woman. She also had the same feelings towards him. As the story continues further, these two persons were found out that, they love each other and finds a new ray of silver lining in their respective lives. Their love story continues just like any other love stories. But, her suicidal tendencies and mood swings makes both of their lives difficult at many stages.

Author had brilliantly imagined the psychological imbalance state of Amrutha. She is happy at sometimes and in split seconds she gets this immense feeling of loneliness. Everyday she decides to take her life and writes suicide notes and takes her revolver and heads to a hill station and within no time she decides not to do so. These events had made her traumatized everyday. Somashekar feels that, he needs to take care of her and he supports her in every possible way. He changes his timings of work just to be with her. At some point in the novel he was succeeded in changing her mind to concentrate on future rather than taking life.

There are few stages in the novel, where both of them quarrel and decides not to see each other again. Later, they finds their lives are even more empty and dull, which leads them to concile again. As the story further reveals, Amrutha finds out that she is carrying the child of Somashekar. For which, She felt very guilty and again she decides to take her life. But due to the intervention of Somashekar, this plan was failed. Later, she decides to get aborted and still she finds her life pointless, aimless and meaningless.

As the book reaches its climax, Somashekar encourages Amrutha to file a lawsuit against their Aunt and relatives to take back all the properties that was belonging to Amrutha. Also, he gives timely suggestions on how to handle this case. Amrutha slowly recovers from her traumatic stage of her life and finds a new hope for her life. She fights the case with all her might and wins the lawsuit against her aunt and relatives. As the climax approaches, Somashekar feels that, he should marry Amrutha and accept her two kids as his own kids. For which she agreed.!!

The story seems very simple and straightforward. In reality, it is impossible to express how does one feels when someone was deeply wounded psychologically and how their behavior will affect their loved ones and surroundings. This is the crux of the novel and one should read it to experience it. Readers are hard pressed for words to describe the state of Amrutha and her waves of thinking in the book. It is best not to mention in this review. Overall, a must read book, it actually changes one's behavior and thinking.

My Rating: 5/5