Transition of Thoughts

Weaving thoughts into words

Month: September 2012

In conversation with Mukul Deva: India’s first military thriller writer!

An alumnus of La Martiniere College, Lucknow, the National Defence Academy, Pune and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, Mukul Deva was commissioned in December 1981 into the Sikh Light Infantry of the Indian Army. He took early retirement from the army after fifteen years of service, including a decade of combat operations in India and overseas. He is now an entrepreneur and motivational speaker, leadership, business and executive coach, and consultant.

He is the author of ‘Time After Time..It all Happened‘, ‘S.T.R.I.P.T.E.A.S.E: The Art of Corporate Warfare‘, ‘M.O.D.E.L: The Return of the Employee‘, the recently released ‘The Dust Will Never Settle‘ and four bestselling books in the ‘Lashkar series: ‘Lashkar‘, ‘Salim Must Die‘, ‘Blowback‘ and ‘Tanzeem‘.

Aseem: An army man writing books. Now that’s something new at least in India. How has your experience been?
Mukul: Yes I guess it’s how most people perceive army men. And how army men view themselves. Most of the ones I know are very articulate and have great stories to tell. I simply decided to tell them, without thinking too much about it. In any case I have always believed that I can do anything if I wish to do it since it is seldom capability, but belief in our capability that matters. As for the journey – it’s been incredible. And continues to be so… I find I am full of ideas and the words don’t seem to stop flowing… ‘Tis as though of (literary) Viagra I have drunk…:)

Read More

Book Review – The Dust Will Never Settle

Mukul Deva has lived, breathed and slept the ‘Lashkar’ series for the last couple of years. Whether it was ‘Lashkar’, ‘Salim Must Die’, ‘Blowback’ or ‘Tanzeem’, Mukul put his heart and soul into ensuring that these books were loved by his audiences. So what next after this?

‘The Dust Will Never Settle’ is his first book after the Lashkar series ended. In this pacy fusion of fact and fiction, he unravels the private tragedy of the Gill family against the high-stakes backdrop of international politics and deadly intrigue.

The blurb goes like this:

When terror strikes Jerusalem again, the international community persuades the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume their long-stalled peace talks. A dozen negotiators converge on Delhi to try and wrest peace for a land torn apart by centuries of strife and mistrust.

Lashkar-e-Toiba, struggling to fill the leadership void created by the killing of Osama bin Laden, will not allow these talks to proceed. Enter Ruby Gill, an MI6 agent manipulated by the Lashkar and the Qassam Bridgades to disrupt the Summit.

Caught in the crossfire is her father Ravinder Singh Gill, head of the Indian Anti – Terrorist Task Force, who is in charge of securing the Peace Summit. His work is immensely complicated by the Commonwealth Games being hosted simultaneously in Delhi.

Ravinder’s past and Ruby’s destiny are set to collide in unforeseen ways..

Will peace finally find these strife – torn countries? Or will the dust never settle in the Promised Land?

Read More

Guest Post – Book Review: Freakonomics

Authors: Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Publisher: W.M. Morrow
Pages*: 207 (readable), 242 (actual)
*Anything past page 207 is just about citing sources and the index section.
Genre: Non-Fiction(?), Observational, Existential

The Premise/Plot

This isn’t exactly non-fiction in the sense that it’s the opinion of the two authors on things. The authors formula is to simply take seemingly mundane topics like education and religion and put in their unique spin on it. Hence the cover features an apple with a slice taken out of it only to reveal that at the inside it’s an orange. The book is structured in a way that you don’t have to read all of it; you can easily pick and choose which chapters you’d like to read. In the version I got (which I assume goes for all physical copies); the table of contents even gives you a brief description of each chapter. It is extremely compartmentalized, meaning that each chapter stands alone and there isn’t any reference to earlier chapters later on.

Read More

In conversation with Priya Narendra – Author of ‘You Never Know When You’ll Get Lucky!’

A corporate big wig, a former advertising professional, a writer, a mother – Priyadarshini Narendra, an IIM Kolkata and INSEAD passout has worn many hats. ‘You Never Know When You’ll Get Lucky‘ is her first attempt at portraying life in the happening world of advertising. So we have her here for a short tete-a-tete.

Aseem: What was that one ‘spark’ which inspired you to pen down “You never know when you will get lucky”?
Priya: Believe it or not, the crucial parts of the story came to me in a dream. I had the same dream three nights in a row and realized that I had to write down the story! The rest of it was just fleshing out the before and after.

Read More

Book Review – You Never Know When You’ll Get Lucky!

“You Never Know When You’ll Get Lucky!” (YNKWYGL) is written by Priyadarshini Narendra and is the next book from the ‘Fingerprint Publishing’ stable. Priya has spent several years in the advertising industry and has many interesting campaigns to her credit. This is her first attempt at portraying life in the fast lane of the advertising world. Does she succeed? Let’s check it out.

The blurb goes like this:

When Kajal, a sassy never-afraid-to-make-an-idiot-of-herself-in-public copywriter, finally decides to put her love-life on hold and focus on that long-overdue promotion, fate mysteriously throws her way a stream of eligible bachelors: from Mr Could-Be-Right who lives in another city, to a reputed lech of a neighbour who becomes her knight in shining armour, from a hunky researcher intent on proposing, to a childhood-nemesis-turned-amorous-pursuer.

Add to the mess a client who is a pain in the ass, a crucial ad campaign for a brand of condoms, disapproving middle-class parents and, to top it all, the most romantic rainstorm of the decade and Kajal seems to be no longer in control of anything!

But luck has its own sweet way of dealing with troubles. After all, you never know when you’ll get lucky!

Read More

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén

%d bloggers like this: