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Book Review – Kaleidoscope of Cheer and Hope

Book Review - Kaleidoscope of Cheer and Hope

Once the scale of this pandemic began to hit home, I am sure we all expected that a lot many books will be written and movies will be made in the years to come. It’s not everyday we live through a pandemic, do we? So thinking this, I picked up “Kaleidoscope of Cheer and Hope” by Manjulika Pramod.

The blurb goes like this –

This book is born in one of the most unprecedented times of history and it clearly aims to picture reality, create awareness, spread cheer, and convey that we are together in this pandemic. It thrives on authentic illustrations and vivid commentary on some of the most important events of the lockdown. The book promises visual meditation and helps in positive grieving.

The act of making personal notes and capturing the current situation into meaningful drawings gave birth to “Kaleidoscope of Cheer and Hope”. In these times of uncertainty and anxiety, the author felt a dire need to emphasize the importance of taking care of one’s mental health, social distancing, maintaining personal hygiene, expressing gratitude, and manifesting hope for humanity, and thus, she created a world for herself and others. Art turned out to be a powerful tool in this positive campaign.

For years, words and creations have been used as a response to uncertainty and catastrophe. The current scenario is no different. Hope this book helps you to introspect, emote, question, and preserve these unexpected times in more than one way.

These are unprecedented times not only for the current generation but for generations from the past and the future as well. The world hasn’t seen a pandemic of this kind in decades.

The cover of the book perfectly portrays what to expect. There are 50 different illustrations of life during the lockdown with interesting titbits thrown in about the way life went haywire.

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Book Review – Heroes of Kindness

Book Review - Heroes of Kindness

I have also wondered how so many of us are excited to read negative news time and time again. I guess it’s not because we want something bad to happen. But instead negativity seems to simply attract people more than positive acts. Positivity just seems par for the course. I knew that Dr Roshan had been writing about acts of kindness since quite a few years. And that’s why I wanted to download this book from the Blogchatter Library.

The blurb goes like this:

Imagine a newspaper filled only with positive stories. Have you ever seen one? Neither had the author Roshan, which is why he decided to create one himself. Heroes of Kindness showcases 50 acts of kindness and compassion by real-life individuals, acts that are guaranteed to bring a smile on your face and remind you that, perhaps, the world is not such a bad place after all.

The book has a simple title and cover page which goes well with the overall theme of what you are about to read. I like how Roshan mentions on the cover page “50 acts of kindness that will brighten your day”. It surely did brighten my evening.

These acts of kindness are from random people across the world from all walks of life such as doctors, shopkeepers, autorickshaw drivers and more. Each of them did something good without thinking of what they would get in return. With each story you smile or even cry happy tears in the end.

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Book Review – Who Killed Nina Daruwalla

Book Review - Who Killed Nina Daruwalla

I have always been a fan of thrillers and murder mysteries. But it’s been a couple of months since I read one. And so when Blogchatter asked me to review this one, I was quite interested.

The blurb goes like this:

Ambitious, a successful entrepreneur, and a divorcee — Nina Daruwalla is all this and more. Her ex-husband abhors her, her lover is mad about her, a reporter wants a scoop from her, and her cousin again needs her help. She ends up dead, her throat slit open. Now, Inspector Yaqoob Ansari and his team need to unmask the killer.

The question is – Who Killed Nina Daruwalla?

The title and the cover page are perfect as the reader knows what to expect. The use of a different kind of font size for the title is quite apt.

Ajit pens a gripping narrative on the murder of a successful entrepreneur – Nina Daruwalla. There are various individuals who play a role in her life and aren’t happy with her for a variety of reasons. But then would anyone actually harm her?

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Book Review – Unlocked

First things first, I must admit that I have generally not been a big fan of poetry. Only recently have I myself tried to attempt writing some of it. But I do love history and I was intrigued at the fact that an author could attempt to tell historical stories in the form of poems. And that’s why I knew I had to pick this up from the Blogchatter library.

The blurb goes like this:

Is history your Waterloo? No more! The anthem ‘History is Boring’ is now passé. Here is a collection of historical tales about rebellious dancers and whiskeys; mysterious burials and missing keys; lost medals and quarantines and all you could only imagine to be. Presenting twenty-five delectable stories from the past that you may never have heard of before. What’s more? They are sassy and classy; easy and breezy; terse and very much in verse!

The title and the cover which has images of different historical events and figures over the pages of a book make you want to move forward and know what the book is all about.

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Book Review – Facing Up by Bear Grylls

Facing Up by Bear Grylls

Bear Grylls is regarded as one of the youngest Britons to climb Everest at the age of 23. Over the years since then, he has gone on to cross the North Atlantic in an open inflatable boat, led an expedition to one of the remotest unclimbed peaks in Antarctica and gone para-motoring over the Himalayas.

Facing Up: A remarkable journey to the summit of Mount Everest is his first book. Does it work? Let’s check it out.

The blurb goes like this:

At the age of twenty – three, Bear Grylls became the youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Having suffered a broken back only two years before in a freefall parachuting accident, he overcame incredible odds, not to mention great hardship and danger, to reach the top of the world’s highest mountain.

Facing Up is the story of his adventure, his courage and humour, his friendship and faith. 

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In conversation with Nishant Kaushik: Author of multiple bestsellers

Nishant Kaushik

Source: http://www.bookchums.com/author_photos/
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Nishant Kaushik is the bestselling author of Watch Out! We are MBA, A Romance with Chaos, Conditions Apply and My Father is a Hero. He keeps a day job with Infosys Limited and currently lives in Australia. You can find him on Twitter.

He joins us for a quick tete-a-tete.

Aseem: How does it feel to be the author of multiple bestsellers?

Nishant: I am not yet content. Bestseller is an ambiguous term, because as well as your books sell, they can always sell more. I keep working towards that.

Aseem: How different is writing novels when compared to blogging? Do you like one above the other?

Nishant: I prefer writing novels (I am not a very regular blogger). When I write novels I get a chance to escape the real world and delve into the alternate universe my characters inhabit. That journey is something I relish, and I don’t get to experience it while blogging.

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Book Review – My Father is a Hero

My Father Is A Hero

My Father Is A Hero

Source: http://srishtipublishers.com/images/book
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‘My Father is a Hero’ by Srishti Publishers is Nishant Kaushik’s fifth novel after four bestsellers. At it’s core, it is a heartwarming story of the love between a father and his daughter. Does it work? Let’s check it out.

The blurb goes like this –

Vaibhav Kulkarni has had few accomplishments worth boasting about in his modest life and career. Yet, his happy universe lies intact in the love and pride his ten-year-old daughter inspires in him.

Nisha Kulkarni justifies every reason to be the favourite child of Pune’s premier school – be it her academic brilliance, her exceptional facility with music, or simply her unassuming charm. With his daughter showing promising signs of a stellar success story, Vaibhav has made peace with own unrequited dreams of the past.

But when the girl mysteriously starts losing her mojo and spirals into despair and seclusion, Vaibhav faces the toughest test of his life as a single father – to reclaim his child’s trust and happiness. What distance will a middle-class man with limited means go to show his daughter the merit in believing in a dream? Read this gripping tale of love, courage, and of the emergence of an ordinary man as an extraordinary hero.

For starters, the book has a nice cover design which perfectly captures the essence of the story. Everything about it be it the bag or the father and daughter holding hands is so well thought of.

Nishant has a lovely story at hand. The book starts off slowly as it shows the deep bond of love between Vaibhav and Nisha. Along with going out of his way to ensure that the smile never leaves her face, he also makes it a point to instill the right virtues in her despite the challenges of bringing her up as a single parent.

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Book Review – Crossroads: It’s about time..

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Source: https://hitakshibawablog.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/wpid-final-book-cover-jpg.jpeg

Crossroads – Its about time is Preeti Singh’s second book after the acclaimed Flirting with Fate which was nominated for the Commonwealth Booker’s Prize of 2012. It won the Best Debut Crime Fiction Award in the same year. She has also been writing for various magazines like Femina and Women’s Era. So does her 2nd novel work? Let’s check it out.

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Book Review – Messiah of the Scarlet Silence

“Messiah of the Scarlet Silence” is Arun Chaturvedi’s first writing attempt. Interestingly this book is available only in very select bookstores across the country. Maybe the author decided that he wanted to see the crowd reaction before printing more copies. Nonetheless, I bought it because crime thrillers are something which greatly interest me. Does it work?

The blurb goes like this –

There has always been a conflict between justice as a temporary phenomenon meted through a procedure, and the eternal conscience embedded deep within every subconscious state. Justice delayed, or even denied has had reverberating repercussions prompting individuals to mete out justice in a manner they deem as justified.

Molestation and rapes are rampant, and very few woman get their true justice. Many shy away from the courts fearing the stigma as well as the caustic remarks from the society. The trauma is intensified in court when the accused defense attorney attempt at character assassination to belittle the victim or make the incident look like a consensual act. The outdated legalities and the legal process itself are too slow, while the punitive punishments hardly serve as deterrents.

In this fictional incident based at Mumbai, a young girl is raped and murdered. And extraordinary situation demands a different remedial, and down the line, a bereaved sympathizer is created, who takes on the role as the messiah of the silent death, the scarlet silence.

While the story remains focused primarily on the police, the plot weaves into place the role of the judiciary, media, politician, underworld, and the public. It questions the role of these external elements that transform an honest person into a hardened killer. It raises hard questions on a crime that is rampant and continues unabated. It speaks of the core of the system that needs to be transformed. By including factual incidents, readers can co – relate those with this story that links the facts and fiction, to give it a realistic dimension.

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Book review – Love, Life and all that Jazz!

Love, Life and all that Jazz is Ahmed Faiyaz’s (Our esteemed alumunus from SIBM Pune = 2004 – 06 batch) first novel. The book is a journey of 4 friends (Tanveer, Tania, Sameer and Vikram) across 6 years from 2003-09. The novel does initially seem to be the run – of – the – mill kinds of novels which we find in our country today among young writers who think they are the next Chetan Bhagat in the making. But as it moves on, you do realise that this guy has a story to tell unlike many others of our generation.

Tania and Sameer have been in love for a long time. She is an interior decorator in Mumbai and both of them find it tough to balance their lives as Sameer goes to do MBA in UK and subsequently work there. Vikram is charming and affluent and a casanova kind of guy who can get a girl very easily but later goes on to do a lot more meaningful and constructive things in life. Tanveer is hardworking and ambitious and also insecure about his life and relationships as he has to cope up with a demanding job, a demeaning boss and the pressure of having to support his family. The rest of the book deals with how their lives intertwine with each other and they end up being the best of friends despite all the issues and problems they have.

Interestingly for a novel, this one is in 3rd person at many places. Initially it felt a bit weird but then it was sounding really good as I read it further. I am sure the story may not sound very appealing to a lot of people especially to the literary connoisseurs, but the fact is that as you read on, it does feel out of life. Thankfully and I guess I am saying this again, there isn’t much of sexual innuendo or sex scenes per se in this. Have always wondered what is the point of lacing a book with a lot of unecessary sex scenes! What I like most about the book is its freshness and the story about friends and how each of them cope up with their issues but still stand by each other and end up at the same place after 6 years from where they started. Yes, the story takes place over 6 years!

If you want a sweet and simple read without any frills, go for this book! I read this book in 4 hours non – stop. One thing is for sure all of you would be able to relate to it at some point or the other!

Rating – 3/5

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