Mehrun-Najia Rizvi

Book: Mehrun

Author: Najia Rizvi

Publisher: Half Baked Beans

Do you believe in the concept of fate, of people meeting each other for a reason?

Do you believe that everything that happens in our life, happens for a reason?

“Mehrun” is the story of Mehrun Khan, an aspiring Healthcare Manager who enrolls in a course in a college in Indore and how her choices impact the direction of lives of Mehrun and all those attached to her. The book opens in the year 2004 when Mehrun joins her course in Indore. With the usual anecdotes of college life of introductions to seniors, freshers party, birthday celebrations, group outings and hostel life, we experience different emotions of Mehrun and get introduced to her thinking and her thought processes. We also get to meet her classmates and friends who become an indispensable part of her life as it becomes evident as the story progresses. Meera, Mehrun’s classmate is from the same town, Bhilai, that Mehrun is from. Her roommate is Neetu, who was the first person she met on the campus when she arrived. On the next day, we are introduced to other people in her class, Divya, the loud one, Mudit is the one who sketches amazing portraits and is extremely handsome. Nishan is the comedic one whereas Puneet looks exactly like Nishan but has a feminine voice.

Lastly, we are introduced to Aarush Nair. In Mehrun’s own words, “His sarcasm and wits keep us entertained between breaks. He walks as if he rules the world. He never initiates any conversation and you could easily mistake him to be arrogant, but he has deep, kind eyes. There is definitely more to his personality than what he is trying to project.”

As the story moves forward, it comes to light that Mehrun is a practical person, for whom reality comes before emotions. Her motto is to “follow logic” rather than “falling for emotions”. Despite other people around her who seem to be falling in and put of relationships, Mehrun keeps her distance from it. However, it is Aarush that seems to change her logic. What he means to her is what she cannot comprehend yet she always wants him around.  When Mehrun decides to move out of the country, and is in a dilemma, she wants to reach out to Aarush.

What happens next?

Has Mehrun given up her logic and fallen for Aarush?

Mehrun is a story of coming of age and how emotions drive is to certain decisions. Aarush and Mehrun, the two protagonists of the story meet each other and walk away multiple times during the course of the plot that spans from 2004 to 2016 and from locations from Bhilai, Indore, Jaipur, Delhi & Doha. As the time passes, we see Mehrun’s emotions changing. With a storm in her personal as well as the professional life, she now has to juggle a tsunami in her emotional life as well. Battling with multiple emotions, Mehrun is a roller coaster ride with unexpected twists and turns. A wonderful reminder of college times and young romance, it is also a story of how belief in the idea of love and soulmates still holds water in todays times.

Najia Rizvi has debuted with a 4 star story. A definite read.

The Allegory of Endearment-Zeeshan Haider

Book: The Allegory of Endearment

Author: Zeeshan Haider

Publisher: Bluerose Publishers

Blurb:

The Allegory of Endearment is an anthology of poems which are the outcome of the Author’s world. It expresses the role of a believer, the aspiration of a lover, and the purpose of life. This work talks about the dimensions of the physical and the meta-physical world. In this book, the aspects of love, faith, charity, altruism, deceit, perseverance and mythology has been dealt with.

It is the work of perseverance of the inner voice. It conveys the irrationality in today’s world, propagates the virtue of morality, and throws light on the rudimentary principles of survival and death. This book is the mirror of knowledge.

It is the creation that also talks about self-governance, the virtue of evolution and the description of living. This text has the layers of the fictional realm which dictates about the attributes of hope, courage, affection, and mortality.
This work throws light upon the value of education and the damages caused by anti-social beings.

It is the interpretation of realism and at the same time deciphers the fictitious code of love and conviction"

Review:

A collection of 72 poems, the book deals with multiple subjects as mentioned in the blurb. Some poems in the anthology are good but most of them did not work for me for multiple reasons. There are grammatical mistakes in the book, which cannot be passed off as poetic liberty. Apart from some of the poems, the general mood of the book is that of sadness. There are certain poems where connecting to the theme is difficult as well and, in some poems, a symmetry or a rhyme is missing which makes it a seem like a prose written in disjointed sentences. The editing of the book could have been crisper as well because there are multiple places where double blanks are present.

As this is the first work by the author, I am sure we will see some good works come from him in the future. Some of the poems in the book do show good promise.

I would rate the book 2.5/5.

Room No 904-Shivani Singhal

Book: Room No 904?

Author: Shivani Singhal

Publisher: Partridge India

Each of us has that familiar memory of walking into a college for the first time, exhilarated yet nervous, butterflies in the stomach. This becomes more prominent when you stay away from your home for the first time, in a hostel. This is when friends become important, having a support system becomes a necessity.

Room No 904? Is based in a similar setting. Tamanna moves from Srinagar to Delhi to pursue a degree in law. Luckily, she gets a room in the hostel, but from the beginning, she starts getting a feeling that something is not right. Like every college, this one also has its secrets hidden inside the walls of the college. Allotted room 904 in the Narmada Hostel, she gets a nightmare on the very first night in the hostel. Coupled with the warden behaving weirdly during the room allocation and the hostel mates treating it like a taboo, things start becoming difficult for Tamanna. On top of the mysterious room, she has a run in with a senior, Tanya, who is bossy and vengeful. As a silver lining to this cloud, she befriends a girl opposite to her hostel room, Smera, who is 4 years senior to her but acts an anchor to her. She also gets involved with Tanya’s classmate, Surya. We are also introduced to Nandini, Tamanna’s paternal aunt, who is her guardian after the tragic death of Tamanna’s parents.

As the book moves ahead, we get to understand the reason why Room no 904 is central to the plot. We also get to move along the psyche of the characters and how they change as the time progresses. Why is Room No 904 such a taboo in the college? Why is Tamanna feeling uneasy in the college life? Are Surya & Smera truly helping her in the college?

Room No 904? explores different themes in the plot. Though the mail plot is a mystery, the subplots explore topics such as depression, teenage bullying, ragging in colleges and teenage love. It expertly weaves all the subplots into a coherent narrative that has equal amounts of mystery, thrill and emotions. Shivani has described the characters in detail and the scenes are believable. The theme of depression and bullying by peers has been handled extremely well by her. The plot of romance in the book has been shown with multiple perspectives and has a mature writing on the theme.

The climax of the book is quite unexpected and deserves due credit for its proper execution and planning. Guessing the ending is a bit difficult and that has earned this story another half-star.

For me, the book deserves a 4/5.