The Runaway Groom-Ravinder Singh with Richa S Mukherjee

Book: The Runaway Groom
Author: Ravinder Singh with Richa S Mukherjee
Publisher: HarperCollins India

What would you do when faced with an impossible choice?

The Runaway Groom is the story of Arunoday, who races against time to face his fiancé on the day of their marriage and tell her that he cannot go through with the wedding, and then rush to the airport to catch a flight, all in a span of 40 minutes. What unravels next in this not-so-conventional story is a comedy of errors that highlight the cons of the decision our protagonist makes.

The story is thodi filmy, thodi comedy and that is what makes it a fun ride. The plot is simple and engaging which makes it a breezy read. A bite-sized read, it has every element that a story should have to make it enjoyable. Set in the background of a big-fat Indian wedding, the authors have used words to paint a picture of all that is happening in the story. There are some instances that would make you laugh uncontrollably, and some which are a jibe at the customs that we have. I loved the reference to the laddoos. The climax, though a bit expected, was refreshing in the way it was presented. A special mention to the way the emotions of the people are highlighted in the story.

The character of Arunoday is the classic male protagonist yet had a different vibe to him in the way he was sketched. I loved the character of Devika, and I would really love to see what happens after the book closes, maybe with a sequel.

The Groom runs away with 4 laddoos and 1 peda, scoring a 4.25 for me.

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4’KD Design-Kavita Jhala

Book: 4’KD Design-Journeying Through Design Thinking and Processing Output

Author: Kavita Jhala

Publisher: Self Published

Balancing creativity and logic have always been one problem that has flummoxed designers.

4’KD Design by Kavita Jhala is a short guide on how to use effective design thinking. Designing is a process that is used to identify problems and propose effective solutions, but more often than not, products fail to fulfill their designed objectives. The only way to correct this is to Rethink your design and this is precisely what this book does. This book gets you into the flow of the design process enabling you to create your pathway.

The book is divided into 10 chapters that begin from the basics of design and take you through the entire process of how the brain works, balancing logic and creativity, how to incorporate design thinking, what constitutes a good design and how to make it work. After understanding the process of designing and the art behind balancing logic and creativity, we move on to a critical aspect, which is understanding what is to be done, and the author recommends a design checklist, which leads to establishment of good design practices, which are detailed in the book and one can understand them quite easily. Kavita also gives the reader a roadmap which one can follow to ensure good design practices and maintain a healthy balance between concept and actualization. Once the process is done, the author emphasizes that reflection on your design is important by means of feedback through various means to ensure learning and improvement of one’s own process. In the end, Kavita has given some tools that can be used for implementing the concepts explained in the book as well as some good recommendations for readings on the subject.

Overall, it is a short but an effective read on design thinking and I would recommend it to everyone. Its just not about design, its about a process and how you create ideas, concepts and products that work, and in that context, it is relevant to everyone, be it a student, a manager or an artist or a creator.

The book scores a 4.33/5 from me.

Get a copy here.