Leaving and Other Stories (Lockdown Liaisons Book 1)-Shobhaa De

Book: Leaving and Other Stories (Lockdown Liaisons Book 1)
Author: Shobhaa De
Publisher: Simon and Schuster India

What has this lockdown inspired you to do?

Leaving and Other Stories (Lockdown Liaisons Book 1) is the first book of a collection of short stories by Shobhaa De, revolving around the theme of the lockdown. This book has 4 such stories. After this, Dubai? is the story of a woman lived the high life, with a plush lifestyle, who realizes the truth about life when her husband loses his job and stays at home. Leaving is the story of a construction worker in Dharavi, who has to comes to terms with the pandemic and has to choose between staying in Mumbai with Suman, a person he has fallen in love with, or to return home for survival. The Man who Wanted More is written from the perspective of a man who considers his wife his ticket to money and chided her on bringing less dowry and is willing to anything to make her suffer. A Whiff of Eternity is the story of a woman who has suffered multiple whammies due to the pandemic, and when it seems as if the things were finally going her way, she suffers another setback.

The stories are written in an interesting, unconventional manner, that adopt the tone and mannerisms of the characters they are representing. The plotlines of the stories are quite simple. They take up the idea pf the lockdown and then show its impact on the characters, both emotionally and physically as they adjust to the new normal. One thing that is common in the stories is the idea of love and how that changes with respect to the time and distance we are at with our loved ones.

Shobhaa is known for bringing in characters that seem real and the same is the case with the 4 stories in the book. Rustic, life-like, emotional, powerful, there are quite a few adjectives that describe the characters in this book. She has made fierce woman characters, who do not shy away from speaking their minds, and a greedy man, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Each of the 4 stories have brought to fore a different perspective of the lockdown and how their lives got impacted by Covid.

Lockdown Liaisons Book One was quite a ride and scores a 4.25/5 for me.

Grab a copy here.

Be Your Own Sunshine-James Allen

Book: Be Your Own Sunshine: Towards a Better Tomorrow
Author: James Allen
Publisher: Srishti Publications

Do you think that positive thoughts are a magnet for positivity in your life?

Be Your Own Sunshine by James Allen is a collection of 4 of his works, As a Man Thinketh, From Passion to Peace, Man: King of Mind, Body and Circumstance & Foundation Stones to Happiness and Success. The book sums up the hows, whys and whats of energizing your brain and tapping into the power of positive energy and maintain a balance between our inner self and the outer self. Each of the 4 parts of the book deal with a specific aspect and at the end of the book, you can channelize the positivity in you.

The book is an amalgamation of various ideas to train one’s thoughts to affect their physical, mental, emotional and social health in a positive manner. In the first part of the book, the author talks about how to manage internal factors in order to be a successful person and harness the internal energy of one’s being to achieve a peaceful mind. In the second part, the author details the various intrinsic factors that are a speed breaker in one’s life, and how to manage them to achieve one’s goal. Moving to the third part of the book, once we have identified the issues internally, it talks about steps as to how to beat them and be free. In the fourth and last part of the book, one learns the implementation and of balance of thoughts and speech and how to better implement the points explained in your own life.

While the advice in the book is quite useful and interesting, they way it has been presented is not reader friendly. There is a lot of jargon and the language is quite complex, which causes one to lose interest in the happenings of the book. The presentation is quite bland, and the same concepts could have been explained better using graphics. Being a self-help book, it could have been better designed that could have interested more people.

Overall, a decent book, that is helpful, but can improve upon its design.

Get your copy of the book here.

The Call: Part One ‘Mumbai’-Vipul Barpute

Book: The Call: Part One ‘Mumbai’
Author: Vipul Barpute
Publisher: Notion Press

Would you tell the truth if your life depended on it?

The Call: Part One ‘Mumbai’ by Vipul Barpute is the story of one night when a radio channel gets a phone call that is quite different from what they usually receive. That night, on the show called Let Your Heart Out with Richa, she has one of the most popular romance writers Sid. He gets a befitting welcome and his fans were going bonkers, asking him questions, when a call comes which turns the show around. Everything seems normal at first, but as the darkness of night sets in, the studio encounters something unexpected, something uncalled for. To know what happened, just get the book and start reading.

The book is a thriller that will keep you on your nerves at each page. With a storyline that moves in waves, with some parts moving normally and suddenly you get a twist, the reader is entirely engaged throughout the book. The simple setting of the book is quite interesting, and the way the Vipul has actually crafted the entire scene is captivating. The book does have 2-3 mistakes here and there, nothing that another round of proofreading cannot correct. Towards the end, the book was quite fast and intriguing, with the climax leaving the reader wanting for more in the next part.

Being a story that stands on the strength of its characters, the author has done a great job creating individual character traits of his primary characters. Siddharth, with his story, is like an onion who we discover through the course of the story. It’s his story that acts as the fuel for events in the story. The best part of the story is that with the conclusion of this part, the reader is still not sure of the identity and the character of Siddharth. Another character who impressed me was that of the Game Master and the way he plans and executes the entire concept. It is but natural that while reading a reader will try to guess the name of the game master, but that is something that was a surprise till the end.

Overall, a thriller story that will engage the reader and enthrall them.

The book scores a 4.25/5 for me

Get a copy here.

Song of a Solo Man-Amit Verma

Book: Song of a Solo Man: Poems for Every Man
Author: Amit Verma

Publisher: Amazon Kindle

What is the one thing that plagues you the most?

Song of a Solo Man by Amit Verma is a collection of poems, written in free prose that chronicle the happenings of a married life through the eyes of the Husband. Each poem is accompanied by an illustration that depicts the theme of the poem. Around 45 poems are present in the book, each one about a different aspect.

The theme of the book is an interesting one, which talks about a solo man, yet each story is about a man and his wife. With a funny anecdote here and there, Amit has created good poems that can touch your soul. Any person who is married, or in a relationship will definitely relate to it. The observations by the Husband are astute and we see the life of the character unfold in front of us as we move ahead. The things that didn’t work for me were the grammatical errors, and despite being a free prose poetry, these cannot be attributed to creative liberty. The titles of the poems can be quite interesting, but the current ones are not that catchy.

The character of the husband is an interesting one who gives us the perspective of his life as he sees it. We see his emotions coming to the fore, sometimes justified, sometimes not. Its his poetry, his wave of feelings that he pens.

The preface and the epilogue is an interesting and the question that is asked in the beginning, will keep a reader looking for the answer in each poem.

Overall, a good collection of stories that score 2.75/5 for me.

Get a copy of the book here.

Everything and Nothing-Nilotpal Dutta

Book: Everything and Nothing

Author: Nilotpal Dutta

Publisher: Tara-India Research Press

Do you believe in the adage that “History Repeats Itself”?

Everything and Nothing by Nilotpal Dutta is set in the years around the independence of India from the British. The story traces the journey of Damyanti who flees Naokhali as an aftermath of the riots post partition to Patna, where she reestablishes her life until post-independence events of the Emergency, Khalistan Movement and the Mandal Commission bring back the dark memories of her past. However hard she tries to move away from her past, some or the other event comes back to haunt her. While she always considered outsiders to be the problem, her viewpoint changes when the movement for the Ram Mandir intensifies and she realizes that the outsiders are not always defined by borders. A heartwarming story of love and redemption, the book is a tribute to a generation that found the strength over and over again to rebuild on the foundation of ruins. A generation that loved, lost and loved again, but never lost hope.

Everything and Nothing by Nilotpal Dutta is a story that shows the transition of a country as it grapples to emerge from the shadows of colonialism and how the ideals of a person change with the changing circumstances. The author has started the story pre-independence as he takes us through the minds of the people and how social identities were important in the earlier times. Using the eyes of Damyanti, he describes the changing times as she witnesses the unity of people as a child when Bengal was reunited. Her ideals are established through those times, and until the tragedy becomes unbearable in Naokhali, her belief in her homeland was unbreakable. As the story progresses and Damyanti begins her life afresh, we see multiple events testing her ideals time and again, which is a social commentary of how the society moved from a social identity to a religion and caste-based identity. The plot of the book is extremely engaging and there is no point where it dulls. Nilotpal has blended historical events with the plot with ease and it is a journey that is quite interesting. With a singular narrative and a single perspective, there are times where a reader might pause and contemplate and might just relate to current situations as well. It is a story well written, which will resonate with a lot of people. The book explores multiple themes of relationships, hope, trust and ethics, all of which get a proper closure in a climax befitting the story. The one thing that deserves a mention is the element of irony in the story at multiple points.

Coming to the characters, Nilotpal has given due focus to the characters. He created Damyanti as his storyteller as she narrates the happenings of the times as well as her commentary on the same. Her belief systems form a critical component of the story. The story details how every situation made her belief systems and how they impact the future events of the story. Her relationships with people are explored and detailed across generation. Her resilience, faith and resolve are tested yet they never break. The second character, although subtle, is the country of India. As he explores the transition of the country from being a colony to being independent, suffering through the scars of partition, religious clashes and social divide, we see the nation evolve and impact the story as well. As the story moves, we see the nation change and thus change the narrative.

It is a must-read book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has an interest in history-based fiction.

The book scores a 4.75/5 from me.

Grab a copy here.

Chiranjivi (The Beginning)-Vasant Kallola

Book: Chiranjivi-The Beginning

Author: Vasant Kallola

Publisher: Times Group Books

Everyone wants to live forever, but according to you, is that a boon or a bane?

Chiranjivi-The Beginning by Vasant Kallola is set in the aftermath of the Mahabharata, a 1000 years after the war. The story chronicles the story of an ordinary boy, Govind, as he traverses the length and breath of the country to gather enough power to face a powerful sage who has decided to annihilate the Earth. The sage is one of the Chiranjivis and is so powerful that normal human beings cannot touch him. Would an ordinary man be able to face an extraordinary sage? This is a story of how resolve stands against power and how a wish for survival can make an ordinary person, extraordinary.

Chiranjivi-The Beginning is an interesting take on the stories post the happenings of the Mahabharata. The story is based on Ashwatthama and through flashbacks, we see what happened in his life that led to the events of the current book. Written in a mix of novel and a play, the language is in the present tense and is engaging enough for a reader. The storytelling is good, with a mix of theatre, mystery and suspense. The language of the book is easy to understand. The one thing that didn’t work for me was the abruptness in the scenes. Govind was on a journey that was supposed to be dangerous, but in every scene, the build up to the suspense was good, but the things ended quite quickly, almost as if the author was in a hurry to move on, which was a big dampener for me. I would have recommended the author to add a bit more flesh to the story, and dividing the complete thing into a trilogy as compared to a duology. The ending of this book was satisfactory.

Coming to the characters, the character of Govind was given due focus and throughout the story, we see his character arc getting developed as required by the story through the various situations that he faces, and the people he meets. Coming to the character of Ashwatthama, we see his character developing was well, albeit to the negative side as he hatches his nefarious plans to fulfill his objective. Other than these 2, none of the characters got their due focus, whereas there was ample opportunity to detail a few more of them.

Overall, a good concept that could have been executed better. The book scores a 3.63/5 for me

Get a copy of the book here.

Love Bites-Ravinder Singh with Richa S Mukherjee

Book: Love Bites

Author: Ravinder Singh with Richa S Mukherjee

Publisher: HarperCollins India

Do you think the Lockdown has helped you take a closer look at your life and get closer to people?

Love Bites is the story of Meera, a who is bored during the pandemic induced lockdown and had nothing to do until she meets Kevin, a boy who lives in the apartment above hers. While they are unable to see each other, thet communicate through their balconies. With music wafting in and messages, food and condiments making their way across the balconies using a basket, an unusual story writes itself. Like life, this story also has its share of bumps, and maybe their story was meant to have a different ending.

Penned by Ravinder Singh with Richa S Mukherjee, Love Bites is a flavourful love story that seems oddly relevant to me. With bite sized moments of love, the authors have added different condiments of emotions in the story that are like a delicacy which infuse a completely different flavor with each bite a reader takes. The story gets its foundation from visual storytelling and since the protagonists are locked up in their respective homes, we experience their story through other senses like taste, smell and sound. Each moment has been painstakingly written keeping in mind this aspect which makes it a wonderful read. The climax of the story was surprising and just like a dessert, leaves you wanting for more.

In a short story, defining characters is quite a difficult task, but in just one scene, the authors managed to paint a picture of how Meera and Kevin visualize each other. The characters have their own quirks and the details of how they come up are quite lovely.

The story gets a 4.63/5 from me and I would implore everyone to go and get a taste of this amazing dish prepared by the authors.

Grab a copy here.