This is the story of Vivek and Lucy and their love for each other. Vivek is missing for two years, feared dead in a flight that could not land in Bhutan due to poor weather conditions and the plane is presumed to have crashed. Lucy is trying to pick up pieces of her shattered life as she is asked to travel to Sri Lanka for work, where she meets a look-alike of Vivek, who does not recognise her.
The above broadly describes the storyline, which should lead to a predictable happy ending, as Vivek makes an entry in the story somewhere in the middle of the book. It is the twists and turns in the story that make it interesting.
The language is simple and easy to read. My complaint is about editorial inputs – grammar and vocabulary. A fast read, which will appeal to movie buffs.
Circumstances can bring out the worst or the best in us. We may endlessly argue about the bad in a person, but there is also good, which may manifest in adversities.
This Pulitzer award winner novel is about the best that a human being can be. Marie Laure’s father builds a model of their Paris neighbourhood for her to navigate the real streets when she goes blind at the age of six. German occupation of France forces them to flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast to live with a grand-uncle, with a national treasure in his custody. He builds another model of the new neighbourhood for his daughter.
In a parallel track, Werner, an orphan in Germany, is enchanted by a radio. He goes on to master the skills to repair radios, and joins the Germany of Hitler, as a tracker of radio signals by the resistance. Travelling through different countries with the German army, he lands in Saint-Malo.
Here, the paths of the two orphans merge. Here, they display the strength of character, that raises them beyond the ordinary.
This is a heart touching story that makes you believe in the good in you in the difficult times that we are living in.
This is a collection of seven short stories. As you read one story after another, you move in a fantasy land of myriad emotions – ambition, passion, jealousy, love, anger, and many others. And then it hits you, it is not a land of fantasies, the author is writing about our society, our lives.
A pigeon woos a hen with a solution to the Kashmir problem, a jilted lover would go to any length for revenge, an orator instigates his followers through poems, a writer gets her opening inspiration through blood and gore, a woman becomes a killing machine in her hallucinations in a Delhi of future – instigated by a charismatic leader, sibling bonding and envy, time travel for two minutes to realise your dreams.
The blurb of the book says it all – there is a thin line between reality and fantasy.
A distraught Arjun blames Lord Krishna for Abhimanyu’s death in the battle at Kurukshetra. The Lord tells him that the death was the result of Arjuna’s ambition for his son to be remembered as a great warrior when the youngster was not even fully trained, and had many attributes other than of a warrior, where he could have excelled… and lived. The God goes on to explain that such deaths would continue if parents insist on their ambitions to be projected on their wards.
This opening chapter is a prologue to the short stories that follow which are set in the current times. Death is only a metaphor – even the death of an ambition or a passion is an end. One can relate to each of the stories as the characters are either within us or around us. Except the last story, which was more of a psychological thriller, but interesting.
Women have been traditionally relegated to the background since eons, more in a supportive role to the family. The bias continues to this day, despite more of them now coming forward and successfully managing both professional and domestic roles.
This book is an attempt by the author to showcase the story of one such strong female. She has her own individuality and does not hesitate in expressing her feelings. This is the new woman. In fact, there are few other women in the story, who are equally strong; and pursue their desires.
The book deals with one aspect of the modern woman – her physical desires, and her pursuit of the same, even outside of conjugal bed. Her other pursuits – personal or professional are mentioned in passing.
The author has handled a bold subject with sensitivity so that it does not turn into erotica.
The review is by Sanjay Chandra, author of The Gymnast.
Halloween nights are not for the weak-hearted, what with all the scary masks. But the fun-filled laughter of the children and the young adolescents is enough to soon put one at ease and bring on a smile on the face of even the grumpiest. The death of a child during such a night is unthinkable.
But this is what happens in a village Halloween party in England. A young girl is found dead, her head forced down in a bucket full of apples bobbing in water, while the other children were shrieking with joy in the next room. The party is also attended by an author, who is a friend of Hercule Poirot.
This is the cue for the famous Belgian detective to make an entry. It is a small village where everyone knows everyone. Who could have murdered a young child, who was overheard boasting about witnessing a murder a few years back, only a few hours before her death? The girl was known to be a compulsive liar, whose tall claims could not be taken seriously.
Poirot goes around meeting people and sifting through evidence to eventually nail the killer before another murder could take place.
Anything more might spoil the chill of reading the book on a winter night. Let me just say… Another gripping case solved by the master detective.
The review is by Sanjay Chandra, author of The Gymnast.
Contact sanjaychandra59@gmail.com for Book Reviews, Author Show, Guest Blogs, and Creative Writing Workshop.
Past is the stepping stone to future. A good or a bad future is for us to build on the foundation of life gone by. But what if the past is not the immediate past, not even decades old, but one that goes back centuries! And if it was so traumatic that forgetting it is a tempting invitation!
The book is the story of Kashmir, not only in the present, but one that is built on centuries of persecution. Aditya is a young priest, who returns to renovate a temple, demolished eons ago, and whose ancestors perished in a futile attempt to save it.
Next to the ruins is a mosque, and Anwar is the son of the Imam. He has vowed to create an Islamic Kashmir. Torn between her love for the priest, and her faith, is Zeba, sister of Anwar.
This is a great story – of a search for roots, and about the strength of forgiveness. There is yet hope – for the future.
The review is by Sanjay Chandra, author of The Gymnast.
Contact sanjaychandra59@gmail.com for Book Reviews, Author Show, Guest Blogs, and Creative Writing Workshop.
A young woman – she is the sister of the evil sarpanch; her husband – a young man liked by the villagers and a leader to the underprivileged for which he is murdered on the behest of the village head; the young man’s precocious sister; the beloved Raja Saheb; a young doctor settled in USA; and his wife.
The village festival held every 12 years is the setting where all the characters come together. Miracles happen during the mela as Lord Shree comes down amongst the devotees to bless the devout and finish evil.
As I started reading the book, I was certain that I would not like the story – I am not a fan of the supernatural genre. I was mistaken. It was a light breezy read once I had gotten over my initial shock of miracles. Besides, I have been a big fan of the many Bollywood potboilers, and the story reminded me of the movies from the 70s.
The book needs few editorial inputs.
The review is by Sanjay Chandra, author of The Gymnast.
Contact sanjaychandra59@gmail.com for Book Reviews, Author Show, Guest Blogs, and Creative Writing Workshop.
We gather snippets of wisdom as we grow older. We also want the younger generation to gain from our experiences and not commit blunders or follies that we fell to. That brings in a tendency to be repetitive and often preachy. But each generation has its own challenges, and would love to learn from its mistakes. That is what life is about.
The title of the anthology is apt. Each of the short stories in the book is about different facets of relationships, and life itself, but most of them relate to incidents in the lives of the lower middle-class. Quite a few of these snippets may not be even relevant to the fast paced technology driven upper middle class upward generation.
I have mentioned in one of my earlier reviews also, an author has to walk a tightrope while delivering message – it has to be subtle. The book suffers from an in your face sermonising. It also needs improvement in grammar.
The book is an attempt at character building in the younger generation.
The review is by Sanjay Chandra, author of The Gymnast.
This was another interesting translated semi-non-fiction that I read this year in August. The reason for the unusual genre classification – one section of the book, out of the three in which it is divided, consists of short stories. These stories are based on the life of some personalities from the film industry, obviously with changed names. If you are conversant with the lives of the celebrities from around 1950 to the 1970s, then you just might identify them.
Part 1 of the book covers 10 articles by Abbas, each covering one or the other great from the industry across diverse aspects of filmmaking. These are the people who Abbas came in contact with, and who influenced him. These are producers, directors, music directors, lyricists, and actors. As you read the articles, you can feel the admiration that the author had for these personalities.
The last section consists of articles that Abbas wrote as a film critique and other miscellaneous subjects about films, covering diverse aspects of filmmaking. The articles are witty at times, poignant at other times, and make you visualise a period that many of us may not even have read about.
Since this work is a translation from Urdu, I do not know if the translation does justice to the original writing. But for me the book was a wonderful looking back into the past.
I only wish that the translators come up with more volumes covering other artists from that era. There is only one issue that I had with the book – the author comes across as biased in favour or against certain filmmakers. An example – while he justifies the changes that Raj Kapoor made to his script in Bobby, in the same breath he condemns the interference by Dilip Kumar in the films that he acted in later years. But to give credit, he praises the latter as a great actor. And as I mentioned earlier, many of my favourite actors are missing. Maybe he did not find them mention-worthy.
An interesting read.
The review is by Sanjay Chandra, author of The Gymnast.
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