It's Always Been You by Kritika Malhotra !!!

            Ended up with another Romance Fiction this evening. After reading Arpita Sarkar's book, I thought let's read one more by a female author and then move towards male again. :-) And for a change, I liked the book. Kritika Malhotra is a Final year student of Hindu college, pursuing Honors in Physics. But as she has a passion to write, she worked as an intern with Viewspaper and kept publishing her articles on various different portals too. And the final result of her love for literature came out in the form of her debut novel which got released some months ago named- "It's Always Been You" which is being published by Mahaveer Publishers. The book carries a tag line too- "Can you be in live with two guys at the same time...?" Reading this, I thought that I am going to get bored with another typical triangle love story, but to my rescue, it wasn't that cheesy. :-)

              IT's ALWAYS BEEN YOU is not just a love story. In fact, it's not even a typical love story that everyone writes now-a-days. To be precise, Indian authors who get published in their college days itself. :-) It's the book about the thinking and approach towards life of the boys and girls studying in elite colleges of metro cities like Delhi. It's about how they see Love and how they fall into relationships. How they experience several break-ups but still manages to find a new partner for them within days. Because, for them what matters is a relationship, not the person. But, even they have that middle-standards feeling for LOVE which keep them in the airs of their ex-es and they don't find pleasure in their new partners like the last one. So, this is the story of this girl- Maully, studying in Hindu college, getting into an affair with Viraj (after her last break up with Rohan in junior college) and still loving Keyur whom she met before Viraj. So, for knowing the kinds of emotions that Maully had about both the guys, go get the book. :-)

           Kritika Malhotra- When I came to know about the release of her book, I was sure that she would have attempted a love story with a simple English language which most authors prefer to do now-a-days. But fortunately, the kind of vocabulary she has used throughout the book is the best part of it. I learnt lots of new words through this book. Kritika also knows how to carry the same emotion throughout the book, and how to write them in several ways, such that it does not turn monotonous and a reader can enjoy the read till the end of the book. She knows that the story demands some humor statements and funny scenarios, hence, she has added them excessively in the book, which I liked. :-) The Sabreen-Maully's chemistry in the initial part of the book is fun to read. I liked the part where Maully goes for dating with Keyur. It's so unpredictable. The description after having the First sex is cool rather than being vulgar like the attempt of some other authors. The frustration after Maully gets a bad result is another good part of the book. That's exactly how a student feels. Even, the way how author has connected the initials of the book with the climax gives you a good feeling about it. 

            I would rate this book- 3/5. That's average. Yes, because the story is not new. Only treatment is. 

   Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

A Walk Down The Lane by Arpita Ghosh Sarkar !!!

             Completed one more book written by a female Indian author- "A Walk Down The Lane". In India, we have very few female authors as most of them are either flirting before marriage or looking after their husband after the marriage. :-) There are very few of them who are interested in trying something new. And, seeing any book by a female writer fascinates me. The reason behind this is that the whole family is depended on a girl/wife/mother, so its very hard for them to write a book after fulfilling all the demands of their family. And, just writing a book is not a compliment, but if the book is nice, the girl/woman earns all my respect. And the latest in this list after Preeti Shenoy, Rashmi Bansal and Sneha Gupta is Arpita Ghosh Sarkar. She is an ex-banker and has worked with Citigroup and HSBC Bank. She left her job as she is a mother of a toddler now. And, now she is up with her debut novel- A Walk Down The Lane published by Srishti Publishers. 

            The book is a story of Shuvika who is frustrated with her job and wants a leave for some days. Finally, she gets one by screwing her colleague who wanted to go himself in spite of sanctioning her a leave. She goes to Westland, the jungle resort. There she meets her old neighbour's son who is quite older than her. She wanted to be alone but as he approaches her with politeness and friendliness, she allows him to be with her. And the friendship starts growing. Shuvika is 28 and this man-Joyneel is 40, almost 12 years elder to her. And, they meet other characters in the resort too. And, then the way this mature amicable relationship grows day by day, and the way Shuvika realizes that may be she is in love with Joyneel after other characters of the book pings her, she starts worrying. She has a dark past and she does not want to get in any relationship, nor is she interested in marrying any time in future. And the same happens with Joyneel, as even he has been through worst times after his wife ran away with her boyfriend. How, the story unfolds, how this mature book travels from Page No. 1 to 198, go get the book.

             The best part about the author is- She knows the length of her story and hence, she kept it of some 30,000 words only; rather than adding useless scenarios and making it a novel of 50,000 words. She has used only those scenes that are really useful in the story. She has passed many emotional statements and scenarios without making them lengthy and assuming that people would remember it if it will be carried in 10-12 pages. She has just included the main part which keeps you happy as you see that you are about to complete the book in just 2 hours after few pages. She has used short sentences, hence making it easy for readers to fasten their speed of reading as they won't get confused in any sentence. I can't state one or two best part of the book as the story is like a short piece of fiction. So, the whole book is very sweet. The one part that really makes you emotional is when Shuvika leaves the resort before everyone even when they asks her to stay back. And the climax is mid-blowing. After 140th page, the story goes up by a level. And as Author herself is matured, she has stated the emotions of a 28 years old-woman and 40-years old-man up to the mark. And, she has slapped all the writers who think that Love story can be written only by adding love elements to it. Ghanta!!! She has not even used the word- "Kiss" in the book. That's the power of a Good Author. Seekh lo kuch. And yes, the cover page is perfectly designed according to the theme of the story.. and so is the title.. 

               There's no drawback according to me. I rate this book 4/5. YES!!! You can go for it without any doubt. 

 Thanks.

  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

A Splash of Love by Rajeev Ranjan !!!

        It has become so common in the Indian fiction market to have the word "Love" in their titles. I don't know what's so interesting about the word but I am fed up of it. Even when some books that does not have the theme of love also prefers to have this word in their title or tagline so that the first time readers will get attracted to it. But, for me, this word doesn't interests me anymore in terms of reading a book. I want some other stories. There's one more book that I have just completed with the same word in the title- "A Splash of Love- A Kiss of Infatuation". When I started it, I was prepared to read the same kind of story that everyone is writing now-a-days but to my surprise, this book turned out to be more articulate and distinct from them. It's the first work by Rajeev Ranjan who is a Graduate in Physics from University of Delhi in 1996, then he pursued Post Graduation again in Physics and turned into an Indian Coast Guard. No, he is not a young author like others who are on the board these days. :-) So girls, chill. 

              A SPLASH OF LOVE is the story of a boy- Arunoday who is very sentimental in every situation. Right from the death of his childhood friend/cousin and the break up with his girlfriend, he remains a person who keeps asking the same questions to himself just to stop his attraction towards other useless things. But, he fails. Every time, he knows that he is getting attracted towards a wrong thing, even when he tries to stop him, his fate and his addiction magnetizes him to move towards the same direction. Because of this, he loses his friends, his girl-friend and many other consequences take place in his life. But, in the end, when he does some thing extra-ordinary in his life after getting mislead through out his youth days, he finds himself back in the position where he can smile without thinking of anything that he lost. And, the whole journey of this boy is what the book delivers to its readers. :-)

               Rajeev Ranjan has attempted a very interesting story which can be made into a Bollywood movie with great stars. The story has the power to keep the interest in a reader alive. Rajeev knows the basic of writing a fiction story that if something is described in the initial chapters, it should have some correspondence or statement in the ending chapters too. And this is what, I liked the most about this author. 

            In 1st 100 pages, the best part is the way the story started with the first chapter, and the way author took the story forward in every chapter makes you read it more faster to know what happened in future years with the protagonist and his career. The part when Arunodaya runs behind the auto-rickshaw is also a very beautiful part of the book. The campus recruitment part is damn funny. I enjoyed it. The moment when Anjali's father rings the bell, shivers you. You want the protagonist to be safe. Another heart-breaking part is when Sanjana commits that the crime is being done by her when even Arunodaya remains a major part of it. Last 100 pages is the real skill of the author. With every page, the story unfolds a new twist and you get the feeling that this book is going to be your favorite. Climax of the book, initially, is unpredictable but later on, becomes predictable but still excites you, that is what I liked about it. To climax, 5/5. And, the USP of the author is the first paragraph of every new chapter that he has started with his views/doubts on certain issues of love, life and dreams etc.

            The major drawback of this book is its publisher. No editing done. The book gets ruined because of several grammatical mistakes and spelling errors. At least, one proof-reading is required. Diamond Publishers also chose a very unattractive font for this book. They will have to work on this in future. They spoil the content of the book because of their carelessness. That is where this book disappoints you. And Rajeev sir, its good that you have kept only 5% of the conversations in the book with 95% of story in it, but at some places a reader wants to know what kind of conversation the couple or friends used to have among them. So, you could have added much of it too. Else, you have done a terrific job. Looking forward to your next book. 

            I rate this book- 3.5/5. 

  Thanks.

  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

The Suicide Banker by Puneet Gupta !!!

             It has been a long time since I have read a book which does not have Love story as its theme. In fact, this book does not have any equation of love in it. I never ever expected myself to read a book that would be purely based on Banking and how the internal system operates under the banking sector of India. Every time, I was about to read it, Puneet sir nudged me that "It's the book that is purely based on Banking so take care that you don't get exhausted while reading it". :-) Finally, I started it and the book kept me hook to it. Puneet Gupta is a banker himself with 15 years of experience. He is currently working in Middle East. Very middle-class by nature, very amicable and very soft-spoken. These are the traits of Mr. Puneet Gupta who is the author of this book "The Suicide Banker" published by Rupa Publications. Indian writers complain that the Reputed publication houses never let us even stand in front of them, hence how can one dream of getting published in India with a secure future in writing. My dear authors, first learn how to write on a topic from Puneet Gupta. Love stories are not something that avid readers are looking for in book stores now.

               The Suicide Banker is the story of a banker- Sumit who is maintaining and trying to balance both- Personal and Professional life together. As he is very ambitious towards his Professional life, his personal life faces an uncouth period of time seeing Sumit always busy in his banking career. In his current organization- Ind-credit bank, he finds that there are lots of fraudster involved in Agri-business. Now, he starts spying on them. He thinks of changing everything by himself even when he knows that almost everyone in the hierarchical structure of the organization is involved in it. And, THE SUICIDE BANKER is all about the journey of this man- Sumit fighting with the unorganized Banking staffs and maintaining his marital life with Shalini. :-) 

              Puneet Gupta has a very good command on English language. I am pretty impressed with the kind of words and sentences that he has used throughout the book. I have a complain with the Indian authors that they don't use Idioms, phrases and awesome one-liners as the USP ingredient in their book, but Puneet Gupta has managed to impress me by applying all of these in his debut book. The book is quite lengthy but the funny sentences that keep popping in periodically keeps you interested in the further pages. The story that is wholly based on a Banker's life could have become wearisome but Puneet Gupta has managed to eliminate all the factors that may typecast this book as the one with repetitive scenarios. Very creatively, author has managed to depict how the whole Banking stuff takes place in their sector. 

              Initially, Sumit-Anupam's clash is very interesting. In Kashmir, when those Afghani-kind-of-men checks Sumit and Shalini dithers you. Shibu asking about Independence Day is so funny that I got an instance that how a kid irritates his father in his childhood days by rapid-fire questions. Shalini's first news show is perdectly described. I liked that part too much. Later on, Annie's entrance in the story as Sumit's interest makes the book little masaledaar. The jokes written in Italic font are the USP of this book. I don't think that anyone else could have written better about this topic. I have heard that Ravi Subramaniam writes on the same kind of topics that are related to banking but as I haven't read him still, I rate Puneet Gupta as one of the best writer in this section.

               I would recommend everyone of you to read this book if you have killed yourself by reading Love stories recently. One of the best book to have with you. I rate it 3.75/5. 

   Thanks.

   ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

And Then It Rained by Gaurav Dashputra !!!

               581st BLOG POST -->>

             Every time I have a Srishti Publisher's book in my hand, I have a different kind of expectation with it because the first time when I picked an unknown Indian fiction writer- it was from Srishti publication. And the 10 writers whom I picked after him was again from Srishti. So, I started loving the general thoughts that these writers from Srishti wrote. And once again, I picked up this book from the same publication- "And then it rained" which also has a tagline- "coz life ain't always a fairytale". This is the debut novel of a student of last year MBBS in D.Y. Patil college, Navi Mumbai (Yes, the same city I live in :-)), basically from Nagpur, a national gold medalist in swimming and a great fan of SRK- Mr. Gaurav Dashputra. I have been in touch with this guy even before he selected his publisher, so I have a kind of attachment with this book which got developed in front of me. And as I gave some free advise to Gaurav Dashputra every time I met him online, I got my name reserved in the Acknowledgement section. :-) Thanks Mr. Author for it. And, as I have been the most lucky reviewer to review many good books for the first time on Internet, I am getting a chance to review even this too because no one has reviewed it still. :-)

              Coming to the story, AND THEN IT RAINED is about Aman who is very jolly by nature, helpful, friendly, flirty, emotional, sarcastic, humor-filled, ambitious and possessed almost every quality that a girl sees in her ideal boyfriend and a boy sees in his ideal best friend. This helped him achieve friends like Krish and Madhur as he landed in Mumbai for his further studies. He just lost a girl friend in his home town- Nagpur which made him little depressed. But the entry of Riya in his life gives him one more chance to be a passionate lover. But life wasn't a positive story for him. He had to bear the consequences of few wrong decisions that made him lose almost all the close people he had around him. He submerged himself into loneliness and alcohol. But, was that the end of the story? No. Because, the traits that he had in him were not ordinary. So, to know what happens with this guy after taking wrong decisions which made him lose all the emotional connected people, go and get the novel. :-)

             Coming to my review, Gaurav Dashputra has made it sure that he makes no mistake in his debut. He hadn't done any foolishness while selecting the cities where his story is to be based because he picked up Nagpur and Navi Mumbai where he lives.  He has used his own style of narration by including lot of scenarios in just 209 pages of the book. He has kept the narration fast so that a reader don't get bored on any single page. This is the best part of AND THEN IT RAINED. He has expressed his love and excitement for the city of Mumbai and its monsoon appropriately. The continuous humor statements in the book keeps you interested. Every relation is described properly so that, when the story takes a twist, you can feel the pain of the protagonist while he isolated himself from each of them. This book is not a love story. It is about how a young boy takes wrong decisions while handling lot of relationships(interconnected with each other) at the same time. This book has an emotional touch in it. 

             The best part of this book in the first 100 pages is the date with Riya. The scene where the trip to Goa is being planned makes me laugh out loud. The description of expression of each of the three friends is enormous during the Goa trip deciding scene. The part when Aman runs between the movie just to get rid from Preeti's proposal in the theater is another funny scene of this book. The moment Aman tells about his first result of Medical to his father, and the way his father expresses happiness makes you emotional. And, all those parts of loneliness and the way Aman punished himself is something for which you will remember AND THEN IT RAINED always. The climax of the book is perfect and yes, it's unpredictable. 

            Coming to the drawbacks, there aren't much. The major drawback that I managed to find out is the way story ran quicker sometimes when you wanted to know more about the current situation of the main character and other supporting characters of the story. Else, using the real entities' name like of D. Y. Patil college and then associating it with bribery to get the question paper out can make some readers feel that the college is associated with such acts of corruption. So, in a Fiction, one has to concentrate on these little things to avoid the controversies. But in all, AND THEN IT RAINED is a good experience as I didn't feel any part of the book unwanted or dragged. I give it 3.25/5. This book is worth reading as it ends with a moral which is very rare to see in today's fictions. :-) Go, GET IT. 

            Thanks.

  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

Vivek and I by Mayur Patel !!!

               580th BLOG POST -->>

         Now-a-days, if you plan to enter a bookstore or to browse Flipkart/Infibeam to pick up at least 2-3 Fiction novels by Indians, you will be disappointed to see that almost every synopsis/blurb of the book has a common word in them "Love" or "Romance". No one is trying to come out of that comfort zone and write something else. No, it is not that I or majority of readers aren't romantic or we hate the process of love but we don't want to read the same thing that we are experiencing in our own life or seeing it happening with our best friend. We want to read some thing that has some thing new to explore, even if it is of the same genre. And this time, I was surprised to read the debut novel by a Diploma degree holder in Civil Engineering, CAD specialist, an architect- Mayur Patel who resides in Valsad, Gujarat with his family. The name of the book is- "Vivek and I".

             Yes, the book's name may sound weird as I found it to be after seeing its cover page. But, as the name suggests, this is not a normal love story between a Girl and a Boy, but it is about the liking of the protagonist- Kaushik for his student- Vivek. He finds him too attractive and he wants to get him as his partner any how. He is still recuperating with the break up that he had with his ex-boyfriend- Krishna who was bisexual. Vivek sees Kaushik as a very good teacher, friend, well wisher, respectable personality and philosopher. This keeps Kaushik away from opining his heart to Vivek and tell him about his sexual approach and how much he loves him. And with this dilemma in Kaushik's mind about his love for Vivek-who is straight gives birth to this book- "Vivek and I".

             The author has fine English, awesome in parts. He has embedded few new words that will help reader to get acquainted with those words. The way he has defined nature is unique and descriptive. You will fall in love with it. The way he has narrated the dilemma in a Gay's mind is commendable. Moreover, he also states about the physical braveness that a gay has for other good looking boys. He has stated it neatly that being gay is not only about being physical, but in some cases, it is also about love with the same gender. The insertion of too many characters in the book does not cause a confusion, and I credit Mayur Patel extremely for this, because whenever a book consists of too many characters, you tend to get confused but he has done it so accurately that you remember each and every name with their role in the book. The scenes of Kaushik with Desai's and Gavit's is so sweet and palpable. The love that Vidya has for Kaushik makes a reader like Vidya over the protagonist- Kaushik. :-) The scene when a girl's parents come to know about her being a lesbian is so real. The emotions that Kaushik has for Vivek is being handled appropriately. While, Mayur Patel has tried to state in this book that the character turned gay because of a child sex abuse scenario that happened with him, I have doubt if this is the only reason for men being gays. 

           Coming to the major drawbacks of the book- If you divide this book into 3 equal parts, I would say that the 2nd part is dragged too much. The book is of 378 pages, but if the author would have cut it shorter by 100 pages, it would have been fine. The story gets repetitive for number of times. The flashback to Kaushik-Krishna's love story makes you hate the attempt of the author. After first 150 pages, you feel like leaving the book in the middle because of the slow pace of story. The book has less conversation, that is good, but it also has useless description of some scenes/elements that wasn't required at all. Describing the same thing in the same manner after every 10 pages does not interests a reader. I was disappointed with the book in the middle of it but the last 100 pages of this book is a gem. And I would recommend you to read this book only for the last 100 Pages and for the topic that Mayur Patel has chosen for his debut novel. I give this book 3/5 over all. To the last 100 Pages, I give it 3.75/5.

                Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino !!!

         It has been a long time since I am reading Indian romantic fictions; yes, some of them were unromantic too, but I never found any book which stated the presence of Crime Thriller into it. Once, I had Prashant Sharma's book in my hand which had something related to a death of a character because of the protagonist's foolishness, but the whole book had no scene related to that killing anywhere after the killing scene itself. So, I was quite disappointed with that. But finally, I got this book on the behalf of Blogadda, which had full-on theory of Crime thriller. In the first 30 pages itself you get to know who is murdered by whom and how. But still, when the police starts investigating about it, you join them in the journey even when you-the reader knows that the murder is being done by whom. This is the most unique way to write a Crime Thriller. It's not easy to write a book which already assures you how its ending would be or what result the ending of the story is going to produce. But, "The Devotion of Suspect X" by Keigo Higashino is one such book that is and will have to be the favorite of all the readers who are interested in picking up a Crime Thriller novels.

              As the book is written by a Japanese writer, you will get to read many new words that are written as it is spoken in their language. This gives you a new flavor of reading. The names of Japanese character may confuse you because it even did to me. :-) The best part about the writer has been his focus on the story without disruption. He has kept the target of the book in mind and then scripted it. The story never lost its flow. Yes, initially, the book seems to be boring till 30-40 pages but once the murder is being done and the characters of police comes into the scene, you start liking the uniqueness the book has in itself. The translation from Japanese to English would have been a great challenge for the translators but they did a great job in doing it. 

             Yes, I would like to say that the book is very slow-paced yet interesting; but if it would have been more faster, the book would have been more interesting. But still, its perfect. The amount of twists it produce throughout the story of 374 pages keeps you knocked to it. This book will not allow you to take breaks in between; that's a different story that I took numerous breaks because of uncertainties in my routine. :-) This is the first book that I read in this vacation and the expectation has risen up. After reading this book, you will come to know why 2 million copies of it is sold out. The simple English, perfect narration, numerous twists, interesting factor, the deepness in the characters of the book, some new words, Japanese instinct, flow of the story and the awesomeness of the writer makes this a perfect Crime Thriller for the genre lovers. Go, get "The Devotion of Suspect X" today itself if you want to know how the police caught the murderer whom you already knew after completing initial pages itself. :-) 

              Thanks.

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  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU