Book Review: Citadel of Love

Citadel of Love by Pratibha Ray was first written in Odiya as Silapama and is the winner of Odisha Sahitya Academy Award. Translated into English by Monalisa Jena, if there is one word that can describe the experience of reading this book, it is – brilliant! For one the book doesn’t read like a translation and therein lies the biggest achievement for Jena. As

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Book Review: You Are The Best Wife

True stories are the most difficult to review. Like how can a reviewer say that, this part should have been better or that part needed a little more spunk. I mean, it is reality painted on the canvas. It cannot be a shade lighter or darker!! The critic in me wanted to accept this daunting task and here I am reviewing

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Book Review: Wasted In Engineering

The book has one of the most interesting titles and cover images. The title is a thought that resonates among millions of engineering graduates across the country. The cover picture is conceptualised well – one of a ‘wasted engineer’ holding a placard that announces her as a photographer, showing that she studied engineering but ultimately ended up following her passion,

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Book Review: Dear Kalam Sir

Once in a while comes along a book that immediately catapults itself into your favourites. Into something that you want to go to when you are in an emotional turmoil. Into that external support that only words can give. Your go-to book. Dear Kalam Sir is that book for me. Dear Kalam Sir is a very innovative and beautiful coffee

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Book Review: The Girl Who Chose

Two thousand years ago, the poet-sage Valmiki wrote the Ramayana. It is the tale of Ram, the sun-prince of Ayodhya, who is obliged to follow family rules and so makes no choices. And of Ravana, king of Lanka, who does not respect anybody’s rules or other people’s choices. Over the centuries, hundreds have retold the tale in different languages, adding

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Book Review: Let The Game Begin

Let the Game Begin, a thriller penned by Sandeep Sharma has been classified as a historical thriller by the author. Thriller as a genre often comprises the elements of suspense, mystery, uncertainty and anticipation to keep the reader hooked till the very last page. Historical fiction usually depicts historical figures in fictional scenarios, fictional figures in documented historical events or

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Book Review: Zindagi Live

I have always maintained that regional literature, like regional cinema, is what can enthrall and excite the minds of the story lovers; opening up new dimensions beyond the conventional genres. Thanks to translators and their tribe, the gems of vernacular languages are making way to mainstream publishing and what a pleasure they are on the reading senses. I have begun

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Book Review: The Mahabharata Secret

What we know of history is only what the archeologists have so far dug out and a story that historians have written. What is there is a story different from what the historians have written? Because the archeologists haven’t found something so far, does not mean it never existed! This is the thrill of historical fiction. A well researched and

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Book Review: My Father Is a Hero

My Father is A Hero and the overall premise behind it, is one I will never fail to be impressed by. No matter how many men she comes across in various capacities and various relationships in her life, a father is always a daughter’s first hero. So the title is not all that surprising. The blurb attracted me in the

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Book Review: A Guy Growing Old In A Country Growing Young

Reading this book has been like a breath of fresh air. No plot, no thrill, no path-breaking psychological insights into complicated characters. Yet, I enjoyed the read because on every page I read something that a) reminded me of my childhood, b) made me smile because I recognized a similar funny incident/situation in my own life and c) for those

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Book Review: That Woman You See

I absolutely love reading a collection of short stories. This book, That Woman You See by Sujata Parashar has all nine dedicated to women. I just had to pick this one up for the mix it provides. Ganga: She who is pure – This describes the girls of the night. How a girl full of love gets into the flesh

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Book Review: I am Big So What!?

As soon as I noticed the title of this book, I knew it will be fun. In a society like ours where body shaming is a regular practice and marriage is the only testimonial for a good girl; Shuchi Singh Kalra‘s I am Big So What shows a girl who fights against all odds and succeeds in vindicating an independent woman’s concept

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Book Review: The Counterstroke

historical fiction provides an opportunity to make connections with the past. And, this is what The Counterstroke by Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran offers you. It presents a story that took place during a notable period in Indian history. The book takes us to seventeenth century India when Aurangzeb (the Mughal prince) was planning to forge a bloody path to the Mughal throne and Shivaji (a Maratha landholder) had started creating trouble for the Mughal Empire.

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Book Review: The Prince of Patliputra

Shreyas Bhave’s first book The Prince of Patliputra (Asoka Trilogy #1) offers an action-packed story-line to the lovers of historical fiction. Taking a well-known personality from Indian history and weaving a gripping tale on his life is not an easy task. The task becomes more difficult when the personality the author is choosing is a well-known name among his possible

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Book Review: Super Women

Just as a kite flies against the wind, one must defeat resistance or fall to the ground. This is what entrepreneurship is. Take risk, fly high or be ordinary. We all take risks in our lives. Sometimes we take risk because there is no other option and sometimes because that is our choice. Women are inherently risk takers. You ask

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Book Review: In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory is in Haimanti Dutta Ray’s own words a memoir where a doting daughter recounts how she had seen her father the late painter Shyamal Dutta Ray, who passed away in 2005, at close quarters as well as her reflections on the art fraternity to which her father had belonged. This book is not in the genre of

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Book Review: The Ribbon Trap

The cover page of this particular book grabbed my eyeballs. Seeing it and without reading the synopsis (a first for me!) I had decided I want to read this one. It lets out such a strong message. Kudos to Geetali for a splendid job. Smita and Krishnaprem are in love. They are ambitious people. Also dealing with their own complications.

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Book Review: The Siege

The Siege is a book on the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, focused almost entirely on the Taj Hotel, by career journalists Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark. The duo happen to be married and are co-authors of an impressive array of investigative journalism style books on terrorism. While reading the book, it is easy to forget that the book is fact

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Book Review: It’s Your Life

‘Reflections on contemporary living and relationships’ – the tagline that accompanied this book of collected essays said more about the content than anything else. Having been a Times of India subscriber since it began publishing a few years ago in my city, I have gone through Ms. Nangia’s columns in the special glossy Sunday Times supplement, Times Life. The short

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Book Review: Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron

I picked this book up at the Bombay airport a few years ago and read it on my journey to Delhi. At that point, I just remembered Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron as the movie that had that timelessly funny Mahabharat scene, which as college students we would watch on loop sometimes, on Youtube. The rest of the movie was a blurry

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Book Review: Making a difference

I read this book in tenth standard a few months before the stress of the Board exams began. I am quite surprised that this book isn’t that well known, considering it was quite well written and inspired me (fleetingly) to consider taking up a career in the Civil Services. Ultimately I chose the path of least resistance (with respect to

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Book Review: The Ivory Throne

There has been a dearth of good readable Indian history books and The Ivory Throne helps fill that void. (Other eminently readable and lesser known Indian history books: 1857 by Vishnu Bhatt, Do and Die by Manini Chatterjee). Manu S. Pillai’s Ivory Throne is a fantastic book that chronicles the history of the kingdom of Travancore. To be frank, I only picked the book

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Book Review: The Missionary Position

Written by renowned polemicist, Hitchens, The Missionary Position is a sort of sting operation conducted on the life of Mother Teresa. At 99 pages, it is also probably among the thinnest yet incredibly good books that I have read. Hitchens lays bare Teresa’ life like it should have been. After all, what’s wrong with a little bit of devil’s advocacy? And,

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Book Review: Amritsar – Mrs. Gandhi’s Last Battle

I have recently gotten hooked to Indian history again, after a few years. To be honest, except Guha’s “India after Gandhi”, I wasn’t aware of any good book on India’s history post Independence. And I have recently come across around five… I read Amritsar right after Kuldip Nayar’s fantastic ‘Emergency Retold‘ and loved it. Mark Tully and Satish Jacob take

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Book Review: Dhanda by Shobha Bondre

I got onto this book after reading the fantastic ‘Rokda‘ from the same publisher. I am in a phase where I am finding contemporary Indian history interesting, which is why I breezed through Shobha Bondre’s ‘Dhanda‘ in two days. Though I liked the book, it had two major flaws. One, except the Gujarati Mayor character, I had heard of none

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Book Review: Sholay – The Making of a Classic by Anupama Chopra

This virtually unknown book came to my attention as I was trawling Amazon’s book pages during one of their umpteen ‘Dhamaka’ sales. Filled with anecdotes that went on behind the scenes during the making of ‘Sholay’, I found the book a terrifically fun read. ‘Sholay’ started off as a four sentence story idea that Salim and Javed had about a

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Book Review: Emergency Retold by Kuldip Nayar

I remember asking my mother if she remembered the Emergency in the 70’s and she told me, “Yes, a lot of people went to jail; but corruption went away. Trains, buses used to be on time.” That and the undeniable fact that Indira Gandhi had induced the Emergency to satiate her hunger for power, had been my narrow viewpoint on

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Book Review: My Days In The Underworld

Agni Sreedhar’s bio on wikipedia reads as former gangster, writer, critic and artist. His book Daadagiriya Dinagalu (Kannada), winner of Karnataka State Sahitya Akademi Award, has been translated into My Days In The Underworld – Rise of the Bangalore Mafia. The translation, by Sreedhar himself, stays colloquial and the tone of the book is naturally street side. What an exciting

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Book Review: Breaking Out and Making Big

The first thing that I noticed about the book when I saw it was the cover. In an explosive pink color, the cover is cluttered with a huge hyperlink mouse pointer image with little badges surrounding it. Yes, Start-ups in this technical age revolved around computers. For the sake of argument, which business doesn’t? I could make out the title

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Book Review: Byculla to Bangkok by Hussain Zaidi

Syed Hussain Zaidi’s Byculla to Bangkok is touted as the sequel to Dongri to Dubai but it fails miserably, leaving very few traces of coherence in chronology. It is the first time in my life that I have been disappointed by a Hussain Zaidi book; even Rahul Bhatt’s sob story, Headley & I (co-authored with Zaidi), was far more tolerable.

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Book Review: 1857 – The Real Story of the Great Uprising

Written by a Brahmin mendicant (Vishnu Bhatt), who somehow fortuitously ended up being in parts of India where (and when) the revolt was breaking out, ‘1857‘ is a fantastic book chronicling the first great uprising of the Indian freedom struggle. Vishnu Bhatt wrote the book as a diary – which was published only after his death in the early 20th

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Book Review: Do and Die

I read this book after I came to know the movie version wasn’t really an accurate adaptation of the actual history of the Chittagong uprising. Being a history buff, I really wanted to know what actually happened in Chittagong. Chatterjee does justice to the subject and keeps you hooked even though you know the fate of the uprising already (from

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Book Review: The Curse of Brahma

As a lover of books based on Indian mythology, I opened Jagmohan Bhanver’s The Curse of Brahma with a bit of apprehension. And, there was a certain reason behind that. Lately, a number of retelling of Indian mythologies had disappointed me. But, to my own surprise, this book captured my attention in the Prologue and then I could not stop

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Book Review: My Dream Man

Author as a main protagonist has always caught my attention. Also romance is my favourite genre. This book was a combination of both and thus I did not flinch even once to pick this up. Ajopa Ganguly is a struggling writer. Her script has got rejected many times, thus making her not wanting to write any further. She picks up

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Book Review: Borrowed Plumes

When I went through the book blurb for the first time I knew the story is going to be something that is totally unlike other thrillers. As the cover of the book hints, the sole theme of the story is based on the significance of the emblem printed on the cover of the book. The story, Borrowed Plumes, revolves around

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10 Best Women Writers from India

Have you been reading? Reading women writers? May you read, read more and read more women writers. If you ask why, I believe that women have been adding more sensitivity to writing in India. I have been brought up on a staple of books written by women in Bangla, and they are all amazingly touching and close to reality. Women

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Book Review: Chaddi Buddies

Set in the tiny village of Golvada in Thane, Oswald Pereira’s Chaddi Buddies is a sweet story revolving around the protagonist Robert’s transition from a meek boy to a strong young man. The book is essentially a tale of four friends who grow up together and whose bond undergoes a huge change with coming of age. At the start of the

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Book Review: Shakti – The Divine Feminine

After last year’s success with Kamadeva – The god of Desire, Anuja Chandramouli returns with this striking work on Shakti – The divine feminine. We all know about Shakti – She is the Mother Goddess, Mahamaya the enchantress, the supreme consciousness, the pure source from which all creation emerges and to whom all must eventually return. As Ushas, the enchanting goddess

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Book Review: The Shadow of the Dark Soul

Nirbhaya case had taken the entire nation by shock. It was one of the most talked about and heartfelt case in the history of Delhi Rapes. This particular incident has again come to the limelight, due to the juvenile being released free after committing such an atrocious crime. In the midst of all of this when I got the opportunity

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Book Review: Principally Yours

Principally Yours is a piece of nonfiction narrated by Bubloo Sen about her experience of teaching and moulding many lives to bring about positive changes in the society around her. Revolution can come from any sphere and in any size. What matters is the intention behind it and the result. This book is one such story of a mini revolution brought

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Book Review: The Accidental Prime Minister

I finally finished the book that has had tongues wagging from South Block to South India and also, possibly contributed maybe ten odd incremental seats to the NDA. Baru begins the book by justifying his reasons for writing the book (i.e. showing Manmohan in a better light than the internet jokes circulated about him), using the example of foreign civil

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Book Review: Romancing with Life

Brought to you by the same mind that brought you crass such as Mr. Prime Minister, Censor, Love in Times Square, etc. Dev Anand’s autobiography Romancing with Life is a hodgepodge, below par literary effort, mostly overflowing with Mr. Anand’s barely concealed lust for women. When I started reading the book, I expected to come across filmy anecdotes – to be transported

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Book Review: Travels in Kashmir

Frederick Drew pointed out emphatically – ‘from Kashmir AND FROM NO OTHER SPOT IN ASIA one may go westward through countries entirely Muhammadan, as far as Constantinople; eastward among none but Buddhists to China; and southward over lands where the Hindu religion prevails, to the extremity of the Indian peninsula.’ What can be more enticing than the above lines about

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Book Review: The Curse of Surya

Indian history. Ancient secrets. Mythological legends. Thriller. Reminds me of Ashwin Sanghi and The Krishna Key. Yes, when I read the blurb of this one it did remind me of The Krishna Key. A book blurb that has ancient Indian history mixed with some treasure hunting always intrigues me and, blurb of The Curse of Surya had these elements in

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Book Review: The Thirteenth Day

The Thirteenth Day is the tale of the Great War between the cousins – Pandavas and Kauravas. The title announces what can be expected out of the book. The blurb is crisp and describes the story, arousing the reader’s interest. The cover page gives a sneak peek into the battle field and how it would have been. Mahabharatha is one

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Book Review: Body Goddess

In a fast moving world of corporate life and busy schedules, health has become secondary for women, replaced by the aim to earn more money and living a comfortable life. We tend to forget that to achieve this aim we need a healthy body and an even more healthy mind. The lifestyle wellness guru turned author, Payal Gidwani Tiwari, in

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Book Review: Innovation – The Einstein Way

Virender Kapoor brings us the life of Einstein, the greatest physicist of all times, with a few lessons for us to derive from the genius’s life. How did Albert Einstein acquire such a cult status? What was so great about him? And, more importantly, what can we learn from his life? One of the most admired figures from the last

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Book Review: Kismetwali and Other Stories

Kismetwali is a collection of short stories, woven around the –walas and –walis that we are so used to in India. Just to set the context right, we are not talking about the Parsis such as Shenaz Treasurywala, or my good friend Perseus Patrawala or his wife Pinaaz Pagdiwaala. We are talking more about the chaiwala, taxiwala, malishwali, kaamwali, phoolwali

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Book Review: Jiyo Dil Se

Modelled on self-help/ mentorship books, Jiyo Dil Se is written by Harish M. Bhatia, CEO of 94.3 MyFM, and draws inspirations from his life and professional journey. Picking on the central theme of living your life to your heart’s fill, the book quotes examples liberally from the lives of celebrities to further emphasize on the theme. One cannot help but

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Book Review: The Great War of Hind

A latest trend in the Indian book industry is the publication of books based on Indian mythologies. This clearly reflects the contemporary popularisation of such books. This also shows that these ancient stories are still compelling. However, most of the times, readers do not find anything new or different. What they generally find is the same old tale with slight

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Book Review: Rokda – How Baniyas do business

Rokda – How Baniyas Do Business is a delightful little book about the Baniya community in India. A compilation of the business stories of five luminary businessmen from the Baniya community, Rokda manages to enthrall and keep the reader hooked till the end. Capturing the life stories of Rohit Bansal (Snapdeal), V. K. Bansal (Kota’s famous Bansal Classes), R. K. Somany

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Book Review: Dream With Your Eyes Open

Several weeks back, I was sitting as an audience member on an ET Now show – Starting Up With Ronnie Screwvala. Every episode featured three shortlisted start-ups, their journey, and a chance for these startups to ask Ronnie questions that are bothering them at this stage. Premise being – you can learn a lot from an industry veteran who has

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Book Review: Seven Uncommoners

The book is a collection of biographical sketches of seven entrepreneurs from across a variety of industries in India. In bringing them together, Riddhima successfully weaves a four decade long view of entrepreneurship in India. The choice of entrepreneurs is interesting – across gaming and technology (Vishal Gondal of Indiagames and Goqii), hospitality (Patu Keswani of Lemon Tree Hotels), logistics

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Book Review: The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi

“What has, however, clearly happened in my case is the discovery that in all probability there is a vital defect in my technique of the working of non-violence. There was no real appreciation of non-violence in the thirty years’ struggle against British Raj. Therefore, the peace that masses maintained during that struggle of a generation with exemplary patience, had not

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Book Review: The Sales Room

The Sales Room is as attached to its title as inseparably as a bee is to honey. The plot revolves around sales, sales and nothing but salesmen. These are a specific kind of people who, as the writer says,  are interested in keeping their economies ticking.  This is an innocent satire about a software start-up which  seems to be undergoing

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Book Review: Mithra

“Life for a warrior is filled with challenges… ……..The legacy of our family was written with this sword… As long as you hold it; our family’s name will live.” Ancient Warriors dying for honor and love for their country has always made Indians swell up with pride. Women have always showed their potential in various steps of life down the

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Book Review: The Himalayan Revelation

An accidental discovery of the insignia of an ancient empire on a wooden prayer wheel at a Ladakhi monastery, soon turns into a dangerous chase between two nations trying to discover and establish ownership of a remote location in India, the existence of which was  a secret until then. The only man with any knowledge of this location is Xhan

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Book Review: The Guardians of the Halahala

Halahala – Hindu mythology. Vikramaditya – Indian history. Did I tell you I am a mythological & historical fiction fan. Shatrujeet Nath just went ahead and blurred the lines between the two, and the result is a book that gave me a reason to return to reviewing books 🙂 Coming to the book, The Guardians of the Halahala takes us

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Book Review: Fraudster

Fraudster is R. V. Raman’s first book – a thriller set in the corporate/ financial sector. The premise of the book is the prevalence of NPAs (Non Performing Assets) in a large number of financial institutions and the myriad schemes and machinations involved therein. The core strength of Raman’s book is that the plot is quite realistic and believable. What I

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Book Review: Labyrinth

Anthologies are not very rare in the Indian literary market these days, and yet there are few which can be counted into good ones. Litizen is a virtual platform for writers and it has come up with an interesting anthology, unrestricted to the bounds of genre. There’s gaming, ghosts, paranormal activities, beautiful con artists at job and a little magic

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Book Review: Birth of the Bastard Prince

Warning: Mild Spoiler Alert Let us assume that you have no idea who Amrapali was and what the various re-tellings of her story have been. Let us assume that you have not seen the movie starring Vyjayanthimala, read Acharya Chatursen’s Vaishali Ki Nagarvadhu, seen Hema Malini’s TV series. Lets just take this book as a piece of fiction loosely based

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Book Review: Sahara – The Untold Story

Sahara – The Untold Story, at first glance, seems like an attempt to cash in on the newsworthy sordid mess that Subrata Roy’s affairs have become… but at first glance only. As one begins reading the book, it becomes apparent that Tamal Bandyopadhyay, a career journalist, not only has done meticulous research to write the book – including interviews with

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Book Review: Savita – The Tragedy That Shook A Nation

What should I tell about a young woman named Savita Halappanavar that she was smart, beautiful and vivacious; that she was a doctor by profession and loved to dance; that she was ever vibrant in personality and had a diamond smile; that she was recently married and was expecting her first child; that her womb had along-with the fetus, some

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Book Review: Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

In the current market scenario, where the term Recession finds its way in any and every conversation, job security is no longer an idea that professionals cling to. In order to set up a well-established career & to fulfill their requirements (both professionally as well as financially), the number of people jumping from one organization to another is on a

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Book Review: The Yogic Manager

The art of yoga, is the way to good living, as we all know. Combining yoga with the principles of management, is quite novel and unique to say the least. The book draws inspiration from the epic, The Mahabharata, especially the gem within that epic, The Bhagavad Gita, which is the series of conversational pieces between Lord Krishna and Prince Arjuna/ Dhananjaya. In the Foreword of The Yogic Manager:

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Book Review: Smart Phones Dumb People?

Information technology and exploration of its hallowed portals are the mantras of the present perfect. There are both pros and cons of getting high–tech. The ordinary mobile phones have got upgraded to smart phones. But given the fact that we have gone more tech-savvy with each passing day, Smart Phones Dumb People? – Using 21st Century Tools To Address 19th

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Book Review: The Blood Telegram

The Seventies decade of the Twentieth century started on a very inconsolable note especially for the South Asian countries. There were series of events & agitations in eastern Pakistan that culminated in the Indo-Pak war of 1971 eventually leading to the birth of a new nation called ‘Bangladesh’. The irony of these events is that despite being involving one of the

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Book Review: The Lonely Monarch

Calcutta,1924. In the vibrant world of Bengali theatre, Sisirkumar Bhaduri, a young man of talent and vision, is king. The opening lines of the blurb present a fair idea of what The Lonely Monarch is about. The twenties were an enchanting era in Calcutta encompassing dazzling celebrities in the literary, academic, cultural and socio-political arena including Rabindranath Tagore. Sisirkumar Bhaduri

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Book Review: The Storm In My Mind

Novels which deal with and describe places of my very own city of Kolkata, always intrigue me. They produce an indistinguishable sense of déjà vu. Given its rich historical parentage, the city never fails to fascinate writers , even when it does not happen to be their hometown. But if it is, then in most cases, a writer’s debut novel undoubtedly is based on/in the city of Kolkata.

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Book Review: The Wordkeepers

Part of Debut Indian Writers Challenge 2013 As soon as I started reading the first page of Jash Sen’s debut novel, The Wordkeepers, I was instantly hooked by the scene, which drew me right onto the battleground in Kurukshetra, set at a pivotal moment, with Arjun–Ashwatthama about to annihilate the planet, and Lord Krishna trying to prevent it. Thus began a

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Book Review: Aisle Be Damned

Aisle Be Damned attracts the reader with the cover and tagline. It is an intelligent blend of pun and posh-ness. The book starts with airports, covers check-in, security, boarding, flight safety, food and all the other steps in separate chapters. There is a little something for everyone – tips to strike useful conversations with attractive co-passengers, a very important section on choosing your seats wisely before boarding, a rather intimidating chapter on flight safety, hilarious anecdotes on captains and cockpits.

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Never Stop If You Love Writing: inKonversation with Parthajeet Sarma

Bringing together hope and humor seems like his thing. Atleast his debut proves so. The debutant author who brought us the very intriguingly titled Smart Phones Dumb People? – Parthajeet Sarma– gets inKonversation with us and we get a sneak-peek into a mind that is equally intriguing. Read on: Tell us a little about yourself and your background Parthajeet? My

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Book Review: Lady, You’re Not A Man

Apurva Purohit talks about the Suffering Sita syndrome and the fortyish syndrome found in Indian women. She points out categorically that these not only hamper their career growth prospects, but also impede their character development. She writes, “Like wine, we only become better with age.” The modern social scenario, according to the author: “It is thus crystal-clear that traditional stereotypes are getting redefined and we cannot slot men and women into airtight boxes any longer.”

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