Category: Book Review

It is the story of the promise made between two persons, Shamhavi and Arjun. The promise to be with each other despite the circumstances, the promise to love forever. 

The Promise

By Nikita Singh

237 pages, Grapevine India

The Promise is the fourth fiction book of the national bestselling author, Nikita Singh. It is the story of the promise made between two persons, Shamhavi and Arjun. The promise to be with each other despite the circumstances, the promise to love forever.

In the novel, Shambhavi is a happy go lucky girl. Whenever she enters a room, it brightens up with her cheerfulness but behind this all there is a girl who is going through a lot. No one sees the pain in her eyes. She is an interior designer by profession. She works a lot as she needs money for her father’s medication who has brain tumor.

Arjun Datta is the infamous owner of the Datts Enterprises, a well-established furniture company. He is a very private person, very few people have met him. He is charismatic, elusive and stinking rich. Money is the only thing he loves and hates at the same time. He is trying to run away from his past. His dark, brooding, and secretive looks attracts people like magnets, at the same time, his icy demeanor often scares the hell out of people.

During one of her projects, Shambhavi meets Arjun. Arjun is a loner, he doesn’t believe in love. Till now, he has lost everyone he has loved including his family. His heart is broken, he has decided never to love again. His past still haunts him, he refuses to move on but still whenever he sees Shambhavi he finds emptiness in his life. Eventually, he falls for her. They are so in love and promises are made but everything falls apart when he finds out that Shambhavi is pregnant. He feels cheated as he thinks that history is repeating itself and leaves her.

Are they not meant to be toghether? Are these promises also made to be broken? You have to read the story to find out.

It is an intriguing story. For the starting 50 pages, the book is a bit boring but in middle plots gets interesting. One-fourth of the book is similar to a Bollywood melodrama but Nikita Singh made a great effort to make the story a page turner. She kept the conversations to be crispy and neat. Her characters are so lively. She has the ability to keep readers hooked throughout the story. She has not added any mature content to the book keeping it appropriate for every age group. She has described all the emotions in a very beautiful way. She manages to bring out tear in my eyes at some point in the story. She doesn’t leave any stone unturned.

She didn’t keeps the readers blindsided with Shambhavi’s story. She also tells the story of Arjun, his past, his thoughts. But somehow, on the whole, the story seems to be only Shambhavi’s. I wish author could have written a bit more about Arjun’s life. However, this story is a sweet emotional romance with witty retorts, lots of ups and downs, and interesting plot.

If you are looking for a cliché, a typical emotional romance, you should give it a try. But if you are fan of thriller and literature, this novel is not meant for you. It will be a good read for amateur readers and teenagers.

It is the story of an extra ordinary girl who has everything but she finds nothing worth living. She thinks out of the box and is tired of living a monotonous life. She then takes a handful of sleeping pills wishing she never gets to see one more day of her life.

Veronica Decides to Die

By Paulo Coelho

Veronica decides to die is one of the best works of the bestselling modern author, Paulo Coelho. As depressing and morbid the title is, once you finish the story you will find out that there is lot more to the story. It’s not a story of an insane girl who attempts to kill herself. It is the story of an extra ordinary girl who has everything but she finds nothing worth living. She thinks out of the box and is tired of living a monotonous life. She then takes a handful of sleeping pills wishing she never gets to see one more day of her life.

Veronica is a twenty-four year old girl who has an ideal life. She has a happy childhood, loving parent, steady job, beautiful house and a stable boyfriend but every time she thinks about her life she finds something missing. She always tries to find the reason why she feels an emptiness in her life. She never gets an answer, at last one day she decides to end her life by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. Her wish never gets fulfilled as she found herself in a mental asylum in the aftermath. Her attempted suicide becomes a failure. In the infamous Villette mental hospital, she unwilling makes some friend and finds her passion for piano again. Her piano playing brings out a positive vibe in the weary atmosphere of the hospital. Others join her to rediscover their soul.

She meets two amazing people there, Mari, who is suffering from panic attacks and a diagnosed schizophrenic, Eduard. Seeing the people in the hospital, she is forced to question her perception about insanity. Also, she learns from Dr. Igor that she has only few days to live as her heart becomes weak due to attempted suicide. Veronica’s supposed death sentence brings her back to the reality and she reacquires her desire to live and love. In her journey, her frequent heart attacks becomes the biggest hindrance.

This is a book in which Coelho has modelled a character after himself. If you have read about his life, you might have known that in his early age, he has been sent to asylum. His family always wanted him to be an engineer but he longed to be an artist. When he tried doing things differently, people labelled him as insane. Anyway he finds his way out of the hurdles and starts to write, the rest is history. In this novel, Coelho describes the fine line between sanity and insanity in a very precise way. After reading this novel, you will find yourself pondering that how apathy and powerlessness tempt a person to commit suicide. Sometimes, the people whom we call insane are just the people who thinks differently. Like his every novel, Coelho has maintained a balance between philosophy and religion throughout the story.

I liked the way author has answered the most fundamental questions of life like: What is different today that was not there yesterday, why do we need to keep on living?  With every patient of the Villette hospital, Coelho has described the heart of human existence.

This novel is about the story of Veronica, a girl at the crossroads of depression and liberation. It is the tale of people’s belief in miracles and an enthusiastic, poetic appreciation of each day as a renewed chance. I would recommend this book for each person who don’t appreciate their life or are drawn to the dark thoughts. With the intense journey of self-discovery of Veronica, where she is exposed to the different emotions of life like fear, love, hope and sexual awakening, you will find a new perception of life.

Title: The Immortals of Meluha

Author: Amish Tripathi

Publisher: Westland Press

Published: 2010

Language: English

Pages: 390

SUMMARY

• Plot

This is the first novel of Shiva trilogy by Amish Tripathi. The story is set in the land of Meluhas. Shiva, the main character is believed  as the saviour Neelkanth  by the Meluhans. Shiva decides to help the Meluhans in their war against Chandravanshis. During his journey and the fight that ensues, Shiva learns how his choices actually reflect who he aspires to be. Is the rough hewn Tibetan immigrant Shiva, really a hero? And does he want to be that hero at all?

         “ A man becomes a Mahadev, only when he fights for good. A Mahadev is not born from his mother’s womb. He is forged in the heat battle, when he wages a war to destroy evil. HAR HAR NAHADEV – ALL OF US ARE MAHADEV”

• Theme

The themes can be summed up as Shiva, myth and fantasy. It has set a new bar for Indian fiction.

“His burden didn’t feel any lighter, but he felt strong enough to carry it.”

• Author

Amish Tripathi is an Indian author. He has been awarded the Society Young Achievers Award for literature in 2013, Pride of India 2014 and more. Forbes India has ranked him among the top 100 celebrities  in India four times in a row.

His other novels include The Secret of Nagas, The Oath of the Vayuputras, Scion of Ikshvaku.

• Setting

          Set in 1900 B.C.,the story was based on Meluha, the probable ancient name for the Indus Valley Civilization as the modern historians say. He also made use of other places as of Swadeep, Dandaka forest.

“I don’t believe in symbolic Gods. I believe that God exists all around us. In the flow of river, in the rustle of the trees, in the whisper of the winds. He speaks to us all the time. All we need to do is listen” 

• Adaptation

In January 2015 Amish Tripathi confirmed that director and screenwriter Karan Malhotra was adapting the story into the film script, with Tripathi acting as creative consultant and reviewer.

Evaluation

Critic reviews

“ Amish is India’s first literary popstar”- Shekhar Kapur

“Amish is India’s Tolkien”- Business Standard

“Amish is…the Paulo Coelho of the east”- Business World

“Archetypal and stirring…. Amish’s book unfold the deepest recesses of the soul.”- Deepak Chopra

“Compelling narrative style”- Shashi Tharoor

I strongly recommend everybody to read this book. It is the story of the man, whom legend  turned into a God. Reading mythology doesn’t interest me much. But the reviews made me read it. It deserves to be read to know how a person can envelope mythology in a modern cover. It is really unreal what he made out of famous mythological characters. It is new, fresh and will force you to rethink the basics of mythology. And do you know what really this phrase mean?

“HAR HAR MAHADEVA!”

If tomorrow comes

Sidney Sheldon is actually a feminist writer who is writing various stories but the best one of those is ‘If Tomorrow comes’, ‘Chasing tomorrow’ and ‘reckless’ series.

‘Chasing Tomorrow’ is basically a story based on Tracy Whitney and her periphery. Her husband who changes the situation in every scenario is Jeff Stevens. Tracy Whitney is very beautiful and charming. Stevens is also a person who is highly charming and genius. This is story in which Tracy thinks that she should go back to her original life. Hence she starts taking the odd jobs in which she felt the thrill. Jeff started working in a art museum. There he found a real peace, but because of his charming looks many female got attracted to him.

Then because of other con artist Tracy saw Jeff in some intimate position and she leaves him without telling anything. He tries a lot to find her out, but he could not find. Then he goes to their mentor and even he is answerless. Tracy migrates to an area where she can live a peaceful life and she knew that she has a baby in her stomach. She initially wishes for a baby girl so that she did not have to remember the face of Jeff whom she trusted the most. But tragically she gives birth to a boy who is very similar to Jeff.

Story takes a turn over the direction of a villain where he or she kills a sex-worker after a heist. The boss always gives an order to con-artists.

Further he gets money and what he wants from the work he has given. As the story rolls, varied detectives and FBI comes into picture. The villain’s major aim is to hit Tracy in a way that she can not ever recover from the same. For that he is using a way in which a serial killing is occurring. FBI detectives find Tracy because they found pattern which is similar to the way that Tracy followed before.

Those con-artists compete between things and get caught by the FBI people. After so much of search, arguments and requests Tracy agrees to help. After various tracks of murders and thefts Tracy gets an idea, but she still doesn’t know who the villain is and what the aim is. As the story reveals few facts about the super villain we get to know that he is a guy who is looking for Tracy only. Further with FBI security he manages to crack everything and send her a riddle. She thinks that she can save everyone by solving the riddle….so she leaves and the FBI detective tries to follow her.

Story takes a drastic turn which involves blitzkrieg between the villain, Tracy and Jeff….FBI detective also appears there. Jeff  is trapped because of Tracy and the drastic incident that changes several minds….The thing to look for is that who won the fight and how Tracy handles Jeff and her son together at the end.

It is the tale of “Love. Corruption. Ambition.” It is a story of three childhood buddies, Gopal, Raghav and Aarti. Like every common kid around the world, these three also have a dream. Aarti wants to become an airhostess, Gopal wants to become a rich man, and Raghav wants to bring out a change in the corrupted system of India. 

REVOLUTION 2020

By Chetan Bhagat

296 pages, Rupa publications

Revolution 2020 is the fifth novel of four bestselling novels author, Chetan Bhagat. Like you can see in the tagline of the title of this novel, it is the tale of “Love. Corruption. Ambition.” It is a story of three childhood buddies, Gopal, Raghav and Aarti. Like every common kid around the world, these three also have a dream. Aarti wants to become an airhostess, Gopal wants to become a rich man, and Raghav wants to bring out a change in the corrupted system of India.

The story starts in the cultural capital of India, Varanasi. Gopal hails from a lower middle class family (his father is a teacher, loans are piling over him), whereas Raghav’s family has good financial status. They both are best friends. At the beginning of the story, they are in school where they stole cake from a newcomer, Aarti. She hails from elite family (her dad is DM). Eventually, these three becomes best friends. Their friendship is as thick as blood. Their path aparts when the results of JEE and AIEEE comes out.

In both the competitions, Raghav gets very good marks in the entra but Gopal fails to get admission in any IITs or NITs.

From the early days, Gopal is smitten by Aarti but she doesn’t feel the same. Things becomes worse when Raghav gets into IIT, Gopal goes to Kota for coaching, Aarti stays in Varanasi and starts dating Raghav.

Later on, Gopal gets distracted and he fails again to get good marks in the engineering entrance. Shortly after, he loses his father and comes to know that Aarti and Raghav are together. Shattered and heart broken, Gopal falls into the trap of “rampant corruption”. Raghav decides to become a journalist, Aarti starts working in a hotel.

Shukla Ji is a politician, who lures Gopal to give in to the corrupted system, and      makes him director of an engineering college. He tells Gopal, “Anybody with experience in a shady business does really well in education. These quotes from the novel sums up the thought of the current founders of private engineering college; “stupid people go to college. Smart people own them.”

Through this novel, Bhagat has tried to tell the stories of all the parent who spends all their life savings on their kid’s coaching for preparation for engineering and medical college’s entrance. He tells the harsh truth behind all this fiasco: “For the job and dowry market a B.TECH degree never hurt.” He tried to bring out the loopholes of Indian educational system into attention: “I imagined myself in a sea, along with lakhs of other low-rankers, kicking and screaming to breathe. The waters closed over us, making us irrelevant to the Indian education system.”

This novel was the most awaited novel of Chetan Bhagat. Two years after “Two States”, this novel was published. Seeing the name, people expected more than just a chick-flick with love triangle. Bhagat has a very unique and interesting way of writing but in this novel he somehow failed to bring out his witty side . From the delicate way, he explained each and every Ghats and places in the novel, we can say that he did his research well. Like his every other novel, we get an optimistic vibe in Gopal’s character. You can notice that in the novel in quotes like, “I’m from varanasi, where the world comes to die.”

First half of the novel deals with some irrelevant issues which has no connections with the title. However, Chetan Bhagat tried to fix it up in the last part, he has shown how Gopal lets his love go for the sake of his country. He has given contribution to the revolution.

Despite all other factors, this novel is an average read, which deals with a very serious story. Every teenager must read this story, I am sure you can relate this story with your own struggles. He has urged the youth to take a vow against corruption.

THE LAST SONG

By Nicholas Sparks

“The Last Song” is a heart touching novel by bestselling author Nicholas Sparks. This novel tells the story of a rebellious teenager, Veronica Miller ‘Ronnie’. She is seventeen-year old stubborn girl, three years back her parents got divorced which turned her world upside-down. When her father moved from New York to Wilmington after his divorce, Ronnie started hating her father, Steve. This novel tells you how love can make you feel special, how it can hurt you and how it heals you. It is a story of love, faith and family. Nicholas Sparks gives a great lesson about love through these quotes in the novel: “Love is fragile and we’re not always its best caretakers. Even the best of us make mistakes; we just muddle through and do the best we can to hope this fragile thing will survive by all odds.”

The novel starts when Ronnie’s mother forces her and her brother to spend the summer holidays with their father at his house near the beach at Wilmington, North Carolina. During this summer break, Ronnie not only meets the love of her life but she also learns that sometimes people who loves you goes away from you but that doesn’t stop you from loving them, it enhances our love for them. All this time, her father tries to mend their broken relationship but Ronnie always ignores him. Ronnie then meets Will who likes her and chases her. It’s her love for Will which convinces her to take first step towards her father. As her love flourishes, she learns to forgive her father.

In this novel, Sparks tells about faith, the bible and many other Christian believes: “I have faith that God will show you the answer. But you have to understand that sometimes it takes a while to be able to recognize what God wants you to do. That’s how it often is. God’s voice is usually nothing more than a whisper, and you have to listen very carefully to hear it. But other times, in those rarest of moments, the answer is obvious and rings as loud as a church bell.”

The romance in this story is sweet, delectable and heart pounding. The plot of this story creates a very good atmosphere for romance. The beach in the North Carolina provides a beautiful place for a teen love to blossom. The characters of the novels are both explicit and implicit. The little brother of Ronnie is very cute and plays a very important role as secondary character.

There is always something intriguing about Nicholas Sparks’ novel, it binds you to the novel till you finish it. His quotes, “Life, he realized, was much like a song. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it’s in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile,” in the novel justifies the title. This novel is the story of first love and maturity. It shows the different shades of love, between a couple, between a son and father, and between a father and daughter.

At the beginning, the story is slow but as you flip the pages you find an amazing story which pulls your heartstrings. Nicholas Sparks writing style is real, simple yet poetic. This novel makes you cry hard and think deeply. Like every other novel of Nicholas Sparks’, this is very emotional novel with powerful message and incredible lesson. If you decide to read this novel, don’t forget your handkerchief.