Standing on the parapet dangerously: Review of ‘Life is always aimless…’
Akash was standing on the parapet dangerously, about to end his life, when he finally decides he is in love and now has ‘an intense urge to record his feeling of deep love for Maria and life,’ and decides to live on. Throughout the novel I felt I was on the edge of some parapet...
Crime is always in the real world
What happens when you cross criminal attitude, real temptations, the anonymity of the virtual world, and greed with creative imagination? A thriller is born! One such thriller is ‘God is a Gamer’ written by Ravi Subramanian where the concept of bitcoins, the Misznay Schardin effect, and TOR come together to take a reader off on...
The surge of power. Review of ‘Prisoner Jailor Prime Minister’
The book has surges, urges, and purges splurging through the pages… and if you just sauté these elements with a pinch of the political history of India, a few drops of fantasy, and a liberal garnish of radical thoughts, you’ve actually almost written the recipe of the book. This book by Tabrik C can be...
Floccinauci nihilipilification. Review of ‘English Bites’
No, floccinaucinihilipilification isn’t the longest word in the dictionary… there are words with up to 35 letters that win the contest, though the medical fraternity, Manish Gupta will have us believe, insists on a word from their jargon as the one that wins the race hands down. But the point that I want to make...
This is how we speak. Review of ‘Terms and conditions apply’
I am just wondering what the purists will have to say about this book where the title is in English, the author’s name is written in Hindi… and the 14 short stories inside use English phrases and words almost where any of the urban and rural reader would while communicating in his daily life. This...
No deadline for truth. Review of ‘The Armour of God’
This book was one tough read, I must admit. Just a little more than hundred pages of a crazy mix of mythology, mystery, and meddling theories… and yet I progressed at a very slow pace. There were times I felt I was a professor at a university and reading a term paper that had references...
Love her, love her, love her…
It took me more than an year to read ‘Great Expectations’… but then I was in school then and more fascinated with Bigglesworth, Gimlet, and the Famous Five. I read somewhere that this book was published as a novel in three volumes in 1861… and I said to myself, ‘Wow! No wonder it took me...
Of wars and a warrior. Review of ‘Arjuna’
Mahabharata fascinates. These stories of wars and warriors have been interpreted in ways to suit the modern manager and also exist as tales that little children love to read and re-read. There are comic-books that tell these stories in their own illustrative way. So is ‘Arjuna’ yet another book that tells us the stories from...
Adjectives for Sid
The book’s cover calls Sid a ‘man in progress’ and the cover behind the cover (yes, and that’s something of an innovation for a novel) calls him amiable, easy-going, lovable, beer-lover, idiosyncratic, witty, impulsive, thoughtless, vain, master of denial, idiotic, well-meaning, comical, vice-president, metrosexual, and smart-ass. Even his relationship with his wife in the first...
Gangiri Bhadra was the solution. Review of ‘Shoes of the dead’
‘Death Districts of the DP Government’, he suggested for the headline. There are no doors in Ichalganj, Nazar began his story. Once, that was because no one wanted anything more. Now, it is because no one has anything left. I began reading the book slowly, deliberately because I thought death never likes to be hurried...
The Recession Gigolos: Review of ‘The Homing Pigeons’
‘You passed out and the bar owners were about to throw your sorry ass out on the street. I intervened and brought you to my hotel. I undressed you, sent your clothes to the laundry, cleaned you up and put you to bed.’ I am completely horrified. Like I said, this doesn’t happen often. ‘Since...
Wait and watch life happen. Review of ‘The Fortune Hunters’
‘You should be thankful to Ragini and to your father,’ Pinaki said sarcastically. ‘You should thank Ragini for marrying you and your father for helping you to be with your wife,’ I said and winked. ‘What was my role then?’ Amir asked as he felt irritated. ‘You just waited and watched things happen with you,’...
