SHE : Ekla Cholo Re - Book Review #3

Before I begin, I would like to thank Mr Santhosh for asking me to review his book and for sending a signed copy of the same. A correction, its not a novel, but rather a short story.Spanning just 50 pages it can be finished within an hour or so.

Mr. Santhosh is an alumnus from IISC Bangalore. I haven't had the opportunity to read any of his previous works. In his latest book titled SHE, the author tries to bring to light a topic that has been shunned and/or considered taboo especially, in the context of our Indian Society. The story revolves around a transgender, who narrates his/her life story. The protagonist was born a 'he'. But he was more inclined towards the feminine side. His struggles while growing up and the challenges that he faced from all angles of life make up the main content of the book. Social norms are what often dictates and draws the line when it comes to notions of right and wrong. And social norms in turn are born from one simple rule - majority is always right. The dogmas by which our civilized society operates on a daily bases when torn apart for a closer look seems mostly fragile and shaky. 

Hats off to Santhosh for writing a book on such a controversial topic. Coming to a review of the book, there's not much to comment on. The story is solid, engaging and well written. The downside is that it is too short and before you know it, you are at the last page. The editing is a bit off, here and there, could have been improved. This could be overlooked given the fact that the book was written as more of a social message. The characters are likeable and do not stand out, rather they blend in seamlessly into it. Definitely this book is something more than the bullshit  romantic novels being churned out by the Great Indian Romance Mill. I would have loved to see a full length novel emerge from this.

P.S. - Loved the ending!!

My verdict-

Rainbow - Shades of Love (Book Review #2)

Let me start off by saying a big 'Thank You' to Mr. Aman Jassal for asking me to write a review about his debut work and for sending me a signed copy. I haven't blogged anything new in almost a year. Your request through Goodreads asking me to write a review on my blog was unexpected and I was reminded of something that I  love to do, but slowly, over time forgot about. Thanks again for the motivation.Now lets get to the review part.

Rainbow- Shades of Love by Aman Jassal.
This is the author's first book and is published  by Teenage Publishers priced at 150 rupees .The synopsis of the novel is as follows :
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This is not a book to teach you about love or how to get a beautiful girl to bed, rather it reveals how bad things can get if you don't set your priorities right. It's a story about the most explored life aspect ' Love' 'Sex'.

YUVI, a pleasure seeking boy, falls victim to the same notorious life facet called love. Simran's beauty sweeps him off from his feet and he leaves no stone unturned to seek her special attention.As he falls in love, he also sleeps around with all the erroneous girls, and when his fate threatens to take his love down, he promises himself to stop all of this and come out of the wreckage … But then, his past deeds come back to his present, and that tears his life apart. 

What follows is an uneasy course of getting his love back on board.The story reveals the life of today's youth, their friendships, feelings, priorities, and ineptitude to handle relationships while not forgetting their turmoil between the two critical facets of life: LOVE & SEX.

Love makes the world go round … Or is it Sex? Based on real life experiences and tea time gossips. _________________________________________________________________________________ 

Too much details for a synopsis if you ask me. Could have trimmed it a bit and left out some details like his life getting torn apart. As written in the synopsis the main characters are Yuvi and the love of his life Simran, who happens to live right across his PG and by sheer coincidence also happens to be so damn beautiful. (What an opportunity!! The universe seems to plotting for you Mr.Yuvi). Its narrated as a flashback. Yuvi  is an experienced Casanova kinda guy. He is well versed in the various techniques to get ladies. But for the first time, he feels something different, an he falls for this girl, Simran. He lies to her from the very beginning and doesn't come clean at all. The lies keep on piling like back-papers in B.Tech.

Amidst this he has the nerve to sleep with two other women and cheat on Simran. The author has tried to imply that Yuvi succumbed to the advances of the other two women rather than acting on his own accord, but thats not how I felt while reading. Its not that he forgot about Simran before jumping into bed with them, rather he remembered his love for her on both occasions before nailing the coffin shut on his relationship. How appalling! And we are supposed to feel sorry for such a guy? Sheesh!! Give me a break!

Things go south with Simran (as expected) and he finds himself in a crisis. The characters in this novel are kind of hollow. They dont leave a lasting impression on our minds, especially Simran. She is boring, annoying and to put it plainly I didn't like her at all.  To me it felt like just another story, with all the familiar recipes found in today's Indian books - hero, heroine, friends, love, trust, betrayal , blah, blah ...blah!! There is little or no character development.

The story is simple and doesn't go in to explore the theme which is, to quote the author : "...the most explored life aspect 'Love' 'Sex'." One other thing that I found amiss was the title. It says rainbow and shades of love, but the story doesn't do justice to the title, or rather should I say the title doesn't do justice to the story? I am confused. I read the book, but that's just it, it's bland and feels somewhat hastily written.

However, considering that this is Aman's first book, I commend and congratulate him on the effort. Everyone has to start off somewhere. I hope to see more works of his and better ones at that. All the best.

My rating :

"Till The Last Breath'- by Durjoy Dattta (Book Review #1)

'Till The Last Breath' is a romantic novel by Durjoy Dutta. Though this was my first book by the author, i wouldn't mind reading some more of his works. The book is gripping enough to be finished in a day or two. I liked the book, to be honest, but i also feel that it is below average on many aspects.

The plot for instance is all too familiar. At about the 30 % mark you can see the climax that's coming. On a personal note i always root for the unexpected to happen. So, when all the puzzle pieces fell together in place (like i knew it would) i was a bit disappointed. So if you are one of those people who like to have an unanticipated twist in the plot, or a shocker in the end that leaves you numb for a couple of days, then you might nor like this book very much. To be honest you don't have to get to the 30% mark to guess how the story will end. All you need is the prerequisite of having seen a handful of your typical Bollywood movies and the synopsis at the back. Yes this is pretty much like the script for your average Hindi movie.

The synopsis runs like this:

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The death sentences of the patients in Room No. 509 have been written.

One of them is a brilliant nineteen-year-old medical student, suffering from an incurable, fatal disease hurtling her towards a slow, painful death. She counts every extra breath as a blessing. The other is a wasteful twenty-five-year-old drug addict whose every organ system is slowly shutting down. He can’t wait to get rid of his body--to him, the sooner the better.

Two reputed doctors, fighting their own demons from the past, try everything to keep these two patients alive, even putting their medical licenses at risk.

These last days in the hospital change the two patients, their doctors and all the other people around them in ways they had never fathomed.

Till the Last Breath is a heart-warming story about love, life and friendship that reminds us what it means to be alive.

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Coming back to the book. Well as for the characters, i find that the author has given thought to character development. To me the main protagonist in the movie is the drunk guy in the room, not the chirpy little girl. This guy's mind is a blend of emotional frustration and addictions. Addiction not only alcohol and drugs but also to love. His strained relationships are portrayed perfectly. I can say with utmost confidence that Dushyant is much much better than the average Chetan Bhagat protagonist. Clearly a step or two ahead. The narration also deserves special mention. It was good to have a view of the story from different perspectives. This is all the good i can say about this book. 

Now, as i was browsing through Flipkart looking at the reviews of this book, i found that it has been severely overrated. And can someone enlighten me as to why all the girls(most of them) are swooning after this book. Huh? What's the deal? Did i read something else or was there another version with extra material or something? You know like the post credits scene in every MARVEL movie. Here is a snapshot of some of the comments and what's annoyed me most is that they've given it 5 stars. WHAT THE HELL?

In most cases the reviewer says that she cried when she got to page so and so and that page is still wet with her tears. Bullshit. Yeah that's my answer. If you cry at such a simple story. Then i advise you not to watch 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' the only movie that almost made me cry.

As i have already said the book is good,not great. It's one of those books that you pick up to read only for the sake of passing time not for the reading per se. Yes the book is a great hit. But have you wondered why? This stuff is aimed at a particular age group say 14-27 and the author has succeeded in reaching out to them. Yes as an author Mr. Durjoy Dutta has done a good job. But at the end of the day it doesn't mean that he is a good author (case in point Stephenie Meyer).

My Verdict -