Kabira khada bazar me mange sabki khair; Na kahu se dosti na kahu se bair.

ABCs of Horror by Anmol Rawat My rating: 3 of 5 stars Why does horror click? It definitely does not make us feel good. It has a totally opposite effect on us. It makes us feel terrible, depressed and we run for cover. There is a sense of impending doom and feel bad atmosphere. Still horror movies and literature works. Stephen King is a good example in books. Countless horror movies are made. In India Ramsays and Bhatts has made a name for themselves in this and have a niche and loyal audience. Even low budget even C grade horror films become super hit and make good money. I think the reason is as below. Horror is one of the emotion in humans. As per Natya Shastra of Bharat Muni there are eight RASA. A rasa is a synthetic phenomenon and the goal of any creative performance art, oratory, painting or literature. The King of Rasa is of course ROMANCE. Horror is combination of Disgust (Vibhatsa) and Horrifying (Bhayanka). So through books and movies we can experience these emotions in...

The Aravan Head by Arvind Narsima My rating: 4 of 5 stars The book is provided by Arudha Club in exchange for a genuine review. The book deals multiple issues at various levels. One is of Political system is corrupt in India. There are many attempts to correct it but in vain. Since the days of JP movement to Anna Hazare we have seen efforts to cleanse the system but it comes to a naught. Second is the question of LGBT acceptance in society. The people who are in minority and different due to their sexual makeup or orientation. They are shunned by society and looked down by all and sundry. They live amongst us but not a part of us. Third is of systemic rot in police department. Police is meant to upheld law and order but they become tools in the hands of politicians, industrialists and Mafiosi to exploit the masses. There is large scale exploitation in the name of water tax, illegal hooch, hafta wasooli (protection money), rape, murders and the police is a mute participant in ...

Chronux by Sagar Kamath My rating: 2 of 5 stars Mankind always wanted secret to ultimate power. Some secret device which can make powerful like god. A device so powerful which can make anyone omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. Story starts with legendary Mahabharat warrior Ashwathama. His “MANI” is sorce of unlimited power. After the war he reaches an obscure Himalayan village Aruhu. He teaches the people the secrets of stars and the MANI. After many generations two friends Bharata and Arhiti come face to face power of Chronux in their childhood and are terrified beyond imagination. After the incident Bharata goes missing only to come back year later in a deadly Avatar. Story moves forwards and backwards from Aruhu to Nazi Europe to year 3067 AD in future. The story moves at different times during many eras. It has interesting concepts like SETI. Scientist are trying to establish contact with other intelligent species by sending signals. The fundamental problem with inter ste...

Modern Slavery and the Gods of Consumption by Ofer Even My rating: 4 of 5 stars The current American society thrives on consumerism. It is all about I, me and myself. A totally hedonistic society which believes to live in today and doesn’t care a damn about tomorrow. Michael is living an idyllic life a beautiful wife Iris, one son and a daughter. They are living an American dream having all the materialistic comforts at home. He believes to live in present and lives on borrowed money. He has become workaholic so that he can pay the EMIs and has 3-6-9 rules for them. Still he is not happy despite all the material comforts to him and his family. Iris sometimes remind him that they are living beyond their means and their children are being pampered. His black servant Johnny has five children and lives a frugal life. His wife and children are also happy in limited means. He is working for a firm who manage everything for their clients by any means. If someone is not their client he is d...

Finders Keepers by Russ Colchamiro My rating: 3 of 5 stars Finders Keepers is the book one of this trilogy. What if the Gods also have systems like humans? This book is a sci-fi and has this interesting premise. In some far off galaxy Eternitarians live who have the job of populating planets. They build eath like stystems on new planets. The story starts with an eternitarian couple Donald and Danielle. They are work crew and given a single jar of cosmic building matrial or CBM, which is universe DNA. A single drop can wipe out several star systems. They lose it and it falls on earth. It is reterievd by two tourists. They come to earth to reterieve it and then what happens makes the whole story. To give you an idea of the premise this passage is reproduced: Eternitarians impudently denied even the slightest similarity between themselves and the Earth cretins, physical appearance being the only exception. The people trudging along the Earth were said to evolve painfully slow and pos...

A Symphony of Chance Encounters by Sayujya Sankar My rating: 4 of 5 stars An anthology of twenty poems and stories is covering many human emotions. Love, craziness, hate, desperation etc. the range is varied. Story 16 “A Dragon Fire and Cuckoo Song” is about weaving stories. Nisha writes larger than life stories. She creates Minotours (a monster in Greek mythology) and Naagins (female personified snakes of Hindu mythology). She meets Thangjam who reads Kafka. They weave stories that are fantastic. Story 8 “An Incomplete Building” of Viskaha who frequents a construction site. The temporary nature of construction and some incomplete stories are similar. Story 2 “A Sane Insanity” is about dissociative personality disorder. Is it genes or due to conditions that people have split personality? Vani and her alter ego Shnathi is a metaphor of rebellion of a oppressed woman. As Nietzshe said “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” Th...

Broken Crayons Can Still Colour: A Soldier and a Fighter by Captain Rakesh Walia My rating: 5 of 5 stars Life is harsh and not everyone is born with a silver spoon in mouth. Most people end up surrendering to the circumstances and keep living the pathetic life. Some brave hearts rise above all challenges and come out at top. This is the autobiography of one such brave heart, Captain Rakesh Walia. Rakesh loses his parents in an accident at a very young age. Then after spending his childhood with indifferent relatives he starts working in factories. But he has a dream of becoming and officer in Indian Army. He keeps studying along with his day jobs, worked on his English and eventually joined Indian army as an officer. The story is inspiring, motivating and gives hope to the less fortunate. The story is testimony to the fact that there is no hurdle in the world which can not be overcome with sheer will and hard work. Human will can move mountains and took humankind to the moon and b...

Messed Up! But All for Love by Arvind Parashar My rating: 4 of 5 stars People fall in love. Then marry. After the initial honeymoon period the spark starts to die down. It is more prevalent in urban upper middle class couples who are financially well off. They get stuck in a rut and rat race to make money. The relationship becomes boring and one or both starts to stray. This is the basis of this novel. Neil and Gauri is one such couple. Neil is a senior executive and Gauri is a dentist. They are a loving couple and Gauri is very possessive of Neil. Gauri is caring, beautiful, sexy, romantic and dedicated to her work. First sign of trouble starts when a svelte gym trainer Srinya enters his life. This sows the first seeds of doubt in Guari’s mind and first crack in their ideal marriage. The other couple Som, a DCP and Drishti, TV anchor is having trouble in their marriage already. Som is a known arrogant philanderer and Drishti is not happy. When Neil and Drishti come into contact ...

The Highway Man: Short Stories by J. Alchem My rating: 4 of 5 stars Is love an obsession, togetherness or a sad memory? The book is an attempt to show these three different facets of love. 1. Catherine: This story is love in the form of obsession. A very successful romantic novelist Nicholas Sieum is obsessed with a woman named Catherine. A very seasoned doctor is called by Nicholas’s father to cure him. Can the doctor cure Nicholas? 2. Sidzy; for a day: Love as in togetherness. A very sweet love story of a couple Sidzy and Jihan. On women’s day Jihan works like Sidzy and do household chores. Hence the name. 3. The Highway Man: Love as a sad memory and grief. A husband loses wife and a son loses mother in an accident. They forget how to be happy and a mysterious Highway man again teaches them how to be happy. Story 2 and 3 are connected I guess. I liked the tone of book. 1st and 2nd are good but the best one is 3rd. I liked this passage from it: “There are two phases of life; hap...

Demons in My Mind: When Mind Becomes Your Biggest Enemy by Aashish Gupta My rating: 3 of 5 stars Human mind is one of the most complex machine ever built. It is more complex than any super computer. Does we rule the mind or the mind rules us? The title gives us the idea. Dakshesh is an old man who is on the verge of a painful death. He ask his fellows to take him to mysterious three monks. The three monks Rizwan (Muslim), Murli (Hindu) and Joseph (Christian) all have dark past. They start telling him their stories. The first monk, Rizwan is from a poor family who is in debt of local priest. He has his friends Ayeda and mysterious young boy. He end up doing heinous crimes. The second monk, Murli is a celebrity painter who have become so successful in short span of time that he has surpassed his guru. He is inspired by body of women and they are her muse. But success gets to his head and he loses grip of his faculty. The third monk, Joseph is in love with Ira. Ira want to do social...

The Krishna-Christ Connexion by Oswald Pereira My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book has an interesting premise. Is GOD (or his incarnation Krishna or son Jesus) limited by geographical boundaries. Is GOD not universal, omnipresent, omniscient and all pervasive. Are The religions man-made or not? So the story starts in heaven where Christ and Krishna are together (isn’t that obvious as is no distinction there). They are sent to earth by GOD and they change destinations. Chris (as Krishna lovingly call Christ) comes to India and Kris (nickname of Krishna) goes to America. Here they spread the message of love and brotherhood and we find that Hinduism and Christianity (though as author explains there is no such religion names as per holy scriptures) are more alike than we imagine. Chris quote from Geeta “I am the source of all spiritual and material world. Everything emanates from me.” Kris tells Chris that sometimes violence is required as in war against terrorism. “When President BO in...

I have read another book of author named “Sick of being healthy” and thoroughly enjoyed that. This is equally enjoyable and very funny. This is story of Megha (best friend of Tara of SOBH) and how she overcomes all odds to become successful and happy again. This captures teenage years and school memories beautifully. Again the presentation is with pictures, cartoons, doodles etc which breaks monotony and makes it spicy. 4/5 stars and recommended to all.

Sick of Being Healthy by Monisha K. Gumber My rating: 4 of 5 stars Tara is a teenager who is plump. She has a heart of gold and SHE is grappling with growing up issues of a fatso girl. She has her family, friends Megha and Dolly and her crush Karan. The tale is sweet, relatable, fast paced and interesting. It kept me hooked. The presentation with pictures, cartoons, screenshots of WhatsApp, FB etc breaks monotony and makes it spicy. 4/5 stars and recommended to all. View all my reviews

The book is provided by Arudha Club in exchang for a genuine review. The Girl Who Knew Too Much: What if the Loved One You Lost Were to Come Back? by   Vikrant Khanna Book Cover: The cover is showing a girl walking on some kind of bridge to a jungle. Time is probably evening either snow is falling or divine light is shining. This is mysterious and religious. It matches the tone of book. Blurb:   Can true love bring someone back from the dead? Akshara is left devastated by her mother’s death and spends most of her time in solitude at the local park. One day, as she is sobbing uncontrollably, a young man named Harry approaches her. They become friends and Harry recounts to her a story about the miraculous reunion of a young woman and her dead boyfriend to help ease some of her pain. The story makes Akshara hopeful that she can perhaps see her dead mother again. But she soon realizes that Harry isn’t what he seems to be. Even the characters in his story...

Life & The Grey Notes by Mayank S. Sengar My rating: 3 of 5 stars Life and the Grey Notes by Mayank S. Sengar It is collection of 10 short stories. The stories covers various facets of life. The stories try between the grey zone between the obvious black and white of life. Maynak through 10 stories tried to cover 10 aspects of life. The first story “Inside Bermuda Triangle” compares life with the mysterious Bermuda triangle. It’s a mysterious area where many aircrafts and ships has disappeared without any trace. Kaka (uncle) of Sanjay compares life to Bermuda triangle. The three vertices of triangle are your fear of failure, burden of expectations and your dependence of advice. Last story is “The God Particle” with no spin, no electric charge, no colour, something that gives mass to everything. That god particle inside us gives us the resilience, the resolve, the stubbornness and the ability to stand tall even in the whirlpool of failure and devastation. “The Religious Atheist...

Book Cover: The cover is showing a black cat sitting on tree branch looking at sky. Tree leaves are colorful. This is soothing and cute. Blurb:   "Toby Sezoe, the newly appointed time traveller finds himself falling in love with a woman. The only problem is that the woman lived on the same spot centuries ago. Luckily enough, the woman can't see him when he travels back in time to her because he is only present there as waveform, but he doesn't know what the future (or past), has in store for him. Assisted by the man who built the time machine himself, for reasons unknown to any one person, will he be able to bridge this gap of time between the past and present? The tale of a true enthusiast, a hard-core romantic and a loyal fan. An uncanny description of the future. An enthralling epilogue, binding all the elements together and introducing the idea that we are all characters of the same play, puppets bound by the same thread. A fascinating turn of events, rei...

Jim Morgan and the Seven Sins by Bharat Madan My rating: 3 of 5 stars Book Cover: The cover is showing a mysterious person wearing cape. This is intriguing and piques curiosity. Blurb: A quest to identify seven deadly sins A mystery behind seven keys that were passed to seven men A deadly race against time to seek atonement On the outskirts of New York City,Jim Morgan, an international bestselling author learns through God that he had committed seven sins in his previous life. Clues lie in the six novels he has written, that would lead him to the mystery. But the novels won’t reveal everything to him. With seven days on hand, he must walk in the direction that faith leads him in, to reach the lost chamber of Seven Planets. Unless Morgan understands the secret behind his past life and the sins he committed, his chance to live will be lost forever. Review: The story starts with a bestselling author Jim Morgan. He doesn't give time to his wife due his ambitions. Thus his wife, K...

The book is provided by Arudha Club in exchange for a genuine review. Another tale of two cities by Ezhuth Aani My rating: 3 of 5 stars Another tale of two cities by Ezhuth Aani Book Cover: The cover is designed by Ajitabha Bose. It shows a temple against the backdrop of red setting sun. This is very beautiful and serene. Blurb: Fourteen thirty one is the year remembered for the martyrdom of Joan of Arc. But another landmark event was unfolding in a future French colony. Cambodia was a cultural cauldron of Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism. The largest metropolis of the pre industrial era was also facing a climate change calamity. The story unfolds in fifteenth century Cambodia and travels to China, Sri Lanka, India and the Middle East, as Princes Adithya and Mahendra set out to seek help for their beleaguered country. Will the splendid twin cities of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom survive? Who wins the heart of Mandagini, the warrior princess? Review: The story st...

The book is provided by Arudha Club in exchange for a genuine review. Unns-The Captivation by Sapan Saxena My rating: 4 of 5 stars “UNNS The Captivation” by SAPAN SAXENA Book Cover: The cover is designed by Ajitabha Bose. Two lovers are walking towards sea in rain holding an umbrella. This is very beautiful and reminded me of “Pyar hua Iqrar hua” of Raj Kapoor and Nargis. Blurb: "Of course you know about the seven stages of love, but have you ever lived them?" Atharva Rathod and Meher Qasim. Love birds since adolescence. Bonded by love, separated by circumstances. They part ways only to meet again. But this time, he is on a secret mission... Are they in control of their own destiny, or it’s their destiny which is making them dance to its tunes? Only time would answer, as Atharva and Meher unwillingly and unknowingly transcend the seven stages of love. A quintessential tale of love and romance marked beautifully by its own rustic old school charm. Review: The book is a...

Future beckons 31 December 2020 Ansh and Priya are dancing like mad in the party at The Parks, Noida. After all it was New Year ’s Eve and the atmosphere is of gaiety. The husband and wife both have been drinking heavily and having a hell of a time. Around two they decided that they had enough and decided to go home for passionate love making. Also their daughter Pinki was alone with maid. They came out and Priya insisted on driving the Scorpio. As the SUV was powerful and huge Ansh had reservations but he agreed in a drunken stupor. Priya sat on driver’s seat but the guard came and asked Ansh to receive their complimentary gift from hotel. Ansh repented till this day what happened when he went inside. When he came back with gift he saw a nasty looking fellow pointing a gun at Priya head. Priya in panic pressed accelerator till it touched the floor. With 2200 cc engine Scorpio lurched forward like a bullet. The guy hang on to the door. Priya was 4 Patiala peg down after the p...