by Sylvia Nasar Faber and Faber Limited [1998]
At the age of thirty-one, John Nash, mathematical genius, suffered a devastating breakdown and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Yet after decades of leading a ghost-like existence, he was to re-emerge to win a Nobel Prize and world acclaim. The inspiration for a major motion picture directed by Ron Howrad, Sylvia Nasar's award-winning biography is a dream about the mystery of the human mind, a triumph over incredible adversity, and the healing power of love.
PS: I simply do not have enough education to comment on this book on a great mathematician despite his troubling social life, disturbing mind set or spectacular prize winning streak. Do not miss it.
by Bhabani Bhattacharya Arnold-Heinemann Publishers (India) Pvt. Ltd. [1984]
This is modern fable of India at the time of the Independence. The story hinges on a village girl, Meera, who is given an amulet that will turn copper into gold. This miracle can occur only, so it is said, if the wearer of the amulet does a good deed. And what, the author asks with gentle wisdom, constitutes a good deed? In answering his own question, the author brings to life a small Indian village and all who dwell there.
Meera's friends, the townspeople, the local magnate (the Seth), try to reproduce artificially the good works Meera has done naturally all her life. Some of the schemes are hilarious; and the ingenuity with which they are tied to the imminent political elections is delightful.
The plight of the young girl loaded down with copper trinkets until she can barely stand is tragicomic. The girl is in love, half afraid, half unaware of what is happening to her. The Seth is torn between his love for his wife and his greed, and he paints among other portraits, Meera's unforgettable grand mother, yearning for her wandering minstrel husband, and the Seth's city bred chauffeur, forced to decide whether love for Meera or political activity should come first.
The book is a unique portrayal of Indian thinking, the influence of the age-old superstitions, and the conflicts aroused by the new political freedom. It also shows men and women living together in a community very different from and very much the same as all other communities.
PS: Some portions of this book are good in description, the rest felt like drag-on. Average book for reading.
by Toni Morrison (11.99 Pounds) Chattus & Windows, London [2008]
In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. Jacob, an Anglo-Dutch trader, has a smallholding in the harsh American north. Despite his distaste for dealing in the 'flesh', he takes a small slave girl, in part payment for a bad debt from a Maryland plantation owner. This is Florens, 'with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady', who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Florens is hungry for love, at first from the older servant woman at her new master's house; but later, when she's sixteen, from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives...
This is their plight - men and women inventing themselves in the wilderness. A Mercy reveals what lies under the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, this is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter in a violent ad-hoc world - a world where acts of mercy, like everything else, like everything else, have unforeseen consequences.
PS: A novel from the Nobel prize-winning author of "Beloved". But this book disappointed me.
by Vikram Seth (Rs 650/-) Penguin Books [1993]
Set in post-independence India, the novel follows for eighteen months of four linked families in Calcutta, the province of Purva Pradesh and its capital Brahmpur, and the cities - Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow - trawled by the heroine's mother in her search for a "suitable boy".
PS: A huge book with a much extended story line. Prepare to read it in sections over a few months.
by Khaled Hosseini Peguin Books, USA [2007]
A Thousand Splendid Suns is Hosseini's attempt to illustrate the lives of Afghan women in the past half-century. He takes us on a journey that centers on the lives of two very different Afghan women, but also encompasses the turbulent history of the country in that time and its effect on their lives.
The story starts with the life of Mariam, a 15 year old girl in Herat who lives with her bitter mother. She is the harami child of a local businessman, illegitimate because he had an affair with her mother, a servant in his house. He already had three wives. When Mariam steals away to visit her father one day, she's refused entry to his house. By the time she returns home, her mother is hanging from a tree.
Now orphaned, her father is quick to marry her off to the first man who expresses an interest. Unfortunately, that man is Rasheed, a misogynistic bully many years her senior who takes her home and subjects her to a life of strict rules and introduces her to the burka. Things are passable at first, but as Mariam continues to miscarry Rasheed's babies, he becomes increasingly abusive towards her.
It's here that Hosseini's style smoothes out the brutality. It starts out with verbal insults, and then Mariam has a tooth punched out, maybe more the next time. The gradual escalation of Rasheed's temper is introduced until the violence he shows toward his wife becomes - to the reader and Mariam herself - commonplace.
The book moves on to Part 2 at this point, introducing the character of Laila, a girl who is born around the time Mariam moves to Kabul to live with Rasheed. Her family is far more liberal, and Laila's mother is not forced to wear a burka. Her husband is a bookish man, who encourages his daughter to educate herself and gives her hopes of travel and a career.
Of course, the experienced Hosseini reader will know that this blissful state of affairs will not last long. And as the political tensions in Kabul escalate, a rocket attack on the family home kills Laila's parents, leaving her wounded. She's dug out of the rubble and taken to Rasheed and Mariam's house, where the two of them tend to her wounds and look after her.
At this point, the stories of Mariam and Laila begin to intertwine - all is not well at first, because Rasheed soon starts turning his attention to Laila. Mariam is incensed, but knows she has no say in his taking another wife. Even though Rasheed is so old at this point, we expect Laila to reject his offer of marriage, but she accepts without hesitation. This is a shocking turn of events, but we soon discover that Laila is pregnant to her childhood lover who moved away from the neighbourhood not long before her parents died.
Mariam is initially distrustful of Laila for stealing her husband of all things - by this stage, she should be grateful that someone else would be attracting his romantic advances. However, after Laila gives birth to Aziza, Mariam starts to warm to her more and the two start to bond. However, Rasheed's reign of terror begins to extend to Laila, although sometimes Laila ill-advisedly fights back. She's cunning, though, and plots to leave Rasheed, stealing little bits of money from him here and there in preparation.
The scene where Laila, Mariam and Aziza leave Rasheed is very heart-winning. You can feel their spirits lift with the hope of escaping this horrible man once and for all, and then those hopes are dashed when they're double-crossed by a man at the bus terminus. The two women are returned to face Rasheed's wrath. Their lives continue in this way for a few years, and their lot continues to deteriorate as hunger sets in and Rasheed loses his job, forcing him to spend more time around the house. Laila has another child.
Matters are made worse when Tariq, Laila's lost boyfriend arrives at their door. It turns out that years earlier, Rasheed had paid a man to come to the house and tell Laila that Tariq was dead. It's a twist of the knife too far this time. Rasheed is incensed when he hears that Tariq has been in his house and lashes out at Mariam. There's a scuffle and as Laila is being choked by an enraged Rasheed, Mariam realizes that she has to be decisive. She runs to the shed, finds a shovel and lodges it in Rasheed's head.
It's at this point the story changes. Rasheed's fate was sealed almost from the moment that he first punched a tooth out of Mariam's mouth. Some have complained that Hosseini writes his characters in a polarized manner - citing Rasheed's having no redeemable qualities whatsoever as an example. I personally found that worked for me. There were points in the narrative where I felt terrible for the women, almost ashamed to be a man myself. There were times when I would have gladly wielded a shovel above Rasheed's head myself to spare Mariam and Laila any further indignities.
As a reader, I was plaintively hoping for sympathy for Mariam, mercy for a woman whose life has been so miserable. A seemingly kindly judge is sorrowful about the life she's endured, but quotes Sharia law at her. It's when the two words "Ghazi Stadium" are uttered that my heart sank for her. Readers of The Kite Runner will know what atrocities were committed there.
I actually didn't take any comfort at all from the fourth part of the book, which describes Laila's escape with Tariq, marrying again and settling down and their subsequent return to Kabul. Although it's clear that the author has grand hopes for the city and perhaps the country, I was still filled with sadness for Mariam and the quiet dignity of her sacrifice. The words of her resentful mother from the beginning of the book still ringing in my ears ("Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman."), it's hard to feel elated when someone has thanklessly endured such hardship without an acceptable level of balance towards joy and happiness. It would have been nice to see Mariam as the grandmother to Laila's children in the end. But I guess that would be the idealists ending to the story.
Once again though, Hosseini has delivered a book that not only educates ignorant Westerners like me - I'm not being facetious, before The Kite Runner, I had a rudimentary grasp of the situation in Afghanistan. Seeing the country through the eyes of a native is a revelatory experience. Even the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is enough to fill one with a deep-seated loathing of extremists - I recommend following that link to see before and after pictures of what was called "a crime against culture".
Reading Hosseini's notes afterward is a fantastic insight to the untold story behind the book - the differences between progressive Kabul and the more conservative rural areas of Afghanistan and the various attempts to bring equal rights to women are just some of the topics he talks about. As an author, he realizes there's an interest there that goes beyond what he can tell in his narrative, and I'm glad he included the afterword, acknowledgements and postscript sections.
I heartily recommend this to other readers who are looking for something a little bit more substantial. It'll certainly open your eyes to Afghanistan and you might see something you recognize in the humanity of the 'strange foreigners' who live there.
PS: Taken from review written by Gerard McGarry.
by Nicholas Sparks (Rs. 295\-) Time Warner Books [2006]
Landon Carter would never have dreamed of asking Jamie Sullivan out, but a twist of fate throws them together. In the months that follow, Landon breaks down Jamie's natural reserve and begins to get to know her and to fall in love. But then he discovers that Jamie has a reason for not letting people close-- a secret that will break his heart.
PS: I was very touched by the story line. On a sunday night, it is the best book to teach the children morals of bible. Just wondering if such kind of goody goody two shoes people exist in real world? Hard to believe. It's a good book.
by Amal Chatterjee (Rs. 200\-) Penguin Books [1998]
In the vast city of Calcutta, four very different lives collide: Meena, a pretty middle-class girl, her head full of books and marriage; Putul, idle, amiable scion of the moneyed upper classes, too lazy to notice anything much; John, a young Scotsman in search of his family's Indian 'roots'; and Choto, the slum-dwelling son of a humble servant, making an increasingly perilous job of staying alive.
In a place where poverty and extravagance co-exist, these four young people lead parallel lives, inextricably linked to one another by family, proximity and sheer chance, but for the most part oblivious to the complex web of fate that ties their destinies together. It takes the events of one season to bring them together with catastrophic consequences.
PS: You will get a contemporary scenario of Calcutta from this novel. Other than that do not expect much. Story line is really weak.
by Indra Sinha (7.99 Pounds) Pocket Books [2008]
'I used to be human once. So I'm told. I don't remember it myself, but people who knew me when, I was small say I walked on two feet just like a human being...'
Ever since he can remember, Animal has gone on all fours, the catastrophic result of what happened on That Night when, thanks to an American chemical company, the Apocalypse visited his slum. Now, not yet twenty, he leads a hand-to-mouth existence with his dog Jara and a crazy old nun called Ma Franci, and spends his nights wondering what it must be like to get laid.
When a young American doctor, Elli barber, comes to town to open up a free clinic, Animal plunges into a web of intrigues, scams and plots with the unabashed aim of turning events to his own advantage. Compelling honest and entirely without self-pity, Animal lights up our journey into his dark world with flashes of pure joy.
Animal's people is a stunningly humane work of storytelling that takes us to the heart of contemporary India.
PS: The book is boring despite a nice evolving plot.
by Upamanyu Chatterjee Penguin Books [1988]
Agastya Sen is a young Indian civil servant whose imagination is dominated by women, literature and soft drugs. As the novel opens he has been posted to the small provincial town of Madna. English, August is a funny, wryly observed account of Agastya sen's year in the sticks.
PS: For a forigner, may be the description is quite authentic. For a true Indian person like me, the novel is quite rubbish. Life is a continuous journey of learning. Learning from mistakes as well as learning from success. The central character is pining for everything he had in his city. Instead why can't he try to learn something and adjust himself in the rural environment? He should have learned how to cook. He should have tried to learn the local dialect. He should have tried to devise an efficient method to work in his office. But all he did is some exercise and a lot of complaining coupled with extensive boozing and smoking.
Where went the age old funda of "Adjusting, accommodating and surviving". Whining, pining and running away from a problem never lead a person towards success.
by Tushar Raheja (Rs 100/-) Srishti Publishers & Distributors [2006]
...As a professor in IIT Delhi is busy with his love, the 'Biobull'; a revolutionary bus that will run on human discharge and provide a somewhat funny yet, inexhaustible alternate fuel... one of his students is busy with his love, a girl thankfully. Peaceful, eh? Yup and just the peaceful playground for Mr. Fate to stick his bally foot in...
PS: I am glad to discover another book writer from IIT Delhi, being a great fan of Mr. Chetan Bhagat. A book with many twists and turns. It is a bit annoying that the central character is busier in hatching plans to meet his girlfriend than his studies. But, anyway who has gone far with studies, as my best friend keeps on saying to me :). Enjoy the book.
by Sagarika Ghose (Rs. 295\-) A Harper Collins India Original [2006]
When Mia, acutely depressed by the suicide of her father meets karna, a young Indian guru who seems to have walked straight out if her father's painting of the Kumbh Mela, she feels compelled to follow him all the way from London to India. And if marrying Vik, the suave corporate, will help her reach him, then so be it... In India, Mia hears of Indi, Vik's accomplished, inordinately attractive mother who cannot cease raging against the limits imposed on her, by her blindness, her beauty, and her clinging son. To make sense of Indi's anguished attempts to break free, and her own journey chasing a duplicitous love, Mia must travel to the Kumbh, to the heart of her father's painting, where life, she learns, allows another perspective... a stunningly beautiful account of life's distorted perceptions: of reason that blinds, of hate that liberates and of love that strangles.
PS: Good plot, but average writing. Indi's character is spectacular. You will feel sorry for her woes, become proud with her achievements and sometimes you will get completely blank for what to say with her maverick doings. Confused Mia is doing justice to her role. Mithu is almost non-existent.
Vik is disturbed and presents the extreme version of new age children. All he wanted is some love, some attention and a big hearty hug from her parents. Indi knowingly abstained herself from her duty. Today's mothers don't have time for that.
Overall good for reading. The twist at kumbhamela looks interesting but fails to hold it for long. I did not like the ending for Indi's stubbornness. She lost her lover, her son and still not a single repent!
By Stephenie Meyer (Rs 550/-) Atom, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group [2008]
When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved?
To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, she has endured a tumultuous year of temptation, loss and strife to reach the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fate of two tribes hangs.
Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating and unfathomable consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bell's life - first discovered in Twilight, then scattered and torn in New Moon and Eclipse - seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed ... forever?
The astonishing, breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.
PS: Everything said and done, I read the book and liked it. Can't say about others...
by Lauren Weisberger Harper Collins Publishers [2008]
The three best friends make a pact over raspberry mojitos one night - this year everything is going to change. Emmy is going to find a man on every continent for some no-strings fun. Adriana vows she'll secure a five-carat Harry Winston diamond on her fourth finger. And Leigh can't think of what she needs to change - until literary bad boy Jess Chapman starts to get under her skin. Game on...
PS: The book starts quite nicely, keeps your interest alive till half time but then drags on miserably to end where there is no end. Judge yourself.
by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Raksha Bharadia (Rupees 295/-) Westland Ltd [2011]
Stories of Love, Laughter and Commitment to Last a Lifetime...
When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
Chicken Soup for the Indian Bride's Soul is for all women, whether newly engaged, recently married, or reflecting on years of married bliss. Stories of elopement, big fat Indian weddings, groom-hunting in arranged marriages, dealing with in-laws, wanting that jaw-dropping lehenga and having that perfect wedding day- this collection will tug at heartstrings, make you laugh, cry and perhaps see your family in a totally different light. Most importantly, this book will remind you of how strong the bond between couples in love can and must be if they are to share their lives together.
PS: Their is truth in this book's wordings, but by the time you warm up to a story, it ends. They are very short.
by Erich Segal ($7.99) A Bantam Book [1988]
Writing with all the passion, the author swept the readers into the lives of the Harvard Medical School's class of 1962. His stunning novel reveals the making of doctors- what makes them tick, scheme, hurt and love. From the crucible of med school's merciless training through the demanding hours of internship and residency to the triumphs- and sometimes tragedies-beyond, Doctors brings to vivid life the men and women who seek to heal but who must first walk through fire.
At the novel's heart is the unforgettable relationship of Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano, childhood friends who separately find unsettling celebrity and unsatisfying love-until their friendship ripens into passion. Yet even their devotion to each other, even their medical gifts may not be enough to save the one life they treasure above all others.
PS: After long enjoyed reading a book for purely reading and enjoyment sake. Good Book. Throughout the book, Barney remained my favorite sweetheart.
by Stephenie Meyer Atom, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, London [2007]
As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob- knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?
PS: Boisterous aimless soft porn. Do not waste your time here.
by Jeffrey Archer (5.99 Pounds) Pan Books an imprint of the Pan MacMilaan Ltd. [2005]
Why an old lady was brutally murdered the night before 9/11?
Why was a successful New York banker not surprised to receive a woman's left ear in the morning post?
Why did a professional young woman steal an Impressionist painting, when she wasn't a thief?
Why was an Honours graduate working as a temporary secretary after inheriting a fortune?
Why was Japanese steel magnate happy to hand over $50,000,000 to a woman he had only met once?
PS: Interesting start, beautiful heart touching narration of the 9/11 incident by including a escaped victim (Anna) by sheer chance, for most part the book is good. I have one complain though to the author. Towards last part of the book, how come Anna is so calm and happy just after a deadly attack on her? Somehow the author completely failed to grasp the seriousness of the bloody situation, where jokes and smiles do not fit at all.
by Rochelle Larkin (1.75 Pounds) A new English Library Original Production [1982]
Amanda Parish had much to be thankful for. She had good looks. It's not like that, she was obsessed but it would be silly not to acknowledge what men, other women and her own mirror told her. She had talent and a job. Her jewellery designs earned her good money and professional respect. She had good friends and a stylish social life. Marriage? No, not any longer but the divorce had been amicable. Alan still played his part in supporting and caring for their much loved son, Tommy. All in all, she was happy and successful. Until she met Joseph... who brought in to her life a chaotic whirlpool of anguish, hope, doubt, danger and love. An overwhelming love that took over her life and threatened to shake it apart...
PS: The narration is good at some places and dragging at some other places. I will say story line is neither weak nor strong. It is a so so book meant for spending your extra time.
by Danielle Steel (3.25 Pounds) Corgi Books [1999]
A grand mother's life in the eyes of her grand daughter: "In my eyes she had always been old, and always been mine, always been Granny Dan. But in another time, another place, there had been dancing, people laughter, love...".
She was the cherished grandmother who sang songs in Russian, loved to roller-skate, and spoke little of her past. But when Granny Dan died, all that remained was a box wrapped in brown paper. Inside, an old pair of satin ballet shoes, a gold locket, and a stack of letters tied with ribbon. It was her legacy, a secret past, waiting to be discovered by the granddaughter who loved her but never really knew her. It was a story waiting to be told.
The year was 1902. A motherless young girl arrived at ballet school in St Petersburg. By the age of seventeen Danina Petroskova was forced to make a heartbreaking choice, as the world around her was about to change forever.
PS: In this novel a simple box, filled with mementoes from a grandmother, offers a long forgotten history of youth and beauty, love and dreams to be felt by her granddaughter. If you have some time to kill, you can read it as time pass. But do not expect anything extraordinary out of this book.
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (7.99 Pounds) Harper Perennial, an imprint of Haper Collins Publishers [2007]
In 1960s Nigeria, a country blighted by civil war, three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university lecturer. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. The third is Richard, a shy Englishman in thrall to Olanna's enigmatic twin sister. When the shocking horror of the war engulfs them, their loyalties are severely tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways that none of them imagined...
PS: War, be it India or Vietnam or Burma or Nigeria, always sounds ugly to my ears. I believe, like energy, war and violence has its wave of dangerous frequencies that wipe out humanity on its way. A war may end in days or some years, but its impact stays for much much longer in human hearts, many of whom have no role either in initiating or commencing or stopping it. Poor hapless persons, always end up loosing wealth of life long hard labor. Many of them loose family along with near and dear ones. Then, they live with the guilty nauseating fact stamped to their mind that they were unable to protect their family members. So much trouble, just for wars.
by Donya Al-Nahi Anthem An Imprint of Manjul Books [2006]
"Mary swept Leila off her feet and they seemed to cling on to one another for ages. I glanced back at our driver to check that his nerve was holding... Mary regained her sense of urgency and bundled Leila towards the cab and, as soos as I reached the open door, I jumped in, yelling at the driver to go..."
For Donya, this type of shocking and dramatic event has become a commonplace occurrence. She is an angel of mercy to hundreds of British women who have had their children taken away from them by Middle eastern fathers, who do not want their children exposed to a liberal, Western upbringing.
Donya is called upon regularly by desperate mothers, whose only wish is to be united with their little ones. What started as a favour to a friend has turned into a life's work for this determined and incredibly outrageous women. No stranger to Middle Eastern culture, Donya converted to Islam at the age of seventeen when she moved to Jordan to live with her boyfriend. Sunsequent to that, she fled an engagement of an Tunisian man and married a wealthy Cypriot, only to be forced to flee the marriage with another person.
PS: A handful only be such daring in their action so selflessly devoted to the distressed mothers.Not a very spectcular book to read....but the streaks of truth and dare will definitely touch your heart.
by Jhumpa Lahiri (Rs. 150\-) Harper Collins Publishers India [1999]
Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant stories tell the lives of Indians in exile, of people navigating between the strict traditions they've inherited and the baffling New World they must encounter every day. A young couple exchange confessions each night as they struggle to cope with the loss of their baby and their failing marriage [A Temporary Matter]; Mr Pirzada, whose watch is always set to Dacca time, worries about his family back in Pakistan [When Mr. Pirzada came to Dine; an Interpreter guides and American family through the India of their ancestors and hears and astonishing revelation [Interpreter of Maladies]; how comparison and greed of neighbors turned them inhuman towards an old tattered lady [A real Durwan]; a young Midwestern woman so drawn into a tantalizing affair with a married Bengali man [Sexy]; the eccentric, nervous Mrs Sen needs to learn to drive if she is to keep her job minding eleven-year-old Eliot after school [Mrs Sen's]; a new couple's trials to adjust with each other's whims [The Blessed House]; a poor middle aged lady's plight to get married [The Treatment of Bibi Haldar] and an old lady unknowingly becoming the bridge between a new awkward couple [The Third and Final Continent].
PS: It is a book of interesting short stories. Good for people who are impatient with big books and long stories. Can keep it with you while doing a journey...
by Stephenie Meyer (Rs 350/-) Atom, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group [2006]
'Shoot,' I muttered when the paper sliced my finger; I pulled it out to examine the damage. A single drop of blood oozed from the tiny cut.
It all happened very quickly then.
'No!' Edward roared... Dazed and disoriented; I looked up from the bright red blood pulsing out of my arm - into the fevered eyes of the six suddenly ravenous vampires."
For Bella Swan, ther is one thing more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous then Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning...
Passionate, riveting and deeply moving, New Moon, the compelling sequel to Twilight, irrestibly combines romance and suspense with a supernatural twist.
PS: Its good but the first part is better :).
by Daman Singh (Rs 250/-) Harper Collins Publishers, India [2008]
In a world in which you have a space of nine by nine to call your own, where you share inedible meals and improbable dreams, and think you know each other inside out, how do you draw the line between private and public, discretion and transgression? For Anjali, suffocated by her mother's unspoken demands, Tara - brilliant and eccentric free spirit - becomes both shield and shoulder, while tranquil Paro, with her unapologetic ambition to get married, represents a complete contrast to their restlessness. So, as Anjali furtively applies to universities abroad and Tara struggles with her doctoral thesis, Paro gets engaged to a suitable boy.
Except, the engagement doesn't last long. Paro's return to the hostel signals a sudden disruption as relationships crumble and a sequence of disturbing events transforms their lives for ever.
A beautifully nuanced story of friendship and loss, Nine By Nine walks the tightrope of emotion with skilful restraint.
PS: I always get attracted to a story based on hostels as half of my life was spent in them, but sorry to say you cannot have much expectation from the book. Fuzzy confusing story line. The unfinished ending will leave you confused. If, that was originally the intention of the author, then she succeeded in instilling dissatisfaction in me beautifully, I must say.
by Sidney Sheldon Harper Collins Publishers, India [2008]
In the frenetic world of a big San Francisco hospital, events catapult three women doctors into a white-hot spotlight.
Dr. Paige Taylor: She swore it was euthanasia, but when Paige inherited a million dollars from a patient, the District Attorney called it murder.
Dr. Kat Hunter: She vowed never to let a man too close again - until she accepted the challenge of a deadly bet.
Dr. Honey Taft: To make it in medicine, she knew she'd need something more than the brains God gave her.
Racing from the life and death decisions of the operating room to the tension-packed fireworks of a murder trial, "Nothing Lasts Forever" lays bare the ambitions and fears of healers and killers, lovers and betrayers in a heart-stopping story you wish would never end ...
PS: Good book for timepass.
By Jeffrey Archer (2.99 Pounds) Pan Books an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd [2003]
Don't get mean, get even...
One million dollar - that's what Harvey Metcalfe, lifelong king of shady deals, has pulled off with empty promises of an oil bonanza and instant riches. Overnight, four men - the heir to an earldom, a Harley Street doctor, a Bond Street art dealer and an Oxford don - find themselves penniless. But this time Harvey has swindled the wrong men. They band together and shadow him from the casinos of Monte Carlo to the high-stakes windows at Ascot and the hallowed lawns of Oxford.
Their plan is simple: to sting Harvey for exactly what he took from them - not a penny more, not a penny less.
PS: Book is good, but towards last the entire fizz dies down, leaving you dry and unhappy.
by Betty Mahmoody with William Hoffer (3. 25 Pounds) Corgi Books [1989]
Betty Mahmoody and her husband, Dr Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody ('Moody'), came to Iran from the USA to meet Moody's family. With them was their four year old daughter, Mahtob. Appalled by the squalor of their living conditions, horrified by what she saw of a country where women are merely chattels and Westerners are despised, Betty soon became desperate to return to the States. But Moody, and his often vicious family, had other plans. Mother and daughter became prisoners of an alien culture, hostages of an increasingly tyrannical and violent man.
Betty began to try to arrange an escape. Evading Moody's sinister spy network, she secretly met sympathizers opposed to Khomeini's savage regime. But every scheme that was suggested to her meant leaving Mahtob behind for ever...
Eventually, Betty was given the name of a man who would plan their perilous route out of Iran, a journey that few women or children had even made. Their nightmare attempt to return home began in a bewildering snowstorm...
PS: Horrific situation, mind degrading atmosphere, ever sinking confidence, torturous husband and relatives....bad politics and helpless constitution....all negative...only positive thought was the hope to return home, to safety, to sunshine and happiness.... hats off to Betty...
I felt like celebrating while reading Betty's arrival in America :).
by Chetan Bhagat (Rs 95/-) Rupa & Co [2005]
In winter 2004, a writer met a young girl on a night train journey. To pass the time, she offered to tell a story. However, she had a condition: that he make it into his second book. He hesitated, but asked what the story was about.
The girl said the story was about six people working in a call center, set in one night. She said it was the night they got a phone call. The phone call was from God...
PS: Good book to read. May be you will feel a bit drama towards end, but enjoyable.
By J. M. G. Le Clezio (Rs 295/-) Rupa & co. [2008]
Onitsha tells the story of Fintan, a youth who travels to Africa in 1948 with his Italian mother to join the English father he has never met. Fintan is initially enchanted by the exotic world he discovers in Onitsha, a bustling city prominently situated on the eastern bank of the Niger River. But gradually he comes to recognize the intolerance and brutality of the colonial system. His youthful point of view provides the novel with a notably direct, horrified perspective on racism and colonialism.
PS: Confused plot, confused author and I become confused after reading it.
By Henri Charriere (Translated from French by Patrick O'Brian) Harper Perennial, An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers (6.75 Pounds) [2005]
Condemned for a murder, he did not commit, Henri Charriere, known as Papillon, was sent to the penal colony of French Guiana. Forty two days after his arrival he made his first break, traveling a thousand grueling miles in an open boat. Recaptured, his spirit remained untamed - in thirteen years he made nine amazingly daring escapes, including one from the notorious Devil's Island.
An immediate sensation upon its 1969 publication, Papillon is one of the greatest adventure stories ever told, a true tale of courage, resilience and an unbreakable will.
PS: I salute the brave Papillon.
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Pound 7.99) Harper Collins Publishers [2004]
Fifteen-year-old Kambili lives in fear of her father, a charismatic yet violent Catholic patriarch who, although generous and well-respected in the community, is repressive and fanatically religious at home. Escape and the discovery of a new, liberated way of life come when Nigeria is shaken by a military coup, forcing Kambili and her brother to live at their aunt's home, a noisy place full of laughter. the visit will lift the silence from her world and, in time, unlock a terrible, bruising secret at the heart of her faimily life.
An extraordinary debut, Purple Hibiscus is a novel about the blurred lines between the old gods and the new, childhood and adulthood, love and hatred - the grey spaces in which truths are revealed and true living is begun.
PS: A mediocre book.
By Chentan Bhagat (Rupees 140/-) Rupa Publishers, India [2011]
Once upon a time, in small-town India, there lived two intelligent boys.
One wanted to use his intelligence to make money.
One wanted to use his intelligence to create a revolution.
The problem was, they both loved the same girl.
Welcome to Revolution 2020. A story about childhood friends Gopal, Raghav and Aarti who struggle to find success and love in Varanasi. However, it isn’t easy to achieve this in an unfair society that rewards the corrupt. As Gopal gives in to the system, and Raghav fights it, who will win?
From the bestselling author of Five Point Someone, one night @ the call center, The Three Mistakes of My Life and 2 States, comes another gripping tale from the heartland of India. Are you ready for the revolution?
PS: Nice Book. Good Story line. Loved the detailed description on the efforts people do for constructing a new engineering college. For heaven's sake, next time anyoone among my kith and kin will mention about joining an engineerring college, I could not help but wonder about the cuts it paid to be functional and will it render good education to my precious family member? Loved the author's efforts in giving multi-dimensionality to Gopal Mishra's character in such a nice way. I have one complain though about Aarti's character. The author could have given some more meaning to her character rather than just making her a foolish beautifull girl and a rolling ball between the two protagonists who remains perpetually confused between her two friends. Also could not refrain from wondering that why everybody want the author to reveal their darkest secrets and then want him to write about it? Wow... in this way very soon he will attain saint-hood.
by Eric Van Lustbader (Rs 295/-) Orion Books [2008]
You can't outrun your past...
For university professor David Webb- forever caught between two identities - life can never be ordinary. Lately he seems to ahve found some well-earned normality. But David is still haunted by the splintered nightmares of his former life - as Jason Bourne.
Soon he find himself embroiled in a Central Intelligence operation to hunt down a terrorist organisation planning a major attack, and is plunged into the deadliest and most tangled assignment of his double life - and the murky underworld he's been trying to escape.
With his own side trying to take him down, all the while an assassin as brilliant and damaged as himself is getting closer by the minute...
PS: Thrilling book, but not as good as the ones by Dan Brown.
by Jeffrey Archer (2.99 Pounds) PAN Books [2004]
6 days, 13 hours and 37 minutes to go.....
Florentyna Kane is elected President- the first woman President of the United States.
At 7:30 one evening the FBI learns of a plot to kill her- the 1572nd threat that year. At 8:30 five people know all the details. By 9: 30 four of them are dead.
FBI agent Mark Andrews alone knows when. He also discovers that a Senator is involved. He has six days to learn where - and how. Six days to prevent the certain death of the President.
PS: A so so book, you can use to kill your time.
by Orhan Pamuk (2. 75 Pounds) Faber and Faber Limited, London[2004]
As the snow begins to fall, a journalist arrives in the remote city of Kars on the Turkish border. Kars is a troubled place-- there's suicide epidemic among its young women, Islamists are poised to win the local elections, and the head of the intelligence service is viciously effective. When the growing blizzard cuts off the outside world, the stage is set for a terrible and desperate act...
PS: A Nobel Prize winner's book indeed. I took almost a month to finish the book as after 20 pages, the drab scenario of the story took me to sleep every time. I believe religion is meant to support human kind, to uplift fragile human faith, to make them believe in their precious lives and its better conduct. After reading the book, I just wanted to ask everybody, if the so called protocols in holy books allow the fragile human mind to more instability, can we call them as religion?
by Sobha De (INR 399) Penguin, India [2005]
Karuna, A Prominent Bombay Socialite, Is Trying To Flee The Nightmare Of The Present By Escaping Into The Past.
An Unhappy Divorce And A Succession Of Sordid Affairs Have Left Her Bruised And Battered And, In An Effort To Forget, Karuna Begins Writing Her Memoirs. As The Story Of Her Life Unfolds We See How The Gauche Middle-Class Girl Metamorphoses Into A Star And We Also Meet Her Friends And Enemies: Neurotic, Man-Hungry Anjali; Gorgeous, Vivacious Ritu; Trampy, Outrageous Si; Abe, Who Prefers Young Girls; Varun, A High-Profile Editor With A Penchant For Young Boys; Krish, The Pretentious Adman, Whose Wife Actively Helps Him In His Extra-Marital Affairs; Girish, The Art- Film Maker In Search Of The Perfect 'Shakuntala'... All Of These Characters And More Play Out Their Lives Against The Backdrop Of Bombay A City Unique Unto Itself...
PS: I dare not comment about the book. Just read the review by Susan Chacko. She is a bioinformaticist in Maryland. Every word she wrote was exactly what I felt after redaing this bogus book. Loss of 400 bucks and shear wastage of my time.
"I read an interview of hers which I quite enjoyed --- she didn't seem to take herself too seriously, and chuckled at the people who were scandalized by her books. So I added her to my reading list with moderate expectations of an entertaining read. Alas, Ms. De turned out to be a complete washout.
She writes about high society in Bombay, but the mere fact that her protagonists are wealthy and have affairs or kinky sex does not prevent them from being unutterably tedious. This book, Socialite Evenings, had a central character who was surrounded by male and female friends with exotic sex lives (this is the only unusual feature of their otherwise completely prosaic and conventional lives) but is herself so pure as to be devastatingly boring. She has nary an original thought and when she finally breaks out of her little mould, appears to have no thought as to the consequences of her actions.
No doubt there are some people in this world with lots of money and nothing to do who manage to have interesting lives, but Shobha De hasn't chosen to write about them. No idea how she got published in Penguin, nor why her books are so popular."
Just wondering how the glossy cover page allured me initially....
by John Updike (3 pounds) Penguin Books [1994]
A varied collection of short stories. All of them indicated towards the unseen. All of them indicated towards the ether spreading beyond life.
PS: But frankly, I was unable to understand many of the short stories of this collection. I felt bored while reading the book
by Paulo Coelho (Rs 195/-) Harper Collins Publisher [2005]
Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of the readers forever. Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is such a book. With over 20 million copies sold worldwide, and translated into 42 languages, The Alchemist has already achieved the status of a modern classic.
This is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and into the Egyptian desert, where a fateful encounter with the alchemist awaits him. This story teaches us, as only few can, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path and above all following our dreams.
Paulo Coelho was born in Brazil and has become one of the most widely read authors in the world today. The recipient of numerous prestigious international awards, Paulo Coelho is a storyteller with the power to inspire nations and to change people's lives.
PS: It is a good book. I enjoyed reading it.
by Amitav Ghosh (Rs 190/-) Ravi Dayal Publisher, Delhi [1996]
Antar, a computer-bound Egyptian clerk in New York, accidentally unearths the abandoned ID card of an old colleague, L. Murugan. Antar remembers him as the man who once described himself as the world authority on Ronald Ross, the Nobel prize-winning scientist who solved the 'malaria puzzle' in Calcutta in 1898. He finds that L. Murugan disappeared in 1995 on an obscure mission to Calcutta to prove a malaria theory of his own.
As Antar begins to unravel the puzzle before him, the novel traces the adventures of the enigmatic L. Murugan and the strange truth of what took place, years before in the tropical laboratory of Ronald Ross. They are events which haunt and twist the fate of characters from the past, present and futures and come to reveal the true nature of the 'Calcutta Chromosome'.
PS: God save me. This is the first time I read a book twice and failed to understand the story! But read the reviews online. They are saying it is extraordinary, wonderful and blah blah... Read and judge yourself.
by By Erich Segal (2.53 Pounds) Bantam Books
It is the moving saga of five extraordinary members of the Harvard class of 1958 and the women with whom their lives are intertwined. Their explosive story begins in a time of innocence and spans a turbulent quarter century, culminating in their dramatic twenty-fifth reunion at which they confront their classmates- and the balance sheet of their own lives. Always at the center; amid the passion, laughter, and glory, stands Harvard- the symbol of who they are and who they will be. They were a generation who made the rules-then broke them-whose glittering successes, heartfelt tragedies, and unbridled ambitions would stun the world.
PS: This is a book that brought back my student memories, my friends, my fears, my successes and failures; and most importantly my dreams. I remembered those insignificant and mundane moments of my life that I spent laboriously to reach where I am today. Read this. You will feel good.
by Mitra Phukan (Rs 295/-) Penguin Books, India [2005]
Rukmini is married to the District Collector of a small town in Assam and teaches English Literature in the local college. On the surface her life seems settled and safe, living in the big beautiful bunglow on the hill above the cremation ground, seemingly untouched by the toil and sufferings of the common folk below. Yet each time there is an 'incident' in the district, the fear and uncertainty that grips the town is reflected in her own life. The violent insurgency that grips Assam runs like a dark river through the novel and forms its backdrop. The ending is horrifying and there can be no other 'end' to such a tale, where the personal lives is inseparably entangled with politics.
PS: The novel justifies with the thoughts of an educated self-conscious woman. I discovered many lines in this novel that are parts of my life and my thinking. The questions I ask myself, the doubts I have regarding my life and the ambitions I possess for myself are all here and I am sure many of you will surely align with some parts of this novel. The ending is really horrible. Nothing worse can happen to a woman when she silently sheds tear for her unborn child, who will not get a chance to meet either of his fathers. The Book has Assamese flavor in it. Only an Assamese writer can write Radhasura and Krishnasura instead of Radhachura and Krishnachura. But enjoyed the pronounciations :).
by Louis Auchincloss. Wedenfield and Nicolson, London [1977]
Characters: Ivy Trask, elesina dart, david stein, clara stein , judge irving stein
PS: Life always do not follow the rust eaten golden rules of Society, there is something beyond the rules and getting there lures many... but few only succeed... what is right or wrong... all depends on the circumstances.
by Mitch Albom ($19.95) The Warner Books, India [2003]
All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know, it at the time...
On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his- and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path for ever.
PS: Well... if you need something to put you in sleep then read this book before going to bed..., One chapter and definitely you feel sleepy with high fundamental facts of the author :).
by Amitabha Ghosh (Rs 425/-) Ravi Dayal Publisher, India [2000]
Outside the royal palace at Mandalay, a small Indian boy called Rajkumar is helping to run a dhaba. He hears the ominous boom of distant guns; he picks up rumors of a conquering British force; he watches panic furrow the faces of customers, and sooner than anyone can comprehend, the ancient capital of Burma is in chaos.
The British conquest of Burma unfolds before Rajkumar's petrified eyes. The king, the queen, and their retinue are exiled to Ratnagiri in western India. With them goes an attendant girl, Dolly, whose face haunts Rajkumar for years. Extricating himself from the royal wreckage, rajkumar, a stateless orphan, moves towards a waiting opportunity- the teak forests of upper Burma. Here, with the help of an itinerant merchant from Malacca, he makes his fortune. But the vision of Dolly will not let go. And so, after twenty years, he journeys to seek her out.
Through the intertwining stories of Dolly and Rajkumar, the history of the twentieth century is told in this book across three generations, spread over three interlinked parts of the British Empire: Burma, with its conflicting undercurrents of discontent; Malaya, with its vast rubber plantations; and India, amid growing opposition to British rule. With World War II and the terrifying Japanese juggernaut, Rajkumar's universe is once again set adrift. In an ocean of refugees fleeing devastation, his family makes a treacherous 1000-mile trek to India. The door to Burma closes behind them, and the glittering lights of an extraordinary civilization are finally extinguished.
PS: Enjoyed the book, but felt depressed after reading it. So much discontent, devastation is gruesome in reading only. Just imagine about the people who beared the burnt during these disturbances... When will mankind understand the atrocities of wars?
By Elizabeth Kostova (Rs 295/-) Sphere An imprint of Little, Brown Book Group [2005]
To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history...
Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to 'My dear and unfortunate successor'. her discovery plunges her into a world she never dreamed of - a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an evil hidden in the depths of history.
PS: Good Book. But you must be brave in reading it. One small suggestion, read in daylight.
by Kiran Desai (Rs 395/-) Penguin Books [2006]
In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga lives an embittered judge who wants only to retire in peace from a world he has found too messy for justice, when his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his doorstep. The judge's cook watches over her distractedly, for his thoughts are claimed by his son, Biju, who is hop scotching from one gritty New York restaurant to another on an elusive search for a green card.
When an Indian-Nepali insurgency in the mountains interrupts Sai's romance with her Nepali tutor, and causes their lives to descend into chaos, they are forced to consider their colliding interests. The cook witnesses the hierarchy being overturned and discarded. And the judge must visit his past, and his own journey and role in their intertwining histories.
This majestic novel of our busy, grasping times illuminates the consequences of colonialism and global conflicts of religion, race and nationalism.
PS: Enjoyed the dry humor of the book.
by Jed Rubenfeld An imprint of Headline Publishing Group [2007]
On the morning after Sigmund Freud arrives in New York on his first - and only - visit to the United States, a stunning debutante is found bound and strangled in her penthouse apartment, high above Broadway. The following night, another beautiful heiress, Nora Acton, is discovered tied to a chandelier in her parents' home, viciously wounded and unable to speak or to recall her ordeal. Soon Freud and his American disciple, Stratham Younger, are enlisted to help Miss Acton recover her memory, and to piece together the killer's identity. It is a riddle that will test their skills to the limit, and lead them on a thrilling journey - into the darkest places of the city, and of the human mind.
PS: May be I am not enough qualified to digest such a book. As mystery interests me, I found some sections quite interesting.
by P. D. James (6.99 Pound) Penguin Books [2005]
Combe Island off the Cornish coast offers rest and seclusion to over-stressed professionals who have paid the price of getting to the top. But when one of these distinguished visitors is found hanging from the top of the island's lighthouse, is it murder? is it suicide?
Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are immediately called in: the investigation must be swift, discreet, and decisive. However, Dalgliesh has his work cut out, since both residents and visitors to Combe Island guard their privacy well - even when murder makes them a suspect. Does the islanders' reticence betray knowledge of the crime? Another death and Dalgliesh's own life in danger throws the entire investigation into jeopardy...
PS: I sympathize with the author, But it is a boring book. Total time waste.
By Jhumpa Lahiri ($ 14) Houghton Mifflin Publishers [2003]
Meet the Ganguli family, new arrivals from Calcutta, trying their best to become Americans even as they pine for home. The name they bestow on their firstborn, Gogol, betrays all the conflicts of honoring tradition in a new world - conflicts that will haunt Gogol on his own winding path through divided loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs.
PS: A book full of sentimentality and emotions. I enjoyed it.
by Nicholas Sparks (6.99 Pounds) Sphere, an imprint of Little Brown Book Group [2007]
North Carolina, October 1946, Noah Calhoun has recently returned from war. he tries to forget the horrors he has seen and experienced by restoring an old plantation home. But though his days are spent working, his nights too often give way to dreams of his past.
Fourteen years ago Noah fell in love with a girl, and he is still haunted by her memory but convinced he will never find her again. But when the past slips into the present, Noah realizes his ghosts are never far away.
PS: I have seen the Hindi movie version of this story "U, Me aur Hum". Loved the plot in the movie. So, happy to read the book. The book may seem to you over-poetic at places, but never boring and be ready to weep a little... in joy or sorrow ...that depends on you.
by Jeffrey Archer (Rs 299/-) Pan Books, an imprint of Pam Macmillan Limited [2004]
The magnificent story of love and politics that continues the saga of Kane and Abel.
The titanic battle between two men obsessed with destroying each other follows on into the next generation. Florentyna Rosnovski, Abel's daughter, inherits all her father's drive, but - as he excludes her from his will - none of his wealth. A woman gifted with beauty and intelligence, but above all an indomitable spirit, she sets out in pursuit of an ambition that dwarfs both Kane and Abel, as she battles for the highest office of all.
PS: A contemporary book meant for entertainment and high drama, But somehow not excelled uoto expectation.
by Lavanya Sankaran (Rs 295/-) Headline Book Publishing, London [2005]
In India, as everywhere else, the young want to break with tradition and the old struggle to keep it. Welcome to a world where software billionaires, beggars, and the legacy of the Raj combine and collide, and the clash between old-fashioned parents and their Americanized young is particularly fraught.
The Read Carpet is an extraordinary enjoyable, witty and humane collection of stories as rich and absorbing as any novel. From traditional Indian mothers urging their Westernized children towards marriage, caste-bound chauffeurs and Anglo-Indian convent teachers, to sexual permissiveness, first-class flights, sushi, cocktails and rebellion, Lavanya Sankaran subverts familiar themes of family, love and cultural identity in an outstanding debut.
PS: I enjoyed the stories. They are hip in the sense being penned by someone looking creative writing in a very different angle. I give kudos to her free spirit. Liked the un-orthodox endings of the stories very much. All together a new book and new experience for me.
by Nicholas Sparks (Rs 275/-) Spherer [2000]
Denise Hilton, a young single mother, is driving through Edenton, North Carolina, when her car skids off the road during a storm.
With her is her four-year-old son, Kyle, a boy with severe learning disabilities for whom she has sacrificed everything. When volunteer fireman Taylor McAden finds her she is unconscious and bleeding, but when she wakes an even more chilling truth becomes clear: Kyle is gone.
When confronted by raging fires or deadly accidents, Taylor feels compelled to take terrifying risks to save lives, and the search for Kyle is no exception. But there is one leap of faith. Taylor cannot bring himself to make to commit to a relationship. Will this chance eeting with Denise prove any different?
PS: Initially seems a good story... but later too much imotional baggage makes it not happening....anyway had a good ending and you can read it.
by Rabindranath Tagore, Edited by Somnath Mitra, Visva Bharati [1959]
The translations of the stories in the present collection have not been published in any book before. They form the first of several volumes of translations into English of Rabindranath Tagore's works which the Visva-Bharati intends to bring out in connection with the Tagore Centenary celebrations to take place in 1961.
Of the stories translated here 'Mahamaya', 'Conclusion', 'trespass', 'cloud and Sun', 'The Judge' and 'The Runaway' were published between 1893 and 1895; 'False Hopes' in 1898; 'The Hidden Treasure' in 1907; and 'The Stolen Treasure' in 1933. 'The Stolen Treasure', the concluding story in the final volume of Galpaguchchha, is included here to serve as a specimen of Rabindranath's last writings in this form.
PS: I thought it best to explain all the short stories in one sentence. The Runaway [Tara, Moti babu, Annapurna and Charu], Who can bind the skywards flying soul of Tara? The Hidden Treasure [Mrityunjaya and Sannyasi], All life we run after material pleasures... ignoring the inner happiness. Cloud and Sun [Bhusan and Giribala], A child's imagination is pure like fountain water and a man's heart is like a plain paper. False Hopes [Kesharlal and the Nawab's daughter], Religion is a major blockage in our unity. The Judge [Mohitmohan and Kshiroda], Always before punishing someone put yourself in his/er shoes. Judging someone is very easy...do we ever judge ourselves? Mahamaya [Rajib and Mahamaya], Strange is always the paths of love. Trespass [Joykali and her nephews], the joyous slogan against animal slaughter in disguise. The Conclusion [Apurba and Mrinmayi], Child marriage ruins everything...please wait for the bud to bloom. The Stolen Treasure [The narrator, his wife Sunetra, daughter Aruna and Sailen], Astrology can't overpower your feelings of love. How can someone try to avoid the future by tampering with the present :)
Average book for reading. Portrays Tagore's thinking about old rural Bengal.
by Jennifer Lee Carrell (6. 99 Pounds) Sphere, London [2007]
A woman is left to die in a burning theatre. Another woman is drowned like Ophelia, skirts swirling in the water. A doctor has his throat slashed open on the steps of Washington's Capitol building.
A deadly serial killer is on the loose, modeling his sickening murders on Shakespeare's plays. But why is he killing? And how can he be stopped?
PS: Thrill, murder and mystery keeps the reader bound to a book, but too much of mystery and literary gizmos killed this book. The author unknowingly destroyed his /er chance of being a good author. You will feel cheated at the end, when one of the characters died making sure that with him he is taking, the true Shakespeare's identity. I will say, this is an average book, definitely not bad.
by Thrity Umrigar ($18.95) Harper Perennial [2005]
Poignant, evocative, and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India, it is the story of two compelling and achingly real women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marraige, and Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, who has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. A powerful and perceptive literary masterwork, author Thrity Umrigar's extraordinary novel demonstartes how the lives of the rich and poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly removed from each other, and how the strong bonds of womanhood are eternally opposed by the divisions of class and culture.
PS: A sad story of two women....how helpless they become with situations that closing eyes from all the bad happenings seems the right choice. Felt sad by reading the book.
By Sidney Sheldon Harper Collins Publishers, India [1993]
Lara Cameron seems to possess everything that life has to offer ...
Young, beautiful, a self-made tycoon, she has outshone her competitors to reach the pinnacle of international fortune and renown. But the real Lara is a lonely figure, driven by a childhood obsession, trying, at all costs, to bury the ghosts of her terrible past ...
With her glittering marriage to a world-famous concert pianist, Lara is sure she has fulfilled her destiny. But what she cannot foresee is that terrifying, uncontrollable forces from her secret past are bent on destroying everything she has created, everything she values in life ...
Moving from Scotland and Nova Scotia, to Chicago, New York, London, Rome and Reno, The Stars Shine Down is a magnificent story of passion, intrigue, ambition and revenge.
PS: Good Time Pass.
by Paulo Coelho (Rs 295/-) Harper Collins Publishers [2007]
How do we find the courage to be true to ourselves- even if we are unsure of who we are? This is the central question posed by Paulo Coelho's riveting new work, The Witch of Portbello. It is the story of Athena, a mysterious young woman born in Romania, raised in Beirut and living in London. Her life is told by the many who knew her well- or hardly at all.
Like the Alchemist, The Witch of Portbello is the kind of story that will transform the way readers think about love, passion, joy and sacrifice.
PS: I can very well identify the young independent as well as restless soul of Athena. In fact we all are Athenas of varied situations at some point of our life. Long live the language of heart.
By Barbara Taylor Bradford (6.99 Pounds) Harper Collins Publishers [2003]
They were inseparable friends.
Once, Alexandra, Kay, Jessica and Maria shared all the excitement of studying at a prestigious art school in Paris. But, by the time they left for different corners of the world, the four girls were sworn enemies.
So when, years later, invitations to celebrate their tutor's eighty-fifth birthday arrive, nostalgic memories are stirred, along with curiosity and regrets. During three eventful weeks in Paris, the four women return to old haunts, rekindle once strong ties, and re-awaken in each other the sense of wonder and adventure they had cherished so long ago.
PS: Somewhat interesting story, but beware of the soft porn content.
by Protima Bedi and Pooja Bedi Ebrahim (Rs 295/-) Penguin Books [1999]
In 1974, pictures appeared in magazines and newspapers of Protima Bedi streaking down a road in the centre of Bombay in broad daylight. There was immediate uproar. The incident was, in many ways, the culmination of a life of youthful rebellion and brash sexuality that Protima, the scandalous model and wife of the rising star of Bollywood, Kabir Bedi, had lived ever since she ran away from home to lie 'in sin'. Barely four years later, the glamorous flower child had reinvented herself as an accomplished classical dancer, a devotee of Goddess kali, and chosen the sari over slit skirts and halter-necks. Shortly before her death, she had shaved her head and decided on a monk's life. She died in August 1998, in a landslide in the Himalayas while on a pilgrimage to Kailas Mansarovar, leaving behind her most lasting achievement- a flourishing dance village, Nrityagram, where students continue to learn the classical dance styles of India.
Few lives have been more eventful and controversial than Protima Bedi's, and Timepass, derived from her unfinished autobiography, journals and her letters to family, friends and lovers, is a startlingly frank and passionate memoir. Protima recounts with unflinching honesty the events that shaped her life: her humiliation as a child at being branded the ugly duckling, repeated rape by a cousin when she was barely ten, the failure of her 'open' marriage with Kabir Bedi, her many sexual encounters, and the romantic relationships she had with prominent politicians and artists. She writes, too of her involvement with dance, her relationship with her guru and fellow dancers, the difficult mission of establishing Nrityagram, and the suicide of her son-a tragedy from which she never fully recovered. In a moving afterword to the book, her daughter, Pooja Bedi, described her last days and the circumstances of her death.
Illustrated with over fifty photographs, Timepass is the story of a remarkable woman who had the spirit, the courage and the intelligence to live life entirely on her own terms.
PS: All said and done, a very few have such guts to reveal their life with so much honesty. But the point is ``when the mistakes are done repeatedly and knowingly, whether revealing them with honesty makes the guilt any lesser''. To me Protima Bedi seemed a sucker of happiness. Whenever wherever she did not get that from a person or situation, she ran away from it. Why not instead, try to fight with the problems. What happened to the theory of facing the problems headlong? Why can't she see that her children are fed up with her instability? For once why can't she realize that it is only she, who put the final death knell in the coffin of her son? It never helped to revive a mentally disturbed person, when he discovers the illegality of his birth or the fact that he is a bastard child who was always endowed out of pity. Breaking someone's home cannot be a solution towards stability of another home. It's a plain fact and Madam Protima forgot it with much vanity.
Yet I salute to the brutal honesty with which Protima Bedi lived her life. Many people do not have that kind of courage to break society's norms. I appreciate the love and dedication she showed towards her dance, students and Nrityagram.
by Khuswant Singh (Rs. 70\-) Orient Longman [1956]
The novel has implications which reach far beyond the little village Mano Majra on the frontier between India and Pakistan, where its action takes place. It is the summer of 1947. The frontier has become a scene of rioting and bloodshed. But in the village, where Sikhs and Muslims have always lived peacefully together, partition does not yet mean much. Life is regulated by the trains which rattle across the nearby river bridge. tehn a local money-lender is murdered. Suspicion falls upon Juggut Singh the village gangster who, when not in jail, is carrying on a clandestine affair with a Muslim girl. A western educated Communist agent is also involved. A train comes over the bridge at an unusual time and the villagers discover that it is full of dead Sikhs. Some days later the same thing happens again. The village becomes a battlefield of conflicting loyalties, and neither Magistrate nor police can stem the rising tide of violence. It is left to Juggut Singh to redeem himself by saving many Muslim lives in a stirring climax.
PS: We survive by food and love, not by hatred. It burns everything starting from minds to countries. A novel centralizing a train, village-life dependent on trains, morals and loyalties changing over a train with unlucky passengers and ends with the train going to Pakistan.
Sometimes people with high education and morals become dumb with fear. The character of Iqbal Singh portrays this phenomenon splendidly. Big talk, big ideals, still frozen in case of emergency. The illiterate Juggut Singh's bravery was heart touching. Blood bath always repulses me. Still I liked the book and its narration.
by Rabindranath Tagore (Translated by Krishna Kriplani) (Rupees Three and annas eight only) Visva Bharati [1945]
Two Sisters was first published in 1943 and is one of Tagore's last three novels. It is about the eternal conflict that arises when a man does not find a mother figure and a sweetheart in the same person. He needs the former and desires the latter. Man draws strength from the Mother in a woman and inspiration from the beloved in her. When the two do not meet in the same individual, his heart is torn asunder. The poignancy and the tender irony of its theme make Two Sisters one of the finest Tagore novels.
PS: Got hold of the partially dilapidated book from our circulating library. Also first issuer of the book. Thought myself pure lucky.
Again the same age old saga of what men want from their women. Isn't it a bit sarcastic that they want all the qualities from one woman at a time...I mean to say when a woman gives birth to a child, then only she can behave as a mother properly...looking for qualities of a mother in one's young wife is ridiculous as well as if a woman is like that only... then asking for qualities of a sexy siren lover is also quite futile.
Anyway liked the narration. Infact I always like the natural spontaneous flow of homely affairs in Rabindrnath Tagore's writings. Worth reading.
by Sudha Murty(INR 139/-) Penguin, India[2006]
A Man Dumps His Aged Father In An Old-Age Home After Declaring Him To Be A Homeless Stranger, A Tribal Chief In The Sahyadri Hills Teaches The Author That There Is Humility In Receiving Too, And A Sick Woman Remembers To Thank Her Benefactor Even From Her Deathbed. These Are Just Some Of The Poignant And Eye-Opening Stories About People From All Over The Country That Sudha Murty Recounts In This Book. From Incredible Examples Of Generosity To The Meanest Acts One Can Expect From Men And Women, She Records Everything With Wry Humour And A Directness That Touches The Heart.
First Published In 2002, Wise And Otherwise Has Sold Over 30,000 Copies In English And Has Been Translated Into All The Major Indian Languages. This Revised New Edition Is Sure To Charm Many More Readers And Encourage Them To Explore Their Inner Selves And The World Around Us With New Eyes.
PS: A good heart touching book.
by Jacqueline Susann (1.25 Pounds) Corgi Books [1979]
A woman almost happy with her life, counts days till her engagement and marriage. Mean while she goes to a place to recollect her life and childhood memories. Something happens to her there. She vanishes into thin air to again reappear after some months as a completely different woman with a heart full of love for another man belonging to another world. Will she succeed in reaching to her loved one of the other world? Will anybody on earth believe her? An extraordinary fight of an ordinary woman is YARGO.
PS: Read without any prior expectations. You will enjoy the book.
by Chetan Bhagat (Rs. 95/-) Rupa & Co. [2009]
Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya who are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of couse, their parents don't agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but much harder to convince. Will they make it?
PS: Nice book. no hard fundas yet the characters will be seen handling much tougher issues related to life....I enjoyed it and I bet you will also :)