Rakhi Jayashankar's Blog, page 53

Perfect Murder and other stories by S.R. Nair- Review

Book Name          - Perfect murder and other stories Author                 - S.R.Nair Publisher              - Amazon Asia-Pacific holdings Pvt LtdBuy books from Amazon

My ReviewRating : 3.5

On one hand we can see a perfect murder being planned on the other hand we can see a woman who is standing for her rights. While a girls searches for a real parents, another traps a man in her vicious plan to get a US Visa. A man who has toiled all his life,decides to come back to restart his life without any sufferings or hardships. The climax will tug the string in the heart of the readers. 

The name of the some of the characters of the story like Attukal Ravikrishnan, Shankar and Ehsan are derived from the celebrity astrologer and music directors directly. Even then there is no direct connection with the real persons.Seduced is narrated in a quirky fashion and the climax tickles the funny bones except for the fact the to be in the scene is never funny.

The title of the book reminded me of Perfect murder by Ruskin Bond. The who mood and theme of the story title was similar to that written by Ruskin Bond. The route of the storyline many srotie gives the impression that the story was written long back and that it got published later because the plot had similarities of several other books and movies released in the last decade.

Overall the book is an easy and decent read.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
This review is in return of a free book from the author

My first break up by Dhruba Roy- Release Day Blitz

About the Book:

“Oh God, why me?”

This is perhaps what we think of when we go through a ‘breakup’.
This story is about Anirudh and Anvi.
Both of them have their own thinking which are not alike.
The story begins with Anirudh meeting with and accident. As he slowly succumbs to the pain, he starts reflecting about his bygone college days where he found his love for music. He loves Anvi dearly who is a long-lost friend of Anirudh.
The story reveals how Anirudh struggles as the hands of reality strikes him down.





Read an Excerpt:


   This is it. One wrong move and I find myself crying to sleep. Days, maybe weeks of putting up the brave face. The ultimate, cliché teenage drama. Everyone has been through it and everyone has heard of it. But for me it was the first time. Maybe the last, hopefully.    So, wearing my heart on my sleeves, I fell in ‘love’. Not once, but twice with the same guy in a row. Tramp? No. I was in love. Deeply, madly, unconditionally. Until the handsof practicality punched me right on my face. I was left stranded and confused. Wondering why all of this was happening to me.  Another cliché moment. But for me, it was the first time.     There is something about human nature which seeks for sympathy. Just had a breakup? The whole world is conspiring for you to be unhappy. No, I will not smile, the world is a cruel place. It takes days for people to get over it. For me? Well no surprise to you, it took a year. One entire year of  ‘the wait’. Sitting back now and thinking about it, I find it funny. No, I find it hilarious. So, what happened after the year was over? Did I just miraculously wake up one day and think to myself that, “hey, you know what…. you are a great girl, get over it…move on!!” No, I realized that he had thought of this way back. He had moved on way back. While, the “so-in-love” me, was waiting. Simply waiting for my stars to turn and relive the same love story again.    The moment you see that your ex has a different face beside the “in a relationship” status, that is the moment you realize how blind and ridiculous you were. The once cute goatee seems like a bush now, that smile which made you smile makes you want to knock off all his teeth, his fascination for food makes you notice his peeking belly pouch. In a nutshell, you are no longer in love with him and his flaws. So then, life brings you to a fork road. The fun road is where you sit back and spread wild rumors about how terrible he is and how he broke your heart. Believe me, the devil will tempt you to follow this path. It is a fantastic journey, but a few more months of futility. So I chose the better path. Get up, pull yourself together, shrug off the dust and embrace the new journey. I am glad I chose the latter. Very glad.  What do you do when an entire part of your life has been erased which once held so much of importance to you? You try and fill it up with things you never had time for otherwise. Socialize, go out, write, sing, laugh, read, stare randomly out of the window and get lost in your own beautiful world. Life was better. I am an ardent believer in unconventionality. Why follow the crowd? I won’t make my own crowd! No siree! I won’t even sit at a distance and laugh at the crowd. I would rather live in a parallel world, a different dimension maybe. I can see you. But you can’t touch me. You can’t judge me. I can be me. Shamelessly.Raise the walls high. Build the impenetrable walls. Shut the gates. It’s my own perfect world. A year goes by in my world. Everything is healed.
I decide to open up the windows a little bit. A little fresh air will cause no harm. I felt a whiff. A new breeze. That felt nice. It felt familiar. Maybe I can open up my windows just a wee bit more. I will shut them off immediately. They are wide open now. Even today. I never shut them. I was never able to.   Vulnerable or strong? Please be vulnerable, please be vulnerable……… pleaded my heart. Shut up already. You have created enough chaos. I am in charge now. No more “Fairytale dreams”, no more car rides, no more falling for flattering messages, no more being silly in love.Do you have a tiny voice at the back of your head which speaks back to you and gives life advice, for god’s sake? Well mine is louder than my own voice, has a humongous ego and can be downright obnoxious sometimes. It’s difficult living with it seriously. You know the worst part? It is usually right.
‘ I love you’. Nope, no you don’t. ‘I could die for you’. No you can’t. ‘I have waited my whole life for you’. Were you born yesterday? ‘I just want to be with you’. Yeah, you want to be in my pants. The voice is annoying I tell you, but it is always right. If I was anything like the voice then I doubt whether I would have had any friends.
About the Author:

Dhruba Das Roy  is a freelance writer, a musician by passion, and a software engineer by profession. He is from Assam, but born in a small town of Meghalaya, where he finished his schooling. He then obtained his degree in engineering from the esteemed college of National Institute of Technology. He discovered his love for music there and was the lead vocalist of his band, “The Rozarts”.

He loves rock and roll and is a great fan of the pioneers of rock and roll-(Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen and the list goes on).Unfortunately, as engineering life came to an end, the band had to split. Recently, he moved to Kolkata where he is working in one of leading software service based companies in India.

Not everyone can put their thoughts into words. Dhruba had never tried his hand in writing; but he had an experience, an experience which changed his life for the better. Being a vocalist, his only way of expression was through the creative way. He decided to pen down his thoughts and he discovered that writing came naturally to him. His thought process in the novel relates to the general mass in many ways. He decided to stretch his limits and ended up voicing his thoughts in a different way this time.





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Dreambig by Mukesh Jindal and Arunraj

Book Name          - Dream Big Author                 -Dr. Mukesh Jindal and Arunraj VS Publisher              - TV18 Broadcast LtdBuy books from Amazon

My ReviewRating : 3.0


There has been a boom in the mutual fund investments in the past decade, which, was at it peak since 2016. In this scenario, the book makes itself relevant to the masses. For those who wonder why the whole hubbub about mutual funds, the book is the answer.

The book is a pointer to our resources and a guideline to our expenses and savings. Author analyses how the change in money value could be made use of and bypassed while investing. Inflation is the greatest threat to the economy and unfortunately, it is inevitable as well. For a person like me, who always used to take the backseat when it comes to discussions regarding investments. Mutual funds, equity funds and debt funds has been alien terms for me. But the book has cited the terms in a simple narrative that enables the laymen to take the right investing decisions.

Unlike the other books on economy, the book uses a vernacular language instead of cramming the brains of the readers with incomprehensible technical terms. This is the USP of the book. I won't be surprised if I see the book among the management textbooks or that of economy students. The book is clearly for novices. Hence the experts might be flustered if not approached in the right spirit. The book is more apt to the beginners as well as students.

Although the information shared in the book is educative to a great extend, the book somehow paints the whole mutual fund scheme in a bright light that the grey area are conveniently overlooked. Apart from that the conscious or accidental attempt to portray real estate as an inferior option intrigued me. Though real estate has high chances of a doom, so does other investment options, especially since we talk about long term investment. This part, however failed to convince me. The chapters are short and gives just a glimpse of several areas like investment planning for child education. Nonetheless, the mini chapters for the investment planning of defence employees, divorce cases, legacy planning etc and briefly touched. Eventhough a detailed account of these make the book unusually large, a little more indulgence into the same would have made the book complete. 


This review is in return of a free book from the publisher  

Castles in the air by Sangeet Sharma- Review

Book Name          - Castles in the air Author                 - Sangeet Sharma Publisher              - Rumour BooksBuy books from Amazon

My ReviewRating : 4.0


Sangeet sharma, through his book castles in the air lays bare the lives of the architects. Unlike the projected image, architects have been facing a lot of injustice, double standards and rejections. Unlike what we see in the movies architects are seldom appreciate for the amount of hard work they invest. Author says how after numerous submissions and resubmissions a plan is approved by a client which in turn would be changed by the contractors and further by the astrologers in the name of Vastu. Author criticises the meaninglessness in why an architect has to toil to balance between the client, contractor and consultant and finally end up being rebuked by everyone. 

Author has revealed a new picture in viewing an architect's life. The book is more anecdotal than fictional. Author has a view on all the matters and has put forth the same with conviction. Author has brought to light a lot of unseen instances which the new and entertainment media has failed to acknowledge. However the narration seemed unilateral where in the exploited architects were depicted whereas there indeed is a group that were on the other side of the coin.

The aspirant house owner approaching the architect with an 'inside outside' magazine indeed tickles the funny bones which in itself is a regular sight. But the fact about the numerous submissions of the drawings stands true only for the new comers whereas the established architects charge for each drawings or so is the practice here. Another discrepancy is the architect being sidelined by the contractors and consultants. While this could be a possibility, there are architects out there who exploits the consultants and assort to fraudulent practices when it comes to the contractors. Well, I was just citing some unread possibility which could have been included in the book, the book is amusing, entertaining and quirky anecdote of an architect's life right from the making to the establishment.

Overall the book is an entertaining engaging and easy read.
This review is in return of a free book from the publisher  

A Life to die for by Nilay Shah- Review

Book Name          - A Life to Die For Author                 - Nilay Shah Publisher              - Zorba BooksBuy books from Amazon

My ReviewRating : 3.5

" Don't judge a book by its cover."
"Keeping the best to the last."
Author has lived up to these proverbs/ sayings through his book 'A Life to Die for'. The book is a Contemporary, futuristic, literary, philosophical and psychological thriller with a lot of shades and layers with numerous subplots and needless to say characters.

The plot begins when Aryaman, an Independant Kashwars  Force militant saves an eighteen year old innocent girls from a monster of a human whom she calls Baba. The bruises on her body serves as the proof for the physical and sexual assault she was subject to by the monster or the Evil kind as the girl says. She considers Aryaman a Prince who has come to save the princess from the Evil king. An excllent artist herself, she gives a portrait of her Prince and the Evil king which facilitates the investigation. Thenceforth Aryaman's aim of an independent Kashwarg takes a backseat and providing justice to the girl becomes his life's aim and he sets out in search of the monster who subjected her to the cruelties. From the point a bizarre, intellectual and literary journey starts for the readers. The plot takes a sharp uphill curve from the narration of the monster's life, whose real name happens to be Atmaj Parikh.

The poetic journey is beautiful and author has tried to tell a lot through the book but since there was a lot happening, there readers gets confused at some point and if I cite my personal experience, I would say that I was exhausted after a point. The first half of the book is exemplary and reminded me of Kite Runner. The places Siran and Zayakistan are analogous to India and Pakistan while Kashwarg, Jambola and Srinathnagar to Kashmir, Jammu and Srinagar. Likewise we can see a lot of analogous terms and names throughout the book. Why author chose to use those fantasy lands for the tale is a mystery. Since the story was taking place in 2034, even if the real name were used there was less chances for any controversies, if any.

The character of Adil seemed to be the strongest for me. Eventhough Aryaman is the protagonist, Adil's character was crafted better and developed more compared to that of Atmaj or Aryaman or the girl for that matter. The girls is just a base to build the story from and at some point the readers might forget that there is such a character in the book. Yet another character that entices the readers is that of Alvira. To avoid any spoilers, I am not citing the details of the same.

The cover of the book could have been designed better to give the book an overall appeal because neither the cover nor the blurb stands up to the quality of the book. Now if the book is taken as a whole, it is a roller-coaster experience for the readers. The pace fluctuates intermittently.

Overall the book is a endearing reading experience but for the fluctuating pace.
This review is in return of a free book from the publisher  

Cover Reveal Pack - Corridors of Time by Vinay Krishnan ~

~ Cover Reveal ~Corridors of Time by Vinay Krishnan

Blurb:
Corridors of Time tracks the story of a sensitive young man who grows from carefree childhood to eventful manhood - one who stumbles before learning to stride through those dark and dense passages.
Set in Bangalore - a city of paradoxes. of gardens and garbage heaps. of technology and traffic snarls. of friendly people and failing infrastructure. when bungalows had gardens and pavements were meant for pedestrians. this is a narrative of the human spirit.
Rohan, an idealistic young sports lover experiences rejection, dark dejection and isolation and hurtles down the path to self destruction.
Shyla, attractive and successful is everything his heart yearns for and his body desires, except, she is married!
Chandrika, simple and devoted fails to understand the man she loves.
The shuklas long for justice denied by the system.
And khalid fears nothing and no one ...anymore.



About the Author:

Vinay Krishnan describes himself as a ‘complete Bangalorean’. A student of Clarence High School, he graduated in Humanities from St Joseph’s College. Earning a diploma in Business Administration, he began his career at Usha International Ltd and rose to a position of Senior Sales manager. Vinay has now set up a construction firm of his own. He also writes and devotes his time to an NGO assisting people with disability. The city of his dreams, Bangalore, where he stays with his wife and daughter, continues to inspire and exasperate him. He can be reached at – vinaykrshnn@yahoo.com.



Praises for the Book:

The book is simple in style and content, for often it is this simplicity that bewilders and rouses
Interest.
~ Shri S . Rajendra Babu, Former Chief Justice of India

The book has excellent literary craftsmanship, passion humour and adventure. Highly recommended.
~ Mr. Namboodiri, former Asst. Editor, Deccan Herald

This charming book about old Bangalore is written in a racy easy-to-read style.
~ Deccan Herald, Bangalore.



This Cover Reveal is brought to you by Author's Channel in association with b00k r3vi3ws


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Two by Gulzar - Review

Book Name          - Two Author                 - Gulzar Publisher              - Harper Buy books from Amazon

My ReviewRating : 4.5


Unlike the books we get to read of late, story is the protagonist. Campbellpur and its inhabitants seems to become a part of our life and fails to leave our brain. Very rarely does a book succeeds in having an impact of this intensity. Reader is forced to visualise the sequences as if a hologram is displayed in front of them. Author has initially laid bare the apprehensions he had in the inadequacies in translating the original story which has various slangs but the fear was in vain because despite the inability in translating the slang, author did a fabulous job in illustrating the life post partition. 

The introduction and the author's note surely indicate that there has been a debate about whether the book is a novel or novella. While the author invariably calls his work a novel, me as a writer and reviewer would call it a novella. Till the partition and the repercussions, it was endearing to read but thenceforth the Kargil war and the anti-Skih riots on 1984, was rushed through and leaves the reader incomplete.

Variants of human traits is the highlight of the book. We can see a knowledgeable, sensitive yet revolutionary school teacher and a snobbish cribbing and heartless merchant in one frame. While a child who lost his parents in riot tries to save his old grandfather, a woman who was looked down upon by the society chooses to look after the boy post the demise of the grandfather. The lives of the sisters who were locked up and raped by the rioters will send a chill through the spine even without the graphic details. What happens to them further is a pointer to the turmoil they have undergone. 

Author through his poetic prose tells us that partition might be dividing the land with barbed wires but the heart of the nation never stopped bleeding.
This review is in return of a free book from the publisher  

Intimacy on the plate by Olga Petrenko- Review

Book Name          - Intimacy on the plate Author                 - Olga Petrenko Publisher              - Identity PublicationsBuy books from Amazon

My ReviewRating : 4.0


The book is systematically categorised into vegetables, fish, seafood, nuts, fruits, chocolates and beverages. We have a nutritional section wherein the scientific base of the recipes are explained briefly. When I started reading the book I was unaware of the term Aphrodisiac and the fact that there are certain food items that increases libido. All I new was about chocolates and drumsticks. The rest were a surprise for me. Had I known that pumpkin has aphrodisiac properties, I wouldn't have set aside the dishes which contained the vegetable. 

Author has clearly mentioned that these recipes does not increase infertility but you never know, increased libido might be what you needed to spice up your life and thereby give an extra chance to caress a new life. Hence before gobbling up those pills why don't we give atry to these recipes because there is nothing to lose if we try them out for these are devoid of side effects. My only complaint about the book is some of the ingredients in the recipe are not readily available in India but if we search the right places you can definitely find many.
This review is in return of a free book from the author

Fear is the Key by Juggi Bhasin

Book Name          - Fear is the Key Author                 - Juggi Bhasin Publisher              - Penguin IndiaBuy books from Amazon

My ReviewRating : 4.0


The book is crafted in such a way that, as a reviewer, I might contradict myself. At one point, the graphic details of the making out sequences were unwanted and pulled down the book to the level of a B-grade erotica. On the other hand, at a different level, to depict the characters of Usman, Fredo, Dubey and Rahul himself, some of the sequences were inevitable. The book can be misleading and eye opening at the same time. How it reaches to the readers depends on the perspective that the readers would like to establish in their psyche.

There are a lot of scenarios which are thought provoking like a driver making himself available in the same location so that he can get acquainted with a woman, or an innocent faced boy who gains the trust so that he can carryout his lecherous desires and so on and so forth. The climax however failed to impress me. There is indeed a twist but it was well expected. The highlight of the book would be the interactions between Rahul and Tanya. 

The book cover needs a special mention. Now a days publishers take random pictures from shutterstock for the book cover. In such a scenario a hand gripping a shard tool in the blue background with the title Fear is the Key surely sends the right message forcing the reader to pick up the book because whatever the saying says, we still judge a book with its cover.
This review is in return of a free book from writersmelon

Newnik Cozymat

What is the worst nightmare of a new born baby's mother. I would say that it is not sleeplessness, or illness. It is indeed being stunk of pee. Even after the upsurge of diapers, traditional and conservative families in  India still use cloth. Your baby wetting the cloth and the bed cover at night is the worst nightmare. Newnik has come up with a novel solution to this dilemma with the Newnik Cozymat
I had bought the purple color small size for my kid from Amazon. Let's see the observations


                        

Eventhough I bought the small size one, with reference to the dry mats available in the market, it is pretty long. Generally, the major issue with the product is the time taken to dry up and the rough surface after washing. Let's the the product for the same.
The picture shows the freshly wet mat. It takes a little time to dry up but it holds the liquid nonetheless. There is no smell of urine whatsoever.
The above picture is after washing and drying. The product dried up faster when compared to its competitor. Even after washing the surface seems even.
On close examination, one can see that the material is soft and smooth on the baby skin. Who wants their baby crying whole night due to rashes. The product gives a minimal guarantee into skin care.Overall the product is a god steal for the price. To buy the product, click the link NEWNik Cozymat