Book Review: 34 bubblegums and candies by Preeti Shenoy

Picture Source : Google Images

Bubblegums – the more you chew them the juicer it gets and candies – “wham-bam-sham” you pop it, bite it and it vanishes with a lingering taste into your mouth before you can realize. Life is like that. Waiting to be explored sometimes with new experiences hidden in its layers just like a bubblegum, while sometimes it’s like a candy colourful, attractive, tempting you to taste it.

“34 bubblegums and candies” is a beautiful combination of these two experiences. Live, love and laugh is the message that strongly comes out from this book. I very strongly believe life is the best teacher. What you can learn here cannot be learnt from best of the schools, books or teachers. It’s about these bittersweet lessons of life this book talks about.

The simple narration coupled with easy to understand vocabulary brings out the beauty of the hidden emotions. In today’s life we are all so engrossed that some of the world’s most precious moments miss our sight. This book reminds you of those lessons making you realize what you have lost till now.

At the same time it also says it’s not too late to sit up and notice them NOW. The incidents shared in this book are real life incidents which the author goes through. It is this stark reality which touches a chord somewhere as we realize it could be happening to anyone of us. It manages to connect the reader to the author in a deeper sense.

For a first book it’s a wonderful attempt by the author Preeti Shenoy at highlighting the small yet beautiful aspects of life which add more meaning to it. At times when I feel very lost this book has managed to provide me with answers too apart from the usual candies and bubble gums.

Rather than boring you with more descriptive details I would just like to say:

“Accept the candy / bubblegum that life gives you today with a smile, open up the wrapper, pop it into your mouth, close your eyes and sit back to relish its taste!”

Book Review: Desiccated Land by David Lepeska

ISBN: 978-9395481205 Genre: Non-fiction Publisher: Vishwakarma Publications Bringing together his experiences as a journalist and a keen observer, David Lepeska writes a raw and gut-wrenching book on Kashmir. Part memoir, part travelogue, and part reportage, Desiccated Land is a page-turner. The book starts by tracing the history of the region along with his own history, as a student who was dimly aware of the history of Kashmir and the turmoil it has been causing for centuries between India and Pakistan. Lepenska takes us to Nilamata Purana ( likely written in the 7th century ) which tells us the story leading to the birth of this region. He also shares an alternate possibility of the word being derived from a lake ‘Mira’ named after Vedic Sage Kashyapa. His first visit to Kashmir closely followed by his second (and much longer) visit as a journalist working for the Kashmir Observer after the 9/11 attacks, make for an interesting read. Lepeska had questions, a lot of them. An

From there to here to where

From this blog in 2011 to Barnes and Noble website, my reviewing journey has been full of surprises. I am working on an essay tracing it and realized that I started reviewing books in 2001 (Yes! I am old) for a small library next to my house. Needless to add, my payment was in the books. The library owner also happened to be the first person who taught me how to write a book review and what to focus on. And that is where I learned why reviews matter. Cut to 2016 when my book review was taught in a Literary Criticism class held by British Library. A relative happened to attend that class and the news spread like wildfire in the family. That is the moment when my family knew this much more than just a hobby.

Book Review: Never Mind Yaar by K Mathur

Introduction · ISBN - 978-0-473-17480-4 · Genre: Fiction · Publishers: Southpac Publishers · Price: Rs. 350/- ( I got this book from Blog Adda for a review ) The title is an attitude - our tendency to feel defeated by the scale and nature of certain problems. Rather than meet them head on, we circumvent them with a sigh and a consoling “never mind, yaar”. When long time friends Binaifer Desai and Louella D’Costa meet Shalini Dayal at Gyan Shakti College, a true friendship that transcends cultural and religious backgrounds is born. Louella is a Christian, Binaifer, a Parsi and Shalini, a Hindu. The novel’s main plotline surrounds Shalini who has fallen for an impetuous student activist, Bhagu. Where does his desire to help the less fortunate lead him? The challenges are many - Shalini’s tradition bound family, the couple’s youth and inexperience and the travails of life in Mumbai, a city the girls love but know, is fraug

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