Reviews & Musings

  One wrong choice on the eve of her wedding has left Ananya married to one brother and in love with THE OTHER… Ananya Saxena is a good girl who has always done the right thing. She is a dutiful wife, faithful daughter-in-law, and fierce champion of the law. Except, in her heart was another phrase—reckless lover. An impossible choice for a good Indian girl. Duty had Ananya marry her best friend only to end up with a bitter, vengeful husband. Arvin Saxena is now a cripple, both physically and emotionally, after his wife’s confession the day before they were to be married. So, Arvin’s never-ending pain finds release only in hurting her. What he doesn’t know is that her secret sin was loving Arnav Saxena. Arnav turned his back on all of them when she discarded him and married his younger brother. When he is forced to return, it sets Ananya on a collision course with fate and she chooses desire over duty to embark on an affair with Arnav. For a brief glorious time, they have it all. Bu...

Namrata reviews Jerry Pinto’s latest book, The Education of Yuri (Speaking Tiger, 2022) emphasizing how everything about this book spells classic.   “We are born alone, and we die alone. In between, we reach out to other people.”    From the book blurb  Jerry Pinto’s latest work of fiction, The Education of Yuri (Speaking Tiger, 2022) is a tender portrayal of a young boy growing up in Bombay in the 1980s. Jerry Pinto is one of India’s finest writers with award-winning works to his credit across genres ranging from translation, poetry, memoirs, and fiction. Time and again, he has proved that he is a writer par excellence. In his writings, he is known to capture Mumbai and its nuances with an unmatched exactness. This is exactly what he does with The Education of Yuri too. Mumbai (then- Bombay) is the heart of this story which takes you through some of the early days of Yuri, as he grows up in the 80s.  Pinto tells us his story with a certain profundit...

‘Someone is stalking the streets of Sonagachi.’ It’s the 1870s, and Calcutta is bustling with commerce and colonialism. A sea of changes has been ushered in by the relatively new British Raj, which has led to migrants from all over India filling up the city with their hopes and dreams. Amongst these struggling masses is a serial killer on the prowl. Corpses of sex workers start turning up at ponds and in the by-lanes of Sonagachi, Calcutta’s famed pleasure district choked to death and stripped of all their ornaments. Fear has gripped the city and the nascent police department seems to be chasing shadows. This is the story of Trinoyoni Debi: a sensuous seductress with a silver tongue and a love for all things shiny. But behind those eager eyes lurks a savagery that has made Trinoyoni the stuff of legends. How could such a breathtaking beauty be so terrifying? How many more will she kill before she is satiated? And is there anyone who can stop her? Follow her life as she transforms from ...

The Middle Finger by Saikat Majumdar  Publisher: Simon and Schuster (2022)  The first thing one notices about The Middle Finger by Saikat Majumdar is its dark grey cover with the left profile of a young lady on it with a colourful eye. It is only when you remove the jacket from the cover that you see underneath a picture of a woman’s reflection in the glass pane of a window, with a cup and some books lying by it. It is that woman’s eye that is popping through the cover image from a round cutout. In many ways, this speaks a lot about the book itself.  Every single character in the book has layers, multiple of them. On the face of it, they look very different as they struggle to go through their day-to-day pretending to be someone else. To an extent, they are scared to reveal their truest selves to the world. And yet, there are times when they see the world differently because their soul is tired of pretending. Saikat Majumdar is a critically acclaimed writer with many po...

  When Aisha Rajput, the queen of raves and celebrity after-parties, is asked to plan a hospital fundraiser, she's convinced the sun finally rose from the west. And yet, she is determined to blow this brief out of the water for it is her one chance at redemption. Seven years ago, she shattered Dr. Kabir Pradhan's heart with a deliberate, conscious act of betrayal. The least she can do to make up for it is to save his hospital. Aisha is the woman who loved him and broke him. The last thing Kabir needs is for her to do it all over again with his hospital. He doesn't want her, he doesn't need her, and he certainly won't tolerate her. Or so he tells himself. When the hospital board leaves them with no choice but to work together, the stage is set for fireworks. When the heartache of the past collides with the irresistible desire of the present, the future looks to be in jeopardy. Unless the Bad Girl goes Good and saves the day. But can she? And does Kabir even want her ...

  Pranay Oza is excited about his life’s new phase - COLLEGE. And soon enough, life offers him much more than he imagined. Falling in love with a college senior and the love being reciprocated through anonymous love notes was like a dreamy sequence from a romantic movie come true. But then was this love or bait? It is college election time too and stakes are high for all the aspirants for the President’s post. It is the last chance for all of them to prove themselves capable of moving into professional politics. But can a fresher Pranay Oza be critical to the elections? At this age, decisions are driven by passion and consequences can be life-changing.  Book Links: Amazon.in | Amazon.com Read an Excerpt from Love Bait Prologue It was four minutes to midnight. Pranay climbed up the wall with the support of the tree trunk and took a pause to look around. There was no one to be seen, it was all silent and so he jumped on the other side as quietly as he could. He steadied himself...

Faced with a loveless marriage, Ananya Rajput does what she always does when faced with a tough situation - she runs away! Except, this time she runs right into the arms of the man she’s dreamed about for years - okay, fantasised about, to be completely honest. His Highness Yashvardhan Rathore, Yuvarajkumar of Bannor, is so going to burn in hell. Not only did he help his dead friend’s sister run away from her wedding mandap, he now has terribly inappropriate feelings for her. All his life he’s lived by one truth - no one has ever loved him enough to stay. And he doesn’t think a known flight risk like Ananya will be the first. As her restless feet get calmer, the walls around his heart get higher. Will Yash ever come to trust in love? And will Ananya let her reluctant Prince Charming claim a runaway bride? To find out read the third book in the Devgarh Royal series. Book Links: Amazon.com | Amazon.in

Namrata reviews Nasreen Rehman's first volume in The Collected Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto-Volume 1: Bombay and Poona (Aleph Books, 2022) and calls it a must-read collection. As a writer, Saadat Hasan Manto needs no introduction. His works are celebrated widely for their quintessential depiction of the stark realities of life. The Collected Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto – Volume 1: Bombay and Poona – Translated by Nasreen Rehman and published by Aleph Books, is the first of a three-volume series that will contain all of Saadat Hasan Manto’s 255 known stories in English from Urdu for the very first time. Volume 1 collects fifty-four stories and two essays written by Manto about his time in Bombay and Poona in colonial India. Read the full review on Kitaab .

Namrata reviews The Poetry Conclave Year Book 2022 edited by Sharmila Roy, Aneek Chatterjee, Gopal Lahiri, and Rajorshi Patranabis (Published by Authors Press, 2022) calling it a carefully strung priceless necklace.  Poetry Conclave Year Book 2022 is a poetry collection consisting of works of 64 poets (from India and abroad) across themes and moods. Poetry Conclave was formed with the motive of providing a platform for writing and reading English poetry. The love for poetry further metamorphosized into poetry collections. “One of poetry’s most appealing elements can be the mixture of observations and ideas. Here the poet reaches out to the world and poetry. Poet’s heart is attuned to the changing patterns of the society and its surroundings, its landscapes and seasons, its sorrow and malice, its dream and hope.” (From Editors’ Note, pg 5) As the editors’ note mentions, the poems in this collection are diverse and span myriad moods and emotions. This ensures reading this book is...

Namrata reviews A Book of New Beginnings: Some Words for Living – Edited and with an introduction by Jerry Pinto (Speaking Tiger, January 2022) and calls it perfect food for thought.  Long after I was done reading this book, I kept thinking about the one story I had read long ago in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series which had changed the way I think drastically. I come from a dysfunctional family, where abuse in any form is normalized. I grew up believing that to be the way the world functioned. There was no reason for me to think otherwise as everyone I was surrounded with had a similar story to narrate. The ways of abuse changed, but the abuse was the common thread that bound us all, I felt.  Coming to the story from Chicken Soup for the Soul- I do not remember the author’s name or the complete story verbatim but I remember the basic crux which I will share with you. It was written by someone who was a prominent name at that time (in the UK if I am not wrong) and credite...

 

Image Source: Amazon. in ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0998043210 Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rhythm & Bones Press (16 November 2019)  Language ‏ : ‎ English  Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages  Genre: Memoir / Biography About the Book One in five people living with bipolar die by suicide. Forty percent of people with bipolar have a run-in with the law at some point in their lives. This is a story not often talked about but necessary to be told. Rohan Sharma takes the reader on a confessional and genuine journey through his bipolar episode that left him incarcerated and serving time in jail. He does not shy away from the darkness that exists in this reality and encourages others living with mental illness to seek the help they need so they, too, do not end up in unfathomable situations such as he found himself in. Despite the darkness he faces, he finds a way to focus on the light and the positive, and while incarcerated makes the biggest discovery of all: himself and who he wants to be. 

Namrata reviews Anirudh Kala’s Two and a Half Rivers (Niyogi Books, 2021) and talks how Kala explores trauma and the long-lasting impact it has on the mental health of an individual through this book justifiably well.  ISBN ‏ : ‎ 978-9391125202  Publisher ‏ : ‎ Niyogi Books Pvt. Ltd.  Release Date: October 2021  Price: INR 395/-  The Partition changed a lot of things in many ways. It had different impacts on people living in different states, the impact of which we are still dealing with even after more than seven decades. 

Rana Safvi is a passionate believer in India’s unique civilizational legacy and pluralistic culture which she documents through her writings, podcasts, and videos. She has published seven books so far on culture, history, and the monuments of India. These are Tales from the Quran and Hadith, The Delhi Trilogy: Where Stones Speak, The Forgotten Cities of Delhi, and Shahjahanabad: The Living City of Old Delhi. She has translated both the editions of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s seminal work on Delhi, Asar-us-Sanadid, Dastan-e-Ghadar, and four accounts of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Delhi from Urdu to English.  In her latest book A Saint, a Folk Tale and Other Stories (Rupa Publications, 2021), she talks about the long-forgotten monuments of India and the stories behind them. Travelling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. Ibn Battuta Indian architecture offers one of the most glorious forms of built heritage anywhere in the world. India, with its geographical...