Crisp Reviews of Books On My Nightstand

  Are you a fan of castles, royals, gossip and fiction? If the answer is Yes then you are going to love this book cause its the perfect combination of our beloved chic-flicks like Princess diaries, The gossip girls and The Crown. Having said that I would still recommend that if you decide to read this book then you would have to start with no expectations in mind to really enjoy this book. There are mixed reviews about the plot, the storyline, characters and the vicious interactions between them. Personally, I feel that the fictional stories needs to be given some levy for not adhering to the bland reality of life and have freedom of exploring the highs and lows of imagination driven storyline.  The storyline is broken in four perspectives for one of each of the four protagonists and all perspectives are interweaved into each others lives so delicately that the reader gets the feel of their emotional attachment/detachment with each other and how they interact with the rest of ...

An overwhelming story that touched me to the core 

So here is the plot. A beautiful, elegant girl with a little hold-back attitude, placed right in the heart of the Sophisticated (!) Delhi. A girl whose parents believe that someday she will come out of her shell and take on the world; who has four sisters and each with a different quirk; who lives with a cheating uncle, a dramatic aunt & a not-so-smart but caring cousin. Along comes a turn of events that shakes her life. Witouht knowing, she becomes a part of politically influenced content on mass media communication that influenced so many life. Placed at the time when newly independent India was slowly waking up from the long nap of british raj and getting a grip of the opportunities and hardships came along with the Independence. A 400 page book (failry long, but justified with the content) for that purely romantic side of you. Grab this book and get ready to go back in the 80s to spend some time around  a sprawling bungalow on New Delhi's posh Hailey Road with...

A small village blessed with the epitome of both the beauty and harshness of nature, people living with basic needs of human life but surreptitiously craving the joys of the city life and a circle of day and night that keeps only one promise that nothing will change in the mundane life of that small town. And one day, the devil arrives to the town to test the integrity of the humane emotions of the people of this town.  One more Must-read book from Paulo Coelho that reveals the secret of human emotions and the internal struggle to dare the dream, face the fear of unknown and live the life truly. 224 pages book that takes you through a week in the life of a coward crowd that is ready to sacrifice a single for the betterment of large, a girl who dares to dream a life beyond the regular and a stranger who is testing the life to sort his own struggle between inherent goodness or evil in human mind. Quotes from the book: "Anyone who loves in the expectation of bein...

Here is a thought. We know all those who are born are to die someday which is basically just completing nature’s cycle. Just for a moment, keep aside your thoughts about afterlife and assume that there is a stage between the life and death. You are dead and alive at the same time (No geeks, not like Schrodinger's cat!!). Consider this as a stage between the life and the death, kinda like getting down at an airport between hopping flights. But before getting on the next flight you get to meet some people that have major impact on your life or are affected by you being in their life. Sounds interesting? This is a plot for the book called “The five people you meet in heaven” by Mitch Albom. The story starts with an old guy waking up right after a horrible accident. Once he realizes that he is dead, he wonders what will happen next. He is standing right at the place where he died and then starts the journey where he meets those five  important ...

Are you  bored of reading practical, meaningful and life-enriching stuff from the ‘Must-read book list’ that you have forced on yourself?  I guess the answer is ‘Yes’ cause you are still reading this post. Then please answer the next question. Are you a fan of a romantic novel with a dramatic, bollywood style storyline with a beautiful, passionate heroin and a handsome, adamant hero who happen to be thrown in her life and after multiple conflicts they finally reach their happily ever after. If your answer is still ‘Yes’ then wait no more. You are in for a ride with emotions, confusions, confessions and most of all, the ‘Aww’ moments. Anuja Chauhan had done a stupendous job in giving us that getaway from all practical realities to spend some time with an unbelievably lucky girl and an I-don’t-believe-in-luck-factor guy and a story of these two leading to a decisive moment for Indian Cricket team. Yah, u read it right. The story involves cricket and ,as a matter...

‘Living The American Dream’ has been rooted in the hearts of every ambitious, middle class Indian kid who had seen around the perks of having a job ‘abroad’ (parallel word for USA for most of them). But the time which gave rise to this fascination was somewhat different in the beginning. It was an era when scholar kids with strong financial background used to go abroad for higher education because of less education opportunities in our own country. Here is a story from that time which encapsulates a year in the life of a scholar kid, Gopal, from a small town in India who goes to America for higher studies. Barely able to speak English but carrying high appetite of knowledge, Gopal reaches the American university & struggles to understand the American culture.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), he meets this friend-classmate-helper weirdo, Randy, who introduces him to an intriguing new world of American way of life. Gopal then meets various kinds of people there – Anan...

Inspiration is just a feeling that is ignited in your mind when you see someone like you have achieved what you had dreamt for. The dream is now achievable to you but the hardest part is to convince your own self that this is reachable to you too. The distance between ‘I can’ and ‘I will’ takes further thousand steps. Inspiration can convert in action only when you feel yourself reaching the dream. Most people spend their life inspired by the stories of successful persons but never feel that they too have to ability to do the same. Only thing missing is faith that they are special too and they can reach the dream too. ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’, yet another beautiful book by Richard Bach, brings the same essence through a story of a gull that thinks beyond simply eating and surviving, and seeks higher purpose in life to become the best at what he loves. This is a story of people who dare to follow their dreams and make their own rules; even if they run contrary to the no...

I am quite sure that every Indian is aware of the story of the Ramayana that had been told to us innumerable times since we are young kids. Diwali, the festival of lights, is based on the theme of same story i.e. the victory of Rama over Ravana claiming victory of good over evil. The enthralling story of Rama, the incarnation of God, who slew Ravana, the evil demon of darkness, is an epic story heard by every child in an Indian family. But have you ever wondered that there would have been another version of story, from the voice of the vanquished that remained lost in silence for so long? What if Ravana and his people had a different story to tell? The story of the Ravanayana, a tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed outcastes of India for 3000 years. Anand Neelakantan has gave a way to the voice of Ravana, who has been vilified and whose death is celebrated year after year in every corner of India. Time has come to he...

If you believe in magic, not the one with tricks and illusions by magicians, but the one that life brings in for us, then you will definitely love the novel called Brida by a Brazilian   author   Paulo Coelho . It is the story of a beautiful young   Irish   girl and her quest for self-discovery, to the world far beyond our world and the one where magic is the truth of life. She knows she is different and she has to look for the answers to her questions. On her journey, she meets a wise man who teaches her to overcome her fears and a woman who teaches her how to dance to the hidden music of the world. She also discovers her soul mate and learns that love is the most divine emotion to be recognized and valued on the path to true wisdom and knowledge. The story is neatly woven around the ancient belief of witchcraft and is related to the present world in an interesting way. This magical treat by Paulo Coelho treasures the enthralling tale of love, passion...