The Krishna Key

All of us, at some point of time, must have wondered whether God exists or not. We have heard thousand tales about him, know him by thousand names and take his name at least thousand times. Ashwin Sanghi’s latest book ‘The Krishna Key’ deals with the same question and it is apparent that the author has exhaustively researched on Indian Mythology and its origin. The facts about Krishna, Shiva and Indian mythology itself that he has brought up in the book had my undivided interest; however, the plot was clichéd, at least to those who have read Dan Brown and know Robert Langdon too well. Not just Ravi Mohan Saini’s love for history and mythology but the symbols that Tarak Vakil leaves on his victims’ bodies point towards Robert Langdon and his adventures.

The devotion of suspect X

Wikipedia says Japanophilia is an interest in, or love of, Japan and anything Japanese and one who has such an interest or love is a Japanophile. For the Japanophile I am, I had to read the book ‘The devotion of suspect X’ written by Keigo Higashino. It was a must read to me and I’m glad that I decided to read it.

The land of the wilted rose

Are you an Indian? Did your granny ever narrate the story of firangis who ruled us for over two centuries and made us live like outsiders in our own country? My granny did. She was around ten during the time India got its independence and she still remembers how much she feared the British men who had camped outside her village. Her father never let her go anywhere unattended as he feared that those men would do something to her, such was the fear that these firangis had for them in Indians’ hearts. Everytime I recall this story, my blood boils. It is quite normal to get angry, isn’t it?

We still hear about how British treat Indians, don’t we? They call us thieves while they have our Kohinoor diamond in their museum. They don’t like doing business with us when it was them who captured our country after we let them do business here. Why such double standards? I wonder.

Luwan of Brida by Sarang Mahajan

Have you read J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’? Have you read Christopher Paolini’s ‘Inheritance Cycle’? I have read them and liked them a great deal. Being a sucker for fantasy genre books, I had assumed that I have read most of the books under “fantasy” tag but a friend made me realize that I haven’t read much. There are George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, Robert Jordan’s ‘The Wheel of Time’, Ursula Le Guin’s ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’ and Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower Series’ that I am yet to read.

The stories of witches and wizards, dragons and other fantastic creatures, and perilous journeys taken by the protagonist of the book, while the villains across the globe chase him/her…even thinking about such things give me goosebumps. I declare again that I just love reading fantasy fictions.

The Perfect World

I haven’t read too many motivational or inspirational books or anything other than fictions and of course, my course books. To be honest, I hadn’t read any motivational book at all but thanks to Priya Kumar’s “The Perfect World”, now I can claim that I have read one such book too. 

“The perfect world” was not just a motivational book but Priya has taken help of a fiction to tell readers whatever she intended to tell them, and that’s what makes the book interesting.

Prey by the Ganges

Like every other Indian, I have watched the movie, Sholay, more than once. Not that I liked the movie so much that I wanted to watch it repeatedly but when we were still stuck in Doordarshan era, you wanted it or not, you had to watch the movies that they played during weekends on television because everyone watched it. I watched it too. It was a funny movie; the Thakur, the Gabbar and his Samba-everything about Sholay was funny.

The book “Prey by the Ganges” written by Hemant Kumar got two Thakur- one, who plays the Gabbar & another, his victim-in it. It also got a Thankurain, glamour, gore, men driven by emotions, lust and power.

Dear, I love you

Who doesn’t want to love and be loved? If you say that you don’t then you are just lying, not just to others but to yourself too. Have you read Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series? Initially, I found Edward to be very charming. I didn’t mind having a powerful boyfriend who had eyes only for me but Bella and Edward’s love overdose sickened me and my liking for him ended up as abhorrence. Alright, let’s talk about Arun Sabtharishi’s book named “Dear, I love you” now. To be honest, the protogonist Goutham and his love left even twilight series behind. The book had nothing but Goutham, his girlfriend Anu and their love.

The Ancient Book

I don’t remember my mother reading me to sleep but I read my niece to sleep sometimes. She likes stories of dragon, witches, monsters and what not. And “The Ancient Book” is one such book that I can read to her. The story of King Zius and his daughter Sara narrated by Parikshit Rane narrates the victory of good over evil. The pace of the book is good too. You remember the flashbacks in the movies where everything goes black and white or too colorful and the narrator starts sharing his story of the past? The writing style adopted by the Parikshit Rane is somewhat similar. At least, that is what I felt. Apart from few editorial and proofreading errors here and there, I should appreciate author’s narrative skills.

Making of a fantasy author

Dear readers & bloggers,

I won’t say that I always wanted to be an author. To be honest, I was dragged into this whole write-a-novel thing. Well, it’s a long story and I don’t intend to pen down another book explaining how I became an author and Blah! Blah! Blah! So, I shall keep it short and try to explain the entire journey in a few simple words.

I was a crazy blogger (but I hardly blog nowadays) and I’m an avid reader too. I love reading fantasy fictions and paranormals, and I also daydream a lot. Entrapped is just a product of those daydreams. I imagined a girl haunted by a dream and every-time she dreams, someone calls for her help, “We are trapped. Please, free us…” The idea intrigued me and I decided to spin a story around the same. I named the girl Myra Bose and penned down the prologue of Entrapped in no time. Few of my friends, who read it, encouraged me to continue. It took five months to finish the initial draft. After my exams, when I was waiting for the results, I got enough time to polish the initial draft. I prioritized Entrapped over other things and to be frank, at that moment, I didn’t have getting it published on my mind.

The Storyteller of Marrakesh

I did it again. I read another Indian author and I will never again tell anyone that I prefer reading only foreign authors because the author Joydeep Roy-Bhattachraya changed my perception about Indian authors and their writings. Well, I must accept that I was prejudiced but thanks to Joydeep, I am a changed person now. He had my attention from the first to the last page of the book “The Storyteller of Marrakesh”. And when it ended, I was left wanting more-so was the thirst that the story evoked in me. It was an open ended story. The story has an ending alright but I'm not sure whether I got what the author had in his mind when he wrote those last two pages or was it meant for the readers to interpret it the way that suited them. Whatever it was, however it ended, I wished it hadn’t ended so soon. I wished that the night at Marrakesh had never ended so that the storyteller of Marrakesh, Hassan, would continue narrating his brother’s story that he recounted every year at the square of Jemaa el fna on the day the two foreigners had disappeared.

Of Dreams

Have you ever read or heard a story that makes you feel that you have read it before but still want to go on and know what happens next? I have read so many such stories. With around 7 billion people across the planet, we are losing uniqueness. Yesterday, I bought roses for my mom, dined at KFC with dad, took my dog out for a really long walk and also played with my little brother. I wonder how many of you would have followed the same schedule. You or people around you might have done at least one of the above things if not all. Coincidences happen all the time and such coincidences bind people together under the tag of interests, tastes and other things. However, such small familiar stories are what connect us with the book “Of Dreams” written by Aditi Talwar Sodhi-another Indian author I never imagined I would read one day. It’s not that I think lowly of them. It’s just my friends who also got a habit of reading mostly read foreign authors hence even I end up reading only foreign authors. It got another reason too; that is, I usually read fantasy fictions and when it comes to this genre, Indians have contributed very less or might be I’m ignorant so please pardon my ignorance.

Love on the rocks

I haven’t read many Indian authors though I’m a voracious reader. It’s not like I don’t like reading books written by Indian authors but I am more into fantasy fictions and Indians haven’t contributed much to the genre but I hope I will get to read many fantasy fictions written by Indians, soon. Now, when I started reading “love on the rocks”, to be honest, I didn’t expect much. The title made me think that it would be another love story with a girl and a boy running around trees, playing mind games. Well, that’s how Indian love stories will be, right? Pardon my prejudice…

I’m not familiar with either the life on the sea or the Malayalis’ life which seems so different from the life at Bangalore. Anyway, that’s not the point here. What I wanted to tell is that the plot of the book surrounds a ship named Sea Hyena and a Malayali protagonist, Sancha.