Stories That Stand The Test Of Time!

Written by Santhosh Komaraju

I still remember the time when we used to read stories in school and at home that had a moralistic end to them. My favourite of the lot was the english book “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” The tricky boy never left my mind. Till date his grinning face is imprinted in my mind.

Then there was the Hindi collection of similar stories from the tales of Mahabharata and Ramayana which were called the Panchtantra.

This is on similar lines but the Author Santhosh chose the teachings written in the Vedas.

1: Do not let the greed define you.

The story talks about a man’s greed and to win his prized possession he goes to indefinite lengths and once he reaches there he realizes to look the richest he needs to feel the richest something like the king. But the man realizes if he wants to feel like a king he also needs to shed the face of greed and become the majestic person inside he truly is.

2. Your choices make you who you are.

A man finds a bruised king of the enemy state lying in the forest and instead of killing the king,the man takes care of him and which made the king wonder why did he do it?

3. Your bad deeds/karma comes back and punish you.

Ratha, a mischievous boy while trying to trouble someone gets in a big trouble of his own.

4. Giving into temptation makes you lose respect you once gained.

Don’t want to spoil the story by telling you what happens.

5. We need to approach every living being with love and co-exist.

A beast from the forest comes into the village and spoils the kitchen of the villagers.

6. The innocence of a child can’t be compared.

One day, Ekala accompanies his father to his place of work which changes Ekala’s world.

7. A good deed is not a good deed if in the process it is hurting someone.

A temple has been built but the villagers are still not happy. Why? Read and find out.

8. Your head should always bow in front of humility.

A story of two brothers and what makes the other bow in front of the other.

9. Never to forget where you come from and to not let money and greed get to your head.

2 brothers who are farmers face disaster and have lost all hope but at the last moment they are saved.

The book made me come to the conclusion that “oh the times have changed!” doesn’t really apply since we see these stories in our community,our society even today. The stories have been given a great build up and I liked the characters in every story. Short stories are the hardest to follow since one story is very detached from the second story but here the author has written the book in such a way that the momentum is not lost and he ends the stories on a sweet note which does not make you want more out of that particular short story. The Art of Story telling.

 I finished in one sitting. The simple language makes it a very approachable read. The book is relevant even today and why it connects with you because each of the stories talk about the common people and the evils or the desires that each of us have. Full points for the creative title and its book cover is well thought out. A lot of thought has been put in the format. The grammar and punctuation by an Indian author is finally a relief for the eyes.

Devotion without purity is like honey without sweetness.

Walks Through Life

The Annunaki Messenger

The E-book is certainly garnering my interest.

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Book review of “And that’s When It Fell Off In My Hand”(book # 5 of the “confessions of Georgia Nicholson”) by Louise Rennison

Now you must be thinking why am I reviewing a book that was published some 15 years ago; because believe it or not this book has been on my TBR since I bought it for 50 bucks (1$) I couldn’t pick it up. Also I didn’t get the book 15 years ago lest you start thinking that🙄.

I got this book 2 years back at a charity book store.Coming back to the review let’s talk about Georgia Nicholson and her silly-willy language and beyond my understanding British slang.

So this book was sold as being hilarious. I desperately started searching for the oh so great humour of Georgia while reading and I just could not find it.

There are incidents in the book that are outright sexist and annoying but Georgia calls one out for it which I found refreshing for it to happen back in 2005.

I believe this was a favourite of the teenagers back in Britain and something they could all relate to.

Then I thought about the Indian me in 2005 and I would have been just the same and i.e boy-crazy and going on dates and full of snogging.

Before you right this off as a boring review, once you get into the book you finally get Georgia’s humour and I honestly laughed out loud THREE times reading those incidents and my family stared back at me like I was an alien, laughing reading something in a book.

Yes, it’s not a very common culture in India, I wouldn’t lie about it. About the book,well let’s just say you need to enter Georgia’s world and then you get her world,her jokes, her nonsense and her pain.

A very teenage read but I am planning to get the other five to read. It’s not because it’s a light read (it’s actually not) but to know a world I wouldn’t witness unless Racism has ended back in Britain my friend. ( It’s a joke)😆

#bookreview of Anne by Zarina Macha

Set in United Kingdom this is a story of young teenage black girl from the day she was born.

Anne is story of Anne who not living in a posh area struggles with being the only black girl but also coming to terms with her sexuality.

Not only she sees her father physically abusing her mother but also one day finds out she is left to live away from her family. I really can’t give you away the plot of the story now ,can I?

Zarina’s storytelling in the book is not only detailing and descriptive but also crisp that she tells you what you need to know and nothing seems left out and nothing seems too long.

Maybe it’s the emotion talking but the way Macha explains the perspective and point of view of a young teenage is absolutely flawless.

Coming back to the emotion bit, I was pleasantly surprised to see myself almost close to crying and feeling so sorry for the characters of the book apart from Anne.

As Zarina did not shy away from talking about the political scenario of London and the stark difference between the people living in the city and those living in the suburbs got me applauding Zarina for her observational skills as she doesn’t put it right in your face rather it’s the subtle nuances in the narrative which also is discovered by a reader after sitting on it for a day.

Don’t forget that it’s Anne we talking about here. She isn’t scared and I almost got the feeling that it’s a story that’s true.

Now you can’t say if it’s forunately or unfortunately because like I said it’s teenage LIFE of Anne and doesn’t have missing the happy moments too.

I had a ball reading this book and I connected with this book so much. My favourite genre apart from Thrillers is Drama. It’s a YA novel but I like it more in the drama section basically because the way the book has been written.

It’s on sale in the United Kingdom and United States on Amazon. So go get it.

Oscar for Loving, Grammy for not!

Yes. I have chosen the title itself for the heading this time. Once you read the book, you will realize it why. Its one of those witty titles that are hard to find.

Written by Priyadeep Kaur

The story begins of Udi Bose and Garv Rajput as they meet in first year of college where Udi is a fresher and Garv is a Graduate. Udi a fierce,outspoken girl full of ambitions gets attracted to Garv who is still stuck on his ex-girlfriend that one day she will take him back. Despite trying,they both get drawn towards each other & fond of each other.

I have recently started re-reading indian authors and in young indian authors this author has the capability to be a best-seller author. We need voices like hers which talk about not just relationships with others but relationships with oneself too.

There is a build-up of the story though it seemed a bit jumpy at places it has tried it best to keep its momentum of the story with its protagonist as the main subject. I also liked that the author could also tell us stories of other characters and yet keep us linked to the main story of Udi and Garv.

190-pager

All the while I was reading the book I kept thinking to myself that this is certainly written by an author in its 30s. (ya, I don’t google stuff. Not about the author,not even the book. That’s me.) After finishing the book I got to know its written by a 19 year old teen and I felt wow. The country is changing. Jokes apart, we seldom find indian authors who are around the age group of 18 or 19 or even below 28 and that too a female author. Kudos to the support system of the author.

Even though character sketches,the plot and the narrative keeps you hooked you wish someone could have done proofreading of the book much better. Its either that or the editor and the author need to sit down and rectify these faults.

Priyadeep Kaur includes drama,erotica,love,relationships all in one package but this is one package which is not messy but has been beautifully packed and like the synopsis says “It’s all about our own choices.” Though I am still not sure that Draupadi chose to marry 5 husbands. That’s something I need to check. I would like to read her first novel too.

Fin.

A Love story too confused!

Written by Sonika Shandilya

I entered this book with so many expectations and instead I met spineless characters and even if they had a spine I wanted to know more about them. How do you bond with someone if you don’t know their past? Or maybe that was the crux of the book.

Like seriously? I am not going to be apologetic about it because people would find my blatant review not interesting. Enough about what people will say.

Coming back to the book, the thing I liked about it was the use of poetic metaphors for the interaction / connection especially with the protagonists Rann Vijay(RV) and Sonam. But after a while the metaphors don’t make sense because I lost track of the narrative because of the usage of too many metaphors.

Front Cover

Some more realistic sentiments would give a skeleton or a body to the book. I never got to know who Sonam was. I couldn’t understand Rann Vijay(RV). I liked the detailed writing but again the story fell short because of misprinting,characters not established. You cannot assess a book by its cover or its author. Its the story. ALWAYS THE STORY.

Its a one time read. Its not crisp AT ALL. Its almost like the author wrote a story with the help of a guide-book on how to write a novel. Yes, for me it was that bad. The publishers need to check their script once more. Too many mistakes to count.

The book has been given 4 stars by several reviewers but the book was not worth reading. I don’t DNF books hence I write here my experience with the book.

Every book teaches us something. I learn from every poorly written book.

The Night Reader