The Bestseller She Wrote!

The Bestseller she wrote is a sure shot Bestseller 'he' has written! How beautifully he has connected the dots, every now and then, every time there's something new you understand the relevance of a particular incident a few pages back. A complete page turner it is.
Although the first thing that comes to mind after starting a book by Ravi Subramanian is that the story would be something on banking - perhaps a thriller? He may depict the various things that goes on in a banking setup. However this book has a completely different plot and that's what surprises you. Though, the protagonist is a banker, as are a few other main characters but that's where the connection ends. It's the story of a master and his apprentice. Aptly put by the author himself it is a combustible cocktail of love, betrayal and redemption!
This could have easily been just another romantic novel by an Indian author where a fan girl falls in love with the star, but how effortlessly Ravi Subramanian has made it into a complete masterpiece. All the characters are so well defined and has a personality trait that I can easily identify a real life Shreya, Maya or for that matter even a Diana for that matter. Such strong female characters, who are not just a 'somebody' in the story but have a very very strong presence. Aditya Kapoor has a enviable life, a perfect one that everyone dreams of. A successful career as a banker, the biggest fiction writer, the paperback king of the nation, an amazing and a loving wife in Maya, who supports him and a beautiful son who loves both his parents dearly. Sounds like perfect, right?. But then, what's the fun there. Enter, Shreya Kaushik, a student at IIM, Bangalore, same institute from where Aditya Kapoor graduated. Beautiful, intelligent and passionate, someone, who can make any man go weak in his knees. And guess what, she also wants to be an author! She finds the easy way out by being in news with the famous Aditya Kapoor. For her, any publicity is good publicity. Her lust for success is such that she doesn't care about right and wrong. Only success matters to her, irrespective of the cost it comes at.
The book has a lot of references to the actual world with the likes of Chetan Bhagat, Ashwin Sanghi, Anurag Kashyap, Nirav Sanghvi finding mentions in it, which makes the book believable. His tips to Shreya on marketing a book, the inside story of what it takes to be a first time publisher, gives you some perspective into the world of publishing. The recent Ebola crisis also finds mentioned. Hence a lot of actual facts are added to the story making it easy for the readers to connect with the characters.
I love the way how believable he has made the story to be. The realization that the lock codes are the same, or the scribbles on Diana's book, all are perfectly realistic, which made me fall in love with the writing.
Overall, a nice read, with simple language which helps in keeping the flow. I finished it in straight 6 hours, close to the time Shreya took to complete Aditya's book ;)

- Signing Off

Nirvaan

I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

God is a Gamer!

When Blogadda sent me this book for review, I had very high expectations. I have heard a lot of rave reviews about his books. I expected nothing less from his current novel. As I started reading this book, I was convinced that the book would live up to my expectations.
Touted as the world’s first bitcoin thriller, Ravi Subramanian’s novel God is a gamer is woven around the lives of a few politicians,bankers,crooks, gamers with ‘Bitcoin’ and an anonymous online market place for shady deals called cotton trail playing a crucial role in the story. The plot moves from Washington's congress to Delhi's finance ministry, the beaches of Goa to the corporate boardrooms of Mumbai.
Unlike his previous books, banking does not play a major role in this book, instead the book is high on online gaming on facebook and “Bitcoin” which is touted as the currency of the future. It is very clear from the book that the author has done extensive research on facebook games/online games, bitcoins etc.,After reading the book, many gamers will understand why they are stuck at a particular level in certain online games. I had never known so much went behind a gaming console.
There are so many twists and turns thrown along with many emotions like romance, revenge, greed that the pages turn by themselves. As one reads the book,the investigator in you comes to many conclusions only to be proven wrong in the climax. Another plus in the book is the narration divided into many small chapters and most of them end in cliffhangers which maintains the suspense and whets the appetite of the reader. Setting some small differences apart, this is a really good read and I recommend this to anyone who loves thriller!
This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books.

Signing Off,
Nirvaan

Book Review - Private India

Private India written by James Patterson and Ashwin Sanghi is the eighth book of the private series. But the best part is to read through this book you need not go through the previous ones. This book has nothing to do with the previous one. However, there is a prequel to this book, but then, even that book is not going to affect your reading in any way.The book will really be liked by those who love reading mystery novels and this one is really good. It can easily be converted into a motion picture soon. I pictured it in my mind as a movie only with so much of detail around everything. This is certainly a masterpiece by Ashwin Sanghi and a lot of research has been put by the writer into the crime world and ideas to do the crime & leaving small clues behind.Women are being killed in different parts of Mumbai and what make the murders more mysterious are the different props which are placed near the dead body. Apart from these props there is nothing left behind by the killer, not even a slightest clue to unveil his identity and then to crack the case, steps in Private India led by Santosh wagh, who himself is troubled by a haunting past. The biggest task in their hand was to find the meaning behind the random props and to find the pattern of murders. Busy with the ruthless murderer the member of Private India fails to see the dishonest one among them, who along with Indian mujahideen is planning to give a fatal blow to Mumbai.The story line is intriguing and racy. As a reader even I was forced to think about the common links between the murders. The character of Santosh wagh, the leader of Private India was mighty good. He was just a man with a brave heart and intelligent mind not a super detective or a hero. He was haunted by his past which came as a big shock as the story progressed. Nisha’s character was sharp and clever. She knew how to get her work done. At times her character was on a bitchy side. She was one of the most prominent characters of the book. Hari, the tech-sevy member was bang on. His character was very intriguing and was very integral part of the story. Every member of Private India was properly used and they all had their share of limelight. The character of Rupesh and Munna were also very good and impactful.There is nothing wrong with the book but if you read it critically then you may find that in the concluding part of the book some more explanation were required. No wonder because James Patterson is always in a hurry to finish one book and start the new one and then to finish it as soon as possible.The authors have yet again managed to pen down a novel which will force the reader to turn pages one after another or should I better say “The pages turns themselves.”The characters in the novel are slowly revealed and as what happens in murder mysteries, we think of everyone as a suspect. This novel arouses that kind of emotions in your mind and heart and instantly connects with it's readers to solve the crime themselves. I don't want to reveal the thing as it would be injustice to all the readers and lovers of the book. But it's definitely worth your time and money.
This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!Signing Off,Nirvaan

Shoes of the Dead..

If there has to be one word to describe this piece of literature it is 'Captivating'. I cannot thank Blogadda enough to present me this opportunity to review this book. The genre is a refreshing change from all the rom-coms the new age Indian authors are coming up with. The way the details are presented in such an articulate fashion would make even the best in the business proud! 

The story of a farmer, who succumbs to the pressures of life, crushed by successive crop failures and the burden of debt, and finds death to be the easier way out. As fate would have it, the powerful district committee of Mityala routinely dismisses the suicide and refuses compensation to his widow.

Gangiri, the farmer's brother, who fights for justice to his brother’s widow is the main protagonist of the story, while Keyur Kashinath, The antagonist of the Democratic Party.

The tone of the book is highly empathetic and it seems to have a heart of its own. The brilliant farmer battles his inheritance of despair, the arrogant politician fights for the power he has received as legacy. Their two worlds collide in a conflict that pushes both to the limits of morality from where there is no turning back. At stake is the truth about ‘inherited’ democratic power. And at the end, there can only be one winner. Passionate and startlingly insightful, Shoes of the Dead is a chilling parable of modern-day India.

One of the lines which struck me was "Where booked enjoyed better air conditioning than half of country's population" "Where family of dead farmer owned land, compensation was denied, so that family is forced to sell off land, where they had no land, compensation was granted so that debt could be repaid in cash".

The cover of the book and the sepia adds to the grave tone which is very well complemented with the narration. This sort of humane rendition to the characters and the storyline makes the narration effective and easy to understand. The dilemmas associated with pride and poverty are very well-sketched. The dilemmas faced by committees and the discomfort faced by people are also nicely done. This is a piece that will make you amble through the corridors of power and politics of India along with a perfect portrayal of how its consequences creep into the lives of the farmers forcing them to commit suicide.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Signing Off,

Nirvaan

A very Indian approach to management- Business Sutra

Every time I read a book, I try to find, what is different in it, and what the author must have thought before penning it down. As a Management student, business obviously excites me. We have been taught the principles of Management, which precisely are the ones derived from the practices and experiences of the western nation. Seldom do we see someone coming out with an Indian Approach to Management. There might be a Kishore Biyani who comes out with a “It happened in India” but that is not very frequent. In this book, the Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group, and a veteran of over twenty five books and 400 articles on Indian Mythology comes up with something which was so long not thought of. Business Sutra by Devdutt Pattanaik is a masterpiece on business as it brings together the two most powerful things of our country – mythology and business (of course after cricket and Bollywood). Very rarely you come across a book on business which is so beautifully written that you remain in awe long after you have finished reading it. We might have had ‘As is belief, so is behavior, so is business. This is business sutra, a very Indian approach to management.’ We have always believed that the very base of our society has been made up on the various beliefs and myths from the Vedas and the other religious scriptures. However, to imagine the base of business being set on this is something one would have never imagined. Although I have heard tremendous things about his previous works, but this is his first book that I have gone through one, and trust me now I am going to go through all his previous works as well. True to its name the book begins with giving us a primer on comparison between the deep-seated beliefs of Indian (Jain, Buddhist and Hindu) and Western mythology that are derived from Greek and Biblical roots, and the two complimenting Chinese belief systems. You lean why the western managers have a high regard for order, while we in India are not worried with all the chaos around us. In Business Sutra Devdutt Pattanaik takes you on a mythological journey using symbols, stories and rituals to relate to how we look at doing business and how it is different from what western beliefs teach us. In fact the use of images and symbols to depict things and make business sense out of it was impeccable. He depicted things in a way I had never seen before, which compelled me to finish the book in one sitting. He questions the way of management we follow. In fact it is one of the basic premises of this book. Our approach of management is completely derived from the western approach to business, whereas the culture here, in India is quite complex and diverse than the west. How is it supposed to work effectively here? No doubt, the western approach is delivering numbers and goals but how do we justify it as the most optimal way of doing business in India or actually the many India’s that we have within our geographical boundaries?

About the Author

Devdutt Pattanaik has written over twenty five books and 400 articles on Indian mythology for everyone from adults to children. Since 2007 he has been explaining the relationship between mythology and management through his column in the Economic Times; the talk he gave at the TED India conference in 2009; and the show Business Sutra which ran successfully on CNBC-TV18 in 2012, besides numerous other lectures at Indian Universities and management institutes. 

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

 

Barfi!..class apart!

Picture Shuru...Ho gayi Picture Shuru

Picture me aaju baju walo ka khayal rakhna,

Picture me saamne ki kursi pe na pao rakhna

Picture me mobile aur bachhe dono off rakhna

Picture Shuru...Picture Shuru! 

The movie took off with the above notice, and certainly brought smiles to the faces of audience, which they kept wearing till the end. Very rarely, do you see a movie, which ends with an applause, a round of cheer by almost everyone present (Not the, Sunny Deol or Salman Khan types). Barfi!, for one, is a part of that privileged genre. Yes, he is deaf and dumb, she is autistic, but the equation they share is unparalleled. Already enough has been said and written about the classic roles essayed by versatile Ranbir, gutsy Priyanka and beautiful Ileana (I loved her Bong Bahu look!), and of course the vision of craft master Anurag Basu (Yes, the same guy who made Kites), but I can't help writing even more. There are moments which leave you smiling, which leaves your eyes moist, but in the end this movie makes you happy!How a person riddled with so many troubles manages to stay happy and give away his signature smile even in the worst of circumstances, makes you forget your miseries. I know, it might sound a bit cheesy, but yes, that's the effect it has!

They deserve all the accolades and the appreciation they are getting, and the audience are loving it. What I hope is, this movie goes on to be a mega hit, just like the Singhams' and Ek Tha Tigers' and the BodyGuards',(in fact it deserves to be much bigger than those), but as I write this I know this is not going to be. If it does, it will certainly motivate the directors, and more importantly the producers to invest in such scripts, the 'hatke' one's, not the so called mainstream cinema. Although there has been a lot of such films making waves (along with money) in the recent past, the likes of Kahaani, Vicky Donor, Wasseypur topping the list.

Succinctly I would say this is impeccable cinema, completely Hollywood material. (May be I am overrating it, but then that's what I feel!)Barfi might give away some traces of Charlie Chaplin, Mr. Beans, or Raj Kapoor but then what matters is, it's simplicity and silence subtly manages to tickle you and touch 'that' corner in your heart!

P.S: Darjeeling is my favorite hill station, and the Chhau Dance sequence was terrific. And yes, I hoped to see the 'Fatafati' number in the end, but alas!