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Contemporary Happenings In the life of Stifled Oneling
Book Reviews

Stifled Oneling | A Book Review

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Stifled Oneling by Dr. Stifled Oneling⁣ Books are born out of the tragedies and stories that surround us. Writing itself is a cathartic process that helps us deal with our demons. “Contemporary happenings” in the life of a Stifled Oneling !! by Dr. Oneling, is one such book born out of the woes. ⁣⁣⁣⁣Over 150 pages long, this book is divided into ten chapters and an epilogue. Each chapter caters to different social evils from monetary issues to redundant religious superstitions to feminism, education and taboos, this book questions almost everything and leaving us rattled in the process with more questions in its wake. The book presents to us these woes of society but doesn’t get preachy. The author maintains that the aim of this book is to educate the masses about these issues and she knows that the change doesn’t come overnight. The concepts are all etiological factors – fear, society, and human ego – the three factors that cause the social struggles, the author discusses at length in this book. When I talk about the writing style of the author, it is quite lucid but hard-hitting. The author’s words drive home the point it harps on. The book is a quick read and one can see it more as essay-esque writing. ⁣⁣⁣⁣I loved reading the author’s thoughts about the on-going issues. It gives the readers a vision to view these social norms that are sometimes forced upon us traditions. In my view, this book deserves to be read and understood, if you consider yourself a responsible citizen of this nation. This book pursues a solution and the ranting of the author comes out as a cry to wake us up. And halfway through reading the book did I understand, why did the author titled the book Stifled Oneling. ⁣⁣⁣⁣Overall, this book give its readers a new dimension to think and contemplate our so called societal norms that ranges from religion, money, taboo, feminism. Kudos Dr. Oneling.⁣⁣

The Smart Balance by Ankita Arora
Book Reviews

The smart balance | A Book Review

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The smart balance By Ankita Aurora I guess this is the book I was waiting for. A perfect read to start the year with. In todays so called wireless world we are badly entangled to social media & glued to our gadgets. People have started travelling just for the sake of uploading pictures & using the most trending hashtags. Girls use tons of make-up to reach #nomakeup look & kids using #wanderlust #travelislife don’t even appreciate the culture/ nature around. The Author however uses interesting # in her book, making us actually #think. She addresses the most important issue (i.e. work life balance or actual vs virtual life,) that we are facing today in detail & tell us methods to overcome it. The new age disorders & syndromes are well explained too. The content of her book shows how well researched her writing is and how well read the author is. She mentions recent researches & facts every now and then in the book, making it really informative. I also loved the suggestive read/ talks she gave at the end of the book She also uses diagrams & tables to explain her point well. The real-life examples & #todo activities are also useful & doable. This book looks a bulky read but was worth reading every page. The topics are well divided into chapters and creates a good flow. Language is really easy & font size soothing for your eyes. Overall, I will give this book 5/5 for the topic she chose to write and the efforts she put it into. This book is definitely going into my must-read list of 2020

The Things We Fear by Sharit Sinha
Book Reviews

The Things We Fear | A Book Review

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The Things We Fear By Sharit Sinha This one starts off with the dramatic incident of two collegians in the nearby Cemetery and the birth of Zombies.  Cut to their HGRE College where the quiet, brooding Harsh is bullied by the College Football Star Rohit and his cronies as his girlfriend Rita watches in glee.  A humiliated Harsh assaults Rohit not paying any heed to his timid friend, Deep as Lata, the college newspaper editor encourages him to fight back.  Enter the main college bully Rudra Pratap who thrashes Harsh for daring to hit his man, Rohit.  Talk about clichés galore. In an unexpected turn events, enters our Superhero and new entrant, Neel.  He’s here to do what he does best- fighting zombies, witches and vampires while also taking down the odd Bully or two.  Naturally the Ghostbuster soon becomes their Savior. A strange twist of faith results in this motley group of 6 suddenly finding themselves in a most unlikely adventure when they have to face their own deepest, darkest fears discovering strength, friendship and brotherhood in the most unrealistic circumstances as they rush to save themselves from the ultimate witch- Akshita.  Recommendation:  Having started off reading about Zombies, I was totally dismayed and skeptical about this one.  To make matters worse, the language wasn’t all that great.  It took me a good 100+ pages to actually start getting into the book despite its supernatural theme.  That’s when the story picked up with friendships being formed and inner conflicts being addressed.  The characters suddenly became a bit more interesting what with them having to deal with their inner most demons.  As they say, Horrors lie not just in the obvious ghosts and monsters but in ordinary people and their evil actions as well.   Rating: 2.5/5

The Chennai Killings by Chital Mehta
Book Reviews

The Chennai Killings | A Book Review

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The Chennai Killings by Chital Mehta Inspector Vikram has been reeling ever since his younger sister, Priya’s mindless murder 2 years ago.  Despite trying his best to move on, he seems to be stuck in limbo unable to accept the grief as the cold blooded killer seems to have gotten away.  Anusha, his wife keeps reminding him of his duties to her and their 7-year-old son Aarav but Vikram just can’t let go of the past. The spine chilling murder of another collegian, Sandhya leads to Vikram being assigned to the case.  This one seems to hit a bit too close to home.  As he goes about trying to piece together the murder, he comes upon the most unlikely connections between the two victims.  As the plot unravels with the entry of new characters, Vikram tries his best to keep it together and not let his emotions cloud his thoughts and perceptions.   While dealing with the girl’s family members and friends, the Inspector slowly starts connecting to dots in order to figure out the whole agenda behind the sinister death.  Vikram edges closer and closer towards discovering the real truth; one that will finally set him free or will it really?  Does he make sure that Justice is served or does the culprit manage to get away with it all?  Recommendation:  A gripping read that kept me guessing till the very end.  Initially the plot felt fairly simplistic with more focus on the play of human emotions rather than any real mystery.  I mean, the murder itself didn’t feel like there was any real mystery and that’s wherein the true brilliance lies. The well-defined characters and respective backstories were enjoyable and have been pieced together without letting the tautness of the main plot drop.     However as the plot unfolded, a series of events and characters enfolded quick and fast.  Not once could I have predicted the final twist.  This one turned out to be a brilliant book that I practically read from cover to cover.  Good thing it wasn’t too long. Rating: 5/5

The Soul of Truth by Shaji Madathil Taranslated by Dr. Jessy Skaria
Book Reviews

The Soul of Truth By Shaji Madathil | A Book Review

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Publication: Bloomsbury India Publishing Pvt. Ltd.               Page Count:  360 pages Review: Fiction This book starts off where we would usually expect most to end.  After all, it’s not every day that one would start off reading about the death of the main protagonist.  I mean isn’t that the most unlikely if not shocking way to begin a book.  The sudden and unexpected death of Uthaman in Bahrain sets off a whole flurry of events.  The initial actions and reactions of his friends, workmates, employers and of course his family are expressed in such a matter of fact manner that one can simply look on in a detached manner.  According to Hindu customs, over the next 42 days, the Soul takes its time to get ready and move on to the next realm of its onward and upward journey.  That is when the final rites are performed and the soul is set free. Over this period, the Author takes us back and forth telling us about the short life of Uthaman.  The youngest and eagerly awaited boy born after several sisters in an idyllic village of Kerala.  His journey from childhood to college is interspersed with glimpses of young love followed by the inevitable hurdles, responsibilities and youthful dilemmas.  Despite his initial reluctance, Uthaman does take on the mantle of responsibilities though unfortunately succumbing way earlier leaving behind the distraught women and innocent son who regroup and slowly build on their inner quiet strength.      Recommendation:  Despite its morbid theme, this novel turned out to be quite the page-turner.  Simply yet beautifully written, the author manages to keep you engrossed right till the very end.  The characterization is well defined and you can actually imagine as the events unfold. Though inherently a tragic book that deals with a young death, you still find some kind of hope and peace by the end.  Not really philosophical but you do get insights about Hindu traditions and culture.   Rating: 3/5

The Lost Gold by Kaushikk Yegnan - A Book Review
Book Reviews

The Lost Gold by Kaushikk Yegnan | A Book Review

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 Who can ever give you company throughout your life, I know no one can, but cant we walk a few steps together. – Ahmad Faraz This novel doesn’t last long reading wise but it makes you think. Think about people, situations, dreams and chase towards those dream. When I saw this 65 pages novel, I thought this is a piece of cake, to eat in one gobble but the taste of the author’s narration is still lingering around. I would have loved to read more of this story and that is the only complaint I have about this novel The Lost Gold by Kaushikk Yegnan If pain doesn’t provide visible proof.You suffer, and suffer alone, for lack of proof.  This novel is about sportsman’s 69 years journey across the Olympics of times in the search of the lost gold. As a child protagonist Andrei Kaufmanns attends the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and from there his love for long jump and dream of winning Olympic gold begins. In between because of World war II, he could not win Gold and chase towards Gold medal begins.Author has not written about big war story instead it’s about small stories which seems insignificant in world’s history which describes human pain and emotions affected because of war. If love could move mountains, a mother’s love could realign the universe. My favorite part of novel was a story about Andrie’s servant Bretta and her 4 year old son Boris.It wasn’t a happy story but it is still replaying in my mind.‘The most painful state of being is remembering the future,  particularly the one you’ll never have! – SOREN KIERKEGAARD ‘.In these 65 pages father – son relationship, Mother’s devotion for her only son, journey of sportsman towards his dream and many more feelings are covered which makes you wonder about life and many other things.For this gripping novel of worst times of human history world war II I would like to rate 4.5 out of 5.

Chaos in Romance, Sexuality and Fidelity By Raksha Bharadia | Booxoul Book Review
Book Reviews

Chaos: in Romance, Sexuality and Fidelity | A Book Review

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CHAOS: In Romance, Sexuality and Fidelityby Raksha Bharadia I am not sure where to start. This book was, from the word go an out and out engrossing read. Author Raksha Bharadia made sure to write the book in a manner that even fiction readers not for one moment would want to put down it. So many things to love! Reading this book was a lot like watching an interesting documentary on the life and its inception on earth. And one can surmise through reading it that a colossal amount of research and some interesting interviews with the people ranging from psychologists, marriage counselors, medical experts and general practitioners (and boy is it beautiful) has gone into the making this book, Chaos in romance, sexuality, and fidelity by Raksha Bharadia. With incredible and insightful information and details, the book analyzes various aspects of relationships quite well. The author in her book ‘Chaos in romance, sexuality, and fidelity’ explores the history of love between men and women over the centuries and takes the readers one step at a time – not being too preachy and not too judgmental. And every aspect of romance, sexuality and fidelity are dealt beautifully with chapter by chapter. Raksha also sheds some light on how problems have emerged in familial relationships and the rapid rise in divorces shows that people in the country can’t seem to face the challenges/conflicts arise in their life. She presents the facts as it is. But in the process, the book doesn’t get boring. In fact, she makes it more fun to read by using some fantastic references and quotes. It gives readers the right balance of information, entertainment, and reader satisfaction. And by entertainment, I mean that the book contains some funny illustrations which also works as visual information for the mind to store in its database. This book is a definite “fuel for thought” and will rattle for a long time in my head. The book is divided into 5 sections. And each section is a delight to read. From the beautiful presentation of the content inside to the narrative style of the author and to the language, that is impeccably graceful and well-balanced. To sum up, it isn’t a self-help book that will help you mend your relationships. No, in fact, this book is an analysis of relationships that will give you a new perspective to look through. Rating- 4.5

She Stood by Me by Tarun Vikash - Book review
Book Reviews

She Stood By Me | Book Review

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She Stood by Me by Tarun Vikash Love is not a relationship Most of us have experienced first love, first heartbreak, that we occasionally remember, and this novel She Stood by Me by Tarun Vikash, is a reminder of those memories. Like the subtitle implies love is much more than a friendship. This romantic fiction is about a love story that begins in teenage years and grows with the age of protagonist. Aparna and Abhi who starts their relationship as friends with a one-sided crush, and then their friendship is transformed in time into a lovely story of love. Their friends Manish and Nidhi also have their own love story, and they are an integral part of the life of Aparna and Abhi. Abhi who comes from a lower — middle — class family, he has responsibilities waiting for him in the future, he is career-oriented, but he believes in romance and first love concept. On the other side, Aparna comes from an upper — middle — class family with an urge to prove the world about her existence. She is career-oriented but somehow she doesn’t believe in love, in a better way to say that she doesn’t have time for love. This Love story ought to be difficult as one person is madly in love and another person is aloof with love as a feeling and living in denial. Their love story has many obstacles like studying in different cities, job pressure, and then family drama. In small cities Love and then Love marriage is still considered as a taboo. Most of us have experienced first love, first heartbreak, that we occasionally remember, and this novel She Stood by Me by Tarun Vikash, is a reminder of those memories. Like the subtitle implies love is much more than a friendship. This romantic fiction is about a love story that begins in teenage years and grows with the age of the protagonist.⁣⁣Author Tarun has very aptly defined the feelings of love, responsibility towards the family that are so contrasting to each other. Though this book She Stood by Me is his debut novel, he did quite a remarkable job with the characters and the story.⁣⁣Every character in this book has been nicely thought of and then put on paper. The character I most connected to was Manish, as he reminded me of Bollywood movies that had one best friend who made fun of the Hero, pulled his leg, but then he also stood with him in every thick and thin of the situation.⁣⁣Unfortunately, my problem was that most of the novel was like reading Abhi’s private unrealistically goody – goody diary with individual dialects and dialogues, which became quite uncomfortable instead of smooth flowing reading, which I am used to. Somehow the story seemed little stretched with too much detailing of unwarranted information which could have been omitted.⁣⁣I would like to rate this YA romantic fiction novel 3.7 out 5. It is one time read that is quite entertaining in its own way. This book will remind you about your first crush, first love and your life before 25 hit you.⁣

Women Author Awards
Book Reviews, Lifestyle

Women ruling even the literary World

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The AutHer Awards 2020 Longlists for best women authors in Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children’s Literature and Debut were announced today by a panel of 12 eminent judges. The Times of India received a whopping 850 entries submitted by both publishers and individual authors for the coveted national award, the first of its kind in India.The AutHer Awards – a joint venture between JK Paper and Times of India — are a celebration of women authors who have added value and creativity to the literary space. The jury considered books by women published in India between December 2018 and November 2019. The chairs for the AutHer Awards jury consisted of author Ashwin Sanghi (Fiction), actor and author Sonali Bendre (Non-Fiction), columnist and author Shobhaa De (Debut), and author Bulbul Sharma (Children’s books).Talking about women’s writing in literature, Shobhaa De says, “Women’s voices in Indian literature today are exploding several myths and stereotypes. They are speaking a new language which is honest, irreverent and out there. There is enormous confidence and talent emerging through their work. It is our job to acknowledge and reward the best! It has been a fantastic process of reading all these wonderful women authors sharing their stories with so much verve! Good luck to the winner. And a big thank you to all participants.” While sharing her experience of the AutHer Awards, Bulbul Sharma says, “I really enjoyed reading these amazing new books for children by women authors. Each book painted a vivid picture of a new facet of our society and dealt bravely with different, somewhat difficult concerns. What a variety of prose and rich ideas; what a long way we have come. We must thank TOI for taking women writers on a most exciting journey ahead.” The other jury members were author Jaishree Misra (Fiction), author and former Deputy Secretary, Sahitya Akademi Gitanjali Chatterjee (Fiction), author Yasser Usman (Non-Fiction), author and journalist Manimugdha Sharma (Non-Fiction), author and comic writer Arjun Gaind (Debut), Co-founder of ScoopWhoop R ishi Pratim Mukherjee (Debut), actor, compere and Director of The Study School Shivani Wazir Pasrich (Children’s books), and author Ramendra Kumar(Children’s books). Sharing his experience of being a part of the AutHer Awards, Ashwin Sanghi says, “I am delighted to be part of the jury panel for The Times of India’s Women AutHer Awards 2020. It has been a painstaking process to read and review the final selection to arrive at the longlist. Jaishree Misra and Gitanjali Chatterjee (my fellow jury members) and I have burnt the midnight oil in attempting to ensure that we look at each book holistically. We too have gained by being part of this terrific initiative because we all ended up reading books that we may have otherwise missed. In fact, even determining the Longlist was difficult because there were several more that deserved mention.” Actor and author Sonali Bendre, who also hosts her own book club for fellow readers, called it an “enriching experience”. Sonali Bendre says, “Going through the AutHer selection was such an enriching experience. From the 21 non-fiction books that we read, these 9 were the ones that stood out and unanimously got voted in to be part of the AutHer Longlist! It’s been a pleasure discussing these books with Yasser Usman and Manimugdha Sharma… it’s been a smooth and thoroughly enjoyable journey.” The books under consideration went through multiple layers of screening before reaching the final jury. The Times editorial teams were helped in the initial screening by authors Kulpreet Yadav and Sujata Parashar, Write India winner and teacher Vasudha Gulati, and Dr Anjana Neira Dev, Associate Professor of English, Gargi college. Vinita Dawra Nangia, Literary Director of the Awards, says, “It has been an eye-opener to see the range of books submitted for the Awards and the process through which our judges painstakingly selected the best. Our effort is to be all-inclusive and neither dismiss any genre, nor favour another. The Women AutHer Awards have been launched to recognize and encourage the contribution of women writers, and to acknowledge their unique space in the literary arena.” The AutHer Awards Shortlist will be announced tomorrow. The AutHer Awards winners will be announced at a grand ceremony on Sunday, March 8, at Taj Palace, New Delhi. A prize worth Rs 1 lakh each will be given to the top winners of all four categories and a Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to a woman author for her lasting contribution in the field of literature. For the Longlist, please log on to : https://autherawards.in/

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