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Showing posts from February, 2021

The Guide: Book Review

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  Book Title: The Guide Author: R.K. Narayan Publisher: Penguin Classics My Rating:  *****/5 About The Author:  R. K. Narayan,    (born October 10, 1906, Madras [Chennai], India—died May 13, 2001, Madras), one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English. He  was famous for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi.   This is just an attempt to bring the spotlight back onto a great book by an Indian author. Not that it's forgotten, but because this beautiful book needs to be celebrated more as the years go by.... 'The Guide' is a novel written by the illustrious author in 1958, which    brought him the 1960 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.  So it is pointless to even try and review such a great novel that was also adapted into the Filmfare Awardee movie of 1965 starring Dev Anand as the protagonist Raju Guide and the ever gorgeous lady Waheeda Rahman playing Rosie the d

Love, Ladies & Siyaappa- Book Review

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  Book Title: Love, Ladies & Siyaappa Author : Jiganshu Sharma Publisher: Self-published My rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5  (For 18+)Mature content alert!  Originally a Punjabi-Urdu word, 'Siyappa' means wailing loudly when one has fallen into trouble, but this word is largely used like some sort of a cool word. Hence I was expecting more humour from the book, going by the 'Chick-lit' like look of the book-cover.  Here is a collection of 6 short stories written by the author which are based on the North Indian culture and society, presented along with a few articles by other women. This book touches upon the different scenarios revolving around intimacy issures and physical abuse. The author has tried to question the coercions women face, and secretly suffer but are never allowed to raise a voice against.  The first story addresses the age old problem of the stereotypical MIL's obsession of having her Daughter-in- law produce an offspring on demand for the sake of the family'

On A Journey Of Life- Book Review

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Book Title: On A Journey Of Life Author: Kajal Rai & Nivedita Karmaran Self-Published on Amazon Kindle Pub (Ebook format) My Rating: ***** On A Journey Of Life  offers you two (long) short stories by two authors namely, As The Miles Went By written by Kajal Rai & That Summer written by Nivedita Karmaran. Both the stories in the book complement each other beautifully. The commonalities between the two separate stories are that each have a female protagonist who has embarked on a journey of self-discovery, by peeking into their individual pasts. In  As The Miles Went By,  the protagonist  Saanchi Avasthi  reads her late mother's diary, and decides to go on a spontaneous road trip to the mountains of Uttarkashi, while in  That Summer,  a recluse yet free-spirited Rashi Anand is writing a letter to her dear old friend and revisiting her past, thus taking the readers along on the proverbial journey of her life.  What I loved about the book was the young voice in each of the st