Category: A2Z Challenge

What to expect from this?

This is a collection of essays written by Mark Tully when he was working for the BBC. I read this book in 2017 and it has changed a lot ever since. India in 2023 is not the way she used to be. Yet it’s important to know how it was to live in those past decades. These essays cover a wide spectrum of subjects just like a wide diversity of our country. Just like us, our problems are diverse too. We have found the solutions for some of them but some still exist.

Religious extremism, bonded child labours in carpet weaving industry, heavy corruption in the government, poor condition of our farmers and the burden of ever-increasing debts are few pain-points in our progress as a nation. Mark has done extensive work for these essays. He interviewed many people who are stakeholders of the situation. Research the statistics and numbers before writing these pieces.

There is a essay which talks about progressive steps of creating a Cyberabad giving a new identity to Hyderabad as an IT city. He traveled with Chandrababu Naidu for a day hopping from meeting to meeting and taking his short interview at the end. This interaction was the base for this essay which highlighted the hopeful picture with a new direction to increase the speed for our progress.

Last essay; ‘Paradise Lost’; revolves around Kashmir . It covers religion, the India/Pakistan conflict, and politics and the tendency of maintaining the status quo in this area. Much has changed in this context in recent past and I hope it has changed for better. I wish that we regain this lost paradise soon.

From the blurb

Mark Tully is incomparable. No one has a greater understanding of the passions, the contradictions, the humour, the tragedy and the staggering resilience that constitute India. In his long awaited new book, he delves further than ever before into this country of one billion people. Covering subjects as diverse as Hindu extremism, bonded child labour, Sufi mysticism, the crisis in agriculture, the persistence of political corruption and the problem of Kashmir, he paints a picture of India at once poignant, funny, startling and deeply humane.

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This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023. For more about my views on books, click here.

What to expect from this?

Rishad Saam Mehta has travelled extensively across India on his bike and has gathered these fantastic experiences, stories about nature, people and his interactions with them. His narration and storytelling is so fluid and unique. The stories he tells will remain with you for a long time.

When he tells a story about his Himalayan travels, he paints a wonderful picture of those beautiful mountains, rivers and curvy roads. Nature out there is very gorgeous. You can really see it through his words. However, he also tells you that if you ignore the signs of mother nature. Her forces will hit you so hard that you wouldn’t even know what has hit you. He also takes you to Rann of Kutch. There he had shifted to steering wheel from handle bar and taken his four wheels to do all the crazy driving tricks you can for one assignment.

There are some crazy adventures on rides too. Rishad makes you believe that anything can and will happen when you are on the road, some local thug can make you run away with fear of losing your bike to his son in so-called ‘fair trade’ offer, or some anarchist trying to prove their point in local ‘bandh’ by asking you ‘Please can we burn your car?’. But there are many good people out there who make your trip memorable. He found interesting persons to show him around magnificent temples of Khajuraho, or to take in the times of Rana’s of Jaisalmer.

Food is also an important aspect of the travels. He narrates about the delicacies he tasted at places where he had least expected. Let it be some house-boat in Kashmir or some roadside ‘dhaba’ on legendary Grand Trunk Road. Or even some native nomads ask you to join them for a meal or help you to cook some of their traditional recipes.

From the blurb

On Rishad Saam Mehta’s journeys — and as a travel writer and all-round road-trip junkie, he’s been on many — there’s a particular thing he noticed. There’s not a highway, road or dirt track in India where you can’t find a cup of chai whenever you want it. And with those cuppas come encounters and incidents that make travelling in India a fascinating adventure. In this riveting book, which includes stories of honey- and saffron-infused tea shared with a shepherd in Kashmir, and a strong brew that revives the author after almost getting lynched by an irate mob in Kerala, Rishad takes you across the length and breadth of India, from Manali to Munnar, from the Rann of Kutch to Khajuraho, with a wonderful combination of wit, sensitivity and insight.

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This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023. For more about my views on books, click here.

What to expect from this?

While introducing this collection of fourteen train stories with different flavors, he says
“… I leave you to read these, with the promise that they will take you back to a time when life was not so full of care and there was time to stand and stare.”
I am a fan of Ruskin Bond stories because of his style of storytelling. He always paints a picture of beautiful places in the foothills of Himalaya, where most of his stories take place. His language is always simple and ordinary. This collection is not an exception to this quality. The way he has described the scene in ‘Dragon in the Tunnel’ and ‘Tiger in the Tunnel’, it paints the picture of those old steam engines pulling train out of the mysterious dark tunnel. ‘Time Stops At Shamli’. ‘The Eyes Have It’, ‘Night Train to Deoli’, are my favorite stories from this book.

Even though I am a ‘fan’ of Mr. Bond, I will not put this book in ‘Best stories by Ruskin Bond’ category. These stories are quite ordinary and yet they are not boring. There’s a bit of a reputation when it comes to settings in which stories happen. The reason behind, I think, is the theme which has a common setting of railways. Yet the stories I mentioned above touched the heart and were worth reading it.

From the blurb

‘The first time I saw a train, I was standing on a wooded slope outside a tunnel, not far from Kalka. Suddenly, with a shrill whistle and great burst of steam, a green and black engine came snorting out of the blackness.. “A dragon!” I shouted. “There’s a dragon coming out of its cave!”’The charm of travelling by a train as it speeds its way out of a tunnel or a jungle and passes through nondescript villages and towns is unmatched. There also exists a joyful curiosity in unfolding the mysterious lives and destinations of its passengers.Ruskin Bond has been writing tales about the hinterland for decades, but this is the first time his stories revolving around trains and railway stations of small-town India have been brought together in a single collection. Classics such as ‘The Eyes Have It’ and ‘The Night Train at Deoli’ rub shoulders with tales of big cats taking refuge in railway tunnels and strangers who strike up a friendship while waiting at a platform.So, hop on and allow one of India’s greatest storytellers to steer you through the Great Train Journey.

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This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023. For more about my views on books, click here.

What to expect from this?

Not all would like to go back and revisit the memories of pandemic. And yet some will find it helpful to know that they are not alone in this. This book gives a sharp sarcastic touch to our common life which was forced on us. Nino has put a humorous spin while talking about her life which she spent in her apartment in Tbilisi during the lock-down of 2020. These are the thoughts in your mind when you spend most of your time in the balcony trying to connect with streets below, empty car-park of adjacent commercial estate or a lone dog-walker in the park, or someone standing in the opposite balcony.

One paragraph from this personal account of events stayed with me.

“Will we be different when the Coronavirus outbreak passes? Are we going to change our habits or goals and ambitions when it’s over? Or are we going to stay just as we are? What are we going to gain from all this experience? Something? Anything? Are we going to hate Mondays again collectively?”

From my balcony to yours – Nino Gugunishvili

From the blurb

Canceled Plans? –Check!
Panic and Fear? – Check!
Self- Isolation? – Check!
Missing Friends? – Check!
Gaining Weight? – Check!
Binge-Watching TV? – Check!
Lengthy Self- diggings? – Check!
Hope? – Check, check, check!
Who would have thought that Global Pandemic, Self-Isolation, Cluster, and a Lockdown were to become the trendiest words in 2020? Who would have imagined the world would freeze and people would stay home shattered with fear, panic, uncertainty towards their future?
How do we adjust to this changing reality, when none of our questions have answers when plans turn upside down, things get totally out of control?
In her new book: “From My Balcony to Yours,” author Nino Gugunishvili shares her personal account during the first several months of the COVID -19 global pandemic in the form of short stories and observations.

Nino Gugunishvili’s writing biography includes a collection of short stories “ You Will Have a Black Labrador” and a women’s fiction novel “ Friday Evening, Eight O’Clock.”

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This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023. For more about my views on books, click here.

What to expect from this?

First of all there is a lot of coffee in this one. May be you will be high on caffeine by the time you reach at the end of this journey. Boy, what a journey it was! Story takes you to places. You will travel to very picturesque locations of South India accompanying a couple, a friendly ghost sprinkled with some magical realism and lots of stories about variety of coffees and their origins. There’s a thrilling Japanese connection to the story as a bonus.

Cover design is very apt for the story which it binds. Narrative and storytelling in this book will never let you believe that this is Harish’s first novel. It comes as a surprise for a reader considering a corporate background of the writer. I simply enjoyed the every page of this story. It has everything which I like, coffee, travel, and a love story!

From the blurb

When they drink a cup of ‘magic’ coffee, Rahul and Neha are entrusted with a quest that promises to lead to great treasure. As they race from the plantations of Coorg to Japanese graveyards, they are trailed by the Yamamoto brothers-bearing grudges and carrying swords.
Accompanied by a friendly ghost and armed with an extreme love of coffee, Rahul and Neha discover their passion for warm frothy concoctions and each other.
But will they manage to evade their Japanese assailants and find the treasure they first set out for?

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This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023. For more about my views on books, click here.

What to expect from this?

The way Murakami writes his stories is very engaging. Story keeps flowing and take you with it till the end. It pulls you in as you read it. His stories has an underlying layer of an alternate reality which keeps hinting through a suggestive atmosphere of a main story. but this reality will keep alluring you.

This book is a collection of 5 stories. These are selected gems from three of his short story collections which deals with undercurrent of human desire. He has successfully woven these stories around hunger, lust, longing and love. I have one quote that remained with me till this date from the story Birthday Girl in this collection.

“No matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves.”

Birthday Girl, Haruki Murakami

From the blurb

You’ve just passed someone on the street who could be the love of your life, the person you’re destined for – what do you do? In Murakami’s world, you tell them a story. The five weird and wonderful tales collected here each unlock the many-tongued language of desire, whether it takes the form of hunger, lust, sudden infatuation or the secret longings of the heart.

Selected from Haruki’s Murakami’s short story collections The Elephant Vanishes, Blind Willow Sleeping Woman and Men Without Women.

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This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z 2023. For more about my views on books, click here.