Category: From My Bookshelf

There are lots of books stacked on my bookshelf. When I pick one of them, I dive into the amazing world created by an author as soon as I open the cover. However, there is always “the end” written on the last page of the book. Have you ever felt that you are in the same world with those characters? Witnessing those scenes written on pages in your hand, hearing voices of characters speaking dialogues scripted for them? There are a few books which have taken me in their world. And I must say, they are magnificent. Valentia created by Rajamayyoor Sharma is on top of my head as far as Indian fiction is concerned while James Clavel has taken me to mediaeval Japan. I have roamed around London with Sherlock and Poirot.

And yet, the journey in those realms, started from the cover page, has its end marked. The author takes the characters by hand and takes them to their destination by the end of the book. They fulfil their destiny. If a writer chooses to give happy moments at the end, we enjoy them. If it’s a tragedy, characters at least get closure at the end. Many times, I wish to ask the author if he or she has forgotten to write something for me? What about my destiny at the end? What about my share of the closure? Haven’t you thought about me as an uninvited traveller on this journey when you wrote a book?

Here you will find my reflections on my readings. Hope you will also enjoy these stories as much as I did.

  • Undelivered letters – पुस्तक परिचय

    Undelivered letters – पुस्तक परिचय

    “साठेsss….” अशी लांबलचक आरोळी देऊन दारावरल्या टपालपेटीत पत्र टाकणारा पोस्टमन मला आजही आठवतो. पण वीस वर्षांपूर्वी पोचवायला हवी असलेली पत्र जेव्हा एखाद्या पोस्टमनला अचानक अनपेक्षितपणे सापडत असतील तेव्हा काय होत असेल? दोन दशकांच्या काळात पत्र ज्यांच्यापर्यंत पोहोचायला हवी होती त्यांचं पुढे काय झालं असेल? आणि आत्ता त्यांना ही पत्र पोहोचवली तर त्यांना काय वाटेल? हे सारे प्रश्न तुम्हाला पडलेत ना?

    PicsArt_08-12-10.51.59मग जे. आल्कम ( J. Alchem) यांनी लिहिलेलं Undelivered letters हे छोटसं पुस्तक तुम्हाला नक्की खिळवून ठेवेल. पोस्टमन अरॉन आणि त्याची पत्नी सारा यांना अचानक ही न पोहीचवलेली पत्रे सापडतात आणि सुरू होतो एक नवं द्वंद्व समोर उभं ठाकतं. पत्र पोहोचवावी की न पोहोचवावी. ज्यांच्या नावांनी ही पत्र आहेत ते काय म्हणतील? त्यांना काय वाटेल? आपल्या हलगर्जीपणाने झालेल्या या दोन दशकांच्या उशिरामुळे काही भयंकर तर नसेल घडले? या साऱ्या प्रश्नांच्या गदारोळात अडकलेल्या अरॉनची ही गोष्ट आहे छोटीशीच पण थेट मनाला जाऊन भिडते.

    दोन दशकांच्या वेगवेगळ्या काळपट्टयावर चालणारी ह्या पत्रांची गोष्ट आपल्याला ज्यांची ही पत्रे असतात त्या वेगवेगळ्या पात्रांनाही भेटवते. एक वेगळ्याच पद्धतीने गुंफलेल्या या वेगवेगळ्या पात्रकथा, ‘न पोहोचवलेल्या’ पत्रांच्या धाग्याने छान घट्ट विणलेली आहे. एखाद्या निवांत सुट्टीच्या दिवशी हे पुस्तक हाती घेतलं तर एक बैठकीतच तुम्ही संपवूनच खाली ठेवाल. अगदी छोटेखानी असलेलं पुस्तक आपल्या अगदी साध्या मुखपृष्ठानी तुम्हाला नक्की खुणावून घेईल यात शंका नाही.

    पु ल देशपांडे म्हटले होते की “पोटापाण्याचा उद्योग तुम्हाला जगवेल पण कलेशी जमलेली तुमची मैत्री तुम्ही का जगायचे हे सांगून जाईल”. जणू हीच भावना मनात ठेवून जे आल्कमनी प्रत्येक व्यक्तिरेखेला कोणती न कोणती कला दिली आहे. चित्रकला, लेखन, संगीत अशा अनेक कला आणि त्या जोपासणारे कलाकार निरनिराळ्या व्यक्तिरेखांच्या रुपात आल्कमनि अप्रतिम गुंफल्या आहेत. आल्कमची साधी सोपी भाषा दोन वेगवेगळ्या काळपट्ट्यांची गुंफण या पुस्तकाला एक वेगळाच रंग देतं.

    अरॉन त्याला सापडलेली पत्र पोहोचवतो का? पत्र मिळाल्यावर लोकांची काय प्रतिक्रिया असते? सारा ज्या पत्राची वाट आतुरतेने कित्येक वर्ष पाहत असते ते तिला मिळते का? या साऱ्याची उत्तरं या पुस्तकात दडली आहेत. तेव्हा नक्कीच तुम्ही हे पुस्तक मिळवा आणि जरूर वाचा.

    My rating: 4/5

    Kindle version
    Publisher: Westland Publications Ltd.
    Language: English

  • Stories on wheels

    1_YkKpKb4GivIt0xU4vNP_MwPutting all the necessary gears for a tour in a backpack, taking out your car or a bike,  and hitting the road for your ‘have to do before dying’ trip is the dream of everyone. But for getting paid for these trips is part of being lucky with your life. Rishad Saam Mehta is this lucky chap who is telling his stories from those roads which he tamed sometimes on two wheels and sometimes on four.
    Traveling and Tea sounds best companions just like, book and coffee. This ‘T&T’ love of Rishad made him write all the memories of those companions in his book “Hot Tea Across India”. ‘Kindle Unlimited’ has gifted me the opportunity to grab plenty of books, and I found this treasure of memories in that pile.
    Those magnificent Himalayan memories about its beauty, weather, outdoor camping, some incidents which makes you feel measly in-front of mother nature’s forces if you neglect them, made my dream of visiting mighty mountain king stronger by every page I turned. After giving chance to enjoy chilling Himalayan weather, he takes us to have some fun in Rann of Katcha in his chase of a herd of wild asses. The excitement, speed and a battle with treacherous bogs with quicksands in dessert make adrenaline rush through your body.
    He also makes us believe that anything can and will happen when hitting 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.
    Sometimes, your travels make you acquainted whit some not so famous and posh looking food joints which serves food which can truly be labeled as delicacies. Then let it be in some houseboat 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.
    In-short your craving for food, fun, drive/ride and photography is increased tenfold when you put down the book after reaching an end. Grab your copy and have some fun with Rishabh’s memories.

  • Book Review – Age of Azmoq: The Valentian Imperium

    As soon as I opened the package containing the book, the cover caught my sight with its beautifully blending colors and the magnificent design of a keep at the center of the cover. The blurb on the back did the trick which it is supposed to do. It enticed me to dive in the book immediately. The mysterious Azmoqian weapons and unearthing of an old forgotten legend are all that you need to get yourself immersed in the book.

    Age of Azmoq.jpg

    I have always felt envious about fantasy writers who can create the entire new universe with all the complexities like geography, society, culture, economics and add a dash of mysteries to it like a cherry on top. When I realized that Age of Azmoq is Rajamayyoor Sharma’s debut novel, I got extremely jealous. Now as you know about my jealousy about his talent, you must have got some idea about the fabulous world he has created in this book. The book is a story of a Villasboro lad who is out on the quest of getting the justice for his loved ones. But as the title says, “Age of Azmoq, Book 1: The Valentian Imperium’, this is just the first book of the series. We are in for a long journey through this fantasy world containing rarest and most coveted metal, Azmoq. Though I am not much of a book series fan, I am very excited for the next one.

    The way Sharma open up the secrets throughout the book is the most fascinating part. You are told only those things which you need to understand the events described in next few pages. Small nuggets of knowledge about mysteries and legends from past are revealed on a ‘need to know’ basis. Along with these nuggets, you get the staple doses of wisdom. It’s not unique to find such small bits of wisdom in a fantasy, we have had the wisdom of General Iroh in Avatar: the last airbender. Rajamayyor has mastered the same perfect blend. I like the contrast between the protagonist’s optimistic nature who wants to put everything to the good use in spite of the whole world is busy in the power struggle and putting the Azmoq in use only for its destructive powers.

    I am very thankful to Rajamayyor that he did the amazing thing of self-publishing the book. I have few suggestions for the printing and font. The small font makes it bit tough to read but thanks to the captivating plot, I didn’t even think of leaving it halfway. Being a mapmaker by profession, I am very much aware of the difficulties in designing a cool map even of the known world. However, illustrators had done a great job of producing a map of a fantasy world. It would have been great and more easy to understand the geography if the map could be printed in a larger size. Other illustrations in the book are as cool as the map.

    I am glad that even after doing MBA from IIM Bangalore and engineering from a prestigious BITS Pilani, Rajamayyor has not walked on the set path of writing same old ‘on-off college romance’ novels. Instead, he came up with this amazing idea of creating a series of novels which will be a tale of Azmoqian legends and mysteries which can make you most powerful in the world if you wield it. All in all, It’s a wonderful enticing read. Go grab your copy from nearest bookstores or hit on the links below.

    My rating: 3.5/5

    Paperback
    Publisher: Self Published (2018)
    Language: English
    ISBN-10: 1976882087
    ISBN-13: 978-1976882081
    Product Dimensions: 13.3 x 2.8 x 20.3 cm

    Amazon 

     

  • 3 and a half murders – a review

    Name of the book: 3 and a Half Murders 41igaXTEreL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_

    Author: Salil Desai

    My rating: 4.5/5

    While going through my Goodreads bookshelves, I stumbled upon Salil Desai’s latest novel from Inspector Saralkar Series. But, this discovery was really late, almost 10 months from the publication. I am kicking myself for not following this amazing author, who gave us our own mystery hunters duo, Senior Inspector Saralkar and PSI Motkar from Homicide Unit of Pune Police. I was fascinated by the first two books from the series and that lead me to pick his latest title instantaneously.

    Maintaining the track record of the earlier titles from series, Salil Desai has managed to keep the reader’s attention with him until he completes the story. This time story takes you to Kothrud, another part of Pune, to almost open and shut case; the murder-suicide of married couple Sanjay and Anushka Doshi. But as the story unfolds, mystery hunters duo’s attempt to answer ‘why’s behind the ghastly and spine-chilling murder-suicide, brings the puzzling facts about human behaviors.

    The plot takes many twists and turns leading inspectors to various cities and dive in the old case papers of Karnataka Police in for the unsolved murder in Banglore entangled with shady land deals, recruitment scams and many other irregularities related to Doshis.

    I have observed in Salil’s this series, he had tried to talk about human psychology and the social stigmas around various issues like sexuality and gender identity. He has developed the characters around these issues so that he can create the dialogue in the reader’s mind about these issues. This is the quality which makes you read through the last chapter where the criminal tries to explain his side of the story, and the end where protagonist put some key pieces of the puzzle on display for us.

    Senior Inspector Saralkars one-line punches and jibes to PSI Motkar add the spices to the story along with the development of their personal stories, as PSI Motkar is now an amateur actor in a play and Saralkar is trying to fight with the diagnosis of hypertension. The blurb of the book and the cover is so catchy that you can’t leave it until you dive deep into it. This is how the blurb goes:

    “Two corpses . . . a woman lying dead on her bed,
    a man hanging from the ceiling fan.
    A suicide note cum murder confession.
    And a name . . . Shaunak Sodhi.
    When the case comes their way, Senior Inspector Saralkar has just been diagnosed with hypertension and PSI Motkar is busy with rehearsals of an amateur play.
    What appears at first to be a commonplace crime by a debt-ridden, cuckolded husband, who has killed his unfaithful wife and then hung himself, soon begins to unfold as a baffling mystery. As clues point to a seven-year-old unsolved murder in Bangalore and other leads emerge closer home, Saralkar and Motkar find themselves investigating shady secrets, bitter grudges, fishy land deals, carnal desires, the dead woman Anushka Doshi’s sinister obsession with past life regression and her husband’s links to a suspicious, small-time god-man, Rangdev Baba.And then, suddenly, the murderer resurfaces and yet another life is in grave danger . . .
    Can Saralkar and Motkar get to the bottom of an unimaginably shocking motive and stop the malevolent killer from committing the fourth murder . . .?”

    Paperback: 328 pages

    Publisher: Fingerprint! Publishing (8 February 2017)

    Language: English

    ISBN-10: 8175994258

    ISBN-13: 978-8175994256

     

    Buy your copy at

    Amazon Paperback

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    And book store near you…

  • Search for Indian Mystery Writer ends…

    23119374Name of the book: Killing Ashish Karve

    Author: Salil Desai

    My rating: 4.5/5

    I like to indulge myself in finding background forces resulting in the particular event or incident. And that’s the main cause of getting my mind attracted to the crime novels. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, John Gresham, Jeffry Archer have been on my favorites list for many years. While screen shopping on Amazon Kindle store, my mind stuck on “Killing Ashish Karve” by Salil Desai. The reason was as simple as a familiarity of the surname in the title. As I flipped some pages of the preview available, I just couldn’t stop myself from choosing it as my next read.

    Salil Desai didn’t make me regret my choice. The story plot is set to happen in Pune, the city which is my home for past 7 years, I felt more engrossed about the plot. But even if it would have been set in any fictional city, his narration style is very remarkable and details in writings build a very realistic picture of locations, crime scenes. The plot revolves around the suspicious death of a businessman from city and everyone close to him have one or the other motive to get rid of him.

    Homicide inspectors from City Police find themselves chasing some eluding facts making any concrete progress difficult in this case. Salil wrote the story with such interesting twists and turns. Some misleading facts set them in wild goose chase, family members pull up non-cooperation card at a crucial time, are very common aspects of any murder mystery, but Salil made it a point of keeping them so interesting that reader feels them very important for the plot to move ahead. When we feel that case about to crack open and guilty will be apprehended, the story takes another turn with the murder of one of a key person. All pieces get linked almost at climax and inspectors make the arrest.

    After reading “Killing Ashish Karve” I can say confidently that my search for good Indian murder mystery writer stops at Salil Desai. I am very eager for reading his other works.

    Paperback: 260 pages

    Publisher: Fingerprint! Publishing (1 July 2014)

    Language: English

    ISBN-10: 8172345313

    ISBN-13: 978-8172345310

    Buy your copy at:

    Paperback on Amazon

    Kindle

    Or, a bookshop near you…

  • हे सर्व कोठून येते? – A Book Review

    If you are aware of the contemporary Marathi theatre scene, then one name will be very familiar to you: Vijay Tendulkar. He was a fantastic playwright with many milestones in Marathi theatre like Ghashiram Kotwal, Gidhade and Sakharam Bainder which are recorded in his name. He has also written stories for some amazing films, such as Ardhasatya, Akrosh and Nishant. On the other hand, he had written many short and long articles, essays on various occasions. “हे सर्व कोठून येते?” is a compilation book.

    While talking about this book in its prologue, he said “After observing people for so many years, I feel labelling them is pointless. They are very complex, we can only scrape the surface of one’s personality. We have to accept that every person has a whole different life other than one we have experienced. We should not make judgments about the ‘other part’ of life. If we do, then it should be for our own musing.”

    What more to expect from this!

    This book is all about people Vijay Tendulkar met, interacted and worked with in his long span of a career as a journalist; an editor of various periodicals, a writer and during his work under Nehru Fellowship. He came across various politicians as a journalist and editor. While writing he tried to present them differently trying to put some light on their unique facet. He had taken the interview of ex-CM of Maharashtra Vasantrao Naik, ex-CM of Gujarat Chimanbhai Patel and J P Naik but in this book he has written elaborately about them and his experience of meeting them for an interview.

    While working for Maratha, one of the old popular Marathi daily, he had witnessed a lot of different avatars of Pra. Ke. Atre, legendary writer, orator and owner of Maratha. He has been active in politics in those days and was famous for being blunt while putting his thoughts to words. He has dedicated some of the articles to his fellow writers, friends, and colleagues.

    But the last two articles from the book are really different from others. They talk about death, murders and the death penalty elaborately. These two articles have made me reschedule my today’s blog post for next week and write this review for you guys. I tell you, folks, I had never read anything so thought-provoking about somebody’s death or somebody’s act of murdering another human. I wasn’t able to speak about anything for almost 15 minutes after I finished the book on this note.

    My rating: – 4.5/5

    About the book

    • Name of the book: हे सर्व कोठून येते? by Vijay Tendulkar
    • Publisher: Rajhans Prakashan
    • Pages: 195
    • ISBN: 81-7434-317-2
    • ISBN13: 9788174343178

    My ratings

    Stories: 4.5/5
    Writing Style: 4.5/5
    Cover Design: 3/5

    Overall Rating: 4.5/5

    Where to get your copy

    Should you read it?

    Guys, I recommend that you grab a copy of the book at least for these two articles. I know, it’s a Marathi book but you feel free to ask me anything if the language is a barrier for you, I will be very happy to help you in this matter.

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