Tag: Adi’s Bookshelf

  • Being Good Enough- Gripping Contemporary Indian Novel

    Being Good Enough- Gripping Contemporary Indian Novel

    When you grab a book, it entices with you by it’s cover and blurb. Being good enough, a debut novel of Rohini Paranjpe Sathe ticks all the checkboxes for you to get this book from the shelf. Vibrant shades of colors of dusk with a classic Mumbai skyline catches your eye. Blurb says it’s a story of Jyoti who’s living a hard life in a small chawl in the city of Mumbai with her son. Struggling to keep the ghosts from her past far away from herself and her son. However, those ghosts show up at their doorsteps disrupting her life in Mumbai.

    Story opens up the door of the past and starts telling us what these ghosts are. Glimpse from Jyoti’s early life in a wealthy influential family of Delhi opens wide the story of these ghosts from the past. Completely in accordance with Murphy’s law, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, Jyoti keeps getting surprises at every corner and struggle continues. If you want to know how it ends, what happens with those ghosts from the past, you should not wait to pick this book as your next read.

    Coloured in the shades of religious divide, dirty politics, youthful love affairs and “khandaan ki ijjat” book is full of drama and reads quickly. Story is so gripping and enticing that it becomes really difficult to keep the book away if you have some work to get done. Even though it’s the debut novel of Rohini Sathe, it never shows up in the book. She is a master storyteller.

    Places, Characters and Writing

    Sathe has structured lives from both the worlds with finnes. One is posh affluent Delhi families and other is close-knit community of Chawls in Mumbai. Story goes back and forth in time and space. It travels between Jyoti’s present residence of Mumbai and her past home in Delhi. Jyoti’s Delhi times is full of religious divides, social stigmas around love affairs, a trap marriage with gay man. While for Mumbai, we read about life in a chawl. It’s characterized with helpful neighbours, their bonding, constraint of space, common activities of community, their daily routine, etc. 

    Another strong point is the characterization and the relations they share. We can’t put every human in black or white. Life is full of grey areas. All of the characters in this book show this grey tint as the story unfolds. Sometimes, black part flares up when provoked by religious divide or power struggle. Even a fierce fighter in Jyoti takes a step back with compassion at a couple of moments. The bond of friendship shared by Jyoti and her husband in the trap marriage is a nice touch. It shedes some light on the LGBTQ+ community and stigma which our society has around it. These spectrums of emotions make Sathe’s characters more humane. 

    I would definitely recommend this book if you are interested in reading a contemporary Indian story. If this fast paced, gripping tale of fierce Jyoti is not Good Enough reason to pick up “Being Good Enough” then I am not sure what will be. So, don’t waste time and grab your copy here.


    This review is powered by Blogchatter Book Review Program. If you want to know more book recommendations from me, then don’t forget to follow my social media accounts and check past reviews here.

  • 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.