The Last Link - Book Review

Manisha Malhotra does a brilliant job of welding spirituality with science fiction in her book The Last Link. The protagonist Ann Fletcher is a physics student. She can discern the aura of any person. The panch mahabhutas or the five basic elements come in the form of human characters and turn Ann's world up side down. She is the Earth in the human form. The conflict, the twists and turns make this book readable.

The writing is simple and lucid. The author avoids jargons, a relief to the readers for this is a complex story. The characters take time to establish themselves and much time is spent on their back stories. I wish this could have been curtailed. Yet the story manages to keep you glued till the end. Though the first half drags a bit, the second half compensates for it and you get to read an edgy thriller. This book is certainly not to be missed.

Theme Reveal #A2Z2019 - My Spiritual Journey

'Who am I?' This existential question has cropped up in many minds. We all are eager to learn more about the other side of life. The unknown always intrigues us.

'If you search diligently, you will even find God.' A Master had told me, and this is the theme of my A2Z challenge. My Spiritual Journey.

Beginning from 1^st of April 2019, except Sundays, I will be writing every day about my spiritual journey. 

 

We all are spiritual beings in material bodies. But do the Masters always tell us the truth? Or is there anything sinister? To know more keep visiting my blog, and please note that it is a serialized story, so don't miss even a single post.

Killing Time in Delhi - Book Review

Killing Time in Delhi by Ravi Shankar Etteth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Killing Time in Delhi by Ravi Shankar Etteth lives is set in Lutyens Delhi. The characters are a murky lot, each overloaded with the eccentric characteristics. Charlie Seth's mistress dies of a cocaine overdose and with her death all troubles begin for Charlie.

The trouble with Killing Time in Delhi is that it lives in its own world. It doesn't bother much about finding a connect with the reader. Characters come and go, leaving readers confused. The same is true of the events in the book. Though the reviewers are praising the novel for its pace, I found the pace to be slow. Unnecessary descriptions using complex sentences and words out of vogue have a repelling effect on the reader.

So it is up to you whether to kill your time in reading Killing Time in Delhi or not.

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The Light Catcher - Book Review

The Light Catcher by Sameer Chopra by Sameer Chopra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sameer Chopra crafts interesting characters in his debut novel The Light Catcher. We have read about the cut throat competition in the corporate world earlier. What makes The Light Catcher different from other books is it brilliant characterization. So we have Purab the protagonist who finds soon that the corporate world is not his cup of tea.

On the contrary his love interest Rati is born for the corporate life, she takes to it like fish takes to water. The attraction between these two is the masterstroke of the writer. It keeps you glued to the story, eager to know what happens next.

The writing is sharp and crisp. The events in the life of the protagonist are easy to relate to. We feel for the protagonist and that I think is the success of the author. There are very few books that succeed in painting realistic picture of the things and The Light Catcher is definitely one of them. Don't miss this one.

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Don't be harsh on yourself

Years come and go. But 2018 was a very important year in my life. My mantra for the year was not to be harsh on myself. I reaped the benefits of this attitude.

Maintaining a daily journal has been a part of many of my new year resolutions. My cupboard is full of diaries, with a few entries for the month of January. All the following months were blank. In latter years I used those diaries, but just as notebooks. I wrote besides the years which were now a part of the past. At the beginning of the 2018 I again resolved to maintain a journal. But this time there was a change in my attitude. Here is an entry from my journal dated 9^th January 2018.

Another year, another diary. Like you all I have many diaries of the years gone by, meticulously written for some days and then the pages were all blank. I utilized those pages after a few years, only as pages of a notebook and not a diary.

But this time around there is change in my outlook. I am relaxed. I am composed. I am not going to be harsh on myself. It is alright if I don’t write for a few days. It is fine if what I write is crap and doesn’t sell. I like the way I am. Believe me this has lifted tonnes off weight (of expectations and self pity) from my chest.

With this attitude I maintained the journal. I didn’t write everyday. There are many pages blank in the diary. But still I wrote far more than what I had written in all these years. I received an acceptance from myself. It sounds so weird but it is true. We don’t accept ourselves the way we are. We keep on finding our own faults and demeaning ourselves.

Here is another entry from my diary

6^th February 2018

So much of protocol, rules of behaviour and etiquettes taught to me by my parents and teachers, some times directly, some times indirectly. I followed them scrupulously. But today I realize the burly pressure and tension that it built within me. In retrospect I feel that I should have been more flexible, for these etiquettes are for us and not the other way round.

You can do your best while staying relaxed. Moreover no matter how much you go by the book, there is no guarantee that the to her person will be pleased by your behaviour. There is no assurance that the outcomes will be as expected by you either. So what’s the point in being steadfast with regard to anything? Why not stay relaxed and do your best.

Hence forth no worrying about manners and etiquettes.

When I stopped exerting unwanted mental pressure on myself a wonderful thing happened. Things started falling place on their own. I became more productive. My relationships, including the one which I have with myself, improved. I became relaxed. Hope that you too stop being harsh on yourself.