White Clouds, Green Mountains - Book Review

Living in the hills was like living in the bosom of a strong, sometimes proud, but always comforting mother. When you have received love from people and the freedom that only mountains can give, then you have come very near the borders of Heaven. Ruskin bond says in the opening story Mother Hill in this collection called White Clouds, Green Mountains.

The following write ups Song of the Whistling Thrush, Visitors from the Forest and Monkey on the roof are about the birds, insects and animals who entered the author's room in Mussorie, where he wrote his stories on his typewriter. In Trees by my Window he speaks of the vegetation in the mountains.

Travels with my Bank Manager is about the travels in the forest with this colourful manager. This story with a tinge of humour brings back the banking era when there were no computers and the manager had to borrow the author's typewriter for bank audits. A Long Story shows how adults weave stories to entertain the children. In Binya Passes by the author in his own words look back on love of long ago.

Road to Badrinath is a travelogue which depicts the journey, faith and the people of the mountains very well. The story In Search of Sweet Peas is all about a school boy's innocence and adventure. The Wind on the Haunted Hill is about children who are lost in a haunted hill. The Night the Roof Blew Off shows the harsh life of people living amidst the beautiful mountains. The Last Truck Ride is about an old Truck driver who is in the habit of driving fast and what happens when a stray mule suddenly appears before him. In And Now We Are Twelve the author narrates his tryst with the legal system when he wrote a slightly risque story. He says he is not the most inventive of writers, and fantastical plots are beyond him. His forte is observation, recollection and reflection. The School among the Pines again depicts the hard life of children in the mountains who have to walk through the forests, which are inhabited by man-eaters.

Ruskin Bond never disappoints you. With his vivid descriptions of the mountains and interesting character sketches, he makes you feel good and this book is no exception to it. This book is actually a compilation of the author's earlier published works. Unfortunately like other books of Ruskin Bond recently published by Rupa, there are typographical mistakes in the book. If those are ignored, this is a nice collection.

How to woo a girl

Finding Juliet is the story of Arjun. Arjun is a simple guy with romantic ideas. He has some girls in his life. But all of them, except  Anjali, dump him before he can take the matters forward. Anjali is his loyal friend. 

Then he moves to Bangalore. Krish, who works in his office, becomes his love guru. Soon our simple Arjun turns into a sex god. His relationship with all the girls is of no strings attached, friends with benefits kind. 

However soon he realizes the futility of all and finds true love in Anjali. The following words by Krish summarize the novel. “Lust satisfies the needs of your body and ego, but it does nothing for your soul, because soul is nourished by the pristine happiness that comes with pure love.”

The author weaves real to life people, moments and even relationships. This novel is as much about lust as it is about love. The author juggles between these two successfully. It is indeed his success that the novel no where appears vulgar. The story is gripping and interesting. It will remind you of your relationships.

However what I did not like about the novel is that it reinforces the stereo types that good girls, who form the marriage material, do not sleep around and a guy should have as many sex encounters as he can before he settles down with a girl.

Yet this novel is entertaining. You will have a great time reading it.

'I received a copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.'

Finding Juliet - Book Review

Finding Juliet is the story of Arjun. Arjun is a simple guy with romantic ideas. He has some girls in his life. But all of them, except  Anjali, dump him before he can take the matters forward. Anjali is his loyal friend. 

Then he moves to Bangalore. Krish, who works in his office, becomes his love guru. Soon our simple Arjun turns into a sex god. His relationship with all the girls is of no strings attached, friends with benefits kind. 

However soon he realizes the futility of all and finds true love in Anjali. The following words by Krish summarize the novel. “Lust satisfies the needs of your body and ego, but it does nothing for your soul, because soul is nourished by the pristine happiness that comes with pure love.”

The author weaves real to life people, moments and even relationships. This novel is as much about lust as it is about love. The author juggles between these two successfully. It is indeed his success that the novel no where appears vulgar. The story is gripping and interesting. It will remind you of your relationships.

However what I did not like about the novel is that it reinforces the stereo types that good girls, who form the marriage material, do not sleep around and a guy should have as many sex encounters as he can before he settles down with a girl.

Yet this novel is entertaining. You will have a great time reading it.

Check the schedule here 

FINDING JULIET

by

Toffee

Blurb

Arjun is an incredibly nice guy who believes in true love and is waiting for it with open arms. He falls in love, not once or twice, but thrice. And every single time, happiness – like the girls he fell for – comes very close to him before pushing him away. His only pillar of strength in all his moments of grief and dejection is his childhood friend Anjali. Dejected by the games played by girls and fate, he leaves Hyderabad for Bangalore and ends up meeting Krish, an irresistible flirt. 

Krish understands Arjun's predicament, pacifies him with his words and enlightens him about the most complicated species ever created by God – Women. And then, Arjun's life changes forever. Will Arjun find the one he has been waiting for, or will he end up becoming a flirt? Will he ever taste lasting happiness? Join Arjun as he tries to figure out women and discovers the meaning of love, lust and life… all in his journey of Finding Juliet.

Read an excerpt here from Finding Juliet...

‘I have fucked you enough. Now you can fuck off!’ I said furiously, as I pushed her away from the bed.
‘You are such an asshole!’ she said, looking angrily at me as she stood up. Her cheeks were red with anger.
I saw her as she stood naked, with her hands on her hips. She was expecting me to say something, but I didn’t. It simply doubled her anger.
‘All you guys are the same. You want women only for sex,’ she stated furiously, pointing a finger at me.
I could have refuted her point easily and proved that she was being a hypocrite, given the fact that she had a boyfriend and yet she had slept with me a few moments ago. But I didn’t bother to respond and I just looked away from her. Disgusted, she let out a deep sigh and began picking up her undergarments, which were lying on the floor and started wearing them hurriedly. She moved towards the door where her black denims and purple tee were. She wore them in an instant and fished for her comb in her handbag. She brushed her hair and then wore the earrings I had removed before kissing her ears. She took some more time to get ready, gazing at herself in the mirror and adjusting everything, and I wondered how girls gave so much importance to their looks even during moments of distress.
Eventually, before leaving, she threw me a disgusting look and said, ‘I will never see your face again.’
‘Thank you. Now get lost,’ I said as she slammed the door shut.
After she left, I pondered over what had just happened and what had been happening in my life. ‘You shouldn’t have been so harsh on her’ – a soft voice from inside my heart said. But I strangulated it in an instant. I had lost enough in my life by listening to my heart.
Just a few moments ago, I was rolling in bed with Aditi, and after we came together, she began talking to me endlessly, like most girls do after sex. I was more interested in looking at the fan on the ceiling and wondering why it was spinning anticlockwise and not clockwise.
While talking, she had grazed her finger over my shoulder and moved it slowly towards my arms and said, ‘Behind these strong muscles, there is a weak heart, yearning to be loved and dying to be cared for. You can hide your pain from the world, Arjun, but not from me.’
That was when I had pushed her from my bed and I didn’t really understand why I had reacted so strongly. Was it because I had been hiding my true face from the world successfully all the while? No one had ever tapped the underlying guy inside me, except Krish. But when Aditi said those words, I became very defensive. The last thing I wanted was someone knowing about the void inside me.
I got up, splashed water on my face and looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were crimson red. And even though I was nowhere near smiling, I saw an evil grin on my face. I splashed water once again and looked at myself. The grin grew wider and scarier. ‘How had I been and what have I become?’ I asked myself. I saw the image in the mirror once again. I couldn’t look at it and smashed the mirror with my hand. Pieces of glass got stuck on my knuckles. A big piece made a deep gash, but it didn’t hurt as much as the scars on my heart did.
I then riffled through the shelves to find weed – my temporary solution to permanent problems. I rolled a joint hastily and lighted it. After a few puffs, I felt feather-light and forgot everything that had been going on in my mind. Surreal images flashed in front of my eyes, and when I closed them, I saw myself waiting at the gates of heaven, even though I was, in fact, right in front of my bathroom door.
I tried to get in as I had to pee, but I tripped and fell on my face, my forehead hitting the tap find. The thud sound was what I remembered last, and I woke up to see myself lying on a hospital bed the next morning, with Anjali standing beside me.

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About the author

Toffee is a simple guy who loves the complications of life. He used to write code by the day and books by the night earlier. But currently, he is busy writing assignments and chasing deadlines in his Master's in Business Analytics from the University of South Florida. Toffee loves narrating interesting stories with subtle insights. Through books, he wants to share beautiful stories, reach out to people and touch their hearts. Finding Juliet is his second book, written specially for India's Generation-Y.

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What Patriotism means to me

#The Four Patriots “I want to do something for the country.” Everyone mouths this dialogue at some point of time. For some the only way to serve the country is by fighting with the enemy at the border. Of course this is one of the ways of serving the country and the effort and sacrifice of our soldiers cannot be undermined.

But not that all can join the army. Does it mean that we cannot do anything for the country? No, absolutely not. We can take small steps to make India better.

How about paying all our taxes promptly. It is this money that will be used for building infrastructure and also implementing welfare schemes for the poor.

Plant a tree. Save water. Go cashless, go paperless. There are so many ways. Even when you are switching off the fans and lights in your house and office when they are not in use, you are serving the country.

Don’t litter. Discourage others from doing so. Don’t desecrate the ancient monuments by scribbling your names and drawing hearts on it. Do some charity. If not by donating money, just go and spend time with the poor and the needy. Teach their children to read and write. I am sure the list is endless. Hence forth make your tiny contribution to making the nation great and never say is desh ka kuch nahi honewala. 

 

It's All About Mahi - Book Review

It’s All About Mahi is a novelette about Dhoni and Gaurav who is his die-hard fan. The novelette traces journey of Mahi right from his debut up to his winning worldcup. It also tracks Gaurav’s life during this period. Gaurav has a girlfriend Barkha who hates cricket. Gaurav tries to meet his God but is disappointed when the meeting doesn’t materialize.

Real life scenes like Gaurav fighting with Abhinav for he says nasty things about Dhoni while watching match on TV, makes the book easy to relate. Barkha’s hate for cricket could have been further developed. But this book is about cricket. May be that is the reason why this track is not further developed.

What I liked about this book is the flow of writing. It is not easy to write such a noveltte which has no story but only few incidents to narrate. Except for the excessive use of & the writing is clean. This is a short read, which can be finised in just a few mintues. But you will enjoy every moment of it, if you have been die hard fan of someone.

These Circuses that Sweep Through the Landscape - Book Review

These Circuses That Sweep  Through the Landscape is a collection of stories by Teajswini Apte-Rahim. The author must be given full marks for the variety of topics around which she weaves her stories. Human conflict, both external as well as internal, is a predominant theme all the stories in this collection.

Homo Coleoptera is a story about an aging man and his wife who refuses to age. This makes the man insecure. The story ends with his tragic death.

Thank God for Star Trek tells the story of a troubled mother and her young daughter, from the daughter's perspective. The story shows how TV diffuses tensions at least for some time.

The Mall works very well as an experimental story. It depicts the depression, insecurities and feeling of being lost among a urban-goer very well.

The protagonist of the story Cotton is the cotton itself. In the story Drinks at Seven the issue of how suspicion as to infidelity crops up in a marriage is dealt with. Sandalwood is the story of a woman who after almost two decades of marriage is thrown out of the house because her husband wants to live with another man. Her existence is only for cooking the food which her children like.

These Circuses that Sweep Through the Landscape shows insecurities, rivarly and idiosyncrasies of aging men.

Having praised the author for dealing with a variety of topics and bringing the conflict very well, I must warn the readers that these stories are too prosiac and are difficult to comprehend. I was unable to understand the end of most of the stories. I feel the stories or for that matter any literary work must be perspicuous  that the readers are able to understand it. The author utterly fails to make the meaning clear. Also a veil of gloom covers all the stories. You feel disturbed after reading these stories. This may be termed as success of the author, but it wont appeal to most of the readers.

'I received a copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.'
 

A walk in the rain - Book Review

The title walk in the rain and the picture of a couple walking on a beach with a colourful umbrella turned upside down, gives an impression that this book is a romantic novel. Yes, there is romance but this book is a thriller.

This is a story of introvert Surya and his classmate Sandhya. Sandhya forges a friendship with the reserve, introvert Surya and they become inseparable. They even spend their vacations together. Then one day Sandhya suddenly disappears. Circumstances and a wicked uncle Hari force her to take up a new name Saloni and enter the flesh trade. Surya is taken to the brothel by his friend Imran. Surya meets Saloni but doesn't recognize her. He doesn't even touch her. As a result one feckless person considers that Surya has some sexual problem and offers him a cure for his predicament. Surya is irritated. A small accidental push leads to a full fledged quarrel. That man kills Imran. Surya wants to take revenge of his friend's murder. Surya has heard Saloni call that man Hari. Hari has fled the spot. Surya thinks as Saloni has called him by his name, she would know his whereabouts. So he tries to get to Hari through Saloni. Needless to say he discovers that Saloni is Sandhya and the lovers are reunited.

What I liked about the novel is the pace and the easy narration. That kept me hooked. I finished reading the entire book in a single setting. The characters and the plot make the book a page turner. This book is high in entertainment quotient for sure.

There are couple of typographical errors in the book which I wish were avoided. The novel has got a good pace, but at (many) places the writing is confusing.

This book is like watching a Bollywood movie. You don't use your brains and you will have a good time reading this book. Don't ask questions like why does Surya want an instant revenge and you are bound to enjoy this book.

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