Trials and Tribulations by Fire

There is thing about self-help books: most of them repackage existing facts. How smartly they pull this off makes all the difference. So is the case with 'The Queen of the Comeback' by Nidhika Bahl.   Author: Nidhika Bahl Name of the book: The Queen of the Comeback: 7 Ways for anyone to bounce back from life's obstacles Publisher: Black Card Books Genre: Self-Help/Personal Growth/Success Pages: 226 Here is what I think:  I got this book as a review copy from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. I read this book in spurts only because that was all I could manage to do at that time. Honestly. The book is divided into 7 chapters and the last chapter has 7 sections, each containing an inspiring tale of a survivor. Some famous names include Anurag Kashyap, Kanika Tekriwal, and Patricia Narayan. So, after I completed Chapter 1: The Wake-Up Call, I decided to take a break. I chewed on the ideas I had just read. After a few hours, I picked up the boo...

Name: The Goat Thief Author: Perumal Murugan Translator: N. Kalyan Raman Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 205 A lot of interest gets generated when a celebrated author comes under intense scrutiny for his ideas offered in the public arena. Media hyperventilated on the issue of Perumal Murugan's offering, One Part Woman , hurting the sentiments of a particular community. Perumal Murugan's latest offering, The Goat Thief, translated by N. Kalyan Raman, and published by Juggernaut, is a collection of short stories. Each story is similar to a different emotion in the bouquet called life. A master storyteller, Perumal Murugan, has woven tales around household objects like a salt shaker, the rice vat, the toilet pot, and so on and engaged the reader with the finesse of a magician. Each story is unique in presentation and relates to the mundaneness of our daily lives. Readers can relate very well to one or most stories. Like a master craftsman wielding his instrument, Perumal Mur...

Name of the book: A Hundred Little Flames Author: Preeti Shenoy Publisher: Westland Pages: 400 Ease of reading: 4/5 Time to complete: 3-4 hours Preeti Shenoy, the name invokes images of stories about women going off to complete their to-do lists, dealing with abandonment, and the usual brouhaha about worthless men and loyal wives. Preeti nailed it more than once with her heart-wrenching stories. AHLF is the story of Aryan and his grandpa, Gopal Shanker. Aryan travels from Pune to a remote village in Kerala and starts living with Gopal. Their lives intermerge and Aryan discovers little endearing things about himself, his father, and his grumpy grandpa. Like how old houses are built to take you on a journey to another world, in this story too, Aryan and Gopal traverse back in time to unravel certain forgotten memories. During the course of their daily conversations, Aryan discovers facets of his near and dear ones and marvels at the way relationships change once harsh truths su...

Kalyani stared hard at the envelope she was clutching in her hands. Her legs were going to give up soon, she knew. She was running as fast as she could. The postmaster’s house seemed light years away, though she had been running only for the past five minutes. Her mother, Bhairavi, had instructed her to get the contents of the letter read. The Postmaster had come by when her mother was bathing at the ghat . Kalyani had gleefully received the letter, forgetting to get it read. Bhairavi, on her return, had slapped Kalyani on her back chiding her for this miss. So, it was more like a penance for her slip. Kalyan, her brother older by a few years, had watched all this silently, munching on his akki roti , a glee pasted on his cherubic face.    Little Kalyani, all of seven, ran like the wind. After covering a few hundred metres she realized the futility of her exercise. The lure of the jaggery-dipped sweetmeat had pushed her into agreeing for this errand. If only she could ...

Name: Have a Safe Journey   Author: Various Authors Publisher: Amaryllis  Pages: 232  The blurb:  Have a Safe Journey is probably the first compilation of short stories on the topic of road safety to be published in India.  Guest Authors:  Anand Neelakantan, Ashwin Sanghi, Kiran Manral, Pankaj Dubey, Priyanka Sinha Jha, Shinie Antony, and Vikram Kapur  Authors from the #HaveaSafeJourney contest Ambalika, Anukriti Verma, Aritri Chatterjee, Arvind Passey, Barnali Ray Shukla, Dipali Taneja, Geetanjali Maria, Ketaki Patwardhan, Meera Rajagopalan, Ratnadip Acharya, Roshan Radhakrishnan, Roshni Chhabra, Sahar Fatima, Sanket Chaudhury, Taamra Segal, Thommen Jose, Veena Nagpal, and Vibha Lohani Review:  The book, again like the previous book I received from Manjul Publishing, is neatly bound and has absolutely no typos and no errors. The pages are nicely printed and the font size comfortable. It sits well in your palm and the co...

Name: I Quit! Now What?  Author: Zarreen Khan  Publisher: Amaryllis  Pages: 289 Have you ever come across a story that you can relate to so well, you wonder, why you didnt write it? Yes? Well, I just completed reading a story just like that. And I was nodding like mad. It felt so true and so close to the heart. There is thing about well-written stories. By well-written, I mean stories that are neatly packaged, have no typos or mistakes, and instantly reel you in. This story was like that. From the word go, I got hooked. To say that it is a great story would be a hype. It is not. It is a normal story, about a normal woman, about a very common occurrence. It happens to all of us, sometime or the other. Working people can relate to the story totally. The publisher sent me the book for an honest review. And here it is. A totally honest review. Initial thoughts: The moment I picked up the book I felt a smile creeping up. The cover was so simple yet power...

Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! is a science fiction novel written by American author Kurt Vonnegut. The book apparently was written in 1976 and depicts the author's views on loneliness. This science fiction novel brilliantly captures the nature of the closeness Vonnegut had with his sister Alice, who died of cancer in 1958. Apparently, her husband had died in a train accident two days before her death. Kurt Vonnegut raised her children. He wrote this book after the death of his uncle. In Slapstick, Vonnegut imagines himself and his sister as these giants Wilbur and Eliza. The Swains are Neanderthaloid dizygotic twins (giants). The twins live in a huge mansion on an asteroid with apple trees. They have servants and spend their time reading and discussing. Wilbur and Eliza's genius is unparalleled when their minds are combined but they become idiotic when separated. They return to saying 'Duh' and 'Buh' to prove their stupidity. The twins spend their time re...

This post contains a portion of my new story. It shows 03:24 a.m. on my laptop. One would wonder why I am awake at this ungodly hour. I have been awake since 1:30 a.m. Tossing and turning, trying to put my turbulent thoughts to rest. My mind refuses to cooperate today. Today, of all days. It is the beginning of navratri today. In some time, I must be wide awake to usher the goddess into my humble home and perform stringent rituals to propitiate her. Is the goddess listening to me? Or is she not aware of my mental turbulence? I spent three hours thinking about him. Memories hit me like an avalanche on a high altitude mountainous slope. I slid, slowly, softly into its fold. It engulfed my mind then my whole being in its wake. His thoughts came in bursts. I shed a tear or two. I felt ashamed later. Is it right? No no, the question here is not about whether it is right or wrong, the question is why. Why? Why me? Why today, why after all these years? Isn’t it always like ...

Just finished reading, "Before we visit the Goddess," by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. I have been a fan of her languid prose and beautiful poetry. She brings to life the three women protagonists:Sabitri, Bela, and Tara, Grandmother, Mother, and Grand daughter. The letter that Sabitri writes to Tara is the strong point for me in this novel stretching from Assam to U.S. The men in these women's lives do have important roles to play but are not given enough standing room by themselves. Be it the CPI(M) student leader Sanjay or the two-timing Robert, they have minimal roles in Divakaruni's land. This novel belongs totally to Sabitri, I feel. Tara and Bela and Bela and Sabitri go through similar strained relationship struggles. I could relate to it so much. I love the way Divakaruni makes you go back and forth to stitch a complete tale. 

Life is... Facing sudden upheavals Dealing with morons Getting drenched in a sudden downpour Admiring a sleeping S Believing in the almighty Letting go  Hanging on to faith Sleeping for some more time on a Sunday Standing up to a bully Loving unconditionally