Title: Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India
Author: Pankaj Mishra
Paperback: 276 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books Australia (December 31st 1995)
Genre: Travelogue
Read: Paperback
Stars: **/5
Buy On: Amazon

Summary: (Goodreads)
In Butter Chicken in Ludhiana, Pankaj Mishra captures an India which has shrugged off its sleepy, socialist air and has become instead kitschy, clamorous and ostentatious. From a convent educated beauty pageant aspirant to small shopkeepers planning their vacation in London, Pankaj Mishra paints a vivid picture of a people rushing headlong to their tryst with modernity. An absolute classic, this is a witty and insightful account of Indias aspirational middle class.

My Review:

Note: This review was first written way back in 2000, for a website OyeIndia.com that existed way back then. 😀

Cover: So-so…

Paper and font: Good.

Readability, language: Big words…

Why did I choose this book: How could you not want to read something with that title!

Pankaj Mishra’s book Butter Chicken In Ludhiana is not a must read but you could call it a good read.

The book is a travelogue of Mishra’s travels in small (small he says, I would say somewhat small) towns of India. It is a good book in the literary sense, the language flows well but literary isn’t all that is important in a book.

The book is pretty entertaining but personally I didn’t find it very insightful. Mishra seems to have a problem with everything, you hardly find him appreciating anything. He has covered quite a few towns but somehow I felt he has left out North East India and quite a lot of the South. He has a lot of complaints about each town and its people, though some of the stories he recounts of people are entertaining and have a ring of truth to them. He hardly seems to look around the places he goes to. He just keeps meeting people.

Another thing I noticed is that he uses big words where small ones would have sufficed and maybe would have expressed what he wanted to convey better.

What I would give most credit to, would be Mishra’s interaction with people. He looks up someone or the other in almost every place, and his conversations are enlightening at times and ridiculous sometimes. Maybe he should have said ‘People in small towns of India’ rather than ‘Travels in small towns of India’.

I found Mishra very superficial, if he had just looked beyond or below the surface he might have found something’s that would have touched him and things he would have liked.

On the whole this book is one you can repeatedly read, and you will always find something you missed out last time. This book is for a select lot, it isn’t what everyone can read.

About the Author:
Born in 1969 somewhere in North India, Pankaj Mishra went on to complete his MA in English Literature from JNU, New Delhi. In 1992, he moved to Mashobra, a Himalayan village, and has been writing from there since then. He is an author of 4 books and many literary and political essays. You can find out more about him at his website pankajmishra.com.

Buy On: Amazon

Title: The Arithmetic Of Breasts and Other Stories
Author: Rochelle Potkar
Paperback: 79 pages
Publisher: Amazon(November 1st 2013)
Genre: Fiction, Short-stories
Read: eBook
Stars: ***/5
Buy On: Amazon | FlipKart

Summary: (Goodreads)

This cluster of 7½ literary short stories presents to you the romantic-sexual facets of:
Narain who lusts for Munika, hypnotized by her bosom in The Arithmetic of Breasts, and old Jaganlal who wants a favour from young Dia in The Room with a Sea-view.
Jackie who is in love with Nic in Sky Park, and the surgeon in Dr. Love who is changing much more than Sneha’s hairline, nose, lip and chin.
Shonali and Neel who are realizing that infidelity might not be such an easy thing in The Scent of a Conscience, and a woman who walks the tight rope between tradition and sexual exploitation in A place they call Scary.
And, Sunil who meets the woman of his desires in What Men Want through an adult dating site.
Through these stories, Rochelle Potkar explores the intensely personal ‘unrelationship’ that exists alongside its conventional and socially articulate twin, the relationship.

My Review:

Note: Thanks Rochelle Potkar for offering me your book to read and review 🙂

Cover: Simple and Sensuous

Paper and font: So-so…

Readability, language: Fairly Simple…

Why did I choose this book: ha ha, when I first saw the book I read the title as ‘Arithmetic of Beasts and Other Stories’, it was only when I was half-way through the first story that I noticed the ‘R’ in the title. 😀

This is a collection of 71/2 stories about the love lives of men and women, their lusts, amorous adventures, sexual quirks, and such. What all the stories have in common is the exploration of relationships and couplings outside of marriage.

The title is an interesting one even though I missed the ‘R’ 😀 and it’s the same as the first short story, though that one isn’t too short and is most probably the longest in the collection. The cover is a simple one yet sensuous. There seems to be a newer cover too with a mix of sculpture, books, spectacles, an apple, etc. but I liked the older version more.

The stories are interesting and well written. This book is not a fast read as each story leaves you with thoughts to mull over and absorb.

I’m not a great fan of erotica so, some bits of the book had me blushing pink and making sure I didn’t have an audience but over all there isn’t too much of it. I’d say it’s more sensual that erotic.

Most of the stories are set in Metropolitan India, when illicit affairs a fast becoming common place. I also felt some sarcasm from Potkar (or I hope it was) when her male characters talked about women. Their attitude, thoughts and approach rankled and raised anger as the feminist in me wanted to shake and throttle them.

The characters across the stories seem well thought out, at least from the perspective of short stories. There’s Narain the mathematician who sees geometry in anatomy, Sheha who agrees to change her identity for the man she loves, Neel who wants to cheat his wife but does not like being on the receiving end, and Sunil who finds ‘the’ woman on a dating site. There are others but these are the ones who stayed with me even after I closed the book.

Like I was saying before, the stories are thought provoking. I hadn’t expected this when I took up the book but I’m glad to report that the book came as a nice surprise. I found myself shushing Che when he disturbed me in the middle of the stories, and I don’t do that very often.

Each story had depth and needed my attention so I didn’t miss the crux for it all. Potkar’s style of writing is what I call simple-complex. Simple language, complex thought. 😀

I still had my favourites though. I enjoyed reading Dr. Love, Room with a Sea-view, What Men Want and The Arithmetic of Breasts. My least liked one were Sky Park and A Place they call Scary.

Ok, this has been a rather long review for a collection of short stories. So, on to verdict. Over all I enjoyed the book. I wish some of the stories had had more to them but if you are someone who likes sensual stuff and stories that make you think, this book is for you.

About the Author:
Rochelle Potkar is a fiction writer and poet. She lives in Mumbai and is working on her next book Dreams of Déjà vu – a speculative novel. She can be found on Twitter at @rochellepotkar

Buy On: Amazon | FlipKart

This is an odd review but WTH, it’s still related to books. 😀

Two weeks ago I received an email from the Westland Publishing team asking me if I’d like to participate in solving the mystery of Amish Tripathi’s new book. Is there any way I could have said no. 😀

Anyway to cut a long story short, after a long wait my surprise arrived two days ago. Here’s what I saw when I opened the carton. A pretty little treasure box.

Inside the box there was an instruction leaflet, a bottle with stuff that looked like mud and a scroll.

The leaflet is the usual type with a welcome message and instructions on how to make entries in the contest.

The scroll however has some interesting clues…

The scroll reads – “A blazing torch in the dark, the city I come from is that of knowledge, and knowledge shines through. Hold me with reverence, good people. I am a bigger clue than I might appear to be. Speaking of rising from the element, as opposed to letting it eventually consume you, the history of my place of origin is as colourful as the traditional art it is known the world over for. A city with a productive present, its yields in the past went on to change the face of ancient India.”

So what’s this all about? Basically this is Amish and WestLand promoting Amish’s next book and doing it in style. I’m glad to see stuff like this finally happen in India in the book space. WestLand is sending 150 or so fans clues that will lead to the subject of Amish’s next book. 5 winners will get gift vouchers worth Rs.500. The prize isn’t compelling enough, I’d have preferred early editions of the book or such but just using the mind to solve the clues in the reason for why I’m participating.

Now on to solving the clue… At the end of the Shiva series I remember having a feeling that his next book would be based in the South of India, I even mentioned it in my review of the Shiva Trilogy but I can’t seem to wrap my mind around the clues.

And this isn’t the only clue. There are two others sent out to others participation. Here are all three…

Most people seem to be of the opinion that it will be either Ramayana, Mahabharata, Buddha or Ashoka. Most weightage is being given to Mahabharata since Amish mentioned it in the second book of the Shiva Trilogy.

But as of now I’m inclined to think his next story will be based in Kancheepuram. If you ask me why, I don’t have all the perfect answers. I started out with the feeling that his next book/series will be based in the South. With that in mind I went hunting for learning centres in the South and came upon Madurai and Kacheepuram as probables. But Madurai does not have any world famous art, Kancheepuram on the other hand does. So.. That’s my guess. How the other two clues fit in I can’t figure out. 😀

Two other places I have on my shortlist of three guesses are – Madurai and Tanjore.

Amish will reveal his next book’s teaser trailer on 23rd January at 6:00pm at the Jaipur Lit Fest and that’s not to far off, it’s just a couple of hours away. Let’s see what comes up…

Back to why this fits into the review category… This is a review of the promotion of Amish’s next book and I am impressed by what the WestLand Team is doing. It’s a well planned event that is causing the right amount of hype in the right circles. Kudos and 5 stars for their efforts. 😀

Update: Amish revealed the title of his next book. It’s Scion of Ikshvaku. I’ve kicking myself coz I have another book on the same topic on my reading list right now. 😀 But really I’d never have guessed that and reason is that I’d thought Amish would be more, that he would not take up the same old ghisa pitta Ramayana story and rewrite it. Maybe he make that fun too. Who knows, time will tell. For now, here’s the teaser trailer…

Additional Info: The book is expected to be released before October 2015 and there will be 4 to 5 books in this Ram series! 😯

Though I read over 50 books last year, it wasn’t the best of years in books for me. I started the year with a back log of books to review and with all that was happening, I just didn’t find much reading time in the first half of last year.

Not reading enough leaves me cranky and grumpy. I need my escape time in each day where I leave my mundane life behind (not that it’s boring in any way) and slip away into a world of fantasy, where I can be a Bridget Jones, fall in love with a Darcy, solve a mystery with a Mason, and all such stuff.

I spent until about May scrambling, trying to catch-up with the lists, unhappy while doing what I love the most, then it broke and I gave up. I realised that I was unhappy because I wasn’t reading what I wanted in the little time I had. Not that I didn’t like the books lined for review, I had chosen them but I felt I wasn’t reading enough of what I wanted to read.

I let go and started reading what I wanted to. It definitely made me happier in the little reading time I used to get. I did a few reviews in-between but they weren’t much at all.

I enjoyed reading impulsively, choosing what I wanted with randomness and picking stuff from my Forever-TBR without feeling guilt. It’s how I landed up with the Perry Mason series.

Perry Mason was on my TBR in college but somehow there was always something else to be read and I never got down to reading Mason. Now years later I’ve started and got hooked. Of course it helped that these are fast books so I could read more and catch up a bit with my book challenge numbers.

Two years in a row I’ve tried to read a 100 books in a year and haven’t managed it. I was hoped the Mason series would work out as a good cheat but well, it didn’t. 🙁

But it did help cross the 50% mark though. 😀

I managed to read 59 books out of the 100 I had targeted. Not too bad considering the chaos of 2014. That said, this year I’m back to trying for the 100 number but with a few learnings.

Biggest learning – I need to reduce the number of books I review and read more books from my Forever TBR. 😀 With that in mind I’m going to be turning down more books for review (I hope), finishing the pending review list and reading lots of stuff I want to.

Ok this post has gone on too long. A post on stats and books and another on my learnings is due but that’s later. For now I’m heading back to reading. ;D

Title: God is a Gamer
Author: Anurag Anand
Paperback: 324 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books India (September 12th 2014)
Genre: Fiction
Read: Paperback
Stars: ***/5
Buy On: Amazon | Flipkart – eBook/Paperback

Summary: (Goodreads)
Aditya runs a gaming company that is struggling to break even. A banker slips off a highrise building, plunging to her death. The finance minister has made some promises that he is finding hard to keep. The LTTE has unleashed terror in America that sends the FBI on a wild goose chase, bringing them to Mumbai.
Enter Varun, parttime drug dealer and fulltime genius. He turns around the gaming company before disaster strikes. Meanwhile, the investigators plunge headlong into the shady world of bitcoins and the Dark Net, websites that only exist for illegal transactions—drugs, sex and money. God Is a Gamer culminates in a stunning climax where money means nothing, assassination is taught by the ancient Greeks, and nothing is as it seems.

My Review:

Note: This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

Cover: Eye-catchy!

Paper and font: Ebony on Ivory!

Readability, language: Easy on the Mind.

Why did I choose this book: A book on bit coins sounded interesting, so I thought ‘why not’.

A simple email scam sets off an avalanche of scams, murders and complications. A US Senator is assassinated, an ATM heist is pulled off, a bank is put in jeopardy, a virus is released, virtual money is stolen, a bank chairman is murdered, and there is more. How all of this ties in, is what God is a Gamer is all about.

When I first came across the book, I remember the name striking me as an interesting name. Having read the book, now, I don’t see a connection between the title and story. The cover though well done is a typical thriller cover, not unlike the Dan Brown’s and Tom Clancy’s. The blurb is very unsatisfactory. It has more praise for the author than info on the story. And the little that is said, is said in such a convoluted manner that it muddles more than intrigues.

I have to concede that the plot is new and yet… I felt the plot was just too thick, Subramanian has packed the story with so many twists and sub-plots that after a while I was all lost. There was so much happening and the story was told in bits as it unfolds across the world in various peoples lives.

The story spans across countries but centers mostly around Mumbai and Washington DC. Subramanian’s descriptions of the cities are quite bang on, especially Goa and its hot spots. Yet some how it all feels disjointed.

The story is packed with characters, so many that sometimes I forgot who was who. I couldn’t figure out who was the hero or heroine even at the end of it all. There were just so much happening to so many people.

I took a day off to read the book and sat glued to it through the day. Thinking back it wasn’t because the story was that gripping but rather because it was all so complicated that I really wanted to get to the end and see how Subramanian tied it all up. The story is like a magicians knot, complicated, tied up, twisted and convoluted but one jerk by the magician and it all straightens out.

Subramanian hops about all over as he tells the story in small bits as it unfolds. This did make for difficult reading as I tried to parallel process all he was saying. Added to this were the intimate scenes with somehow felt out of place to me, almost like the author had to meet a target and so put them in there. The language though is simple and easy, the pace good too.

If my review seems all muddled, it’s because the book left me all muddled. There is just so much happening. I’m not sure if so many sub-plots were needed. There is just one too many a scam. A thriller doesn’t have to be so complicated, does it?

The cover carries the text ‘Is revenge a crime?’. This doesn’t make sense until you read the last four pages. Subramanian makes complex complicated knots on a storyline through the book and tries to untangle with a flourish at the end. Well, he did manage untangle them and explain it all, but was there a flourish, that is debatable.

A book for YA and above. Over all a good book if you don’t intend to use your mind while reading it.

About the Author:
An alumnus of IIM Bangalore, Ravi Subramanian is a banker who has used his industry knowledge to write five bestselling novels. He lives in Mumbai with his wife and daughter. See his other books on his website – www.authorravis.com.

Buy On: Amazon | Flipkart – eBook/Paperback

Title: Chatur
Author: Subhash Kommuru
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Kommuru Books (September 2014)
Genre: Fiction
Read: Paperback
Stars: ****/5
Buy On: Amazon.in | Amazon.com




Note: Thanks Subhash for offering me your book to read and review 🙂

Cover: Simple,fun and colourful.

Paper and font: Fonts are good..

Readability, language: Simple language.

Why did I choose this book: A children’s book in Hindi sounded promising.

I’ve never reviewed a Hindi story book on my blog before, so when I heard from Subhash about reviewing his book I was curious. I got back to him saying I sure was interested in reading his children’s book however my reading capability of Hindi was bad, so I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to read or if I’d be able to read the book at all. He got me even more curious by saying his book catered to people like me. And I got thinking, really?

Language is important and local, regional, national, etc. languages even more so. We are becoming an English speaking country as the generations progress, not that it’s a bad thing but losing our mother-tongues, our native languages is sad. With time I’m noticing less and less children speaking Indian languages and as people stop speaking them, these languages will die. A lot of them have already died. India is a country of diverse languages and so many dead dialects.

Every one has different learning styles and methods. Some people are linguists and some like me just can’t grasp a language easily. Most of the languages I speak I learned as a child, and all the languages I tried to learn as an adult I speak in a pathetic manner. You should hear me speak Kannada and French! But anyway, the point is that people learn most easily as children who have amazing grasping minds. There are so many story books for children out there but how many are written in Indian languages?

Subhash’s book came as a surprise in this space. I found myself enjoying the book even though it was just a short children’s story. The story is one we have heard before as kids, about a lazy donkey and the illustrious washerman with the moral about hard work pays. Well, Chatur has a moral too but not this one. Subhash has put a different spin to it and it comes as pleasant surprise.

This is a story about enjoying life. About learning that greed does not pay. That play is just as important as work. That you don’t have to always be doing something or climbing the success ladder, relaxing is also important. These are odd lessons, and yet, these lessons are important for our children who are growing up in a world where, there is so much expected of them in so little time, that they are forgetting to be children. For that matter we adults so often forget in our busy schedules to just have fun.

Chatur is an illustrious washerman. His work partner is Mand who does not want to do anything more then required, however Chatur wants to increase his business, he wants to get more work. But Chatur is unable to get Mand to work more, and so decides to get Atal the elephant for the job of carting his load. Will Chatur’s plan work? Will his business flourish? What will happened to Mand? Well. thats the story

This is a Hindi story but both Hindi and English scripts are provided. For someone like me who speaks Hindi well but can’t read it fast, the English script was helpful, it increased the rate of my reading speed and in turn my interest in the story.

The language used is simple and clear with sounds and dialogues that will make reading the story out loud to a child fun.

Illustrated by Nayan Soni, the images are simple, colourful and support the story quite well. I think children would enjoy the colours as they flip through the book. Testimonials from children seem to attest to that too!

Over all this is a good book to get for your child, especially if you read him or her bedtime stories. 🙂

About the Author:
Though originally from India, Subhash currently resides in the US with this wife, Sujata and their son. Website – Kommuru Books.

Buy On: Amazon.in | Amazon.com

I received an invite for Brew’s cover reveal a couple of days back and I said yes without thinking much about it. Now, I’ve never done a cover reveal on my blog before, so off I went to hunt on Google. I didn’t find anything about how to do a cover reveal but what I did find out, was that a Cover Reveal is like an event authors use to promote their books.

So I guess it’s as simple as sharing the book cover. The author David Estes has sent me text to share along with the cover but before I share that here, I like to say that the reason I’m doing Brew’s cover reveal on my blog is that his new series Salem’s Revenge sounds promising with gangs of witches, wizards, and warlocks. It’s been a while since I read a wizard book and I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing the series here.

Now, on to the cover… Ta Da!!

Blurb –

Connect with David – Goodreads, David’s Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and his Goodreads Fan Group

 
Have you done a cover reveal before? Did I do this right? Is there a method and etiquette to doing this?

Title: The Bad Touch
Author: Payal Shah Karwa
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Hay House Publishers (2014)
Genre: Non-Fiction
Read: Paperback
Stars: ****/5
Buy On: Amazon | FlipKart

Summary: (Goodreads)
Real-life stories of victims of child sex abuse who emerged victorious!

Harish Iyer is a survivor nay he is a thriver of child sex abuse. He is an award winning social activist who first shared his disturbing story of his sexual abuse on the television show Satyamev Jayate and who gave voice to the issue when most would be silent.

There are others: noted film director Anurag Khashyap, a victim of incest and sexual abuse, not once but many times over; Jai, living in a Mumbai high rise suffers abuse and a now 34 year old mother who suffered sexual abuse as a 12 year old.

The stories in The Bad Touch will shock, horrify, sadden, repulse and numb the reader. But underlying them is the small ray of hope that if the immediate family is sensitive enough to the signals a child may send out, he or she may be rescued from being victimized.

This book is a mission: to help ebb the trauma of survivors and inspire them with stories like Harishs and to create awareness of the issue of child sex abuse amongst parents/guardians.

My Review:

Note: Thanks Payal Shah Karwa for offering me your book to read and review 🙂

Cover: The background image has a blue tinge and is not clear. But the name pops out!

Paper and font: Paper and font is good.

Readability, language: Simple language.

Why did I choose this book: Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is an issue close to my heart. I was abused as a child and I know the trauma first hand. So, when I heard from Karwa’s team to review the book, there’s no way I’d say no.

‘The Bad Touch’ is a book packed with information. The backbone of the book is the story of Harish Iyer, who was brutally abused as a child. It is a hard hitting story of how cruel and traumatic CSA can be on a child.

Harish Iyer’s childhood is gruesome (it made me squirm) but he has survived his ordeal and is now a social activist. Through Harish’s story Karwa lays the foundations of what is CSA and it’s brutality.

There are further stories of both men and women who have been abused as children. Most of them are aliases but one noted name is Anurag Kyashap.

The stories are all varied and chilling but the common thread through them all is that these are the stories of people who have gotten over their pasts and are thriving today.

Reading these stories makes you realise that there are so many untold stories in the world of people who lost the fight or are still struggling with their pasts.

Child Sex Abuse can happen to any child, it doesn’t matter how much care the parents take. The more sure method of preventing it is educating your child and building a bond of trust with your child, so the child tells you when it happens.

Apart from the stories ‘The Bad Touch’ gives insight into the trauma of victims, what they thought and felt as children and the various healing processes they followed.

It also has information about organisations working in the CSA space, how to deal with Child Sexual Abuse, tips for parents, how abusers work, and more. Karwa also gives a history and explains The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012 in detail.

Karwa has done a good job with incorporating all the various aspects of Child Sexual Abuse in ‘The Bad Touch’. This is a book I’d recommend to all parents, not just to read but to keep handy, just in case.

About the Author:
After 6 years in marketing communications Payal Shah Karwa is now a content writer pursuing her mission of being actively involved in social causes through her writing. She can be found on Twitter at @payalshahkarwa

Buy On: Amazon | FlipKart

Title: Where The Rainbow Ends
Author: Anurag Anand
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Srishti Publishers (October 2013)
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Read: Paperback
Stars: ****/5
Buy On: Amazon | FlipKart

Summary: (Goodreads)
Rahul had everything going his way – a soaring career, a happy family and all else a man his age could yearn for. And then suddenly his life began to crumble all around him, disintegrating element after precious element, leaving him to watch in helpless horror.

Avantika, a pretty, vivacious girl who had come into Rahul’s life by pure accident, literally, has suddenly gone missing. Just like that, without as much as a trace. Where is Avantika? Will Rahul be able to find her? Is it her own past that has come back to consume her or is it something even more vicious and sinister?

Shalini, Rahul’s first love and a girl accustomed to leading life on her own terms. Hailing from a family that exerts considerable influence in the galleries of politics and power, she certainly has the wherewithal to impact a lot of things. Even lives. Is Shalini fostering a grudge that could displace not one but many lives? Could she be the one behind Avantika’s mysterious disappearance?

My Review:

Note: Thanks Anurag Anand for offering me your book to read and review 🙂

Cover: Looks like a pirated copy; could have been better!

Paper and font: Paper and font is good [doesn’t looked pirated 😀 ].

Readability, language: Reads well with simple language.

Why did I choose this book: I did enjoy Anurag Anand’s earlier book ‘The Legend of Amrapali‘, so the next had to be tried.

Rahul meets Avantika at a time when nothing is going his way. His wife is putting him through a difficult divorce, he has lost his job, his house and to top it all his daughter is seriously ill and needs expensive treatment. Avantika comes into his life like a ray of sunshine, that is until she suddenly and mysteriously disappears.

At the end of the rainbow lies a pot of gold is an old saying and considering the storm in Rahul’s life and Avantika coming into it like a rainbow, the title is apt for a story that follows the rainbow to the end. The dark cover with bright rainbow colours is a nice idea but it could have been better – as such it looks like a cheap pirated cover with hazy text that isn’t straight. The blurb is interesting though and makes you want to read the book.

An unusual plot, I haven’t read a book with a storyline like ‘Where The Rainbow Ends’ before. Almost at the start you start wondering about Avantika, Rahul tells his and his ex-wife Shalini’s story but hardly anything is known about Avantika. Though Rahul is the protagonist, it was Avantika who kept me turning the pages as I wondered who she was and what was her story.

Set in present day Mumbai and Delhi, Anand uses the cities backdrops well to further the story. His descriptions of the localities and houses in both Mumbai and Delhi are believable and add to the story. I could almost see the city and it’s people in my mind’s eye, especially Delhi.

Anand introduces characters as he goes along in the story but the core characters of Rahul and Avantika stay to tie the story together throughout. More than Avantika it is Rahul who keeps the story rolling as he slowly discovers Avantika’s past.
As I read ‘Where The Rainbow Ends’ I felt sorry for Rahul for the hand life had dealt him but at times I also felt he was a sissy, searching for a way to run and hide rather than face it all. Shalini is the typical rich spoilt kid who has always got what her wanted and when she didn’t, she’d throw a tantrum that would make Papa materialize and give her what she wanted. Avantika though a mystery in the first half of the book, turns out to be a strong character in the second. Some of her past is sordid but as the story continues her strength of character comes through and makes her transgressions more palatable.

Anand has done a good job with the story structure, keeping me gripped till the end to know all about Avantika. Rahul may not have held my interest until the end but Avantika did. There are a few sub-plots that make Avantika’s disappearance more intriguing however Anand ties up all the loose ends and closes all loops by the end of the book. The build-up to the climax is well written but the climax itself left me disturbed and brimming with questions (more on this later).

Having read Anand’s earlier book, I’m glad to have read his next. His writing has gotten better and so has his story telling ability. The pace is good, not slackening at any point. The style and language is simple and easy on the mind while making you rethink about some stuck-up societal notions. Also makes you think about how money and death changes how you judge people.

Over all I enjoyed Anand’s latest book ‘Where The Rainbow Ends’ and look forward to his next book. Though this book doesn’t have any erotic scenes, it still has some thoughts and incidents that are not for children. If you are an adult, I highly recommend you read ‘Where The Rainbow Ends’. 🙂

***This might be a bit of a spoiler, so avoid it if it will spoil your reading experience***
Avantika’s history as I mention earlier is sordid, she had prostituted herself at some point in her life. Later on she gets to know she has cancer and limited time to live. These two bits of her history don’t have much to do with each other but are relevant to how you feel about the character. Lastly she has a lot of money that she leaves in a trust for Rahul’s daughter. By the time Rahul gets to know all of Avantika’s past, she is dead. Now coming to what disturbed me. Rahul as expected is disgusted when he gets to know that the woman he has fallen in love with was a prostitute but somehow as the rest of her story unfolds and the trust comes into picture he finds it in himself to forgive her. This behaviour (among other things) though expected and seen in normal life left me a bit disturbed. Did Anand kill Avantika before her past was revealed to make her past more acceptable and forgivable? Would Rahul’s feelings have been different had she still been alive? Would his ‘love’ have been the same? Had money not been in the picture how would Rahul have felt about Avantika’s past?
These questions gave me a disturbed afternoon. At some level I was angry at Anand for putting a woman in a place where she was judged and making her conveniently dead so she could not defend herself. Rahul’s ‘forgiveness’ pissed me off coz men don’t sell themselves but pay for sex, how is that less shameful?
Questions like these kept cropping up in my mind. Guess it’s the feminist in me who just wants equality. I want the words whore and promiscuous to be equal and interchangeable not as they are now – whore for women and promiscuous for men.
*** End of Rant 😀 ***

About the Author:
Anurag is a banker who wrote his first book ‘Pillars of Success’ at the age of 25. He currently has six published titles. See his other books on his website – www.anuraganand.in.

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