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A Maverick Heart: Between Love and Life – a book review

A Maverick Heart: Between Love and Life

A novel by Ravindra Shukla
ravindra shukla-2

You know when you want to write you could always do a light reading stuff, after all this also has an IIT background to it. But I was surprised to find logical and philosophical takes which was on the verge of being practical and carve a character to be the etched in memory though it was an aspirational one.

The story opens up at the college campus with the three characters in question, Rahul the narrator, his friend Neerav and the lady love Richita. These three characters live out our fantasies of being at the IIT and also echo some of the aspirations and beliefs that we would have held at that times in our lives.

The author takes a realistic view on their lives not to go the fairy tale way and clubs the logical and practical issues with how the world views them and the protagonist is nurtured to be the person with such characteristics that its very aspirational that we could see someone in the real life. Probably that sense in the reader keeps him to see what happens to him till the end.

A nice lucid read except for some parts I thought was little too explanatory which could have been avoided, the pace of the story is kept intact. The characters keep themselves up in their own right. Sprinkle it with some family drama and some real life incidences across all their lives, it gets close as much as possible to reality.

Some explanations are not obvious but then the author has taken himself to explain them especially with the character of Rahul. I did like the way he views the deadline and competition part of academics and how we are creating a robot out of the students every time the same time of the year!

The story moves in parts and covers a lot of events across the given time period and takes you across to the land of dreams USA and gives a glimpse of how the world works in corporate corridors.

Some instances will remain with you forever and may be make you sit up and look back if you can probably do something like that. Of course read keenly you can come up with many instances straight out of the real happenings in our times.

Absolutely an awesome read, could have been a little light at times and at some place, the narration is in second person towards the end, could have been in first person narrative like it started, though it isn’t so noticeable.

A light read and makes for an interesting debut. Though there are enough college romances, this would stand out for its sheer way of portrayal of the characters especially the protagonist. If you really read between lines there is ample scope for you to look at the world differently.

A word of thanks to The Readers Cosmos for the opportunity to review this a part of Book Review program!

For some sample reading you can go here:

http://www.ravindrashukla.com/p/blog-page.html

Senthilkumar R

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Business Sutra – a very Indian approach to Management! – a book review

Business Sutra by Devadutt Pattanail
Business Sutra

Business Sutra by Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik at first instance, is an exhaustive read I should admit, but in case you have seen the videos it should be easy to relate to.

In another plane, there was this evident need of unravelling the Indian Business, especially why is it the way it is. Dr. Pattanaik answers this unassuming but significant question in his book.

As always dotted with this unique and easy illustrations, Business Sutra comes with a nice interface if you ask me and also with a easy to go through format, in the sense that you can read anywhere, though it would be nice if you read it in the sequence presented.

So it starts with Business is Yagna, the description from the Hindu scriptures. We can easily compare every business activity to a Yagna where in the Yajaman initiates the ritual and makes offerings into agni and hopes to please his deity so that he gets what he wants from the devata.

The explanations are extensive taken from all the Hindu scriptures and quoted widely to impress upon a point. Our outlook to business has been moulded unknowingly by the our early formative years and also by what we have seen and experienced, but the whole point is that the Western and Eastern philosophies have different take on how business is run.

It is quite possible to see the Trinity in action – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and also the three devi’s of Saraswati, Lakshmi and Durga in all the activities of the business. So we are taken on a trip across Indra’s heaven to the Vishnu’s abode to days of sages as we see how their actions and relationships depict the way the business is done.

Then you have a modern day decription of what is said and you can easily relate to our own business or the way the corporate corridor behaves or works.

This book is like the churning of the milky ocean and then you get so many things coming out of it. We need the devas and asuras in realty to make things happen for the businesses.

On a personal note, I have always wanted someone to give this outlook on management from Indian perspective in a way that it gets to the layman’s idea and am happy it is clearly achieved in this book.

A beautiful read and an exhaustive mythological resource in a way almost 400 plus pages of sheer storytelling, he has a nice ending with a ‘How to reject this book’ which has this ideas why you should reject this book. One which left me laughing loud was this – This is a right wing propaganda!

On the book design it was a designer’s delight and a reader’s delight combined into one. Perfectly crafted and presented in a neat manner, is sure to be a great handy resource for management.

R Senthilkumar

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

PS: My sincere apologies to Blogadda, since I had some problems with my blog and took long time to get this review up.

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RIP – by Mukul Deva a book review!

For someone living in Delhi, this book would definitely make them sit up and identify every character and place so seamlessly that you would be living the action as you turn the pages.

In his inimitable style of making another thriller, Mukul Deva demonstrates his plot with unusual ease and tackles the storyline with believable characters.

RIP is a story set in the times of peaceful anti corruption movement of 2011, while the country is agitated with the corruption and the masses join the movement, elsewhere a group of ex-SPG men led by Col Krishna Athawale decide to form Resurgent Indian Patriots  and teach the politicians a lesson in a way that they would understand, ofcourse it needed to hurt them literally and they chose the violent route.

The RIP chooses its targets with precision that would would only be a mark of a former army personnel. They know its a gamble that they are on and especially if they mis-step even once, that would be the end of their mission and even their life.  But the team is committed and works its plan to the tee and executes them to the dot.

Raising the stakes much higher, they announces their intent so that they police and the govt make all necessary precaution and to make their point continue to literally execute the offenders.

The story also has the Govt.’s angle with the Home Minister Karunakaran deciding to do a private investigation and derail the RIP. He in fact hires Raghav again an ex special protection group personnel, to ground the RIP. What would it be without the real police or the investigating wing in here and you have the CBI Director also playing an important role in the story.

The story also has some emotional moments with the personal side of the characters and how they cope with the stress of the work and try balancing it personally.

The character of Reena  and of the kids add to the emotional value to the storyline, which otherwise is just the professional working of the RIP in action.

The last and the final assault of RIP is gripping to the core especially as the narrative turns on from the central Delhi to the Noida the final stages giving in to real suspense.

The book has the script of the movie showing in front of your eyes, and you could sometimes see yourself in the drivers seat and visualise whats happening in front of you and also in the rear view mirror.

The romance of Reena and Krishna though a bit exaggerated adds for some nice conversations and in that the author gives way to the human side of the characters .

The villain of the piece Raghav gets to play his role though he is late by a minute which in this story is very very late.

Though you might get to draw parallels to the characters and situations in the story, I think given a chance the reader and the country men at large will want an exercise like that, atleast a fanciful one if it could change the face of the country and wipe off the corrupt.

Thanks to the author’s background, he has a vivid and interesting way to present the armed forces and their role in the nation building especially when during peace times or the things they do to avert a war.

Senthilkumar R

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

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The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian – a book review

This is the first time I am reading Ravi Subramanian, thanks to BlogaddaThe Bankster by Ravi Subramanian.

The Bankster unravels the intricate banking system and how a few cunning people can beat it smart.  The characters in the story are pretty much like you and me. You will relate to them if you had visited a bank so much for the identifying part of this.

The web of complexities and an unsusual turn of events at a multinational bank makes for an interesting reading. Very fast paced and close to life, next door characters, this is the story of human weakness, that of manipulating relationships even when literally being the relationship manager at the branch of a bank.

So when there is a series of murders or accidents as the world would like to be believed,  especially of one of his close friend, Karan the ex-employee turned reporter smells foul play and has a task at hand to identify and save the rest including himself when he sees a pattern emerging with people related to a particular account at GB2.

On the other side of the story which runs parallel is the agitation against the commissioning of the new nuclear plant and how an agitation to ensure safety standards is hijacked to personal agendas and also goes on to become a network of unlawful activities which finds a thread at the one of the accounts of GB2.

The story shows the author with his background, as an expert in banking and has a grip on human emotions and weakness and a behavioural pattern at its best and worst in a narrative style that’s keeps you wanting to finish this off in one quick read.

The analytical and logical treatment that he offers with Karan and the team that investigates privately is an awesome read. We should give it to the characterisation of Karan, who very deftly handles and delves into the minds of the executioners.

And not to forget is the episode at Vienna and how the police department leaves no stones unturned to get the perpetrators of crime to book. You have a CCD out there in the middle of all this. 🙂

The best part is the way the author has the story in control all the three events at different places of the globe and weaving a nice suspense filled thriller. He also has to his credit  making the reader look aside and may be think of who the bankster could be or may be it was my thought.

Overall an excellent fast read, and a nice plot and I would have to agree when Wall Street Journal says – Meet the John Grisham of Banking. I am a fan of John Grisham and all the legal stories, especially my favorite being Street Lawyer.

And yeah check out the author out here:  Web | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube

R Senthilkumar

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com . Participate now to get free books!

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The Krishna Key – a Book Review

Let me start with a disclaimer, I am a big fan of Ashwin and know him close thanks to the social media. So it was with bated breath that I was awaiting the release of his latest thriller in his genre of mythological thriller. If anyone can give Dan Brown a challenge it would be Ashwin Sanghi and he has proved it time and again.

Now to the novel at hand – the Krishna Key. I told myself I will try to do an open reading and not have any premonition about Krishna (He is close to me). I had also read the first preview.

The book sets the pace and what a start it was a gory one and an executioner on prowl, planning with precision and setting the agenda for the police and the other stake holders to think hard.

The pace of the novel was class apart, you could not wait to see what happened next and what’s in store till the last page is read.

The change of pace and the characters especially that of Prof Saini and his student Priya were well etched out and quite educative. The best part is that springing surprises that happens during the story offering quite a twist. Radhika’s character is one of empowerment in itself.

The storyline especially that of Sri Krishna in first person makes it topical and how it came about for modern day characters to connect the dots. Realism in fiction sometimes  is an art but Ashwin makes it a science with his deep insights and wide reading of the topic that he presents in such a riveting and fast paced story which makes for an engrossing read.

I think anagrams apart Ashwin this time has set a new precedent with a mirror imaging of Sir Khan to Krishna, something which still rings in with the reader.

An absolutely great story told in a pretty lucid narrative and style that you would wonder why it went off so fast. You will continue to retain some of the finer characteristics of the story even after you have put your book down.

For me personally, the author has a way of presenting things in new light that I am reminded of George Bernard Shaw who said ‘You see things and say why, I see things and say why not?’

Senthilkumar Rajappan

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

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The Devotion of Suspect X – review on Wordle…


Wordle: My review of The Devotion of Suspect X

R Senthilkumar

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Book Reviews Books Reading / Read Just about it

The Devotion of Suspect X – a Book review….

the devotion of suspect x
Book Cover: The Devotion of Suspect X

First things first, the Japanese names sounded similar and took me few minutes to get them right to the story. Once I was familiar with the characters then sailed pretty fast.

The author Keigo Higashino makes an excellent portrayal of human sensibilities and frailities without much of the fanfare that we get to see in these kind of books. You already know you are reading a movie script when the story is fastpaced, has a lot of twist and turns and the protogonist is painstakingly methodical. Add to it he is a mathematician will only make it more intense, he has a way he lives on or is immensely calculative for his own worth.

A tragedy by pure circumstances forces the mother Hanoka and daughter Misato to take Ishigami’s ( the mathematician) help after a simple tiff between the now divorced husband and wife turns nasty with the man attacking the daughter, the brawl gets physical and takes a nasty turn with the man’s death and then the story unfolds.

Our mathematician and the hero who has a logical and intuitive mind extends his help to cover up the event and most importantly create alibi as much as possible so that the mother and the child are always out of the police radar. A classic case here of making the police think of what they see and what they might not really want! A very rare turn of events which is statistically close to zero makes it a story to read. Possibly the mathematician Ishigami would not have thought that the detective in question could have been an alumni of his university or that the detective was good friends with his former college mate.

Now the police could have their way and Ishigami almost calculates as much to get close to their thinking and makes the plot fittingly look believable and trace it to the dead end as he might want to and he almost comes close to leading the police to his end. But there are things which go wrong, probably he takes things for granted or putting it mildly some variables he is not able to control.

The arrival of his erstwhile college friend Yukawa and the friendship of the detective and the professor of physics takes us through the minds and machinations if I may call it. Just as he keeps rolling out plans perfectly there comes a time when his friend comes across to read his mind. Its no more mathematics alone that makes him do it, under the motivation lies the most innocent and important life saving factor of the smiles of  two women known only to his heart.

The author also plays the poverty card very well in a sense how the poor are just statistics and how even a professor could use them to his advantage so much so that they will never be cared in a society so much full of contradictions inside out. Could that be author is trying to show the mirror to the world outside in this case how the life lost doesn’t count at all because its nowhere in the picture till someone decides to look into suspect’s mind.

Loved the characterisation like I mentioned the few characters symbolises the society in action and how people are generally simple and with inborn traits.

I am going with the author on all the way he wanted to be saving the two un-intentional killers but the way it ended put me off to be frank. That little girl Misato deserved much better than the burden of having to live with something that happened because she was a girl.

Somewhere it looked like the women are same all over, giving in to the reckless behaviour of the men that they care and love with all their heart and only to be betrayed and then there is the way destiny is supposed to behave irresponsibly, just when she thinks all are fine with her, comes the biggest shock for her life.

Yes, alongside it reminded me of my classes in physics and yes like the professor says physicists have a way with life and its not easy getting over them. It is always good to have physicists around, except when you have actually murder someone to create an alibi for already killed person. In this case it wasnt reasoning because love is beyond that and when you are in love you will do whatever it takes to prove yourself.

A good fast paced read and you cant live without maths and physics, though you might detest the fact that you are not going to use them but even a car race driver ( being Indian F1 fan I needed to add this) would need to know how to extract maximum from his car, well Ishigami did give this answer in one of his classes.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

R Senthilkumar

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Another book for review! thanx BlogAdda!

The book arrived well packed and neatly done… 🙂 Been waiting for this since I received the mail notification of BlogAdda informing me being among the 100 readers to review the book!

Well well well the book is looking awesome, and well judging by the cover it looks interesting to start off, am just waiting for a lean period of my thoughts to be gathered and set off on a journey to read and ofcourse share with you all on a review!

The book I am talking about is already a best seller having sold 2 million copies worldwide! The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino.

R Senthilkumar

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Book Reviews Books Reading / Read Just about it

I am not 24… by Sachin Garg Book Review

As the book arrived, I was looking at the cover, already familiar with the image, I was expecting a college fest and a romantic saga and may be some fashion statement to be made. To start with this is a story of a girl and slice of her first career spanning over 3 months or so.

As I started reading the first few pages, it was a bit different in the sense the narrator of the story herein Saumya lands up at a Steel Plant, for her first job after her MBA. Thus the setting had gone for a toss for Saumya who had thought of a corporate career in a five star setup or atleast in a city environment. So welcome to Toranagallu.

Once there, she is taken by surprise at the being so rural and has no choice but to appreciate the positives wherever she could think about. She has no other go but decides to make amends and starts liking the place on some of the most appreciable things she comes face to face in life.

At her age and in a male dominated workplace, she is a sort of out of place. She takes the challenge head on and makes head turn literally at all places so much so at one instance a worker fatally falls in Sulphuric acid.  The storyline also has some characters in Malappa, Amit and her boss.

Another character who influences Saumya is one Shubro who she accidentally meets when she is on her leisure trip to Hampi. Though we get to see some glimpses of Shubro at their meeting and a bit of his past, it is not until he comes into her life while she decides to quit the company.

What we see in the rest of the story is a blossoming and untold love between these two and may they think the other would make the first move.

In all this there are characteristic display of wantonness of being the person they are, the author takes liberty in portraying their weakness too.  On the other side he makes it up with some of the most positives we tend to normally ignore because we take them for granted or may be we see it as we already knew this person was going to be so.

Saumya gets a chance to impress her peers as also Shubro in his time at the social club when he changes the life of almost 10,000 people in this tiny village in Karnataka.

Shubro lives by what he calls ‘Lets move on’ theory a fascinating aspect in reality because we would love to do it, and it keeps him from staying at one place, but as we see it it clear in the later part, he is there to make the change that he wants.

So we get to see how they were so close yet far.

In the end we get to see Saumya make up her mind and taking off to live what Shubro had believed in as his dream and reality.

Its a fast paced book, but then there are breaks which the reader doesn’t quite expect, the blog at the end is a bit long, and thats too late for the reader to say something so important about the character.

A nice read and I dont know if the readers think the characters are different from who they are since all the youngsters, given a chance could tread Saumya’s path without blinking an eye.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

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The Habit of Winning by Prakash Iyer – book review

The Habit of Winning

 

There is a beautiful saying which is quite often related to Mahatma Gandhi, ‘Your greatness lies in your simplicity.’ Probably this best sums up the way the author Prakash Iyer presents his wonderful book ‘The Habit of Winning.’

India is a land traditionally bound by story telling right from the Ramayana days. We are fond of stories and never ever get tired listening to it and reading them galore, but the foot note of those stories and learning’s are lost, but in here the author makes for an excellent story teller laced with simplicity, one on one narration and takes you to the place of happening and makes you revisit them in front of your eyes. Every story is based on real life situations of managers, of corporate heads, of sports persons from different parts of the world. Talking of sports, it automatically serves to draw a parallel of what life is all about.

We are taken through some of the best stories which will lift your spirits, make you come out of your slumber and more so get your act together. The best part all the heroes in the book are close to you and me and we know them by their name except a few.

The author narrates the stories personally to the reader and that makes it the best reading experience. As I found you need not be reading through from page 1 to the end, but even if you open any page you are bound to find the flow of wisdom, his care for his reader intact at every paragraph, every sentence and most important part of this book is it doesn’t make you rush. You take your time to read and digest it in your own pace. You will love it that way because there are moments you can easily look back and relate. Something like having ‘a to do’ list.

The stories bring to life the traits of some of the accomplished leaders, known for their conviction, self-belief, perseverance and many other positives to make you take that first step to achieve what you thought was impossible. There are stories of Sachin to Sidhu to Micheal Phelps, all great in their own right and we would discover what it took them to be the great people are those traits of small measure in their own way making it happen for them. It would find us the most elusive success.

There is one story of the Goal Keeper during a penalty shoot out. Though it has been found scientifically that a goal keeper would do better without diving in either direction, he is compelled to ‘do the diving’ to fulfill what is called as ‘atleast he tried’ syndrome. A pointer that we also take some things in life just to fulfill the societal obligations; may be we need a rethink.

Some stories relate to change in strategy and some relate to a full overhaul, we need to think over before we practice them and should be read in relevant context of personal life and corporate career.

The most adorable part of these stories is that its works across the ladder in a corporate and across age group in a family there’s a story for everyone.  Possibly it’s never too late to start even now.

Lot of instances from everyday life and especially those from sports are a delightful read and inspire the mind and fills you with a positive spirit as much as flying a kite.

I would have liked a to do list in the end of the book so that for those of us who think they need a bit of direction, or may be the author thought it fit to make the reader take the initiative.

In a way a nice read and its doesn’t sound like an advice and that’s one aspect every reader will easily like it. One thing comes out fair and square, there is no substitute to hard work and couple that with sheer positives, what you get is a sheer winner and as the adage goes ‘Winning is a habit and unfortunately failure too is.’

Life – It’s a mind game to be won, even before you are on the field, and sometimes the worst situations are the best platform to showcase yourself, believe in yourself and break the mental barrier as a sprinter Roger did crossing a mile under the 4 min mark, while the whole world thought it was impossible to do it.

Once the mental barrier is broken, the body gives in way a little easily, otherwise it would be very tough even to take the first step. Quite often we get carried by mental convictions even before we have tried or sometimes you just don’t have the last minute of patience after all the hard work that we put it in.

There are also some advices in a practical outlook like don’t ever try to befriend a scorpion lest it should sting, no fault here on the scorpion because it’s its character to do exactly that.

This book would make for a nice gift to anyone who you care about and a really a special way to say you really care and this book fits it exactly. A very nice little offering and as they say good things comes in small packages!

R Senthilkumar

PS: Thank you Blogadda.com for this wonderful opportunity to review a nice book as I start this voyage of discovery of reading and writing reviews!

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!