The Weeping Girl / Bright Lights

Bright Lights launches today at Mumbai. That means today I would be a published author for the third time
Posting an excerpt from my story “The Weeping Girl”

He heard the sniffling first, and then the sobs made their presence felt. It being a particularly dark stretch of road, the visual confirmation came last. A girl was sitting on the pavement, feet on the road with her head held in her hands, crying incessantly. For a hopeless romantic at heart, who was a fan of romantic movies, and would swear by the movie Notting Hill, this was a scene that could have been easily lifted out of one of the rom-coms, and yet for all the preparation of watching movies and TV series and envisioning similar scenarios, Jai was surprisingly at a loss for words.

After an uncomfortable thirty seconds, while Jai just stared dumbfounded, somehow he mustered enough courage to open his mouth and the words shout out, “Are you okay?“

… … …

The thought train in Jai’s mind was steaming ahead. First of all, that name – Nisha. It had all started with Madhuri Dixit when she had immortalized this name; anytime he met a girl named Nisha he felt an instant attraction and he was not alone in this phenomenon. Many of his friends and acquaintances were crazy after the name ‘Nisha’ too. To top it all, almost all the Nishas he had met had been gorgeous. This Nisha was no exception. And she seemed to be interested in him, he was almost sure of that.

 

Go buy the book now and let me know how good/bad my story is.

Urban Shots Bright Lights

And I would see my name in print one again

Urban Shots Bright Lights is coming out in January 2012 and in this anthology too I’ve contributed a short-story. No links are up yet for the book, will put them as soon as the page is up.

Have a look at the cover

Bright Lights is published by Grey Oak and the editor is again Paritosh Uttam. Hope my story and the book is enjoyed by everybody

Book Review: God Save The Dork – Sidin Vadukut

Sequels are tricky business – be it movies or books. Most of the movie sequels fade in comparison to the original. Very few sequels do justice to the original. Similarly with a book, the sequels first of all need to live up to the reader’s expectations (the readers are definitely going to have high expectations, as the first book would be invariably good to warrant a sequel) and the author would need to build on the existing concept to keep the reader engaged. Thankfully these days the sequels I’ve been reading – all of them are engaging enough. Maybe it is easier to write a sequel to a book since the author remains the same; with a movie the director can change, the editor may change, and many other external factors impact the end-result. But then I am a layman to sequels, except reading/watching them.

On Saturday morning I lay my hand on the sequel to Dork, Sidin Vadukut’s second book – ‘God Save The Dork’, and I spent the weekend reading the book and I can say with assurance that my weekend was good. The protagonist Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese is now in London and a new company is at the mercy of his consulting antics. Following a storyline similar to the first book, here too Robin strives to be a star-performer and how he manages that among his innumerable goof-ups is what makes the story.

I’ve always maintained it is difficult to write humour, and very few people have a knack for it. Thankfully Sidin seems to have a few funny bones in his body and comes up trumps in handling the humour. Although there were a few old jokes which I had read on internet earlier, but then those were just 2-3 instances. The story is mostly easy to follow, but since this book is in the form of diary entries there are a few gaps and keeps going off on tangents – but then that is what makes the book different from any other book.

If you enjoyed ‘Dork‘ definitely pick up ‘God Save The Dork‘, you would not be disappointed. Now hoping that Dork-3 is equally hilarious and continues the fabulous topsy-turvy journey of Robin Varghese.

Book Review: Puppet On The Fast Track – Ilika Ranjan

There have rarely been times when I’ve not been sure of what to think of a book I just read. The only time I remember having that problem was when I had read The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time. Even today I am not sure whether I liked the book or not. I am facing the same dilemma again now while reviewing another book.

Ilika Ranjan has penned the book “Puppet on the Fast Track” which tells the story of a bank where politics is as common as potholes on an Indian road and everyone in the upper management hates everybody else in the upper management and all of their common aims is to ride on the shoulders of their subordinates to success and subsequently the next promotion. Told from the perspective of the people on the lower echelons, this book would resonate with anyone who has faced office politics.

The story of the book is quite simple, and it is quite easy to empathize with the primary characters as almost everyone in the corporate world has faced one of the situations depicted in the book. The pace of the book is quite steady but owing to a few repetitive incidents it actually feels slower than it actually is. The plot is not complex, but what lets the book down is the abrupt flow. At times I did not realize that one conversation was over and a new one has started between two other characters. The editing leaves a lot to be desired, there were instances when two different conversation topics overlapped and it became a confusing read. Few of the characters have been sketched out pretty well, and you can easily love or hate them. The writing actually improved a lot as the chapters progressed.

There were times when I absolutely enjoyed the book, and there were times it became a lethargic read – that is the reason I feel this book has me in two minds. This book seems aimed at management professionals and students considering the bits of jargon and the work environment and it is an interesting read for the target audience. For others it may get a tad tedious if they are not able to relate to the characters or the scenarios in the book.

Addendum: This is an author requested review. I was contacted by her to review the book.

Book Review: The Company Red – Shantanu Dhar

After gaping with an open mouth at the fan-following that Twilight Series garnered, I had lost appetite for any vampire book/movie. But then it is foolish to blame one pathetic movie and avoid a full genre. Added to that, many positive reviews of The Company Red by Shantanu Dhar compelled me to buy the book. And I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

The book starts following the abysmal life that the protagonist Ardhendu Bose leads, and the fabulous turn-around his life takes when he joins one of the biggest life sciences company – RED. From a rat at the far-end of the pack, he soon emerges as the leader of the race. But in any such scenario there is always a ‘But’. The twist, how it effects Mr. Bose and where do the vampires fit in – these things make up rest of the story.

This thriller is quite fast-paced and makes for an interesting read. It seems obvious from the start that the book has been written keeping in mind that one day a movie would be made based on this book and proof is available on the book-cover where it says the book will soon be a movie. The plot is very simple, the book keeps moving ahead at break-neck speed full with complete filmi scenes.

All-in-all a perfect read for a lazy afternoon.