And Then It Rained by Gaurav Dashputra !!!

               581st BLOG POST -->>

             Every time I have a Srishti Publisher's book in my hand, I have a different kind of expectation with it because the first time when I picked an unknown Indian fiction writer- it was from Srishti publication. And the 10 writers whom I picked after him was again from Srishti. So, I started loving the general thoughts that these writers from Srishti wrote. And once again, I picked up this book from the same publication- "And then it rained" which also has a tagline- "coz life ain't always a fairytale". This is the debut novel of a student of last year MBBS in D.Y. Patil college, Navi Mumbai (Yes, the same city I live in :-)), basically from Nagpur, a national gold medalist in swimming and a great fan of SRK- Mr. Gaurav Dashputra. I have been in touch with this guy even before he selected his publisher, so I have a kind of attachment with this book which got developed in front of me. And as I gave some free advise to Gaurav Dashputra every time I met him online, I got my name reserved in the Acknowledgement section. :-) Thanks Mr. Author for it. And, as I have been the most lucky reviewer to review many good books for the first time on Internet, I am getting a chance to review even this too because no one has reviewed it still. :-)

              Coming to the story, AND THEN IT RAINED is about Aman who is very jolly by nature, helpful, friendly, flirty, emotional, sarcastic, humor-filled, ambitious and possessed almost every quality that a girl sees in her ideal boyfriend and a boy sees in his ideal best friend. This helped him achieve friends like Krish and Madhur as he landed in Mumbai for his further studies. He just lost a girl friend in his home town- Nagpur which made him little depressed. But the entry of Riya in his life gives him one more chance to be a passionate lover. But life wasn't a positive story for him. He had to bear the consequences of few wrong decisions that made him lose almost all the close people he had around him. He submerged himself into loneliness and alcohol. But, was that the end of the story? No. Because, the traits that he had in him were not ordinary. So, to know what happens with this guy after taking wrong decisions which made him lose all the emotional connected people, go and get the novel. :-)

             Coming to my review, Gaurav Dashputra has made it sure that he makes no mistake in his debut. He hadn't done any foolishness while selecting the cities where his story is to be based because he picked up Nagpur and Navi Mumbai where he lives.  He has used his own style of narration by including lot of scenarios in just 209 pages of the book. He has kept the narration fast so that a reader don't get bored on any single page. This is the best part of AND THEN IT RAINED. He has expressed his love and excitement for the city of Mumbai and its monsoon appropriately. The continuous humor statements in the book keeps you interested. Every relation is described properly so that, when the story takes a twist, you can feel the pain of the protagonist while he isolated himself from each of them. This book is not a love story. It is about how a young boy takes wrong decisions while handling lot of relationships(interconnected with each other) at the same time. This book has an emotional touch in it. 

             The best part of this book in the first 100 pages is the date with Riya. The scene where the trip to Goa is being planned makes me laugh out loud. The description of expression of each of the three friends is enormous during the Goa trip deciding scene. The part when Aman runs between the movie just to get rid from Preeti's proposal in the theater is another funny scene of this book. The moment Aman tells about his first result of Medical to his father, and the way his father expresses happiness makes you emotional. And, all those parts of loneliness and the way Aman punished himself is something for which you will remember AND THEN IT RAINED always. The climax of the book is perfect and yes, it's unpredictable. 

            Coming to the drawbacks, there aren't much. The major drawback that I managed to find out is the way story ran quicker sometimes when you wanted to know more about the current situation of the main character and other supporting characters of the story. Else, using the real entities' name like of D. Y. Patil college and then associating it with bribery to get the question paper out can make some readers feel that the college is associated with such acts of corruption. So, in a Fiction, one has to concentrate on these little things to avoid the controversies. But in all, AND THEN IT RAINED is a good experience as I didn't feel any part of the book unwanted or dragged. I give it 3.25/5. This book is worth reading as it ends with a moral which is very rare to see in today's fictions. :-) Go, GET IT. 

            Thanks.

  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

Vivek and I by Mayur Patel !!!

               580th BLOG POST -->>

         Now-a-days, if you plan to enter a bookstore or to browse Flipkart/Infibeam to pick up at least 2-3 Fiction novels by Indians, you will be disappointed to see that almost every synopsis/blurb of the book has a common word in them "Love" or "Romance". No one is trying to come out of that comfort zone and write something else. No, it is not that I or majority of readers aren't romantic or we hate the process of love but we don't want to read the same thing that we are experiencing in our own life or seeing it happening with our best friend. We want to read some thing that has some thing new to explore, even if it is of the same genre. And this time, I was surprised to read the debut novel by a Diploma degree holder in Civil Engineering, CAD specialist, an architect- Mayur Patel who resides in Valsad, Gujarat with his family. The name of the book is- "Vivek and I".

             Yes, the book's name may sound weird as I found it to be after seeing its cover page. But, as the name suggests, this is not a normal love story between a Girl and a Boy, but it is about the liking of the protagonist- Kaushik for his student- Vivek. He finds him too attractive and he wants to get him as his partner any how. He is still recuperating with the break up that he had with his ex-boyfriend- Krishna who was bisexual. Vivek sees Kaushik as a very good teacher, friend, well wisher, respectable personality and philosopher. This keeps Kaushik away from opining his heart to Vivek and tell him about his sexual approach and how much he loves him. And with this dilemma in Kaushik's mind about his love for Vivek-who is straight gives birth to this book- "Vivek and I".

             The author has fine English, awesome in parts. He has embedded few new words that will help reader to get acquainted with those words. The way he has defined nature is unique and descriptive. You will fall in love with it. The way he has narrated the dilemma in a Gay's mind is commendable. Moreover, he also states about the physical braveness that a gay has for other good looking boys. He has stated it neatly that being gay is not only about being physical, but in some cases, it is also about love with the same gender. The insertion of too many characters in the book does not cause a confusion, and I credit Mayur Patel extremely for this, because whenever a book consists of too many characters, you tend to get confused but he has done it so accurately that you remember each and every name with their role in the book. The scenes of Kaushik with Desai's and Gavit's is so sweet and palpable. The love that Vidya has for Kaushik makes a reader like Vidya over the protagonist- Kaushik. :-) The scene when a girl's parents come to know about her being a lesbian is so real. The emotions that Kaushik has for Vivek is being handled appropriately. While, Mayur Patel has tried to state in this book that the character turned gay because of a child sex abuse scenario that happened with him, I have doubt if this is the only reason for men being gays. 

           Coming to the major drawbacks of the book- If you divide this book into 3 equal parts, I would say that the 2nd part is dragged too much. The book is of 378 pages, but if the author would have cut it shorter by 100 pages, it would have been fine. The story gets repetitive for number of times. The flashback to Kaushik-Krishna's love story makes you hate the attempt of the author. After first 150 pages, you feel like leaving the book in the middle because of the slow pace of story. The book has less conversation, that is good, but it also has useless description of some scenes/elements that wasn't required at all. Describing the same thing in the same manner after every 10 pages does not interests a reader. I was disappointed with the book in the middle of it but the last 100 pages of this book is a gem. And I would recommend you to read this book only for the last 100 Pages and for the topic that Mayur Patel has chosen for his debut novel. I give this book 3/5 over all. To the last 100 Pages, I give it 3.75/5.

                Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino !!!

         It has been a long time since I am reading Indian romantic fictions; yes, some of them were unromantic too, but I never found any book which stated the presence of Crime Thriller into it. Once, I had Prashant Sharma's book in my hand which had something related to a death of a character because of the protagonist's foolishness, but the whole book had no scene related to that killing anywhere after the killing scene itself. So, I was quite disappointed with that. But finally, I got this book on the behalf of Blogadda, which had full-on theory of Crime thriller. In the first 30 pages itself you get to know who is murdered by whom and how. But still, when the police starts investigating about it, you join them in the journey even when you-the reader knows that the murder is being done by whom. This is the most unique way to write a Crime Thriller. It's not easy to write a book which already assures you how its ending would be or what result the ending of the story is going to produce. But, "The Devotion of Suspect X" by Keigo Higashino is one such book that is and will have to be the favorite of all the readers who are interested in picking up a Crime Thriller novels.

              As the book is written by a Japanese writer, you will get to read many new words that are written as it is spoken in their language. This gives you a new flavor of reading. The names of Japanese character may confuse you because it even did to me. :-) The best part about the writer has been his focus on the story without disruption. He has kept the target of the book in mind and then scripted it. The story never lost its flow. Yes, initially, the book seems to be boring till 30-40 pages but once the murder is being done and the characters of police comes into the scene, you start liking the uniqueness the book has in itself. The translation from Japanese to English would have been a great challenge for the translators but they did a great job in doing it. 

             Yes, I would like to say that the book is very slow-paced yet interesting; but if it would have been more faster, the book would have been more interesting. But still, its perfect. The amount of twists it produce throughout the story of 374 pages keeps you knocked to it. This book will not allow you to take breaks in between; that's a different story that I took numerous breaks because of uncertainties in my routine. :-) This is the first book that I read in this vacation and the expectation has risen up. After reading this book, you will come to know why 2 million copies of it is sold out. The simple English, perfect narration, numerous twists, interesting factor, the deepness in the characters of the book, some new words, Japanese instinct, flow of the story and the awesomeness of the writer makes this a perfect Crime Thriller for the genre lovers. Go, get "The Devotion of Suspect X" today itself if you want to know how the police caught the murderer whom you already knew after completing initial pages itself. :-) 

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  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU