A Walk Down The Lane by Arpita Ghosh Sarkar !!!

             Completed one more book written by a female Indian author- "A Walk Down The Lane". In India, we have very few female authors as most of them are either flirting before marriage or looking after their husband after the marriage. :-) There are very few of them who are interested in trying something new. And, seeing any book by a female writer fascinates me. The reason behind this is that the whole family is depended on a girl/wife/mother, so its very hard for them to write a book after fulfilling all the demands of their family. And, just writing a book is not a compliment, but if the book is nice, the girl/woman earns all my respect. And the latest in this list after Preeti Shenoy, Rashmi Bansal and Sneha Gupta is Arpita Ghosh Sarkar. She is an ex-banker and has worked with Citigroup and HSBC Bank. She left her job as she is a mother of a toddler now. And, now she is up with her debut novel- A Walk Down The Lane published by Srishti Publishers. 

            The book is a story of Shuvika who is frustrated with her job and wants a leave for some days. Finally, she gets one by screwing her colleague who wanted to go himself in spite of sanctioning her a leave. She goes to Westland, the jungle resort. There she meets her old neighbour's son who is quite older than her. She wanted to be alone but as he approaches her with politeness and friendliness, she allows him to be with her. And the friendship starts growing. Shuvika is 28 and this man-Joyneel is 40, almost 12 years elder to her. And, they meet other characters in the resort too. And, then the way this mature amicable relationship grows day by day, and the way Shuvika realizes that may be she is in love with Joyneel after other characters of the book pings her, she starts worrying. She has a dark past and she does not want to get in any relationship, nor is she interested in marrying any time in future. And the same happens with Joyneel, as even he has been through worst times after his wife ran away with her boyfriend. How, the story unfolds, how this mature book travels from Page No. 1 to 198, go get the book.

             The best part about the author is- She knows the length of her story and hence, she kept it of some 30,000 words only; rather than adding useless scenarios and making it a novel of 50,000 words. She has used only those scenes that are really useful in the story. She has passed many emotional statements and scenarios without making them lengthy and assuming that people would remember it if it will be carried in 10-12 pages. She has just included the main part which keeps you happy as you see that you are about to complete the book in just 2 hours after few pages. She has used short sentences, hence making it easy for readers to fasten their speed of reading as they won't get confused in any sentence. I can't state one or two best part of the book as the story is like a short piece of fiction. So, the whole book is very sweet. The one part that really makes you emotional is when Shuvika leaves the resort before everyone even when they asks her to stay back. And the climax is mid-blowing. After 140th page, the story goes up by a level. And as Author herself is matured, she has stated the emotions of a 28 years old-woman and 40-years old-man up to the mark. And, she has slapped all the writers who think that Love story can be written only by adding love elements to it. Ghanta!!! She has not even used the word- "Kiss" in the book. That's the power of a Good Author. Seekh lo kuch. And yes, the cover page is perfectly designed according to the theme of the story.. and so is the title.. 

               There's no drawback according to me. I rate this book 4/5. YES!!! You can go for it without any doubt. 

 Thanks.

  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

A Splash of Love by Rajeev Ranjan !!!

        It has become so common in the Indian fiction market to have the word "Love" in their titles. I don't know what's so interesting about the word but I am fed up of it. Even when some books that does not have the theme of love also prefers to have this word in their title or tagline so that the first time readers will get attracted to it. But, for me, this word doesn't interests me anymore in terms of reading a book. I want some other stories. There's one more book that I have just completed with the same word in the title- "A Splash of Love- A Kiss of Infatuation". When I started it, I was prepared to read the same kind of story that everyone is writing now-a-days but to my surprise, this book turned out to be more articulate and distinct from them. It's the first work by Rajeev Ranjan who is a Graduate in Physics from University of Delhi in 1996, then he pursued Post Graduation again in Physics and turned into an Indian Coast Guard. No, he is not a young author like others who are on the board these days. :-) So girls, chill. 

              A SPLASH OF LOVE is the story of a boy- Arunoday who is very sentimental in every situation. Right from the death of his childhood friend/cousin and the break up with his girlfriend, he remains a person who keeps asking the same questions to himself just to stop his attraction towards other useless things. But, he fails. Every time, he knows that he is getting attracted towards a wrong thing, even when he tries to stop him, his fate and his addiction magnetizes him to move towards the same direction. Because of this, he loses his friends, his girl-friend and many other consequences take place in his life. But, in the end, when he does some thing extra-ordinary in his life after getting mislead through out his youth days, he finds himself back in the position where he can smile without thinking of anything that he lost. And, the whole journey of this boy is what the book delivers to its readers. :-)

               Rajeev Ranjan has attempted a very interesting story which can be made into a Bollywood movie with great stars. The story has the power to keep the interest in a reader alive. Rajeev knows the basic of writing a fiction story that if something is described in the initial chapters, it should have some correspondence or statement in the ending chapters too. And this is what, I liked the most about this author. 

            In 1st 100 pages, the best part is the way the story started with the first chapter, and the way author took the story forward in every chapter makes you read it more faster to know what happened in future years with the protagonist and his career. The part when Arunodaya runs behind the auto-rickshaw is also a very beautiful part of the book. The campus recruitment part is damn funny. I enjoyed it. The moment when Anjali's father rings the bell, shivers you. You want the protagonist to be safe. Another heart-breaking part is when Sanjana commits that the crime is being done by her when even Arunodaya remains a major part of it. Last 100 pages is the real skill of the author. With every page, the story unfolds a new twist and you get the feeling that this book is going to be your favorite. Climax of the book, initially, is unpredictable but later on, becomes predictable but still excites you, that is what I liked about it. To climax, 5/5. And, the USP of the author is the first paragraph of every new chapter that he has started with his views/doubts on certain issues of love, life and dreams etc.

            The major drawback of this book is its publisher. No editing done. The book gets ruined because of several grammatical mistakes and spelling errors. At least, one proof-reading is required. Diamond Publishers also chose a very unattractive font for this book. They will have to work on this in future. They spoil the content of the book because of their carelessness. That is where this book disappoints you. And Rajeev sir, its good that you have kept only 5% of the conversations in the book with 95% of story in it, but at some places a reader wants to know what kind of conversation the couple or friends used to have among them. So, you could have added much of it too. Else, you have done a terrific job. Looking forward to your next book. 

            I rate this book- 3.5/5. 

  Thanks.

  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU

The Suicide Banker by Puneet Gupta !!!

             It has been a long time since I have read a book which does not have Love story as its theme. In fact, this book does not have any equation of love in it. I never ever expected myself to read a book that would be purely based on Banking and how the internal system operates under the banking sector of India. Every time, I was about to read it, Puneet sir nudged me that "It's the book that is purely based on Banking so take care that you don't get exhausted while reading it". :-) Finally, I started it and the book kept me hook to it. Puneet Gupta is a banker himself with 15 years of experience. He is currently working in Middle East. Very middle-class by nature, very amicable and very soft-spoken. These are the traits of Mr. Puneet Gupta who is the author of this book "The Suicide Banker" published by Rupa Publications. Indian writers complain that the Reputed publication houses never let us even stand in front of them, hence how can one dream of getting published in India with a secure future in writing. My dear authors, first learn how to write on a topic from Puneet Gupta. Love stories are not something that avid readers are looking for in book stores now.

               The Suicide Banker is the story of a banker- Sumit who is maintaining and trying to balance both- Personal and Professional life together. As he is very ambitious towards his Professional life, his personal life faces an uncouth period of time seeing Sumit always busy in his banking career. In his current organization- Ind-credit bank, he finds that there are lots of fraudster involved in Agri-business. Now, he starts spying on them. He thinks of changing everything by himself even when he knows that almost everyone in the hierarchical structure of the organization is involved in it. And, THE SUICIDE BANKER is all about the journey of this man- Sumit fighting with the unorganized Banking staffs and maintaining his marital life with Shalini. :-) 

              Puneet Gupta has a very good command on English language. I am pretty impressed with the kind of words and sentences that he has used throughout the book. I have a complain with the Indian authors that they don't use Idioms, phrases and awesome one-liners as the USP ingredient in their book, but Puneet Gupta has managed to impress me by applying all of these in his debut book. The book is quite lengthy but the funny sentences that keep popping in periodically keeps you interested in the further pages. The story that is wholly based on a Banker's life could have become wearisome but Puneet Gupta has managed to eliminate all the factors that may typecast this book as the one with repetitive scenarios. Very creatively, author has managed to depict how the whole Banking stuff takes place in their sector. 

              Initially, Sumit-Anupam's clash is very interesting. In Kashmir, when those Afghani-kind-of-men checks Sumit and Shalini dithers you. Shibu asking about Independence Day is so funny that I got an instance that how a kid irritates his father in his childhood days by rapid-fire questions. Shalini's first news show is perdectly described. I liked that part too much. Later on, Annie's entrance in the story as Sumit's interest makes the book little masaledaar. The jokes written in Italic font are the USP of this book. I don't think that anyone else could have written better about this topic. I have heard that Ravi Subramaniam writes on the same kind of topics that are related to banking but as I haven't read him still, I rate Puneet Gupta as one of the best writer in this section.

               I would recommend everyone of you to read this book if you have killed yourself by reading Love stories recently. One of the best book to have with you. I rate it 3.75/5. 

   Thanks.

   ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU