Hidden Husband by Shikha Kaul (Book Review- 3.5*/5) !!!

        I am done reading Gargi Publisher's one of the latest release- debutante Shikha Kaul's "Hidden Husband". The book also carries a tag line- "Some secrets never leave you". The cover page of the book is so beautifully made that it will tempt you to pick up the book. The same happened with me. I had very big expectations from the book considering its whole representation and synopsis but I found the book little above par. Shikha Kaul's writing style is simple and it will not make you reach out for your dictionary even once. Her characters are also memorable and you will find connecting with each of them very easily. Her approach of writing this book by keeping things simple and realistic can be easily deciphered but it also limited the author's imagination.     

           The book starts wonderfully and asks you to sit and dwell into the story. Few early pages are really page-turners and you want to read the story as fast as you can to know what will happen to the new developing love story. Suddenly, author takes you to a flashback and surprises you with facts about the protagonist which confuses you how can then a new love story is about to start in the present. When the author comes back to the present, it is again where the book flies high and your interest gets generated again. Author have written the initial part and anti-climax and climax very beautifully which shows her real talent. Unfortunately, the same flick couldn't be found in the 2nd part of the flashback that is the core part of the book. 

           Shikha Kaul's characters and their dilemma somewhere makes you remember Preeti Shenoy's characters. This impressed me a lot as you couldn't point any of the characters and claim that he/she is wrong or villain of the book. 

           Coming to the drawbacks:- I found the flashback stretched and felt that author could have easily cut it short by almost 30-40 pages. Yes, that's how much stretched I found it. Also, few things are repetitive which makes you lose your interest in the later stages. The over description of few things irritates the reader. Also, author discusses few current affairs and her take about it through the voice of her protagonist. As they had nothing to do with the plot of the story, I found it totally irrelevant. The book could have been easily wrapped up in 200 pages. Overall, I will give the book- 3.5* out of 5 and I am pretty sure that author is about to get better with each of her book as she has the quality that will make readers feel connected with her. 

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!! 

The Unbreakable Law by Pragat Kasana (Book Review- 4*/5) !!!

      I have read my first book published by PepperScript which is the debut work of Pragat Kasana. Unlike other authors, this author has little social media following already because of his interesting tweets and this ensures me that his book shall do well in coming future. The cover page of the book is beautiful and it will surely grasp eyes of few readers. Fortunately, the book is a perfect page-turner and a book that can be read in one go. I picked it up last evening and kept reading it till 4.30 AM in morning. It's just 200 pages thick but takes a lot of time for you to grasp as most of the names and places are named by the author himself; because the book belongs to the fantasy fiction genre.   

          Pragat Kasana's writing style is very fluid and he has good command over the language. He divides the chapters perfectly so that you do not get cluttered in the long fantasy story that it is. I liked the author's idea of mentioning main characters initially itself which many authors fail to do so. I made a hierarchy tree according to the description of the characters which helped me understand the story better. The characterizations are wonderfully created by the author and even after you complete the book, you will think about couple of them. Even the unusual animals and creatures that the author have described are powerfully portrayed and you can imagine them easily. As a debutante, I feel Pragat have hit at the right place.

           Author have tried to put in some philosophy intelligently without being preachy. He wittily tells how sadness, anger and stress of a person can benefit the people who are looking for their failures. He amazingly builds a great scenario and shows how a father cares for his son even when they do not meet each other since the child's birth. Author also manages to say how even good people go a wrong way to attain some power which can make them look stronger and right in society. Also he speaks about how historical facts are distorted according to who wins the war and future generations get to know only about how their forefathers were right and everyone were wrong. I liked how the book is ended with a cool climax. But I want author to write something else next time rather than writing sequel to this book. :-) I give 4 stars out of 5 to this book for its originality and creativity. 

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!! 

Body The Greatest Gadget/Mind Is Your Business by Sadhguru (Book Review- 3.75*/5) !!!

        I have always admired Jaico Publishing house because of their commitment towards publishing books that teaches more about life and its importance irrespective of what other publishers are publishing. They are never into race to earn more by releasing stupid pulp fictions and college campus stories. This time I got the opportunity to read Sadhguru's 2 books released in one package- Mind is your Business and Body The Greatest Gadget. I liked the concept of releasing two books in one binding as both are less than 100 pages each. I started with Mind is your business and hence I would review it first.

            Mind is your Business is basically about how we have cluttered our mind ourselves and made a mess of it but still complain that we are in stress and ache every day. Sadhguru very nicely makes us clear what we have actually done to make a mess of our mind. While reading the chapters, you will realize that we have ourselves sucked away the peace from our mind and added useless stuffs in it. Sadhguru is basically making a point that we have attached ourselves with so many identities today because of which we start considering ourselves with something and not with something with which we do not find ourselves attached. This leads to several opinions and therefore, we are always disturbed. In the end, Sadhguru shares with us few tips on how we can still our minds and bring it in our control rather than being in its control. 

           The second book, Body The Greatest Gadget, is better than the first, according to my view. I did find few things in MIYB above the thinking process of a layman because of which I found hard to understand few concepts. But in this particular book, Sadhguru have so practically explained everything that I could imagine myself doing all the suggested tips and finding myself in a better spot. This book tells you about how you can be healthy always plus how fighting illness is easy. The importance of yoga is wonderfully described in both the books. Sadhguru have also tried telling how to eat and what to eat to stay away from illness. He has supported his take without being religious but being scientific and practical. 

              Though I wished Sadhguru to have written this book with more examples so that a layman like me could have understood the concepts right from the core. Just like Eknath writes who's also been published by Jaico continuously. Rest, I liked the points made by Sadhguru and it's a book that I would always like to pick up whenever I would start following yoga and meditation as routine. I give this book 3.75* out of 5. 

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!