Sadhana Who Stalked Her? by Spandana Chakradhar (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

It becomes very critical to choose a book in a thriller genre from an author who is writing for the first time. I don’t know what made me pick up the book named “Sadhana Who Stalked Her?” written by the debutante, Spandana Chakradhar but now that I have completed reading the 260-pages book, I must say it was a thrilling and distinct feeling to go through a book of such kind. I remember reading one of the books by Novoneel Chakraborty, one of my favorite authors, based on the similar concept. The way that book gave me the chills, no other book has been able to, but this one really came close by.

The book is about a girl named, Sadhana, who is living a great life and has beautiful people with whom she is teamed up with but one thing starts spoiling her wonderful life. She is being stalked by someone whenever she goes to sleep in night. In spite of all the precautions and arrangements by her and her friends, they are unable to trace the person behind this. They start guessing the stalker with whom they can raise their doubts upon. They doubt everyone but not the person who is really behind it. This is always an important part in a thriller where the climax should reveal something that really comes up as suspense and not that can be predicted. While reading, even I predicted who could be behind the protagonist but I had not gone close to the person who turned out to be the real criminal behind everything.

The characterization done by the authoress is great. Though the story has too many characters who are introduced in first 5-10 pages itself but the way each of them are given attention throughout the story is commendable. There are very less authors who can manage to do this. Regarding the narrative used to describe the stalking segment, it is very well written and actually makes you feel as if it’s happening in front of your eyes. The romantic angle given with both- Manav and Abhinav of Sadhana was a great idea to keep the story light with those little conversations full of love.

The message that authoress has tried giving with the book is nice. Why self-defence and confidence as a girl is necessary to fight our own battles is nicely portrayed in the book. As the book says that it has been inspired by a true incident, this book could become a motivator to many. There are many in our country who are stalked, bullied, molested, harassed, troubled on regular basis. Reading something like this can surely motivate anyone to go ahead to develop themselves to fight against such people.

Talking about the drawbacks of the book, the first thing is: - the book could have been composed in 200 pages against 260 pages. Secondly, the narration is made quite in a hurry state where if you get busy in some thought, you would find yourself reading something altogether different than what you were reading five sentences back. Lastly, I didn’t like the over-confusion of the protagonist regarding which partner to choose out of two and getting romantically involved with both of them for quite some time. Reading those parts felt weird where even both the boys are aware of this. May be, I am still close-minded.

Overall, this book is a page-turner for sure. I give it 4 stars out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA 

Man vs Wife by Ashish Srivastava (Book Preview) !!!

The story is a sweet and sour narrative of a young, impulsive IT professional who wants to divorce his wife. Having come across the draconian Indian laws highly biased in favor of his wife, he teams up with a middle-aged struggling lawyer willing to go to any extent for greed. The lawyer advises the husband to break the seven vows of marriage one by one, so that his wife starts hating him and agrees for mutual consent route, even before they decide to go for a contested divorce. 

Will this husband be able to break the seven vows of marriage, at last? 

And the greedy lawyer... will he be successful to break this marriage off?

Catch the book's teaser here: 



Author Website: 

https://www.ashishsrivastava-official.com

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Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA 

Suvarna Mohur : India's Glorious History Illustrated through Rare Coins by Arun Ramamurthy (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

 I don’t think I have ever invested my time on any Coffee Table book except one before reading this latest book named “Suvarna Mohur” curated by Mr. Arun Ramamurthy. The cover page of the book is so colourful and bright that you would keep looking at it for some time before realizing that it also has great pages embedded within both the hard pages. I have been very bad in history since childhood and always avoided reading books having any kind of historical elements until it has not been represented in an easier manner. This book talks about history of 2500 years through the coins which were used during those contemporary times respectively which really made it very easy for me to digest the facts and years.

I liked the kind of details author has managed to collate together to make this book possible. It is not an easy task to get such minute details about each era and then their relation with the coins. Even researching about all the coins mentioned in the book must have been a herculean task for the author. Many kudos to him for managing the same. The book is printed on shiny pages which makes the images of coin and other arts, paintings and pictures look very aesthetic and beautiful. The author has discussed different eras in history when India has been ruled by certain dynasty or king. The main milestones of their era have been talked about summarily to give the readers essence of their time and understand how they conquered India or the certain parts by raising wars against whom and with what kind of morality.

I liked understanding how in a small piece of coin, the basis of their whole premise is depicted either in the form of an image, scripture or art crafted on it. Author has very nicely covered many kingdoms right from the Mauryan and Magadhan empire to Sangam era to Gupta era to Mughals to Rajput’s to Shivaji Maharaj’s arrival as a ruler to British India and finally the independent and Republic India. The author has done justice to every era described in different chapters ensuring that all the important facts are covered. Author has also written separate articles on some famous incidents from the respective eras too. The map is shared with each chapter to make it easier for the readers to understand which parts of India were covered during the respective reign.

This book feels as if you have entered in a very big museum where all the historical characters are alive and are passing on their ruling powers from one dynasty to the other in front of your eyes. Also, you can imagine all these coins in your hands as author has described right from their size to their dimensions to what has been carved or scripted on it. I am glad I have this book in my shelf. I shall ensure that I manage to go through it every now and then to ensure I know everything about India and its rulers right from the beginning. This book is special and distinct for sure. I liked how author ended the book telling the readers about how time has changed where coins are becoming irrelevant and digital transactions such as cashless arrangements and bitcoins are gaining the momentum. Author should be appreciated for making this non-fiction book bifurcated into different chapters sound like a continuous fictional story. I give this book 4.5* out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA