“I read her eyes like paragraphs and her tears like chapters, for she didn’t have much to say with words, but rather, silence. And never let them tell you that silence, isn’t beautiful. For silence is what happens when words fall asleep and you must carry the belief that one day they will wake up inside of you.”
Author: Minakshi Thakur
Publisher: Harper Collins India
ISBN: 9789351160298
Genre: Fiction, Literary Fiction
Pages: 224
Source: Personal Copy
When the master of words Gulzar pens down a line for the cover, slaves like me pick it up without another thought. He calls it a novel with a rare ambiance of art and love. That put the book at a certain standard in my head. When I began reading, I was hoping it lived up to what I was expecting.
Lovers Like You And I is set in Delhi during the nineties. The book is a journey of young Nayan, born to an aloof doctor and an Assamese musician. It elaborates her experience of love as she transforms from a young girl to a woman. She meets men and women from varied backgrounds, generations and places, a film maker, a doctor, a student, a painter, who have at some point or the other in their lives, not only been in love but felt it and expressed it differently. It is through these encounters that she is exposed to the various faces of love. However, it is her own story with Salil, a drifter who alternates between poetry and backpacking that forms the core of the plot.
This is an unusual novel that evokes a lost era a time when people wrote letters and cherished the ones they received. With its effortless bilingualism and its seamless use of prose and verse, it challenges our notions of conventional storytelling to take us into a world where emotion rules and where time and leisure take on new meanings.
“Love is the magic word. Minakshi Thakur has revealed the hearts and souls of lovers like you and I. When love is real, the lovers are so unreal. Salil and Nayan never think of the thinkable and tangible. Its a novel with a rare ambience of art and love.” says Gulzar and I whole heartedly agree.
My favorite lines from the book are:
“The sweet delusion of my soul rises in ecstasy like a bubble in a champagne flute, only to kiss the brim and burst into a union with the fluid twilight within… I can see two gold bands swim towards each other, intertwine, then disengage and chase each other, play and frolic in that sea of intoxication. I can almost touch the momentary exuberance of the mad convergence of my world with yours. That joy, fleeting, yet so eternal in its brief permanence, is like the world’s last sea wave lapping at my feet and ebbing away.“
The book moves slowly into your bloodstream and makes you high on emotions. It is a must read if you are a romantic at heart.
Rating: 5/5
Author: Shraddha Soni
Publisher: Random House
ISBN13: 9788184003581
Genre: Spiritual Fiction
Pages: 192
Source: Personal Copy
“An edgy modern-day fable that takes you on a mystical journey with life.” is the best way to describe the book written by the pretty Shraddha.
The story revolves around Siddharth Khanna and follows him around through his journey of spiritual awakening.
It beings with the protagonist having an interesting conversation with his friend Andrea. His anguish of not being able to pursue his dream career as a pilot because of his father, is revealed. He travels to the US in search of a new beginning, instead finds Rhea. Spending time with her lands Siddharth in another trying situation. He is forced into marrying a pregnant Rhea. He joins her father in his business for sustenance. A forced loveless marriage gets the worst out of him, making him indifferent to things around him.
The plot changes lanes when Rhea decides to divorce Siddharth. She also kicks him out of her father’s business, leaving him homeless and penniless yet again. He crashes at his friend Andrea’s for a while. Andrea instigates him to take a journey in search of inner peace. He begins his spiritual quest in Rishikesh. Surrounded with nature at its best, he meet Myrahh. She leads him through the journey that he has travelled a thousand miles for. Enlightening him with what life really means.
Spiritual fiction is an acquired taste. It does not mean the same to everyone, exactly what I felt while reading the book. It can be interpreted in many ways depending on what your mind throws at you. Shraddha tries to answer nagging questions like”who am I?” and “what do I want to be in life?” and is fairly successful in it. If you want to begin a journey of self discovery, here is where you start.
I loved the story, If you sat across Shraddha at your favorite joint sipping on sangrias while she narrated it, you would love it too!
Rating: 3.5/5
Author: Bhavna Bhavna
Publisher: Hachette India
ISBN: 978-93-5009-671-0
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 197
Source: Flipkart
The Diary of a reluctant feminist is a candid account of the authors struggle between being brought up with middle class values and having modern thoughts. Like the cover suggests it is a humorous take on discussing uncomfortable issues with parents, in this case: Divorce.
Bhavna succeeds in painting a graphic image of a full blooded punjabi joint family. With the grandmother “at the top of the food chain” and hierarchy followed like the martial law. The lack of privacy is just one of the problems that arises when the families of seven brothers stay together in the same house. Quirky characters like an eager to help uncle, who scouts the sunday newspapers for grooms make appearances as the story progresses.
The disharmony between generations and the effects it has on all involved comes across nicely. She has made an attempt to sprinkle humor on issues such as weight loss, arranged marriage and inter racial marriage which work very well at most instances.
It like reading a personal diary, so it got its share of rants. Some longer than the others. You sympathize with her at times, and then get to empathizing too. After all being stuck in a loveless marriage isn’t a nice thing to happen to anyone. The parents not being supportive adds to the misery. You can feel the author struggle with stringent so called middle class values and moral rules. The redundancy of the whole exercise leaves a bitter after taste in the mouth.
In short it’s a complicated story of a simple divorce.
Over all the book is a good one time read, just to know what the author has gone through. The beginning of each chapter is with a well written poem and ending is with a check list, a nice twist added there.
Rating: 2.5/5
She woke up with a loud pounding noise in her head. She was dressed a skimpy red dress, her fishnets were torn in a few places. A leather jacket lay on the floor next to the strange bed. In a state of acute delirium, all she could recollected was leaving the hospital in her nurse’s uniform.
Sam had waited very long for a day like today. He sat working frantically at his desk, finishing things so he could leave. He wanted to do everything to make it an unforgettable evening for Layla. They had started dating a few months back. Sam had taken her on dreamy dates almost every weekend. They had gone on long drives into the wilderness a few times. Walked on beaches till they got tired, then lazed there till the sun set.
It was surprising at first then it got unnerving that even when they spent amazing days together, Layla never agreed to spend the night. She would always have an excuse which would lead her home soon after sun down. He had asked her the reason a few times but her answers never satisfied him completely.
“Some day you will know” was her favorite answer.
A hundred theories had crossed Sam’s mind on why she behaved the way she did. From moonlighting as a stripper to being an undercover agent, he had thought of everything. None of them made sense. Layla was was a pretty looking girl, who taught in a school for a living. Loved to go shopping and watch movies. Her favorite color was red, and she did not like ice cream. She had a normal life. There was nothing that said anything different about her, yet there was something about her that muddled him.
His misery was put to end suddenly when out of the blue Layla agreed to have dinner with him at his place. Crimson roses were placed on the table next to the bowl of drunken strawberries. The sheets were changed to black satin and the lights were dimmed. The Bordeaux was chilled. He was cooking her favorite spaghetti in marinara sauce while he waited for her.
She kissed him on his neck at the door. From the instant she walked through the door, he could not take his eyes off her. She was dressed to kill. He had never seen her like that. The black dress made her look sensual, the heels added to the effect. Her eyes looked different too. The plain Jane girl he knew was transformed into a tantalizing woman. He wasn’t complaining.
She placed the bag she was carrying on the table, leaned against it, put a strawberry from the bowl in her mouth and asked, “How long before dinner is ready? in an unusually commanding voice.
Her boldness intrigued him. The stark contrast between day and night baffled him.
“Almost ready” he managed to reply “Are you hungry?”
“Very” she said as she pulled the handcuffs out of her bag and walked towards him.
Cross posted from the http://dailybluepill.com/
Samuel sat on his favorite bench in central park. He had been there every morning for four decades. Reading people was his favorite pass time. People got used to seeing him there till a year back someone noticed he wasn’t around. He still read the faces he saw, the faces that couldn’t see him anymore.
Photo credit: Ashutosh Khandkar http://framingreflections.wordpress.com/
Arjun was having a regular day at work, long meetings, frantic calls, managing his team, making good for the mistakes they made at the same time stopping them from making new ones. He had done this for more than half a day, everyday for a long time. He had gone from having trouble buying his first tie to having a collection of the best ones in a short time.
His phone buzzed again, he looked at it while answering an email. “S calling” it said. He rejected the call. “will call her back” he made a mental note and continued with his mail. It took him less than a minute to forget all about it. Somewhere between discussing the final quotes for one of the overseas deal and ordering pizza for dinner his phone buzzed again. It was a message from S, “I have reached, what time do you land?”
“will take the last flight out, don’t wait up” He replied hurriedly.
A thousand miles away, Seher stood holding her coffee and looking out into nowhere. She was startled when her phone buzzed. The silence was too loud for her city ears. She read the message and smiled.
She picked up her book and walked out into the porch.
She didn’t mind being alone in the house. She loved every corner of it. It was far away from civilization, tucked into the forest. It was very tastefully decorated. The hall had book shelves all around with books neatly placed in them. The walls were lined with framed pictures that Arjun clicked. The kitchen was a small modern unit, with everything they needed. The bedroom had large windows, with white drapes on it. The bed took most of the place in the center of the room. On the wall behind the bed hung a picture titled “Seher”. It was one of the pictures Arjun was particularly fond of. He had captured the sunlight kissing her bare back at dawn.
They had first come to the place with friends from college, fell in love with it and continued to do so at every chance they got. They had bought the place a couple of years ago. The owner of the house was surprised at the unusual transaction. The deed was made in the name of two separate individuals. They weren’t related, dating, or even planning to get married. They even saw other people once a while. They worked and lived in different cities, spoke to each other when they got the time. They did not profess love for each other or claim togetherness for eternity.
They were just together.
It was 3 am by the time Arjun parked the car into the garage. He loved the chill that he felt as he dragged his bag into the doorway. He opened the door as silently as he could and locked it behind him.
The house smelled of Seher. He saw her lipstick mark on the coffee mug next to the sink, her jacket on the chair, her book on the counter. He couldn’t wait to see her. He climbed up the stairs taking his jacket off, then unbuttoning his shirt. He stood at the door looking at her sleep peacefully. He took his shirt off, slipped into bed from behind and put his arm around her.
She snuggled into it without opening her eyes.
“I missed you” he said
“I missed you too” she mumbled as he kissed her.
The cabin was the place where Arjun and Seher met once a year. They stole time from their schedules and lived a lifetime in seven days of togetherness. They then went back into their worlds, only to come back again, the following year.
Cross posted from http://dailybluepill.com/
Simple Plane Girl 