Book Review: Breathing Two Worlds by Ruchira Khanna

About the Book:

Neena Arya, a Delhi-born goes abroad for

further studies and decides to settle down there. Determined to be a 'somebody'

from a 'nobody' she blends with the Americans via the accent and their

mannerisms while having a live-in relationship with her European boyfriend,

Adan Somoza.

When illness hits home, Neena rushes to

meet her ailing dad. Tragedy strikes and amidst the mingling with relatives and

friends, she finds herself suffocated with the two different cultures that she

has been breathing since she moved to the United States. How will she strike a

balance between both the cultures as she continues to support her widowed

mother? Will she be able to do justice to her personal and professional life

after the loss?

Amidst the adjusting she bonds with an

ally and learns about ties beyond blood. On what grounds will she be able to

form an invisible thread that she has longed for since childhood?

Breathing Two Worlds ventures into

cultures and ethnicity allowing Neena to ponder upon her foundation and

priorities.

Available

on

Amazon

Book Trailer: 

About the Author

Ruchira Khanna, a biochemist turned

writer, left her homeland of India to study in America, where she obtained her

Master’s degree in Biochemistry from SJSU and a degree in Technical Writing

from UC Berkeley.

After finishing her studies, Ruchira

worked as a biochemist at a Silicon Valley startup for five years. After the

birth of her son, Ruchira took a job as a technical writer, so that she could

work from home. Soon, she began doing freelance writing work as well.

Her love of writing grew and she started

working on her own books. After four years of freelancing, Ruchira published

her first book, a fiction novel for adults called Choices.

Then came the children’s book The

Adventures of Alex and Angelo: The Mystery of the Missing Iguana. She got a

thumb’s up review from Kirkus Reviews

In January 2016, she has published her

second fictional novel Voyagers into the Unknown. It talks about the quest for

happiness as the heavy hearted tourists travel miles from different parts of

the world to Raj Touristry in Agra, India. Return to their respective home with

a healed heart. This book talks about their journey!

In Breathing Two Worlds, Ruchira talks

about ethnicity and cultures, and helps to strike a balance via a fiction-drama

novel as her characters breathe two worlds.

In addition to writing books, she is a

holistic healer associated with Stanford Healing Partners and also maintains a

blog of daily mantras on Blogspot, called Abracabadra. Ruchira currently

resides in California with her family.

Find

her on:

Website Blog

My Review (3.5/5)

The book had me at its idea. The metaphoric title seems just apt, and someone who relocates to another continent/country can very well relate to the conundrum. The story follows the journey of Neena Arya as she adapts to the professional lifestyle and embraces the work culture of a new culture while still keeping herself grounded to her roots.
This dilemma is as old as time, or at least time since travel was invented. But the point is the story was simple, lucid and easy. It is a quick read too, and the occasional quirks of India and the clashes of the culture are an entertaining element.
The millennial generation will have these lives over and over again, in different forms, so the story makes a whole lot of sense. The interactions between the family members of the protagonist and her boyfriend were warm and cordial, which was a welcome departure from the cliche.

At some point I may have thought that this theme has now been beaten to death and something more crispy is worth exploration, but the story, due to its simplicity, made me finish it till the end. If for nothing else, for the metaphor!

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An Ode To The Name Of This Blog... And To Friendship

A friend recently sent me a pendant (Image below) that has the name of this very blog on it. She moved on to a different continent earlier this year, and what has ensued is what always ensues: we are unable to synchronise Skype calls, there's hardly any regularity to when we catch up on each others' lives, and we are making friends without each other. To add spice to the situation, we are growing up. But, I digress. Coming back to the pendant. The gift was sure, shipped from another continent, and all, but this was among the thoughtful gifts. You know, when real effort goes into gifting something to someone the meaning of which only a few people can totally comprehend? The kind of thoughtfulness that makes the gift sacred. 

Dear friend, it doesn't remind me of you, it doesn't smell of you either. Heck, we haven't even lived any of our memories with it. But it is still sacred, because it somehow magically managed to traverse its material meaning, and slipped into my heart. Slipped inside enough to make me get back to poetry after 4 years. Need I say, thank you?

Sometimes, You Hold On...

There's a thin line, an important one
The difference 

Between moving away and drifting apart

There are no full stops,

Not really anyway.

Because, life ends in a comma

With unfinished business

And words unsaid, and gifts slated to be delivered

In the middle of a sentence, just like tha

With an 'almost'
And a blurred vision
Of what could be, in an alternate universe

And so we count upon 

The difference

Between moving away and drifting apart

Geographies will define the former,
We will just be silent spectators,
But we will always make the two minutes' skype call
Worth all the postponement, and scheduling

Yes, it will hurt.
It will suck to admit what we know deep down
The eventuality of the numbing distance

And we will hope, secretly
To wither away together, in that hilly cottage
We talked about, I hope you remember?

Against all odds, that once again
Our paths will cross, and
we will make new memories

No, I don't think we can relive the ones from the past
because that's what they are:
Past.

And in the meantime,
gestures are all we have
To stain each other with laughter
The kind reminiscent of our clumsiness
(mostly your clumsiness, though)

And this pendant will not just be a necklace
It will always be more:
A reminder. A token. A keepsake

No, it wouldn't go with that dress
or wouldn't seem right to be worn at
That conference

But I will hold on to it, tight
Like my life depends on it
Because it does

Do you hear? I will wear it on my sleeve
Because when all is said and done,
this is the nearest I have to your spirit,
And to the frolic of our compatibility and love.

The miles are tangible, the distance isn't
It just is an intangible demon conspiring to drift us apart,
supported by the vagaries of time.

But with this tied to me, we wouldn't let it. 

There's a difference 

Between moving away and drifting apart

And we shall always try to hold on to that difference.
That's the noble thing to do. 

PS: There has been a spelling error. It has been intentional. those who get the meaning, will get the meaning!

Book Review: Anti-social Network by Piyush Jha

About the book:

When college students across Mumbai are murdered one after another in gruesome ways, inspector Virkar from the crime branch is called in. As Virkar investigates, he stumbles upon a ruthless gang of young, tech-savvy miscreants who use social networking sites and the Internet for blackmail and sextortion. But how are the two cases linked? And who is the mastermind behind these killings?
As the case grows murkier, the computer-challenged Virkar finds himself greatly out of his depth, chasing a killer who always seems to be one step ahead and a group that soon trains its sights on him. He must race against time to unmask the gang and to find the murderer before his reputation is ruined forever. Thick with suspense and layered with grit, anti-social network brings to you inspector Virkars toughest case yet.
From the bestselling author of Mumbaistan and compass box killer comes the third riveting instalment in the Mumbaistan crime-thriller series. The story once again features inspector Virkar, who is now a popular protagonist amongst readers of crime-thrillers. Anti-social network will appeal to fans of the authors books as well as find new ones

About the Author:

Piyush Jha is an acclaimed film director, ad filmmaker and the author of the bestselling novel, Mumbaistan and Compass Box Killer.

A student political leader at university, he pursued a career in advertising management after acquiring an MBA degree. Later, he switched tracks, first to make commercials for some of the country’s largest brands, and then to write and direct feature films. His films include Chalo America, King of Bollywood and Sikandar.

He lives in his beloved Mumbai, where he can often be found walking the streets that inspire his stories.

My Review:

Now, it might seem an exaggeration, but its not: I read the novel, cherished it and really likened it to the mystery thrillers penned by Satyajit Ray. Yes, the details and the plot, and the plot twists are so remarkable that I was compelled to see Feluda aka Felu Babu (the protagonist of Satyajit Ray mystery books) to Inspector Virkar. It is almost as if its Feluda in his contemporary incarnation.

What this novel eventually turned out to be, which is what I really liked about the novel, was the fact that it did not simply follow a trail to unearth or uncover a series of evidence and witnesses in order to reach a conclusion, it also had a very important and different tangent to it: the angle which apprises the reader of how real the threats of privacy and security are, in this age of internet-addiction. It explores the extent of brutality and antipathy that crimes like blackmail, sextortion, and fraudulent impersonation can acquire. This generation, which has often been victimized by crimes perpetrated in/by the virtual world, shall forever be grateful to Jha.












Another part of this riveting novel to look out for are the descriptions of murders and their figurative meanings as are revealed later. I really hope that with this integrity and observation skills, Inspector Virkar becomes an enviable character, and the author, a pioneer of this hitherto unexplored genre of thrillers.

A group of college students gone morally decrepit. A psychologist with an nondetachable place in this equation. A police system of complacency. A hacker, who retains "ethics" in his activities, and deploys his talent to the help of Virkar.

How a seemingly solid, foolproof, in-frangible, expert network evaporates, coagulates and coalesces on the altar of one woman's revenge and another man's incessant pursuit of a way beyond the deadlock, while the threads of evidence refuse to weave into a meaningful something, is at the core of this novel.

With its arcane description of the repugnant crimes, an insight into the threats posed by the virtual world, and an underlying manifestation of a troubled, frail teenage psychology, this book is totally totally worth the time and money spent on it. The crisp, accurate narrative which has, to the delight of the reader, no verbosity, is a major puller. A LOT of use of colloquial phrases might be a slight put-off, and I hope the next edition may carry footnotes explaining the same.

And yes, another character to watch out for, Naina, sarcasm personified!

Best Lines:

Lets give you a dose of the macabre murder mystery:

"The knife was incredibly sharp. She had intended to take only a trial swipe, but the blade sliced through the flesh with surprising ease.
My Judgement:
This thriller is packed with undying suspense, layers of mystery, and an enchanting plot setting, that will not let you put it down."

Book Video:

Watch this video to dig deeper into the secrets of the book!

The book was received as part of Reviewers Programme on The Tales Pensieve

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