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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I met Dan Brown and... ASDFGHJKL

Well, when I registered for the Penguin Lecture, and received my passes with much toil, I realized that when it comes to the following for Dan Brown, I have a lot of competition. But, what I failed to imagine was that there would be serpentine queues outside the venue, and people must have queued hours before the seating was to begin. Not to mention, the length of the queues was such that they went all the way to the dark shadows cast by the trees beyond the Asian Games Village complex. So many registrations had been cancelled, I should have surmised that the turnout would be overwhelming. Because when Dan Brown entered and was welcomed with a deafening applause, he seemed overwhelmed with surprised elation over the cheers and the standing ovation, perhaps, he was flattered by the magnitude of stardom his works have acquired for readers in India.

Brown who told the enthusiastic audience, some 1000-odd readers of all ages, that he visited India first when he was 19, and felt like he had come home.
I am still in trance of having seen the author and having heard him live, just a few hours before, so I will just highlight the best parts of those 70 minutes spent at Siri Fort auditorium. The lecture was titles 'Codes, Science and religion'




1. His stardom surpassed that of Amitabh Bachhan, a fact that the moderator for the event, Rajdeep Sardesai, himself a Penguin Author, stated matter-of-factly. Yet, he arrived well in time, and it was sharp 7 when he began. So much punctuality, it just had my friend in tears. With girls swooning over him as he arrived at the venue, one could have taken him for an actor. His words: Wow. Thank you. what a nice welcome. Terrific welcome. I am thrilled to be here.

2. His hilarity: Personally, I thought he would be a serious personality, but then I guess, Brown never ceases to surprise his fans. Joking about how the battle between science and religion is the definiton of his life: with a mother who was a church organist and a father who was a mathematics teacher. And the fact that sunday church service were as much a part of his childhood as were his fathers calculation over the best pizza deal at the pizza parlor.

3. He brought the number plates of his parents' cars that reflect their personalities, and his first book, that had a print run of one copy and was called ‘The Giraffe, The Pig and the Pants on fire' all the way across the ocean.

4. He even made fun of the fact that people find it upsetting when he asks the most obvious questions about God, telling the intrigued audience how he is assumed to be wreaking vengeance on God for not answering some childhood prayers. He expressed his confusion over reconciling the difference between science and religion.

5. All religions teach us the same thing: Kindness is better than cruelty, Creation is better than destruction and
Love is better than Hate

6. He was inspired by Hardy Boys to write.

7. He implores us to read the scriptures as metaphors, fables and myths so that we can draw our own lessons.

8. Pen is mightier than the sword. I believe it is. Because the thing about pen is that one pen can reach millions and millions of people. But with a sword, you have to work pretty hard to reach a million people.


Did I tell you he had to be encircled by bouncers from preventing him being attacked by crazy fans?

Check out why I love Angels and Demons here.

You Know you are a book-lover when...(Part 1)

We have all read books at some point of time or another. Here's a checklist to know whether you have qualified fully to be called a bibliophile (or bookaholic, or book-lover, or book-addict). And even if you have done these or felt these just once, we the bibliophiles are more than happy to accord the warmest welcome to you!

• You love books: Or should I say, you are in love with your books. It might seem like stating the obvious, however a bibliophile's love is a true one, it knows no boundaries, it sees no limits. They love books for not just the printed word, but also for the smell, the feel, the touch. Or, if it is an e-book, they sit glued to their e-device for hours. And they take care of their books like their babies, selfless love, you see!

• You sniff books: Yes, You heard it right, book-lovers love the smell of their books. Many of them are also into the practice of recognizing the publishing house by the smell and/or texture of the paper or the format of their electronic counterpart.

• You make excuses : From not going out on get-togethers, to delaying/cancelling hangouts with friends, you have done it, at least once so as to be able to read and finish the book by your favourite authors. And yes, without any compunction, you devise pretexts to do this, because you feel that it is a sacred ritual that needs to be attended before anything else.

 

• You prefer the company of books to people :The company of people entertains you, but that of books enthralls you beyond measure. And then you are judged: people call you anti-social, introvert. You see, that is the reason you love books. They don't judge you, nor they demand explanation.

• You sneak at work/while studying: It seems like a forbidden sin, and yet when you are in the middle of a good book, you cannot help but read snippets from the book every now and then. Troubled by the inconvenience, at last you give in to the temptation and abandon everything to read the book till the very last.

• You love books as gifts: You love it when people give you books as gifts, or even better,gift cards. There's a litmus test: you always gift books to people according to their tastes, but your friends have a tough time deciding which book to gift you. 

• You sleep with books: Ah! This one is the best. You retire to bed for the day. And inevitably there's the book in your hand, reading which you travel to another world, and without realizing slip into slumber while cuddling with the book. :-) This feeling's like no other.

• You are a book hunter: Yes, wherever you go, You are on the lookout for books. You check out the shelves of your host, you forage and ransack all places for libraries, bookstores or other nooks harbouring books.

• Your visits to bookstores disturb your budget: Each time you resist, first the urge to visit a bookshop and then the itch to buy books. No matter how hard you try,you end up spending a large fortune of your budget on books. In the aftermath of a book-splurge, you barely make your ends meet throughout the month.

• You fall in love with the fictional character: Not just fangirls, even booklovers find the man (or woman) of their dreams in a chapter.

• You cry when a good book ends: By their syntactical function, books with a poignant end make you cry. You are choked when your favorite character dies, you don't feel like talking to anyone for hours and can mourn for days. Yet, no one understands and life goes on, much to your grief.

• You experience book hangover: After having completed the book, It takes you time to make sense of reality. And then, you are incapable of starting another book because you cannot keep your thoughts from the previous one. The journey back into reality is tough. And if you haven't felt such as yet, try reading The Fault In our Stars, without crying for days following that.

• You find it difficult to part with your book: Yes, that practice of lending books. Accustomed to keeping your books like your babies, you cannot afford to get them hurt. 

• You love to get photographed with your books: Oh! yes, you love to get photographed with a book in your hand, by your side, or on the adjacent table, you flaunt your love of books, becuase.....they are the ultimate fashion accessory that never go out of trend. Isn't?

• Your to-do list never seems to diminish: So many books, so little time. But then there is nothing like so many books.

• You are always confused which book to pick next: As much as it is a moment of excitement, it is a moment of confusion.

• Your library card is always issued to the last: Despite telling yourself to keep at least one slot empty for moment of crisis, you end up getting as many books as the limit allows. 

• You despise Bookbreakers: That sadistic clan which attempts to tear pages from the books. Oh Lord! Punish them.There is no greater torment than an unfinished book because some blockhead wanted the page to complete the assignment on the last date of returning the book to library.

• You grab every possible opportunity to give book recommendations: You feel it is your sacred duty to give the best recommendations to budding bibliophiles and welcome them to the party.And you are on a mission to turn the world into a panorama of bibliophiles.

• You always want more bookshelves: The ones at your home never seem to suffice, especially not after a visit to the book fair or bookstore.

I can go on and on to enumerate the traits of a bibliophile. Watch out for the second part with a plethora of other characteristics of bibliophiles. I would love to know what other traits you think you possess. Just leave them in the comments section below, and I will include them in the next part of the series.
Happy Reading!