Book Review: The Poetry of a common Indian Female By Virendra Narayan Desai

About the book

Whether a manager of a multinational bank or a lady security guard outside the ladies changing room in any shopping mall- A common Indian woman (in that case, any nationality!) fights all the circumstances with head on attitude! They can go to any limit for looking after their children and family. Fate only gives them one option- FIGHT! They fought, fought hard and finally conquered the destiny. Why? - Well, some of them, just to feed their children, and some of them to defy the barriers that were put upon them. As they say - Winners have scars! All the ladies in this book are winners and they do have scars! Want to know, how did they get it? and still came out victorious with a bright and a dazzling smile? Welcome to 'The Poetry of a Common Indian Female'. Come along and witness these truly spectacular, motivational stories of Common Indian Females, which would warm your heart. Witness these women as they fight; and re-live their stories! 

About the Author:

Virendra Narayan Desai is an Indian author. Born in Mumbai, India, Virendra obtained his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the Shivaji University, Kolhapur. He is equally interested in, both from the smallest of atoms to the biggest of stars. This is his first book and plans to write many more (in short, always!)

He is currently based in Mumbai and is working on his second novel.

Author Website- www.virendradesai.com 

My review:

The book is a very different approach to narration of stories. While we read the success stories of famous people, we feel a trickle of inspiration. But this book is a one of its kind, for it tells the stories which inspire to the core. They are common women like the readers, and what has set them apart from others is the fact that they have been warriors.

No wonder three cheers go for the intention and motivation behind the writing of this book.

However, the book is not a package. Somehow it lacks the expression to elicit the kind of response and empathy and praise that such a work should. The narration does appreciate the struggles of the women mentioned in each chapter, but it doesn't appeal at once. Somewhere the usage of words and expression phrases go awry. Some stories looked more awe-inspiring than others, which should not have been the case. 

I especially liked how the narrator built a rapport with some ladies in the book. But there was still scope for improvement as far as reading pleasure and bibliophilic utility was concerned.

My Judgement:

Not the best literary piece, but certainly the best humanitarian piece out there. A one time read.

Book Links:

All images and information sourced from goodreads.

Book review: The Homing Pigeons By Sid Bahri

About the book:

In the middle of the catastrophic 2008 recession, Aditya, a jobless, penniless man meets an attractive stranger in a bar, little does he know that his life will change forever

When Radhika, a young, rich widow, marries off her stepdaughter, little does she know that the freedom that she has yearned for is not exactly how she had envisioned it.

They say Homing Pigeons always come back to their mate, no matter where you leave them on the face of this earth. Homing Pigeons is the story of love between these two unsuspecting characters as it is of lust, greed, separations, prejudices and crumbling spines.

About the Author: 

A hotelier by education, an ex-banker and a senior executive in the outsourcing industry, Sid gave up a plush career in the outsourcing industry to follow his passions. Based out of Ranikhet, he is now a struggling entrepreneur and a happy writer. A self- proclaimed eccentric, he is an avid blogger who loves to read and cook. Cooking stories, however, is his passion. The Homing Pigeons is his debut novel. He can be reached at sidd.bahri@gmail.com

Book Trailer:

My Review:

“It is always difficult for a person with a job to empathize with someone who doesn't.” Clearly, the author reads the minds of humans adeptly. Though not unusual, a debut author having a deep insight into human psychology is a welcome change, specially when this insight deploys itself to use not just over the hardihood and impudence of youth, but also a meaningless, hollow adulthood.

As the product of this insight, the author presents to you two  identifiable, fallible characters: Radhika and Aditya.

Since in the deep dungeons of a debt-ridden life, there is little respite, our male protagonist turns out to be a typical professional-out-of-job-spending-fortune-drowning-sorrow in pegs of alcohol, thereby clouding his thinking while ironically seeking to cleanse it. Then we have the other imperfect protagonist Radhika, who seems to fallen in every possible misfortune, not on account of ill-fate, but by virtue of indecision.

Coming from a debut author, this is a remarkable, if not stellar piece of work, in that he manages to somehow create people out of those characters, and not just hollow puppets compelled to perform as the writer has suggested. That is the gem in this work: It has been written so convincingly that it just skips your mind that it has an extremely contemporary plot, which has all the cons of having an overdose of three quirks: lust, greed and indecision.

Alternating between narrations by the two of them, the reader is transported through the various stages in their lives at an immaculately panoramic mode. However, the fact that the fallibility and imperfection is every now and then highlighted only by the breach of moral conduct, lack of a moral conscience and indecision as regards their physical relationships is a bit of a put-off.

Nevertheless, it has many such heart-rending instances whereby the reader earnestly wishes to sympathize with the characters who have for long been living a life of compromise. Because, “this is the reward for leading a loveless life”. Indeed, the author weaves expressive, analeptic soliloquy and assuaging monologues much to the reader's fulfillment.

There are moments when the reader is compelled to put down the book and, wearing a toothy smirk, contemplate; for instance when the male lead says, “Many complications in my life occurred when I enhanced my vocabulary to include words like guilt, morals and cheating. Ignorance is definitely more blissful.” or “I guess God is a little convoluted. He does not always favor good people.” It is only later that the whole relevance of these confessions is perceptible to the reader.

With a cathexis in all acts of protagonists, it makes even the ugly bearable.

Amidst countless revelations of the reality of (read: sham) NGOs, of the fickle-mindedness of human beings, of the agony and mirth of re-starting one's life et al, is a far momentous sequence of emotions: love, followed by practicality, quandary, repentance and finally atonement for the follies.

Best line: If that wasn't love, then maybe love didn't exist.

I wondered how simple life would be if there was no currency. No notes made of paper or plastic that differentiated between people. Or if there had to be a currency, then why it couldn't just be love?

The ending is abrupt, somehow the plot appears predictable and repetitive, but the presentation is so raw, jacose, amusing, and umbriferous of dingy realities, that a reader cannot help but feel a “book hangover” upon parting with it.

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