How About A Sin Tonight?

Introducing...

An edge-of-the-seat thriller from the bestselling author of A Thing beyond Forever and That Kiss in the Rain.

How About A Sin Tonight?

Title : How About A Sin Tonight?

Author : Novoneel Chakraborty

ISBN : 9788184000313

Publisher : Random House India

Book Summary :

In the biggest casting coup of the Hindi film industry, five top stars are signed up for a new movie: Shahraan—a living legend still lamenting the loss of his first love; Reva and Neev—newcomers allied in a common journey; Nishani—the celebrity kid who must avenge her father’s untimely death; and Kaash—the actor harbouring a secret love from his past. As their intimately intertwined personal stories take centre stage, the industry’s underbelly is left exposed for all to see. By the time the curtain draws to a close, the gossip-hungry media has enough fodder on its plate to last a lifetime.

Novoneel Chakraborty, bestselling author of A Thing beyond Forever and That Kiss in the Rain, unveils the grime behind the glitz, the insecurities and compromises, in a world where aspirants come prepared to strike a Faustian bargain. A beguiling tale of love, ambition, jealousy, and betrayal, How About a Sin Tonight? will leave you asking for more.

About The Author :

Novoneel Chakraborty is the writer of two national bestselling novels, A Thing beyond Forever and That Kissin the Rain, which have been devoured by thousands all over the country. They have also appeared in numerous bestsellers’ lists at different points in time since their releases. One of his articles, ‘My Mother’, has appeared in a book compilation titled Woman: Many Hues, Many Shades, alongside other veteran Indian authors. A fulltime writer, he has written a story and a screenplay, scheduled to go on the floor soon, for a two-time National Award-winning Bengali filmmaker. He is currently working as a scriptwriter on two Hindi film projects. He also pens ‘NovoSphere’, a popular blog on life and inspiration, featuring one-paragraph stories. Posts of Novo Spherehave featured in various national and international websites.He lives in Mumbai.

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And Then It Rained

Introducing....

And Then It Rained

Title : And Then It Rained : Coz Life Ain't Always a Fairytale

Author : Gaurav Dashputra
ISBN : 9380349572
Publisher : Srishti Publications

Book Summary :

“It’s better to let go of someone who loves you... 

than keeping him in... love with you when you know 

you cannot be with him forever...” 

This is what Aarti had told Aman a night before she left him forever...with nothing but those memories of the rains. 

Rains have always been a part of Aman's happiness..! His first bike ride...his first gold medal...his first kiss... it has rained on every occasion! 

Rains have always been SPECIAL! And he believes that all bad things in his life will come to an end with the rains. 

Nagpur...That is where Aman Sarin has lived all his life. That is where he dreamt that someday he would be the next big thing in Bollywood. 

After moving to Mumbai to pursue his education his life is nothing short of a fairytale...he has what most teenagers want...a great group of friends...the charm and the popularity...and to top it all a hot girlfriend. 

They say life is a vicious circle of sorrow and happiness. So what happens when Aman’s fairytale goes wrong? What makes him the guy whom everyone hates...when once he was the guy everyone adored? 

Will Aman put back the pieces of his life and rise above all else? Will his dream of filling SRK’s shoes ever come true? 

But most importantly for Aman...after a rough summer... Will it Rain Again?

Excerpt from the book...

Bombay Rains 2008

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Mumbai’s Chatrapati Shivaji

International Airport…the outside temperature is 27 degree

Celsius. We hope you have a pleasant stay in Mumbai…thank you

for choosing Jet Lite.’ The air hostess announced

I was here. Mumbai…I was in Mumbai. The city of dreams…the

business capital of India. A city where more than a thousand people

come every day to fulfill their dreams. Some come here to get a job.

Some come here to make it in movies. Some come here to become

Sachin Tendulkar. Well as for the rest they just come here in search

for a better life. Everybody just wants to make a name for himself.

Everybody just wants to make it big. For some of them their dreams

do get shape and turn into reality. But for the others…what can I

say…I guess Mumbai happens to them. As for me…I was just a guy

who had come here to get his Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and

Surgery. But somewhere within me too there was this boy with stars

in his eyes and a dream that someday I might become the next Shah

Rukh Khan.

I claimed my baggage and hired a taxi and was soon travelling

along the streets of Mumbai. Everything seemed to be so fast here.

Everyone seemed to be in so much of a hurry; speeding vehicles on

the Western Express highway. People running across roads before the

signal turned red again making their way to board those overcrowded

trains which looked as if they would break down anytime. Something

like a traffic jam created such a ruckus amongst people like the world

was coming to an end. Over the years that I have spent in Mumbai I

can describe the city as…yeh sheher me ek apna hi nasha hai. Mumbai

to me is like indigenous liquor. We drink it all in…it may not always

go down smooth…you may love it you may hate it…but once you

are addicted to it…you can’t live without it. I had been born and

brought up in Nagpur where I had lived all my life until now. Nagpur

was a city which ran at its own dilly dally pace; a place where if you

had to meet someone at five you would have to tell that person to be

ready at four. And even if that person did manage to get ready by

four for your meeting and you got late…well who cares…its Nagpur

after all. So the sheer presence of the quick pace of this city thrilled

me.

About the Author :

Gaurav Dashputra is currently completing his medical education from Dr.D.Y.Patil University in Navi Mumbai. Originally from Nagpur where he finished his schooling, he now lives in Mumbai where he plans to settle down. But most of the odds are against that. 

And Then It Rained is his debut novel. He has written two plays for his college festival and is gifted with a great sense of humor and wit which has always helped him be a crowd pleaser. 

Gaurav loves to swim and was a national gold medalist in his school days. He is a huge foodie and loves to eat. He is a huge movie buff and a diehard fan of Bollywood movies. He pretty much watches everything. If you see a mysterious black Santro on the streets of Navi Mumbai post-midnight you can pretty much be sure it’s him. Stop him, ask him to pull over and say hi without hesitation. And if that sounds a little bizarre.


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A Thing Beyond Forever

Finally, after the tiresome weeks of exams and practical records I took a break to read this novel, with the recommendation of a dear friend of mine, Geetu the owner of the book which I borrowed. “A Thing Beyond Forever” by Novoneel Chakraborty, a wonderful book which was powerful enough to shatter the long silence in my blog by urging me to write a review despite the busy schedule with exams. So, here I’m starting, keeping the book aside after reading but my heart heavy with the mixed emotions of sorrow and bliss.

The protagonist, Dr. Radhika Sharma is 29 years old with brownish complexion, cute nose, glistening lips and the sharp curves adorning her body which is always clad in cotton shirts, pants or jeans. She is indeed one of the best among the young doctors and is labeled as an arrogant feminist, because she prefers reading in her free time instead of gossiping, never gave a chance to any male even to propose a date or she is a presumed virgin who spoke her mind. Her prized possession, the diary of Raen Verma, thirteen long years back when he was a teenager. Raen, born as the second son in the family, has always been an obedient child to his parents. To his utter bewilderment, his father gets a transfer which makes them shift to Guwahati in mid June. Changing schools, making new friends and missing Kolkata and the old buddies in an unexpected time is too much for Raen to bear. He starts sharing all his thoughts and memorable moments with his diary friend. As Radhika starts reading the diary, readers are taken back to the past by Raen’s words along with Radhika whose memories mingle with those moments in the diary.

The plot is unique in its own way. The three main characters of the story belong to three age groups, Radhika who is 29 years old, Raen who is then a teenager and small Laye of 9 years. The author has skillfully narrated the story entwining the three age groups at correct phases. Sometimes the story is by the words of a teenager and at times focused on Radhika and her present life. The blend of these two stages, past and the present is simply superb!

It speaks about love, life and commitment and urges us to think beyond the usual frame where our mindsets are trapped in. As humans we are tend to do the things even if we know that it will be painful to go through. The following lines were a wonderful self realization for all.

“Is there any woman in this world who doesn’t know how much pain she needs to absorb in order to develop and later push a life out of her? And is there any woman in this world who, knowing the fact, doesn’t want to give birth, at least once?”

Leave aside the unique plot; it’s the writing style which should be praised more. The language was so poetic and melodious which was soothing the senses. It was quite advanced compared to many 100rs Indian fiction which come out into the stores nowadays. The writer is blessed with the talent to manage a rich vocabulary so smoothly and each incident was vibrant, enriched with beautiful phrases, metaphors and personification. From the very first page I was lost in a beautiful dream and I fell in love with the book by each passing sentence. And it was truly the writing style which made me continue reading other than the plot or the suspense which the story contained. Be it an emotional outbreak or just a daily chores, every incident was described into minute detail in an intense and picturesque manner. The way the author compares the nature with the situations is blissful.

“Every night the moon admires the sky or is it the other way around? It has to be, the other way round. Why else would the darkness increase in the absence of it muse?”

In an era which the authors force the raw sex scenes to their stories in order to get sold, A Thing Beyond Forever is adorned by few intimate scenes which solely depict the true ecstasy and a pure form of love rather than savage or animal lust. In the beginning I was little uncomfortable and disappointed with the swearing words which were constantly repeating at short intervals as I felt it’s a scar to the beautiful and serene language which flows throughout the story. But later when I think back I believe that the swearing words were appearing in the parts of story written by the teenagers words and was doing nothing but making the incidents more realistic and natural.

All in all, I have no enough words to praise the book. It truly is an artistic piece of literature among the modern fiction. I would highly recommend the book to all the readers out there. It’s a book worth sparing your precious time to read.

 “The quality of a song is judged by the number of souls it stirs.” The author once mentioned as such in the novel. I believe it’s same with a book too, his story indeed stirred my soul and I’m sure it’s same with the rest of his readers as well.

Ending the note with few lines from the story, so true yet so bitter. Salute to those beautiful hearts which cherish love even when they know that the reward for every true love is not love!

“But once in love who ever died an emotional virgin? Those who are lucky are simply lucky and those who have been chosen to experience the schizophrenic side of love know their reward, in the end, will only be a shrug from the sacrifices they once made in order to hold on to what was never theirs.”

A Roller Coaster Ride!

A Roller Coaster Ride by Saumil Shrivastava

After a long silence (on my blog), I’m planning to take you all on an adventurous trip with this post i.e. a review of the novel which I enjoyed a lot while reading and which truly deserves the title of the story “A Roller Coaster Ride”, as I’m still feeling dizzy while starting with this article although it was just few hours back that I finished reading that book.

The protagonist, Maddy is a final year B.Tech student from none other than IIT Bombay, one of the most famous, sought after & prestigious institutes of technology in India. Maddy is quite different from his batch mates and seniors as he prefers chatting online with strange girls whom he comes across through Orkut and Yahoo chat and stays away from boozing & hanging out with friends. He begins his story memorizing an impressing and funny incident which happened in the period of Mood Indigo, the IIT Bombay Cultural Festival and the most awaited event of all the guys in IIT of his final year.

Getting placed in one of the best companies, is a tension for any final year student in India and IITians are no different. Despite of being an eight pointer, Maddy wasn’t able to make it to a reputed company which offered a hefty package. It wasn’t that he didn’t work hard or did not prepare well for interviews, but it was all hard luck. As the writer says, “every dog has his day..” finally Maddy got placed as a business analyst in another reputed company. Later on, he confesses his love to Pooja, a girl whom he met on orkut and was dating recently and makes her his first ever girlfriend.

Pooja is an ordinary girl, who is loving and caring. It shows that she was much more attracted to Maddy because of his IIT tag which gives her future, a financial assurance. Everything flows smoothly until Maddy has to settle in Gurgaon for his job and the two lovers are forced to part & live through a long distance relationship. Maddy gets settled in a flat near to his office with four other roommates, Satya, Harsh, Dhananjaya and Kundan. All three except Satya were from IIT Bombay and were placed in the same company.  Unlike his roommates and other colleagues, Maddy is determined to work hard and be successful in his career. He is enthusiastic about his work and is ready to give his best for his first ever project. In the office he meets Divya, a south Indian girl who is quite overweight and average looking. She is a very chirpy and bubbly kind of a girl who attracts the attention of the office crowd and happens to be Maddy’s buddy for the first one month and also the project leader. From their very first meeting Maddy is quite impressed about her smartness and admires her. Office work separates Maddy from his flat mates, which makes them upset and portrays his unfriendly behavior.  As he keeps on putting all his efforts in to the office project,his girlfriend Pooja feels abandoned, neglected and deeply hurt. Even Maddy gets irritated with her behavior which leads into much complications in their long distance affair, whereas Divya proves to be his best friend with her loving, caring and encouraging nature. But the story loses its smoothly flow suddenly, few twists happen which rock Maddy’s love life, friendship & office life and the readers are thrown into a roller coaster ride thereafter.

The story is quite detailed and narrates the various incidents of Maddy’s life in a crisp manner. I really appreciate the description of his interviews and the office life after orientation. Never have I come across such detailed description about office life and I feel this would help lot of teenagers to know how office life is, which is quite different from the college life, which is carefree and full of fun. When project plans, staff meetings, client feedback are just a few out of many things to stress yourself, frequent coffee hours can be relaxing and fun with your colleagues. Throughout the story, friendship and its importance have been highlighted. The behavior and the strong bond created amongst guys when they happen to be roommates is quite vibrant. I would take the opportunity to quote a statement from the book which depicts a wonderful truth of the life.

“There is no soul around who is not going through one or other problem but it all depends on how we take it. Either we can keep cribbing about it or we can focus on doing right thing at the right time. It’s all about how we perceive things.”

“The Charm Lies in Living Life”

Although I loved the story, I was little disappointed with the writing style of the author at certain junctures. The first few chapters were well composed and so were the last ones, but in the middle part of the story, the writing pattern has lost its charm. I felt more like reading a drama script than a novel as it was almost full of dialogues and that too not properly specified who was speaking them. As only half of the dialogues were in inverted commas, it confused me, whether rest of the lines are dialogues or just compact descriptions of the situations. Few very important incidents were lacking necessary description of the emotions & behavior of the characters and were rather covered up with tasteless dialogues which bored me and often urged me to stop reading midway. May be there ware so many details to cage up in limited number of pages that writer preferred to go with the conversations. But according to me, if most of the common dialogues were shortened to descriptions and spiced up with emotions, feelings and the surroundings, then those chapters would have been much more interesting.

But overall I would call this as a good story and rate it 4 out of 5. Especially the last few chapters were quite gripping with their twists & turns which will keep the reader glued with a bout of excitement and curiosity. The way this book ends is quite unpredictable and shocking and while reading, I didn’t even have a faint idea about such a climax. A nice book for one & all and I assure you that it will be a breathless roller coaster ride for everyone, so beware and tighten your seat belts!

Ending this post with a nice line I came across while reading the book that has been borrowed from the famous movie Shawshank Redemption.

“Get busy living or get busy dying!”

Life Is What You Make It

Many would take it as a self improvement book by its title and the cover. According to me it’s a wonderful novel which can inspire the reader and make them realize the power within them.

The story unwinds few years of Ankita Sharma’s life, when she was a young girl, and that was almost two decades back in Cochin, where the story begins. Smart and pretty Ankita is a teenager at the brink of adulthood when she takes admission in St. Agnes, one of the most prestigious and the oldest college in the state. Even though being born and raised in a conservative and very much Indian family, just like other girls of her age she also falls in love with her school friend Vaibhav, who was studying in IIT – Delhi.

Restrictions could never dishearten the young lovers who were struck by the cupid arrows for the first time, instead they get encouraged to find their own ways to overcome the difficulties. Ankita and Vaibhav were no any different from other teenage couples. At a time which the modern technology was never a favor for the lovers, the way they managed to keep up their long distance relationship despite all the barriers is admiring. The first two chapters paint a colourful period of Ankita’s life which was blissful and exciting.

Along with her friends Suvi, Charu, Abhi, Dhiren and Christy her college life becomes a wonderful experience for Ankita.  She is a package full of energy and excitement. Her goals are set and mind is focused, with dedication and hard work she sails through her journey, passing each milestone gracefully and remarkably. She wins the college elections and become the Secretary of the Arts Club, scores high in MBA entrance exam and gets selected to one of the best business schools in Bombay.

I find her character selfish and self centered. Proud about her talents and victories, she neglects the people around her and acts rude and heartless towards them. But at the same the same time these qualities make her character more practical than most of the fictional characters we come across in books which are too good to be true.“No matter from where it comes, do not belittle love” A beautiful line I found in the book. May this quote be a salute to all the lovers like Abhi who love someone unconditionally and I wish that these words will make people like Ankita realize their mistakes for ignoring such great love.

Ankita stands strong even in the most chaotic happenings in her life. In most of the situations where a girl would be sensitive and break into tears, she is least shaken. She is so obsessed in her own life and her ambitions to reach the top that life of Bombay seems very promising and tempting to go for it without giving a second thought about what she will be leaving behind. Indeed her life in Bombay was a bunch of surprises to others, as well as to her own self in many ways.

Starting her life with a new chapter in Bombay her enthusiasm knew no bounds.  She tries her hand in many different areas with an unquenchable thirst to reach perfection. Not only she gains amazing academic excellence, but also surprises others with her skills in athletics, poetry and painting. She was climbing the ladder of success step by step marveling everyone.

But every mountain has its valley. One day her journey was twisted unexpectedly. She falls so deep which wasn’t foreseen by her or anybody else. She was thrown out her own life which was then a colourful and promising one to a dark and gloomy future so unpredictable. The story continues with her life afterwards.

I appreciate the author for highlighting a rarely discussed but extremely relevant topic. Ankita’s story would be an eye opener to current society where the mental health issues are still considered as taboo and often hushed up. How many of us will treat as normal and respect a mental health patient just as another patient of some other physical disease? How many of us will be brave enough to reveal that we or one of our family members have a mental health issue? I take the opportunity to quote the lines in author’s words which certainly include a message for all of us to realize and act to make a change.

“See, when you have a fracture you go to an Orthopaedic, right? And when you have a toothache you go to the Dentist? Same way when you have illness in your mind you come to us (Psychiatrist). People have a stigma about it. They do not understand the severity of it. People simply cannot snap out of it, they need to be treated in order to get better.”

The narration of the story is wonderful. It’s descriptive with every minute detail and expressive in every sentence that it would be a great loss even if you miss a single line. The flow of the writing is marvelous and made me get absorbed to the story by each paragraph. The author has used a picturesque language so skillfully which will make the story lively and as if it happens in front of our eyes.

We are often advised to be careful whether we have taken the right path to walk along, but very few of us will bother to stop and wonder whether the right path we have taken is really the path we wanted to take. All of us are very busy chasing after our dreams and goals that hardly we get time to realize this fact that most of those dreams are not our own but the ones which were given by the society by default. Life is what you make it, so be sure that you will make your life what you want it to be!

I highly recommend the book to everybody. It’s a must read for all and will be a valuable gem to your collection of jewels; your bookshelf. It’s not a book to just read and keep aside. but an emotional teaser to urge the reader to think beyond. Ending the note with an extraction from the book for all of us to think about and add into our lives.

“If you do not laugh for a day, if you have not made someone’s day happier, if you have not appreciated something good that has happened to you and if you have not felt thankful to be alive, then you have wasted that day of your life on earth.”

I Too Had A Love Story

It was mid January 2010, I was back to my hostel, sitting lonely and idle; missing the people whom I loved the most. I was simply surfing the net to find some good Indian fiction books and came across this book. The title “I Too Had a Love Story” urged me to read more about this book and after reading the synopsis I knew instantly that I should be reading this novel! It took me another two weeks to get the book. I happened to finish it at dawn of 4^th February 2010, the day coincidentally being the author’s birthday!

The writing style of the author is amusing. Simple and lucid language which anybody can understand without referring a dictionary and wondering what certain words mean. It’s the most simple yet the most touching story I have read so far. Sometimes I wonder how it’s possible for a story written very simple and short can be the most favorite of mine among every other, but I guess the question itself has the answer in it. The simplicity of the novel itself is the charm to make the reader fall for the book.

It unfolds the story of Ravin and Khushi, a young boy and a girl working in the IT industry and surprisingly sharing few more things in common too. They meet each other in a little different way but a lot common nowadays because of the modernized technology. Yet the story takes a wonderful and surprising turn with them falling in love. Those who haven’t read the story so far might think what is so surprising in two strangers to meet and fall in love, yes it’s natural but their situation was different and would be considered as a situation which is impossible to fall in love by majority of the society. Still, they came across each other, the hearts spoke, they entwined and there bloomed the eternal love which spreads the fragrance even now, and that mere fact makes the story unique.

I love both the main characters adorned with simple lifestyles, innocent dreams and genuine qualities. I admire the strength of them for accepting what their hearts felt and nurture the buds of love in their hearts and let it grow and spread the fragrance beyond eternity without worrying  that the so called criteria or first steps to fall in love was not covered by them. I respect the faith and trust they had upon their feelings and the commitment of Ravin which is so rare to find even in an ordinary love story with number of dates included which are considered as a very practical approach to fall in true love nowadays.

The first half of the story swiftly flows through the happy moments of two innocent love birds far away from each other with no sweet memories of dates in theatre, coffee shops, parks, etc. but only the romantic telephonic conversations to cherish. Still, it was wonderful how they manage to make up to those missing moments and move on with their love story which is as exciting, lovely and pure as of others’.

But, as the author says in the start of the book, “Not everyone in this world has the fate to cherish the fullest form of love. Some are born, just to experience the abbreviation of it.”

The final chapters are the most touching part of the story. An incident which will make each and every heart beat of Ravin’s be a prayer , with every breath he takes he will wish that the next moment everything will be fine , every second he pass the longing and the desire to be with his lover would be more but the chances left will be less and he is helpless. He would wish for the ability to reverse and write back his life story again without the mishaps. A situation, which will make the person realize whether he or she is really in love? Whether his/her love just an infatuation or as pure as they believe?

What will be your life when your better half has left you forever? Only the lonely hearts know and could understand, and the happy hearts will wonder or may be won’t dare to even think of! The last two chapters are the most touching. The story is narrated in such a manner that by each paragraph you will get deeper into the skin of characters so the climax would be painful and leave you wondering how the life can change so drastically in a short span of time. A life so lively and colourful suddenly becomes gloomy, a future you were so excited to explore suddenly becomes a torture to think of stepping into and everything seems futile. You have no any interest to go on with your life and it turns into mere surviving for the sake of your loved ones!

Most of the people will call it a depressing novel. Yes I agree it has a sad end… a very sad end. It’s a love tragedy, but I believe, it’s worth the tears you may shed at the end. It’s a story of an eternal love, a commitment beyond limits which many would consider as impossible or unnecessary.

I consider the novel as an epitome, a living memory of pure love, may be even greater than the world wonder Taj Mahal, as it’s a tribute from a heart which is left alone in the world to survive cherishing only those moments but not live with the person whom he wanted to live those moments with!

Love doesn’t have boundaries, it can happen anywhere anytime, may be in an ordinary way or the  strangest way, but no matter how, its LOVE, it’s pure and eternal and powerful so that the whole universe seems so small in front of it!

I would end my note with the lines which touched my heart so deeply at the start of the book and made me fall in love with it.

“Tere jaane ka asar kuch aisa hua mujh par… tujhe dhoondate dhoondate, main ne khud ko paa liya…”

(Since the day you left…. Something happened in me… I went on searching for you… and found me myself instead…)