Book Review: God Is A Gamer by Ravi Subramanian

Title: God Is A Gamer

Author: Ravi Subramanian

Genre: Thriller/Fiction

Number of pages: 324

Publisher: Penguin Books India

ISBN-10: 0143421395

ISBN-13: 978-0143421399

Ravi Subramanian always brings to my mind ABBA's famous number which goes like this, "Money, money, money; Must be funny; In the rich man's world." It's this lure of money and the power that comes with it that makes the tales told by Ravi intriguing and engrossing, often leaving the reader at the edge of his/her seat wanting more.

God Is A Gamer, much like his previous four titles is based on the backdrop of banks and all that's associated with it. In this latest edition he taps on the mysterious new form of currency that took everyone by storm early this year, Bitcoins. Being a banker himself, Ravi has been able to explain the finer nuances of how this currency works and its pitfalls, however maintaining the simplistic language making it understandable.

Book Review: Chanakya's New Manifesto

Book:  CHANAKYA’S  NEW MANIFESTO 
 

Author:  Pavan K. Varma 
 

ISBN:  978-93-82277-09-5 
 

Genre:  Non Fiction

Price:  295 ( I got it from Blogadda in a book review program) 
 

Pages:  248 
 

Publisher:  ALEPH BOOK COMPANY 

 Introduction:

Whatever state we are in at present has a direct incentive of our past performance, our present actions based on the correlative implication of our past and present and our future implementation and execution of goals considering all the three timelines taken into prospective.  This isn’t a book to read in a single sitting and grasp everything out of it. It’s meted out of sincere efforts put up to bring out the real scenario of the country with summoned realistic counsels to overcome from rather deplorable condition the country is facing today. This book is laid on connoting the thoughts and preachings of one of the greatest scholar world has ever known Chanakya along with the beliefs and teachings of our father of the nation Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, encompassing the present scenario.  Author's vitalizing feat can also be sensed from the 65 references which he made to make a stronghold case of his treatise.

         An eye opener for all the Indians who aren’t awake yet

Cover Page:

Black hole is of prime importance as it devours everything else. How would you represent a black hole in terms of color? Black isn’t it? Yes this color has significance in the cover page of this book as it encompasses everything India needs to do to envision itself as “Sarvagun Sampoorna” (To bring out the best in terms of completeness).  If an adequate action isn’t taken now we would drown our self to a pitiful grave which is looking more promising similar to engulfing in a black hole.

About the Author:

Pavan K. Varma,studied history at St. Stephen College, New delhi and took a degree in law from Delhi  University.He has been press secretary to the president of India, official spokesman of the Foreign Office, director general of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and India's ambassador to Bhutan. Having taken premature retirement from the Indian Foreign Service, he now seeks to be actively involved in public life.

Pavan K. Varma has authored several acclaimed and bestselling books, among them, Ghalib: The Man, The Times; Krishna: The Playful Divine; The Great Indian Middle Class; Being Indian: The truth about why the 21st century will be India's; Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture and Identity and When Loss is Gain. He has also translated into English the poetry of Gulzar, Kaifi Azmi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Compostional Report:

Prologue of this book covers the bases or the roots from which a theme is derived and later matured into a fully fledged blueprint for a change.  Starting with Chanakya's preachings from Arthashastra , an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy  written by the great scholar dating back 2300 years BC Era, captivating  to our present day scenario which needs an immediate alteration.

Author of this book Pavan K. Varma has succinctly exploited the prowess of demarcation to mark 5 significant areas which requires a prominent stance in terms of actual implementations. This book covers an equitably devised areas of concern viz. Governance, Democracy, Corruption, Security and the creation of an Inclusive society with a prior liaison with our immediate Past, since our Independence in 1947 highlighting all the pros and the cons linked with each and every decision taken by our fore founders of the country.

This book covers all the 5 eminent lurking dangers with detailed analysis of each with the basic knowledge of what is the current situation, why are we in such a state and what is the probable outcome if we continue to progress or rather regress with such a rate and the most importantly what needs to be done to overcome our stricken state and be amongst the fortified nations. This book has sought 354 lines of immediate action points covering all the cornerstones along with the detailed reasoning of each and every point stated (57-Democracy, 87-governance, 111-corruption, 58-security and 41-creation of inclusive society)

The best part according to me was the presentation of the real India to its mass and detailed action plan mention to root out the all the evils from our country. This is not a novel for a literate person but a bible to an educated citizen, perhaps this is the best and the worst thing which it contains.

Worst- let us take an example mentioned in this book
“5 years ago shortage of coal was 43 million tones and now it is 140 million tones. India being a 4^th largest in cola reserve this is something unbelievable.”
 What will a common person understand with 43 million tones and 140 million tones except that it has further decreased?

Best- As I said this has nothing to do with a literate mind but means a lot to an educated citizen. The reason being the exponential decrease of coal reserves in spite of all the planned (unplanned) strategies that let to shrinkage of reserves, policies of the government (governance), Use of resources ( democracy),Coalgate scam(corruption), Proper utilization and growth of available resources along with its security (Security) and harnessing resources for a sustainable progress(creating an inclusive society). This book covers everything and that’s why I recommend it to all educated minds, a must read as I always believe a knowledgeable citizen is much better than an ignorant one when it comes to tackling a situation at hand.

I agree with the author “it’s time to change and if we fail, India may never succeed. Our future is at stake.” I would rate this book 4.5 out of 5.

Life Adjudication ofthe book:

This is a book to awake our sleeping brains and start acting towards our cumulative goal to progress



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Book Review: Spicy Bites of Biryani

Book : Spicy Bites of Biryani
Author : Ashwina Garg
ISBN : 978-93-80349-84-8
Genre : Fiction/Romantic
Price : 150 (I got it from Author herself)
Pages : 225
Publisher : Srishti Publishers & Distribution
 






Introduction:
Sometimes in life when everything is set up, everything seems full and serene suddenly a whip sound crackles through your ear which forces you to step back and face the rather somber realistic music which is far from the dreamy world you were dreaming…realists would say, welcome to the factious reality. There are two moments in a person’s life when one feels he/she has everything in life but yet something is missing, it’s the time when one wakes up from a beautiful dream and the other when one tries to cover the lacunas of love life crossing vehemently a blistering career, suddenly finds oneself at the wrong foot as far as age and youth is concerned. This story is about the second phase

And this light hearted romantic fiction will let you know about everything which a rich, single and prior senescence youth can bring forth and yes it goes with the quote-“The hardest thing about having the perfect life is keeping it that way”

Cover Page:
The nonchalant and blithesome story is very well depicted from the carefree outlook of the cover page. A car parked near a beach and a couple having a casual talk. By the looks you can call it a stress buster while you go through the book clichés may take up the toll and you may be subdued by the plain mockery of things .you may recall the taste buds partly tangy partly spicy while devouring a Biryani.
 
About the Author:
Ashwina Garg lives in Hyderabad with her husband and two kids. She studied accountancy and has worked as an entrepreneur, a German translator and a technical writer. Spicy bites of Biryani is her Debut Novel.
 
Compositional Report:
Spicy Bites of Biryani is all about the hiccups of life and the main two characters of the story Aditi Patil and Sanjay Bolisetti are certainly not any exception.
Aditi Patil, Writer by profession has written 2 best sellers but is struggling to find words for her 3^rd book for more than a year. She is facing a writer’s block as people may say but there are no blockages of moving over to one boyfriend after the other. She lives life on her own terms, doesn’t want to give any heed to what others think or feel about her. An obedient student of Anti marriage syndrome and her blogs are the sole realistic link to her rather oblivious lifestyle.  It’s only after she meets Sanjay Bolisetti that she felt of changing up with her modus Vivendi.
 
Sanjay Bolisetti, An US returned Telugu speaking tall, nerdy, rich guy with middle class roots in his mid 30’s came up to India after getting betrayed, selling off his company in a view to get settled in India after marrying a suitable alliance. Aditi made her views crystal clear from the first day itself that she is no mood to get married but Sanjay like a tyrant lost in a battle came back to her after all his relatives and friends failed in their attempt of match making. This story is a journey Sanjay forged to tame the wild tigress which will remind you of rather entertaining and tiresome journey.
 
Mayank Arora and Jayashree Arora are two important characters of the story.
Mayank belonged from a typical Punjabi family who married Jayashree Sastri from a conservative Tamilian culture while they were both working in US along with Sanjay. Back in India Mayank and Jayashree was compliance of Aditi. Though their roles were of minuscule importance as far as the main theme is concerned and were only efficacious when Sanjay and Aditi needed a social grouping as both Mayank and Jayashree were too occupied with their office deadlines, conservative families and their own problem of having a child.
As far as the shortcomings is concerned which I felt is very ominous is abbreviating the roles of Mayank and Jayashree while it concentrated mainly on Sanjay and Aditi leaving the other two characters almost aloof. Though the tone was set on Aditi and Sanjay…yet at times it seemed as they ceased to flow and the final climax seemed incomplete as it wasn’t shown what was inevitable and the attempt of unnecessary twist of kidnapping Aditi flunked somewhat as it proved to be rather numb and vague ending. A bit more humor would have given an ideal touch.  

The main throbbing points would be the justification done with the role of Aditi and her unwillingness to marry and Sanjay’s overwhelming response of mingling his high class status with that of his middle class roots.  The minor subplots were held firm and it added wings to main storyline. Author though a first timer held a grip on the storyline through a typical chick lit sensation throughout. Over all, an eminent
story, gracious characters and felicitous theme, this is a typical stress buster and 3.5 star rating makes it meriting read.

 


Life Adjudication of thestory:
A book to read at time of bed before going off to buzz. This story has enough to relax your mind at the same time stimulate your energies back after a stressful day.

Book Review: Law of Averages

Book:- Law of Averages

Author:- Kshitish Padhy

ISBN:- 978-93-324-2005-2

Genre:- Fiction/Romantic

Price:- 140 (I got this book directly from the Author for review)

Pages: 252

Publisher:- Paperclip Books

Introduction:
Whatever has happened has happened for good, whatever is happening is also for good, and whatever will happen, will also happen for the good only. These are the words of sacred Bhagavad Gita and I am sure the wordings may change the language may differ but these are the principles of all the religions of this world. No I am not talking of any mythological novel, what I am talking is a story of a fiction based on the principle stated above.  Yes this is an art of fiction but based on the biggest truth of life. The story will remind you of melodramatic romantic movie of a person who considers himself looser of life losing at all quarters but at the end realizes his loses were in fact the greatest success anybody can dream off.
This story is action packed sequence of romance, capriciousness, freakish, weirdo acts of a person to win his love.

The cover of the page needs a special mention as it will give you enough requisites about the author or the story that you will confront. The title of the Story “Law Of Averages” is an apt considering the lead’s mentality and his present state. The posters at front are a sure intimation of the author’s link with the comics world and the untagged images will definitely make you appreciate the carefully wound pictures relating to zest of the main story once you finish up with the reading.

About the Author:
Law of Averages is the debut novel of Kshitish Padhy. Kshitish is a versatile scriptwriter, novelist and translator working on various genres like mythology, superhero fantasy, teen fiction and fiction for young adults. After starting his writing career as a translator at Raj Comics, he has contributed to the scripts of their flagship characters like Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva and Bhokal. Completing a brief stint with Campfire Comics, Kshitish is currently working as the lead scriptwriter for Vimanika Comics and on mythological titles like Shiva and Dasavtaar. He is an avid reader of comics and children fiction and is a huge fan of Harry Potter, Tintin, Daredevil and Batman. He loves action movies high on special effects and detective thrillers. Kshitish currently resides in Delhi.

Compositional Report:
This story revolves around a not so lucky person Ritwik (Main Character) who has the gifted ability to lose each and every battle of life no matter how small it may be. Beginning with a brief background of Ritwik, the story bludgeoned when Ritwik’s plan to move up the ladder too fast too soon overpowered his present condition, which finally landed him to give up his dreams after a failed attempt. It wasn’t actually a failed attempt as the journey to Meerut for fulfilling a dream had coincidentally greeted not only Ritwik but also Sushant (Ritwik’s coworker at Raj comics who had an expertise to illustrate) to meet their Dream girl and it was just the beginning of coincidences, as the story moved forward it was endowed with numerous such twists and turns.

Sushant Ritwik’s partner for crime played his part pretty well, commencing from a helping hand to get the deal from the Sunshine comics to being Ritwik’s room partner for his would be father in laws flat. It was Sushant’s luck or whatever you may call; it made Ritwik jealous at times as he was the one who was making inroads to Arpita (Sushant’s Love) by doing the right things at the pertinent moment. One drawback which Sushant had was his open shrillness which often landed both of them into trouble and it was up to Ritwik’s sheer determination to forgo all limits to appease his father in law for the love of his life, which provoked him to bear each and everything.

Shubhangi, Ritwik’s love was kind a classical Indian girl, who in spite of loving Ritwik wholeheartedly wasn’t ready to overboard partly because of his rather orthodox Father Professor A.K Khurana, her younger sister’s(Tanya) revolt and also being adorned without a mother made her extra cautious in her move. But that didn’t deter her help Ritwik to win over her father to consider Ritwik as a future groom.

Professor A.K Khurana, a retired from Archaeological survey of department was a disciplinarian and an obese with hidden treasures was not only mimicked by people around but also had the blame deciphered against his name to almost landing their family to the streets for his obsession.  He had a unique ability of messing up at the critical situations but it was Ritwik who noticed the genius in him and believed in his theories which finally yielded gold.

There were moments which can dissuade a person to fall apart but it was Ritwik and his sheer brilliance which proved him to be a winner at the end mainly because of his spirits and determination which paved his way through to the journey of ‘Laws of averages’.  It would be injustice if I miss the Creditable  efforts of Sushant, Arpita, Shubhangi, Professor A.K Khurana, Wishumaddy (Ritwik’s and Sushant’s Coworker), Sanjay sir (Ritwik’s boss at raj comics), Captain Jayant (Shubhangi’s Sister Tanya’s boyfriend) who carried through their roles at critical times to salvage the most entertaining start for Ritwik’s and Shubhangi’s New Life.

It was a perfect photo finish to the enthralling romantic story written in a totally Bollywood style, which would make the readers go week in their knees to finish it at a single go. For me the last quarter is a match winner as it has all the ingredients of making up to a movie script. It’s a story for all ages. A downright entertainer with crafty twists and turns makes it a very good read.






Life’s Adjudication of this book:
This book is best read to enlighten one’s spirit at leisure time. It has the credibility of a ‘feel good’ emotions.

BOOK REVIEW-WRONG MEANS RIGHT END


Book: Wrong Means Right End
Author: Varsha Dixit
Publisher: Rupa
Price: Rs. 140
(i got it from Blogadda for Free in a review program)




How often you find a romantic story equipped with genuine friendship which overcomes all mishaps and misunderstandings, only to find her to fight all out to save her best friend’s marriage while taking help from someone whom she dislikes the most and then falling in love with that very person. In the meanwhile doing the best she can for the person she loves so dearly as such he can start a new beginning, only to find herself distanced and cursed for life. The climax, for instance required a brilliant display of willingness coupled with raw feelings to forge his (from her counterpart) Love back, all these and more thespians to find a partner for life… This story is for all those people who love to  read a story of Love, Lust, Hatred, Jealousy, Revenge, Friendship  and true Love;  This story is for you all …!!!

Wrong Means Right End is a Sequel of ‘Right Foot Wrong Shoe’ one of the best sellers published back in 2009, which marked the debut of Varsha Dixit into the Writing world. Wrong means Right End is centered on a Single Working Mom (Sneha Gupta) and her utter disinclination towards love after her failed marriage…

  

The main plot of the story is carefully wound around a series of incidents  which were focused on Sneha, a Divorced ,Single mother, Hardworking and belligerent person finding a True love in Nikhil (Nikhil Chandel) whom she surely doesn’t like, She Loathes him to be exact. 

The First part of the story revolves around Nandini Sharma (Sneha’s Best Friend) trying to find an ideal Match for Sneha enforcing further strains on Sneha. Sneha on the other hand though with her extreme unwillingness is laid back with her BFF efforts to find a man, though invariably finds pleasures in her plight.

Nandini Sharma married to industrialist Aditya Sarin (Also a closed friend of Sneha), found herself clutching to a narrow thread of marriage after distancing herself from Sneha thanks to a self proclaimed friend Mona and her lustful school friend Gayatri. At that moment Nandini required a person (Sneha) who has intense attachment to Aditya and Nandini’s wellbeing to come to their rescue with the help of Nikhil Chandel.

Nikhil Chandel, emotionless, astute,  handsome and a rich industrialist who hates Sneha to its prime in a view to do good (to Nandini and Aditya) falls in love with Sneha through a series of incident and couldn’t back out from the feelings that were growing within him, finally revealed the dark secret of his life to Sneha. Sneha in her dignity of always doing the best thing took Nikhil to meet her ex wife Alisha only to find herself losing the only love she had in her life.

With all those minute details and the realistic view of the characters where one could always identify oneself fitted in the script anywhere and everywhere…The best part according to me was the climax which was well framed one where Nikhil Chandel  finally came berserk to justify himself and his long lasting love to Sneha.  Though Sneha was hurt beyond repair, it needed the helping hand of Nandini, Aditya, and Gayatri to play their part to conclude a well knitted love Story.

If there’s anything I didn’t like in this book is it’s mundane and terrestrial events before the final concluding part…if it were any longer it would have really took away the main jest of the story…yes I know there has to be mysteries before the climax but the story went coherent with non responsive array of incidents. Few more twists molding up to the climax would have been ideal.

In spite of plot which is being overused…it was a good read as it touched the feelings as one could always identify oneself in it. With enduring storyline, realistic characters and many heartfelt events this is a book to read…For More Read Wrong Means Right End by Varsha Dixit.

This review is a part of the http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews and http://anjan5.blogspot.com/2012/12/book-review-wrong-means-right-end.html" target="_blank" > Book Reviews Program at http://www.blogadda.com">BlogAdda.com . Participate now to get free books!

Book Review: The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian

There is a word I hardly use to describe a book- Unputdownable. Unfortunately Ravi Subramanian has forced me to use it. Ravi's 4th book is a pleasure to read and get engrossed in. All I can say is I'm happy I'm finally off the spell this book had cast on me.

Thanks to Blogadda.com this autographed book came as a pleasant surprise and how pleased I am. For a first this book has made me take interest in his previous books which (excuse my ignorance) I have never heard of.  His book "I Bought the Monk's Ferrari" in my opinion should get an award for the smartest title's I've come across. 

Coined as the John Grisham of banking by the Wall Street Journal, Ravi leaves no stone unturned to expose and exploit the various ways in which bankers play with the trust of the customers. His in-depth knowledge into ways how fraudulent accounts are operated make the reader think and ask himself the simple yet important question – Is my money in my bank safe? The nexus operating these accounts and the implications are enough to get the world spinning if not crashing. The Bankster (which probably is a combination of Banker and Gangster) revolves around Karan Punjabi – an ex-banker and now a journalist with the TOI to investigate the mysterious deaths of his close friends and aides. Karan soon realizes that death is just one part of the mystery; he’s dealing with people you shouldn’t mess around with, that too spread across 4 places in the world. With only 2 days to his disposal Karan smartly and stealthily nabs the culprit who in the best words said is least expected. 

Going by the number of Catholic characters in this book you wonder whether you are actually reading an Indian novel but nevertheless it doesn’t take anything away from it. This book is a sheer delight both - for people who love or don’t love thrillers, for bankers and for those who have no knowledge of banking. If however like me, you land up in no-man’s land you know you have lots to learn and also are aware of where things are heading. 

A section which I could very closely relate to is the frustration shown and felt by an employee when his/her manager doesn’t understand. With no one to approach and despite your consistent performance others are favoured the pain felt is heart wrenching. It somehow brought me to tears. 

If there's something I don’t like about this book is how the story unfolds as it approaches the end. While I understand the need for the culprit to be a surprise and shock but I would have loved if I was allowed to be a detective myself. Rather than just announcing who the culprit is, let the reader make sense of the facts and evidence that lies before him. A greater involvement in the book would have made this a classic. But given the immense potential of Ravi I’m sure that will soon be the case in the next book.

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Book Review: The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghi

I’m not much into novels that have a religious setting but I did pick this one as I decided to read it no matter what.

This is Ashwin Sanghi’s third novel, the previous being The Rozabal Line and Chanakya's Chant. Unfortunately I have only heard about them; The Krishna Key would probably make me read them.

Sticking to his genre Ashwin has once again proved that he has immense appetite for thrillers. I like the plot, the story, the narration and the script but one thing I don’t like (and that’s across all such reality based fictional thriller’s) is how incidents and facts and figures are stitched together to prove one’s point. For instance across the book you’ll realize how important the number 108 is and the book will not leave you till you’re convinced.

The book starts with a researcher friend Anil Varshney of the protagonist (Ravi Mohan Saini) who has found 4 seals during his exploration which tell you more about the Krishna you already know. It also gives the address of the Brahmastra (the most destructible weapon ever). Varshney sensing of a threat to his life distributes 3 of these seals amongst his close buddies while keeping 1 with himself. One evening while in his study Varshney is killed. The police have no clue of the killer other than a shlok in Sanskrit. The trace leads to Ravi (a professor by profession) who is accused of the crime. Trying to prove his innocence Ravi runs from the police to gather some evidence. Unfortunately the killer is a step ahead and kills all his friends who have the seal. Slowly Ravi beginning to make sense of the things whisking past him solves the mystery, thanks to his in-depth knowledge of Krishna and Sanskrit and love for crypts.

I would say the story is good, the writing brilliant. It keeps you on your toes and has enough of twists and turns to keep the interest going. But that’s only for someone who’s well versed in the Mahabharata and digs religious thrillers. For someone who’s not the book seems like a never ending curse. Since I fall in the latter I shall rate it 2/5. A good pass time but a bit only if you have immense of it.        

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