Book Review: LIKE IT HAPPENED YESTERDAY by RAVINDER SINGH

Hey! I’m back with another review of the book that I just finished reading “Like it Happened Yesterday” by our one and only Ravinder Singh 🙂 So I ordered it on Amazon.in and got in on time. Ravinder Singh’s Like It Happened Yesterday is one of the most loved books. It is a different book as compared to his love story novels like “I too had a love story” , “Can love happen twice” , “Your dreams are mine now” and “This Love That Feels Right” I read first 3 books already so I can say yes this book is different from them. I was so excited to read this book because the story of the book is all about the best phase of a person’s life- CHILDHOOD! ❤ I liked the cover page, it is quite sweet no? It was really nice to see that one boy jumping with colourful balloons. It actually reminded me of my childhood days, I used to love balloons and love to play with them 😛 It was one of the sweetest memories of my childhood. Anyways, I always love to read Ravinder Singh books. He is the first author whose novel I read completely. As I mentioned above, I read his 3 novels yet, and my favorite is “I too had a Love Story” the debut novel and the true love story of the author, I simply love ITHALS. It is my all time favorite ❤ this book touched my soul and made me cry so badly.  I didn’t like Can love happen twice much so I can’t say much about that. And, Your dreams are mine now, was also a good book but not more than his first novel 🙂

‘Like It Happened Yesterday’ is a memoir of the author’s growing up years and how the experiences in his childhood have influenced his life at a later stage. Basically, Like It Happened Yesterday talks more about childhood days and makes you feel remember those moments. It is an amazing journey to childhood which I am pretty sure everybody can relate to in one way or the other. It is written in easy language which is a plus. 🙂 I loved reading about Ravinder’s childhood experiences. I was able to easily relate myself with the incident at some points. The book is all about our Bachpan 😀 the first day of school, the fear of injection, teeth problems, awkward cum naughty questions like “how a child takes birth?” 😛 the love for photographs and cycle, and of course our very first crush. So, you can’t expect much from the book. There’s no love, romance, thrill, action etc in the book but still it puts a smile on your face when you read the book. This book relates us to our transformation phases from childhood to adulthood. But I would say boys and men will find this book more interesting as compare to girls/women, because this is not a girl’s story but if you will read this book, in some incidents you will also enjoy, smile and laugh. But, this book is mainly written from a boy’s view point of childhood days.

You know, everyone of us wants to go back and live those moments again but we all know that’s not really possible but this book at least fill your heart with those sweet memories. 🙂 You will surely imagine your childhood days when you were free from every problem, every tension and thinking about the consequences of every little thing, when you just enjoy your life….Ah! those days ❤ Well, its a sweet book and it really took you back to your childhood days. It allows you to re-live those moments at certain points, because each one of us must have felt the same. The incidents of his life are somehow very similar to every individual. I also found some incidents similar to mine. The book will appeal to you more if you are the 80s or 90s kid. The characters are real and beautifully described. The language of the book is simple, sweet and easy. Ravin very innocently narrated every incidents. It ends with a happy note of the author securing the first rank in his CBSE Board Exams. End is not that good though but still I enjoyed. 🙂

Some interesting quotes from the book:

“Some discoveries are so close to the heart that only the discover can feel them and cherish them.”

“The class laughed. I failed to understand why. I thought of joining in with their laugh, but soon I guessed that maybe I was the subject of their laughter.”

“Human nature is strange. Just because we all had a common thing to be afraid of, we turned into friends.”

“As the days passed, I even started liking the song Papa Kehte Hain. It had started making a different sense to me. Soon, I wanted to become the one who could sing that song and prove to the world that I meant every word of what I was singing.”

“As time passed by and I grew older, my memories of that day started fading.”

All in all its a quick read of 216 pages. The book can be coined as a Diary of the author, printed and published in book form. It is a honest and simple book. 🙂 The writing style of Ravin is so simple. Its a onetime read and beginners may like it more. I recommend it to all those who love to go over their childhood memories and time again. I liked it. So I can say, read it once!

And, Tell me have you read it? I would love to hear it from you. Do let me know if you have read the book or are planning to do so! Do share it with me in the comments below as I would love to know! 🙂

And…. She replied me!

So, Preeti Shenoy just replied me on Twitter!

It was unexpected! I was so happy to see a tweet from her…Thank you Mrs. Shenoy for taking the time to reply me 🙂 It means so much to me! ❤ I don’t know why am posting this here? all I know is am so happy and I want to share my happiness with all of you! ❤

Book Review: IT’S ALL IN THE PLANETS by PREETI SHENOY

Hey Friends! Have you read It’s All In The Planets? Well, I read and I spent literally my entire day reading Preeti Shenoy’s  latest novel, “It’s All in the Planets”.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I simply like Preeti Shenoy a lot, I cannot ever ignore her books. Its amazing, how beautifully she writes her stories. I always excited to read her books, so when I saw that there’s a new book by Preeti Shenoy, I just clicked on Pre-Order button and very soon I got my copy of the book signed by the author 💖 and I was so glad to receive that autographed copy. So I liked the book very much, it is a sweet and simple love story which revolves around 3 main characters Aniket aka Ani, Nidhi and Trisha aka Trish. It is simple tale with full of twists and turns. The title of the book is beautiful and I liked the cover also, its beautiful and romantic…..isn’t it? ✨ for a sec it takes you in to a dreamland. ✨ One thing I love about Shenoy is her stories are always themed around female leads, human relationships and their emotions/feelings. I really like her and love to read her books.

Now about the novel, let’s start with the title. So, the title gives the full justice to the story. I don’t believe in astrology that much but I believe in destiny very much actually, I do believe that everything we think, we want, we do or be in life has root in our Destiny. The narrative of the story is simple and beautiful. Shenoy talks about the modern day relationships and love, and gives a great message that do not compromise ever if you are not happy just say it, take a stand because in any relationship compromises can’t bring happiness to any person so do not compromise, respect your feelings and yourself. The plot revolves around Aniket, Trisha, Nidhi and Manoj. It’s a story of love, friendship, hate, cheating and understanding. And I must say Preeti has brought out all the emotions in it so beautifully. 🙂
I loved the characters of Nidhi and her step mom Tara. Both are nice and understanding. Nidhi, is smart, understanding, intelligent, talented, passionate about her work and full of life. She has quit her corporate job and back to India to pursue her passion for “Pottery and Blogging”. She is engaged to Manoj. She thinks Manoj is just “Mr. Perfect” but later realizes that he is not right person for her and she no longer loves him. Nidhi also maintains a blog called ‘A Pot of Clay That Holds Gold’ in the meantime. She is so passionate about her ambitions. Ambition to her is something other than just money and a profitable career. She’s indeed a very powerful and beautiful character and I loved the way she gets a support from her family. I wish all parents be like that towards their children, especially girls. Tara, Nidhi’s step mom is an absolute sweetheart who encourages her daughter in every step of life and understands her and loves her. I loved her character. Usually we don’t see such a supportive stepmother…right no?

Aniket aka Ani, is a male lead character. He is a techie. He has a girlfriend Trisha. He is just so crazy by the beauty of Trisha and that is something quite common in present day relationships and so called love. 😂 Trisha aka Trish, is a part time model and basically works at Aniket’s office. Ani loves Trish a lot but Trish doesn’t love him. She has a list of things she wants him to work on especially with his pot belly. Aniket can do anything to be with her. He has a best friend Subbu. Subbu is quite funny, nerd and sweet character. He is truly Ani’s best friend. When Ani has any problem, Subbu always cheers him up. He does all his best to make his friend feel better. He’s a true friend who is very supportive. So, one day on a train journey Nidhi meets Aniket by coincidence and Nidhi agrees to be Ani’s relationship as well as fitness coach. They become good friends. They help each other with solving their problems. Things change with time and a lot happens with a major twist which we didn’t thought. So now, we have 4 characters on this romantic plot. Nidhi and Manoj, Trish and Aniket. So what happens next? Well, I’m not going to tell you further story coz I’m not going to spoil the suspense created by the author in the story, you should read the book for that. 😉

Well I found Aniket’s character little annoying at some points but I liked his selfless love for Trish and his efforts to recreate the already-dying-relationship with Trish is just beyond words. I liked the climax. Shenoy uses simple words/ language. The writing and language is really nice which is why anyone can relate with her story. She has written the story so beautifully. I liked it. The story talks of selfrespect, selflove and also following your dreams and passions, which should be respected and accepted.❤️ I loved the way Shenoy expresses these emotions in words.

All in all, I liked  the book. But I didn’t like when some chapters deal with the same incidents being narrated by both Ani and Nidhi. 😕 Apart from that, it is a nice and romantic story with a good twist and a message. And as I said above I believe in destiny so I agree with author’s message that is conveyed in this book that destiny is something which is prewritten and cannot be changed. Everything that has to happen will happen surely in its own pact when the right time arrives. I strongly agree with this.😊

Some quotes from the book-

“The longing for you is now a constant companion I carry in my heart. It surrounds me like a cloak and everything that I see is through this filter. It permeates every cell in my body. There is no waking moment that goes by without you on my mind. And if I could control my dreams when I sleep, I would dream only of you.”

“Yes. We are dealt cards. That is fate. But we do have free will. What we do with the blows that land on us is up to us. We can fight and emerge stronger than before. or we can give up.”

So its a nice read for me. Decent job done by the author, but she could have done better. But I would say read it once at least. Don’t miss it if you like reading Shenoy’s books, but don’t expect too much it is not her best work.

And, Tell me have you read it? I would love to hear it from you. Do let me know if you have read the book or are planning to do so! Do share it with me in the comments below as I would love to know!

Book Review: ONE INDIAN GIRL by CHETAN BHAGAT

Hey! Wassup? 🙂 I’m back with another book review and this time it is Chetan Bhagat’s new book “ONE INDIAN GIRL”. So I’d to read this novel because it is Bhagat’s and it is about an “Indian girl”. I’m always excited to read his works. Unlike many other people I like his writing and I’m always waiting for his next creation. One Indian Girl is the 9th book of Chetan Bhagat. His previous book Half Girlfriend (Review Here) is very well received by his readers and soon releasing as a movie but it couldn’t impress me much. Just like Half Girlfriend, this book too has a catchy title and has a typical filmy story. Honestly I didn’t like the book maybe because except some points, I couldn’t fully relate myself with the main character Radhika Mehta. Well, I just did not like the end, I mean I’m not kidding but for a second I was like “aray, end ho gayi?” 😛 You know Bhagat has this magic, once you start reading his book, I bet you won’t stop reading till the end. I am not saying it is boring because yeah its not that boring. It’s a good book but what I dislike is the charaters and some dialogues and conversations. I felt like I am reading or watching a bollywood script/movie so just to feel the story, I have imagined like I am watching a Bollywood movie and this movie has a boring climax. But its Chetan Bhagat “magic” that the book broke all the pre-order records on amazon.in 😉

Now come to the book, One Indian Girl is a story of a girl who is average looking, not fair, ambitious, well educated and very successful in her career and she just doesn’t like that conservative and typical thinking of Indian society about girls and women. We are introduced to her past lovers and her current fiancé, and the book is about who she ends up with. She is quite feminist and has an opinion on everything. She makes it sure that she does things which she feels is right without worrying about her family or anyone else. The story opens with a destination wedding scene of  Radhika and Brijesh at Goa. It is an arranged marriage. Brijesh Gulati works for Facebook and is very intelligent and sweet. He has a kind soul. Radhika doesn’t want to get married with Brijesh but she has to because her mother wants her to get married soon. The character of  Radhika is very well narrated by Chetan Bhagat. Radhika works at Goldman Sachs New York office. She has a live-in boyfriend there, named Debashish Sen aka Debu. He is smart and intelligent. But, Debu earns much less than Radhika, so he feels insecure and this ultimately creates problems in their relationship and of course they broke up. It all happens in the flashback of One Indian Girl. The story has technically 3 flashbacks 😀 Radhika decides to resign from the job but her boss offer to transfer her to Hong Kong Office. She agrees as that gives her an opportunity to go away from New York where everything reminds her of Debu. In Hong Kong Office she meets Neel Gupta.

Neel Gupta is smart, handsome, fair and and attractive. He is married and has 2 kids. He is 20 year older to Radhika. Neel and Radhika are the partners at the Special Situations Group in the Hong Kong office. They get attracted to each other and have an affair. Very soon Radhika realized that this relationship has no future so they split up. Again history repeats, Radhika resigns and again she is offered a transfer instead of resignation. She happily accepts it and goes to London. This also happens in the flashback, by the way 😀

Now wedding scene arrives. After 3 years, Debu and Neel, both are here in Goa at Radhika’s marriage. Because they suddenly regretting their decision of breaking up with Radhika and now they want to marry her. So now, we have three guys in the end who want to marry Radhika and she has to choose one guy on which her future will depend. Well, I liked the writing style of Bhagat, its not awesome but it is good better than the last one. At some points I was skipping line because I didn’t want to read the whole thought process. It was quite boring. This book intended to tell the world about today’s successful and modern Indian women, their capacity to take decisions and stand up for their own rights, good and feelings, but it failed I mean not nailed, in my opinion it failed to make an impact in the end or convey a strong message or a real thinking of a girl. It doesn’t really reflect how women really think. Except some chapters that were really interesting to read, the rest of it was really boring. It has nothing much apart from work conversations and having meaningless sex on beach and in bedrooms. One thing I don’t understand, why Indian writers resort to sex to sell their books???? Really, its a SHAME! 😦
Well, The writing skill of Bhagat is good. He has narrated all the characters and events nicely. I read somewhere that “Chetan Bhagat is Salman Khan or Shahrukh Khan of Indian English Fiction Writing.” and I agree with it! You simply cannot resist his books even you don’t like him…agree?  😉 I liked the story but I suppose that the end could have been more better.

So, One Indian Girl is a timepass actually. I simply didn’t like it much. But I suggest you to give it a chance. It was a decent attempt by Chetan to describe the feminism through his eyes but trust me I’m not agree with his “point of view” of an Indian girl. However, I want to highlight that One Indian Girl was definitely not a feminist book. As I said above, at few places, Bhagat has just not justified a girl’s point of view correctly which looks quite fake, boring, provoking and attention-seeking.
In fact, at the climax of this novel, I’m actually searching for the reason “why the book was actually written????” but I found nothing 😀 I liked the part when Radhika tells Debu that it is easy for anybody to say that they support feminism or they want to support girls/women but they are not actually different from the mass when it comes to reality. 🙂 The book seems to have been written for cinema only. I think, Bhagat writes books so that it can easily be converted into a screenplay and made into a movie and he just earns money. This novel is really meant for movie and little for from the normal middle class Indian girls. The story keeps engaging you until you finish it off. But its no way related to the real Indian girls story.

Some interesting quotes from One Indian Girl:

“Women lie about their feelings all the time. It’s amazing how easily it comes to us.”

“You only need the light when it is burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow.”

“If it is too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.”

“Some people are good at taking decisions. I am not one of them.”

Overall it is a good book or I would say a good bollywood script. If you like Chetan Bhagat’s work or you’re a fan of bollywood and want to read a filmy script then go for it! 🙂 If a movie ever made on this novel which I think it’ll be soon 😉 so my movie cast for this book would be-

Athiya Shetty as Radhika Mehta,

Aditya Roy Kapoor as Debashish Sen,

 Karan Singh Grover as Neel Gupta, and

Arjun Kapoor as Brijesh Gulati.

Now, Tell me have you read it? I would love to hear it from you. Do let me know if you have read the book or are planning to do so! If yes, how did you like it? Do share it with me in the comments below as I would love to know! 🙂

Book Review- Your Dreams are Mine Now by Ravinder Singh

And I’m back with another book review and this time its Ravinder Singh’s Your Dreams Are Mine Now. I ordered it on flipkart.com and got it on time. Ravinder has written 5 novels till date: ‘I Too had a Love Story’ (My Favorite) , ‘Can Love Happen Twice’, ‘Like It Happened Yesterday’ ,‘Your Dreams are Mine Now’ and his latest work “This Love that Feels Right” and he has also edited ‘Love Stories that touched My Heart’ and “Tell Me a Story”. I have read all the works by Ravinder Singh except “Like it happened yesterday”. His very first novel “I Too Had A Love Story” as a work will always be his best work in my eyes.:-)  I really love that book a lot. It was truly an pure story with pure emotions of a man’s heart. Ravinder Singh is one of my all time favorite writers.

Well, I loved the cover of this book…its so romantic and beautiful, isn’t it? 😉 I was so much excited to read it. I always excited to read Ravinder Singh’s book because somehow I just relate myself to them or the stories. I still remember when I read his first book I Too Had A Love Story, I was totally connected. I could actually feel the pain, love, emotions & all the things that has written in that book. ❤ Maybe that’s why I love Singh’s books. Your Dreams are Mine Now is a beautifully written teenage love story.  Its a fictional tale which draws inspiration from a real life incident Delhi’s Nirbhaya Rape Case that shook the nation by storm a couple of years back. The main characters of this book are Rupali Sinha and Arjun.

Rupali is a young innocent girl from Patna dreams of getting into college she always wanted to join. So she steps on the ground of DU with her dreams. She is different from Delhi girls. She is not a bit fashionable, her simplicity reflects by her dressing sense. She is intelligent, beautiful, smart and a lovely soul. During one of her first days at college she plants a “Tulsi” plant in the campus garden. She wants to see the plant grow as a reflection of the growth of her academic life and herself at DU. At the very moment few guys appear in a jeep, they make fun of her and ask her few questions. She got nervous and scared. One of those guys doesn’t speak much. But he is the one she is most scared of and that’s Arjun the male lead character. He is a guy from Delhi who is very active in DU politics and want to make the world a beautiful place. Rupali and Arjun are completely opposite. As time flies Rupali gets to know the inner delicacies of matters in the campus and with that one campus scandal bring Arjun and Rupali together and they fell in love with each other. As they says opposites attract 😉 They are passionately in love but then what happens to their love story and their political future is the cruel part of the book. The climax of this book is so painful. I cried a lot at the end maybe because whenever I read a book I want to relate myself with the characters and every time it made me cry at some points. 😦

I liked this novel. The characters are well developed. The language is easy, the cover and title is quite interesting. It’s a well written book. The language os this book is so simple and it is really an easy and nice read. But if you are expecting something new or innovative in this tale then sorry! I’m sure you will be disappointed. Yes, it is similar to Nirbhaya’s case after all every novel is inspired by a true story, right?  When you read this book you will think that you just completed reading a summary reports of the incident that happened back then. Most of the pages are seem to copied from newspapers and articles on this case. But anyways, I love 3 things in this novel, one is there were no sex scenes in this book. Apart from some kiss scenes and another romantic conversation part. Thankfully Ravin did not create this awkwardness in the book. Second thing is the love confession of Rupali in the simplest way and Arjun’s emotions conveyed through the line ‘Your dreams are mine now’ and the New Year Eve’s love pendant incident and their conversation, oh that beautiful part! 🙂 ❤

Some interesting quotes:

1. “Stand for what is right and do not let evil persist.”

2. “The present! It’s so different from the past. The past! It will never come back. Never ever!”

3. “Betrayal hurts the most when it comes from the one who you always remembered in your prayers.”

4. “Sometimes the problem with silence is that the more it continues to prevail, the more awkward it becomes.”

5. When dreams take shape, sleep runs away.”

6. “Being brave doesn’t mean the lack of fear.It means overcoming your fears.

All in all it’s a nice read. I love the way Ravinder writes his novel. Your Dreams are Mine Now will make you cry, laugh and happy. Some pages of the book seems boring but the suspense makes you engross to read the entire book. The beautiful love story of Arjun and Rupali will touch your heart. It’s a lovely book and I enjoyed it with my “Britannia little hearts biscuits” 😛 I love these biscuits 😀 It really reminds me of my childhood 🙂

Well, This story touched my heart and shook my soul and I hope it does the same for you too when you’ll read it. I did not like the end. As I mentioned the end left me in tears, I personally think the character of Rupali shouldn’t have died not at least like this. It was so upsetting. Its a good story but it could be an excellent one if in the end both lovers were united. But I guess everyone should read it once, it’s a well written book. So don’t think much just go for it! 😉

Book Review:- SOMETHING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO HEAVEN by Sudha Murty

So I read this lovely book for a change, because I was bored by reading ‘Romantic Novels’ 😛 and of course, I love to read Short-Stories. 🙂 Anyways, today I am going to share my views on this book “Something Happened On The Way To Heaven” edited by Sudha Murty. Firstly I loved its title and the ‘South-Indian’ touch in it, isn’t it looking beautiful? 🙂 And the same ‘South-Indian Touch’ I’ve tried to put in my captured image (the 1st one) 😛 Okay okay I know it is not perfect but at least I tried! 😀
Anyways, I ordered it on Amazon.in and got it in 2-3 days. It is a collection of 20 such beautiful true life stories, selected & edited by Sudha Murty from a contest run by Penguin (Yes, the stories in the book are not written by Sudha Murthy herself, but still they are beautifully described) they capture the hope, faith, kindness, pain, struggles and joy that life is full of, even as we make our way through the daily grind.

Stories are about various subjects related to society or daily life, the different types of issues or incidents faced by the people in the society. Some of the stories really touch your heart and does change your perceived view towards things. Its an interesting read though! 🙂 I loved how heart warming the stories are, I am not exactly sure how real they are because in some stories the authors are different from the protagonists in the story. It would have been nice to see a small summary of how the author was related to the protagonist in such cases. Nevertheless, the stories are nice and touching to the heart. This is a book with many good messages, where at one point some stories has the sad, emotional touch so at the other side they have some good and positive, loving features that will force you to believe in humanity, kindness which we have started doubting about. Really it is a very nice book with lovely messages. All the stories follow a very simple and formal way of writing, the language was also simple because the stories are written by various ‘common-people’ so there was no literary touch in the language that’s why the language is very simple and easy which I think a plus point of this book, because everyone can read and understand it easily. 🙂 So yes, it is a nice book and you should definitely read it. A few of the stories are heart touching, so its a must read for those who are interested in real life stories.

There are 20 stories in the book and My personal favourites from the book are:-

1. Acceptance by Bhaswar Mukherjee (An emotional and touching story of a eunuch maid, it describes the condition of eunuchs in the society, but at the end the story left you with a smile.)

2. The Dhaka Girl by Dhrishti Dasgupta ( I liked this one very much. It is a story of a girl and it is about the partition time of India and Bangladesh, it’s a touching story which showcased glimpses of India in 1947, which was proof enough that humanity is still there and is exceeds all barriers. It will show you how a little girl’s gesture of giving a man food despite being faced by harsh and rough times, brought her goodness even in her darkest hours. I don’t know it is a real one or not but I liked it and trust me, it will make you believe in humanity again.) 🙂

3. Aagneya by Rajesh Pooppotte (It is a wonderful story with a very serious message. It is a story of a daughter, of a little girl, how she dealt with a shamed situation in her school at the very young age. Through this story the little girl taught us an important lesson of girl’s ‘Self-Respect’. These days we see or hear about so many cases of girl abuse or rapes. No matter what their age women were abused in different ways- right from the time they were their mother’s womb till the time they went to their graves. But time has changed now. Nowadays women are more powerful than men. We women knows what is good and wrong for us, and we know how to fight against bad. So this is the story of a girl’s fight against bad. I loved the innocent yet strong message of this story.)

4. A New Beginning by Swaha Bhattacharya ( It is the story of a young girl. Who wants to adopt a child before marriage. Her family does not allow her, So she goes against her family’s permission. But unfortunately destiny plays a game and she met with her death. I liked this story very much because somehow I can easily relate it with myself. It is a heart-touching story for me.) ❤

5. Savita’s Story by Subhobrata (It is a story of a house maid. But I liked this story because of its very kind social message. It is a beautiful story but in the end it left you with a sad, emotional feeling.)

6. Acid by Pushkar Pande ( When I read this story, it literally left me speechless. ‘Acid Attack’ a unbelievable, painful and most horrible thing for anyone, and for a girl it is the end of her life, we always think like that no? well, that’s why this story is different and comes up with a great social message. It is the story of a girl who becomes the victim of Acid attack, in the end she’s got the justice by the court and now she’s decided to lead her life with her own respect and dignity. I think we all have the right to take our decision, and you can’t let somebody to control you or your life. No matter if you’re victim or criminal or a normal human being. How you see the situation, it’s always different for the one living through it. So take your own decision and if you can’t help others, let them help themselves and support them rather being a bystander.)

7. It Fell In A Storm by Shantanu Bhowmick ( I just loved this one. It is about three little children 2 boys and 1 girl, they wants to give their mother a birthday gift so they collect the fruits that have fallen in the storm and sell them to earn money. This a lovely story and the narrator narrate it very nicely.) 🙂

So This book is for someone who is keen on exploring different faces of human life. the book is very nice with so many good messages. It’s simple yet conveys complicated messages which man often fails to realize. The selection of the stories are nice, and seem to be doing their job right in sending out motivational messages to the readers. It’s light hearted yet is an eye-opener to man’s cynicism. This book is for someone who wants to learn, understand and see how different others’ lives can be, and yet so same. So I loved reading these 20 stories. 🙂 Some made me cry at the end, while some helped me appreciate what I actually have in my life and do not bother to cherish it often. Characters resembling people in my life whom I can proudly support and pamper no matter their caste, bank balance, their standard of living just because they are ‘Important’ and play a vital part in my life.

Overall, this a beautiful book with 20 different and great stories/messages. It explains the simple human concepts and the basic thinking of society. So, if you love extremely simple and quick reads and if it doesn’t matter to you who writes as long as it is worthy then go for it. I liked it and for me Its a must read. So, go ahead and give it a try, am sure you’ll love it as well.  😉

Book Review:- THE STORY OF MY LIFE by HELEN KELLER

Helen Keller probably needs no introduction, She was the first Deaf-Blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She was a great writer and a really brave & good person. So today I am going to talk about “The Story Of My Life by Helen Keller”.  🙂 This is the autobiography of the young Helen Keller, written by herself when she was 22 and a student at all-female college Radcliffe. And I must say, it was really a good read. It is a nice book and beautifully written by Keller. Her life’s journey is unique. It was totally a very inspirational, motivating and eye-opening experience for me. I felt so bad for her when she described that at one point of her life she was so desperate to communicate with people, and she was sad that no one will understand her or her feelings. 😦 It was heartbreaking to read this. Really, Keller’s story of life, of learning was very touching to me.

The most beautiful thing about Helen Keller’s autobiography is how natural and literate she was. The most enjoyable aspect of this book is definitely her passion for BOOKS. 🙂 There was a huge list of books that she read. Books were extremely important to Keller as they helped her to learn what other people learned through sight and hearing. The first book she remembers making an impact was ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’. The writing is just excellent. It’s actually exciting to read her in her own words. I really loved every single word of this book. It is just not a book, its her life in her own words, and this is really amazing. 🙂 Her journey, her struggle and everything was just so inspirational and amazing. Keller’s life is neither a miracle nor a joke, it is a great achievement, it is the result of her struggles. I was really amazed to learn that in the course of her life, Keller taught herself French, German and Latin, I mean really this is her passion for books, languages and learning.

There where so many beautiful things in this book. But mostly I loved when Keller’s teacher Anne Sullivan tries to teach Keller what love is, and Keller can’t understand why her teacher won’t show it to her. It was really a sweet moment. When Helen asked her teacher “What is Love?” She simply replied:- “You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch Love either, but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play.” I just loved her answer. She beautifully described love. 🙂 ❤

In the second part of the book, we can read the letters written by Helen Keller to her beloved ones during 1887-1901. Through these letters, she opened her mind, thoughts and love. As Helen became older, she became more politically involved campaigning for women’s suffrage, labor rights, socialism, birth control supporter and other social causes. Another enjoyable aspect of The Story of My Life is that if you ever feel sorry for yourself for what you don’t have or what you are currently struggling with, your deficiencies and struggles may suddenly seem minor in comparison to Helen’s. She was really a great lady. 🙂 In 1964, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the U.S. highest civilian honors and in 2003, Alabama honored her (born in AL) on its state quarter.

Quotes from this book:-

#1. “One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.”

#2. “The bible gives me a deep comforting sense that (things seen are temporal, and things unseen are eternal.”

#3. “Knowledge is love and light and vision.”

#4. “Do not think of todays failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow.”

#5. “It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.”

#6. “It is so pleasant to learn about new things. Every day I find how little I know, but I do not feel discouraged since God has given me an eternity in which to learn more.”

Overall, it is a great book. I liked it very much. The story of Helen Keller or I would say the journey of her life is really amazing, inspirational and motivating. 🙂 And I think, everyone should read this book. It’s an amazing story of overcoming difficult trials and making the best of what is given to us. It is a beautiful biography and after reading this, I now want to read more and more autobiographies. 😀

Book Review:- WORLD’S BEST BOYFRIEND by Durjoy Datta

World’s Best Boyfriend by Durjoy Datta

Okay finally I’m done with this book, WORLD’s BEST BOYFRIEND written by DURJOY DATTA. So I pre-ordered it on Amazon.in and guess what? Am so lucky, I got his signed copy. 🙂 I was so happy when I received it. This was my first read of Durjoy Datta and I must say I’m so impress by his work and I’m sure I’ll continue to read his other books. The very one thing I loved about this book is its cute title 😉 it is really so cute, isn’t it???? 🙂 Well, Durjoy is a wonderful writer. World’s Best Boyfriend is his 11th book and yes I liked it. And by the way, thanks to Amazon.in I’m damnnnn happy about the signed copy I’ve received, so THANK YOU DURJOY & AMAZON! ❤

Thanks for the Signed copy 🙂

Durjoy Datta’s new book tells us a story about a girl Aranya who has a disease named vitiligo since birth because of which her parents always hated her and never a moment came in life when they treated her nicely. Her brother was always considered more superior to her even when she was very studious and always scored in top ranks. She meets a boy named Dhruv who is disturbed because his parents have separated as his mother leaves home with his school principal. This leads Dhruv to be very rough and unemotional all his life. Somehow, both Aranya and Dhruv falls in love in school. After getting caught, they are separated and they only meet after couple of years to hate each other as much as possible. They try almost everything to ruin each other’s peace but is the hatred only thing that they share between each other? Hatred for someone comes only when you consider them someone important in your mind. That’s the plot on which World’s Best Boyfriend is based upon. I’m not going to tell you the whole story, all I wanna say is go read it, it’s a nice one.

First of all Thank You Durjoy for shading some light over VITILIGO. It’s still a stigma in the society. Well done!!!! 🙂 Now coming to the main storyline, The story is simple enough but it’s quite good. I liked it and I really mean it. It will make you laugh, cry and angry. There were so many twist and turns in the book. The book clearly shows the mental trauma the kid goes through when his/her parents decide to split up and leaving behind so many unanswered questions. It also shows that whatever god has made you black or white or thin or fat or with any disability/disease, you should never take yourself for granted, you should love yourself & be proud about it. 🙂 And there is a very good message in the book for parents and teachers that no matter what if your child is physically not fit or have some disease parents/teachers/society should never treat them like burden, they should love and support them. The disabled people don’t need our sympathy, they just need our love, so just love them. 🙂 Anyways, I liked the character of Dhruv Roy. According to me, he is not WORLD’S BEST BOYFRIEND but yes he is a quite nice and cute boyfriend whom every girl wants. 🙂 But I really loved Sanchit’s character the most! He was just amazing and soooooo funny, my god! 😛 😛 He is the most interesting, entertaining and alive character in this book. Really, he was damn funny and he was the only love cupid between Dhruv and Aranya.

I didn’t like Raghuvir’s character and I felt sad for the professors 😛 but really Raghuvir was a boring part of the book. I hated his Casanova image. By the way, I loved these names “Dhruv and Aranya” 🙂 nice choice Durjoy 😉 The best thing in this book that I loved is Dhruv and Sanchit’s friendship. Lol, they were amazing. They reminds you of your friendship with your best friends, at so many places, there was a stupid smile on my face while reading how they were conversing with each other. 🙂 It was really a fun read. This book has everything from emotions, drama, action, love, hate, romance, sadness, anger, and revenge in 288 pages. I’ve enjoyed reading every scene durjoy has created in the book. In the later portion, what I liked the most was the interaction between Dhruv and his father. It was quite meaningful and beautiful. So, It is a nice book with a cute love story. No matter how many love stories you might have read, this one is surely different. Not only love, you also realize what true friendship is! 🙂

Some interesting quotes:

“Love is a conscious decision to be destroyed.”

“Hate is a four letter word and so is love. And, sometimes people can’t tell the difference”

“That’s the cliche about love. You don’t choose it. It chooses you.”

“Easy love is no love. Love’s not love unless you’re laid waste by it, unless you’re destroyed by it, ripped apart and scarred for life by it.”

All in all it is a nice love story, a good book and I would recommend all of you to read at least once & explore the pure love by our cute dimple boy Durjoy 😉 the book is already in BESTSELLER list and Durjoy surely deserves it. 🙂 This is really a good book with so many good messages. A truly beautiful love story, Durjoy knows well how to connect with his readers. Well, In this book, there’s one more good message that I would love to share “you cannot hate a person once you loved so rather than taking revenge or hurting the ones who hurted you try to forgive them, that will make you a real human.” 🙂 So, do read this book guys, at least once…its full of humour, drama, emotions, sadness and lots of love & friendship. JUST GO FOR IT!!!!! 🙂

Book Review:- HALF GIRLFRIEND by Chetan Bhagat

I know, I am late but anyways, Today the book I am going to review is none other than the famous and controversial Half-Girlfriend by the one and only CHETAN BHAGAT. Finally Chetan Bhagat is back after a very long time ( almost 3 years) since Revolution 2020 which came out in 2011. Honestly, Chetan Bhagat’s recent novel Half Girlfriend with its strange title was a typical bollywood film type story but still I liked it, because somehow, I’m a typical bollywood girl. 🙂

Yes it is not Bhagat’s best work, according to me his best work was “Two States” undoubtedly. ‘Two States’ was my first read and still my favorite, I love that book, so I think CB’s best work was 2 States. 🙂
Anyways, I ordered Half Girlfriend on Amazon.in and it arrived right on time. Now let’s begin with the story, well It is a simple and total Bollywood story. The story revolves around a Bihari boy called Madhav Jha who is from a village called Dumraon and a rich girl called Riya Somani from Delhi. Madhav and Riya both are basketball players. During the trail match for St. Stephan College’s examination Madhav met Riya, and just like most of the love story starts, Madhav instantly falls in love with Riya. Madhav wanted a relationship and not only friendship but Riya only agrees to be his half-girlfriend.

I just not liked but I LOVED the character of Riya Somani, maybe because I am 80% like her 😛 While reading the book, I was easily able to relate myself with RIYA. I love her character the mosttttt! ❤ There were so much love, love, love and emotions in the book. I liked the message that “when a person really like or love anyone, no matter how ‪hard or difficult the situation is they’ll find a way to make it a success and never ever leave you.” And as I said, I am a typical bollywood girl, So it reminds me the famous dialogue from Om Shanti Om
“Kehte hain…..Agar kisi cheez ko sachche dil se chaahon to poori kayanat usey tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hain” 😛 (People say that if you love someone with your heart then the whole world tries to get you close to him/her).
And, the story of Half Girlfriend is exactly like the dialogue. 🙂

I liked the story, it’ll make you cry, it’ll make you laugh. Overall It is a good and common love story with lots of twist and turns and the author also highlighted some of the social problems in the book. The language is so simple. Chetan Bhagat writes in a very simple language easily understandable by most people. According to me the only bad thing about this book is that it is more of a film script than a novel.

I don’t know why a lot of people have issues with Bhagat’s English. I know he writes in simple English but still he is the biggest selling English language Novelist in India’s history and Time Magazine named him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. I actually like his writing, his English and his novels. I’ve read so much worse books and I can tell you that it is a lot better than those books. I know its not his best work but it is not too bad that you cannot read it. It is a good book and I liked it. But if you want to read Half Girlfriend, Read the book without lot of expectations.

Some interesting quotes from Half-Girlfriend:

“Sometimes following your heart leads you nowhere”

“Survived, yes. Lived, no.”

“Girlfriends come and go but, thank God, mothers don’t break up with you”

“ If you crush a flower before it blooms, will it bloom as bright later?”

“Live with dignity. Live for others. That is how one earns Respect.”

“Don’t quit. It will happen one day.”

I found Half Girlfriend to be as entertaining as any good Bollywood movie with ‘happy ending’. All in all it is a simple and nice book and as always Chetan Bhagat’s book keep you holding till the end. I liked Bhagat’s writing style. It is a one time read. You can read this book if you are a Chetan Bhagat fan (like me) and if you like his romantic flicks, otherwise don’t read it.

And one more thing, I am sure that it will definitely make a good Bollywood Blockbuster 😉 I hope, they will cast Arjun Kapoor for Madhav’s character and Kriti Sanon for Riya’s character. They both will look nice and will make a great pair! 🙂

So, Have you read it? What’s your view? 🙂