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! 🙂

किताबें (Books)…..!

हम सभी ने कभी न कभी ये सुना होगा कि किताबें (Books) हमारी सबसे अच्छी दोस्त होती हैं. पता नहीं आप लोग इस बात पे विश्वास करते हैं या नहीं, पर मैं इस बात पर भरोसा करती हूँ. मुझे सच में लगता है के किताबें इंसान कि सबसे अच्छी दोस्त होती हैं, ना वो हमसे कभी कुछ मांगती है, ना कभी कोई वादा लेती हैं, बस हमेशा हमको ही सहारा देती हैं. मन उदास होने पे कोई दोस्त आये या न आये पर अगर अच्छी किताब मिल जाये तो कुछ देर के लिए दुःख भी भूला जा सकता है. ज़िन्दगी में दोस्त तो धोखा भी दे जाते है पर यह किताबें नहीं, आप इनकी परवाह करो या न करो, यह हमेशा आपकी परवाह करती हैं. चाहे यह आपके कमरे के किसी कोने में पड़ी रहे, जिसपे धूल लग रही हो, बरसो से आपने इन्हें छुआ भी न हो, फिर भी आप जब इन्हें अपने पास लाओगे ये तब आपको पूरा सुकून, आनंद देगी. जब दिल उदास हो और कोई अच्छी किताब पढ़ ली जाए तो होंठों पे एक मुस्कान आ जाती हैं, जब अकेलापन महसूस करो और एक अच्छी किताब पास हो तो वो अकेलापन भी दूर हो जाता है. किताब पढ़ते-पढ़ते, वक़्त कब गुज़र जाता है पता नहीं चलता. मैंने कहीं पढ़ा था कि एक अच्छी किताब आपको हँसाती है, रुलाती भी है, उसमें सारी भावनाएं होती हैं. वो सारे वक़्त आपका दिल लगाए रखती है. सच ही तो है एक किताब पढ़ने के ज़रिये हम एक नयी ज़िन्दगी को जी लेते हैं. 🙂

आपका तो पता नहीं पर मैं जब भी कोई किताब या कहानी पढ़ती हूँ तो उसको चित्रों (images or visuals) में सोचती हूँ और ऐसा मानती हूँ के ऐसा अगर मेरे साथ होता तो? या ये मेरी ही कहानी होती तो? या भविष्य में ऐसा मेरे साथ हो तो? तब क्या सोचूंगी मैं? और इन्ही सब बातों के साथ मैं ना सिर्फ उस कहानी को बल्कि उन पात्रों को भी जी लेती हूँ जो उस कहानी में होते है, मैं हँसती भी हूँ और रोती भी हूँ. मैं अब अपने कुछ काम को लेके ज़्यादा किताबें नहीं पढ़ पाती, लेकिन जितनी भी पढ़ती हूँ उन सब में खुद को ढालने कि कोशिश करती हूँ, एक अलग, काल्पनिक ज़िन्दगी जीने कि कोशिश करती हूँ. 🙂

मेरे ज़्यादा दोस्त नहीं हैं, कुछ दोस्त हैं पर ज़्यादा नहीं. और सच कहूँ तो मुझे दोस्तों कि ज़्यादा ज़रूरत पड़ती भी नहीं. मुझे अकेले रहना पसंद है, मेरी ज़िन्दगी में म्यूजिक और बुक (Music and Books) यह दो चीज़ें ऐसी हैं जिनके होते हुए मुझे कभी किसी और चीज़ कि ज़रूरत महसूस नहीं हुयी. यहाँ WordPress पे मेरे काफी friends हैं, मैं कभी चाहती हूँ तो उनसे बात कर लेती हूँ, कभी जब मैं यहाँ नहीं आती तब music और अपने काम (works) में व्यस्त (busy) रहती हूँ. और बाकी समय मैं कोई अच्छी किताब पढ़ने में निकाल देती हूँ. एक funny बात बताऊँ? मैं इन किताबों से बातें भी करती हूँ 😀 कभी मन उदास होता है, या अजीब सा लगता है तो इन किताबों में या music सुनके मैं अपने सवालों के जवाब ढूंढने कि कोशिश करती हूँ, पता नहीं जवाब मिलते हैं या नहीं पर दिल को कुछ देर के लिए सुकून मिल जाता है. 🙂 किसी और का तो मैं नहीं कह सकती पर ये किताबें मुझे बहुत प्यारी है, मैं चाहे बरसो तक इनको अपने पास रखी रहूँ, इनकी तरफ देखूँ भी नहीं लेकिन जब दोबारा इनके पास आ के इनको पढ़ती हूँ तो ये उतनी ही ख़ुशी से मुझे अपना लेती हैं. और इसीलिए मैं मानती हूँ के ये किताबें मेरी बहुत अच्छी दोस्त हैं.

मैं उम्मीद करती हूँ के इस पोस्ट (post) को पढ़ते वक़्त आप लोग ज़्यादा bore नहीं हुए होंगे. पता नहीं मैंने ये post क्यों लिखी, वो भी हिंदी (hindi) में, ये जानते हुए के मेरे बहुत सारे readers ठीक से हिंदी नहीं जानते फिर भी आज मेरा मन हुआ के मैं अपने दिल कि इस बात को अपनी मातृभाषा में ही लिखूँ  इसीलिए लिख दिया. वैसे आप लोग किताबों के बारे में क्या सोचते हैं, ज़रूरी बताइएगा. 🙂

Thank you, मेरी इस post को पढ़ने के लिए !! 🙂