The Secrets of the Dark by Arka Chakrabarti

The title of the book is not selected intelligently. There is a popular game by this title as well and search engines will not give fruitful results for this book if the name of the Author or the Publisher is not added to the search text.

Story line of the game is - Your friend is a journalist who is staying in a seemingly quiet desert town. After getting involved with a story involving the dark forces, he is kidnapped by three dark priests! Now they are getting ready to sacrifice him to provide the Demon of Darkness with limitless power, and it’s up to you to stop them! Save your friend in Secrets of the Dark: Temple of Night, a challenging Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game! 

I will not be surprised if the readers will try to find a relation of story with the game. “Game of Thorns” hooks close to the story line. It puts a question mark on the originality of the story line.

The cover page of the novel did not grip my attention as it did not compliment the story completely. It doesn't give a reason of a reader who is surfing for books in a book store, looking for an interesting read.

The page and print quality is class and the publisher deserves an appreciation for that.

The story starts very grippingly and the author was successful in leaving an impression. The book is an interesting read and keeps the reader hooked till the end; however end is yet to come! A lot of mystic turns and twists kept me entertained. I would be waiting to read the next book.

Editing is a concern with this book and there was a lot ignored.

This book is recommended as a good read for fantasy lovers and I am glad to see Indian Authors writing something else over love stories.

Event story of Vikrant Shukla at Amdavad National Book Fair 2013

Amdavad National Book Fair was held from 01^st till 07^th May 2013 at Gujarat University Convention Hall Drive-in Road, University Area, Amdavad.

One of the main attractions of the Book Fair was the “Author’s Interaction + Book Reading + Book Signing Session” with Vikrant Shukla. It was awaited by a number of people and as expected it was an action packed event. The Author came casually dressed, people meeting him for the first time were astonished to see a young writer. Dressed up in blue jeans, blue t-shirt, the author came with a casual look and that was complimented with his humorous approach. His Down to Earth personality won many hearts in no time.

Welcome speech was given by Parul Bhadoria, the Strategy Head of Mehta Publishing House. She looked gorgeous in a green sari, a typical Indian attire. Later, Vikrant came on the stage & grabbed the attention of the audience and started sharing the synopsis of his books, Call Centre An Inside Story & The Wrong Chase. As expected, the audience was mesmerized. 

One of them asked, “How is your book different from Chetan Bhagat’s One night a @ call centre?”  The response given was, “We should not compare these two books even though they are based on the common theme i.e. Call Centre. I have read Mr. Bhagat’s novel and I liked it, however I felt there were some realistic things missing. The call centres are not so easy to work at, life at a call centre is not a happy ride all the time, people can’t go out to have party and booze while they are on the shift. I have worked in the call centre industry for the past eight years and therefore wanted to present a realistic story. Mehta Publishing House showed their trust in me and the main appreciation came when you liked the book. The core difference between two books is that the latter is coming from the horse’s mouth”, this response was followed with a big round of applause.

The second phase of his session was about answering the questions asked by the audience. Gayatri Lodha, a 13 year old young writer (Author of Gayatri’s Math Tricks) asked, “What inspired you to write?” and the response given was, “It was due to my loneliness. I was never a party animal, I had nothing special to do over the weekends and I wanted to do something creative and I ended up penning up my thoughts on my laptop”, said Vikrant with a smile on his face.

Post the interaction with the audience, the team of Mehta Publishing House came back to their stall which was one of the most attractive stalls at the book fair. Vikrant met with a number of readers and signed copies of his books for them and his positive gestures and interaction was highly appreciated by everyone. His fans were happy and Vikrant met everyone who were waiting anxiously for his visit to their city. 

Something strange happened, when a young man approached Vikrant and asked, “Are you Vikrant? Do you remember that your interview was published on our website?” “Which Website, can you please help me recollect?” responded Vikrant. “Spectralhues”, replied that young man. “Oh, I remember…..” and the communication commenced. The young man whose name was Prashant Gandhi proposed Vikrant to be published on the front page of their monthly magazine “Moments”, Vikrant accepted the proposal.

One of the main attractions of the event were the imprinted mugs where a famous dialogue from Vikrant’s novel was mentioned with the logo of Mehta Publishing House, complemented with a smiling picture of Vikrant Shukla. It was gifted to people who visited the stall and to the winners of the interactive games held at the stall. Mugs were also given to people who bought books in bulk from the stall.

Mayor of Amdavad City, Mrs. Meenaxiben Patel visited the stall and had a candid discussion with the author. She was thrilled to see a young author doing so well in writing and was curious to know about his published and forthcoming books.

Overall the event was a super success.

The Team who made it possible for the Author Vikrant Shukla to meet his Gujarati fans were - 
Parul Bhadoria, Amol Joshi, Sagar and the team (Mehta Publishing House)

Vikrant explaining the synopsis of his books

Book Signing 

Arrival at the stall of Mehta Publishing House

Interaction with the audience

Interaction with the audience continued....

Vikrant talking about his forthcoming books

Answering the question asked by Gayatri Lodha (Author)

Interacting with the Mayor of Amdavad, Mrs. Meenaxiben Patel

Interacting with the Mayor of Amdavad, Mrs. Meenaxiben Patel

A picture clicked with Prashant Gandhi 

Team behind the scene, Left to Right  - Parul Bhadoria (2nd), Vikrant (3rd), Sagar (4th), Amol Joshi (5th)

Goodies on display at the stall

Best Sellers of Vikrant Shukla at the stall of Mehta Publishing House

** Photo Courtesy - Mehta Publishing House

The Homing Pigeons by Sid Bahri

Reading novels from the debut authors is always exciting however most of the times it becomes a nightmare to finish; I think you understand what I mean to say here. Most of the debut authors now write out of desperation to get published and after failing to get the book approved by some publisher they opt to self publish and pay for that, results are disaster for the authors and readers as well.  

This novel changed the perception!

To start with, the cover page and quality of the book is international standards. I was impressed, it is very important for any reader to feel good, carrying the book with them. Full score should be given for the designer of the cover and publisher for giving a quality print and pages.

Reading the blurb at the back side of the book gives a glimpse of this book to be a love story however it is not just a love story. Reading the first chapter set the mood when one of the characters was laid off his job and was sitting in the bar. It is a perfect kick start for the story. The character, Aditya, lost his job due to recession and is sitting at the bar with last of his money. He met a lady, Radhika and his life changes drastically after that meeting.

Story line is good however I found that the story was not moving straight, the author chose to move the story more in a zig-zag approach.

I liked the way the story is narrated, author definitely maintained the grip on the story line and as a reader I enjoyed reading the work. The author managed to mark his presence. Characters were defined well and the plot of the story was also managed well which keeps on swinging from past to present.

I was not fully satisfied with the editing work, at some parts the short sentences becomes evident. At times, it is very important to manage a flow in delivery; short sentences gave it a break at times.  

A good read. I would like to congratulate the Author and the Publisher for giving a decent read after a long time. 

Looking forward to read more from them........

The Inferno by Kanishk Banka

Holding the book in hand is not a feel good factor. Publisher didn’t bother to give any justice to the look and feel of the book. Cover design doesn’t speak anything and fail to grab attention. It looks like a self sponsored book where publishers are least interested in investing in cover design and good quality of papers etc.

Reading the synopsis mentioned on the back cover could have been illustrated better. It is more of introduction of the characters and doesn't really create any zest.  

The book talks about a serious issue – Jihad. I liked the author’s guts to start his writing journey with a sensitive topic. Was it a card played to get sure success or was it done with some other intentions?

Any book talking about Jihad can’t be covering a lot in 166 pages (including title page, dedication page etc.) – A thought of anyone who picks up a book with getting some insights of something.

I will not refrain to appreciate the author for collecting a lot of information and knowledge about this topic. At certain places, the book really talks what it is about. The author managed to maintain a good tone. As the story is narrated, it also talks about 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, story hovers around a lot. If I could sense it right, author wanted to speak about the lot of things, if that was the case, why he didn't think of increasing the word count to give justice to the book?

The book is priced at Rs. 150 which is not complimented with the quality provided by the publisher. The author and the publisher should consider reprinting the book with a better cover design and quality of paper, with this quality I really doubt if the author will get noticed in the market.

The author proved with his work that his writing and thinking style is different and we can expect to read better novels in the future.

This book will attract only the readers interested in reading political controversies and riots. The story line is not mass appealing.

Overall I liked the book and if it was not for the poor quality of cover design and paper quality, the book could have picked up the market. With what I have in hand, it will not give anything to the author at least. 

Left from Dhakeshwari by Kunal Sen

Let’s begin with the book cover and print quality. A black background and a mime artist with closed eyes catches an attention, a catching cover which enhances curiosity, and also goes well with the concept of the book. It gives a thought to the reader before even turning pages. 

Print and page quality is also quite impressive.

Kunal came up as a serious writer with his stories and I was pleased to read the book, nine stories about life, about people who failed one way or the other. The book is not a regular read, it strikes the thinking chords.

If you are a random reader and looking for a light read in form of a collection of short stories, this book is not for you. It’s a serious read. One great thing which I noticed was the connection of stories which flows as you move on reading. If someone will read the stories randomly and will not go by the sequence, he will not enjoy reading this book. It goes with pros and cons, it proves that writer is not trying to present a regular read and he is successful with that. At the same time, for casual love saga reading crowd will not find this book entertaining. 

But the fact is that writer proved it. Well done!

Editing is another notable thing about this book. Full justice is given, choice of words at places is profound however doesn’t impact much. I liked the description of plot, characters, story line and emotions.

This book will leave the reader with a thought and Kunal must have worked really hard to pin down his imaginations. His narration is controlled and he managed to do justice with characters. It is not a read for everyone but yes. Will be an excellent read for people who want to read something off-beat and who understand literature. A novel and collection of stories is not just about love, romance and sex. This book will satisfy reading hunger of people who read books for a rising thought.

I really liked the look of the book and I would like to keep it in my collection. 

Journey of a Lifetime by Prateek Sharma

“Journey of a Lifetime”, I loved the title. I was happy to hold the book as it didn’t speak about Love story, romance and broken relationships in the first go. Sorry to say, I am not really against any love stories however the way they are written now a day are not really leaving any scope for even a perfect writer to make any mark on anyone. Love story market is spoiled.

I didn’t like the quality of the book cover, it looked below average. Book cover is the identity of a book and with looking at the book, a reader judges the capacity if any book. It should give a reflection of the story; it should highlight what a reader can expect from a book. It failed, big time. Paper quality is good and the print is also clear. Once the reader will start to read, it will not be a problem however just looking at the cover design, colour combination and confusing synopsis, will hit the sales. Why will someone pay Rs. 150 without even knowing what he is going to read? If the book is going for re-print, the Author and the Publisher should think of looking at these things to make it better sold in the market.

Story line is good; it doesn’t grip however it flows. I liked it.

There are a couple of evident flaws in writing style however a reader will not be impacted till he is not really trying to find errors. However the editor must have had a tough time editing this book. It is evident that the book is written on Microsoft Word and the Author freely used right clicks to get ‘synonyms’ to get some power packed replacements of his words. It was evident as at times the usage of words was not complementing the script. I have observed this trend with many debut authors now days. 

They are under pressure to make their book like an international standard however they should not forget that their initial market will be India.

At times, the story was meeting eyes and I was expecting a boom however every time it was just missed.

It is a decent read and I recommend it to people who are looking for a decent read over a weekend. The author can do really well; he has got a good flow and imagination. He should work towards reading more before he put on his hands on writing some other book. 

I will look forward to read more work from this Author.

Rainy Days by Samarth Prakash

I will start with the cover of the book. Cover is decent, though looks dull. Quality of paper and print is good and is soothing to hold and read. It doesn’t look like a quality book and a quality read at the first look however I was looking forward to read it.

Title of the book was something which attracted me, not a stereo typed normal love story types. I had high expectations from this book.

 This book is just another, regular, mono types love story which we might have heard, read or seen somewhere. Not really written. Said or heard the first time. Most of the debut writers in India ring the same bell, some way or the other.

 As far as the story line is concerned, this book has nothing new to offer. It has all the ingredients of a typical love story.

 The tragedy in the end is very make over types; it looks unreal and also unsurprising because the reader already knows all along that Megha's love for Raghav is not true. Also, most of the incidents in the story are so predictable. Flow of the book is a kind, where the reader already knows what is going to come up on the next page. That’s not what a reader picks up a book for!

 Looking at the writing style of the author now, “Somewhat” is used so many times in the book that this word kept haunting me for long after I kept the book down. The good part is that Author or editor of the book spent good time with the grammar and editing of the book, I didn’t find much errors. Good job on that part. 

Overall, it is a decent read for 125 bucks, if someone is looking for reading something on a lighter note however not really recommended to anyone who is willing to read something unpredictable.

In Love: Once & Forever by K.Krishna Kumar

This book looked like a dream of someone, as if someone desperately wanted to share his mind and heart. It is a small and short read with 150 pages. This book caught my attention as for the first time I saw a page from the editor as “Foreword”, strange! However after reading that my expectations caught fire and I expected to read a finely polished piece after a long time. I will start with the story line, as complemented by the Title itself, it is a love story and differently it is a teen’s story. More talking like infatuation stages. Flow did not go well and kept on fluctuating between a hidden feeling and studies. Author tried his level best but homework was not done at all. It looked like all of a sudden someone decided to pick up a notepad and a pen and started to write. It took a whole lot of efforts to make the grip, Story line was good and there was a lot of scope to narrate it with a gripping impact but didn’t happen till the end. Author was more inclined towards expressing what he felt but it doesn’t work always as readers expect a grip and mind blocking while reading anything. If I as a reader I am not attached with something, I will start turning pages and it will end up nowhere but to look for a better option to quench my reading thirst. Author should have read some books to get an idea of how to frame the narration to maintain grip over the reader’s mind. Now I will speak about the Editor. The first page of the book states, Edited by Shreya Chatterjee in bold. It happened for the first time that I saw name of the editor given so much of importance. It is good as editors are not getting their much deserved fame anywhere in the publishing industry. However, when the name is given as a highlight, it should be justified. There are mind boggling editing errors evident. I had to read this book as if I was checking a test paper. Let’s have a look at some of the basic errors – 1. When I started answering, I saw everyone turning back to look at me, as I was standing on the last bench 2. That was the first time I saw her. After several years, it was really difficult for me to find out, which was the first time I saw her? One day when I was feeling peaceful and had a lot of time at hand. I thought about this for the whole day. And after analyzing all my available memories at last I concluded this moment as the one in which I saw her for the first time 3. Hence to avoid confusions, I always adhered to Syed in the school, and I simply went to the places he went. I even went to the toilet only if he went there. This was the first reason why we became friends 4. I liked in playing with him very much, though mostly he hit the ball, and I chased it 5. Fter seeing the movie….. (I believe it was “After” and not “Fter”) 6. I heard something disturbing my sleepit was my father (Have no idea to what “sleepit” is) 7. After that in the every exam, I got an increased progress in my report card 8. Mother in law is going to afford to you 9. I saved it into my pocket 10. We would eat something for our stomach 11. It might because their bank balance came down These are just some examples, editor missed to correct what she was supposed to be in this book. Overall this book needed a lot of work before getting published. I am still wondering who went wrong, the Author, the Editor or the Publisher.

Love @ Internet by Rajeev Ranjan

Love @ Internet by Rajeev Ranjan

Love @ Internet, the title was not that appealing to me as I thought it will be another Love Story. But it was not the first time I was reading Rajeev’s work. I was the one to review his first novel as well and that’s what made me curious to read his second book.

It started to grip from initial pages itself.

Rohit the main lead of this novel and his balcony love made the plot right to start with and his shyness resembles any youth living in a middle town. The girl leaving him and going away with her parents and Rohit feeling lonely was a kicking flow again.

Story is with packed a pace and if someone is not reading the book with any assumptions will enjoy it thoroughly. Rajeev can write using a simple plot with a difference and that’s what provoked me to read his work. If I look at the plot it is not complicated at all but the way it is presented is very nice.

If I look at the plotting and addressing the narration, it needs some guidance of some good editor as at some places story seemed to be meeting eyes with the reader and all of a sudden the plot is left there unimpressed.  

Also some of the editorial errors which a reader might not catch but being a reviewer and editor it impacted and irritated me.

None of the flaws are there because of the Author; I think the publisher is compromising on spending on editorial part to groom the work to an international level.

I wouldn’t rate the cover more than 2.5 on a sale of 1 to 5, after reading the novel I felt there was more to be reflected on the cover page. Cover page is the first thing which a reader will look at before buying a book.

Again a good job by Rajeev Ranjan and will be glad to read more from this author in the coming years.

To Err is Human by Swarupa Chavan

“To err is human”, I wondered why this title is selected and I was curious to read the story.

I took a long time as for some or the other reason the story didn’t grip my attention. Not directly jumping on to saying about not liking the novel, I just wanted to highlight some evident turn offs.

I was happy to put hands on the book which is not written by just another engineering or MBA pass out who just wanted to tell the story of his college days or an unsuccessful love saga.

Cover page attracted the thoughts and is well designed. The quality of print is another winning part for this novel as now people don’t just buy a book; they want to buy quality which they can carry while on move. 

Quality of print and pages is also good.

The story and plot is good however the narration needs perfection. The story is about Malini and her exploits while discovering her true self. Author tried to make Malini amusing, witty and full of humor but somehow it didn't create a grip.  

Office politics drifts and search for true love – it summarizes it all.

As I say most of the times, editing plays a major role and evident editing errors blocks the reader. Editing needed more attention!

While writing a book, it happens that the author goes with the flow and unintentionally starts to use phrases in regional language. The common thought is that it will create a grip and bonding with the reader. If as a reader I would want to read Marathi, I would go for a Marathi novel, why will I pick up an English read? Also, why do writers want to block their work to a state or a region? Will anyone from any other Indian state enjoy reading the story with so many Marathi phrases and sentences? If the novel is picked up for translation in other languages, how that thing will work out? Being an Indian reader we have grip over different languages of India, what if this book is given to a foreigner, will he be able to understand the book? – With these thoughts if I had to rate the book, I would not give it a superb rating.

Author can do better and we should not forget that a book is not about the way author is presenting and writing, it is also about the support given to him/her in the process of writing and getting published. I have no idea if Swarupa was given these suggestions while the novel went in for the process of getting published.

If this novel is rated a failure, it is not because of the author. It is because of other people who did not do justice with what they did.

With the story and thought flow, I rate Swarupa to be a good thinker and can expect to see more novels from her in the future. With good supporting hands, she can do wonders and with her thoughts she can create some of the biggest best sellers.

The book is light read and Marathi audience will enjoy reading as there is a flavor of their language.