Love, That Shit!

"Like a roller-coaster, relationships have their nauseating ups, downs, twists and turns… Sure, like a rollercoaster, relationships are also fun and exciting but what happens when the ride isn't as smooth as you thought it would be? What do you do when you want to get off the ride but disengaging the safety harness is a lot harder than you thought? Or simply, what if you’re finding it difficult to get on a ride in the first place, especially when there isn't a height restriction?
…Unfortunately, relationships don’t come with perforated edges and Love, That Shit! (LTS) hopes to help you through the process of getting into, dealing with and even the aftermath of relationships. What sets LTS apart is its contemporary approach, aimed at enlightening while simultaneously, entertaining.
Challenging norms and common thinking at times, LTS hopes to keep you chuckling, or at least smiling, as you embark on the journey and absorb its message"

I'm not a big fan of non-fiction books, particularly self-help kind of books. A self-help book on love, relationships and marriage is definitely not my cup of tea, but there’s something in the title that had grabbed my attention. I was sure that it would be an interesting read and I wasn’t wrong. The author had written the book with some good humor. He mentioned that there’s not much of a difference between online dating sites and arranged marriage. The main variance between them is that parents are the portals and they simply use more traditional means. The author described about many faces of Mother in laws (MIL). We have the L’Oreal MILs, who refuse to go silently into the night and continue to cling on to their youth. There are Status MILs. This breed of women is all about designer wear and making sure everyone knows about it. Some other categories are Yummy Mummy, Kitty Party, Owl MILs, Nosey, Google MILs, Hari-Om MILs. 

This book is all about different phases of relationship. Even though I enjoyed the book a lot, but I'm not sure how much knowledge I have gained. I think every relationship is unique and it's not easy to generalize the problems. Also, I felt that the author didn't give convincing solutions to the relationship issues. He suggested that it's always better to walk away from a relationship if it's not working and find a new one. Well, Chandru the author lived most of his life in abroad. Born in Africa, he was raised between Nigeria, India and the UK. After graduating with Masters in International Business and Management, he moved to New York where he worked for three years as a Business Development Manager. In 2002, Chandru returned to Nigeria where he currently resides and runs a trading company.

Title: Love, That Shit
Author: Chandru Bhojwani
Publisher: Om Books International
Genre: Non Fiction / Self help

Nazaqat

'A prostitute turned entrepreneur, who hires a ghost writer to make a biography. 

A murder that she was accused for and her vision to legalize prostitution completely in India.

A parallel conspiracy that threatens her life and her vision.

A forgotten tale of mermaid, that must be told.

Time is ticking and history would be altered. What would be the fate of Nazaqat?

Will she succeed in her vision or she would end up as a victim?'

Naazani Singh Shekhawat is a girl from Dehradun. She had a lonely childhood, her mother died while delivering her and her father was a general in Indian army, who would be either on duty or boozing with his friends. Her father had always lived a disciplined life; too strict on the people around and on himself. Naazani had always lived a life of desolation; motherless girl, an insensitive father and a limited number of friends in her all-girl-convent school. Life was quite boring for her after she returned home from her convent school. She confined herself within their old fashioned luxurious house in the valley of Dehradun.

But life was entirely different for Naazani after she moved to Delhi for her higher education, particularly after her encounter with Sharat. Sharat was an opportunist guy who had smelled business the moment he met her. Well, Naazani was an epitome of beauty and with every passing day she was becoming more and more exotic. She had the seductive killer eyes and guys were just crazy for her. Somehow under Sharat’s influence Naazani entered into the world of prostitution, that too wholeheartedly. She was happy and loved her profession. She enjoyed experiencing new guys and found it very interesting. Naazani used the name Nazaqat and she became famous with this name in her darker world. She was living a dual life, one that of Naazani and another of Nazaqat. Naazani was humble and a very sensitive girl, while Nazaqat was opportunist, selfish and egoistic.

Several years later, Naazani is quite older now. Nazaqat in her, had already died. Naazani had filed a petition to completely legalize prostitution in India. This has made her a celebrity and she is constantly in media headlines these days. And very recently she has been accused of murdering her close friend Biplab. Is it a conspiracy? Well, the climax of the story is very interesting and I was really thrilled.

I enjoyed reading the book; it’s a crime thriller. But throughout the story I couldn’t understand the character Nazaqat. Neither she was money hungry nor the author has portrayed her as a hardcore nymphomaniac. I completely failed to understand why she continued to be a prostitute. I could only make out that Nazaqat loved to meet new people, talk to them and sometimes also enjoyed seducing them. But God has designed human beings in such a way that women need not indulge in prostitution to experience such things. 

The author Harsh Agarwal is a young writer who made his debut in publishing industry at an early age of 19. He is an Engineering graduate, but nowadays he’s into full time writing business. Apart from writing he also runs an organization ‘The Asylum’, which aims to help aspiring authors. Due to some reason Harsh had written Nazaqat with a pseudo name of Sasha H Singhal. After reading the book I asked him why he had published it with a pseudo name, ‘were you afraid of your parents?’ Well, Harsh simply burst into laughter and replied, 'no, that was not the reason'

Title: Nazaqat

Author: Sasha H Singhal

Publisher: Half Baked Beans

Genre: Fiction (Thriller)
     

The Winds of Hastinapur

The word Hastinapur is quite soothing to my ears. Well, it was a very well known city during Mahabharata period. Hastinapur was the capital of the kingdom of the Kauravas, belonging to the Kuru dynasty of kings. The throne of this city was the prize over which the Kurukshetra war of the epic Mahabharata was fought. Most of the incidents in Mahabharata have taken place in this city of Hastinapur.

During my childhood I was a big fan of Mahabharata and regularly watched it on DD. Also in our school, probably in our 8th grade, we had Mahabharata book as part of our academics. The book was part of our Hindi subject and it was really interesting when our ‘Hotilal Sir’ used to narrate the book to us. No doubt, it’s the greatest epic ever. My Mahabharata knowledge was limited to the battle between Kauravas and the Pandavas, Ekalavya cutting his thumb, Draupadi Vastraharan, Bhim fighting the Cannibal Bakasura, amongst others. When I came across the book, ‘The Winds of Hastinapur’, I was a little thrilled. The book synopsis is very interesting.

‘The Mahabharata is the story of women, even though men have focused far too much on the Great Battle. It is women who have set events in motion, guided the action and measured the men. The Winds of Hastinapur begins at the point that Ganga was cursed and sent to Earth. She lives among the mortals and bears Shantanu, the King of Hastinapur, seven children, all of whom she kills. With the eighth, she leaves. That boy, who returns to Earth, will prove to be the key to the future of Hastinapur.The story, as told through the lives of his mother Ganga and stepmother Satyavati is violent, fraught with conflict and touched with magic’

I’m sure this book is written after a lot of research. Over the years numerous writers, poets, singers, film-makers and various artists have interpreted Mahabharata in their own way. While reading ‘The Winds of Hastinapur’ I was not able to correlate it with my limited Mahabharata knowledge. I felt a little happy at one point when I read about the birth of Pandu and Dhritarashtra. The book powerfully described about two ladies, Ganga the mother of Bhisma and his step mother Satyavati. Even though there’s very less Mahabharata in the book, but readers who like mythological stories will definitely enjoy it. To be honest, I didn’t find the book very interesting. I’m not too much into mythology kind of stuff and also, I found the story to be a little disorganized. But for readers who want to know more of Indian mythology, this book is highly recommended.

Title: The Winds of Hastinapur

Author: Sharath Komarraju

Publisher: Harper Collins

Genre: Fiction

Sorting Out Sid

Siddharth Agarwal, well, quite often even he himself gets confused with his real name. People had always called him Sid all throughout his life, his friends, relatives, colleagues and everyone else. Sid was close to his forties, but he had always carried the heart of a teen. Well, even his mind seemed to have stuck somewhere and was not maturing with his age. He had been married for more than a decade, but he simply loved women, all sorts of women. He had a promising career with hefty salary. There was also a rumor going around at his office that soon he would gonna be the youngest vice president. Everything seemed to be so perfect for him, but then he had a pathetic married life. Sid’s wife Mandira was his college senior and she was a couple of years older to him. They used to be a well know couple during their college days. Everyone liked their chemistry together, in terms of their height, weight and with their overall personality. But over the years, somehow the love had diminished and also their sex life was on hold for last several months or could possibly be for last several years.

Mandira was possessive about Sid, right from the beginning and gradually over the years, Sid was left out with just few close friends. One day, she even found a huge collection of porn videos in Sid’s laptop. She got terribly disturbed with that and her heart shattered into pieces. She felt as if she was living with a maniac for so many years. Mandira always wanted a child, but Sid wasn't ready for that, yet. They had their own bunch of common friends and they usually enjoyed spending time with them over the weekends. Aditi was Sid’s closest friend and was almost like an elder sister to him, only in terms of lecturing though. Well, one time Sid visited her place to celebrate her birthday, but later he was highly embarrassed when Aditi told him that it’s actually her little son’s birthday. 

Sid always felt happy whenever he was with friends, sipping his icy chilled beer. He was not among the kind of person who takes life a little too seriously. But his sex-starvation was getting serious day by day. Even a glimpse of the whitish fleshy upper arms of Meenakshi, his HR manager, used to spark his emotions, his hidden desires seemed to be flourishing. She often mesmerized Sid with the smell of her shampoo, while revealing her white teeth, whenever she discussed the HR stuffs with him, a little closely though. Meenakshi was a mother of 2 and somewhat hot looking lady. Sid also found her little flirtatious and used to enjoy whenever she behaved little more friendlier, with her slightly touchy gestures, in his cabin. Well, Sid assumed her behavior kind of  appealing and inviting.

Life seems to be pretty boring for both Mandira and Sid, whenever they spent time together, all alone. Their time usually passed with their silent dinner, followed by Sid’s browsing through the TV channels. Most of the times they ended up sleeping in different rooms, busy with their damn lappies. Sometimes their house turned lively though, with Mandira’s high pitch and short lived yelling for him. During evening, Sid just loved to quench his thirst with icy chilled beer, just to survive the Delhi heat. Sid really enjoyed his time worshiping his beer, whenever Mandira was not a home. Sometimes his in-laws used to visit them, just to tickle his irritation further. His mother-in-law often used to lecture him about cultivating his relationship with Mandira. She tried to explain Sid, what a woman really wants from her husband. Sid often used to disappear from the scene, fearing her mom-in-law would end up explaining him the secret Kamasutra positions.

Well, the situation had turned little serious after both Sid and Mandira mutually applied for their divorce. They were prepared enough for the big decision, but the stupid and over optimistic judge had recommended them to give themselves some more time. Six months seemed to be much longer, but then they never had any other choice. Well, there’s not much of a difference between a judge’s recommendation and his verdict. Sid and Mandira decided to stay together just like earlier for few more months. During their relationship building phase, Sid came in contact with Neha, through Aditi. Neha is quite an attractive lady in her thirties; she's very straightforward and practical. She’s also very friendly and usually attached with people, effortlessly. Sid was electrified with her presence when he met her for the first time in a party, with common friends. The very moment he realized that Neha was actually a single mother of a little child, his heart filled with delight and optimism. But then, he wasn’t fully divorced yet and deep within his heart, he wanted to fix things with Mandira. Gradually Sid was getting a little closer to Neha. It's really interesting to see how things turn for Sid. Well, the title itself says ‘Sorting Out Sid’, so how things are actually sorted for Sid? 

The book is all about modern day life, about marriage and relationship, about family and friends. I think everyone will feel a part of the story. It’s a refreshing read and Yashodhara had presented the modern day living in her own humorous style. Readers, who love fun/lightweight comedy, will definitely love ‘Sorting out Sid'. I liked the humor in the book, although I found it's a little too lengthy. But overall it was a relaxing read in the weekend.

Title: Sorting Out Sid

Author: Yashodhara Lal

Publisher: Harper Collins

Genre: Fiction