Review of The Madras Affair by Sundari Venkataraman

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Readomania; 1st edition (2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 819299757X
• ISBN-13: 978-8192997575

My Review

The Madras Affair by Sundari Venkatraman is a romance genre but also highlights a pivotal issue that still grips the society in India. She has tried to raise awareness via this book that ends in a happy ending for Sangita, the woman who had faced it all at the tender age of 19.

Sangita is a widow with a five-year-old son, and her conservative parents are completely to be blamed for the state she is in, however; she continues to trudge along her journey by working as a receptionist at a hospital. There she meets her future, Gautam the source of joy and bliss that she had always imagined. The Madras Affair is the journey on how she dealt with her parents, the antagonists and found her happily ever after.

In this book, there were some goosebump moments that made me believe that humanity is not lost. The bond between the sister-in-law and Sangita. The relationship between Gautam and his parents and grandparents. The way Gautam's side embraced Sangita despite her dark past. Gautam was fighting for his love till the end.

All such moments made me want to finish reading it in one go....Maybe, since in my heart of heart I wanted justice for Sangita. Thus, crediting the author for how she sketched the characters in this novel while keeping the language simple and fluent that made the reader actually grow fond of them as the story progressed.

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Disclaimer : I got this book from the Author. It is my personal opinion and NOT a commissioned one.

Cover Reveal: Encounters- Someone's Always Waiting by Sumana Khan

Encounters by Sumana Khan 

Blurb 

Someone Is Always Waiting 

EXCERPT FROM THE NOVELETTE “THE STORYTELLER” IN ENCOUNTERS COLLECTION

I stare at the cement bench covered in pigeon shit and spot the dim outline of the granite slab embedded in the backrest. Years ago, when the bench was new, the granite slab was a shiny black mirror inscribed with the words ‘Dedicated to the courageous people of Thirukadal’. Four cyclones and many pigeons later, the words have disappeared. The place is so choked with weeds that the bench appears to rest on the thorny plants. Behind me, beyond a muddy track, the Bay of Bengal hisses and sighs in a treacherous language.

I look up at the sky, as if to decode the time. My watch says it is half past seven in the morning, but the sky, clotted with grey clouds, remains secretive. It could be evening as far as the heavens are concerned. A depressing form of rain is assured; the kind that only occurs in this eastern coast of South India—skies that sob continuously for forty-eight hours, increasing humidity, mosquitoes and the stench of choked drains, damp walls and wet clothes. I wonder if the sky had been just as morose on the morning of 26 December, 2004.

I tie a handkerchief around my face, covering my nose and mouth, and hack away at the weeds. Swarms of mosquitoes and flies rise in a static buzz and hover over my head like a satanic dark halo. It takes me an hour to clear a small area around the bench. The sky starts its weeping just as I scrub the bench with a coconut husk and Vim detergent powder.    
After half an hour, the granite slab gleams into existence once again. I’ve got my memorial ritual paraphernalia in a Food World plastic bag. I bring out a strand of jasmine that I loop around the granite slab, its fragrance weak in the rain. I crouch under my umbrella that won’t open fully and light a couple of incense sticks. I’ve forgotten to bring the incense holder, so I stick the smouldering incense into a banana that was to be my breakfast. I place it on the bench in front of the granite slab and hold the umbrella over it. I close my eyes in an attempt to pray. All I can think of is the angry allergic rash that’s spreading on my legs and hands thanks to the weeds and that the incense smells like a cheap aftershave.

I give up and sit on the bench, still holding the umbrella over the incense. The rain stings my skin like the rash. The hard, wet seat numbs my thighs instantly and a dull arthritic pain blooms in my knees and lower back. I squirm, shifting my weight from one butt cheek to the other. I wait, just as I’ve waited in vain for the last seven years, for the storyteller to show up. The incense is all ash now. I may as well eat the banana and tell you the story of how I met this mysterious man.    

About The Author 

Sumana Khan was born and raised in Bangalore and currently lives in the UK. She is a blogger and a student. Her debut novel was The Revenge of Kaivalya. 

Author website: http://www.sumanakhan.com​

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Review of Saved in Srilanka by Devika Fernando

Some people are destined to meet.

It sure feels that way when Sri Lankan tour guide Sepalika meets Daniel. The mysterious tourist from Ireland steals his way into her heart and makes her question everything her life is built upon. Instant attraction turns to love – but does he feel the same? And what about the secret she’s hiding from him?

Follow the two on their quest for a happy ending amid the beauty and wonders of the tropical island paradise of Sri Lanka.

My Review

Saved in SriLanka is a tale of two characters Sepalika and Daniel, who were rescued from their pitfalls, and finally united with each other for a happily ever after.

This drama unfolds from the city Colombo where the tourists meet their guide, and continue through the many exotic sites of Srilanka such as the Pinnawala Village, the Kandy City, the ancient palace Sigiriya, a city of light: Nuwara Eliya, the Yala Forest, Galle city, a coastal town Ambalangoda, Bentota, and Anuradhapura.

Sepalika is a tour guide working for a tourist company that begins their tours from Colombo; has high aspirations, and has been able to fulfill most of them. Coming from a middle class family, she could find ways and means to go abroad for education, and just when she had started earning, she was called back to her hometown Colombo to help her mom nurse her ailing dad. That spoke volumes about her personality. Being grounded in spite of having an international degree, and being there for her parents when in need.

This young lady bartered herself just to be able to give the best medical treatment to her dad, which eventually landed her in a soup of emotions when she met a guy of her preference, modality, and liking.

Daniel, an Irish tourist, fell for his guide's looks, knowledge, and intelligence. Romance sparkled between the two like-minded people, but there were instances when Sepalika would hesitate to take it further. More so the promise of being faithful to her fiancee who was more of an on-paper deal! Daniel was devastated and heartbroken and preferred to stay clear of her after that.
That's when she weighed her preferences, priorities and peeped in her pocket to try to find a solution.
The thought of working round the clock to pay up was the only solution, but she stuck to her guns. Gradually gathered the guts to confront her fiancee, Mahesh, who was using her as an arm candy cause of her beauty and intelligence.

This story is about Daniel, who got his love back after having the strength to confront her and Sepalika, who had the guts to face the ugly and fathom what lay ahead, and still dared to dream. It is a story of survival of these two lovers who fell, but after giving a good fight, they got saved in Srilanka amidst the beautiful, picturesque landscape.

The Author Devika did an excellent job of putting two pieces together. Touring a country can always induce romance, and she managed to bring out strong elements of the two characters that were compatible and wanted a life together. Her exquisite and expository language could give a feel to the reader of what the landscape was about, and not only fall in love with the characters; Daniel and Sepalika but also get a feel of the particular city they were touring while lending an ear to its history.  However, sometimes, I felt the tourism was taking over the story thus making it sway from it's plot.

I would recommend this book to any reader fond of romance and has a craze for traveling.

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The author gave me this book in exchange for an honest review!

Spotlight of Crossed & Knotted

Click on the Schedule below; India's first Composite Novel; For the reader it is like a set of master chefs in different cuisines coming together to offer you one hell of a multi-cuisine, multi-course meal, like you've never had before." - Siddhartha Basu

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ALL ABOUT THIS BOOK  Name of the Book : Crossed $Knotted USP: India's First Composite Novel Publisher: Readomania WHAT IT IS ABOUT "Just when you thought there couldn't be anything new about the format of a novel, here comes a home-brewn novelty - a composite novel, spun out of a set of short stories told by different authors. Each story is a unique adventure for the reader, yet criss-crosses and knots into the weave and weft of the next, each with a different design and texture, never predictable, always surprising, and yet quite whole. For the reader it is like a set of master chefs in different cuisines coming together to offer you one hell of a multi-cuisine, multi-course meal, like you've never had before." - Siddhartha Basu Quiz Master, Actor, Director-Producer of KBC

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BLURB

Crossed & Knotted is India’s first Composite Novel, a book written by fourteen authors in close collaboration with each other. The chapters, each a story in itself, are knotted with one another through characters, events, settings and emotions. The result is a read that criss-crosses through a multitude of emotions bringing out deep rooted human desires. They narrate tales of love and betrayal, suspense and mystery, courage and dilemma, along with hope and resilience. Read it for a taste so tantalizing, that your mind will surely be craving for more!

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

Sutapa Basu is an Honours scholar from Santiniketan and holds a Masters degree in English Literature. Her professional career has seen her as a teacher, editor, and publisher. She has worked with renowned international publishing houses like Oxford University Press and Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the last five years of her professional career, she has launched 111 educational titles, 33 CDs and digital products, a language lab and a website. She has also developed and edited over 450 books over the last thirteen years.

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER : READOMANIA

India has traditionally been the land of storytellers and a lot of us have an inherent skill of creating good plots, stories and narrations. With a little encouragement and support, many more authors can be widely read. This is the essence of Readomania-an initiative that nurtures emerging stars of the literary world.

Readomania is an online content discovery platform that brings to life a whole new literary world, with stories, authors, books and a lot more. We also have a publishing house that takes the best of Readomania from the online format to print editions and launches debut authors. Our focus is to bring to the market, new authors and novel concepts, a composite novel being one of them. Our previous book, Chronicles of Urban Nomads, a collection of short stories, was also an experimental publication.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Readomania is the talent hunt in fiction that goes a step beyond, nurtures talent and showcases it to the world, in the process, creating a powerhouse of content.

Our website also has a lot in store for the reader. Since the content is edited and curated, by a strong team of editors, readers get quality reads on a platter. The variety on Readomania is impressively vast; we have romance, emotions, thrills, travel, humour and drama.

Accessing Readomania makes for a perfect break of fifteen minutes from your daily grind. The website was launched in January, 2014 and is already very popular with about 3500 registered users, of which 300 members are active contributors and authors. The site also boasts of 800 online publications and more than three lakh page views till date.

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Review and Spotlight of Lemon Girl by Jyoti Arora

BLURB 

'It's all your fault.'
Mere words these are.
"But words can possess a shadow invincible enough to rob even a soul of its eternity."
In a society that finds it easier to mark sins of a victim than the culprit, Nirvi is a young girl punishing herself for the faults she did not do and avenging her hurts by defeating her own truth.
She is scared of her future, and ashamed of her past. She is failing herself, and knows it. She has had a long line of boyfriends, and hated them all. She detests the guy she is living with, runs away from the one she loves , and seduces the one who can never love her.
When Arsh first sees Nirvi, she's a free and frank girl in whose eyes sparkle the lemony zest of life. The next time he sees her, she is a voiceless doll draped in clothes that cover her body less and shroud her soul more. And Arsh can't rest till he finds out what made Nirvi give up her own real self.
Nirvi knows she is dragging herself on a path from which there can be no recovery. Can her spirit survive the treacherous downfall? Or is the pull of fear and push of desperation just too strong to withstand for a girl who believes she has "nowhere else to go" but down.
"When it's time for you to fall in love, even a lemon can become the cause of it," says Arsh.
But can love survive, when even the self love dies?
Can love survive when respect is no more?
Does true love have the power to revive a dying soul?
Find out in the pages of this brilliantly woven, intense, heart-warming and thought-provoking saga of RISING IN LOVE.

My Review

This book has a unique kick that makes you want to know more about this once described carefree girl whose jaunty and happy go lucky attitude was captured by an onlooker on a casual day thus making him nickname her as a "Lemon Girl" 

That spunky, feisty attitude  described by Arsh created such an image that the reader kept flipping the pages to know more about Nirvi, who was given the above nickname. But alas when he meets her after a few years, he finds her reclusive, cloistered and unsocial. However, that does not keep him away from her. He continues to hang around her friends and Nirvi to know more about her, and gradually many closets were opened and skeletons were brought out. This helped Nirvi contemplate her fears as she mulled over her past and tried pushing them away, but with caution. Fortunately Arsh was there at each step of the way, thus allowing him to get a place in her heart, as he gained her trust thus becoming her ally.

 The narration is smooth except for some instances where I thought the communication between Arsh and Nirvi could have been portrayed in a more fledged and mature way given that they are two adults!

Lemon Girl not only tells a tale of a girl named Nirvi, but also talks about a scar that has made the progress of women weaker, and man refuses to peep into it despite the darkness and intensity of this problem caused by thy man! This book delivered not only a literary composition, but also dealt with an important issue that makes me admire the author for the duality thus, making it a recommended read!

 

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MEET THE AUTHOR 

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Jyoti Arora lives in Ghaziabad, India. Jyoti Arora is a Post Graduate in English Literature and Applied Psychology. Her writing achievements include two novels, three blogs, several wins in national level blog competitions, over five years of freelance writing experience, developing books for kids and abridging 24 famous English novels like Jane Eyre, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn etc. Jyoti's first novel, Dream's Sake, was published in 2011 by V&S Publishers. It received great reviews and much appreciation from readers. Books have always been Jyoti’s best friends. In fact, books so fascinated her from early childhood that she learnt reading, by herself, even before she started going to school. And she considers herself most fortunate that she is able to pursue her dream of being a novelist and work at what she loves best. However, if books are Jyoti’s first love, and she’s still very devoted to them, the thrilling and steadily advancing world of technology also fascinates her. As a result, one of Jyoti’s blogs is a technological blog called Techn0Treats. In 2011, a post in this blog won her the title of Samsung Mobiler when Samsung made her a part of the team of twenty bloggers chosen from all over India through a blogging competition. In this team of twenty bloggers, she was the only woman and perhaps the only one who had studied literature instead of science. As a Samsung Mobiler, Jyoti is a patient of Thalassemia Major which forced her to stop going to school after class seventh. After that, she continued her studies on her own through correspondence courses. Her zest to overcome her medical problems and zeal to achieve success keeps her striving on with her endeavors to make her dreams come true.

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