Book Review: Calling Sehmat by Harinder Sikka

Calling Sehmat is a spy thriller by Harinder Sikka; the book has been published twice since its first release in 2008. The story is about the Indo-Pak war of 1971, in which India played a major role in liberating Bangladesh from the clutches of brutal Pakistan. The story is staged against Kashmir and Pakistan. It is a story of a girl who goes by the name of Sehmat, she becomes an undercover agent to serve her nation, India, as well as to satiate her dying father’s wish.

Recently a movie called Raazi is released, starring Alia Bhatt. The plot and story of the movie has been inspired by this book. Sehmat is a Kashmiri young girl – full of life and love – and also the ambience of her house is secular and patriotic because of two reasons. First, her father is a Kashmiri Muslim and her mother a Hindu. And secondly, her father works for Indian agencies (like RAW and IB), though he has relations in Pakistan as well. When her father is about to die, he asks Sehmat to serve the nation by marrying a Pakistani army officer. Though she is reluctant and already in love with someone else, finds it tough to accede to her father’s behest, but the love for nation is above all attachments.

She accepts the marriage proposal, things go on without doubt. And in Pakistan her double work starts, how she wins their faith and love, and how she manages to act with her agents in India is all that forms a gripping read. The climax of the book is related to some information related to Indian naval which she passes successfully. How and where? This forms the rest of the story. Read it anytime, and you will be transported to that era when India was newly evolving as a nation and you will get a better insight about the working of Indian and Pakistani intelligence. Acting as an undercover agent that too by suppressing one’s own needs is something extraordinary about this female spy. They work as a spy but keep other citizens of their country safe and alert.

Written in lucid way, the author has managed to maintain the suspense till the last line of the story. At any moment the degree of suspense and thrill never dips off. If you love Daniel Silva and Maclean, then give it a try…you won’t be disappointed. Next, the writer must try something of Indo-China or Kargil war.

Comments

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike. This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r

Kevein Books and Reviews

Search This Blog