Kevein Books and Reviews

How do you test the brilliance of an author, especially new one? By reading a lengthy novel or an anthology? If we had to do this, we would pick up a collection of short stories. Because in a novel an author gets plenty of time to build, to rake-up, to dredge-up and play around the characters. However, in the matter of short stories one has to build the backdrop, describe the characters along with their peculiarities and eccentricities, and then narrate a tale that should sound exactly riveting, that too all within a limited time frame. Isn’t a challenging proposition? If we had to consider these many aspects, we would not shy away to say that Sattam Dasgupta is another natural born storyteller. Recently he published his first book, Parting of the Strangers and Other Stories - a collection of sixteen short stories. Many of his stories emanate from the Indian society that we often come across in neighborhood, social gathering, and at times in pub or bar. Combined all we f

Does the title (23:59:59) sound strange? May be, well the book is neither a science fiction nor a fantasy novel. For your senses, it is a ‘B-school’ fiction. For many, the title may suggest that there is someone’s fight to race against the time? Well, this proposition fits quite well if you get inside one of the best Indian B-schools in India. There you will find everyone running pell-mell, as almost all students wish to race ahead than their time and caliber so that they can have dazzling career. But the question is, how would you come up with a dazzling career from the best B-school, it looks easy, is it so? In India, MBA is conjectured as a money-minting degree. Hence, students from across the nation strive for this degree that too from a reputed college? The new-age novel 23:59:59 by Sadashiv Pradhan possesses the same question. Well, if you think you know the answer, excuse us, you need to think again. Coming to the story of 23:59:59, we see it is about some students’

In the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond we see that Binya obtains a beautiful blue umbrella by exchanging her leopard’s claw with some city picnickers. Her blue umbrella is so beautiful that almost everyone in the village is jealous of her. They say that this kind of stuff is often carried by Mem-Sahibs, and it does not suit to a village girl like Binya. Coming to Ram Bharosa, his name means ‘Ram the trustworthy’. He is a shopkeeper, probably middle-aged, not very old. He runs a tea shop on Tehri road, but he also sells curd, soft-drinks, toffees and so on, mainly food items. Once a day, a bus halts by his shop and passengers drink tea or slurp curd. By all means, he is the richest man in the village. However, at the same time he is greedy too. He often let people or students take items on credit and at the time of calculation, he charges them extra and when they can’t pay he snatches some of their valuable stuff for his personal use or to sell at his shop. Howe

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular novel featuring Binya and her elder brother Bijju. The novel revolves around Binya and her little beautiful blue umbrella; however we also see some other interesting characters like, Bijju, Ram Bharosa, and a boy named Rajaram. In this post, we are going to talk about Bijju, the third main character of the novel. Bijju’s real name is Vijay Kumar, but in the foothills of Himalaya it is a custom to call people by their nicknames, for Binyadevi it is Binya, and for Vijay Kumar it is Bijju. Bijju is a twelve-year-old boy and wears a leopard claw in his neck like his younger sister Binya, who is ten years old. Though we see that there is good understanding and love between sister and brother, still they differ in their temperament. Binya is kind to the cows Neelu and Gori, while Bijju is a bit hot-tempered boy. For this reason, whenever it’s dark he herds the cows vehemently for home. On the other hand, Binya and Bijju share vian

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Sarath Babu – the author of ‘One Plot Many Stories’. In this interview, Sarath Babu talks about his writing aspirations, the route to getting his book published, and his inclination towards short stories. Stay on...while we chat with him. What motivates you to write? Passion! I have been penning stories since my childhood. I still have a story which is dear to my heart waiting to be published. What were your feelings after publishing this book? It feels really great. I feel that I have achieved something. What are some of your favourite novels and authors? There are many and hence it is difficult to name them but when it comes to authors, I can which includes Ruskin Bond, Jeffrey Archer, Sidney Sheldon, Agatha Christie, James Patterson, Ashwin Sanghi, Amish Tripathi, Christopher Doyle to name a few. Do you think writing a book from the comfort of bedroom is possible? Yes but I haven’t tri

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Naveen – the author of ‘Dissected’. In this interview, Naveen talks about his writing aspirations, the route to getting his book published, and his inclination towards fiction. Stay on...while we chat with him. What motivates you to write? I write as it gives me a creative outlet to see humor in true or fictional situations. It gives me the freedom to see and describe things around me the way my inner world perceives them. I also find satisfaction when others enjoy my work. What were your feelings after publishing this book? A great sense of accomplishment for a while and then about a month of emptiness when there was no proof reading to be done, no deadlines to meet, no loud reading of the written text while checking for flow of thoughts, no revision of the ideas for the sketches and finally, no more late nights. The first author’s copy in the hand did feel like my own baby though it was delivered

A Voyage through the Echoes by Prakriti Singh is a beautifully written travel book. For sure, if any one of us taken a journey through India will definitely find the tagline most appropriate - A Journey through India to Be Remembered for Lifetime. The narrator is a young college girl from Himachal Pradesh, pursuing Forestry degree at her college. The trip is arranged by her college department. Initially she was withdrawn toward the trip because of some emotional disturbance, well with peer pressure she gets on the trip and little did she realize that it’s going to be her life’s best trip she would ever made. College trips are fun and when they are on long routes…the heart goes gala…gala. This short book, full of travel experiences, is going to take you all on a fantastic trip that too through trains and at times by buses. Longer the journey, more the fun. As the story chugs out of the narrator’s home place, we see many cities with them, with cultural and local heritage

Dissected by Naveen Kakkar is a light fiction read based around first-year medical college students. You won’t say that the book is poignant with its theme or plot; however, it takes us into the lives of some crazy medicos. Often doctors are conjectured as serious human beings. So, the question is, did they also remain serious during their college tenure? For many, it may be yes, but not for students like, Palak, Deepa, Tazzo, Rohan, Joy, Lego, Podgy, Ramola and many others. They are a different set and probably least bothered about the responsibilities they have to don after graduating from the Dale Medical College. Get ready for the unusual fun ride! The book is rich with humour and perfectly blends with the captivating writing style of Naveen. In this fun read, we get introduced to a batch of students and we see how they try to acclimatize in a medical college during their first year. The story is staged against a place called Damsar and in that time, probably 1980’s, wh

By this time if you have had read Ruskin Bond keenly, well you must be aware of some of his favourite characters that often appear like, Bina, Binya, Sitaram, Hasan, Romi, and of course there is Rusty. We cannot forget him. It is this character that made young Ruskin Bond shot into fame. Rusty, as a character, is the most loved one among his fans and readers. And to much extent, his persona is loosely based on Ruskin himself, though never admits that. Well, here we are going to discuss the character sketch of Rusty in Ruskin's first and most hit novel - The Room on The Roof. Rusty is an orphan. His parents are long dead. The year is around 1950's of India. Though India has gained independence in 1947, traces of white people are still visible in many corners of the country, like Dehradun. Here Rusty lives with a guardian called Mr. Harrison. Unlike Rusty's late father, Harrison is a strict missionary man who beats Rusty with a cane upon slightest mistake.

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Chandan Sen Gupta – the author of ‘Unforeseen’ . In this interview, Chandan talks about his writing aspirations, the route to getting his book published, and his inclination towards humanity and world peace. Stay on...while we chat with him. What motivates you to write and how long have you been writing mainstream literature? When I come to think of it, I feel that the motivation to write stems from man’s innate nature of being creative. I feel the urge to recreate the human mind at work, intrigue, conspiracy and benevolence working side by side, and the geographical beauty of a place through words, so that people can read about them and contemplate on the message that I have to convey. I have been writing mainstream literature for over six years now and published two novels, both thrillers. Though you are an experienced and well-known writer, how do you feel when your book gets published? It’s an im

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Suraj – the author of ‘Elephants in the Room’. In this interview, Suraj talks about his writing aspirations, and the route to getting his book published. Stay on...while we chat with him. What motivates you to write? The biggest motivation comes from the knowledge that a book has the magical power of transporting people to a different world and allowing them to forget themselves in it. The opportunity of attempting to do the same with my own book becomes exciting as well as a responsibility. Also, it is necessary to have a story that I myself enjoy and believe in. I have been interested in self-help books and the psychology of crime. Crime movies and mysteries always appeal to me. The unexpected twists and turns in the books I read and the movies I watch fascinate me. Hence, writing crime related subjects is always interesting. How do you handle the response of this book, especially from your friends

Sarath Babu is one of the prominent lifestyle bloggers in India. He blogs about many topics; however he, is, on top of the line, famous for book reviews. Recently, he came up with his first book, a collection of short stories named One Plot Many Stories . The book is very short, around twenty-seven pages and consists of fourteen very short and yet unique stories. All of his stories have same characters, namely John and David. They are in every story, sometimes as father and son duo, at times as friends and so on. People looking for extremely short and light read may grab this book from Amazon Kindle, as of now only e-book is available. The book is a multi-themed, ranging from human morality to friendships to betrayal and many in between. There is one particular story where David and John are friends where David has a lottery selling shop and John purchases lottery from his shop almost every day. During Christmas time as the prize money was Rs. One Crore, John buys a few tic

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Khayaal Patel – the author of ‘Tarikshir’. In this interview, Khayaal talks about his writing aspirations, the route to getting his book published, and his inclination towards fantasy novels. Stay on...while we chat with him.  What motivates you to write and how long have you been writing? The readers motivate me to write, I’ll keep writing as long as there’s someone reading the stuff I write. The first draft for Tarikshir was written way back in 2010. Between then and long, I’ve managed to write four other books in the interim. All of them varying genres, and hopefully they should be published soon. How did you feel when your book got published? Relieved. It was a long time coming. Now it’s just hoping that the readers love reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Are you a prolific storyteller or story listener? What are some of your favourite novels and authors? Rene Goscinny and Herge we

Panther’s Moon is a great read about a wounded panther’s plight. The story takes place, as usual, in the Himalayan village of India named Manjari. It’s a tiny village with only five houses and from this small village only one boy named Bisnu, who lives with his widowed mother and elder sister Pooja, goes to school which is located five miles away. He also takes care of his family by doing little bit farming. His day to day activities include getting up early so that he can reach his school at time, which is at a distance of five miles. He has to cross a stream, wound up and down the mountains and pass through a dark forest where he is often welcomed by monkeys. We see Bisnu and his dog Sheru. They both go together wherever they go. The village where Bisnu goes for education is bigger and connected to town and it has a bus stop, market, hospital and of course his school. Man-eater leopards or tigers often make common news for the people of hill. But this time, the leopard is