Kevein Books and Reviews

The Hidden Pool is another short yet interesting story by Ruskin Bond. It focuses on the undefiled friendship of some guys from Dehradun. By the end of the story you will understand as how small discoveries can foster up the friendship overall. The narrator of the story is a school-going young boy, probably an early teen. One day while coming back home from somewhere, he listens to the gurgling of water from nearby. Following the sound, he goes inside the dense forest, and there he finds a small stream running through the rocks and beneath lies a pool – not so big, but fine for the young boy.   Brimming with excitement, he runs away to inform his best friends: Anil and Kamal. They named the pool as Laurie’sPool . They do not disclose the location of the pool from other boys. And these three boys often meet at the pool for fun and some casual adventure. They sometimes come there just after the school. In the line of their adventure, they begin with fishing first, and th...

The Thief by Ruskin Bond is a popular short story that revolves around the themes like trust, betrayal, redemption, honesty and aspirations. As the story starts we see a young boy of around fifteen is a thief, inexperienced and not so successful. Well, to pursue his career a bit ahead, he is seeking a mentor kind of person. Thus, in his search he meets Arun – a well-built man. Arun agrees to take him as his companion but doesn’t guarantee any salary. In fact, Deepak – the supposed name of the young thief – gets food and shelter for doing petty things for Arun. With no money coming, Deepak is often sullen and sad. However, Arun has promised to teach him reading and writing which can shape up the future of Deepak. This deal sparks a light of aspiration in his mind and he grows hopeful for making a good future if he learnt reading and writing. Well, after some days Deepak spies on Arun and finds out that he is into something suspicious and gets the wads of money which he k...

The Leopard by Ruskin Bond is a short story that highlights the relationship between humans and animals. The story is set against the forest of Mussoorie – especially of the time when the forest belt was declining and hunters were growing. A little far from his cottage, down the hill, Ruskin goes for a walk around a stream. After some time, the trail of the path disappears in the forest and a stream appears, its water making a soft gurgling sound flowing down the ravine. The ravine is so deep that below only shadow appears, nothing else. He is a frequent walker through that path. Birds, monkeys, and other herbivorous animals are familiar with his smell. They know he is not a hunter. At times, he spots a silent leopard at the stream for drinking water. Ruskin often stops upon seeing it. That also happened that they both crossed each other’s path several times. Even animals can smell the intentions of man. Like other animals, leopard sensed Ruskin as a harmless human. It trusted him....

You must have heard or read a very famous book named The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari. Yes…it’s written by Robin Sharma. That was a good book with an impressive title. Since then he authored quite a number of books, but didn’t meet that line. The recent offering is ‘The 5 AM Club’. If you read the prologue you will get an idea that the author has been teaching this concept to many sorts of individuals for over 20 years. So, this book is a product of his own experience, spiraling out of teaching. Well, the common knowledge is that if you wake up early and go to bed at the right time, then no success seems out of line. True...we all learnt that in school days. As the title says, grab your morning, and then rise above in your life. Be it any field. The book has around 17 chapters and they run like – mix of personal and moral lecturing. The book is more about fluffy content than anything serious in nature. The uses of getting up early have been told through a story of an entrepren...

If we ever talk about the history of railways in India, we are to revolve anywhere around Mumbai, as common people we are to only understand that the first train ran between Mumbai and Thane in 1853, but we have so far failed to explore within Mumbai of how the railway expanded within Mumbai or how did the iconic structures such as the Victoria Terminus came into existence or the importance of the history behind the stations within Mumbai beyond their contribution to the suburban system of Mumbai. This is where the book Halt Station India by Rajendra B Aklekar plays a very important role in helping us fill the gap left behind by various authors when trying reconstruct the history of Indian Railways. The book has been systematically stitched to understand the people and the challenges behind the expansion of India’s railway and how the rail line was constructed and the periodic intervention of pictures and account excerpts of men who were actively involved in the construction....

An Anglo-Indian in Love by Tapan Ghosh is a short love story with terrific intensity and strong cultural backdrop of Calcutta of the 1950s. The story is of Dilip and Cindy. But is it going to be a smooth sail? We need to find out that. The running time period in the story is just after the independence, and that time Calcutta was a major hub of British India for many reasons, thus the place was laced with diversity. Local Indians, White people, and Anglo-Indian were common yet prominent. However, there are clashes between them with reference to culture, religion, colour, and race and so on. So, among these clashes a love story is possible between two people, who not only differ in age but also in culture and religion. The lead characters of the novella are Dilip and Cindy. The former is a young man known as Dada for his ferocious and boldness in the society. Many support him as they think him as modern-day Robin Hood, on the other hand many, especially white people, loo...

An Indian Loser by Uzma Hameed is a beautifully written contemporary novel that mirrors the grim realities of Indian societies. Through this story the author has concerned the voice of many and put in a lot of efforts to show as how our societies treat losers and winners. The psychology behind is very simple: if you are a winner, you sail smoothly; and in another case of being a loser, the people around you provoke you mercilessly. On losers, the society endlessly throws tantrums. Coming to the story, the novel is built around a story of a loser (from a society’s point of view). Here, we see Peeyush as the lead character of the story. Well, more than being a loser, it is about as how he became a loser. When the story kicks off, we see that Peeyush is an exemplary character with too much anticipated success. Can success be anticipated too much? It is a sin to anticipate success. Hold your nerves until you become the achiever. Same happens in the case of Peeyush, he is good at...

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Divya Kumar – the author of ‘The Shrine of Death’ . In this interview, Divya Kumar talks about her writing aspirations, the route to getting her book published, and her inclination towards crime thrillers. Stay on...while we chat with her. What motivates you to write and how long have you been writing? I’ve been writing as long as I can remember – my mother has saved my first story, about a turtle and fish who were best friends, written when I was five years old. That was followed by comic-strips and Enid Blyton-inspired adventure novels begun during summer holidays, angsty poetry in my teenage years, and articles for literary journals and campus newspapers in college. But I became a professional writer after I completed my journalism degree in the U.S., and joined The Hindu Metroplus in Chennai as a feature writer, covering mostly the book and art beat. What motivates me is an abiding love of stories,...

It is a short story based around Patol Babu who during the time of his youth took great interest in acting and theater but it couldn’t be converted into great success. While young Patol Babu has great good days when he was working with the railway and at the same time attended stages and theaters for acting. He grew famous and words are that people from different places came to see him. However, when he lost his job, the financial restrain put a halt on his acting passion. To revive it, he tried to get back into money making business by opening a variety store, but all in vain. Today, Patol Babu is over fifty two years of old and left his acting career far behind. Sometimes, he sits down and takes a walk to the memory lane with his wife. He remembers those days of theaters and acting and tries to make up for his emotional loss by the memories. Well, one day he is approached by his neighbor Nilkanto Ghosh who informs him about a role of an absent-minded pedestrian in a f...

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Rajiv Mittal – the author of ‘The Panchatheertha Part 1’ . In this interview, Rajiv Mittal talks about his writing aspirations, the route to getting his book published. Stay on...while we chat with him. What motivates you to write? All the goodly stuff that is in my mind that I believe is more interesting than whatever is on the internet. How did you handle the response of this book?   Pehle , I read the reviews.   Woh acche lage.   Fir socha, ab dekhte hain isko padne wala koi hai bhi ki nahin.    Aur uska jawaab?   Woh kya gaana hai - ‘Intehaan ho gayi, intezaar ki …’ Why did you choose to write a novel inspired by The Panchatantra? The Panchatantra offered me tremendous scope to be funny and philosophical without worrying about anyone taking offence.   Animals can’t be bothered with those sort of issues. What are some of your favourite novels and authors? ...

If you love many stories within a story with peculiar themes assigned, well go nowhere and stick to this book. Beginning with the title, we found it a bit befuddling, as we could not guess from its title whether it is a mythological fiction or a revision of the old classic The Panchatantra written by Vishnu Sharma. A close look reveals that…yes it is heavily inspired by that old classic.  Talking about its genre, the proposition is equivocal, it will be tough to put this book into any particular category as you see there is no substantial role of characters mentioned initially, rather as we read, we see a host of animals, their stories and the moral messages they are relaying to humans. Broadly, we can say it is a collection of amazing stories which is closely related to the fables of The Panchatantra . What stands out, the unique voice of the characters, this time the author has added his peculiar style to the stories, for instance tattoo on a camel’s kid, and l...

The Ineligible Millionaire by Tarun Varshney is a contemporary fiction that tells a tale of a young man named Arjun who rises to the status of notable eminence despite being consistently bogged down by some or other problems in his life. The book, through the voice of Arjun, tells us as what it takes to rise in life. As the story opens, we see that the lead character Arjun is an engineering student struggling hard to get placed in one of the top IT companies of India, like Wipro, TCS, Infosys, and so on. Arjun is good at studies, has good grades during engineering, but still unable to make to the companies because in 10th and 12th he scored less. If you have attended the placement interviews in your college, well you can understand the plight and situation of Arjun. As in India, it is a kind of set rule to have good marks in 10th and 12th to get placed in a good company. But the matter of concern is what if someone couldn’t score good marks at school because of some family an...

Koki’s Song is a beautifully written short story by Ruskin Bond staged against the beautiful nature that probably exist in the foothills of Himalaya. The story is of two children, the girl Koki, and the cowboy Somi. For some part of the year Koki and her mother goes away to her granny’s lonely home located near a river bed. Her grandmother lives there alone. Koki finds that place full of loneliness and nature. There she finds nature in abundance. After crossing a wall, there flows a stream, and from there starts the edge of the forest where she gets the chance to spot deer. In fact, many wild animals come there to drink water. She is terrified of wild animals but still loves that place. The kind of tranquility and serenity existed there is something that keeps Koki busy. While roaming around the stream and the wild garden of the home, she often hears flute music and she feels captivated towards the source. She sees a boy in dusty clothes playing that tune. She observes him fo...

Tarun Deep Singh is a highly philosophical author who often writes to encourage and motivate the youth of today. Often his books are deep in meaning and carry various undertones that grip the grim realities of today’s world. Before you look into this book, have you read his previous book – What is an Indian? If not, do read that first in order to understand this one better. The Journey is a motivational cum philosophical book that deals with travelling – as the tagline says Traveller Within. Not that tourist-type travelling, in fact the author has put forward a theory as how one can travel within one’s soul. This journey will help one in understanding his/her capabilities, bliss, and restrictions and so on. We would not shy away by saying that after a certain point the book becomes a blend of spirituality and philosophy. The content of the book is aptly divided which further enhances the experience of readers. For instance, the author has covered most concerning topics ...

The year that passed by was remarkable for us. This year we took the tag of ‘India’s Number 1 Book Review Website’ and reviewed around 350 books (that’s a lot). Thanks to the team. Like every year, this time is the best time to declare top 10 books written by Indian authors featured at Kevein Books and Reviews . Parting of the Strangers and Other Stories by Sattam Dasgupta : A collection of sixteen short stories based around human mind games and tricks. Engaging read. 23:59:59 by Sadashiv Pradhan : A terrific novel of some MBA students – how they struggle to keep themselves alive in the cut-throat competition. Gift of Confidence by Rohit Narang: A motivational book, narrates the story of a CA final year student, who explores the hidden benefits of confidence. Truly inspiring. The Last Attractor of Chaos by Abhinav Singh: Epic spy thriller. Shruti, the lead character is six months pregnant, and surrounded with charges of weapon theft and murder. How woul...

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Dr. Sudhir Dixit – the author of ‘Safalta Shabdon Ka Khel Hai’ . In this interview, Dr. Sudhir Dixit talks about his writing aspirations, the route to getting his book published, and his inclination towards self-help books novels. Stay on...while we chat with him. What motivates you to write and how long have you been writing? The basic motivation of writing is to help people with my skills in language. I have been translating English bestsellers for the last 20 years, to be specific, from 1998. I came in translation field, as I felt that readers of Hindi belt should get access to the same quality information which is readily available to the English readers. The motto was to remove the barrier of the language. This prompted me to write and this still motivates me. How did you feel when your book got published? I have got so many books published, but I still get a thrill when a new book gets publishe...