Kevein Books and Reviews

The author has maintained a sense of humour in all stories while delivering the moral values that we often tend to ignore in our lives. The book offers around 18 stories. Ranjit is a regular writer, with some of the prominent novels to his name with interesting characters like Swami and Jignesh Bhai. Those who are familiar with his books may find this collection another gem to his list. He has distinctly maintained his consistent writing style, kept it simple, lucid and humorous. All the stories are way good to read and one can extract vibes of refreshment. The stories have unexpected twists and turns, and most importantly have morale message for all of us. He has shed light on many topics that are either dormant in our society or are kept ignored for ages. For instance, in the Coma story, he has brought alive feelings of a silent patient. She listens to all but cannot reply back. And what we think of coma patient – as bad as dead. Prognosis is another good story that depicts the e

The Purple Jacaranda and Other Poems by Ranjana Sharan Sinha is a delightful collection of poems that take us through the various moods and observations of the poet. This collection is poignant in making readers emotional and they will be able to relate their everyday life through the facets of poems. “A Janus-faced city Under a blue-black vault, The burnt out ends of A million smoky days Seem to conspire to a wasteland Ravaged by uncertainty and solitude.” The collection opens up with the poem ‘A City of Strangers’ and it immediately casts an impression that deep inside the book there is more to savour and understand and feel within your heart. Like many other contemporary poetry collections, this book too is segmented into various aspects and the poet has placed poems rather randomly. Major themes presented in the book are vagaries of life, despair, memories, childhood, hope and resurrection, plight and exploitation of women, love, and dark themes like death and hollo

Sunaina Ki Jadooi Sandal is a new book by our regular writer Anuj Tikku. The title is Hindi and it means magical sandals of Sunaina. The novella is a short and fast read with around 50 pages, it aims to spread word about women magic and empowerment. The novel highlights as how a woman suffers silently in our society until she stands for herself. In this novel, when Sunaina was three-months pregnant, she gets the news of her husband Manjeet’s death in a car accident while going to his factory in Ludhiana. Sunaina was from Pune. She had got into love marriage with Manjeet. Now after his death, there is no one to look after her in Amritsar, Punjab. Her brother-in-law Sukhwinder is a vile man. Her mother-in-law and Sukhwinder compel her to leave Punjab empty handed. She lands up in Pune and takes the job of teaching with Jeet Academy. One odd day she finds her red sandals in abeyance, she had bought them for three thousand rupees. When she dons them, she feels powered up. Yes, those sa

Arihant by Shubhan Balvally is a riveting crime thriller with a healthy dose of science fiction in it. The novel offers high level of drama beyond its conventional genre. At the façade of the story we see the father of modern technology, Professor Ramanna. He is one of the main and silent characters of the novel, remains in the backdrop like banter. He invented software called Antitox that detected accurate levels of contamination in food. As a scientist he is famous and rich and about to reveal his next ground-breaking invention. But things are not good as there are some people, a group of five, who want to snatch his next invention. After one event, the goons chase him so badly that Professor Ramanna is left with no option but to kill himself. Professor Ramanna realized the villains behind him, so he gets blows himself in his lab. Who are the goons? Of course profit making businessman. The world believes that Professor Ramanna’s new invention died with him. Well that’s the climax i

Scents and Shadows by Dr. Ranjana Sharan Sinha is an impressive collection of poems that explore the thematic frame of life and emotions and nature in a poetic way. The book offers 70 poems that can be read in one sitting as they are so charming and soul-stirring. The collection is eminent in capturing a gamut of issues and topics about your lives’ humdrum existence, moments in cogitation, bittersweet memories, distinct aspirations, sublime nature and so on. The collection opens up with Once Again – a 6 stanza poem – where the poet is clearly lost in the glory of old days, whether it is about love or aspirations or the surrounding nature – she holds pain in her eyes to see the changes that happened and it ossified her ageing. It is an amazing poem that tells a lot about ever-changing life. The collection doesn’t stop at any particular theme. It has a wide vista and tries to encompass a lot within it. There are poems on feminism, gender discrimination; maids working in posh society

To the Survivors by Robert Uttaro is heartbreaking work of non-fiction. The author shares his experience of working as a rape crises counselor with one institute. He introduces us to many of the victims who were sexually assaulted for various reasons in the various forms. The book talks about mental torture, rapes, molestation, and everything that gives pain to another human. Sexual assault is a serious issue that the world is facing but surprisingly there is very less coverage on it, be if from media or Internet. We are laced with technologies and living in a progressive state, but no one opens up when it is about rape or abuse or sex violence. People in India consider it as personal affair. They are timid to raise voice against the culprits, in fact in India every alternate woman has gone through violence and abuse pertaining to sex and molestation but they prefer to remain either silent or try solving secretly, because it brings social stigma to woman and her family members, while

Flip to Fillip by Pausali Mukherjee is a short book on collection of around 25 poems. The title subtly suggests about the motivation that this book can instill into readers. Among all themes, motivation stands tall in the book. The collection aims to inspire people for taking up fight in life against all adversities. The collection starts with Boon, this poem recollects the time that one goes through. It is the time that makes one strong and ready for battle in life. Thus, one needs to be prepared for bad time, but, at the same time needs to be positive. Life is a boon if one gets the underlying meaning of it. The author has kept her language and theme of the book contemporary, some poems fit in the conventions of rhyming while many seem like a free verses on life and its allied lessons. It is one collection that one can read over and again, and can also share the wisdom on social media for portfolio building. Other than motivation, some of the poems reflect the challenge that the au

You, Me and Annapurna by Dr. M. Gayathri provides fascinating account of journey of a group of doctors to the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). The book is easy to read and one can take notes of the events with full gusto. It’s a part memoir and part guiding book on journey to the Himalayas. However, in its backdrop author’s religious and spiritual beliefs runs like banter. Thus, for a reason it has a punch line – a mystical journey. The author hails from the medical field, one of the busiest professions in India. Her husband and she get a WhatsApp message about ABC trekking. Much to their luck, they find solace in their group captain Dr. Hemanth. It was his proper guidance that made the journey materialized without any fuss and loss. It’s not a fictional book. Dr. M. Gayathri considers this feat something as unthinkable, thus she penned down her raw experience about the Himalayas. Moreover, it was a calling from the great and mighty Himalayans. Well narrated in short 32 chapters, this bo

Silent Fires by Poojitha G Prasad is a riveting crime thriller with a totally unpredictable storyline. The novel sets in contemporary time with a backdrop of South India. The story starts with Shravya Chandra goes missing. She is a high profile wife of the film star Arun Chandra. While returning from a short trip with some of her female friends, she goes missing. As the investigation kicks off, it seems that she has been murdered for some ulterior motives. Shravya is neither a protagonist nor an antagonist; however, she remains in the story like banter in the backdrop. Her absence drives the plot ahead. In the limelight, there are two lead characters – Ashish and Manav – they are brothers. The author has taken care not to mix both the characters in chaos. Right in the blurb, she is clear about their tenacity. Ashish is a police cop, he believes in his gut instinct, while Manav is not a policeman but he is associated with crime reporting. He too loves solving cases but with a differen

Niranjan the Bomb Buster by Major General Bipin Bakshi and Rishi Kumar is a riveting graphic comic on Lt. Col. Niranjan, who was an NSG commando. The comic is based on a real life story. This book highlights his role in successfully carrying out the Pathankot Airbase Operation. The story is of 1 st January 2016 when NSG team got information of Pakistan sponsored terrorist attack at the Pathankot Airbase. The team led by Lt. Col. Niranjan heads to Pathankot. There the army and police have to neutralize the rats (terrorists) and after that NSG will sanitize the area by defusing the explosives attached to the terrorists. Lt. Col. Niranjan is the head of Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS). The AIF and Army kills almost all terrorists, and then Lt. Col. Niranjan takes his team ahead to clear the area of explosives, grenades, bombs, etc. Keeping others behind, Lt. Col. Niranjan leads the way. He single-handedly clears strapped explosives from many dead terrorists. It was a risky task, as most of

Like a lamppost, signpost is also a fascinating sight. There is something unspeakable charm about signposts whenever we come across while walking or driving. In simple words signposts guide us, they show the directions to lost wanderers, they signal something. As a traveler one has to understand them to get on the right path. They show us the way. Getting of its physical aspect, in the book Signposts: Life simplified in 100 quotes by Tapan Ghosh, we come across wisdom that try guiding us. It is a book of 100 quotes. The cover page of the book is completely enticing, with a sublime view of mountains with a signpost pole showing directions at three sides. The signposts also assist the content inside. The inside galley of the book is as captivating as its cover page.   The size of the book is handy – one can keep it anywhere, even while travelling. It is not a book on moral lecturing through some random quotes. In fact, the quotes in the book seem to have been spiraled from the author

The Flower Pot Sayings by Suresh Thripunithura is a sublime collection of over 30 poems with beautiful pictures. Being a pictorial poetry book, the book spellbound the heart of readers. And those who love nature and cannot live without it will find it as a treat. From the title one could guess that the book is built around flowers and nature dominantly. The poet is of the opinion that flowers and plants around us teach us something about life and its phenomena. It is not a direct collection, the meanings are lying hidden, from the nature and flowers and plants one can get a better view of life. For instance, the Garden Berries poem is evident of nature's way of starting and ending the process in a subtle way. The garden is an epitome of change that nature does. In the poem, Welcome Rain plants welcome rain with glow. All the poems are easy to read and if one reads twice, meaning of each poem gets understood. The poet has presented many a type of flowers in the book and from e

Peacock Landing by Suresh Thripunithura is a short pictorial book of 30+ poems. The book is filled with amazing short juicy poems with brilliant pictures on a gamut of themes. The poet allured various omens and emotions and desolate events of life through peacock sightseeing. What does a peacock sight indicate? The poet keeping that in mind takes the readers on a tour where they are confronted with an array of life events…some are dark, a few ones are tragic…but major ones are about pain of separation and memories of yesteryears. As one chugs ahead with the book, readers will be thrilled to find that the author writes his heart out. He seems to have observed the life closely on matters of solitude, loneliness, wounds of memories, pain of separation in love. The collection is bit random, but it grips the readers with its impactful poetry. It is one such collection that challenges the audience to decipher the meaning and in that they are going to find sheer fun. Peacock feather is th