Kevein Books and Reviews

The Six by Pratik Dey Sarkar is an engaging book of short stories. It offers six stories of different timelines, of various human circumstances, and of independent backdrop. The book is poignant in exploring the human emotions under various circumstances. Some of the themes that dominate the collection are love, aspirations, fear, bravery, and so on. The book is just 59 pages, except one story, other ones are of medium length. The first story Hawa-Tari is set in the medieval Maharashtra. Hawa-Tari is a name of the kite, which was flown by a girl named Hemanti. She defied the patriarchal rules of the society and flew a kite from a hidden place. Her kite flying skills were matchless and people had hardly any inkling about her. Her kite led to the discovery of enemies hiding in the forest. She was killed but did her job perfectly. From the Medieval Indian history, this was a good piece of literature. The second story in the book is Happy Birthday, it is the longest story. This story m

Ramu Upadhaya is a remarkable author from Assam. A Landless Alien is his first book that provides thought-provoking commentary on many aspects that can either make or break a nation. Ramu writes with such subtlety that he expresses everything tangentially, without offending any chunk of mass. Those who have read his earlier books will get acquainted with his unique writing style. Talking about his previous books, two are prominent ones: Endearing Species and Sight of Vision. Endearing Species focuses on the roots of Gorkha people living in India. This book is rich with the cultural knowledge about the Gorkha people of India. It helps readers to understand their position in all walks of life through an intriguing character named Maila. The next book is Sight of Vision that mixes fiction and philosophy into one. With characters like Ronal, Miley, and Ben the book uses allegories to deliver the perfect message about real-life issues pertaining to marriage, love, friendship, etc.

Notes from an Imperfect Life by Jithu Biji Thomas is a short novel built on themes like family allegiance, love and separation, societal pressure, relationships, death, philosophy of life that shows the failure side of life and so on. The book is easy to read and many people can relate that have endured hues and cries while being in the family bonding. In the story, a father expresses his feelings and bitter sweet learning of life to his stepson through a journal. The father shares his own love story and under what conditions he accepted the step son and his mother. While narrating his tale of love, he sheds light on relationship that goes in the family with all members. He is of the opinion that bad relationships are capable of darkening the lives. This short except may sum up what he was trying to focus on: “Regarding relationships, it should be placed where people grow. No relationship should stagnant your growth. Places where people are trapped have different names. Don’t cause

Fabyan Place by Peter Angus is a riveting historical fiction war novel, featuring the story of Sonny and John, two American soldiers who meet in Europe as prisoners of war during WW II. The novel is deeply meaningful highly because it depicts the mortal emotional wounds that a war brings to the life of soldiers and their families as well as broken promises, familial love, Christmas holiday nostalgia, and friendship. Sonny is drafted in the US Armed Forces in 1943 to combat the Nazis in Europe. He is assigned to the Quartermaster Corps, and while serving in Europe he is captured by the German army and taken to a POW camp.   There he meets and befriends John, another prisoner, a light-skinned American Negro with a tumultuous family history.   As they endure the hardship, hunger and pain of incarceration, they find hope in looking forward to joining Sonny’s family post war at Fabyan Place during the Christmas holidays. After the war when Sonny returns home to Newark after confinement,

21VI SADI MEIN DAREN YA LADEN by Arvind Kumar Srivastav is a Hindi title; it is a powerful self-help book. The book means whether to fight or fear in the 21st century. The author believes that an individual is capable of achieving what he or she thinks but there are hurdles that not only break one’s dreams but also demotivate to an extent that one finds it tough to think anything beyond his set tenacity. Well, this book is here to change your perspectives about your limited thinking and beliefs. It seems the author has a lot of wisdom and experiences about life and he is eager to share with millions of people across the world through this wonderfully written book. The core theme of the book is to bring a shift in mindset for progress, achievements, happy life and much more. The book is easy to read, written in around 20 chapters with a lot of quotes from eminent personalities, indeed the book is a treasure for Hindi readers. In fact, the book is so good with its intensity that it sho

Contemporary Reflections by Alka Vasudeva is an interesting book of poems. It is fun and light read. Alka used her poetry as a relevant medium to express her views on a gamut of subjects. In the collection, nothing is rigid or in the ossified pattern of thoughts – it is like sea waves – rising and ebbing. Despite not-so-serious tone, the poetess managed to paint many themes and moods brilliantly such as beauty, despair, momentum of life, impulse of heart and so on. What thumps in the heart of a poet, is evident through the poems of different relics and significance. Alka’s informal way of expressing her contemporary world makes her poetry easy to relish. Igniting yet soothing! She used ‘being expressive’ as a tool in her poetry collection that reflects the mindset of the changing society with time and technology. The simplest aspect of the book is that it’s uncomplicated and easy to course through all the sections. The collection is divided into six sections according to content

Unsettled by Ruby Mohan is a different, slightly offbeat, collection of poems. From soul-stirring poems to subtle natural flow of prose, the book offers a gamut of emotions through short 47 items of literature. The cover page is captivating, leaving a sense of wanderlust for readers. In its all essence, Unsettled meant unpredictable patterns of life and its unfathomed vagaries that take us for a roller-coaster ride from time and again. The collection is easy to read but difficult to discern. The poetess talked about love and imagined reunion of lovers in different states and moods. It is clear love is an evident theme in the book and it can be gauged that the poetess missed someone at one point of life. The book opens with the titular poem, Unsettled. It sheds light on long lost love where one lover still seeks to settle scores with the old pal. Something unsettled still lingers in the mind of the narrator. Another epic poem is ‘Anger Managed’; it is well-captured with a sense

Hunger and Holocaust is a work of non-fiction written by Souren Bhattacharya and Subhasree Pal that sheds light on three huge famines of Bengal region. By all means, the book is laced with a great chunk of historical knowledge. It not only gives information about those famines that killed millions of innocent people but also studies the impact of colonization during that time. At the façade, the book offers insights, facts, and stats on The Great Bengal Famine, 1770, The Na-Anka Famine 1866 (Orissa Famine), and The Bengal Famine of 1943. The Bengal region was a vast area, its expanse included Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa. From 1765 to 1943, this region witnessed most severe famines due to lack of rainfall but it was made worst by the ruling British Raj. This region was a prime target as East India Company was located at the ports of Bengal. The pain and suffering, these famines doled out was no less than a holocaust. If Nazism was a visible holocaust for Jews, then colonization was no

Safar by Nidhi Vyas is a Hindi title. Safar means journey. The novel features the story of Nalini from Rajasthan. She was born in a poor porter family. His father dreamt of a boy, thus remains pessimistic about her progress and study. The novel is right in depicting the plight of a girl or woman in India. Deep down the layers of society, it is smeared with so much patriarchal things that gender bias is a kind of inevitable thing. With the dark society as a backdrop, there is always difficulty for girls and women to rise and take their own stance in life. The novel ‘Safar’ tells us the extraordinary story of a woman who defies all odds to rise from rags to riches i.e. from nothing to eminence. At the façade of the story, we see Nalini is discriminated for her gender. The first experience starts at home by her father. Then, she is married off hastily to a wrong man named Pratap who abuses her mentally and physically. Despite all, she is good at studies and wants to be an IAS officer. T

Open Secret is a simple yet highly effective self-help book that aims to help in providing a giant leap towards success, prosperity, and peace in life. The author Ashraf Qazi’s great personality is a blend of being a surgical oncologist, scholar, and researcher. After years of intense research work, he discovered the Splendor Equation. This book explains how we humans can get close to that equation and by pursuing what and how. Everyone wants to lead a life full of fulfilling and successful experiences. Reading this book will open vista of millions of people across the world. This book is full of many practical suggestions and experiences, exercises, research study and insights. While explaining the concepts from scratch, the author has in between put equation to help people visualize the chunk of information he is trying to dole out. Total there are 12 chapters, written in clear tone, with points to recollect at the end. The opening chapter is about thought, emotion, and feeling.

Baby's Breath by Shahnaz Zaidi is a general novel about a special child girl: Pari Khan. The girl being a marginalized and slightly autistic child, yet her story is nothing less than a fairytale with least resistance. For children suffering from any sort of autism, the novel is inspiring and sounds like a fairytale. The story stretches from cradle to young age. The novel is staged against India and the U.K. with cross culture as one of the prominent themes. In Hasanpur, there is one rich Muslim family, from money and culture point of view. They live in Haveli with all facilities and people at hand. As the story progress, you will get familiar with the ethos of the Haveli and characters like Bibi Saheb, Bua, Munshi, Uzair, and many those who live in the UK and pay visit in summer. Clearly, the story is set in time when communication and modern gadgets were limited and lives were distinguished between ordinary and rich people. Well, one day, in the sad and aloof life of Bibi Sahe

‘Conversations between the Little Girl and the Panda’ by Akriti Bhartia is a beautiful book on the concept of inner self. The book is easy-to-read and short with just over 60 pages. In a sense the book is pictorial, content and images go hand in hand. There are beautiful artwork of the panda and the little girl. The little girl represents the inner voice of our mind that seeks answers to many questions entire life, while the panda is like body. Overall, the colourful presentation of the book entices the heart of readers. It relays great messages and wisdom in the most ravishing yet decent manner. What’s inside the book? The little girl asks questions or puts out her dilemma to the panda. The panda is bound to answer her confrontations. They converse throughout the book. The illustrations suggest that they both enjoy each other’s company. The artwork is neither simple nor banal; rather it’s like banter in the backdrop of the book. It defines the ambience and mood of the book. In fac

Ow1: Believe by Geoff Hall is a riveting novel with a right fusion of dystopia, supernatural, and political horror. The novel is about some teenage friends that are living in the State in Bristol, the UK. That state is not an ordinary place or country; rather it’s vigilante and sharp in its stance. It’s governed by big people of corporate, priests, churches, and security forces. How the state was formed is not mentioned clearly in the first part, but I am hopeful it will be clear in the upcoming books. This is the first in the trilogy of World of Owl novels. I sighed in appreciation for the author, as he did the world building very carefully, not spilling the beans. Placing a tightly packed story that moves subtly is tough but Geoff has done it superbly. At the façade of the story, we see Strix, Calvin, Falco, T_m and D_m, Izzy, Jess, and Kristina. They are friends. Strix and Calvin lead the story from the front. Other than their hangouts and casual romance, the group longs for freed

The Lost Girl by Santosh Sharma is a riveting romance novel set in a magical timeline of 80s and 90s. The novel features the story of two young lovers Vineeth and Rashmi. The lead character is Vineeth. He has taken a voluntary retirement from his job after 25 years. His aim is to find his love that goes missing around two decades back. The novel is set in Rudrapur...but events traverse to far-off places like Rajasthan and North East India and so on. To reconnect them the story chugs ahead with magical sweeps and memories and nostalgia of old days. But between Vineeth's searches of Rashmi, there are many sub stories of friendship, culture, old places, etc. Rashmi's search is a constant thought in Vineeth's mind that lingers in the backdrop like banter. But as the novel starts, we see Vineeth catching up with a lot of his childhood friends, some are lost, and a few are migrated, but still many of them available to his welcome. The kind of comradeship the story reflects

Saba and her cat named Grey by Durjoy Choudhury is a beautifully written novella that makes a pleasant read even if you pick up this book out of your genre or accidently. The novella finely studies a character named Saba. She is young and moved to Calcutta recently. The novel covers her stay and experience with the city. She moved from Delhi, joins a lifestyle magazine, and soon finds herself handling its food section. On one side if the story is about a woman’s tussle in the society, on the other hand it is laced with recipes. At her place of residence, Saba being a lonely woman in the city, finds comfort in the company of a cat named Grey. The cat lives with her. The author explores the essence of womanhood, the place of a liberal female in the world by aligning Saba’s story with Grey. Both are brave, ferocious, love freedom, and can do anything for their privacy. Saba is the lead character. She is not a perfect woman with controlled emotions. Like many, she too had inclinations fo

Assassinating Modi by Anuj Tikku is a short political drama cum thriller novel. Around 64 pages with 8 chapters, the novel takes us into future i.e. 2024. Across the world, the history of politics has seen the meteoritic rise of Narendra Modi after becoming the prime minister of India. He has introduced many schemes and toured the world, tamed the bitter neighbours like Pakistan and China, his healthy relationship with the USA, the UK, and Russia has upset his enemies especially militant organizations, opposition in India, IS agency of Pakistan and many more. This novel sheds light on an assumption: how to defeat the Indian PM in 2024 general elections, as there is no strong political party in the opposition? Well, if a person becomes invincible, the history has seen that they have been assassinated be it the president of the USA or prime ministers of Asian countries. Anuj Tikku has been a bold writer so far, he has written some head-turning novellas on Bollywood, crime, and murder

Tiger by Saurav Dutt is a novel on a Sikh-American boxer Pradeep Singh Nagra. The book emanates from the screenplays of the movie called Tiger, released worldwide in 2018. It’s based on true life events of a boxer, a sort of semi boxing biography. The novel is fast paced and rich with action and adventure. While reading one can easily guess that a kind of movie is running before the eyes. In a sense, the author Saurav Dutt did a great job by converting screenplays into a moving novel. If you have seen the movie, you will find the book a straight replica. If not seen the movie, you may crave for it. The story is real, however, for some purpose the author has changed the names of a few characters shown in the movie. Pradeep Singh Nagra lives in the USA with his uncle. He has zeal to do something. He is powerful and possesses a robust physique. Probably sport is the field that can absorb him. He tries his luck in soccer but to no avail.   Soon he begins seeing Wakefield Boxing Club.