Kevein Books and Reviews

For the Love of Laxmi is a lovely children’s book written by Bijal Shah and illustrated by Alexa Carter. The book is built around its protagonist Laxmi. She is a growing girl in a family living abroad. The book portrays lighthearted homely ambience where a girl has to face prejudice by her parents and relatives. Nothing serious or intense, it’s a common day-to-day conversation that drives Laxmi crazy. She rebels with her inner voice. What parents and others talk about in the home influence children. Thus, the message in the book is to talk carefully before children and they should not be subject to gender discrimination or parental stereotype. It is funny to note many incidents from the book where Laxmi is made to look deplorable by her parents, especially when the chores are related to her brother. Laxmi questions the veracity of her home ambience. She catches what others define and label. For instance Maths is her favourite subject. She got ‘A’ grade in it but the visitor gives c...

Searching for the Present in the Past by Prosenjit Dasgupta is an explicit work of non-fiction. This book is multi-layered with its wraps of history. As the title suggests that the book is ought to be a historical one, as its primary goal is to search for present by going in the past. The book sheds light on as many as time epochs possible. This is not the first non-fiction work of the author that unveils scores of historical insights from the roots and original points. This book is not about mythological significance of Indian subcontinent and how the country gained the label of being a Hindu nation in the current time. It rater studies, layer wise, the making of India which is proud of developing at a greater rate today, which causes envy to many countries, especially Western civilization. Searching for the Present in the Past explores the Indian stories of existence and other patterns with the Indus Civilization, in around 2500 BC. It lays its arm for knowledge even beyond pre-c...

A healthy lifestyle is no more a distant dream. People are living it, they are going by the centuries old adage: ‘health is wealth’. However it should not be taken leniently that building an overall health and fitness ecosystem for personal happiness and other gains come easily. Healthy living and wellness has all the advantages such as free from negative health issues, hidden diseases, obesity, mental stress, depression and anxiety, and so on. But do you know a good health is not all about six-packs or hitting the gym just for fun and hobby? It is way more than you could think of. Inculcating great health in your lifestyle demands a drastic mindset. Mayur Mathur’s part fiction, part self-help, “Honey, It’s Not about Six-Pack Abs” is all about that mindset one needs to accept health as one of the vital part and packages of life. It’s not a ‘what and how’ book. It derives you to that point where mentality changes and you add and accept health to the core of your life. Broadly puttin...

Melange by Dr Prakriti L Thapa is an exciting book of 20 short poems. The book brims with many colours of human emotions, stretching from love and heartbreak to loneliness to singlehood and many more. The depth and hues of emotions cannot be gauged by naked eyes and expressed by voice, it can be touched by poetry. So, this collection of Dr Prakriti does the exactly same. It explores the emotions tied to love, heartbreaks, beauty, betrayal, and silent epochs of life. This is a short and prominent book in exploring the bundle of sentiments. The book commences with ‘Demons’. This poem lays emphasis on the fighting spirit that every soul carries inside it. Let’s see what it tries to convey. In every one dwells demons, if you wish to emerge as a victor, you need to overcome your demons. You may be in tough time or rough phase, the meaning of life gets shape when you shoo away your demons. This first poem is way easy to read and understand. In fact quite an inspiration for fighters to naïv...

Mool Mantra by Paul Kalra is a simple and interesting spiritual book that highlights the teachings and fundamental values of Guru Nanak. Other than this, the book also sheds light on his life journey as an individual in the society. Right at the beginning, it is given that he was married and had two sons, and his best friend was a Muslim named Mardana.   In true words Guru Nanak was an epitome of human compassion. As the book chugs ahead, you will get to know that Guru Nanak was the first guru out of ten Sikh gurus. The book says that Mool Mantra is the beginning of the Guru Granth, the holy book of Sikhs. The author has been chanting this mantra for many years. He got great benefits by doing that, he explains his journey of benefits towards the end of the book. The course of the book is build around its title: Mool Mantra. In fact Mool Mantra is the first gift from Guru Nanak to the world. “He is one, the supreme truth. He is the creator, the only doer. Beyond fear, beyo...

Brink & Beyond by Supriya Saraswati is a collection of ten short stories.  The book is poignant in bringing forward a gamut of female voices in the various circumstances.  It’s not a piece of feminism but most of the stories giving battle cries for their women protagonist. Not necessary that these characters are rebels or loudmouthed, rather they are quiet and determined. Clearly the book is meant for serious audience, and for sure grabs the attention of women who has endured the trough and crest and equivocal vagaries of life. If the destiny rolls out is wrath, it is the women that bear the heat of suffering most. The first story is quite powerful about a girl who has been cheated by many to work as a prostitute. This story may bring a lump of grief to anyone's throat. It will shock you, leave you drained and trying to muffle screams of despair. All stories walk around the different aspects of womanhood, shedding light on the trials, the pains, the triumphs and the ...

It’s a wide-known fact that India played a major role in liberating East Pakistan (Bangladesh) from Pakistan in 1971. It was a major war that India fought for the other country. India and its then prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi used all three forces to liberate Bangladesh from the oppression of Pakistan. The war lasted over 9 days but its real reason goes back to democratic election of 1971. When from (Bangladesh) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won with full majority, at this time he demanded East Pakistan as an independent nation. Pakistan started its operations and began trampling the people of East Pakistan. In their attempt to curb everything, they landed up killing many and looted the people and raped the women. The war atrocities were nothing less than the holocaust epoch of Nazi. On 16 December 1971 the war was over. East Pakistan was declared a free nation, and called as Bangladesh. At this time students from IIM Calcutta were excited for the news and wanted to know the status of ...

A Journey Gone Wrong by Gita Viswanath is an engrossing novel built around past deeds, family allegiance, and teenage romance. The novel focuses on these aspects that have deep effects in our society. As you chug ahead with the story, you will get familiar with deep-rooted and rudimentary aspects that lay the foundation of a family for the generations to come. The novel first sheds light on Krishna. How he came out of Gajulupur to Bangalore and then moved in his professional life in Bombay and also visited the USA for studies. For much time, it looks that he is the lead character but soon we get introduced to Rohini, a software professional from Mumbai. She is the daughter of Krishna. When she goes to the USA, she discovers unknown secrets of her father Krishna. It was shocking to some extent. Krishna was in the USA for studies. While being there he met with an Italian lady Elena. The author focused much on family values of two times when Krishna was growing and then his children, ...

February reminds us of the season of love, and Valentine Day is around and near. Millions of people have begun their search online for best valentine gift for wife or love. Even I did this and found Pages of Love. Since we guys are more into books and reading, this book perfectly suited to what I had been looking for long time. “What I Love about You and Our Memories” is a cute gift book on the occasion of expressing love. This is one of its own kind and rare book for expressing love and sharing memories and much more. It is fill-in-the-blank in English. Words are powerful tools to impress or hurt your dear and loved words. But, at the same time, you can express all about love and sharing attitude for your lover, partner, and spouse. Talking about the book, it is colourful that overall it looks quite exquisite. The book has many colourful pictures depicting love, coupled with riveting quotes. There are many questions that one needs to fill for her/his loved ones. This book is filled ...

Sometimes we come across a book that is out of any specific genre but keeps us glued. Do you know why? Because it is mind soother that listens to our inner voice and connects with our heart. One such good book is Pebbles by Ketaki Aikat. It is neither a poetry book nor couplet, it offers 100 quotes and musings of a well-read and well-traveled person. The book is a great read, short and crisp. The author brings forward her observation, experience, wisdom, and much more alive in this book. You will feel that you are thrown into a state and moments of reflections and cogitation as and when you chug ahead with the content of the book. The book has no peculiar timeline or special themes but all is clubbed between a larger theme called LIFE. Yes, the book aims at the vagaries and vicissitudes of life. Decoding the title, keep walking along the pebbles, you never know when you stumble upon pearls. Most of the quotes and musings are about the value of time.   For instance, in the secon...

I haven’t read something this moving in a long while. Almost in all four long stories, Saurav placed strong women protagonists. I could feel their trauma, pain, and agony of being ignored at all junctures. Well, let me tell you that I am taking about the new book of Saurav Dutt, in this he is offering a collection of four long stories. It is “By the Shadows and the Sunlight.”   In each of the story, the author unearths a layer that reeks of disparity against women. Yes, this time the collection is, silently, dedicated to women of India. In fact, the last story where we see the unsolved case of Sanjani is based on true event i.e. Neha Paswan from North India. She was killed by her villagers for bearing jeans and sounding modern. Terrific! Saurav’s word skills can make any simple or ordinary story intense and laced with literary vividness. Though the first story is of Sujata Dasgupta from Kolkata, it was plot less for much time but I liked it most in the collection due to the hon...

The Flower of Fulfillment by Sanath Kumar Naibhi is an influencing self-help book on personal growth metrics. The vista of self-help genre is vast, people pick up a variety of books for improvement, growth, learning and much more. But how will one remember all the tricks and strategies stumbled across in those books and how to implement so much in one life? Worry not, Sanath is here to help you with that. Spiraling something similar from his life, he is here to help you out in clearing the dilemma of being so righteous with the self-help books. The book offers a question what is fulfillment in life. And it also takes us through the possible answers and solutions. The book is unique with its theories and assumptions and concepts. To materialize all in a readable and exciting manner, the author puts it in a fiction way with the help of Henry and Samartha. Henry is a young boy of around fifteen. Post his accident, he seeks guidance and mentoring from Samartha. Right at the beginning t...

Mental health is of prime importance as nowadays we are all the time engaged online and offline into a gamut of chores. Yes, it is true that mental health begins with a free mind. A mind that is aware of its responsibilities yet does not take extra burden on its nerves. There have been scores of seminars, research papers, YouTube videos, self-help books that profess its importance. On similar lines, we see creative efforts by Kishore Kumar Das through his poetry book ‘Towards a Free Mind’. The book is a collection of poems that fosters the mental health. Most of the poems are written that tell us how to set the mind free. The collection starts with “Make Mind Free” poem that lays emphasis on free mind and to support its assumption it narrates the example of a free route, it says with traffic and congestion, the travel will be tough. In fact, in many poems the author put many simple yet effective examples for better understanding. Being free with mind is one’s birth right. Next po...