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...