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Be it movies or books, crime, detective and suspense category can give anyone goosebumps and an edge of the seat experience. How many of you got glued to the suspense portrayed in the 1990’s TV series Byomkesh Bakshi or have been on the edge of the seat while watching the Bollywood movie Bhoot. Like me, if you are also in awe with movies or books that fall into that category, then the book Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD – The Return of Damayanti by Nisha Singh might be of interest to you.

Image Source – Mystery

Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD – The Return of Damayanti is the second book by the author featuring the detective Bhrigu Mahesh and his friend Mahesh Sutte. Though it is the second book featuring the same characters, a good amount of detailing has been done in order to make the readers well-versed with them. The publisher is Partridge Publishing.

About the Author

Nisha Singh is the author of two books, namely ‘Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD- The Witch Of Sendukar’ and ‘Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD – The Return of Damayanti’. She is a crime fiction enthusiast who has written short stories for National Print Magazine and has contributed to a variety of online publications. Nisha is a prolific reader and writer and her stories have surprising endings. Nisha resides in Uttar Pradesh, India. You can read more about Nisha Singh here 

Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD – The Return of Damayanti : Trailer

The central character of the book Bhrigu Mahesh is a private detective and a retired policeman. On this second adventure, he is called to help by a hapless, retired clerk named Nataraj Bhakti. Nataraj Bhakti approaches the detective because he thinks that he is being haunted by the spirit of his dead wife, Damayanti. He along with Sutte, his friend and trusted lieutenant travel to the village in order to solve this mystery. There are series of twists and turns, including the murder of a lady that keeps the suspense alive and manages to treat the readers with an edge of a seat experience.

So, would the detective be able to crack the case? What would be main motive behind the murder and all such lingering questions form the crux of the story. Mystery, Murder, and Religion are three keywords that make Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD – The Return of Damayanti an intriguing read !!

Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD – The Return of Damayanti : Detailed Review

As mentioned earlier, the central character of the novel is Bhrigu Mahesh, an ex-policeman turned detective. On the request of Nataraj Bhakti, Bhrigu and Sutte travel to his village Krishna Dwar to investigate the case. Nataraj stays in a village that is very popular for its temples and owns a large ancestral home. Both Brigu and Sutte take accommodation at his place and witness the unusual/haunting activity themselves.

As expected there is a new twist in the story when a member from Bhakti’s family is murdered and at this juncture, Brigu & his team needs to take a vital decision on whether they should catch the killer or risk the destruction of many innocent lives. Who is the killer of that woman, what about the haunting of Damayanti and all such questions are answered over the course of time.

Being a thriller, it is very important that the story is told at the right pace, characters are introduced at the right time and suspense is unfolded in pieces so that it provides an edge of the seat experience! Though sometimes the story becomes a bit slow, especially in the first half of the book, it does catch up in the latter half. Detailing is given to each and every character in the story. Overall, Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD – The Return of Damayanti definitely scores high in all the three important categories.

While reading the story, you can easily visualize the characters and the story is etched in your minds since it is told in a very subtle manner. Though this is the second installment of the Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD series, characters of Sutte and Mahesh Bhrigu are created with the finest detail which was very important for first-time readers. Being a thriller, we cannot be a spoilsport by revealing the ending but one thing which we can expect is a sequel to this story since the ending might surprise some set of readers 🙂

Closing Thoughts

Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD – The Return of Damayanti is a well-etched thriller where each character is crafted to perfection. Being a thriller, it was very important that there are few characters in order to stick to the storyline and Nisha Singh has managed to deliver the same, that too with a punch! As you progress through the story, you might feel an adrenaline rush and anxiety about ‘What next’ 🙂 If you love reading thrillers, you should definitely not miss this one.

You can purchase Bhrigu Mahesh, PhD – The Return of Damayanti by Nisha Singh by clicking on the link below

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

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One of the primary reasons book addicts prefer biographies, diaries, etc. is the vast amount of learnings embedded in the biography. You can learn on how the personality [on whom the biography is based] dealt with ups & downs, his personal life, how he made his important career decisions, etc. In almost all the cases, biographies are based on lives of the rich & famous e.g. Steve Jobs, Dhirubhai Ambani, Elon Musk, etc. Contrast to biographies, people who pen down their own autobiographies have an interesting story to tell about their lives, learnings, etc. Many times, authors who write their autobiography might not be that rich & famous but they have encountered ample amount of learnings that can definitely be of help to the readers!

Mr.Bhadani with Jimmy Wales [Source]

One such autobiography is that of Mr. Gangadhar Bhadani who was once described by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, as the most prolific Indian Wikipedian. He was in the top ten worldwide contributors for months. He is around 65 years old and has lived in 17 places & 24 dwellings across India. He is a retired bank officer but unlike other bank officers, his life is full of interesting happenings 🙂 At a tender age of 55, he started contributing to Wikipedia and his book Choice in Chaos: A Wikipedian’s Autobiography is the first attempt by an English Wikipedian to share his life story.

About the Author

Mr. Gangadhar Bhadani is a retired bank officer and a prolific Wikipedian. In ‘Choice in Chaos’, he shares his life story, a tale spanning six decades of his life so far. Post-retirement [i.e. at the age of 55], he started contributing actively to the English version of Wikipedia and this according to him has been a life changing moment. You can connect with him on Facebook here.

Choice in Chaos: A Wikipedian’s Autobiography – Detailed Review

Since Mr. Bhadani has lived in seventeen different places across India, the book takes us back in time and a young Indian of this era can paint a picture of India along the way. Being an autobiography, in Choice in Chaos, Mr. Bhadani has touched upon various aspects of his life – Childhood, multi-dimensional adulthood, life as a banker and his experience as an active Wikipedian where he is passionately contributing since 2005.

The book starts off with the post-independence era in the chapter – Arrah Zila Ghar Ba. In this chapter, he recollects all his childhood memories of celebrating independence with fervor in the Arrah city that belongs to Bhojpur district. We loved the overall references that he has brought out throughout the book, example below

A human being is a creature encapsulated in his past. Despite all attempts, one does not forget many things and probably every incident, every word, every scene, sight, and smell continues to reside, consciously and sub-consciously, like granite granules inside one’s psyche not to be destroyed despite all efforts.

There is a lot of reference to Hindi words since Mr. Bhadani has mainly stayed in the northern regions of India [a couple of years were spent in Chennai when he was employed with Chennai Zonal Office]. Each chapter [Chapter 1~ Chapter 17] has a collection of memories, learnings, etc. where these chapters document his life in 17 different places in India e.g. Chapter 1: Arrah, Chapter 2: Tatanagar, Chapter 3: Muzaffarpur…. In the initial chapters, he has focused on his childhood, how living in a different set of conditions [and with a variety of people] shaped his thinking and adulthood. He has beautifully documented different facets of relations, be it with his parents, his elder brother, his daughters, etc.

Though each of these chapters has a beautiful connect where he walks us through his childhood, adolescence, multidimensional adulthood; the fascinating chapter of his life starts when he starts contributing actively to English Wikipedia. Mr. Bhadani recounts the moment when he was awestruck as soon as he started exploring Wikipedia while he was posted in Chennai. That Aha! moment is recounted in Chapter 21: Armenian Street to Mount Road where he mentions how he felt rejuvenated and blissful in the company of English Wikipedia.

Within a period of few weeks, Mr. Bhadani had already created many new pages and his edits caught the attention of other members of the Wikipedia Community. Some of the articles that were initiated by him are Chennai Central, Chennai Port, EID Party, Guindy National Park, etc. According to him, Armenians in India is the most significant article created by him. Subsequent chapters describe his interesting journey as a Wikipedian and how he networked & learnt from fellow contributors.

He even recounts his encounter with Kiruba Shankar, social media entrepreneur from Chennai where Mr. Bhadani was invited to participate and guide participants in an event named the Wikipedia Academy. There are references to Wiki Conference, the flagship conference of Wikimedians held in association with the Wikimedia Foundation. The autobiography closes with a chapter on Jharkhand where Mr. Bhadani currently resides and spends his time on different assignments.

Closing Thoughts

Choice in Chaos – A Wikipedian’s Autobiography is an interesting book that has many learnings from each one of us. The key takeaway is ‘Passion can be followed at any age since age is just a number’. At 24 Chapters and 284 pages long, it is definitely a good read where you can experience/feel the various phases of life in various parts of India!

You can purchase Choice in Chaos – A Wikipedian’s Biography by Gangadhar Bhadani by clicking on the link below

Thank you Mr. Gangadhar Bhadani for sending us the review copy of Choice in Chaos, we enjoyed reading the book …

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Indian cinema has seen a major shift with movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Gangs of Wasseypur-II, Ugly, Shahid, Udta Punjab, etc. They also proved that good script backed by awesome performance can win audience’s hearts as well as garner appreciation by critics [and be a box office phenomenon]. When was the last time when you read a book and got an adrenaline rush as you encountered when you watched these movies. Most of the movies in this genre clicked with the audience since the story was told with panache ensuring that the local flavor, be it language, clothes, etc. of the characters were retained in order to make it look authentic!

The Jeera Packer by Prashant Yadav, a first-time author and entrepreneur narrates a story that sticks well with the audience since it is a story of each one of us, at some point in our lives. So, let’s go ahead and review The Jeera Packer. The publisher is Fingerprint! Publishing.

About the Author

Prashant Yadav is an entrepreneur and founder of BodhiSutra. He graduated from IIT Kharagpur, IIM Ahmedabad and Stockholm school of Economics. For more information, please visit his LinkedIn Profile.

The Jeera Packer – Trailer

As mentioned earlier, The Jeera Packer is Prashant Yadav’s debut novel. It is a story of a former dreaded gangster who once changed the history of Uttar Pradesh with a gun and a finger. However, this was around thirty years ago. He now packs jeera in a basement. His life takes a sudden twist when one of his former companion reaches out of him with a task to assassinate the Chief Minister (CM) of UP. What happens next? Will he take up the assignment, will he be caught, whether he would be successful in assassinating the CM? You would find answers to all these hindering questions in The Jeera Packer.

Politics, UP and Crime are three keywords that makes The Jeera Packer an intriguing read !!

The Jeera Packer – Detailed Review

The Jeera Packer is a fiction with politics as its backdrop. Of late, politics has become very interesting with social media adding some more flavor to it 🙂 Politics in Uttar Pradesh [UP] has always been closely watched & followed even by non-UP residents, recently concluded UP elections proves that point!

In order to weave a very good story centered around crime and politics in UP, the author has chosen a Jeera Packer. The main protagonist was once the best sharpshooter in the state. Fast-forward thirty years, he now lives a normal happy, stable life with his wife and a college going son. He now runs a small kirana shop in Ghaziabad. His wife manages the daily operations of the store and he packs jeera in the basement. He is going through a mid-life crisis and is not happy leading a common man’s life. Due to these problems, he is now loosing confidence as well as self-esteem. He comes to the conclusion that in order to be happy he needs to take control of his life.

As they say fortune favors the brave, a chance encounter with his older acquaintance could turn to be a stepping stone for him. He is handed the task of assassinating the Chief Minister who is himself a notorious man and has committed many crimes. For the Jeera Packer it is not only the question of regaining his self-confidence but also the question of doing something good for the people of UP. So, would he be able to pull off this one last act? Will he able to brush away the jeera dust and rediscover himself or has the sharp-shooter already left his soul ? The remaining 320+ pages of the book answers these questions in a very effective manner.

Though the central protagonist of the book is a dreaded gangster, he manages to leave a mark on the readers. The writing is very lucid and Hindi is used at appropriate places. As a reader you can easily co-relate to the instances with the drama that normally unfolds in UP politics. Other than the Jeera Packer, other characters are politicians namely Lal Mani, Nawab Sahib, Nanhe Samrat. Every character is crafted with detailed perfection and the suspense keeps the readers hooked on to The Jeera Packer. The plus point of the story is that these characters can be easily visualized especially in UP politics.

The ‘Suspense Element’ reaches a new height when it is revealed when not only the Jeera Packer, there are others also who plan to kill the Chief Minister and it is a matter of self-respect as to ‘Who will kill the Chief Minister first’. The book also sheds light on the corrupt political system and how power-hungry politicians can ruin the entire state/country.

Closing Thoughts

The Jeera Packer is a well-etched political crime thriller where each character is crafted to perfection. Being a thriller, it was very important that there are few characters in order to stick to the story-line and Prashant Yadav has managed to deliver the same with The Jeera Packer.

The book comprises of 41 chapters and each chapter deliveries the story with a punch. Through the last few chapters, the story becomes a bit predicable but it manages to recover the lost mojo quickly. Each one of us do a self-introspection to assess ourselves in life and hence you can easily co-relate to the central character of the book.

If you have liked loved Bollywood movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Udta Punjab, NH10, etc. then you would love reading The Jeera Packer. Barring aside a few shortcomings, The Jeera Packer has the perfect ingredients for hit Bollywood movie 🙂

You can purchase The Jeera Packer by Prashant Yadav by clicking on the link below

Thanks Prashant for sending us the review copy of The Jeera Packer, we enjoyed reading the book…

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There are tons of self-help books by Indian as well as International authors, but many of them dish out gyaan leaving the reader confused about the application of the tips mentioned in the book. I am sure you could easily co-relate to that ‘Never judge a book by its cover‘ scenario where the book cover looked interesting but the contents of the book were not so engaging leading to less takeaway from it 🙁

As a 90’s kid I really enjoyed the mythological series of Ramayana and Mahabharata though it was only meant for entertainment purpose. My thoughts towards Ramayana & application of learnings from it changed after I read [as well as reviewed] Shubha Vilas’s book Ramayana : The Game of Life: Shattered Dreams and Ramayana : The Game of Life: Rise of the Sun Prince. The books had stories on Ramayana with learnings that can be applied in today’s life!

Today we review another book Open-Eyed Meditations by the noted author Subha Vilas. The tag line of the book is ‘Practical Wisdom for everyday life‘

About the Author

Shubha Vilas holds a degree in engineering and law with specialization in patent law. But in essence, he is an author, a motivational speaker, lifestyle coach, and a storyteller par excellence. You can find more about him here

Detailed Review

Open-eyed Meditations is a beautiful compilation of thoughts wherein each meditation takes you on a journey to the past, bringing a secret herb to heal a problem of the present. Similar to the previous books penned by Shubha Vilas, this book also uses the wisdom of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to solve your everyday problems!

Considering that there is so much stress in everyone’s life, one option to find peace and solace is mediation. As it is known that meditation should be done with your eyes closed but this book spells the other side of meditation that can be practiced with ‘open eyes’ and ‘open mind’. The book comprises of 64 chapters and each chapter follows a unique approach to help us address questions and issues that we have in our life, through the aid of short snippets quoting examples and behaviors from the Ramayana & Mahabharata.

Though the book comprises of 64 chapters, every chapter is kept short [keeping the crux intact] and language used for narration is simple. The reader need not be aware of the characters in the mythological series and this where lies the beauty of the book! Whether you are facing issues at your workplace, going through a turmoil in your relationship, facing problems with decision making or want to enhance your leadership skills; this book offers valuable nuggets of wisdom and action point resources to deal with it all. An ideal way to read the book is to look the Contents/Index and select a chapter that might be able to potentially address your concern.

Shubha Vilas retains his traditional writing style where he ends each chapter with a summary [or helpful tips to be more precise] that can be used in our day-to-day lives. The book is written in a very simplistic and contemporary manner, which keeps the interest alive!

Key Takeaways

Each and every page has some learning in it and that is the key highlight of the book. Below are some of the chapters that we enjoyed reading the most [Note : Choices might vary from reader to reader]

  • Chapter 3 – Do all problems have quick fix solutions?
  • Chapter 4 – Why don’t I make the right decisions in life?
  • Chapter 5 – Spirituality @ Workplace
  • Chapter 10 – Can your talent be your enemy?
  • Chapter 12 – A formula to re-brand your mind
  • Chapter 14 – Who controls my opinions and decisions
  • Chapter 17 – Are you programmed to be someone else?
  • Chapter 18 – From Information to transformation
  • Chapter 21 – Is lack of focus a disease or a choice
  • Chapter 22 – An idea to prevent hacking of ideas
  • Chapter 27 – The investment that returns hearts
  • Chapter 29 – Can your success be your failure?
  • Chapter 37 – The science of how to let go
  • Chapter 40 – A compliant against complaining
  • Chapter 42 – Art of leading leaders
  • Chapter 43 – Seven secrets of innovation
  • Chapter 45 – Indivisible leadership
  • Chapter 50 – Do ‘Likes’ make my life?
  • Chapter 53 – Leading through mistakes
  • Chapter 54 – Leading without a title
  • Chapter 55 – Making leadership last
  • Chapter 59 – X factor influencing success
  • Chapter 62 – Constructive thoughts about team building

Some of the notable excerpts from the book are mentioned below

Competition : Compete with yourself not others. Competition with self improves performance and causes no heartburn either. Further comparing yourself with others undermines your uniqueness. Gratitude for our individuality can reduce self-destructive habit of comparison. Unlike flattery, appreciation requires skills and comes from the heart.

People : People want to deal with others’ strengths and not weakness; their abilities and not idiosyncrasies. Rather than rejecting a person due to this bad side, the need is to provide emphatic assistance in dealing with the shortcomings.

Being positive : Talented people with negative attitudes are unable to cope with the ups and downs of life. Right attitude helps to move on in life. Relationships too wither away without the right attitude

Re-brand your mind : Human mind, thoughts, beliefs, values, culture, all operate through symbolism. We have bandwidth to upgrade our symbols and climb up a higher rung of the value system. We could also end up downgrading our symbols to an abyss of negativeness and anxieties.

We can choose a symbol that inspires or choose one that revives bad memories and creates self destruction.

Embrace my embarrassments : We all have embarrassments that we want to run away from. One perspective is to look at them as God’s way of keeping us grounded amid success. The secret is to handle embarrassments with dignity and humility, which is also how we should handle success.

Art of leading Leaders : The first step in leadership training is to find and hone potential leaders at the earliest. Then, shortlist them based on their ability to deal with sticky situations and take personal interest in guiding and developing young leaders, to focus their efforts on upgrading what they have.

Leadership training model can resemble Kangaroo-type, that gives protection in safe havens, or Bird-type, which gives strength to find wings.

Leading though mistakes : Leaders make mistakes too. After the mistake is made, ineffective leaders look for a scapegoat to put the blame on. By taking responsibility, a leader allows himself that scope of error.

A thinking leader considers mistakes as an opportunity. To lament for one’s mistake is important, but far more important is to learn from that mistake.

Leading without a Title : A leader wanting the support of a heavy title is bound to fail. The title can be used either to inspire or terrorize, depending on whether he wants to control his followers or make his followers achievers.

Leaders, who heavily depend on titles, bask in glory during the happy times and hide themselves during hostile times. Title-less leaders come out during challenging times and hide themselves during happy times. For a title-less leader what is more important is performance. A position is only a decoration and when push comes to shove what matters is performance.

Closing Thoughts

Open-Eyed Meditations is a book for all moods and all seasons. 64 chapters are covered over 280 pages and this is where lies the beauty of the book i.e. learnings are conveyed in a short yet effective manner.

It is a book that can be read again and again since it reveals many profound thoughts that can nurture a different aspect of your life. As mentioned by Shubha Vilas in the introduction section of Open-Eyed Meditations

Read this book the way a cow eats grass while ruminating. Chew on every word carefully till you have milky lucidity that nourishes every aspect of your life. This book will help you learn the art of meditating with your eyes wide open as you keenly observe the world around you and allow it to enlighten you.

It definitely stands by that promise since each chapter delivers a powerful learning. In a nutshell, Open-eyed meditations is a book of thoughtful sutras that can become life sutras.

You can purchase Open-Eyed Meditations by Shubha Vilas by clicking on the link below

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

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Each one of us has dreams and milestones to achieve, whether it is on the personal front or professional front. Very few of us get to that target due to various reasons since life can sometimes be topsy-turvy. Though all of us would have encountered our fair share of failures [which is very important], the learnings from those failures still remain with us and a wiser person ensures that the same mistakes are not repeated. When you face challenges and come across failures, always Raise Up and fight back.

You Raise Me Up by Arjun Hemmady is based on the same premise where Aalok Sharma, a 27-year-old Chartered Accountant falls for a girl named Priyanka Mehra. Aalok and Priyanka are two different personalities and the book highlights their respective journeys. Will Aalok confess his love and affection for Priyanka or not, the novel You Raise Me Up provides answers to these questions.

About the author

Arjun Hemmady completed his schooling from St. Mary’s ICSE [Mazgaon] and College from RA Podar College of Commerce and Economics. He is pursuing his Chartered Accountancy from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India [ICAI]. His past times include writing, reading books, and watching movies. He works in a manufacturing company. You can find more about the author here

Detailed Review

As mentioned earlier, the main protagonists of the book are Aalok Sharma and Priyanka Mehra. Aalok is 27 years old chartered accountant and is an introvert by nature. He has been through lots of ups & downs in life. Priyanka is a Dehradun born girl who stays in Delhi and works in the legal department of Mahindra & Mahindra.

The story unfolds with Aalok accidentally meeting Priyanka on a flight from Delhi to Mumbai and as shown in Bollywood movies, it is love at first sight 🙂 As it is said opposites attract and both of them get along very well, right from the first discussion they have on the flight.

But having gone through a rough patch in life, Aalok takes each step very carefully whereas Priyanka is very open about his love for Aalok. Like a romantic movie, the first part of the book showcases the feeling of love and hesitance between Aalok & Priyanka. The second part of the book takes us back in time [10 years] and introduces three more characters – Aalok’s parents, twin sister Isha & family friend Tanvi Rao. We liked that the female characters are etched positively and show a lot of grit: Isha is a kick-boxing champion and Priyanka is into wrestling.

Aalok marries Tanvi and their life goes through a tough patch since Aalok is not able to give more time to Tanvi due to work pressure. In order to release stress, Tanvi becomes alcoholic which doesn’t go well with Aalok and they file for a divorce. The third part of the book brings the story out of flashback where Aalok’s sister Isha forces him to inform Priyanka about his past which he is hiding from her. As expected, Priyanka leaves Aalok and this is where Isha decides to play the role of Cupid [and tells her brother to always Look Up & never Give Up]. Isha meets Priyanka, has a kickboxing match with her and finally manages to convince Priyanka 🙂 In spite of Aalok’s dreadful past, Priyanka accepts Aalok. Aalok’s ex-wife Tanvi also gives up alcoholism and moves with Shashank, her good friend since college days.

They then live happily ever after 🙂

Closing Thoughts

The story is written in simple English, though sometimes it becomes predictable. The reader can easily visualize Aalok’s agony in not being able to accept his feelings for Priyanka. The divorce between Aalok & Tanvi happens without much drama which was required else it would have dragged the story unnecessarily!

The author Arjun Hemmady has admitted that he has never been in any relationship nor watched any romantic movie nor read any romantic novel and in our opinion, this worked in his favor in some of the cases. Raise Me Up is a breezy read and the romantic novel is targeted to the youth. Though in some places, the storyline becomes completely flat but overall it is a story that a reader can easily co-relate to!

Final Verdict – 3.5/5

Thanks to Arjun Hemmady for sending a review copy of You Raise Me Up. You Raise Me Up is available on Flipkart and Amazon, links below


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There is a very famous quote by Plutarch – The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled and it is upto our mind on how to act in case of adverse situations! As per a recent study by the UN, there are close to one billion specially-able people  globally out of which 40~80 million people are living in India.

If you are able bodied and want to accomplish something with or without your body, achievement of the end goal only depends on the effort that you put. However for a person with physical disability, the whole life becomes a challenge though some of these challenges can still be overcome only with sheer will and passion to move ahead in life. Though specially abled people do face many obstacles, they still have the will and motivation to succeed and the very first step is to remove the specially abled tag from their minds!

There are many inspiring stories where specially abled people have achieved greater heights (that even a normal person wouldn’t have been able to do) like How Kargil War Hero Major D.P.Singh became India’s first blade runner and did not let his disability affect him to push harder to realize his potential, How Srikanth Bolla built Bollant Industries by fighting odds against his blindness and the list just keeps on growing! As mentioned by the late Stella Young – The only disability is the brain disability and disability doesn’t make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.

Though there are innumerable stories of inspiration, Commute is one area that needs to be solved for those who are living with physical disabilities/challenges. People with disabilities have consistently described how transportation barriers affect their lives in important ways. This is where self-driving can make a huge difference and this is the problem that social entrepreneur Harish Kumar’s venture Ability On Wheels is aiming to solve (Earlier coverage here)! Ability On Wheels is an effort to encourage the people with disabilities (PWDs) to take a big leap towards leading a normal life by being able to drive on their own.

Today, we review his book Ability On Wheels which is a book that provides Hope! It is an effort to spread awareness and provide useful information on disability and driving

About the author

Harish Kumar was born with the absence of right arm. He did his M Sc from IIT Roorkee & M Tech from IIT Delhi. In 2012, he became the first physically challenged person in the country to complete a Solo All India Driving Expedition thereby creating a new National Record and one more record in the next year. You can find more information about him here

In order to go ahead with the review, it is very important to look into the aspect – Why Ability On Wheels.

Many people expressed their desire to drive but there was not even a single driving school for them in the entire country. This is where Harish fore-saw an opportunity and gave up his career in telecom with the sole mission : Provide driveway for people with disabilities. After six months of detailed study, multiple iterations, follow-ups and negotiations with the government, etc. Ability On Wheels, India’s first driving school for people with disabilities was born!

Detailed Review

Today the disability sector in India is at the stage where maximum visibility and focus on the potential of the person with disabilities is very much required. This is what Ability On Wheels caters to. The book is enriched by personal experiences of Harish in his quest to provide disability is only in mind and we become what we think.

The book has experiences that are faced by Harish Kumar and how he overcame those hurdles to learn driving. In addition to his own experiences, the book cites real life examples of the following:

Navin Gulia, a gentleman cadet who became paraplegic during a freak incident encountered during is training.

Satendra Singh, a doctor & polio survivor who has been highly vocal on barriers that plague the people with disability.

Kavita Modi & Pallav Pathak, students at the motor driving school for the physically challenged who learnt driving despite all odds!

These are just a few real life case-studies of grit & determination that have been covered in the book. It is a short read of ~150 pages and each chapter covers one specially-abled driver, his/her driving strategies, insights into traffic rules, types of vehicles, Process for obtaining a driving license, general Do’s & Dont’s for driving, driving under different climatic conditions, etc.

Who should read this book

Most of the times we are motivated by looking at other’s actions or by following their journey (and how they became successful by beating all challenges that came their way). They could be an entrepreneur, film-star, sport-star, your fellow colleague or anyone from whom you can draw inspiration! If you are the one who is looking for motivation and love reading stories about grit & determination, then Ability On Wheels definitely should be in your collection.

Ability On Wheels book would also be of immense interest to someone with disabilities, disability advocates & researchers, researchers, travel enthusiasts, car dealers & sales representatives of car manufacturers, officials of transport department, etc. It provides tips for safe driving, customizations/modifications required in a vehicle, related rules, etc.

Closing Thoughts

The book Ability on Wheels is an attempt on visualizing how society can be more inclusive to specially-abled persons by opening up driving for not just their mobility but also for their emotional, social and financial empowerment.

The intent of the publisher Artson Publishing to make a difference by publishing Ability On Wheels is also note-worthy since they are a start-up and inspite of focusing solely on monetization, they chose to focus on such social causes; kudos to them! The book Ability On Wheels is available exclusively on Amazon for Rs. 150.

I would close the review with a motivational quote by Harish

Driving requires mental strength, so use it. Forget about your disabilities – just drive

|In: Books|Last Updated: | 2 Comments

In the past, we have done many Book Reviews, thanks to the BlogAdda Book Review Program. Some of the past reviews are – Review : Best Seller she Wrote, Review : Business Sutra, Review : Shades of Life, Review: Ramayana – Game of Life and Review : Private India and we have thoroughly enjoyed reading those books 🙂 For readers who are not familiar with BlogAdda, it is a platform for bloggers to connect with each other, showcase their blogs and participate in interesting activities. The Adda has given writers various avenues to introduce their blogs to a large audience and interact with their readers [More here]. Today we review Six Degrees-Game of Blogs which is not a regular book but it is a piece of publishing history.

Six Degrees Game of Blogs : Collaboration meets Creativity

Six Degrees is a product of the first collaborative blogging effort in India. Yes, you read it right.. It is a novel that is co-authored by many writers [precisely bloggers :)] who are winners of the #CelebrateBlogging initiative by BlogAdda [that ran the first edition of Game Of Blogs in September 2014]. The objective was to write a fictional story revolving around five characters. Bloggers from across India came together as teams and after three rounds filled with it’s own set of twists & turns, three stories were adjudged winners by coveted panel of Judges.

Hence, Six Degrees is not an ordinary effort but the result of “Collaboration + Creativity” 🙂 The most fascinating thing about this book is that – Five characters are same and have the same characteristics in three stories narrated in the book.

Six Degrees Game of Blogs : Characters, Stories & more insights

As mentioned earlier, the book has three different stories with five characters (that remain same across stories). All the stories are set in Mumbai & Delhi. What we particularly liked about the book is that the language used in the stories is simple and authors (three teams of bloggers across India) have made a great effort to make the stories more engaging and keeping the readers hooked on to their seats !!

The Lead characters around which stories have been plotted are below:

  • Shekhar Dutta – A freelance writer and also a stay at home father
  • Tara Dutta – Wife of Shekhar and also a Media Professional
  • Roohi Duta – Their nine year old daughter. All the three stay as a close-knit family in Mumbai
  • Jennifer Joseph – Kochi based photographer
  • Cyrus Daruwala – Law student staying in Delhi

Three Stories that have been written by three different teams are below:

The Awakening

Team of bloggers who have worked on ‘The Awakening’ are the following-

Authors - The Awakening
Authors – The Awakening

The Awakening – Backdrop

The Awakening is about Tara Dutta, Shekhar Dutta and their nine year old daughter Roohi. They are a close knit family who stay in Mumbai. It is a science fiction story with interesting twists and turns. Thy are leading a normal life until the arrival of a surprise guest – Jennifer [Cyrus and Shekhar’s friend] after which their lives become topsy-turvy. Every day, there are new revelations and incidents that threaten to tear the happy family apart.

Just like a Hollywood sci-fi flick, you can visualize the scenes and the good part about the story is that the scenes change at a very rapid pace. This keeps the readers glued to the story. The graphical representations of the aliens and the powers they possess adds more Masala to the entire story.

Would the ‘Once upon a time- Happy Family’ succeed to find out who are the strangers that have entered their lives ? What is the secret that holds the key to their happiness ? Would they be able to defeat the super-powers and save our earth ? These are the answers that lie in ‘The Awakening’, read it to believe it 🙂

Entangled Lives

Team of bloggers who have worked on ‘Entangled Lives’ are the following-

Team - Entangled Lives
Team – Entangled Lives

Entangled Lives – Backdrop

In Entangled Lives, a small seemingly happy family is thrown into turmoil with the arrival of strangers in the house. Tara and Shekhar Dutta have similar job profiles. Cyrus is an illegitimate child of Shekhar Dutta. She studies Law. Jennifer Joseph is an over-ambitious wild-life photographer. It is an intriguing story about an out of work writer, a power-hungry media head, a wild life photographer, 9 year old child and MURDER. The mystery that needs to be solved is who has murdered the maid of the Dutta household.

There is no direct evidence to link the murder to the crime though there is an eye-witness that will help in solving the mystery. For me, it was an edge of the seat thriller and a complete page-turner. Just like a Bollywood flick, this story has all the ingredients to make a great story – Relationships, Lies, Secrets, Betrayal and Revenge. We won’t be surprised if some Bollywood Director expresses interest in making a feature film on this story 🙂

Missing – A Journey within

Team of bloggers who have worked on ‘Missing’ are the following-

Team - Missing
Team – Missing

Missing – Backdrop

As the title rightly suggests, this story is about a Missing person. Roohi, daughter of Shekhar Dutta goes missing from school. Roohi was accidentally clicked by Jennifer [photographer] when she was clicking pictures to complete her assignments. She recognizes Roohi since her parents have circulated her pictures on Social Media. So, who was Roohi last seen with ?

Missing traces the journey of love, hope, care and affection right into hatred, ego, prejudice and negativity. It beautifully etches the pain that a family has to go through since there is a fear of loosing Roohi forever. Just when hope to find Roohi starts to dwindle, journey takes a fascinating turn.

Would the family manage to find Roohi or they would loose her forever, Missing holds all the answers !!!

Six Degrees Game of Blogs : Closing Thoughts

The overall effort put by the BlogAdda team to identify and shortlist writers is commendable. Coming to the book, the stories are very captivating, we particularly liked ‘Entangled Lives’ though opinions might differ based on reader’s interest.

The thing which we really liked about the book is that same characters were given to all the teams and they came out with well-knit stories. If you like to read about different perspectives in life, love drama, suspense; than Six Degrees is the book for you 🙂

Final Verdict – 4/5

Where to buy the book

The book is available on Amazon [Affiliate link below].

Six Degrees-Game of Blogs definitely proves the point that each blogger is different, their views are different and the way they visualize things are different !!! We highly recommend BlogAdda to come up or plan with the next edition of #Celebrate Blogging so that more bloggers can embark their journey to become authors.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

|In: Books|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Every person in life has dreams & aspirations but many times or should we say, most of the times “Plans remain plans” & finally, things divert into an unplanned direction. Some of them can do anything i.e. virtually anything to achieve their dreams. If this sounds like an interesting plot straight from a Bollywood movie, than you should definitely get your hands on to Ravi Subramanian’s latest book The Bestseller She Wrote. It is a story about Love, Betrayal & Redemption.

About the author

Ravi Subramanian is an Indian author. A banker by profession, Subramanian has written popular thrillers about banking and bankers, including award winning trilogy The Incredible Banker, The Bankster and Bankerupt. An alumnus of IIM Bangalore, batch of 1993, Subramanian spent close to two decades in the financial services industry. After having worked with companies such as Citibank, HSBC and ANZ Grindlays, Subramanian is now the CEO of a listed Non-banking financial company [Source – Wikipedia]

Detailed Review

‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ is the latest novel in the Thriller genre by Ravi Subramanian with an interesting plot with many twists & turns. Like his previous books The Incredible Banker, If God was a Banker and many more, the main character of the book – Aditya Kapoor is a banker, however banking has no role to play in the entire story.

The story revolves around three characters – Aditya Kapoor, his wife Maya and Shreya Kaushik (an IIMB Student). Let’s get into the skin of each of these characters. Aditya is not only a successful banker but he is also a best-selling author (nicknamed the Paperback King). He has a loving wife Maya and they are blessed with a son. It sounds like a happy-go-lucky family from Sooraj Barjatya’s movie 🙂 But their lives becomes topsy-turvy when Shreya Kaushik enters Aditya’s life.

Shreya Kaushik is a beautiful and talented girl who is pursuing her MBA in IIM, Bengaluru. Shreya has another aspiration i.e. to become a best-selling author. As expected, they meet again. Aditya visits IIMB to give a guest talk where he ends up with an argument with Shreya over a particular question raised by her. The authorities at the college are not very happy over her behavior. In order to compensate, she reads a novel written by none other than Aditya.

Now comes the fourth character, Sanjay (Aditya’s colleague & friend) and to make things worsen for Aditya, they visit IIMB for campus hiring. Aditya again meets Shreya during the campus interviews and Shreya gets placed in Aditya’s company.

Like a good-old masala movie; from ‘Just Friends’, Aditya and Shreya become ‘Very Good Friends’. They both develop an extra-marital affair and Shreya aims to capitalize on Aditya’s feelings in order to get her novel released in the market. Life is smooth for both of them until Maya comes to know about their affair.

What’s in-store for Maya, Aditya and Shreya? Would Shreya become a best-selling author, would Aditya choose Shreya over Maya, would Maya continue to stay with Aditya or divorce him ? Would Aditya redeem himself & regain his lost self-respect ? This is where the twist comes in the story and the story races in the second-half.

The Bestseller She Wrote : Pros

Roles of all the three main leads – Aditya, Maya and Shreya are very well etched out though some more light could have been thrown on some of them.

There are references to real world names like Chetan Bhagat, HSBC, Anurag Kashyap, Poonam Saxena etc. that make the story more compelling since user’s can visualize the actual characters while reading this book. The story is fast-paced with many surprise elements coupled with emotions resulting in lot’s of twists in this thriller. And yes, Bangalore is referred as Bengaluru which was definitely a ‘welcome surprise’ for us.

With so many aspiring writers willing to become ‘Best Selling Authors’, this book definitely gives an insight into the Best-Selling game 🙂

The Bestseller She Wrote : Improvements

Some insights into Shreya’s life before she enters into IIMB could have made her character even stronger. Aditya’s son has no role to play in this entire thriller & in our opinion, he was only kept to inform the readers that Aditya and Maya were leading a happily married life.

Aditya’s friend – Sanjay also had less role to play in the entire story. In some cases, there were minor grammatical errors that could have been avoided.

Closing Thoughts

The book provides an “Edge Of the Seat” thriller experience & the “Plot” creates this experience !!!  The book is written in very simple language. Strong Characters are the backbone of this book. We really enjoyed the whole journey :) At around 295 pages, The Bestseller She Wrote is definitely a book recommended for readers who love the ‘Thriller’ genre

Final Verdict – 3.5/5

Thanks Mr Ravi Subramanian for sending us an auto-graphed copy of the book 🙂 This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books !

Buy ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ from Flipkart by clicking the below link (Affiliate Link)