Book - Living with Merlin: Beautiful, Serene and Tearful

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Title:  Living with Merlin: Coping with grief , living life 

Author: Anita Bakshi

Publisher: Partridge publication

Pages: 230

Price: Rs. 399

My Rating: 4.75/5

Blurb:

The loss of a loved one can leave one helpless and broken. 

Unhappy and lost what does one do to make life meaningful again ? Following the initial disbelief sets in a chain of anger and sorrow , insecurity and pain. I have made an attempt to take one day at a time to cope and to go on . Faith helps and so do some stories . I can only hope that my story can help someone deal with a loss far greater than words can describe.

Review:

Some books can make your worst fears come alive... Afraid to say that 'Living with Merlin' is one of those books. Based on true story of author's life, it is a tale of coping with grief and living life again.

When you lose that one person, around whom your life revolves, what will you do? The thought itself is dreadful and very unfortunately author had to endure it. Most people would consider ending the meaningless life that is left behind, but our author didn't do it. Instead she mustered all courage and took 'one day, one second at a time' and lived on.

While reading the book it feels like you are there. The emotions are so beautifully and serenely articulated that you just cannot help yourself but find your cheeks moistening. I started it slow but finished more that 80% of book in one sitting last night -and drank more than two liters of water to dissolve that lump in my throat that was pinching me again and again.

What I liked about the book is the connection it shows between author and her dear late husband. And how she adopts a lovely puppy -Merlin- and tries to fill her void. 

The author says 'she wrote this book as a coping mechanism and she didn't believe that people will read it.' To answer her I would just like to say that 'it's great that you wrote this book and it helped you cope up -it will help many people who suffer through similar fate. And as for readers, people who consider relationships as important, and see meaning in life, they would definitely read it.'

The only down point is the price, it is marked very high in comparison to India's novel market, but what can we say, we can never put right price tag on such emotions.

My rating is 4.75/5 

I strongly recommend the book to everyone.

Lots of Love

Pathshala Funwala: English English

#PathshalaFunwala #English

Although our mother-tongue is not English, in my case it is Hindi, but English plays a rather crucial role in our lives. People judge us based on our fluency and accent. And they rate our knowledge and level with the usage of big words. The more you mouth bigger words, the better your English is -no matter if they understand you or not. Yes, this is the current mentality of India and I have faced similar situation.

My mother tells me that she fought our elders to place me and my sister in an English-medium school. She didn't want us to face similar issues she faced when she was growing up. For the record, my mother is a successful gynecologist and she states that lack of proper English caused many hurdles for her. So, yes, she got us in the best English medium school Agra city had to offer. However, the biggest problem was, despite being an English medium, no one spoke in English in our school -not even English teacher. The system failed her and though I knew better English in comparison to other kids in my neighborhood, I failed her. Well, the system failed her. I was too little to understand the importance back then, so I didn't put any efforts in learning good English. I could read and write but my fluency was zero. Problems with us Indians is that, we think in Hindi or our mother-tongue, translate in our minds and blurt English words. And during this translation, we lose our vocabulary, grammar and everything else. I realized this problem when I started giving interviews for colleges.

Even the worst colleges gave preference to fluency in English. Sadly I am not of any any reserved category, so I had to face the harsh reality. Despite passing with flying colors, I failed to get admission in two colleges -it depressed me and gave me a sense of reality. The interview of third college was two months later and it was my preferred college -closer to home and with good placements. I knew my chances were very slim because there were only twenty seats in 'General category' and students from all over India applied to this college. I lost all hopes! How can I get in this college when others wont take me? At this time my mom came to my rescue. She explained me what I had informed her -I failed because of my fluency, so I need to work on it. 

I didn't know what to do, so I found the best available option. I started reading. In a span of two months I read more than fifty English books and two complete -page to page English newspapers daily. And without even knowing the magic happened!

In the interview, as I started answering words came automatically. I didn't even realize. After ten odd minutes I felt a sudden jolt -I still remember that I had abruptly stopped mid-sentence because I had realized that the words coming out of my mouth were in English and they was flawless. Interviewer had asked - 'is everything alright?' and I had smiled, more to myself, and continued.

Yes, I had gotten the admission that day and it was the best day of my new life. I never ignored my English post that.

I am sure, just like me there are many kids out there who want to learn good English and be proud, just like I am. And Nihar Shanti Amla has taken a wonderful initiative of helping children take first step. They even have a toll free number 8055667788 which provides all necessary details. 

I am blogging about Pathshala Funwala by Nihar Shanti Amla Oil in association with BlogAdda

Love and Cheers

Book: The revenge of Gandhi's followers - A Story that Motivates

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Title:  The revenge of Gandhi's followers (LEADER OF MILLIONS Book 1

Author: B P Senapati, Durgesh Nandini Das

Publisher: Blackeyes publication

Pages: 188

Price: Rs. 58 (Kindle Edition)

My Rating: 3.75/5

Blurb:

Nobody is going to remember your mark, people only remember your work. 

Without innovation mark is meaningless, without creativity knowledge has no value, without vision and goal a man is nothing more than a dead body . 

Only human can innovative things, discover something, write a book, and create marvelous paintings. By a business idea can give employment to thousands of employee. Try to create or innovative something, if you get success then it's great. If you become a failure then what's the big deal? 

It's thought of Vijay, he was a man with different thought, he had every symptom of a great man, still he lived with his mediocre dreams to get a job and then marry his childhood sweetheart. After few years of job experience wanted to establish his own business like millions of other, but fate had some different plans. Our corrupt system forced him to enter into the dirty game of politics. He gained power to avenge his antagonists, but being a Gandhian, his strategy was something unusual . . . his revenge wasn't ordinary . . .

Review:

As I came across this title, my first thought was - politics or what? Is it based on Gandhi's life or is it the revenge of Gandhi's murder... however it is none. Though my expectations were different but I was definitely not disappointed with what I read.

Revenge of Gandhi's followers is a thriller that has strong elements of romance to it. It is one of those books that force you to think about the world we live in and motivates you to do something to make it a good place. 

The story revolves around key five characters, Rakesh, Vijay, Priya, Ishita and Rashmi. Rakesh is the narrator of the story and this book is his narration of lives of all five friends, however, it is primarily dedicated to Vijay. Vijay is the key character, who after a brutal incidence decides to clean the system by taking the plunge into it.

His ambition takes him to politics and he takes India on a new route. I don't want to spill the beans here, but he built a rather ambitious system... If it truly happens, well, no one can stop India.

The narration of the plot is very good and engrossing. While reading you can relate to everything that is happening. The characters are well-built too -especially of Vijay's. He is a true hero of the nation.

Overall, I liked the book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a good romance tale with motivation.

Hope you enjoy reading it too.

Lots of Love