Wednesday 30 December 2015

A MINUTE TO DEATH by Ganga Bharani (My Rating: 4/5)

1193rd Day

123rd Blog  Post

8th Book Review


Hello readers! I want to publish the status of my resolutions of passing year 2015 in this week but I am very busy in reading books and writing reviews so probably this may be my last blog post published in this year. Anyway… I am here to publish one more book review. But before scribbling the title, I would like to thank Chetan Soni ji from Half Baked Beans Publishing who suggested authoress Ganga Bharani ji to send me a copy of her book A MINUTE TO DEATH for review. Now you would have understood that which book I am going to review here… Yes! I have finished reading A MINUTE TO DEATH by Ganga Bharani. Thriller is a genre of this book which I dislike to read generally; but I have read this book and A MINUTE TO DEATH is one of the best thriller I have ever read.


DETAIL analysis of ‘a minute to death’

TITLE AND COVERfull%2Bcompressed.PNG

Image: © Book cover of A MINUTE TO DEATH

Front cover of A MINUTE TO DEATH suits to the genre. It is catchy, mysterious and thrilling. Shadow image of an inspector seems like a replica of a character Rohan’s profession from his uniform. Title ‘A MINUTE TO DEATH’ is printed in red color. ‘T’ in deaTh seems like a knife with one end covered in blood. Blood spots can be clearly seen on a watch under a ‘T’. Watch indicates a time @ 5:00 o’clock by keys as an hour hand and a minute hand of the watch. Later we get to know that every element printed on a book cover has own importance and role in the story. The book cover is beautifully designed by Arunkumar Dhanaraju but his name is missing on the about page and a back cover of the book. It is good that authoress herself mentioned his name in her acknowledgement.


BLURB

The blurb of A MINUTE TO DEATH is printed on a back cover behind the book, blurb of this book is written by Rufus.

Murder most foul or an open- and-shut case of routine suicide?

Young, vivacious and an aspiring writer, Riya wants nothing more from her longtime crush/boyfriend than to let her in on one of his exciting investigations. After all,what better source material for a book than a real life tragedy?

No-nonsense veteran cop, Rohan picks a case of probable suicide to satisfy Riya’s needs. Little does he know that there is more to this case than meets the eye.

What made the victim hang herself at the break of dawn? What is the secret that her group of friends is hiding? Will Riya be able to salvage a workable plot for her upcoming novel out of this case of seemingly simple suicide?


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

7790317.jpg

Ganga Bharani (Source: ©Goodreads)

Author has two award winning short films to her credit. She has published two books including this one. She is a technical analyst for food, short film maker for fun, writer for life and a simple girl with complicated dreams for the rest of the world.


PRAISES FOR THE BOOK

  • “Unexpected climax. Thrilling Read.”

-Karunakaran (Kollywood Actor)

  • “A Crime Thriller that will make you guess but surprise you with unpredictable twists. Unputdownable book of guessing game.”  -Dr. M. Ravi (IPS, Inspector General of Police, Chennai)

  • “A Minute to Death is a kind of book that you don’t want to put down, but once you are done with the book, you wish you could read it all over again without knowing the suspense, one more time!”

-Nandhitha Hariharan (Editor’s note)


SETTING

  • Language and Writing style:- Ganga Bharani uses descriptive writing style in A MINUTE TO DEATH. There are no grammatical errors; punctuation marks, italic fonts and underlines are used properly. Authoress uses few phrases like ‘Hi-Bye friends’, she compares silent room with an exam hall in a sentence- “The room was as silent as an exam hall for the next few minutes” which shows her deep observation. She uses capital letters to stress on words and sentences. Background of each scene is described in detail. Overall, Ganga Bharani uses a simple language in A MINUTE TO DEATH.

  • Locations:- The plot of A MINUTE TO DEATH runs around Raghavan Colony, police station, Avanthika’s apartment and Reema’s house in Chennai.

FICTITIOUS CHARACTERS

  1. Riya:- Authoress sketches Riya as the central character of this novel. Her passion to become one of the most popular thriller author can be seen from her three statements in a book- “It’s my dream to closely watch a crime scene and write a book”,“I actually have plans of marrying a publisher so that my passion earns for my own family, both ways, royalty and as a business gain”, and “I can’t wait to become a writer. It is the purpose of my life. I live to write. I don’t need money, I don’t need fame. All I need is to be read and to write quality stories; to bring the real emotions and the real feelings in front of my reader’s eyes. I want people to talk about my story in a train or a bus sitting next to me without realizing I am sitting next to them. Just want to hear readers’ feedback, how they enjoy the story. I will work as hard as it costs me to become the kind of writer I fancy to be.” One can feel Riya as authoress Ganga Bharani’s replica.
  2. Rohan:- Authoress portrays Rohan’s character as the cop or inspector. He is a second central character in a story.
  3. Ram:- He is a head constable in police station. Though he is junior of Rohan, he is not less than a friend or like an elder brother of inspector Rohan.
  4. Jiya:- Jiya is the name of a character in Riya’s next book.
  5. Roshan:- Roshan is also a name of character in Riya’s next book, Roshan represents inspector Rohan in her book.
  6. Avanthika (Ave):- Authoress portrays her character as a victim; who founds dead mysteriously.
  7. Deepthi:- She is a close friend of Avanthika.
  8. Sonal:- She is an elder sister of inspector Rohan.
  9. Jenny:- She is a friend of Avanthika and Deepthi.
  10. Riyaz:- He is a son of Avanthika’s house owner and a boyfriend of Jenny.
  11. Reema:- She is a second victim of mysterious death.  
  12. Ajmer:- Reema’s boyfriend.
  13. Febbon:- Authoress portrays Febbon as the most popular author of fictitious novels ‘The smiling last’ and ‘…A MINUTE TO DEATH’  in the book.

STORY AND PLOT

The story of A MINUTE TO DEATH is described into fourteen chapters. Each chapter’s ending creates curiosity to read next chapters in one go. I felt first six chapters quite boring because of slow pace but story becomes interesting after entry of Deepthi. The book turns into interesting with lots of twists since a seventh chapter and no one can even imagine to put down a book before going through the climax. Authoress beautifully describes a relationship between Jenny and Riyaz. Story of A MINUTE TO DEATH runs around an investigation to find a reason behind Avanthika and Reema’s suspicious suicides or mysterious death. Important roles of a watch stopped at 5:00 am, a knife and the title A MINUTE TO DEATH in investigation are surprising. Though authoress gives clues to make you guess, she successfully maintains suspense till the climax. A reader can guess, but will be surprised with another unpredictable twist in the story. Did you watch a movie Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu? I didn’t watch but I know the story. Yes! Authoress gracefully narrates the story of a movie from the words of Rohan. Though the book is a thriller, authoress adds few kiss and intimate scenes between Riya and Rohan which do not feel vulgar, but lovely and pleasant. This thriller turns into a tragedy in chapter twelfth. Authoress elegantly makes remember her readers that she has proved Riya’s words true in the climax. Inspector Rohan’s interrogation with witnesses seems logical and realistic. Authoress discloses each suspense one by one in the climax.

Authoress Ganga Bharani comments on several realistic issues like shameful dares. She sarcastically satires on policemen and politicians when her character Inspector Rohan himself says- “You know we are in a country where policemen and politicians can do whatever they want.” She also comments on rich children’s loneliness, parents’ careless behavior with their sons and daughters, she gives an indirect massage to all parents that feeling children’s bank accounts is not enough for happiness. She describes the philosophy of DEATH as “DEATH is the password to exit the world of confusion, the worldly pleasure and pains. Death is enjoyed when there is just A MINUTE TO DEATH. No matter how happy or sad your life has been, you will smile when there is just A MINUTE TO DEATH left. Death is felt just at the last minute.”  In the epilogue, she gives a massage to those who commits suicide after being unsuccessful in their passion as“Some say the continuous failure makes them want to die. But if you are a failure you deserve to live more than a successful person. A failed person needs more time to reach success.” “Passion is not which makes you go to the extent of death, passion is that which makes you want to live more to contribute more in that field.” 


QUOTES FROM THE BOOK

  1. “A literature student should always be punctual.”
  2. “Not telling anything is better than a NO.”
  3. “Suicide can never be justified and it is against the law.”
  4. “A thriller is a thriller; romance is romance; horror is horror. If you confuse both people and yourself and later remove the knot of confusion yourself, its suspense. If you confuse yourself along with confusing others, it is romance. If you want to make an aimless confusion logical, it becomes horror. The power of a book is in its capability to confuse the reader.”
  5. “Paperwork is the beginning of any misled investigation. Once you think you are done with the investigation of a case and you think you have zeroed down to the reason behind the crime, start your paperwork. That’s when the actual investigation starts.”

“You are not the moon to me as the moon is so far

You are not the sun to me as its always hot

You are not an ocean to me as I can’t own it all

You are not the sky to me as others admire it too

You are the air that has no shape or face, but I can feel

You are the thirst that makes me want an ocean of water

You are the night sky that no one can see but me.”


DRAWBACKS

  • Typing Errors:- pocked’ instead of ‘pocket’ on page no. 94. Spelling mistake (Vetayadu Vilayadu) in film name Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu. ‘pm’ to denote a time after night on page no. 75 (i.e. 12:45 pm instead of 12:45 am). Percent word is used along with percent sign (i.e. 98% percent instead of 98% or 98 percent).
  • Authoress used brand’s name like Pulsar, celebrities and living persons’ names likeManiratnamA.R. RehmanJ.K. RowlingPaulo (Coelho), Nicholas, Chetan BhagatDurjoy Dattaand Preethi Shenoy.
  • Few words are fainted.

REVIEWERS NOTES

I don’t like thrillers but I read it because I know that I can’t be partial with any genre as an honest book reviewer. I liked the book A MINUTE TO DEATH since I read author’s detail acknowledgement in beginning of the book. Authoress gives credits to almost everyone who helped her directly or indirectly to come her dream true. Though A MINUTE TO DEATH is a thriller, authoress adds some romantic scenes in the story, so the book doesn’t feel boring. It seems that authoress Ganga Bharani would have researched a lot about investigations done by policemen in crime scenes and their interrogations to witnesses, so the plot of the story seems realistic. ‘A MINUTE TO DEATH’ is the first thriller I have ever read. I would not wonder if authoress Ganga Bharani becomes the best thriller author around the country or even around the world. In the end, I would recommend this book to not only thriller lovers, but every thriller author and upcoming thriller writers must go through ‘A MINUTE TO DEATH’ to learn that how a thriller has to be written from Ganga Bharani.


RATING

4-out-of-5-stars.png

The book cover deserves 5 out of 5 and I would rate A MINUTE TO DEATH 4 out of 5 stars.


A minute to death in brief

  • Title:- A MINUTE TO DEATH
  • Written by the authoress: GANGA BHARANI VASUDEVAN
  • Editor:- Nandhitha Hariharan
  • Publishers:- HALF BAKED BEANS
  • First and second edition published by Half Baked Beans in 2015.
  • Copyright:- ©Ganga Bharani
  • Typeset in Garamond 11 pt at Half Baked Beans
  • Format:- Paperback
  • Printed and bound in India
  • ISBN:- 978-93-84315-07-89788192692616

  • Page counts:- viii+120 (excluding cover)
  • Price:- Rs. 175
  • Genre:- THRILLER [ Crime | Suspense]
  • Rating: 4-out-of-5-stars.png 
  • Reviewed by:- © Rajesh D. Hajare (RDH)

Notes:

  • This is my personal opinion about the book A MINUTE TO DEATH by Ganga Bharani and your feedbacks may be vary.
  • The book ‘A MINUTE TO DEATH’ was sent to me by authoress Ganga Bharani on a request of Chetan Soni from Half Baked Beans for an honest review.
  • Reviewer of this book is working as the Gondia District President at Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Parishad, Pune.


Wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016 in advance..!!!


Connect on internet:

CKidGhuUkAAI9NE.png


  • Follow on Goodreads:
 A MINUTE TO DEATH (4.18/5) | Ganga Bharani |  Rajesh D. Hajare
  • Follow on Facebook:
 A Minute To Death | Ganga Bharani | Half Baked Beans | RDH Sir | Rajesh D. Hajare | Chetan Soni
  • Follow on Twitter:
 @ganga_bharani | @HalfBakedBeans | 

@RDHSir |@ChetanSoni23



  • Review Coming Soon: It Doesn’t Hurt To Be Nice  by Ganga Bharani
  • Now Reading: Khel-The Writing  by Vishal Goswami
  • Books reading soon:
    • #IAm16ICanRape  by Kirtida Gautam
    • You Are The Best Wife  by Ajay K Pandey
    • Without You  by Preethi Venugopala
    • Hey Dad! Meet My Mom  by Sandeep Sharma and Leepi Agarwal
    • KLASS  by Prita Yadav

Thursday 24 December 2015

My Book Review of ‘The Pocket Love Story’ by Ajitabha Bose (Rating: 4/5)

Day: 1187th

Blog Post: 122nd

Book Review:  7th



Do you love to read love stories? Do you have a time to read those? What? Yes! You do like; but you don’t have time. No Problem! You don’t need to worry about it. Actually you don’t need even time to read a love story book. kyun? Chaunk gaye na? Yes. I am introducing you to India’s Smallest Love Story Book The Pocket Love Story by Ajitabha Bose. Yes!  I have read this book and you won’t  believe, but I finished almost full book while travelling by train in the journey of one and half hour. So, what are you expecting from me in this blog post? Let me think… Achchha Review?? Are haan… Wo hi to share karna hai…


TITLE AND COVER

61d8SyzMPgL._SY390_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

[Image: ©Book Cover of The Pocket Love Story | Amazon.in]

The book has perfect title ‘The Pocket Love Story’ which is consistent with it’s size.  Tagline ‘India’s Smallest Love Story Book’ becomes suitable for the length of the book. Author Ajitabha Bose himself designed a catchy and most attractive cover for the book. Symbol of heart (Dil) is used as ‘O’ in ‘The Pocket Love Story’. Three fourth heart in red colour outside of blue jeans packet grows attractiveness of the book cover. Blurb is printed on the back cover with the image of author Ajitabha Bose. In short Ajitabha Bose deserves five out of five as the author and cover designer of his book ‘The Pocket Love Story’.


BLURB of the book

Ram falls in love with rich and beautiful Tani. But Tani doesn’t like him at all. Will turning points of their life bring them closer? Do they get breath of love? To know, Come join the most amazing love story of this year and dive in the real dilemma.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

600px-Author_Ajitabha.JPG

[Image: ©Author Ajitabha Bose | Wikipedia.]

Ajitabh Bose is a mass communication graduate from IMS, Ghaziabad. Born and brought up at Jamshedpur, he moved to Delhi for his higher studies in the year 2010. With a keen interest in writing, he has been a consistent blogger (www.ajitabhabose.blogspot.in).  He published his first novella named It’s A Love Story in the year 2013. He has published numerous articles and short stories including “If Only” & “Yours Forever”. He has recently edited and compiled an anthology named, The Untold Love Stories.


PRAISES FOR THE AUTHOR

  • “Ajitabha Bose’s belief in love has inspired him to give life to his books.”      -India TV News
  • “Love stories runs in his veins.” –Arunava Chatterjee, India Today

SETTING :

‘The Pocket Love Story’ is the India’s smallest love story book. Author Ajitabha Bose describes this love story in 8 chapters.

  • Theme:-

As the title suggests The Pocket Love Story is based on themes of romance, love story is based on themes of romance. Love and humor.

  • Location:-

The story runs around IMS, Delhi and Rishikesh.

  • Language:-

Author uses simple English to narrate the pocket love story, so the language is not much complicated. He uses few trendy words like ‘Ya’ and ‘Yup’ for ‘Yes’. Author and editors use italic fonts properly.

  • Writing Style:-

Few sentences in a book indicate that author keeps his presence of mind in a plot while scribbling a book. Humorous elements and author’s presence of mind are plus points in this love story book. Author uses narrative style of writing to narrate this pocket love story.


CHARACTERS :

There are very few characters in The Pocket Love Story.

  1. Ramchandra Chauhan (Ram):- Author Ajitabha Bose introduces Ramchandra Chauhan as the main character of the love story. One can easily relates Ram with himself. We get to know the story from Ram. He is a hero in this love story.
  2. Tani Sharma:- Author introduces Tani’s character as Ram’s girlfriend. First portrayal of her personality through Ram's eyes is portrayed elegantly. Her Character is sketched as the heroine of this love story.
  3. Shaurya Chauhan:- He is the son of… (wo main thodi na bataunga….) to know about his parents; you have to read this pocket love story.

PLOT:

The Pocket Love Storycontains eight chapters. In the first chapter ‘Admissions’, author satires on institutions' deceptive claims of being best and Google’s denial on their claims. He exposes big colleges reality and weaknesses about lack of teachers. He scribbles about friends’ reaction on late arrival in college on very first day and embarrassment after going late. Few incidents are described as it happens in reality. I remembered someone from my college days while reading those scenes. (No! Don’t misunderstand! She is my sister.) He writes how boys seek for a chance to talk to beautiful girls in ‘College Days.’ He describes about boys’ uncomfortable mood and wait for girlfriend after not finding in chapter three ‘I fell in love’. Conversation between Ram and Tani is narrated fabulously. He writes how Ram gets surprised after receiving unexpected but most awaited phone call from his girlfriend Tani to say ‘I am sorry.’ Author comments on Majnu avatar of Ram after rejection in love and we get to know about turning point in Ram’s life. In chapter five, author describes relationship between Ram and Tani in ‘The next two years’ after college days. Author defines what the true love is when Ram declines an offer to have sex before marriage. He gives a massage to say NO to Pre-Marital Sex in a ‘Trip to Rishikesh.’ ‘Farewell’ ending brought tears in my eyes because the event and incidents are described as it is happening in reality. Author discloses climax of love story ‘in the end’. Now don’t expect from me to read climax also; I won’t. You have to read The Pocket Love Story to know whether the end is happy or sad.


DRAWBACKS:

  1. Author uses trendy words like yup and ya, its good but grammatically incorrect.
  2. There are no page numbers mentioned in whole book.
  3. Author uses celebrities’ names as it is like Shahrukh Khan and Lata Mangeshkar and one brand’s name BMW.
  4. Misprints:- There is a Misprint in chapter six; Where is printed instead of When. There is a Difference between Ajitabha Bose’s name’s spelling on front cover (Ajitabha) and as a cover designer (Ajitabh).
  5. High MRP:- Though Rs. 99/- are not too much, the price is expensive for such book in small size containing 60 pages only.

REVIEWER’S NOTES and CRITICAL COMMENTS:

1936604_922519377863965_6849476118546404

[Image: ‘The Pocket Love Story’ in my pocket. | ©Facebook.com]

“The Pocket Love Story is a very small book in size so one can really carry it in pocket as the book title is! Author Ajitabha Bose has scribbled a fantastic love story which seems really true. He didn’t exaggerate so the story seems realistic and one can relate own story with anyone because the story narrated by Ram is unbelievable but seems real and touches to the heart. Ajitabha Bose took a right decision to publish this love story in the format of pocket diary and I am sure that this format will be a trend in coming years in English literature.

Readers complain anytime about lack of time for reading but this pocket love story would be a perfect choice for them even for their time pass; because one doesn’t need even time to read this book. I myself has almost finished reading The Pocket Love Story in the train. So I won’t hesitate to recommend you The Pocket Love Story.” – RDH Sir


RATING:

4-out-of-5-stars.png

I would give 4 out of 5 stars to ‘The Pocket Love Story.’


POCKET INFO OF THE POCKET LOVE STORY:

  • Title: The Pocket Love Story
  • Tagline: India’s Smallest Love Story Book
  • Author: AJITABHA BOSE
  • Publisher: Authors’ Ink Publications
  • Copyright: ©Ajitabha Bose 2015.
  • Type setting: Calibri (26 pt.) by Authors’ Ink and Trust wordy Editing Works
  • Printed and bound in India by De- Unique
  • Format: Pocket Diary
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Praises by: India TV News and Arunava Chatterjee, India Today.
  • Cover Design by: Ajitabh Bose
  • ISBN: 978-93-85137-24-2
  • MRP: Rs. 99/- (incl. all taxes)
  • Pages: 63 (excluding cover)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars | Good
  • Reviewer:  © RAJESH D. HAJARE (RDH)

Notes:

  • This is my personal opinion on The Pocket Love Story and your views may be vary.
  • The book ‘The Pocket Love Story’ was sent to me by author Ajitabha Bose.
  • Reviewer of this book is the Gondia District President at Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Parishad


Connect on internet:

'The Pocket Love Story’ (TPLS) is also available in e-book on



Statistics:


BOOKS IN MY BOOKSHELF

  • Review coming soon: A Minute To Death by Ganga Bharani
  • Now Reading: It Doesn’t Hurt To Be Nice by Amisha Sethi

Books to read:

  1. KHEL- The Writing* by Vishal Goswami
  2. #IAm16ICanRapeby Kirtida Gautam
  3. You are the Best Wife*by Ajay K Pandey
  4. Without Youby Preethi Venugopala
  5. Hey Dad! Meet My Momby Sandeep Sharma and Leepi Agarwal
  6. KLASS by Prita Yadav

Thursday 17 December 2015

Book Review of Voices of the Silent Creek (4.35/5)

Day: 1180th

Blog Post: 121st

Book Review: 6th



Hello readers! I am here to share one more book review. Yeah!

I am going to share my book review of Voices of the Silent Creek by Vikkas Arun Pareek ji. Before coming to the review, I would like to thank to the author Vikkas Arun Pareek sir for approaching me to review his debut book and for his patience for this review. Now let me come to the review and detail analysis of Voices of the Silent Creek…

26847430.jpg

Front Cover of Voices of the Silent Creek | ©Goodreads


TITLE AND COVER:

Voices of the Silent Creek is a catchy title, suits to the content. Title indicates that book wants to convey something unspoken yet! Title itself says so much about theme and dark picture of society. The book cover is also attractive, A woman’s sketch sitting under a tree and around trees in jungle has sad emotions. We can observe many faces in background on cover.

About the Book:

Shanti is married in a prominent family but her life will never be the same for a life thrusted on her for honor of the family. She accepts her life but will she let the same fate unfold for her younger sister?

Bhano discovers the horrors of her sister’s life. Will she be able bring justice to her sister’s life and her sacrifices?

Arti finds herself strangled with choices. Will she risk her life and her family’s life to help Bhano get justice or leave her helpless?

The story set in rural India takes us through unimaginable yet common atrocities which a woman faces in today’s society. Will they fail to survive? Will they emerge stronger battling the troubles?

About the Author:

Vikkas Arun Pareeek is working for a major Indian IT company and is based in London. Voices of the Silent Creek is his first self published book. He has a passion of writing and is venturing into a vast and respected arena of expressing and writing books. You can reach out to him on vapbooksfeedback@gmail.com and Twitter @vapmail16.

12243026_10154328499759068_7512262354489

©Vikkas Arun Pareek’s facebook


SETTING

  • Theme:- The theme of Voices of the Silent Creek is based upon social issues and women’s assault, disbelief and betrayal in different relations. In short, we can categorize this novel as a tragedy in women’s life.
  • Locations:- The story of Voices of the Silent Creek runs around Bardolia village and we can see references to Melbourne (Australia) in few incidents.
  • Language:-  Author Vikkas Arun Pareek uses simple language in novel. A Voices of the Silent Creek is the debut work of author, but he uses literary and grammatical elements elegantly. Though author is based in London (UK), he didn’t forget Indianness; We can see several Hindi and other Indian words and proverbs in the book. Italic font is used properly. Words in capital letters indicate strong emotions. Appendixes attached at the end of book are plus point of book. I liked few linguistic experiments made by author; I mean use of riddle “uoorr eilps rar foft h noose.” means “your lips are soft as rose petals.” and English translations of abusive language.
  • Background:- Background of Voices of the Silent Creek’s plot is based upon contrast between rich and poor, victim and accused and suffering, fighting against tolerance, rural and urban life, disbelief and so far…
  • Author’s Writing Style:- Author Vikkas Arun Pareek ji uses descriptive style of writing to narrate the story of Voices of the Silent Creek. One can see proper words selection by the author. He uses abusive words but no one will call those words unnecessary in such incidents, so the use of abusive language is noteworthy.


CHARACTERS:

FEMALE CHARACTERS

  1. Shanti:- Author sketches Shanti as a central character in book. He introduces her as a Princess of the farm who is very simple girl and becomes a victim of relations betrayal.
  2. Bhano:- Bhano is the name of Shanti’s sister. Author portrays her character as an aware, a courageous and a brave girl.
  3. Arti Khandelwal:- Author portrays Arti’s character as another protagonist. She is from educated and modern family, she is very clever and helpful.
  4. Mano:- She is Shanti’s sister-in-law (Jethani) and parshuram’s wife. She is another victim of domestic assault, she is sympathetic for Shanti who becomes mad later.
  5.  Mamta:- She is Mohanlal’s to be wife.
  6. Sarita:- She is a twelve years old girl.
  7. Laxmi:- She is a wife of Manohar.
  8. Arya:- She is a daughter of Arti and Amol.
  9. Shabnam

MALE CHARACTERS:

  1. Bheem Singh:- He is the father-in-law of Shanti and also a Sarpanch of village. Author portrays his character as a villain in story; who shows to be a good and respected human being but he is very cruel person like evil.
  2. Parshuram:- He is the elder son of Bheem Singh. He is an another villain in the book.
  3. Mohanlal:- He is the husband of Shanti.
  4.   Krishna:- Krishna is younger brother-in-law (Devar) of Shanti and a boyfriend of Bhano.
  5. Amol:- He is a teacher and boyfriend of Arti.
  6. Ramgopal:-  He is a father of Shanti and Bhano.
  7. Manohar:- He is a brother of Shanti and Bhano.
  8. Sujay Mathur:- He is the father of Amol and father-in-law of Arti.
  9. Ravi:- He is a minor character in the book and is Arti’s friend.
  10. Surya:- He is a biological son of Shanti.
  11. Arya:- He is a son of Bhano and Krishna who born in a prison.

PLOTS:

GENERAL PLOT:

The story of Voices of the Silent Creek is described into 20 chapters. I felt first 6 chapters quite boring as they are described in slow pace but those are not less important. Whole book is a page turner from 7th chapter as it is written in fast pace. Readers may take some time to relate the story while reading introductory chapters.

Voices of the Silent Creek is mainly Shanti’s story. It shows glimpses of physical and sexual problems in women’s life. The theme is based upon Shanti’s tragic married life, sufferings and tolerance. Author shows how people helping victims have to suffer from another tragedy in their own life through the character of Arti and Amol. Author sarcastically comments on problems people have to face because of alphabetical order according to name; in that case I feel myself lucky as my name Rajesh starts with middle alphabet ‘R’. Voices of the Silent Creek is the story of Shanti’s younger sister Bhano’s married life and betrayal by her boyfriend Krishna in love and live in relationship. Arti’s efforts for justice instead of grieving are remarkable. Her character inspires readers to fight against harmony without any kind of fear and worry of defeat or loss.

Though the plot of Voices of the Silent Creek  is tragic. Author surprises readers with few romantic scenes between Arti and Amol and Shanti with her husband Mohanlal. He describes few intimate and assault scenes in book openly, though those scenes look obscene, I would show them green light because obscenity was required in those scenes.


SOCIAL PLOT:

The main plot of Voices of the Silent Creek is based upon social theme. It comments on social issues related to women’s life. Author sarcastically comments on tendency of parents and society about women’s infertility. Society’s narrow mind tendency on women’s freedom can be seen in a sentence, “young people should not be given much freedom, they will later dance on our heads.” Shanti’s sad married life is an instance of how parent’s disbelief on children can make their life hell! Author writes how Shanti and Bhano’s father-in-law Bheem Singh and brother-in-law Parshuram assaults them physically and sexually. This horrible picture of married women’s life is portrayed beautifully. Though the story in novel is fictitious, we often see same pictures of women assault and molestation by their own family in northern states on TV serials like Saavdhaan India, so the story seems realistic. Author raised few social issues and shows dark picture of society. He writes about forced immoral relationship between Shanti and Parshuram. He shows few glimpses of few other social issues like superstitions (black magic) and he tells the result of drinking alcohol indirectly. He also gives massage to not take alcohol while writing about Shanti’s father “Her father spent time between their home, police station and hospital.  He never quit drinking.”

Author Vikkas Arun Pareek comments on social like girl feticides, but at the same time he urges to save girl children when Amol says “I want to able play with my daughter.” I appreciate author’s massage to save girl child but Amol’s dislike for a boy to Arti in his sentence “I will divorce if you deliver a son” can never be appreciated. I know that author’s intention is not against boys or he doesn’t mean that but I think authors should think before writing a single sentence that negative massage shall not go from their writing.

Author criticizes on inactive and insensitive people in his quote “She cried for help but no one came. There were those who were not able to move due to shock, there were those who did not have courage to move and then there were those, who were silently enjoying the show.”  He also comments on police’s inactive reaction on Bhano’s complaint against Sarpanch Bheem Singh and his son Parshuram. He writes about the fact, how Non-Government Organization (NGOs) works better than police as usual.


QUOTES FROM THE BOOK:

  1. “She knew that she would lose, but still, she fought.”
  2.   “It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, but you will be satisfied that you tried your best, in order to save the people you love and Jhansi ki Rani loved her people very much.”
  3.   “Reading is a good habit.”
  4. “You know, I have always wondered that children with rich background are not very good in studies whereas the children with less privileged back ground are very hard working and good in studies. Look at all the board results and all the competitive exams. You look like you are from a very privileged background, why do you think this is the case?”

APPENDIXE:

We see Hindi and other regional words in so many books, but this book is quite different. No! Hindi words are used in Voices of the Silent Creek too, but A Note on (10) Names and Relations and Glossary for 23 words make this book different. Explanation and meaning of Chapattis, Dupatta, Pani Puri etc. shows author’s research and study. Definitions of these words are defined thoroughly. I won’t mention a note on names and relations in this review but I would like to mention few words from Glossary:-

1.     Chapattis = Chapati  (alternately Chapatti, Chappati or Chappathi) is an unleavened flatbread (also known as roti) from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It is a common staple in South Asia as well as amongst South Asian expatriates throughout the world.

  1. Dupatta = A length of material worn arranged in two folds over the chest and thrown back around the shoulders, typically with a salwar kameez, by women from South Asia.
  2.  Ji = J is an honorific used as a suffix in Hindustani and many other languages of the Indian subcontinent.
  3. Laado (Laadoo/Laddoo) = An Indian sweet made from a mixture of flour, sugar, and shortening, which is shaped into a ball.
  4.  Pallu = Aanchal is the Hindi word for a piece of cloth worn by females on the upper part of body. It can be a dupatta (something like a scarf) or the loose end of a sari or some similar kind of dress. Pallu is mostly used for the part of sari only, rather than a dupatta.
  5.   Pani Puri = Pani Puri is a street snack from the Magadha region of India. It consists of a round, hollow puri, fried crisp and filled with a mixture of flavored water (“pani”), tamarind chutney, chilli, chaat masala, potato, onion and chickpeas.
  6.    Sarpanch = A sarpanch is an elected head of village-level statutory institution of local self-government called the panchayat.

DRAWBACKS:

  1. Few italic fonts are used at unnecessary places.
  2. Print Mistakes and Typing Errors:- Though there are not too many print mistakes, I found two; ‘then’ and ‘checks’ are printed instead of ‘than’ and ‘cheeks’ on page no. 29 and 169 respectively. (i.e ‘fairer then than her’ and Arti said her face covered with her hands and tears rolling down her checks cheeks.) Third typing error is about wrong use of apostrophe mark on page no. 108, mistress’s instead of mistress’ and punctuation marks are missing is some paragraphs.
  3.  Currency symbol US Dollar ($) and Pound (£) are printed next to the figure (i.e 9.99$ and 6.99£) instead of $9.99 and £6.99 as book price on back cover.

And now please do not count my grammatical mistakes in this blog post, you will be tired but my mistakes will not be counted! I am working on my language.


REVIEWER’S NOTES:

10366027_918091214973448_789002290290143

©Rajesh D. Hajare | Facebook

“Author Vikkas Arun Pareek deserves round of applauds to write fearlessly about women’s assaults in rich families in villages. He tackled an uneasy and sensitive subject in Voices of the Silent Creek elegantly. Author tried to give voices to the women living in silent creeks around rural India as book title suggests. Though story is fictitious it seems realistic.

I would like to recommend this book to my fellow readers, I am sure that one won’t despair after reading this book. So don’t only read but hear Voices of the Silent Creek where women suffer.” - RDH Sir


BOOK RATING:

I would give 4.35 out of 5 stars to the book Voices of the Silent Creek by Vikkas Arun Pareek.

4-35.jpg



BOOK IN BRIEF:

12079199_10154235047009068_3625730376329

Image: Back and Front Cover of Voices of the Silent Creek

  • Author: Vikkas Arun Pareek
  • Edited by: Nivedita N
  • Publishers: Nivasini Publishers, Hyderabad, India
  • Front Cover Sketch: Hemant Kumar
  • Cover Design: Chandrasekhar Singh
  • Copyright: ©2015, Vikkas Arun Pareek
  • First Printing: Bhavish Graphics, Chennai
  • Editing and Publishing solutions by: The Blue Stencil
  • ISBN-13: 978 81 927944 7 1
  • Price: Rs. 199/- | $9.99 | £6.99
  • Pages: 210 (excluding cover)
  • Genre: Fiction
  • Rating: 4.35/5 | Good
  • Reviewer: Rajesh D. Hajare (RDH)

NOTES:

  • This is my personal analysis of Voices of the Silent Creek by Vikkas Arun Pareek and your feedback may be vary.
  • The book Voices of the Creek was sent to me by Santhosh through Amazon.in on the request of author Vikkas Arun Pareek ji for the purpose of an honest review.
  • Reviewer of this book is the Gondia District President at Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Parishad, Pune

Buy Voices of the Silent Creek on: Amazan [Paperback | Kindle] (4.5/5) | Flipkart (4/5)

Follow on Goodreads: VotSC (3.86/5) | Author | Reviewer

Follow on Facebook: VotSC | Author  | Reviewer (Page | Profile)

Follow on Twitter: @vapmail16 | @RDHSir | VotSC

Websites: The Blue Stencil | Nivasini Publishers | RDHSir



Unique Visitors of previous blog post (Review of Karna’s Alter Ego)= 1530

Total Unique Visitors of this blog post= 386346

My Top Reviewer Ranking on Amazon.in= #426683



Reviews Coming soon…

  1. The Pocket Love Story by Ajitabha Bose (by December 21, 2015)
  2. A Minute To Death by Ganga Bharani (by December 30, 2015)

Now Reading:

  • It Doesn’t Hurt To Be Nice by Amisha Sethi

Next books in my bookshelf:

  1. KHEL- The Writing by Vishal Goswami
  2. Without You by Preethi Venugoopala
  3. #IAm16ICanRape by Kirtida Gautam
  4. Hey Dad! Meet My Mom by Sandeep Sharma and Leepi Agarwal
  5. KLASS by Prita Yadav