Viriah by Krishna Gubili

Read the complete review at

https://bengalurureview.com/2020/01/18/viriah-krishna-gubili/

Becoming Jane

Read the complete review at

https://bengalurureview.com/2019/12/20/becoming-jane-julian-jarrold/

Time Stops at Shamli and other stories

Author: Ruskin Bond

One of the best story collections from Ruskin Bond, “Time stops at Shamli and Other Stories” is a magnificent compilation of short stories, primarily set in the backdrop of the foothill of the Himalayas.

Ruskin Bond deals with a wide spectrum of characters and excels in bringing out different aspects of human relationships in his stories. He gives a deep insight into the fragility of the human characters and very subtly points their weaknesses which are easily exposed when they encounter situations which are beyond their control.

 In the tapestry of the mountains surrounded by woods, there are simple workers, who wake up in the morning, do their jobs and head back home in the night to sleep in peace on their soft pillows with a clear conscience. There are lovers who long for their beloved and the children who miss their parents.  There is a sense of incompleteness in them, because of an unfulfilled dream, a longing for something they could not obtain. There are also twisted characters, who are used to their shades of grey and do not think once before stooping to acts of greed and cheating.

Time Stops at Shamli is a timeless tale of a lover who gets stranded in an inn, only to be reunited with his ex-flame, who is unreachable to him. Listen to the wind kicks the nostalgia of our stay in the inn of a secluded hill station on a stormy night, with strong winds whistling and threatening to rip the roof apart.

The Summer Season is a beautiful tale of the hardships of the young boy who comes to the hill town from his village to earn a few bucks for his family. Dead man’s gift is the story of a miserly Bania and an opportunist policeman, who is trying to benefit from other’s money.

There are haunted stories, whispering in the dark and The Haunted Bicycle , which send chills down your body. There are stories when crows and tigers make their point of view very clear in their disapproval of humans.

There are stories around tunnels in the mountain roads and the streams in the wilderness. Two boys fight for the ownership of the stream. The tunnel watchman makes sure the tunnel is safe for the train to enter in the pitch dark. 

There are a few stories, which do bring out the frailty of human characters, He said it with Arsenic is one such twisted tale, which portrays a greedy uncle who can stoop to any extent for money. But these are characters we have read before and we are not really appalled by their actions and can easily predict the consequences of their vanity.

The freshness of the mountain air, the wilderness of the woods, the beautiful lush greenery in the forests after the rain bring such joy and warmth in the heart. Ever thought of a life without mobile phones, in the lap of mother nature and surrounded by wilderness?

Ruskin Bond makes it come true through these stories.

This book is precious to me as I have his autograph on the first page of my copy, which I painstakingly obtained after standing in the long queue outside the Cambridge bookstore in Mussorie.

Recommended : 👍👍👍👍👍

Ramayan Rendition-2019

रामायण प्रतिपादन - अवध का संताप

जय श्री राम

कौशल्या कहे राम चंद्र से ,
आज तो हुई ममता की हार,
पिता के वचन पर इतनी गरिमा,
पीछे रह गया माँ का प्यार!

धर्म की व्याख्या मुझे न पढ़ाओ
कम्प उठ रहा मेरा मन
इतना कठोर कब से हुए राम
छोड़ के मुझे तुम चले हो वन !

दोनों पुत्र है चक्षु समान,
सुमित्रा के दो अनमोल रतन
दूर कैसे अब रहे पुत्र से
राम के संग जो चले है लखन !

वन का जीवन बहुत कठिन
फिर भी किसी की एक न मानी
महल की सुविधा को पीछे छोड़
पति के संग चली सीता रानी !

सिया के जैसे मेरे भाग्य कहाँ,
किस्से कहूँ  मैं दिल की बात
विवश उर्मिला दुःख से वंचित
कैसे कटे  अब दिन और रात

भ्रात के सिवा तुम्हे कुछ नहीं सूझे
तनिक इधर भी ध्यान दो नाथ
प्रेम का बंधन छोड़ छाड़ कर,
जा रहे वन को राम  के साथ !

दोनों भाईयों को करे क्या विभाजित,
मन मैं मेरे स्वामी का वास ,
निंदिया के गोद मैं कट जायेगी ,
चौदह बरस लम्बी वनवास !

कैकेयी बैठी अपनी कक्षा मैं,
मंथरा सवारे उसके बाल,
पुत्र मोह मैं सोचे बावरी
राज करेगा मेरा  लाल

दशरथ विवश अपने ही  वचन से
अवध पर छा गया कैसा काल
कैसे रहे वो राम से अलग
कौन पूछे अब उनका हाल

रण भूमि पर जो दिया सहारा
हर्ष मैं दे दिए दो वरदान,
आज कैकेयी पुत्र मोह मैं
चीन रही खुद पति का प्राण

सूचना सुन भरत आश्चर्य चकित
संभल न सके वह अपना क्रोध
लज्जित अपने मात के कृत पर
राम से करे क्या अब अनुरोध

मति भ्रष्ट हो गयी क्या माता
किसने पढ़ा दी आपको पाठ
अपने की ज्येष्ठ को वन मैं भेज
कैसे बनू अवध का सम्राठ

राम है सिंहासन के अधिकारी
उनका सामर्थ्य अवध की शान
राम के जैसा न राजा है कोई
राम के जैसा न पुरुष महान

कैसे कठोर ह्रदय है माता
वरदान दिया है या दी कोई श्राप
पिता के मृत्यु का बना मैं कारण
कैसे हो गया मुझसे ये पाप

चार अंग और एक प्राण थे
भरत शत्रुघन लखन और राम
आप के इस निज स्वार्थ का कारण
कलंकित हुआ भरत का नाम

भारी ह्रदय और दुःख को समेटे
निकल पड़े भरत राम के द्वार
बंधु जनों और मंत्री  संग
पहुंचे चित्रकूट नदिया पार

अश्रु बहे और शब्द न निकले
भ्रात को देख भर आया मन
राम ने उन्हें जब गले से लगाया
हुआ राम भरत का मधुर मिलान

लौट चलो ज्येष्ठ छोड़ो यह हठ,
क्षमा करो हम से हो गयी भूल
अपना सिंहासन खुद ही सम्भालो
मैं तो तोहरे चरण की  धुल

पर वचन बद्ध जो रामचंद्र
पिता के प्रण का करे सम्मान
उनकी लीला अवध मैं न सीमित
नारायण करे जग कल्याण

चौदह बरस वो वन वन भटके
लंकेश ले गया सिया को साथ
वानर संग राम लंका पहुंचे
रावण का वध लिखा उनके हाथ

समय बीत चला तीव्र गति से
अवध मैं छायी  हर्ष उल्लास
जानकी संग  पधारे दशरथ नंदन
सफल हुआ उनका वनवास

पूर्ण हुई उर्मिला की प्रतीक्षा
कौशल्या की भर आयी आँख
अवध संपन्न राम राज्य से
अमर हो गया भरत का त्याग

निश्छल स्वभाव ढृढ़ संकल्प
कोमल विचार पर अटल है मन
आदर्श नायक , नीति के रक्षक,
आराध्य है सबके रघु नंदन


लब

सत्य धर्म का राह दिखाए
आज भी पर एक ही नाम
देश मैं हो परदेस मैं बैठे
हम तो जपते जय श्री राम

Forty Rules of Love

Read the complete review at:

Forty rules of love review

The Rules of Civility

Author: Amor Towles.

Set in the backdrop of Manhattan, NewYork in 1937, a few years after the great depression, Amor Towles gives us a tour of the upper circles of Newyork through his dreamy heroine Katey Kontent aka Katya, a Russian immigrant, whose father moved to Brooklyn years ago. On the brink of the world war and still recovering from the depression, Manhattan is still on a delicate verge in the world economy.

The story runs more from a flashback point of view from an older woman, who chances upon a picture of one of her own flings in a  museum in 1966. The story rewinds back to 1937 Christmas Eve when Katey meets the man who topples her life upside down, Theodore aka Tinker Grey.  Katey, who works as a secretary in a law firm,  is happy spending her new year eve buying cocktails in a local hotspot with her best friend and roommate Eve Ross.

But serendipity, or so they think, has them meet Tinker Grey that night, a man from the glamorous elite of the New York City. Tinker with his cashmere coat, gold plated lighters, and his perfect gentlemanly behavior sweeps the two ladies away with his charms.

The encounter alters the lives of all the three. Katey is heavily impressed with the enigmatic Tinker, who works hard for a bank and lives his life by the rules of George Washington's "Rules of Civility". Tinker is a perfect gentleman, and to top, it all, attracted towards Katey, or so she thinks.

But Eve walks away with the prize because of a freak accident one night when they were all riding in Tinker's car after crashing into a party. Eve is heavily injured and Tinker is obliged to take care of her in his plush apartment. Proximity works its charms and Eve uses both the closeness and Tinker's guilt to her advantage.

Longing for what she could not get, Katey falls for Tinker. And she steps into the tinsel town by befriending the socialites from the upper circle of the New York Society. She canters through parties mainly to hear grapevine between Eve and Tinker. She quits her job and joins Gotham, a magazine dedicated to the juicy gossip of the New York glitterati. Over a period of time, she meets Tinker's Godmother Anne, who was instrumental in paving his career, a business tycoon and a shooting expert, Wallace Wolcott, whom she helps organize his affairs and Dicky Vanderwhile, whom she tries to romantically connect with. Her life, raised on a principle to appreciate simple things, is suddenly turned topsy turvy to step into a world of luxuries.

Katey keeps having numerous chance encounters with Tinker and tries to make her impression on his lifestyle and his perfect manners. But nothing prepares her for the ugly truth which reveals itself amidst the glittery stardom and plush carpets.

Going by the proverb, "It's the Journey, not the destination which matters". We, as readers, along with Katey, take the rollercoaster ride through the eclectic circles of New York life. Starting from local train rides to early morning racecourse strategies, to the late-night limousine rides, pub hopping, the boxing rituals, the cozy coffee corners, the juicy gossip of the paparazzi, the cultural museum visits, the chance encounters with the literati, one gets a good tour of New York in the late 1930s.

The author has left no loose ends tying the lives of the main protagonists together. The story moves in a brisk pace, and when you are reading about one, somewhere in the back of your mind, you keep thinking about what happened to another. The reader hopelessly waits for Tinker and Katey to meet and relish their brief yet deep conversations. The helplessness on either side is so subtly derived and finally as Katey gathers all the courage, and we readers, gather hope, there is this unpleasant twist in the name of harsh reality.

Something else very unique about Towles' writing style is he does not use the quotes for the conversations. He starts the dialogue with a hyphen and leaves it to the reader to determine who is saying what. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and looking forward to reading more from the author.

I end the review with one of the Rules of Civility
"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."
Conscience, a funny word, you would think when you finish the book, but definitely, not debatable.

The Costume story

Its fun to dress up in fancy costumes, especially during festivals. Anantha loves to design costumes and also wear them to dress up as a witch on Halloween or Santa Claus on Christmas. Read the entire story at

The Costume story

The Modak Thief

In the backdrop of the spirited Ganpati Celebrations of Pune, Aman and Sahil find themselves in the middle of a whirlwind of adventures. One Modak box goes missing every day in one of the popular pandals of Pune. Racing against time, with credibility at stake, Aman and Sahil find themselves in a nail-biting chase to find the Modak Thief.
Read the full story at
The Modak Thief

The Bastard of Istanbul

Read the complete review at
Bastard of Istanbul Review

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Read the complete review at
https://bengalurureview.com/2019/07/14/alexander-mccall-smith-ladies-detective-agency/