fiction book

Author:  Deepak Karamungikar

Format: papaerback 

Language: English

Pages: 136

Price: 100/-

Publishers: A S Arts

Deepak considers “”love at first sight & other stories” as a memorable selection of his very own choicest blog posts that have been a apart of his “Stochastic Chronology”. The blog that claimed the attention of several online blog readers ran from February 2009 and ended in July 2010. With applause streaming in from all corners, the man behind the show had to preserve some of the eye catches in the form of a book. It is a great initiative- to write a book for the sake of keeping art alive, so as to say.

Penning down poems is easy, for if you have the thought running inside you, if you have the power to assemble the prodigal words, scribbling in out becomes a piece of cake with a cherry as a topping- with assorted pouring out?- voila! That’s like a creamy punch! The same unfortunately cannot be said for novels, shorter- novellas- shorter- short stories (keeping aside 55 flash fiction –the newest Twenty-twenty member of the fiction world. Looking for mystery, illusion, intrigue, fun and conceit- Deepak assembles all of it in each of his masterpieces. You have characters turning into ghostly apparitions, gamble hub frequenters avenging each other. Elite socialites living starry existence and as readers, you can just marvel at it with awe.  Having said this, at one point of time, they end up revealing their murky façade. Foolery and champagne follow in abundance, until you reach the remote nooks of civilization, where New Yorkers end up throwing their life at stakes of belle apparitions, and serial killers throttle beauties in confusion.

“Love at first sight”- comprises of unique selections like “Love at first sight”, “The Gambler”, “The Prince of Vijaypur”, “The Third Life”, “Summer of 1999”, “The Painter”, “The Fling”, “The Disorder”, “The Rebel” and“Alighted Doves”.

I would say, it is a good pick, the cover will make you think, but the stories will keep you rooted off your mind. Please don’t expect vampires and mermaids peeping from the pages, it is simply about real folks living among us, it is not a growing up series of shorts- if you are trying to learn how to sum up a story line in a couple of pages- BookMark “Love at first Sight”- for your book shelves.

About The Author:

(This was taken directly from the author’s website, on the request of the author.)

“I’m Deepak Karamungikar. I was born and brought up in Hyderabad, India where I now live with my parents, wife Bhavana and daughter Akshata. I like Pink Floyd, The Doors and Led Zeppelin in that order. I’m an MBA by accident and a writer by choice. I like narrating stories and hope to capture the reader’s imagination with every sentence I write. Other passions include Al Pacino, Ram Gopal Varma, food, beverages, gossiping and humor.”

Further Details:

Website: www.karamungikar.com

Fb profile: Deepak Karamungikar-Ledfloyddoors

Email id: Deepak.harsha@gmail.com

Twitter: @deepak_narrates

Link to book: eBay- Love-First-Sight-OtherStories-Deepak-Karamungikar

my ratings: 3.75/5

Are you a writer? Publisher? Want to get your books reviewed here? Just write to us to get reviewed. Write to sip[at]gingerchai[dot]com or contact us here

Plot:

The book recounts 12 nervous hours in the life fictional airport ‘Lincoln International’ at Chicago and how the lives of about a dozen people collide as a result.

Main Characters:
Mel Bakersfield (Airport General Manager),

Cindy Bakersfield (Mel’s wife),

D O Guerro (a passenger with a terrifying agenda!),

Tanya Livingston (A passenger relations officer; Mel has an affair with her),

Vernon Demerest (Captain and pilot of the flight ‘The Golden Argosy’ to Italy, and Mel’s brother-in-law),

Gwen Meighen (Senior Stewardess on board The Golden Argosy and Vernon’s mistress),

Eliott Freemantle (Lawyer with questionable ethics trying to bilk a local community that has been forever tormented by the literal din created by the airport, as a result of its proximity)

Joe Patroni (head of maintenance at the airport)

Ada Quosnett (A senior citizen and a Stowaway!)

The review:

The book is quite huge and phenomenal in detail and it’s quite a challenge to write a review without writing a book again!

Mel Bakersfield has to deal with the following in twelve long, prickly hours:

Lincoln International has been hammered by the worst snow storm in recorded history with feet of snow banks covering major runways. One such runway is Runway 30 which Joe Patroni, the heavily experienced legendary maintenance chief is trying to clear. Needless to say, air traffic has taken a bad hit!

Ada Quosnett, a senior citizen and a veteran of stowing-away on aircrafts gets herself, surreptitiously onto the ‘Golden Argosy’, a flight to Italy.

Vernon Demerest, who loathes Mel is one of the pilots of the Golden Argosy. He recently found out that his mistress, Gwen Meighen, was a few weeks pregnant with his child. The problem — he is in an emotionless marriage that he wants to break away from but doesn’t want to have a child either!

Tanya Livingston is ‘Trans America Airline’s passenger relations and she has a thing for Mel which is not unrequited! She is also an intelligent, savvy person and can deal with difficult people and difficult situations.

D O Guerrero is a failed building contractor. His family is impecunious. He hatches a plan, a nasty one! He plans on boarding the ‘Golden Argosy’ and blow it to smithereens once it’s in the air. The resulting insurance money (provided that the reason for the explosion goes undetected) would help his penurious family.

As all this is going on, Eliott Freemantle, a scheming lawyer has a demonstration right in the airport.

The book recounts Mel Bakerfield’s reaction to 12 hours of shear suspense which include a philandering wife, feet of snow on an important run way, a mid air explosion gone wrong, picketing by the lawyer, his own brother’s suicidal tendency, a stowaway and not to mention, a pregnancy!

In short: Yes, the bomb does go off.

No, the aircraft doesn’t crash but is close to it!

Yes, Cindy Bakersfield has an affair and Mel and Cindy split by mutual consent.

Yes, Eliott Freemantle, the corrupt lawyer is defeated as a result of Mel’s glib recollection of several proceedings from the court of law.

No, the end isn’t entirely happy. Neither is it tragic. Just complete.

Every time I think of an airport, several details that I was completely oblivious to before I read the book seem obvious to me! This is a delightful foray into the internal workings and those of customs officers, lawyers, maintenance men, police officers, not to mention politically motivated ‘people’ and crisis management teams that goes on in an airport and best known to us, ‘weary travelers’!

Are you a writer? Publisher? Want to get your books reviewed here? Just write to us to get reviewed. Write to sip[at]gingerchai[dot]com or contact us here

The Fountain Head is a story of one man and the rest of the world. It is a philosophical fiction that entails the story through love, lust, trust, jealousy, care, passion, and enthusiasm of the people and the world.

The story starts with the two architecture students, Howard Roark and Peter Keating; one being expelled from the college for his designing methods that were considered inappropriate by the professors, and the latter being the topper of the same college. The story moves on marking the methods and principles, they adopted in their architectural career, and how it became the reason for their success and downfalls. It also presents a very powerful picture of print media – how it can control the people, the world and their opinions.

There are certain parts in the book which can be read, reread and reread a number of times. While reading it, there were instances, when I lost track of the book, and drove on to the path of my own life, thinking deeply about it. This book is so powerful in its essence, that it can change a person’s view for nature, world, society, and an individual. This is one of the most intelligently written books that I have come across; one lady suffering for her lover, two men wanting to own the world, other people dancing to the tunes of money and fame, and one man living his life as he desired, all this together make this a very energetic and dynamic book.

P.S. I love you is a book that will make you experience the unfathomable love of Holly and Gerry. You will cry with Holly, enjoy with Holly, and live a life with Holly.

Holly and Gerry are childhood sweethearts and are happily married, but sudden death of Gerry fused their lamp of love, leaving Holly to live alone in this world. She started believing that, there is no reason left for her to live, as it was only Gerry that completes her. But as they say true love is eternal, and does not end with death, and so was their love.

Gerry left 10 envelopes for Holly, signed with ‘P.S.I Love You’, and only to be opened at the end of each month. Holly actually started living just to open those envelopes at the end of the month, to once again talk with Gerry, but she didn’t realize that with each envelope, with each month she is energizing her life, rejuvenating her life, which has left her alone in this not-so-caring-world.

The author has written the book so beautifully, that while reading you would just enter into Holly’s life and would live her pains, her joy, her cries, and her happiness. This book also made me realize the importance of tea in one’s life.

“Oh, the wonders of magical tea, the answer to all of life’s little problems. You have a gossip and you make a cup of tea, you get fired from your job and you have a cup of tea, your husband tells you he has a brain tumour and you have a cup of tea”

Chris Feeney was the character that I liked the most in the book, for he was just like one of us, and also a movie based on this book directed by Richard LaGravenese, starring Hillary Swank and Gerard Butler was a big hit.

The book is undisputedly an International Bestseller, a perfect mélange of all emotions, a ride to experience love and happiness in a way that would force you to be happy in your own life.

Buy P.S I LOVE YOU ( TWO IN ONE ) from Flipkart.com

In the last few days, I have read three books of eight by Sophie Kinsella. As a chick lit book website says the books of this genre are, I found them personal, light and humorous. I was slightly apprehensive about trying out Chick Lit. But then, an inclination for shopping made me try and I’m glad I did.

The first one in the series is – Confessions of a Shopaholic. This is about Rebecca Bloomwood, who lives in London’s trendiest neighborhood and owns clothes and accessories of best brands. She spends most of her free time shopping for shoes and clothes and scarves and everything else they sell. Only, she cannot afford any of it. Somehow she just does not seem to be able to stop herself from shopping. According to Becky, credit card bills should come in more colors than black and red and, banks should have a January sale. However, her current aim in life is to pay off her credit card bills. After all, Becky is a financial journalist of the magazine, Successful saving.

She finally decides, it is time for her to save money or make more money. Her attempts are hilarious. Becky tries to cook for herself to save money and in the process, buys a whole range of cooking apparatus. In another attempt to save, instead of going shopping, she visits a museum and opines, museums would be more lively if they put price tags on everything. Somehow, all her attempts backfire and her financial problems continue to grow. She finds herself sinking deeper and deeper into the mess. The rest of the book is about how she gets out of the trouble.

This is surely a good book to cuddle up with. However, be warned – this would turn you into a Shopaholic. I bought this and found myself googling for a bargain on the whole series. Looking forward to reading more such stuff.

This book review is written and submitted by DS

The language of threads, a sequel to The women of Silk is the story of Pei, a Chinese woman that escaped to Hong Kong when the Japanese attacked China during World War II. Much like its prequel, the tone of this book is – gentle, quiet and yet intense. This is the second book by Ms Tsukiyama that I’ve read and I can say, I like her writing.

After reaching Hong Kong, with Ji Shen, a 14 year orphan in her custody, Pei finds boarding at the house run by silk sisters. With one of the sister’s help, she also finds work as a domestic help at the house of an affluent Chinese family. She stays with her employers while Ji Shen, her only family in the big city is at the boardinghouse. Ji Shen grudgingly goes to the school much against her own will as Pei wants Ji Shen to be educated and to settle down. Unfortunately, Pei is wrongly accused of stealing a Pearl necklace (actually stolen by the jealous Fong) and is fired from her Job.

Later she lands a Job as a domestic help with Caroline, a British expatriate and a widow. Caroline allows Pei to bring along Ji Shen and the three women go on to build a great bond. The worlds of Pei and Caroline are far apart. The part of the book where Ji Shen and Pei adjust into Caroline’s world is particularly interesting. While Ji Shen enjoys the morning music that Caroline plays and gladly accepts her way of life, Pei takes her time overcoming her fears and learning the differences in expectations from a domestic help in an English household and a Chinese household. The cultural differences allow for the development of a great bond as the three characters learn about each other.

Once the Japanese take over Hong Kong, Ji Shen and Pei are forced to part with Caroline. While Caroline is taken away to a camp by the beach, Ji Shen and Pei are left to look after themselves in the war-torn city. Caroline leaves behind her Jewelery and money for the girls. The girls visit Caroline each month until her last days.

Meanwhile, Pei reunites with a silk sister and her best friend Lin’s brother, who help Pei start up a store that mends clothes – something she learnt from her mother. Pei is very skillful at the art of mending tears, worn out embroidery, etc . She knows ‘the language of threads’. The business flourishes as the war ends.

Ji Shen’s death from delivering a child sets back Pei. She moves on and lives to grow old, and to go back to the silk house many years later, to see the silk house where she grew up working as a young girl, and to later reunite with her blood sister.

I liked this book better than the prequel, The women of silk. The characters in this one, especially Pei’s character is much more developed than it was in the prequel. Pei has multiple threads running in her life – Ji Shen, earning a living, attachment to the long lost friend – Lin, memories of her family, the war, etc. All these bring out a very real character. I find the nature of Pei’s character, especially the strength she shows when facing all the difficulties in a city where she knew no one – very appealing.

This book review is written and submitted by DS

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Genre: Novel

Pages: 324 pp (first edition, hardcover)

ISBN: 1-57322-245-3

The Kite Runner is an exceptional first novel by Khaled Hosseini. The single thread that runs thru the entire book is the story of the friendship between Amir and Hassan. As the first few pages unfold, you see that there are multiple layers of this friendship – of friends, of master and servant, of the cowardly betrayer and the brave protector.

Hassan is the son of Ali, Amir’s father’s servant. He cooks Amir’s breakfast daily. Then Amir is driven to school in the family Mustang while Hassan stays back to cook and clean. He is a loyal friend to the lonely Amir whose mother is dead and father is busy. He protects his friend from the local bullies. Amir reads Hassan heroic Afghani folk tales and they make a great team in the Kite fighting competitions. Hassan is the best Kite Runner in the region – he can tell where is falling kite is going to land.

On a winter evening, when Hassan runs the prestigious last kite to fall in the tournament, he is brutalized by some teenage bullies and Amir’s cowardice stops him from protecting his friend. This incident would haunt Amir for the rest of his life. Due to the guilt, Amir is unable to look Hassan in the eye and leads Ali to leave his home of 40 years along with Hassan. Soon after this, there is political unrest and a civil war breaks. Amir sees more cruelty before he and his father (Baba), seek political asylum in United States of America.

Amir starts school and his Baba works at a gas station. On weekends, they sell junk at the local flee market where most sellers are Afghans. This weekend event, for most former lawyers, doctors and the like, is also a place to socialize with other Afghans. They recreate for themselves, a mini Afghanistan of the pre-revolution times – with lively get-togethers, humor, kebobs and Afghani and Hindi music. Amir settles into America and into a happy but childless marriage. His cowardice continues to haunt him and he worries about Hassan.

Amir visits Pakistan to see his father’s dying friend and discovers about Hassan’s tragic death and more. He sheds his cowardice and visits the Afghanistan, torn apart by war and finds his penitence.

Khaled Hosseini’s prose is a pleasure to read and it creates images of all that being described. In his depiction of the Afghanistan of 1970’s, before the attack by Russians and take over by Taliban, Khaled shows Afghanistan of warmth, charm and humor much like most good childhood memories. This is in stark contrast with the one depicted now – with fear, brutality, blood shed and inhumanity. Khaled’s depiction of the Afghani community in California is also very lively.

The Kite Runner is touching and dramatic. In fact, I’ve read no Bollywood movie scripts – but I guess this is how they would read.

This book review is written and submitted by DS

I know I’ll not be able to do justice to a classic such as The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck. I should not even attempt. But, I cannot keep myself from trying. So, here goes –

More than 7 decades ago, this book won the Pulitzer Prize and then, helped Pearl S Buck win the Nobel Prize. The Good Earth reads like a song of the war, of china, of farmers (not peasants), of women and men, of marriage, of poverty and riches and, of birth and death.

This, in a sense, is a rag to riches story of a farmer family. The book begins on the wedding day of Wang Lang, a poor Chinese farmer that lives with his old father – with O-Lan, a slave girl at the great house that he buys for himself. O-Lan is talented on many fronts – she is a good cook, clever at mending and stitching clothes. She is a hard worker on the farm and helps Wang Lang with the all the work and takes care of the home bringing a new life to the household in the figurative sense as well as, in the literal sense. O-Lan brings good fortune to the family. Wang Lang with the help of O-Lan reaps great harvests and even buys land from the Great House. O-Lan gives birth to two boys and then a couple of girls.

Drought strikes when the last girl is born and O-Lan kills her at birth and, Wang Lang leaves her out where a hungry dog watches knowing, it would eat her. They starve for many days and finally the family sells everything other than the land and move to a city in the south. The descriptions of sights, sounds and smells of a city with abundance in food and riches from the eyes of starved rural people works like magic. O-Lan teaches the children to how beg while Wang Lang pulls a rickshaw. They survive on the charitable one-cent meal of rice gruel.

When a food riot erupts, a mob breaks into a house of a rich man. Wang Lang and O-Lan steal the riches along with the mob. Then, they return to their land and Wang Lang buys an ox and other tools. He also hires people to work on his land. Good times return to the house hold with the birth of another son and a daughter. Wang Lang buys more land from the great house of Hwangs. He also sends his sons to schools when he realizes he is rich enough and his sons need not work on the land anymore. He takes a concubine – Lotus and becomes obsessed by her. Watering the land and smelling the earth help him come out of it. His elder son gets married and O-Lan dies. The second son also gets married and they move to the town. The youngest son runs away to become a soldier. At the end of the book, the two elder sons contemplate selling the land and Wang Lang is broken at the thought.

O-Lan is the real hero of the book and she has a major part to play in the well being of the family in good times and bad. Her strength and knowledge help the family survive in bad times and proper in good times.

The feminism in the book is complex. There are various deceptions of Chinese women in this era. There are references to wife buying, female infanticide and foot binding among other things. When Wang Lang’s marital life is to begin, his father tells him:

“And what will we do with a pretty woman? We must have a woman who will tend the house and bear children as she works in the fields. A pretty woman will be forever thinking about clothes to go with her pretty face!”

When female children are born into the family, they are considered “not worth mentioning” and Wang Lang considers that the time of misfortune has started for him. O-Lan is back to the field helping Wang Lang with the work hours after she gives birth. In order to ward off evil spirits from their firstborn son, O-Lan and Wang Lung pretend thus:

“What a pity our child is a female whom no one could want and covered with smallpox as well! Let us pray it may die.”

The role of earth in the life of Wang Lang becomes clear soon after the book begins.

The kitchen was made from earthen bricks as the house was, great squares of earth dug up from their own fields, and thatched with straw from their own wheat. Out of their own earth had his grandfather in his youth fashioned also the oven, baked and black with many years of meal preparing.

When, Wang Lang learns that the house of Hwang’s is growing poor, he does not believe it but when he discoveres they are selling their land, he says:

“Sell their land! Then indeed are they growing poor. Land is one’s flesh and blood.”

When, Wang Lang’s cousin proposes that he sells his land to certain people from the town during the drought when there is no food for anyone to eat, he says

“I shall never sell the land! Bit by bit, I will dig up the fields and feed the earth itself to the children and when they die I will bury them in the land, and I and my wife and my old father, even he, we will die on the land that has given us birth.”

This is one of those books that people absolutely love or hate. I belong to the former category. I do not generally re-read books but I have read this one thrice.

Pearl S Buck won the Nobel Prize, as per Nobel Foundation, “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces”. However, some would argue, her depiction of China in the book is not entirely authentic. I understand the argument. At the same time, I strongly believe that Pearl S Buck is a brilliant author who did not get her due.

This book review is written and submitted by DS

The many praises and reviews got me to read this book. Gail Tsukiyama’s first novel, Women of the Silk deserves all those praises. It is a moving, quiet and yet intense coming-of-age novel of a young Chinese woman, who is sold to a house of silk by her poor parents.

Pei is born as one of the many daughters, into a patriarchal family, dominated by her father. She tries to have as much fun as she can in the constrained household. Pei is the most talkative, curious and opinionated girl among her sisters and according to a fortune teller, the “non-marrying” one. Another girl child is born into the family and Pei’s mother is sorry and father, displeased. Soon, she sees the death of the little baby. Her father determines Pei’s fate and leaves her at a silk house run by a warm, motherly woman, Auntie Yee. The arrangement is that, she would work at a silk factory, stay at the silk house and her family would get most of Pei’s salary.

She meets many girls of similar fate at the silk house. In fact, many poor families keep a girl child aside for silk work so that, she could provide for the family in difficult times. Failed marriages and aversion to arranged marriage also lead some girls to this place. These girls live together, work hard, earn good money, make strong bonds with one another and look forward to retiring as spinsters at an early age.

The effect of war with Japan begins to touch the village and the silk house. It results in the death of some girls and Auntie Yee at the silk house. Pei visits her parent’s house for the first time after she was left at the silk house. She forgives them and re-bonds with her mother. After many tragedies, Pei takes the brave step of escaping to Hong Kong in search of a new life.

The characters in the book have gentle, quiet charm. The author takes you through the personal losses Pei faces and you begin empathizing with her and her friends at the silk house. As you read into, the story picks up pace and Pei’s drama and her universe engulf you. Even after having read a bunch of books set in China, this one strikes me as exotic.

This book review is written and submitted by DS.

Jurassic Park is the science fiction highlighting the developments and growth in biotechnology, but when this is mixed with the human greed, then it could be dangerous for this planet and the people.

The story starts with John Hammond, an old man inviting paleontologists Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm a great mathematician, and Mr. Gennaro, his law adviser, on his personal island in the remote area, were it is rumored that Hammond had invested millions of dollars in it.

Only after reaching there, did they come to know that Hammond, with the help of its scientists and engineers, had gone millions of years back and had brought back dinosaurs by cloning its DNA, . He had dreamt of creating an amusement centre for children, and also to make good money. But, he did not realize that playing with the ecosystem and nature is not so easy, and could be proved fatal by just one mistake.

This is a very gripping, and in fact the only book of which I liked more than one characters. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician had always left me thinking, and had made me see mathematics in an entirely different way. It is very surprising to relate mathematics with nature.

John Hammond’s coolness in dealing with the problematic situations was impressive from the very beginning, and then Tim Murphy, a 12 year old kid was great with his mental acuity and presence of mind in dealing with the death-taking situations, and finally the description of dinosaurs is so vividly and beautifully done, that you will feel them around you. I was so engrossed in that world, that an insect bite on my hand had feared me of dinosaurs.

The book is also interesting in scientific descriptions of dinosaurs and biotechnology, and author has written it in such way, that one would not be bored by those descriptions, and in fact it would prove knowledgeable for the reader.

The movie based on this, directed by Steven Spielberg was also a major hit of 90′s. This book is so interesting that you will finish it in one stroke.

This book review is written and submitted by Chetan Maheshwari.