Book Review of ‘Hey Dad! Meet My Mom’ – Sandeep Sharma & Leepi Agrawal

“Everything you see is a perspective, not the truth and just because it’s ‘all in your head’ doesn't make it any less real.”

It’s an illusion all right, created just for you to feel better when things are out of control and you are trying to hold on. It makes life easy and manageable, even though subconsciously; you know that there’s something wrong with the situation but you don’t want to delve further; scared of what actually it is.

‘Hey Dad! Meet My Mom’ is a masterpiece in itself. I don’t want to talk about the story here because I want you to sense the intimacy Roshni, Puneet and Myra possess personally but I would like to tell you about who they are for sure;

Myra

“You know when we feel afraid of something that is not physical like for instance love, care, taking responsibilities in our case; we give these fears a physical face.”

This is Myra, a Bubble Guppy in #HDM3 who paints the world red for Puneet, you see he thinks “Red is a very strange colour, it gets noticed by men only after they fall in love.” So I think you all got my point? She was not only there physically but a strong emotional pillar for Puneet when he was in another world; a world full of pain and deception. She was not an easy person to get rid of mind you but she is what gave redemption to Puneet in her own manner.

Puneet

A mumma’s boy trying to make sense of his life at 30, a life which is confusing him to no end and forcing him to succumb to his sub-conscious mind which shows how a possibility of something can encourage us for a memory and it becomes your living dream inside you.

A little man knocking him over now and then with his creepy talks and maturity level of a saint! Yes everyone this is Rishi am talking about who is on a mission. You need to find that by reading this book please.

Roshni

What do I tell you about her? Selfless, Strong, Sublime, Self-ruling and Stalwart is what Roshni is. She loved everyone fiercely and abandonment was never in her veins, even when she was on the verge of getting bankrupt. Her love for children was shining throughout the journey of #HDM3, and what happened to her was ruthless. Still, she was the stronger one amongst her and Puneet when all hell broke and they got separated. Her determination was so strong that medicine, theories and history had to bow down to her and brought Puneet where he belonged.

That is what LOVE is…

It is said that your subconscious is 30000 times more powerful than your conscious mind and this book makes you believe it. The way Roshni and Puneet were connected; with no logic and proof, they attained the impossible (atleast in medicine world). Roshni’s sheer determination and her love for Puneet, brought him back to life; a life which was suppressed by his own uncle in the name of helping him with the situation.

The short term pain of accepting the truth is much better than the long term pain of believing an illusion which Puneet lived for a decade.

Author’s Work:

Hmm Sandeep Sharma & Leepi Agrawal, I never expected this type of storyline from Indie Authors that’s for sure so you can imagine the surprise I felt in 2^nd part of #HDM3 where Roshni’s story is revealed. The plot reminded me a work of Aleatha Romig, who is a pro at suspense! (Do read her work in #Consequences please and you’ll get my point). Characterization is powerful and justice was served to all of them by this duo.

What Made It Difficult:

Given as a ‘Review Copy’ by Sandeep Sharma I would say it didn’t had that appeal in the beginning chapters, to be true I kept on reading because I needed to review it, but Oh Boy! This duo took a U-Turn and brought goodies for a suspense & twist sucker like me halfway through the book! It is full of bollywood type comedy as some dialogues are typical bollywood and made me roll my eyes for sure.

Impact on my life:

“Secrets are like rust on a relationship. They only make it lose its strength.”

I am a firm believer in TRUTH, I want the truth no matter what situation it is or how critical the truth will prove to be. A lie, an omission will always come back and poke you through that veil you have strategically created to hide the truth and that will hurt like a bitch no matter how long it’s been.

“Accept changes quickly. Time will flow away and you have to flow with the stream to keep up with time.”

As you know truth hurts, but it’s always better than a lie, it will do you good if you accept the changes occurring in your life. I am not telling you to accept what’s wrong but change is inevitable in life, you do not want a permanent guilt residing in your being for the lifetime just because you took a change as an end of your life.

Till date after around a month when I read this line

“He erased everything about Roshni from my mind but forgot to erase Rishi, my ‘dead’ son.”

It gives me Goosebumps all over.

Title: Hey Dad! Meet My Mom

Author: Sandeep Sharma & Leepi Agrawal

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Gargi Publishers

Edition: January 2015

TOC: Categorized in 22 beautiful chapters with an Epilogue as a cuddle.

Pages: 157 pgs.

Price: Rs 150

Rating: 4/5

P.S. I am sorry for horrible delay of this review but please don’t discard me from your reviewer list because am eager to read your other books Sandeep Sharma!

Buy this from Here

My journey through ‘When The Heavens Smiled’- by Ritesh Arora

“Everything that we see, observe, sense and do is all pre-scripted. The future is pre-scripted as well. The next page of this invisible script of destiny gets unfolded in front of us and we simply play to its tunes, perceiving that we are the doers when we are not.”

Feeling frustrated that your future can’t be in your own hands? That it’s not you, that matters because it’s all written already? Destiny, a word I love immensely makes me immune to my surroundings because I know I’ll reach where am supposed to be. But at the same time, I am scared as much any human being shall be; scared of my unknown circumstances, scared of the unknown in short.

When it is all pre-written as said, what do I need to do? How should I proceed with my life? Some say I should take each day as it may come, but when I know each day is just a dot to the pre-scripted end of mine, why should I even bother!

“Though the future is pre-scripted, it does not mean that we can’t change the script!”

See what I mean when I said feeling frustrated? Confusing as hell, this statement contradicts the first one head on. Same as what Sarthak Arora, the main character of ‘When The Heavens Smiled’ feels and I was with him in this state of confusion. But what this book unveils will sate your hunger for these answers.

With your pure heart, good deeds, selfless sacrifices, helping hand, and by being true to yourself; you can change any pre-written scripts of your life.

“When you start giving selflessly to others, good fortune starts coming back to you ten-folds.”

We believe we are the ones enduring great amount of pain or we are the only ones dealt with the unfortunate cards in our life, what we don’t ACCEPT is you’re just a bleep in this whole world where people suffer each day; just not necessarily similar to yours but they do as well. This book doesn’t encourage your beliefs; it will open up the gates to your inner self where purity lies, a purity which helps you to reach out to the people in need, people who are unfortunate just like you but YOU can help them and in return, God will help you in any shape or form unknown to you.

So, this is what this book is all about!

Summary

A strong, independent, Mumma’s boy named Sarthak Arora enters into his professional career where he meets a beautiful Bengali girl named Sarangi and falls in love. Falling in love is not the hardest part, holding on to it is what breaks or makes you. How Sarthak holds inevitable and forced the Gods bend to his wishes is a good read and for that you need to experience this book yourself.

Idea Behind The Book:

In my opinion, ‘When The Heavens Smiled’ was all about these above preaching and I loved this part of the book, not the whole love story weaved around it. But you can’t just throw out these beautiful lessons of life without taking a dip into the journey so; you have to bear with it!

What makes this journey interesting is how the author Ritesh Arora has provided a detailed background about each and every character introduced in the book; no matter major/ minor, credit is given to all equally.

Character’s personal experiences are just like us; a regular guy/ a girl which helps us to connect better. It gives you a feeling of belonging. Cherry on the cake was how Sarthak met Rajan, his boss for the first time; it was epic and humorous in spades! The way whole scene was crafted is appreciable, that too in humour!

What could have been better:

When author gives you a little peek into the future while you’re riding along in the present, was a bit confusing for me. We all know that author is the one ‘Know It All’ person and we want the story to unfold at a certain pace, not after every other paragraphs. It made me frustrating at times because it tempted me to just jump on a particular chapter and unfold the suspense myself. It breaks the concentration from the current scenario and your attention span is severed. Pace of the story was a bit fast in my opinion which made me feel like running in joggers!

It is shown in the beginning that Sarthak is close to his mother and shares every major event of his life with her. So when he is transported to a different place for work and falls in love with Sarangi, it felt a little bit odd that he didn’t contact her even once.

Conclusion:

A problem remains to be a problem till you keep on accepting it, but the solution comes when you take it at a face value and become desperate enough to try any and every avenue to save your loved ones, and yourself. With the help of your family and support from your loved ones, you conquer every obstacle in life.

A fascinating read which forced me to become a fan with just one chapter in the book and sadly that came at a much later in the journey so please have patience and do READ it! It came to me as a review copy and I read it just because, but after reading this, I suggest everyone should read it atleast once!

Title: When The Heavens Smiled

Author: Ritesh Arora

Publisher: Srishti Publishers

Publication: 1^st edition, 2015

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Self-Help (for me)

Table of Content: Distributed amongst 8 chapters with NO table of content.

Pages: 157 pgs

Price: Rs 195

Rating: 3.5/5

Get this book Here

It Doesn’t Hurt To Be Nice by Ameesha Sethi

I must say Ameesha Sethi did a good job with this philosophical work even though her background is one of management, but as you must know, knowledge comes from experiences and not just education and this is one hell of an example.

It Doesn’t Hurt To BE Nice is a philosophical read, leaving me disturbed for few hours. I correlate with this book at a personal level due to the turbulences my life served me till now and I know will do in the coming future as well.

Something Different:

I liked the practical approach Kiara has embedded in her life even though she believes in karma, as people say one who is philosophical or spiritual in nature tends to get indifferent towards people and situations in their life, but here Kiara has fought her way from bottom to top with love for her parents and friends. It shows that in this race of life, it is easier to blame others for your insecurities, but when you find the real reason of your being, you’ll see how wrong you were.

Dilemma of mine:

It is a good read for people who are trying to be themselves in this slaving and chaotic era but do you think by reading this book or we can say any other book for that matter can help them? Because even though books are what made me a better human being at the time when I was struggling with emotions and lots of changes in my personal life, I don’t feel like reading philosophical books at that time.

I know the importance of this book as I can relive my life through some of the instances in this book, but I find it difficult that it can help at the crucial stage.

To understand spirituality, one needs to be a best friend with themselves and then and then only there can be any scope of going a level ahead. One must perceive the meaning of “Love” and “Wisdom”, you need to study your happiness, feelings and what karma is.

Author’s work according to me:

With the help of her personal situations, author Ameesha Sethi has managed to come up with something that an educated layperson can follow. The arguments and justification about every philosophical point she has included which makes you feel comfortable in a way that yes, I am not the only fool who thinks like this (No pun intended).

What could have been an advantage:

I little bit too fast paced to cope up with as author takes you on a journey of life i.e. from past to present and then back. It could have been a little better. It is full of verses from Bhagwad Gita which I enjoyed immensely because I believe in philosophy and spirituality, but when I try to explain anything to my friends or even my siblings, they are not at all interested in listening to me, so I would recommend this book to people who are into philosophy, spirituality, and wisdom because it is really good for those who knows the value of it.

So, for me this book was a 3.5/5 because it makes me happy that I am not an alien in this world, but just a lill different one with a jumbled mess of thoughts.

Details about books:

Title: It Doesn't Hurt To Be Nice

Author: Ameesha Sethi

Publication: Shrishti Publishers & Distributors

Publication Date: 2015

Edition: First

Pages: 130

Contents: Distributed in 10 parts with lessons to be derived.

- Aradhna Tiwari

Book Review of Debashish Irengbam’s debut novel- Me, Mia, Multiple

YOU are capable of anything and everything in your life; you have a soft side to love younger ones, to respect your elders, a strong backbone to fight against any hell you come across, a mind to weigh what is right/ wrong but at the same time you tend to face your problems by bowing down to it, because you know how to SURVIVE.

This is what this book taught me and I am going to take it forward in my life…

Theme

Jeevan Raikar , Mia D’costa, Tanya, Alisha and his 3 sisters Meena, Seema, Kanchan. They all are attached in some or other way to Jeevan and influence his decisions all the time. It is shown that he only thinks about himself all the time by sulking about his life while creating havoc not only in his life, but all his 3 sisters life as well until Mia comes along with Tanya, Alisha and a whole can of worms to make his life a living misery and tempting him further.

This story weaves around Jeevan Raikar who is a victim of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and taking you on a journey of how he struggles to keep everyone happy while distancing himself from the world at large. His 3 sisters who are worried about their only brother while trying to balance their married life as well. His nil of a love life which is an icing on these problems and aide his suicidal attempts which are mind you number 3!

Here comes Mia! Crashing Jeevan’s suicide attempt number 4 while tangling him with her own mess of a life. A life which is so jumbled, a doctor and a retired ACP i.e. her father Albert D’costa has a field day around her. 

Key Ideas

Author provides a sensible introduction to Multiple Personality Disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder along with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 

I empathize with Jeevan because I personally have been to that dark hole called depression and PTSD which is difficult in the most horrible way. You don’t want to hurt your loved ones but it is not at all in your hand to cope up with your emotions and you just break down enough to let go for good from this world, thinking it will give you freedom and much awaited release to your loved ones; who are suffering because of you. But that’s where it is wrong and I can say this only when I am looking at it from outside, not when I was in the clutches of that darkness. I never want to go back there and feel that air; tight with humiliation and pity for myself which suffocates my each breath while tempting me to succumb. Your loved ones matters, YOU matter; not only because they love you, but they don’t want you to suffer alone, they want you to confide in them which you feel like  burdening them with your silly problems and that’s where you’re wrong darling.

It takes one to know one, yeah that’s about right for people who suffer from these situations. No one can understand you because no one is there to live your life, so it’s you who has to make an effort and come out of it, yeah you need help from your family, friends and loved ones to reach out to and try to understand you. But trust me, you can do it!

Mia is a whole big can of worms in itself! The way Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is explained through this book, it’s just a coping mechanism build and developed by your own self against something horrific incident which has shocked you enough that your brain just cannot compute it enough to process it further. Rather, it will build a new mechanism altogether and blocks that incident to stop further acknowledgement in your life. I will say it’s a boon because when that ugly truth rears it face, you’re left to drown in its wake. What happened with Mia and how she went about her life with her alters is a great insight into these psychological disorder and how you can take a loved one’s help along with medicine facility which in today’s world is a miracle in itself.

Conclusion

There are authors who explain everything and every emotion in detail while using nefarious comparison to their situations which might become tedious sometimes but you know you can’t skip a line/ even a word because it is just that much good. +Debashish Irengbam has written this beautiful story in a hilarious way which will not only make you pee your pants, it’ll keep you on your toes till you finish this roller coaster ride called Me, Mia, Multiple!
I have enjoyed such humorous works only by +Tara Sivec till now and I must say, +Debashish Irengbam has stamped a new bar for Indian Authors in Romantic-Comedy genre to look forward to. How every time Jeevan meets Mia, Tania, or Alisha, he returns with something broken or at least a black eye as a reward! I had a difficult time to pause my reading at night (it was that tempting) I use to read it first thing in the morning by hiding it under my pillow as my Mumma is not a fan of me being a Night Owl!

Title: Me, Mia, Multiple is a perfect title to direct you in the right direction while giving you no idea what exactly is there in the book. Mysteriously indeed!

Author:  +Debashish Irengbam comes up with his debut novel while he has written several TV shows and currently working on Charlie Next door; his 2^nd novel coming in 2016.

Genre: Fiction, Romantic-comedy, filled with humour, human behaviour, and life at large. For me it is a Self-Help book as well.

Publication: +Harper Collins  Publishers

Publication Date: 2015

Table of contents: The book is arranged in 27 chapters with NO table of contents.

Pages: 366

Book jacket: It provides an intriguing peek inside the book and allures you to read it further and spark an interest

Buy Me,Mia,Multiple here!

-          Aradhna Tiwari