New Beginnings...

It's been almost a year since the last time I was here. A lot has happened since then and in all of them I somehow ignored this part of me. But I'm glad I'm back! Oh I missed this so much!

But I'm here with some great news too! To get to the point, I've decided to shift my blog to Wordpress. I decided in favor of privately hosting my own Wordpress blog on my DigitalOcean VPS, along with a custom domain. I've done this after a lot of thought - which almost took more than a year. One of the major reasons I decided to do so was to be able to learn more, in terms of setting up and managing my own blog, and exercise greater control over it. Also, Wordpress's simplicity and minimalist design is what I had been searching for in all these years, and that clearly lacks in Blogger.

While I get a lot of advantages shifting here, I will also have to face the downside. The major one would be the serious hit I'll get in my online presence. My older blog has been with be since 2009 and has been doing decently well since then with over 60,000 page views. Leaving all of that, and switching to start everything anew wasn't an easy step - trust me.

More than that, the reason that made me stick to Blogger was because I do have a really special place in my heart for it. For if not for Blogger, I wouldn't be blogging and would have been completely unaware of this amazing community. I still remember back in December 2009, I just started a blog, having no idea of what it is, but just because I saw another option on the services that Google had to offer.

But in the end, one fine day, I decided that it's time to part ways from Blogger and finally move forward. And so I got the cheapest available plan on DigitalOcean, got a custom .in domain from BigRock and setup everything.

Surprisingly, the transition was really simple and I could transfer all of my posts and comments to Wordpress. It doesn't end here - the time stamps too remained the same way!

I've also hosted my own website, which  you should definitely check out.

I'll will no longer be posting on this blog and I guess this new place will bring new enthusiasm in me and hopefully I'll be posting more!

Towards new beginnings...

PS: New Blog Link

Review: SHE - Ekla Cholo Re

Synopsis

Set in the backdrop of 1990 Calcutta, 'She' is a story about finding one's own identity in spite of all odds. The story spins around the life of Kusum, a brave heart whose identity is often untitled and blurred; it does not belong anywhere, definitely not under the 'he' or 'she' bracket because of our social conditioning. Will she be successful in her mission?

The motivation to write 'She' came from Tagore's "Ekla Cholo Re" song, which urges the protagonist to continue despite the fear of abandonment from others. The song goes like this, "Jodi tor dak shune keu na ase tobe ekla cholo re" meaning "If no one responds to you call, then go your own way alone."

About the author

Santosh started his career as a consultant and Soft Skills Trainer. After his college education from NITK, Surathkal, he worked as a researcher at University of Eindhoven, University of Twente, and Indian Institute of Science, Bnagalore. He was also the Placement President while working at IISc, Bangalore. He has over twenty-five publications of mostly research documents in national and international journals. He has also authored sixteen conference papers and regularly writes articles for a national and worldwide daily paper. He also works as an advisor for various organizations. 

He also dabbles in fiction writing and is the author of Adhuri Prem Kahaniya, Dear Wife, Your husband is not a superhero, Second Heart and Get a job without an interview; Be A B.A.; Surrogate Author; Title is Untitled; Black, Grey and White; The Departing Point; God's Table and Umbilical Cord. 

He likes to devote his personal time in writing for a website, namely the Amrita Foundationfor HRD. He has conducted seminars and training sessions for more than 45,000 people in India and abroad over the last seven years.

Review
How common it is a sight to stop at a traffic signal and see transgenders fighting for their livelihood? Have you ever thought about people suffering from serious identity crisis?

Don't make the mistake of taking this book about a story of two people on a journey, it is much more than that. The author has very beautifully tried to give us a learning here, to show the other side of the story. Through Kusum, the author tries to explain in a very brief manner about the various challenges she had to go through while discovering her identity and more importantly - being open about it.

I've never really thought about the issues his book tried to address, and I feel I owe it to the author for making all of us ponder on the issue, in such a beautiful and elegant manner.

This one is a must read. You can only experience what I'm talking about when you read it.

PS: Don't miss the ending.

Rating: 4/5

Book: SHE - Ekla Cholo Re
Author: Dr Shayan Haq and Santosh Avvannavar
Page: 58
Language: English

Review: The Bestseller She Wrote

Synopsis

Paperback king Aditya Kappor's life is straight out of a modern man's fantasy. His literary stardom is perfectly balanced by a loving wife and a spectacular career. With everything he touches turning to gold, Aditya is on a winning streak.

Shreya Kaushik is a student with a heart full of ambition. Young, beautiful and reckless, Shreya speaks her mind and obsessively chases after what she wants. And what she wants is to be a bestselling author.

What happens when their worlds collide? Is it possible to love two people at the same time? Can real ambition come in the way of blind passion? Can trust once broken, be regained?

Master storyteller Ravi Subramanian delves into the glitzy world of bestsellers and uncovers a risky dalliance between a superstar novelist and his alluring protege.

The Bestseller She Wrote is a combustible cocktail of love, betrayal and redemption.

About the author
Ravi Subramanian, an alumnus of IIM Bengaluru, has spent two decades working his way up the ladder of power in the amazingly exciting and adrenaline-pumping world of global banks in India. Four of Ravi's seven bestselling titles have been award winners. If God Was a Banker, wont the Golden Quill Readers' Choice Award. He won the Economist Crossword Book Award in 2012 for The Incredible Banker. The Crossword Book Award in 2013 for The Bankster and more recently in 2014 for his thriller Bankerupt. For Ravi, The Bestseller She Wrote, marks the beginning of a new chapter in his writing. A significant departure from his usual fare, this is Ravi's first book on romantic intrigue. 

Review

Ravi Subramanium has tried to do something different this time by getting an element of romance in his books, and has succeeded to an extent.

The book is about a rockstar banker cum author, who as a result of some events fall under a series of troubles personally and professionally. The book ends with all characters coming to a grand ending with lots of confrontations.

While it might seem like a regular banker thriller from Ravi, the story does take an adultery angle. Despite what might seem like a slow start, the book does try and manage to keep you engaged. A lot of time has been spent of character development and it pays off when the book actually starts to get interesting near the 50% mark. Unexpected turn of events and surprises is something that comes naturally to Ravi's books and they are sure to keep you engrossed for an easy one-sit read. Readers will be delighted to get an ending which would make them turn the pages back as Ravi has left clues all throughout the book.

The only negative point was that the ending did seem like a little plastic. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Book: The Bestseller She Wrote

Author: Ravi Subramanian

ISBN: 978-93-85152-38-2

Publisher: Westland Ltd.

Genre: Thriller

Page: 391

Language: English

I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!