Wednesday 6 January 2016

BOOK REVIEW: THE MADRAS AFFAIR BY SUNDARI VENKATRAMAN.



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The Madras Affair 
by 
Sundari Venkatraman 

Blurb 
Sangita Sinclair was not always this successful & passionate lady, heading the NGO “Penn Urimai” for downtrodden, abused and homeless women….

When Sangita catches the eye of Gautam Sinclair she is a simple, homely girl; utterly unaware of her charms & capabilities. She has the devil’s own time in overcoming her inhibitions, hesitation, and her family’s orthodox and outdated rules before recognising her love for Gautam.

Will Gautam be able to solve Sangita’s Dilemma or will she be forever trapped in her past?

Meet Gautam 


Gautam has an Indian mother and American father. Built like a giant, he has brown hair and brilliant blue eyes. 

Gautam lives with his maternal grandparents in Besant Nagar, Madras. He used to run a business with his father in Washington DC. Giving up his high-flying career, he chooses to teach at Loyola College in Madras. Yeah, Gautam had fallen in love with the city in Tamil Nadu during his visits to his grandparents. 

Despite his American upbringing, he’s comfortable living in the same house as his grandparents. And does he love teaching! 

He’s attracted to Sangita at first sight and pursues her relentlessly. 

Read The Madras Affair to find out if he’s able to get together with the love of his life.

MY THOUGHTS:


The Madras Affair is unlike any other books of Sundari’s books I have read. In this she touches a very sensitive yet pertinent subject.



Even though we live in the 22nd century, we do have ultra-orthodox and conservative people like Radha and Gopal who curse their fate for having a daughter who is not only widowed but also beautiful and who make it a point to make everyone's life miserable. They live by - "what society thinks!" forgetting that they are the society.

With no other alternative Sangita is resigned to her fate and being an obedient daughter she is satisfied to live a life that is dictated by her parents. She finds solace and an ally in her brother and sister-in-law who try to make her life a little easier for her.

Gautam is a man of every woman’s dream…sigh! I could not stop reading about him. Having grown up abroad to an American father and an Indian mother, he doesn’t understand Sangita’s dilemma or her fear of her parents.

Though this is a love story, this is also about a abusive relationship which has left scars so deep that it takes a lot of effort to overcome; this is also about widow remarriage and also about the orthodox society that is blinded and bribed by money.

The chemistry between Gautam and Sangita is wrought with emotions and humor too, the tension palpable. Sangita’s fears justified. Gautam’s grandparents are like a breath of fresh air.


Sundari has done a commendable job with this novel.




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Meet Sundari Venkatraman

Growing up on a heavy dose of fairy tales and comic books, Sundari fell in love with the ‘lived happily ever after’ syndrome. It was always about good triumphing over evil and a happy end. 
     
Soon, into her teens, Sundari graduated to Mills & Boon romances. And that got her thinking – how about such breezy romances in Indian settings? Her imagination took flight and she always lived in a rosy cocoon of romance over the years. 
     
Then came the writing – a true bolt out of the blue! Sundari had just quit her job as a school admin and was taking a break. She was saturated with reading books. That’s when she returned home one evening after her walk, took some sheets of paper and began writing. It was like watching a movie that was running in her head – all those years of visualising a perfect Indian romance had to be put into words. The dormant romantic storyteller in her finally found its calling and The Malhotra Bride was born. While she felt disheartened when publishing didn’t happen, it was her husband who encouraged her to keep writing. 
   
 In the meanwhile, she landed a job as copy editor with Mumbai Mirror. After working there for two years, she moved to the Network 18 Group and worked with two of their websites over the next six years, as content editor. 
    
 Despite her work schedule, she continued writing novels and short stories and had them published in her blogs. She also started blogging voraciously, writing on many different topics – travel, book reviews, film reviews, restaurant reviews, spirituality, alternative health and more. 
    
Her first eBook Double Jeopardy – a romance novella – was published by Indireads and has been very well received by readers of romance.  
    
In 2014, Sundari published The Malhotra Bride (2nd Edition); Meghna; The Runaway Bridegroom; Flaming Sun Collection 1: Happily Ever Afters From India (Box Set) and Matches Made In Heaven (a collection of romantic short stories) in form of ebooks.

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Monday 4 January 2016

BOOK BLITZ - RUKHSAT: THE DEPARTURE BY SUJIT BANERJEE.



RUKHSAT THE DEPARTURE 
BY 
SUJIT BANERJEE
Blurb 
Where a story stops, another one begins. The thing with them is, they never walk alone. They always walk with a group of friends. Each reaches its own climax. Then with a final gasp of mortality and despair, fade away. No, they never die, they multiply. To the extent that the original gets lost and new ones are born. Over and over again. Yes, they get lost. No, they never die. They live on, permanently etched in the book of time. And from there, we borrow them and bring them alive. Again. And again. Here are twenty six of them, some standing alone and some chatting up with their long lost friends. When they depart, they leave a lingering fragrance of nostalgia and curiosity. What happened then?

Twenty-six alphabets, twenty-six names, and twenty-six short stories. Each exploring one unique emotion, taking you into the dark recess of the mind. Some frothy and most of them dark. Most standing alone and some facing a mirror, where the same story comes alive in two different ways, through two different protagonist . Meet myriad characters - from the single-minded prostitute to the man on the railways station bereft of any memory; a woman desperate for a biological child to a dead man's trial. Meet a jealous lover with a twisted brain and a gay man's memory of a one-night encounter. Meet twenty-six such characters arrested and sentenced for life inside the pages of a book. Each one leaving an indelible mark on your soul.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Born to Bengali parents in Lucknow, I grew up in Patna where I finished my post-graduation in Psychology and ended up becoming a tour operator instead of a Psychologist! Which was 
good since a Bengali born in UP and reared in Bihar does not make a great Psychologist! Am I now glad to be in tourism? It has taken me all over the world including places you would have never heard of. Eh? How about Tlacotalpan? It’s in Mexico.

Destiny had other plans as well so I became a reluctant healer. A crazy Shaman in Mexico set the ball rolling and it has rolled all the way to Delhi. Today I both heal as well as read Tarot cards. My wife thinks I am mad. My friends think I am weird. I guess I am both. 

My first story was published in a magazine when I was seventeen. The Editor made such a hash of it that I stopped sending out my stories but I continued writing. Then I broke my heart and started writing poems; first in Hindi and then in English. All personal collection. They still remain personal. I do shudder when I read some of them! Then the short stories came back and written over two years - now is a collection.

You can contact him @ Facebook