Skip to main content

Did You Ever Love Me? Book Review: Can Rithvik singh turn heartbreak into a homecoming?

Did You Ever Love Me? by Rithvik Singh is a tender contemporary poetry collection about love, heartbreak, longing, self worth and learning to let go. Its greatest strength is emotional accessibility: Singh writes directly to readers who feel intensely and care deeply. The collection offers comfort without pretending heartbreak is simple, though its simplicity may occasionally feel familiar to seasoned poetry readers. Did You Ever Love Me? Have you ever loved someone so completely that, after they left, you were left wondering whether they had ever understood what they had been given? Not merely whether they loved you, but whether they ever noticed how much you loved them, how much patience you offered, how many small things you remembered, or how often you chose to stay when leaving might have been easier. There is a particular loneliness in that question because it rarely arrives at a dramatic moment. More often, it finds you while you are doing something completely ordinary. You mig...
Post a Comment

Reviewing Ashwin Sanghi's The Krishna Key

I have been planning to write a blog on how poorly researched in Indian fiction nowadays. Most of the authors are drawing from their own life or environment. And its a sheer co-incidence that the wonderful people at Blogadda sent me this book - The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghi for a review.  This book is rich in research and has a depth that is amazing. The writer has made an enormous effort and it has not gone unnoticed. I just wish that more Indian authors follow the suit.

So that is the prime selling point of this book. I now go back to the start of it. From where, all impressions of books start for us. At least for me.  I don't know what it is with  the people at Westland, they come up with some great and always bluish covers. This one, too is brilliantly designed, with white and golden embossing on the cover. Since I mentioning the name of the publisher here, I must add that in just few years, Westland has catapulted itself at the top among the best of the publishers in our country. They have encouraged authors like Ashwin and Amish Tripathi, into new uncharted territories of Indian literature. Really, kudos to these guys. Their books are packaged well, have good content and apparently they work hard for their books too.

The story is about incarnation of Krishna, and a treasure on whose hunt are both the good and the bad guys. I am not going to write much on the story, for you got to read it to relish it. There is murder, suspense, mythology, action, adventure, everything. It connects you to the stories of Mahabharta, you have probably heard several times in your childhood. The background character of Krishna and his life is wonderfully worded and nicely detailed.  Then there are some masterful illustrations that add to the excitement factor. These illustrations have been effectively used and designed well.

  Unfortunately, I found the book to be slow and predictable too. No doubt, the characters especially Ravi Mohan and Priya are brilliantly etched. But still, that very thing makes it too Ken Follett and Dan Brown. People on a treasure chase, with police hunting them and villains trapping them. Heard it before? Well me too.

So its a fabulous book overall, considering the fact that I rarely enjoy Indian fiction as much as I did this time around. Plus, the genre of the book (hey its just a suggestion) should have been historical fiction rather than a thriller. The book is also well priced at 250, worth the money and time you will spend on it. I have been meaning to add Ashwin's Chanakya Chant to the library for a long time now and finally having read one of his books, I feel I should do that sooner than later.

Happy Reading people

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at http://www.blogadda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Labels:

Comments

Sharat Pandey said…
Read the review, it was as worst as the book, every thing is assumed in the book without any possible reason, one should not encourage this type of work, actually it was giving a feeling of reading a cheap footpath novel, not a good work, at least not to be connected anyway with "Amish Tripathy's " work
October 3, 2012 at 10:54 AM
Post a Comment

Also read

Does India need communal parties?

I think, it was Tan's post on this blog itself, Republic Day Event, where this question was raised. My answer. YES. we need communal parties even in Independent, Secular India. Now let me take you, back to events before 1947. When India was a colony of the British Empire. The congress party, in its attempt to gain momentum for the independence movement, heavily used Hinduism, an example of which is the famous Ganesh Utsav held in Mumbai every year. Who complains? No one. But at that time, due to various policies of the congress, Muslims started feeling alienated. Jinnah, in these times, got stubborn over the need of Pakistan and he did find a lot of supporters. Congress, up till late 1940's never got bothered by it. And why should we? Who complains? No one. But there were repercussions. The way people were butchered and slaughtered during that brief time when India got partitioned, was even worse than a civil war scenario. All in the name of religion. And there indeed was cr...
40 comments
Read more

Epitome of equality

First of all This is not to demean any religion.. I am a Hindu by birth, but yes I respect all religions .I offer my daily prayers , fast on holy days , but there was something that was disturbing me . God as per me was a Friend, someone who was by my side always , someone who was a dear friend , but this is not what everyone else thought , for others he was the Judge who gives his verdict always and punishes anyone and everyone . Walk into any temple and you would see , if you have money , you will be treated in a way as if you are the ONLY disciple of the God . I have had too many experiences where I was treated as a second class citizen in the temple . Why? Well I could not afford giving thousands as donation. This is not how it should be , God looks at each one of us with the same divinity .As I mentioned God for me is a friend, so tell me, do we chose friends based on their bank balances? Do we give our verdict on them ? then how can God do it? I know many of us would ...
32 comments
Read more

Debate : Do the ends justify the means...

Note : Give it all a fair thought before you jot down... Flaming and religion-bashing will not be tolerated. Your participation is gladly appreciated. I dunno if you folks remember this incident; a couple of yrs back, the UPSC exam had a question where the emainee had to assert his views on *revolutionary terrorism* initiated by Bhagat Singh. As is typical of the government, hue and cry was not far behind... Anyway, let us look at some facts -   Bhagat Singh was an atheist, considered to be one of the earliest Marxist in India and in line with hi thinking, he renamed the Hindustan Republican Party and called it the Hindustan Socialist Revolutionary Party. Bhagat Finally, awaiting his own execution for the murder of Saunders, Bhagat Singh at the young age of 24 studied Marxism thoroughly and wrote a profound pamphlet “Why I am an Atheist.” which is an ideological statement in itself. The circumstances of his death and execution are worth recounting. Although, Bhagat Singh had a...
30 comments
Read more