Chaurassi (84) Satya Vyas 2018 Hind Yugm pp. 160 Chaurassi is a fictional story of Rishi and Manu (Manjeet). Set in Bokaro, the story details out the lives of the members of a middle class Sikh family. The romance that brews between the landlord’s daughter and the young man is sweet. The characters are not…
Underground Spaces Unveiled: Planning and creating the cities of the future Han Admiraal and Antonia Cornaro 2018 ICE (Thomas Telford) pp. 210 This fascinating piece of writing by Admiraal and Cornaro opened a new world for me. Maybe those working in the fields of urban planning and design would not be as wide eyed at…
The Adivasi Will Not Dance Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar 2015 Speaking Tiger pp. 200 The Adivasi Will Not Dance is a collection of stories based in the tribal culture, primarily of Santhal tribe, in Jharkhand. The stories revolve around the lives of men and women belonging to the tribes of the region, their experiences and struggles,…
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor Adam Kay 2017 Picador pp. 256 ‘This is going to hurt’ is a collection of diary entries written by Adam Kay. A non fiction account of his years of training and growing as a junior doctor, the diary entries hide beneath its many layers…
Ikigai: Giving every day meaning and joy Yukari Mitsuhashi 2018 Octopus Publishing pp. 118 How to Not Always be Working: A toolkit for creativity and radical self care Marlee Grace 2018 Morrow Gift pp. 112 Ikigai is a book about the art of always staying busy in an attempt to increase your longevity. The book…
The Last Dance Anmol Arora 2019 Speaking Tiger pp. 320 The Last Dance is the debut novel by Anmol Arora. The narrative traces the life of a young Kurdish girl growing up in India. Having taken refuge in India at the peak of Turkey- Kurdistan conflict, the girl, struggles to find her identity in the…
To Hell With You Mitro (Mitro Marjani in Hindi, trans. by Gita Rajan and Raji Narasimhan) Krishna Sobti 2007 Katha pp. 114 Mitro Marjani is one of the few books that I have read through in English as well as in Hindi. While the translation is good, I enjoyed the Hindi version a tad bit…
The Strange Library Haruki Murakami 2014 Harvill Secker pp. 88 (Audio book 1 hour) The Strange Library describes a young man’s experiences at a library which he visits to return books, and gets entrapped into reading thick books. The book is absurd with a surreal touch to it. It leaves you with a sense of…
Birthday Stories Haruki Murakami 2006 Vintage Books pp. 207 Birthday stories is an anthology of stories written on the theme of birthdays. Most stories are snippets from a single day or at most a few days. The short stories, I am ashamed to admit, are mostly by writers I have never read before. Murakami is…
Ishq Mein Shahar Hona Ravish Kumar 2015 Rajkamal Prakashan pp. 90 Ishq mein shahar hona is a collection of short stories based on romance but also talking about politics and urban life. I picked up the book only because of Ravish Kumar’s reputation and with a sense of bewilderment that someone who I had only…
