Sharikrida : A game of Political intrigue

It is not every day you get a chance to review a book before it gets officially released and I’m very pleased to announce that I got one such chance. So here comes , the first official review of the book!

Sharikrida , is a book authored by Krishna Trilok and published by Zuna Publishers. The book is set in the future where monarchy and kingdoms rule India ( now called Vehya ) again.

Btw don’t worry, this review is Spoiler Free!

The basic plot is that there are six kingdoms which rule the vehya subcontinent and the supreme ruler is chosen by a game of Sharikrida , a live action chess and strategy game. There is also a running thread about King Bharin Shah of the North fighting for justice against the evil supreme ruler Kesara Gaderia and his evil Shvagnin / Chessmaster .

As you can see , the book conjures up its own world effectively. The author has put in great effort constructing this fantastical realm so comprehensively that you want more stories from this world. Trilok should make a Trilogy!

Things which impressed me about the book especially were :-

1)      Original fantasy elements steeped in Indian mythology tapping into our rich culture

2)      The author’s English which is impeccable and beautiful. I love it that he hasn’t try to dumb down his language.

3)      The way he describes food. I had to constantly reach for snacks when he started describing lamb delicacies.

All the characters are well etched and the action set pieces were very thrilling. I felt that the book kept building its world and moving its story at an amazing pace. However , after it reached it feverish pitch and ultimate peak I felt that the sudden back story plateaued it a bit and made us think – which leads you to predict the twists.

That tiny complaint apart , this is an excellent book. I honestly think that the beginning portions were India’s answer to Game of Thrones ( a much leaner and focused version ) and the author has amazing potential to reach greater heights if he is ready to leave the safe road and start attacking ( like one of his characters said)

The book deals with governance and morality boldly and King Bharin Shah especially delivers a lot of noteworthy quotes. The implied Gender Equality in the book was beautiful to read too.

All in all , a wonderful book which you must read if you like fantasy or action or politics or thrill or just a different story. I also must say , I love the godfatheresque turn the book took and its ultimate ending. It was like there was always something up the book’s sleeve.

Loved the book!

Verdict : Read it. 4/5

You can pre order from December 22nd!

Let's talk Books

It has been a terribly long time since I've written something,apart from my usual diary entries or exam answers. Both are generally very rambling in nature , so excuse me if I sound so in this post.

For no particular reason , I'm going to share intel on the books I've read this year with you all. But before that:-

Reading books is an activity which is fast becoming a dying one amongst kids these days. So much so that my mom bugs all the children who visit our home by asking them what book they are reading currently. The lack of immediate answer on their part scared me enough to write this,

I am 19 years old , consider myself a 'grown up' now ( although many might disagree) and books were a huge part of my childhood and the reason why I have such a vivid imagination. An active imagination is the only chance for independent thinking. I don't think watching umpteen repeats of chota bheem is going to develop one's thinking capacity. In fact , kids reading more books might help them create better serials in the future than the substandard ones on offer these days.

I hope the point is made.

Now in no particular order , I am going to briefly share the interesting books I happened to read this year. All the books I have read this year can be found here :- link 

1. Mightier than the sword by Jeffrey Archer 

My review at the time of reading the book in goodreads :

 Best Archer book ever! Atleast his best in a long long time. Can't go into any plot points without revealing too much. What I've noticed in this book is that all characters have been well established over a period of 4 books and the 5th one is the best time to introduce new villains , wacky situations and problems for our characters to overcome. Really loved how Seb has developed , harry's moral compass is stronger than ever , Emma is as bold as ever , Cedric Hardcastle :') and all the villains are despicable enough.

The book is set in a period not usually found in Archer books and I really enjoyed the political and cultural circumstances of the 60's and 1970.

What sets this book apart from the rest in the series is that Archer is ready to embrace failure , go past the cliches and happy ending. Hence , it is scarier waters for the reader to swim in before reaching what seems like safety.

REALLY LOVED IT!!

Added bonus of meeting the man himself in the book signing of this book for the second time in 3 years! Man am I lucky :D 

Now : - 

Well , it is not his best book. I say that after I read every book of his. Still one of his best! It is book number 5 in the clifton chronicles and pick of right where it left. Highly recommend a new reader to read the previous four as this is a saga of character development which is better understood right from the start. No one writes drama like Jeffrey Archer and he proves it here again. What sets this book apart is thathe has a moved beyond his clichés and thrown a punch here and there. So even a seasoned reader will be on their those when they read this one. 

My rating - 5/5 

2. Agatha christie - Hercule poirot 

I managed to read 2 books with hercule poirot as the lead - what can I say? The little , egg shaped gentleman has captured my heart.These books were  like math puzzles - but fun ones :P and somehow you can never predict the ending and have to keep turning the pages. 

a) Murder in Mesopotamia - Christie uses her experience in middle east ( her husband was a archaeologist) to dish out a murder mystery based in Mesopotamia. A house full of suspects , an archaeologist set up , a time frame , map of a house. Very systematically thrilling. Only poirot can find out!

b)  Murder on the orient express -  I finally read this insanely famous book. A running train , chilling murder , Poirot is in the next compartment when it happen , the murdered guy's room is locked from inside , no one seems to have the motive but everyone seems to have the opportunity. Things are way more than what meets the eye here. Ending was superb but also a cop out of sorts. 

I feel that in most of her books ,the build up is so good that no conclusion seems good enough

3.  Divergent by Veronica Roth

Writing about this reminded me that I have to read rest of the series. A famous fantasy book that teens read - certainly not my type :P I generally crinkle my nose and this book taught me that these books are pretty fun to read.  After harry potter and 39 clues , this is the 3rd actual fantasy I am actually reading.

Book description on goodreads : Society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue, in the attempt to form a 'perfect society'. On her Choosing Day, Beatrice Prior renames herself Tris, rejects her family's Abnegation group, and chooses another faction.

On paper,this book seems like a simple mash up of hunger games , harry potter , 1984 and 39 clues. However , it managed to create its own identity somewhat by the end of it all and the characters and the situations they are in are pretty interesting. The pace at which it all goes is pretty quick and that certainly helped matters

verdict - A very readable fun book. Very excited to read the future books in the series.

4.Two lives by Vikram seth 

After the monumental yet fascinating Suitable boy  , I am a huge admirer of Vikram Seth. He is not a writer but an artist who paints words beautifully and poignantly. Two lives is an unique non fiction done by him on his late aunt and uncle with whom  he had a good relationship. Both his aunt and uncle were impacted by the holocaust and this book covers that and many other little things a work of fiction can never quite cover. The mediums he uses for this book elevates it to the next level - first we get vikram's point of view , then that of his uncle through interviews with him and through the rich letters his aunt used to communicate with her relations from germany who were later wiped out in the holocaust and pictures too. 

The quirks of a long marriage , love of the realistic kind , loss of a spouse , sickness , idle old age , family histories , the tensions that arise in a family when money comes into play , dementia , dentistry , Europe the book deals with a lot of topics with élan. Take this one if you're in a mood to read a different but intriguing biography  about two ordinary yet extraordinary individuals. 

5. Cut like wound by Anita Nair 

Here comes a type of book I have been wanting to read since I was born!( pardon the exaggeration) . A procedural crime thriller covering the Indian diaspora by an Indian author is what I have been looking for forever. There are mystical giants like Salman Rushdie , and so called entertaining authors like Chetan Bhagat who write books to be made into movie scripts , so it invariably involves romance :( but a serious shortage of crime thrillers!Except Falooda by Satyajit Ray maybe.

The book is set in Bengaluru,the hub of modernity and cosmopolitan culture in India. We have Inspector Gowda the brow beaten unsuccessful police inspector whose personal life is also going nowhere. How does he deal with a set of murders,which his famous instincts tell him are connected. This book touches upon the status of transgenders in our society in a non preachy way. There is an adulterous love story , interesting side characters and modus operandi and police procedure to keep us interested. I would really love it if more people encouraged books like this and also if this book becomes a full fledged series! 

So what books have you come across recently? They don't have to be deep , pretentious looking ones actually. Every book is has its own personality and traits which will rub off on us. I don't believe there is any such thing as a bad book. We always learn a lot indirectly when we read. 

So please leave a comment , recommending a book. Who might know? We might just find our next favourite book there :) 

Semi

Law : my dream

This is one post of mine which made me realize how much I love law. Hope it convinces and wins you over too <3 

The world is a playground for the young ones. I have a cousin who solemnly resolved to be a chef when he was six years old , a police officer when he was 10 and currently he dreams of being an astrophysicist. Choosing one's career is never easy and I have friends who have finished their schooling and still have no idea about what they want to become or want to do with their lives.

However, thankfully I was never allowed the luxury of indecision by my mother (who works in a school and thus is quite knowledgeable about the workings of a student's mind) .I had to choose my career by the time i was in eight grade, so that I could plan for the road ahead.

I picked law.

The books you read , shape your personality. While we are all proud of the non fiction and the 'serious' books we read, it is the fictional stories which silently leave their mark in our lives. So naturally, when we read the Enid Blyton classics like 'secret seven' and 'famous five' - we all want to be detectives. Surely how tough will it be to catch smugglers hiding in islands and find treasure buried under moors?

Then we mature. We get lucky and lay our hands on one Erle Stanley Gardener's many 'Perry mason' novels. Courtroom drama at its best. Fighting for your wrongly vindicated innocent clients can never bring one unhappiness. And we find out that lawyers are the real deal. Detective like Paul drake can only uncover the facts and policemen like sergeant Holcombe can only piece together the facts. However, lawyers are the ones who go to the sacrilegious courts and fight for justice and prove what really happened. They are the messengers of social, economic and political justice.

However we get refuted with logic. Perry mason at the end of the day was a peerless hero, he was larger than life and sadly our careers are limited within the constraints of reality and practicality. Then we get even luckier and read John Grisham. Who said lawyers were gods? They have their flaws too and are also equally oppressed by the system as everyone else.

We learn that from books like the firm and the partner that beating the system is easier than following it - especially when everyone is doing the wrong thing. Yet, we see the protagonist finally overcome all odds and succeed. That tells us there is always a way, no matter what everyone else tries to make us believe. Steve Martini's 'prime witness' a lesser known book and it inspire me the most. While all the books showed how a big problem can be easily solved, this owned showed how a seemingly simple one can in fact be so tough to solve. This told me there will be a dull moment when you are doing something you love.

From all these books i derived the biggest sources of inspiration for law. But, this mad worship of books is not the only reason foe me to choose law. One thing sociology teaches us is that 'no event, how much ever it looks so -is simple.' Many factors coalesce to form a phenomenon.

Law requires speaking skills. While I can chat for hours on the phone with my friends it is infinitely more difficult to speak on stage regarding an issue. So taking law was above all a daring step to conquer my fear of public speaking. While many laughed at my decision for the same reason, I find it a matter of pride that I chose to convert my weakness to strength. Participating in Mock parliaments, class debates, school dramatics club has in fact boosted my confidence to speak. 

Blogging has brought me in contact with people all over the world and opened my previously blind eyes to all the burning issues, that is savaging our beautiful world. While my blog 'Semi's stories and sharings' is certainly not a formal forum, it has been a great learning experience for me - where I have written various genres, about different points of view and incidents. It has certainly reinforced my desire to work in a profession which is relevant to today's society and problems.

Convinced that law is my destiny, I chose to take up humanities stream for my high school. It is rather a rare branch to take up in my state - if not in my country and I am happy that I did take up the subjects I did. I found History, Psychology, sociology and economics very relevant and interesting

. History taught me about all the functioning systems of previous centuries. The norms and values of every era are very different and the one thing I learnt was that institutions which have been agreed upon and which fit the current context need to be upheld no matter what. And any defiance leads to war or destruction of entire empires and dynasties. In this context, upholding democracy through law - our generation's distinct system, must be upheld no matter what.

Economics elaborated on the pressing matters of a capitalistic economy - matters which desperately need to be looked into and which has great scope. The most important examples being Inclusive Growth and Income inequality. Psychology informed about the contemporary problems that influence our psyche and sociology informs us about the historic and structural factors that determine our lifestyle and opportunities.

Whatever I learnt these two years in school has fueled my passion to become a lawyer. And I sincerely hope that this statement of purpose comes across to you as genuine and from the heart.

xxx being one of the best colleges has been my lifelong dream and it will only incense my passion and motivate my efforts more, if I get a seat in your prestigious institution. Thank you .