Book Review- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

I know this book is intended for a younger audience and a man 26 years of age might seem funny reading it but I missed out all the fun in my teen years and wanted to catch up. J K Rowling did not disappoint. As a kid, I used to be a voracious reader. I don't know how I gave the Pottermania a skip.

The book is a delight and I'd recommend it to all those who are my age or past but are young at heart. It is written in a simple, delightful language. The world of potions and wands just comes alive in those pages. Although I knew the ending due to the spoilers given to me by my cousin, I still ended the novel at the edge of my seat, biting my nails.

Harry Potter is an adorable character and so are Ron and Hermione. Hagrid steals hearts with his big guy- big heart act. All the characters, Dumbledore, Voldermort (Oops! I said his name), Snape, Longbottom, they all leave a mark and it is no wonder they're a part of folklore now.

Small acts of courage and adventure warmed my heart throughout the novel. I liked it and it was proof that the child within me is not dead yet.

My favourite parts from the book in no particular order are-

1. Neville Longbottom stands up against his friends for what he thinks is right.

2. Dumbledore tries Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and gets 'ear wax'.

3. Snape tries to save Harry in the Quidditch match.

4. Ron and Hermione, whenever they talk!

5. Hagrid has motherly feelings for a baby dragon.

The book can be finished in one long sitting or two short ones. It provides for some light reading and the pages turn themselves. I read it on my Kindle and it was amazing how fast I was going.

I give it four stars.

Why did the paste commit suicide?

Book Review- The Room On The Roof- Ruskin Bond

I have a special attachment to this book because Ruskin Bond himself signed it for me. It has everything Ruskin stands for and more.

It's a story for young adults. The protagonist Rusty is a teen Anglo- Indian. There is a lot of adventure and coming-of-age stuff in the book. Ruskin's trademark humour doesn't leave him for one bit in the book. It makes the book much more than a delight. It's a gift you can give to a confused teen soul.

The innocent crush that Rusty has on Meena is the highlight ot the novel for me. If only our crushes were this kind to us!

The friendship that Rusty shares with Somi and Ranbir is also something remarkable. It reminds us to remain human and form bonds whenever possible because it's the best thing humans do.

The rebellious streak shown by Rusty makes one feel that Ruskin
must've kept his stepdad in mind while writing the character of the guardian. There is anger, there is triumph, there is everything in this small little book.

Ruskin also nails it with the descriptions of nature in his smalp little book. It has hints of the awesome writer. he is going to become later when he begins to describe the trees, the squirrels and the flowing river streams.

The part where Suri throws a going away party and everyone is happy to see him leave is painted pretty funnily. The bazaar and the chaat shop in Dehradun also find vivid descriptions in the novel.

The novel switches gears from misery to gaeity to tragedy to joy abruptly, much like life itself.

All in all, a lovable book.

Book Review- It's For You Mihi- Md. Asif

Author- Md. Asif
Titile- It's For You Mihi
ISBN- 9789383023042
Genre- Fiction
Publisher- Parlance 
Price- Rs 150
Pages- 215

This review is much delayed mostly because I didn't know how to go about it. It is review I am doing on request and before and after this book, I read books like 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and 'A Narrow Road to The Deep North' so, when this book came in the middle of all those instant classics, it got more cringe-worthy than usual.

I will try not to be an intellectual snob while doing this because high chances are that my own beliefs will get in the way. First of all, stalking is glorified, then the filmy romance is the main masala of this novel. The theatrics and drama are high and the dialogues are your regular conversation statements. It would have been much nicer had the author written the novel in Hindi as the main flavour of the novel is very small town North Indian type.

It is a love story and a pretty sappy one at that. The book has flashbacks and romantic epiphanies abound. For someone as skeptical as me, it was difficult to sit through it so I would definitely not recommend it to those who don't enjoy that sort of stuff. Moreover, the books makes a lot of assumptions which are actually okay if you think from the writer's perspective but dialogues like, 'She made another boyfriend? What kind of a girl is she?' are not gonna be a hit with the feminist lot.

I am intellectualizing a simple novel I know. Anyway, let's talk about the language. It is nothing florid, just regular talk. Even the narrative is dull and unimaginative. The syntax is way off the mark and you'll find sentences like 'Among oceans, seas, rivers, ponds, swimming pools, dams, wells, pits and pots, eyes have the most powerful drops of water to shed.' There are good ones in there too but, some bad ones just ruin the narrative. The novel needs editing.

The pages are nice and crisp and the font is the right size. The cover design is better than the actual novel. The author actually had a good story but he didn't give it enough time to ripen. If only had he put down that thesaurus and actually thought more about the art of writing, probably attended a workshop, the novel could have been better.

The novel will appeal to teenage girls and boys who don't care much about the quality of English and share the small town sentiments about love and all the theatrics associated with it. I give it one and a half star.

*1/2

The difficult job of a news editor.

Happy Child Post- Indi Happy Hour

Indiblogger has come up with yet another nice contest in association with Dabur Chyawanprash. Here is a link to the Dabur site- https://www.liveveda.com/daburchyawanprash/

And here is the Indi happy Hours contest page- https://www.indiblogger.in/happyhours/dabur-healthy-child-happy-home/

Topic- Drawing from personal experience, tell us how a healthy child makes for a healthy home.

Growing up, I was not a healthy child. Far from it. I would fall sick more often than the weathers changed and I was a cause for constant worry and botheration for my parents. I think it reflected on the overall health of the family too. I was born with weak lungs and was prone to all sorts of allergies since I was a little kid.

Dust, changing weather, pollen- you name it and I would fall sick at the earliest sight of it. It was difficult to see my parents worried. I would be wheezing on cold November nights, trying to catch my breath, which would make me go to the balcony and just try to breathe deeply, somehow trying to make the breathlessness go away. This would wake my Dad up. I would see the light in his room being switched on and then he would walk up to me as I'd stand under the starry sky.

My nose would make that whistling noise and my face would be in a permanent grimace. It was difficult to fight. Dad would just put his hand on my shoulder and wonder if he could do anything. Mom would already be in the kitchen heating the water so that I can inhale steam. They would try hard and I wondered why health was such an elusive thing for me. Why others had it easy? Why did it didn't happen to everyone else. Now I know asthma and bronchitis are very common in metropolitan cities but I grew up in a small town and it seemed unfair somehow to me that I had bronchitis.

Inhaler was a major boon later on. The puffs would calm the lungs so that I could sleep briskly but then it felt like pushing a drug in your system. The lungs felt weak nonetheless. 

I moved to Davangere (Karnataka) later to pursue dentistry and that was actually when I could realize the power of nature. The power that nature or atmosphere commands over our bodies is something amazing. We can try all we can to treat an allergy, to make things right but sometimes, the nature just helps us out when it decides to and that's when all the difference is made. Karnataka's weather was milder and it helped my lungs recuperate from the battering they had taken along the course of years. I also started taking natural products like fruits rich in Vitamin C, juice, coconut water etc because they were more abundantly available there. In those 5 years, I recuperated from my chronic ailment and am now happily wheezing-free. I might need an inhaler once or twice a year but that is nothing compared to my childhood. 

It had affected my family's health too, of course, in a positive manner. Now I can go around doing household chores happily and can enjoy Holi and Diwali with my family in the pinkest of my health. I wish nature was kinder to me since the very beginning but I am glad that it eventually showed me the way. I am thankful.

https://www.liveveda.com/daburchyawanprash/3x_immunity.aspx

Short Story- Two of a kind

He looked through his window in hope of clear skies and some pleasant weather so that he could begin the day as planned. The glass pane appeared to melt as raindrops trickled down from the top leaving trails of their existence behind. It was an unplanned vacation in the hills which hehad to take. He had to rush at the behest of his own crumbling spirits. The stress from working in a multinational had become overbearing to his personality and the hamster within him wanted a break from the wheel. This hamster in particular was prone to such inclinations as he had loved the way he was ever since he became aware of himself and had always taken drastic and sudden steps to preserve his being from anything that could have transformative influence on it. He was doing so much better when he did not know himself. He smiled from this sudden realization as his memory shot back to times when he had left jobs only because they seemed to encroach on his way of thinking, left relationships that burdened his soul with the rituals that slowly nudged him into certain directions he didn't want to go. 'Good Lord! This inner hamster of mine needs constant feeding!, he thought to himself.

He did understand that this narcissism although fulfilling at a personal level, led to no good consequences and instead resulted in his alienation sometimes. This was the sole reason for which he, for the first time, tried not to give in to his primal instincts and instead tried moulding himself to the circumstances. He had planned this weekend getaway so that he could let his inner restless critter have some time to think and relax. He wanted to cajole it into compromising with the little changes that were slowing creeping inside his soul. He no longer had the time to sit idle in the lawn and soak in the winter sun, his life had again started revolving around staplers, paperweights and late night brainstorming sessions. The critter in his gut had started getting restless.

The bad part about being good at something is that there is no limit to how good you can be. As you push your limits, your talent slowly turns into your work and it piles up and the exit gates start closing up. He had quit five jobs in the past as and when he could no longer find time for himself but, now that he was married and a baby was on its way, he couldn't afford the freedom and luxury of that nomadic lifestyle. He told his wife that it was something work-related and just fled the city so that he could unwind and lull the storms boiling up inside into silence.

Ramesh Singhal was otherwise a very reasonable man. Average built, fierce competitive eyes and an arched grin giving the impression that everything was under control. He flexed his arms often and walked with a certain wobble that made people make more room for him in queues, public places, cafeteria etc. He was aware of the excess of space that he hogged in his manners during his public discourses and was proud of the ingenious method he had created. He could not stand being pushed around and had even feigned handicap or illness to be treated specially. Friends he had; but the kind that cannot be counted on. His marriage was an arranged one and was more of an affair of convenience as the girl was a nice proposal and his parents saw her to be fit for him. It would be wrong to say that Ramesh couldn't love anyone more than himself or that he was a self-centered person, but he did leave little room for others to think otherwise.

Sunanda was a loving wife and it seemed that she had slowly come to terms with Ramesh's over-indulgence with himself. In the early days of their marriage, Sunanda tried hard to form an emotional bond with Ramesh. She would strike conversations, look into his eyes to spot the place where he was broken, some past event which had made him the way he was. She even suspected that he had an affair going on but then as she read the family members' behaviour toward him and realized that her husband was one of a kind. Ramesh too, tried hard to do things that would seem romantic or show that he cares; Sunanda would randomly find some laundry folded, bed made, roses by her side as she woke up, sometimes even breakfast too but, there was just something that Ramesh could not do. She started pitying the poor chap and was quite understanding when these random acts of kindness slowly wore away. They would talk often, laugh and eat together but they hardly knew each other as people. Ramesh was least apologetic for this yet he was worried lest this lack of concern might be considered as selfishness. The way Sunanda took to his ways, he did sometimes worry that there was some pain that was gnawing away her personality. He started thinking about her and he was changing. Most of his thoughts which used to be about him, were now about her.

The office workload had crippled his mind and he couldn't see this vicious circle breaking in the future. He feared that Sunanda would fall for someone else, commit suicide or leave him. These thoughts had quietening effects on his inner hamster. To get away from all this noise in his head, in a bid to perhaps change himself, he had taken this vacation and now it was raining outside.

He sat in his room, thinking How did he turn from a self-obsessed monarch to a slave of his own emotions? He detested the pathos that had gripped his heart and reminisced on all those times when he had just broken free of them. "Is this pain something natural and was I supposed to embrace it all this while?" he reflected deeply. The hamster voices fell silent. The epiphany ran through his skin and he almost stood up and then sank again in the sofa. He decided that he would tell his wife how much he loved her; the anticipation of making friends with his own wife was so immense that he picked up the phone right away. He tried calling her up but repeated attempts went unanswered. His mind took over. "Is it too late?" "Is it possible that she is with her lover making plans of eloping with him and grimacing at the phone as it displays my name?" Sweat drops huddled up on his forehead. It was as if a volcano was about to erupt. He started packing for his return trip.

Sunanda on the other side was reading a book she had finally found time for. She heard her phone ring but ignored it thinking it was some tele-advertiser. "This is a Sunday afternoon and no one can take away this time from me. This is my time"- she thought. A hamster chirped with joy inside her.



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- Abhyudaya Shrivastava (abhyu.bats@gmail.com)