And then came you by Mathangi S Murti

And then came you by Mathangi S Murti is the story of Priya and Dev Krishnan. She is based at Madras (she likes to call Chennai, Madras) and he, Delhi. She is a wedding planner and he a builder. The share common interests in football and Formula One racing and similar tastes in music and a passion for travelling.

Priya, 25, after completing her Masters in Visual Arts, set up a small business with two of her close friends, Aarti and Reshma. They take care of the marketing part and she manages the creative side of the business. They started off as a small screen printing unit and are now one of the youngest, most-sought after wedding planners of Chennai.

Dev Krishnan, 34, takes care of his family business in Delhi.

She collides with Dev at her friend’s wedding, for which she had done the décor, he spills wine on her and she calls him ‘Mountain Man’. And then he disappears. She meets him again when she goes to Delhi for a meeting with her clients. And then back in Chennai, she is asked by a lady to organize her daughter’s wedding with none other than Dev Krishnan and the misunderstanding begins.

Scandal Point by Fahad Sama

Scandal Point by Fahad Samar is a book about the rich and famous kids.

Ricky Kumar, 25, an upcoming film star, is the son of Kapil Kumar, a household name across the world, wherever Hindi films are watched, for the past thirty years. He is very close to his mother and can speak to her freely. Spending the better part of his life as a passive hero, he still is a dutiful son, grateful to his parents, god-fearing and a faithful friend. He is poised to be the next big thing in Bollywood.

Gautam Goyal, the only son of Sir Dharmesh Goyal, a Britain based businessman who owns a chain of restaurants, Masala Magic. He has an older sister Rani, who manages the entire chain.

Rhea Zaveri, 27, is the daughter of a Gujarati Jain billionaire and a Punjabi Hindi film heroine, is in love with Ricky.

Sheena Kansal, daughter of lawyer turned politician Jagjit Kansal and former Miss India second runner-up Nina, is new on the Delhi party circuit. They are divorced, stay on different floors of the same house and Jagjit is supportive to Sheena.

Meneka is the new find for Ricky’s film and she is linked to every character in the book one way or the other.

Gautam is sent by his father to India for de-addiction and his manager Waman Dixit is kept on the trail. At the de-addiction centre, he makes plans to meet a drug peddler at Scandal Point but he is unable to leave the centre. And as luck would have it, it is the wrong place at the wrong time for Ricky, who is there with his girlfriend Rhea, and is labelled as a drug addict. Ricky’s lawyer tells him to own up and he is sent off to a spa in Goa to rejuvenate till the matter cools down. Once Ricky is back in Mumbai, his father is planning a movie to launch him and his superstitious mother is consulting Pandits and Babas. Meanwhile, Gautam, rehabilitated with Sheena’s help moves to Delhi with her. Gautam and Ricky meet at the opening of Pink Paisley in Delhi, which belongs to Sheena’s friend, Happy, and Ricky goes there as Happy’s wife, Tina, is known to him. Ricky gets busy with his debut film and Gautam, his family business. There are confusions which pit them against each other at times. Why does Gautam have a disquietening effect on Ricky?

The story has a lot of twists and turns. It highlights the lives of the rich and the famous; the scandals; the media; the gossip; the police officers out to make a quick buck; the parties; paternity tests; blackmails; movie launches and publicity stunts.

The language used by the author is simple but has a lot of expletives.

Book Source: Bought

Publisher: Harper Collins

Done with Men by Shuchi Kalra

I had received a message from Shuchi on goodreads asking me if I would like to review her book and I said yes and forgot all about it. Then, Shuchi asked for my email ID because she wanted to send me the ebook to review. Though, I am not much into ebooks but the blurb of the book that Shuchi had sent, made me say, why not. Thank you very much, Shuchi for the beautiful book which I finished in less than two hours. Done with Men by Shuchi Kalra is the story of Kairavi Krishna, Kay, a travel writer with New Age Traveller.

 The blurb (which the author sent me):

Travel journo, Kairavi Krishna (Kay) has had it with men. After a series of disasters (losers, philanderers, leeches, mama’s boys and possessive psychos), she is all too tempted to walk out on the prospect of ever finding love. Accompanied by her best friend and flat-mate Baani, she sets off for Goa, hoping to get away from her miserable love life and vowing to stay clear of the male species.

Goa however, has a host of surprises in store for her. Ricky, her pesky ex-boyfriend, is busy painting the town red with his hot new girlfriend. Now what is poor Kay to do, other than overdose on vodka, smoke pot, get an outrageous tattoo and fall off the hotel balcony? She wakes up in the hospital to the tender ministrations of Dr.Vivian D’Mello–young, suave and handsome as hell. Will Kay stick to her guns or will she fall for his ridiculously sexy charms? And what’s up with the mixed signals he’s giving out?

The characters:

Kairavi Krishna, Kay, 25, lives in Mumbai with her BFF and flat mate, Baani. Her father works for the UN and is on the move constantly and her mother had stayed with her in Mumbai till she had completed college and is now with her father. She wears her heart on her sleeve and has had bad experience with men and all her previous love affairs have ended drastically and she hates men. She says that she will never fall in love again.

The Thought Bubble, her inner conscience. It keeps popping up at the funniest of times. There were times when it did the job of decluttering her head and letting the sunlight shine through.

Baani, her BFF also works at the same magazine as Kay. She is a sensible girl, though a film freak. She is Baanis best friend, her partner in crime, her anchor in turbulent times. Kay can trust Baani with her life. She believes in steady relationships. Kay and Baani have known each other for seven years.

Kapil is Baani’s boyfriend turned fiancé. He has a fancy HR job at the Luxe de Goa. They have been going around for ten years and are getting married in six months.

Dr Vivian D’Mello, 32, joined the Candolim Orthopaedic Hospital after having completed his residency from John Hopkins Hospital.

The story:

After Kay’s break-up with Ricky, Baani convinces her to take a holiday to Goa. She has spoken to their boss and as he was looking for someone to cover the Sunburn Fest and the wine culture of Goa so, Baani put in Kay’s name. She sees Ricky there and gets drunk; gets a permanent tattoo that says ‘Done with men’; falls off the balcony of her hotel room and breaks her clavicle and dislocates her shoulder. Baani and Kapil take her to ‘Candolim Orthopaedic Hospital’ for treatment.  There Dr Vivian is her treating doctor; she does not like him because he addresses her as ‘the case’ and ‘the patient’. She finds him dry and cold and arrogant and smile-impaired. She calls him Dr Crabby. With her heart always on her sleeve, she starts falling for him, but will this be the affair for her?

Keep reading…….

My take:

The first line of the book, “I have made mistakes—mighty big ones at that, the kind that makes you go into face palm mode and want to die every time you are reminded of them,” hooked me to the book to see the kind of mistakes Kay has made or will make.

The characters are well developed, very real and easy to relate to. The language is simple and the flow is smooth. The story being in first person makes it all the more real. The dialogues and Kay’s reaction are funny. It is a fun filled and a quick read.  My favourite was the Thought Bubble. I loved the book and know you will too.

The book releases on February 14, and can be bought online and read the very same day. Happy Reading!!!

Highly recommended.

 Publisher: Indireads

Type: eBook

Book Source: Author

Here is a video link of the trailer which I just received from Shuchi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfOq4OWWOvk&feature=youtu.be

The book is available on Amazon.

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield

I was in two minds when I received a mail from Flipkart asking if I would like to read and review An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. I felt it was not my piece of cake, reading a book with astronauts and spaceships. I hesitated but then thought, why not give it a try and replied in affirmative. Believe me, I do not regret my decision. Thank you, Vivek, from flipkart for the book. He is the first Canadian to complete a spacewalk. This book is his autobiography, his experiences as an astronaut, and how this changed his perception of life.

The introduction gives a background of Mr Hadfield’s life and career:

On 20^th July 1969, at the age of 9 years, he watched Neil Armstrong step on the surface of the Moon, on the television in their neighbour’s house at Stag Island, Ontario, Canada and wanted to be an astronaut. He knew it was impossible because NASA accepted only American citizens and Canada did not have a space agency. The only option he had was to imagine what an astronaut might do if he were nine and do the same thing. He loved airplanes, learned to fly a plane by age 15 and knew that the route to NASA was via the military and applied to military college. He majored in mechanical engineering thinking that if he did not make a military pilot, he could be an engineer.

Six months before graduation, he got married to his girlfriend and mentions that it was because of her he could achieve. When he wanted to quit being a fighter pilot and join Air Canada, she asked him not to give up. He was selected to go to the US Test Pilot School and topped the class.  To cap it all off, he was named the US Navy test pilot of the year. And then the Canadian Space Agency took out an ad in the newspaper. Wanted: Astronauts. He talks about the process from application to selection.

The book has been aptly divided into three parts: Pre-launch; Liftoff and Coming down to Earth. In these parts, he talks about his experiences of his space missions.

He talks about his first launch, on Space Shuttle Atlantis on November 12, 1995: the thoughts that went through his head while getting ready; breakfast; just before the takeoff; during the ascent and his eight day mission. He talks about the impression people have about astronauts and what astronauts are and what they do. He talks about his different roles from sitting on committees to serving as the Chief of the International Space Station Operations in Houston and his job as the Capsule Communicator at Mission Centre. He talks about spacing walking and also about the long training before the actual process. He talks about his other space missions. He says on the way to space, he learnt how to live better and more happily on Earth.

He mentions that there are some astronauts never make it to space; how the qualifications to get assigned to a mission change; and how not having the right temperament can disqualify someone. About attitude: he talks both of the person’s and that of the space vehicle (here it means the orientation). He says that he never stopped getting ready. Just in case. He talks about how negative thinking helps; and how rehearsing for a catastrophe has made him positive.

He talks about his fear of heights and also about being taught about every conceivable situation that could happen between launch and landing. He says that in his experience that fear comes from not knowing what to expect and not feeling you have any control over what is about to happen. He talks about debrief; the general training; the mixed crews that comprise of the space teams; the extremely competitive natures of the astronauts and what he what he went through when he was not well just before selections for a launch.

He talks about his relationship with his family and how his kids used to make fun of him by saying that he had more homework than them. He talks about his relationship with his fellow crewmates and their families; about how they are there for one another. He talks about the pre-flight quarantine and personal belongings they carry into space.

A dedicated husband, he has a very cooperative wife who single-handedly raised their three kids and encouraged him to go on with his job. She even moved house with him whenever required. No doubt, they say that “Behind every successful man, is his wife”. And he has rightly dedicated the book to her. His kids parrot his sayings and joke about creating a ‘Colonel Says’ app.

The book is easy to read and understand. At the beginning, it took me some time to get a feel of the book but once I was into the book, I just could not keep it down and was reading it whenever I could. Sometimes, I felt that it is a book filled with his experiences and sometimes it was a self help book. The book has photographs of the International Space Station and from the Space and also some of his personal photographs.

I feel it is a must read for everyone because every line of the book is an experience in itself.

Book Source: This book was received as a part of the Flipkart Affiliate Blogger’s programme

Publisher: Macmillan

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