Yeh Sambhav Hain (Hindi) – Kiran Bedi

I am planning to write the review of some books, however I could not
do so thinking that I may not justify my review. I lost the plot or I
lost the words to express my feelings.

"Yeh Sambhav Hain" is one of such book. The book is written by Ms.
Kiran Bedi and it is about her time spent in Tihar Jail during her
stint as an In charge of Tihar Jail.

The book is very long almost 350+ pages. The book is divided into
various parts. It starts with Ms. Kiran Bedi's ( punishment )
posting at Tihar Jail. The author has vividly given the states of the
jail when she joined. It shows how bad treatment is given to jail
inmates.

There were challenges, setbacks, irrelevant fights, unnecessary
blocks, non cooperation from other related departments, problems of
water, food, medicines etc.. etc… in front of the in charge of Tihar
Jail.

Step by step with the help of other officers, Ms. Kiran Bedi
transformed the Jail to a place of Meditation. A place known as
Criminal's Bastion changed to some sort of Temple.

Transformation of Tihar Jail got highest recognition worldwide and hot
topic all over India. It shown that a single person with
determination, dedication & hard work can "Make It Happen" – Yeh
Sambhav Hain.

The author has given detailed information and narrated various
incidents however she made sure that it does not falls into self
flattery. She always written and shown the improvement as team work
and never taken all the credit to herself.

As I already said the book was very long and heavy in weight, I read
the same in parts & lost lots of things.

However, I recommend that this book is good for read to experience the
battle of a person for improvement of surroundings.

Nothing is impossible – Everything is Sambhav.
Khushal Gohil
16/11/2012

Apni Aatmshakti Ko Pahechano – Robin Sharma - (Hindi Translation of The Saint, The Surfer and The CEO)

Whenever you feel low or want to appear for exams or highly stressed
out, just grab any book which promotes Positive Thinking, Self
Improvement, Secrets of Happiness etc..

It really helps you to realize various things, which you want to hear
or understand. Sometimes such books also draw you out from tension
and allow you to introspect the situation in right perspective.

Recently I was worried and stressed due to latest development at my
work place. I was searching for peace of mind, consolidation of my
thoughts and just to relax my edginess.

My friend lent me the subject book. This book is written in English
by Mr. Robin Sharma, who is famous for his other book "The Monk, who
sold his Ferrari".

I always felt that, in translation, something is missed out, may be
the message, and may be the treatment or flow of story or lack of
proper concept presentation.

This book is very good as far as content is concerned but if I want to
relate myself with the book, I don't think that it serves any purpose.
Even relating the book and the characters, I found something is
missing or inappropriate.

This book narrates the story of a man, who after accident meets his
father (though he learned the same after some time) in hospital. His
father arranges his meeting rather arranges for his training towards
enlightenment path or living in right earnest through 3 persons i.e.
The Saint, The Surfer and The CEO.

With all three people, he has to spend a month and learned the few /
new things about the life and living. The book narrates his days
spent with these 3 persons.

With the saint, he spends his time in his church and learned about the
religion. The Surfer teaches him surfing and living in present. The
lady CEO teaches him how to interact with persons and make their & our
life more beautiful.

The story is interesting but I cannot connect with the writing /
preaching. It is more like fairy tale story with very limited action
and impact.

What would have happened if the main person would have been the girl?
Would the story go the same way?

This makes one more point to discuss – most of the stories of these
types, main character is male. The male forgets his natural style of
living and need to be awakened.

I read that this book in English is best sellers and changed /
transformed the lives. So I will try to read English (original)
version too.

Oh, though my nervousness was still there during & after reading the
book, but somehow this book prompted me to think more about present
than to fear about unknown future.

Everything happens as it should have to be, so forget worries and be
ready for next assignment.

Khushal Gohil
16/11/2012

Apni Aatmshakti Ko Pahechano – Robin Sharma

Jotipunj Mahatma Phule (Hindi Book) – Jiyalal Aarya

I like to read biography of great persons.

I know Jyotirao Phule as Jyotiba Phule, who is great social activist
before independence era. He has worked for upliftment of backward
people and women through imparting education. He was fully supported
by his wife Savitrabai Phule.
In the subject book, the author has tried to compile the information
on the great personality and piece by piece created his biography.
Since very less information available, the author has taken creative
liberty to weave the story.

The story of Jyotiba is not only inspiring but it is very shocking for
me. I really surprise the way the caste system was operational in our
country. Only because of foreign rule, the downtrodden were able to
free themselves to agreater extent from the slavery of caste system.

The "untouchables" tag is very depressing and it make people mentally
handicapped and helpless. In the book it is mentioned that some
group of people were not living hygienic way, they wear unwashed
cloths, do not bath regularly, bad sanitation habits and non
cleanliness were their life style. Such group of people were not
allowed to touch waters as they were carrying germs & pollute the
water. However over the period those groups were banned from touching
people / water / anything.

Jyotiba struggled to educate people for cleanliness in living and
knowledge for understanding for better living.

These people were totally dependent upon the upper caste and upper
caste people have taken their undue advantage. Jyotiba was trying to
defeat this notion, make downtrodden people to understand their plight
and fight against injustice.

Going through the narration of story, I just could not believe the
strength of Jyotiba to counter the world with sheer determination and
persistence.

I cannot summaries the story but I can definitely say that this book
is nothing but a great motivational and inspiring thought. After
reading the book it enlightens me with issues our fellow Indians are
still suffering.

Even after Independence and n number of schemes of Government, I
realized that by current system of education, you can only learn to
earn but real education, which Jyotiba wanted to impart was to learn
to live with respect.

Khushal Gohil
October 23, 2012

Poem Compilation of Mr. A B Vajpayee

" न देन्यं  ना पलायनम"

 

श्री अटल बिहारी वाजपेयीका काव्य संग्रह

 

`Na dainyam, Na palayanam,'' is the main mantra given by Yogeshwar Shri Krishna to all human beings fighting against the enemy within and the enemy without. He has said : don't run away from your problems in life and don't beg the enemy for mercy

courtsey

http://www.cmseducation.org/visitor/winning.htm

At Saturday evening, I have completed the reading of above poem compilation.

My train journey from, Churchgat to Andheri, was transformed from a travelling distance to enriching experience.

Although, I never read poetry much, but it held me tight and I can put down the book only after complete reading.

I was really impressed with the word play and emotions float in the poems.

Mr. A B Vajpaee is one of our few leaders, who gained respect from all section of society.

Very powerful orator and learned person, always beaming with cute smile and composed behaviour.

It is must read to understand our PM' s thought processes and his response.

Read to enjoy.

Khushal Gohil

Book Review - Yeh Nardeh - Hindi By Bimal Mitra

Book Hindi- Yeh Nardeh - Bimal Mitra

Mostly, from our library I go for famous regional / international books translated in Hindi, as I do not know much about Hindi writers.

Long back, One of my friend has recommended this book. I brought the book that time but some how I was not able to complete it.  May be the book was very tense &  different from what I usually read that time.

Recently, I seen the subject book & I decided to try to read. 

This book is part 2, part 1 was not available & hence some of the links were missing while early reading of book.

However with the flow of pages I found that the book is very intense, gripping & thought provoking. 

The background of the book is Kolkatta & time zone is 5-10 years after independence.

The story is about a person, a hero turning GOD.  Heavens door welcomed him with open hands.

The story revolves around the life of Sandip the hero, Vishakha, Dadima, Saumya Babu, Gopal Hajra, Tapesh Ganguli, Bijli, Muktipad Babu, Mallik Chacha etc.&  Kolkatta.

Sandip was about to marry his love, Vishakha. However  Dadima of Saumya Babu, interferes on wedding day & cancel their marriage. She arrange marriage between Saumya Babu & Vishakha. 

Saumya Babu was under arrest for killing his earlier wife.  He was supposed to get capital punishment.

As per the kundli of Vishakha, her husband will live long life.  To save Saumyababu from capital punishment, his Dadima forced wedding between Saumya & Vishakha.

Both Sandip & Vishakha was indebted to Dadima's family & hence accept Dadima's decision.

As per Vishakha's good luck, Saumya is saved from Capital punishment & get life imprisonment. Vishakha's new life coupled with sufferings & testing times starts.

Now since Sandip is in love with Vishakha decides to help her & keep helping her every time she is in need. 

It costs his job as Bank Manager & he ended up in Jail for fraud & forgery.

Even after releasing from jail in an attempt to stablising Vishakha's life, he once again ended up in Jail for charges of  killing Bijli (Saumya Babu's new wife) & get capital punishment.

He goes to extreme end to help Vishakha, however his all efforts goes in vain. 

Vishakha never get her due place in marriage life or happiness or least the peace.

Sandip being kind & generous by nature never understood the matrix of life & while trying to help Vishakha, his entire life messed up.

Usually, I detach myself from the book while reading. I never get disturbed my life of the characters or turns & twists of story.

However this book is so powerful that all the pains & sufferings actually disturbed me very much.

I like the book, book is painful & end is also not an ordinary happy ending. 

It is a journey of life which is simple, peaceful, straight though unbelievable if related to jerks, twists, uncertain phases it faced.

 

Khushal
19/04/2010

Hindi Novel - Shrikant

Shrikant (Hindi) - By Saratchandra Chattopadhyay

One of my friend has recommended & provided the "Shrikant" novel
written by Late Shri S. Chattopadhyay.

The book is translated from Bangali to Hindi. However I don't know the
name of translator.

The book is written as an autobiography style. The main character
i.e. Shrikant is writing his account of travelling at various places
& memorable experiences.

His life's path was not decided by him. He kept wandering from place to place.

He was different, intelligent, emotional but always in two states of mind.

He respected woman & power of womanhood due to his encounters with
women at various stage of his life.

Alongside, silent love story at platonic level is also moving between
Shrikant & his childhood student turned fan.

This love story (as I said platonic) is very pure though it has its
own ups & down.

The main story runs with Shrikant & spread its wisdom to various part
of life & then lifestyles.

It is like experiencing the life of man from his point of view.

The story-flow is very smooth & at times compel us to relive our own
experiences.

The story never ends as our life. I liked the ongoing story & its
life like nature.

Very good to read as it offers mental peace & pure pleasure,

With love,

Khushal.
17/03/2010

Book Review - FLIGHT # 116 IS DOWN!

Flight # 116 is down!

by Caroline B. Cooney

This books is about the rescue operations of Flight # 116 crashed at isolated place near New York City.

The main aim of the book, as what I understood, is to learn to respect the volunteer working as rescue workers.  In such emergencies with limited capacity, keeping asides their own emotions they do their duties.

The story starts at Saturday 5.05 P.M. and ends at Sunday, 12:48 A.M..  Although there is lot of scope for describing gloomy & dark side of crash scenes, the author remain human enough to keep such details to essentials & minimum.

The main character of the story goes through roller coaster of emotions &  tries to understand life, death, emergency & helping.

Good book to read for young ones,

Khushal
24/11/2009

 

 

 

Book Review - The Alchemist

The Alchemist - By Paulo Cohelo

 

This is one of world's best seller book & leaves big impact on the mind of the reader.

The story is layered, each & every word, sentence, paragraph contains life's secrets. The story in about a Spanish shepherd who is young, coureagous & believed in his dreams. While following his dream, at every steps he finds obstacles & desire to return back. In few cases, he become contended with his achievement & decides to stop there. However something keeps him moving towards his dream destination. In his persuit, he keep on learning all the way, which helps him to understand the world's secrets, world's universal language & how to live the life.

The story unfolds with lots of lessons of life. After the more demanding situations & more dangers, the boy, by not changing his path / mind, reaches his ultimate goal. While reading the story, at various places I found that I have came across such problems & forced to choose path ahead. There are always two choices, one easy but futile other correct but difficult. I guess I should have read this book earlier, my vision of life would have been more clear.

Any ways, I can not claim that I have understood all the messages or entire book but it is one of good book I have ever read.

Khushal

18-11-2009

Book Review - Isadora Ki Prem Kathayen

"My Life" by Isadora Duncan

Hindi Translation - "Isadora Ki Prem Kathayen" - by Shri Yugank Dheer.

"My Life" is autobiography written by Isadora Duncaun & I have read its hindi translation by Shri Yungank Dheer.

I always like to read the auto-biography, it shows up his/her sides of the story & I really enjoy to understand his/her view points & what he/she think, what he/she feel, why & how he/she reacts.

I think that the translator should not have changed the title from My life to Isadora ki prem kathayen. This title is not proper. It creates feeling of n' no. of love scenes & exciting love phases of Isadora & it misguides the reader. The hindi title do not have any significance with the context of books' content.

Ok now lets on move to Isadora's my life. This is the auto biography of a American girl, who is considered as inventor & founder of today's modern dance. She was brave, intelligent, rebel & revolutionary by nature. In the early years of life, she never feared & able to cope with any situations. She was firm believer in her self & very confident. She believed that she found out the true joy & her dancing method is the one who correlates with nature. Her natural dance style was her own inventions & now known as modern dance & was become very famous for her dancing style & love affairs in entire Europe. At that time, ballet was very popular but its dancing style was rather aerobic & without any real emotions and insisted on strict / unnatural postures & gestures. She brought the welcome change in dancing method & as described in her book her dances takes the audience to heighest level of enjoyment.

Her personal life has seen various ups & downs. She was unable to control her expenses & easily got impressed by men. She was also chasing so many dreams like building temple, start dancing schools, teach dance to young girls etc. etc.. It required lots of money & it compelled her to organise public performances however she never liked to perform for commercial reasons. She wanted that her performance should be free for all.

Her life's major problem was never ending conflict between her dance & her love. Her love affairs draws away from the dance however when affair ends she felt depressed. To come out of depression, she found solace in her dance. Her life's biggest tragedy was loss of her two children in accident.

The book concluded when she moved to Russia where USSR Govt has offered her to settle down there & run her dance school with their help.

The translator has given the brief account of her remaining life.

You can get more information about her in following link :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isadora_Duncan

As I already said, I like to read the auto biography. I liked this book too & enjoyed her writing. She has written in simple & layman language. Her dreams & feelings expressed in her own words touched me. She was very open about her relationship & thoughts. I have browse the net for more information about her & I was fascinated by her work.

Khushal

05/11/2009

Book Review - Madam Bovary

Book Review - Madam Bovary

Madam Bovary - by Gustave Flaubert in French

Hindi translation by Shri Yugank Dheer

 

I have read the hindi translation of the Book "Madam Bovary" written by French writer Gustave Flaubert.

This is fictional story of Emma Bovary living at small town of French Province. Emma was married to doctor Charles Bovary & had a daughter "Berthe".

Emma was extremely beautiful, educated however had yearning for luxury & fantasy life. Her marriage with Doctor do not promised any bright future. After few years, Emma got frustrated with routine provincial life & she become impatient with the way her husband was. This lead to entry of various persons in her life as lovers. First one was shy young neighbor however that relationship do not flourish at that time. Second person was rich man & with sole purpose of seduction, he takes her on his web. Emma who has waiting for true love, finds this rich man as her perfect match & falls in his trap. After some time, that man leaves her, which results to horrible shock to Emma's emotion. She almost lost all her senses & falls ills. She take several months to recover. Her husband & the church priest took great care of her.

After recovering, she had another chance to encounter the earlier young neighbor. This time their relationship brokes all the barriers. Once again in the search of love & luxury Emma get carried far away from her husband. However Charles never suspected her & always try to amend his ways to make her happy. During all this, she started living extravagantly & created the mountain of debts.

Unable to pay the debts, she took drastic step which ultimately results into ruining entire family.

The book (earlier published chapter wise in paper) generated lots of controversies at that time because of its notorious story.

The complete details about the book & author can be found on the following links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Bovary

A hindi movie "Maya Memsaab" is also based on this story.

I liked the book for its writing style & the way story develops.

Khushal

05/11/2009

Book Review - The Secret

The Secret - by Rhonda Byrne.

 

This is one of the most fascinating & powerful book on positive thinking (as per my thinking).

 

To write anything about this book, I had to read twice.

 

Even afer reading twice, I am unable to say anything about it fully, whatever I am writing will be understatement only.

 

The book contains several thoughts, action plans, success stories & way of life.  The book is full of positive enegy. 

 

It preaches three steps : ASK, FEEL & RECEIVE.

 

The Secret is "Law of Attraction". 

 

Whatever you ask (you have to declare that you what this)  & you belive that it will reach to you ( you have to act as if you have already received the thing) , then  you will definitely get the desired things as it get attracted towards you because of your request & your behaviour, -

 

 may it be girlfriend, money, career, peace of mind, healthy body, status, home etc. etc. .

 

Actually, Shah Rukh Khan's dialogue in Om Shanti Om  movie sums up the teaching in most interesting way -

 

"Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho to puri kayanat usey tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai"

 

There are n' number of school of thoughts for effectiveness of book.

 

I feel that it is upto us what to get from this book.

 

Khushal Gohil

29/09/2009

2 Books

Vishwa Ki Shreshth Kahaniyaan  Compiled by Dr. Maharaj Krishna Jain

 To all my friends working in my company, please borrow this book from our Hindi Dept Library.

 This is short book having 14 world's best stories.  I liked all of them. 

 The gem of the stories are story of  Leo Tolstoy, Agatha Christy, O.Henry, Ravindra Nath Tagore.

Antim Shabad – Gangadhir Gadgil

 This book is compilations of hindi translated (by Ms. Madhavi Prasad Deshpande) 11 short stories of Mr. Gangadhar Gadgil, reputed marathi writer.

 All the stories are mainly related to various phases of women life.

 The writer has minutely expressed the sentiments of different leading lady's emotions.  The story ends or starts at one specific action & then all emotions grappled the entire scenario.

 These stories predominately shows that whatever the situations life will go on.

Khushal

15/09/2009

Mujhe Ghar Le Chalo – Taslima Nasreen ( Aatma Katha -5)

 

Taslima Nasreen is now well known personality, born in Bangaldesh & exiled from her country due to her writing about Islam.

 

Majhe Ghar Le Chalo is translated in Hindi by Ms. Sushil Gupta.

 

The book is about her experiences after leaving her country & her stay in Sweden.

 

She was invited by the entire world & praised by all the European countries for her courage & daring.  She has written about her stay at various countries, about the citizens of these countries, the surroundings, habits of people, good & bad things about various places. She actually takes you with her to visit various places.  The book contains many of her poems.

 

Her writing is very good & it brings out her personality as strong & straight headiness.  She is independent, strong, rebellion by nature. Her writing shows that she follows different path & is never afraid of taking side of truth or what she believes to be true or fair.

 

It is not ironical that in the ocean of people, she finds herself alone.  Actually she found herself trapped.  Basically she is hard core Bangaladeshi & soft hearted woman  & unable to align herself in foreign land.  She is desperate to return to her country & her writing shows her true love for her matrubhumi (birth place). 

 

Good to read to experience her writing & knowing various places & people,

 

Khushal

15/09/2009

Hindi Book - Objection Mr. Lord

Hindi Book - "Objection Mr. Lord" by Nirmala Bhuradia

The above novel is about the story of Madhavi borne & raised in joint Marvadi Family. Her father expired when she was small, due to some family problems her mother also left her. The story moves with Madhavi. Madhavi is fearless, intelligent & rebel type girl. For her, each & every situations brings out basic questions of womanhood & its problems.

The story runs parallel at different levels, lots of character comes in & fades away. Lots of things do not end at particular point. There is hardly any characterization as large number of characters are woven in the story. Madhavi remains alone eventhough she got married. She failed to find her true love.

She was destined to remain alone but finds a path & reason for living at the end.

What I observe that story narration is good but somehow lots of things are happening but nothing actually matters. Madhavi choose to remain silent at various occasions & that puzzles me. Further, the novel has tried to show other side of press (news paper) however it has not effectively come out. One more thing I am not able to correlate is the title of the novel & the story.

Good for one time reading,

Khushal

14/09/2009

Book - Edwina Aur Nehru (hindi)

Book – Edwina Aur Nehru (Hindi)
By Catherine Clamma
Hindi Translation : Nirmala Jain,

This book is written by French Writer Catherine Clamma & translated in Hindi by Nirmala Jain.

As per the original writer, in France, people are least interested in simple & happy ending love story. French people are drawn to unusual love story, which ends, on parting of lovers. Love stories between rich & poor, one caste & other caste, love story which has tragedy as destiny.

The love story of Nehru & Edwina perfectly fells in this league. Nehru, the representative of suppressed / slave country & Edwina the symbol of ruling Country. Both are married & met each other when there was no place /t ime for love. Love in this case was not ordinary & hence it is perfect story for French people.

Being an Indian, I read the story with suspicious mind. I hoped that there is no such love between both of them. This woman should, not have influenced the decision of our First Prime Minister. The faith of India (& Pakistan) should not have been decided by the game played by Lord Mountbatten & his wife, Edwina.

The book has span of around 40 years & depicted the various phases of Edvina & Nehru’s life & relationship. It also narrates our freedom movement, pre & post independence challenges before Indian leaders & about Gandhiji.

Edwina, the wife of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, having dubious past records & her relationship with husband was turbulent. However she was also devoted to help the war displaced people.

Lord Mountbatten, when arrived in India, had tough task ahead. British council was in the final phase of taking decision about freedom of India & he has to ensure that transfer of power from England to India should be carried out smoothly. However the road was not smooth for Mr.Mountbatten, there are countless problems like Jinha’s demand of Pakistan, Gandhi’s opposition of partition, demand of freedom by independent Kings, ruling at that time.

The story travels through the most crucial time of Indian history. Nehru was widower at that time & was carrying heavy burden of representing our country. During this hard times, Nehru & Edwina finds true friend / companion in each other. As even after partition, Edwina was actively serving the Indian people displaced due to partition.

The writer has taken creative liberty & illustrated their love as platonic & divine. The flow of story is very good. While reading I started imagining Nehru as an ordinary man, who was in extra ordinary situation & as not as great person / political leader. I started realizing that he was really mentally taxed & doing his best. If he tried to find comfort in her, then I should not mind it. We know & sure that Nehru was 100% committed to India & his priority was India & Indian people only, everything come after that.

The book is silent about any physical relationship between both of them rather it does not suggest any thing about it. As per the book, it is just the great bonding between two individuals with different cultural background, met each other because of their destiny. They played pivotal & positive role in each & others life.

I feel that author has not revealed much about the height of their relationship & termed their love as extra ordinary. I think author was right in doing so as Indian people do not have mentality to accept that their leader was a weak man.

It is good as a book depicting love story but it can not be termed genuine book representating historical infomation.

Khushal
09/07/2009.(written date)

Select Edition - Reader's Digest

Reader's Digest - Select Editions

1) The Murder Artist by John Case
2) Start From Here by Sean French
3) At Risk by Stella Riminton
4) The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

All the above stories are selected by Reader's Digest & printed as Select Editions.

I wish to write few things as under :-

The Murder Artist
by John Case

This is one of the gripping story I have ever read. It has kept me wondering what will happen next. It is the story of father, who's twin sons got lost in carnival. On learning that he is divorce, police suspects him. They also found some sort of evidence in the house. Even when he declared innocent, his problems do not finish as police were unable to trace his twins. He decided to take the investigation into his own hands. This starts his journey to various parts of world & he discover that his children are in grave danger. He has to act very fast & to fight a lone battle to save his children. Story has important angle & element of voodoo & magic. It is very terrifying & unnerving some times.

Start From Here
by Sean French

This is very different story explaining & wondering too, the role of Actuary (statistician) who based on some mathematical formula decide the trend of events. I am sure you do not understand what I am talking about.

The story has a thin line & basically play around with insurance fraud claims & free life of hero.

At Risk
by Stella Riminton

In this story, the pace is very slow & things do not get connected very clearly in first reading. Lots of things happening & slow pace reduces the impact. The story is about 2 terrorist planning a attack & group of British police countering them.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith

The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency is story about a lady detective Mma Ramotswe, who opens the detective agency & solves the mysteries around her neighborhood.

The story details the initial years of her life & goes on with her story of cracking cases to the satisfaction of her clients. Story is very interesting & I like reading it.

--

Khushal
19/06/2009

Books - Kahani & Manjarnama - By Gulzar

Dear Friends,
I have recently read 3 books in Hindi titled
Libaas – Kahani & Manjarnama
Aandhi -Kahani & Manjarnama
Meera - Kahani & Manjarnama

Manjarnama in Hindi refers to Situation as seen, it also refers to screen play or scenerio.

This books are actually the script of the movies made by Gulzar. The actual screen play & script, scene by scene is given in the book.

Earlier I have read Hututu – Kahani & Manjarnama also.

I have not seen movie Libaas, Aandhi or Meera.

All the movies made by Gulzar are known for realistic story, good songs, fine performances & flowing story narration.

I like to share my experience of reading,

Libaas is story of theatre artist couple & how their life changes when one friend enter into their life.

While reading the book, I felt that story is moving with each & every scene, the scenes are carring forward the story, actually not the story but to next scene / situation. It is also mentioned in the book itself that screen play was written even before the story finalised.

I like the concept in all & would love to see the movie for its lead Naseerudin Shah, Shabana Azami & Raj Babbar & it also have good songs.

Aandhi is story with politics background.

The leading lady breaks her marriage to pursue her political ambitions. After few years the man & woman meet each other in the middle of pre- election high drama. It leads to various events which ultimately bridge the gap between them. The main cast includes Sanjeev Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Om Prakash etc.

I had chance to see some glimpses of movie scenes, I really enjoyed watching Sanjeev Kumar in action. He was very brilliant actor & seeing him acting, with screen play in my hand, was delight.

Meera- Kahani & Manjarnama book contains the interview of Gulzar.It is must read for the persons who are interested to pursue their carrier in direction / film making.

Meera's story we all know, Gulzar has tried to cover important part of her life in the movie & reading the script (i.e. Book) I felt he has done justice. I would like to see the movie for Hema Malini (Meera) & Vinod Khanna.

On reading the above books I learn some thing about story telling (Meera). It has widen my horizon to think differently (Libaas) & see the things from other perspective(Aandhi).

Khushal

18/06/2009.

Book Review – To Kill A Mocking Bird

Book Review – To Kill A Mocking Bird

By Harper Lee

This book is really Timeless Classic of Growing up & The Human Dignity That Unites Us All. It was first published in 1960 & went to win the Pulitzer prize in 1961 & was later made into an Academy Award winning film, also a classic.

The author has set the background of the story in silent sleepy Southern Town of America. The story is about two children James & Jean Louise.

The story captures the growing up years of above two children. Their mother died early so their father Mr.Atticus is taking care of them.

The book gradually develops the story & introduce us the entire neighborhood one by one. Story takes us to Jean & James changing perceptions & attitudes over a period. Both had very good bonding.

Mr. Atticus (Father) was lawyer & destined to fight a case of Negro. At that time, any one helping / defending Negro was improper & against the socially accepted norms. He was inviting disgrace from all his relatives & friends. However major task for him was to help innocent Negro & also make sure that all these cheap talks, because of his stands, do not harm the children.

James & Jeans were taunted by schoolmates, relatives & nearby persons as their father is Negger loving (i.e. Helping Nego). He asked them to held your head high & ignore all this.

Mr. Atticus was learned man & take utmost care that his children do not learn bad things / manner / wrong notion. He can freely be approached by his child for all types of queries / questions. At one place, his tiny daughter asks him “What does rape means?”. He answered all their queries in dignified & understanding way. He handled them well too. He lives the life by example for his child.

The story have suspense, racism problem, tales of heroic & grit along with valuable lessons of human behavior during emergency times. It also rewind our childhood memories of adventures, revolt, fears of unknown places etc. etc.

I like the book very much, it helped me to understand lots of things about my behavior & to look at broad prospective of situations.

With love,

Khushal
19/03/2009

Book Review - Mera Sangharsh - Hindi Translation of "Mein Kampf"

Book Review – Mera Sangharsh (in Hindi)
Hindi Translation of Mein Kamph - Autobiography of Mr. Adolf Hitlar

By – Dr.. N. L. Madan, MA, Phd.

I have read quite a few translated books & noticed that it lacks the impact of original book.

As far as this book is concern, I must say that Dr. N. L. Madan have very good command of Hindi language & his job of translation of this book is excellent.

The book is autobiography of Adolf Hitlar. It is account of his childhood to formation & struggling years of his political outfit. The book is voluminous it took lot of time to read. I was also not aware about the then political & historical background of the Germany & some of the information / details mentioned were could not be comprehended by me. Wherever Hitlar justifies his thought patterns & pen downs his thoughts considering the prevalent circumstances & future stands, it is delight to read.

He was very clear in his thoughts & firm on his stands. He had all the qualities of leadership & he was driven my the sole purpose of reviving the lost glory of Germany. He was ready to sacrifice everything & nation was above everything for him. He was also very critical about parliament governing the nation & was also not believed in Democracy too.

His thoughts like Jews were responsible for failure of Germany (he has theory for the same), Marxism is threat to nation, Germans are only having pure blood, no mixing of pure blood with inferior blood, to prosper means to conquer the World by War etc. etc. are deep rooted in his heart.

These are the same reasons, which influenced his life’s future deeds and the rest is history as we know.

The book comes to end where his political outfit is gaining the momentum & ultimately German ruling bodies ban his outfit.

I could gather & understand the book only because of the good translation & I have never felt that any impact is lost. I like to praise once again Dr. N. L. Madan for his marvelous work.

As the book says, the reason for translation of this book is not to highlight the shortcomings of Hitlar. The book is to showcase that he was true lover of his motherland & highly motivated for betterment of his Nation. His burning desire to do anything for Nation & wiliness to sacrifice for noble cause is what India & Indian People needs to understand. This may lead to motivate us to place our Nation above everything.

Khushal

17/03/2009