Book Review: The Silent Patient

I just finished reading this Novel “The Silent Patient”. One day my wife came home from a book store and gave me this novel and asked me to read. When I got the novel from her, I quickly scanned it and made mind to read it. In fact I hadn’t read any book in the past few months and had been spending too much time on Neflix and social media. So just to re-cultivate the habit of reading books to which I was once addicted I started reading this book.

I would say the Novel is interesting and  filled with suspense and thrillers. The main strength of the Novel is, it can hook the readers throughout every pages and the readers will always have a feeling of “what will happen next?” at the end of every chapter. The Novel is about the story of an artist (Painter) who is admitted in a pschyiatric rehabilitation centre because of her mental condition and with the accusation of killing her husband who is a photographer. A therapist who has good intention of treating the artist applies for the job in the rehabilitation centre just to get close the artist, but in the end he turns out to be the murder of the artist’s husband. So this is the whole story in 3 lines. But the Novel has many twists and turns in the story and never fails to disappoint its readers. So in overall a good book for those who are interesting in reading thrillers and suspenses.

Haribansha: China Harayeko Manchhe

Few months ago I had made a promise of reading one book every weekend. I succeded on some weekends. I finished reading Summer love, Seto Dharti, yayabar and autobiography of Binod Chaudhary. Though I couldn’t utilize each weekend as I had promised these were the books that I finished on my weekends in past few months. This last weekend I finished “China Harayeko Manchhe” autobiography of Haribansha Acharya and also watched a movie “Yeh Jawani hai diwani”.

The book “China Harayeko manchhe” is all about the success and struggles of a guy from a poor family. Its all about how Haribansha struggled in his acting career and how he travelled from a small role in a play to the todays most liked film actor. Besides this his support in all the big movements of the country is highly appreciable. The partnership of Haribansha with Madankrihsna is a real epitome of partnership. Such kind of partnership can be hardly seen these days. Besides the struggles of his reel life the book also gives the struggle of Haribansha in real life. Haribansha has potrayed very well on the sickness of his wife and the best effort he did to get her treated. In overall the book is a true heart touching story of a good father, a good husband, a good actor and a patriotic son.

Review of "One night in a call centre"

Reading Chetan Bhagat is always interesting. Thanks to my wife who gave me this novel. It was second time I was reading Chetan Bhagat. I had already read “Five point someone” by the same author. Reading five point someone was interesting but many of the plots resembled the movie “Three Idiots” so it was placid somewhere. The joy of reading chetan Bhagat is that his choice of words are so simple that it keeps you glued to the book. One of the things that I most enjoyed while reading “One night in call center” is that it is very simple and teh words are easy to understand. The communication used in the book is based on day to day communication style and the characters are live. While reading the book it feels like all the characters are people around us.

One night in a call center is a story of Shyam, Priyanka, Vroom, Esha and Radhika. They all work in a call center and represent the young generation of today. Shyam and Priyanka were once in love but now they both are Seperated and Priyanka is now about to marry Ganesh an employee in Microsoft. Vroom and Esha are close friends. Vroom proposes Esha but she rejects his proposal and she is aspiring to be a model. And Radhika is a typical modern Indian daughter in law who has to fulfill the demands of her in laws and has to work in office as well. This is the gyst of the novel but writer has intertwined these stories in a lovely and interesting way and had presented it in a beautiful manner.

The book shows the story of the current young generation people and how they perceive the relationships and love. And also the book has shown the changes the “Call centers” has brought in the young generations of India.

Reading Summer Love in Winter Season

 I felt good in reading summer love by sitting in my balcony in the chilling winter season. A novel written by a youth writer for young generation. Its good that in Nepali literature also young writers are emerging who are writing the story of young people. I was very much impressed by the sharing of one young  writer last week Mr Amar Neupane in my village Hansapur. He had explained how he wrote his novel "Seto Dharti".

Summer love is story of Atit and Saya two representatives of young generation or better to say "Facebook generation" or "Skype generation". The novel has shown how the young generations fall in love and the consequences. For most youths love is just a time pass and a status symbol among their other colleagues.But its not same for all. The writer has portrayed in a very well manner a true love of Atit to Saya. Written in very simple words, representating the characters resembling to day to day life the book has power to grab the readers and wont let them go without finihsing the book. The chapters are so connected that after turning each page the reader feels like what would be next. The way writer has started the story and ended it is very fantastic. My best congratulations to Subin Bhattarai for bringing such fantastic book to the readers of young generation.

Review of "The White Tiger"

I first read about Arvind Adiga and his book "The White Tiger" in news in Kantipur when he won the Booker Prize. At that time I was in Pokhara and enjoying my Dashain and Tihar vaccation. After reading the news I made my mind to read the book after going to Kathmandu. After coming to Kathmandu one day I went to a bookshop to buy the book and I almost came out of the bookshop without buying the book after seeing the price. Then I console myself by saying “No. Mr Sanjeev You must buy and read this book. Don’t be deterred by its high price. You can decrease your other expenses but you must read it at any expenses. It’s not an ordinary book. It’s a winner of Booker prize…….” Then I came out of the bookshop with the book.

In the evening after seeing the book in my study table, a question asked to me by my brother made me laugh. “Dada is this book the English translation of Nepali book Seto Bagh by Diamond Samsher”. I just laughed and said “first let me finish this book then I will say whether it’s an English translation of that Nepali book or not”.

I began reading this book through the comments on its jacket (I do same with most of the books). The words written inside the jacket made me excited. “The white tiger is a tale of two Indias. Balaram’s journey from the darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success……………… “. I was happy to read that this book is about entrepreneurial success. In last two years, after my involvement in Altertnatives and reading a book “How to change the world” by Bill Drayton and reading life histories of many other social entrepreneurs, books about social entrepreneurs had become one of my favorites. Fortunately this book was also on entrepreneurship so I was too excited to savour it.

When I was almost halfway through the book I didn’t find it interesting. I don’t know whether I had expected more from the book as a booker prize winner or I was not able to grasp it……. the book was not able to produce any excitment in me. After reading the comment on the jacket I was expecting some stories on entrepreneurship but it didn’t appear till I was almost 3/4th finished. Sometimes I felt like giving up reading it….but still I kept on turning the pages hoping there would be some interesting story a head. And it was there in the last chapter.

This book is a story of a driver of a master turned to Master of drivers. The hero of story is Balaram who works as driver in a very rich businessmen’s house. He kills his own master Mr Ashok and runs with a large sum of money his Master was going to give to a politician as a bribe. Mr Balaram then starts his own business with the stolen money in Banglore and becomes a famous entrepreneur. His new business is to transport the employees of Call Centres to and from their office to work in the midnight. Thus the same Balaram who once used to work as driver to Mr Ashok now owns twenty six vehicles and employes other sixteen drivers and becomes their masters. The way Mr Balaram handles the situations as an entrepreneur and promotes his business is interesting. It was hard to believe that such a naïve driver became such clever and tactful entrepreneur. The writer has very successfully portrayed the life of a very poor Indian and a very rich Indian through his character “Balaram”.

I don’t know why but the chapter in the middle of the books are too insipid. When I was in the middle I thought like “How did this book got the Booker prize yar ?”. But once I read the last chapter and started reading the entrepreneurial success of Balaram……I didn’t like putting off the book. Even when I was finished I felt like the writer has written more and novel would never finish. So I read the last chapter twice.

Though I found the book boring somewhere, in overall I enjoyed reading the book. If you don’t have time and you are afraid of its size don’t worry I will give you a simple technique to finish this book faster. First read the first few chapters and then directly jump to the last chapter. You can easily understand the whole novel.

Review of "Antarmanko Yatra"

Among some of the books from Nepali literature which I have read, some of the books worth remembering are Pagal Basti (Saru Bhaktta), Palpasa cafe (Narayan Wagle), Gauri (Madhav Ghimire) and Ghanachhakar (sanjeev Upreti). And another book is going to be added in this list that is "Antarmanko Yatra" by Jagadish Ghimire.

I made one record in reading this book. It took around ten days for me to finish the book. But I finished it just in three sittings in different settings. The first sitting was on a small hill behind my home in pokhara, the second sittting was in the bank of phewa lake and the third sitting was in my own study room.

After I finished reading this book, one question striked in my mind, "Is this a novel, autobiography, monologue, travelouge or daily journal of writer ?" Though writer has called it a Aatmalap, it's a mixture of all so i calle it a mixologue (my own word).

It's a story of a writer, how he became writer and what were the challenges faced by him when he was aspiring to become a writer. The writer has raised one question "In Nepal can one make his living just be becoming a writer ?". Jagadish ghimire has proved that during his time it was not possible but I think it is possible in todays context.

It is not the story of a writer only, it is the story of a successful development expert who has worked in highly responsible posts in international non governmental organisations. The lessons of organistion management that writer has shared is very useful for the readers. I completely agree that "In any organsition human are the core element in its success or failure" because I have also realised this during my two years of professional experience.

The works done by Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti is vey appreciative. It has forced me to plan to travel to Ramechhap. Once while I was studying Bachelors, we guys from college had planned to travel to Ramechhap but at that time it was cancelled due to some reasons. After reading the success stories of Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti, I'm desperate to visit that place and i think i will do it soon.

I was laughing alone in my room when i was rading in the book that "When the writer was DG of CRS company, Radio Nepal didn't played the advertisement of condom and it was played latter on only after King Birendra gave order to play that".......it was too funny..........

The book has helped me in hating the dirty political game of Nepal, which I have always hated the most. The story of Jogi shared by the writer in this book is very much pertinent to the political leaders and maoists of today.

The only flaw I found in this book is that while reading the book, somewhere I felt like the writer is trying to prove himself innocent in some of the accusations of which he was charged during his life. It seems like the write is advocating in favor of himself. So one question arised in my mind "was that necessary ?"............ Otherwise the book is flawless.

Though there are many, I just like to pointout three quotes from this book which impressed me very much.

• Live every momment of your life as if it is the last moment of your life.
• Neither friendship nor rivalry is good with bad people.
• It is better to be envied than pitied.

After finishing the book, I was thinking "Where would Nepal have reached today if every citizens of Nepal have thought like that of Jagadish Ghimire, If every Nepali have loved Nepal like Jagadish Ghimire and every NGO have worked like Tamakoshi Sewa samiti ? "

Review of "The Kite Runner"

I just finished reading “Kite runner” by Khaled Hossini. This Novel came to my hand when I was accumulating the books to be read during my Dashain and Tihar vaccation in Pokhara. Thanks to brother pradeep who provided me the book

I found the novel neither too interesting nor too boring. I must say it’s just an average type for me. But undoubtly there are some suspense and twists and turns which keeps the readers turning on the pages. The plot of the novel moves through Afghanistan, USA and Pakistan. It’s about an Afghan boy Amir raised by a rich single father “Baba”. In the family of Amir there are other two persons as well Rahim Khan and Hassan. Rahim khan and Hassan are servants to the Amir’s family. Rahim khan is of Baba’s age and Hassan is of Amir’s age. Though Rahim khan and Hassan are servants to that family they were like friends to Baba and Amir. Hassan belongs to Hazara class, a class considered too low in Kabul. It’s due to this reason that whenever Hassan and Amir go around the city Hassan is teased by other guys. Amir doesn’t like this but he does nothing. Amir considers himself guilty for being unable to do anything in defense of Hassan. Once Hassan is accused of theft, then Rahim khan and Hassan leave the house. Latter on when Russians invade Kabul Aamir and Baba also move to US. The plot of the novel then goes to US. Later on Aamir comes to Afghanistan in search of Rahim and Hassan. He meets Rahim Khan but he can’t meet Hassan as he has already passed away. Aamir knows that Hassan is also son of Baba born from his illegitimate relationship with a Hazara servant. But Hassan is survied by a son named Sohrab. Aamir makes a very risky journey to war ravaged Afghanistan to find Sohrab and returns to USA with Sohrab.

The strengths of the novel is that it has symbolically shown many things. The relationship between “Baba” and Amir is too placid and compels readers to think why so? The Novel has shown the situation of Afghanistan as resulted by the war. Many people and children are killed everyday in bombings. The children living in orphanage are also physically and mentally tortured. This gives another message that war never does well for any country. And children are more severely affected due to war in any country.In my opinion the novel also provides a good understanding of the culture and lifestyle in the Middle East. So if anyone wants to know more about the lifestyle and culture in middle east then going through this novel is the most.The write has linked kite running event in Afghanistan in a very interesting way in the novel. In Afghanistan anyone who is able to fly the kite in sky for longest period of time by cutting other kits becomes very famous and once Amir wins this event. And finally the Novel ends with Amir and Hassan’s son flying the kite together in USA.