Book Review on Alka Dimri Saklani's 45 Days In A Cancer Hospital

45 DAYS IN A CANCER HOSPITAL

BY

ALKA DIMRI SAKLANI

The main plot of this murder mystery revolves around the lives of people suffering from Cancer. The main character in this thrilling story is Dr. Chatterjee who has dedicated himself to the treatment of cancer patients as even he had lost his mother suffering from Cancer.

The story starts with experiences of the newbie writer Alka Dimri Saklani with cancer patients and then suddenly takes a turn towards the mysterious murder of many patients.

Well if the reader is one who has a penchant for Sherlock Holmes type of fiction stories then this surely is a read, as the writer turns into a detective one. She comes across the mis-happenings in Mumbai’s leading cancer hospital.

Nevertheless the story is a sure thriller and keeps the reader glued until the mystery unravels. The story throws a lot of incidents that lead to the plot behind the brutal deaths of so many patients with the writer participating quite intellectually with the help of her school friend and CBI officer Animesh.

The writer takes the plot to its finality to disclose the psycho behavior that has led to the entire plotting of murders in a melodramatic manner. The flow of the story is smooth and everyone can follow easily.

The writer has chapters named after each day at the hospital and it feels like even we are experiencing each day at the hospital along with this stupendous writer. 

There is gripping suspense that makes the reading quite interesting and at times empathetic towards those suffering from Cancer. Even the title of the book is an apt one with the entire mystery getting solved within this time span.

I simply loved the story due to the trepidation that keeps the entire story alive until the last page. For a first time writer like Alka this book is surely a thumb’s up from me.

Rating: ☆☆☆1/2

~overview~

Terminal cancer patients in the most prestigious hospital of Mumbai are being murdered under the masquerade of natural death. Why would anyone kill poor cancer patients who are anyhow going to breathe their last in some time? Who can benefit from such a heinous act? Why all deaths seem to be natural when actually they are planned? These are the questions Ashritha, a novel writer who is staying in the hospital to write her book on cancer patients, is struggling to unravel, risking her own life. Initially she shrugs off her suspicion as she finds it illogical, but later the odd incidents going on in the hospital force her to take her suspicion seriously. Challenging all the dangers head on, she digs for the truth and unearths secrets deeply woven within the hospital, with the help of his college friend and CBI officer Animesh. What comes out as a wretched act initially turns out to be a deeply woven plan and a heinous conspiracy. 45 Days in a Cancer Hospital is a suspense thriller with a strong female protagonist and a series of shocking events that culminate in a shocker. The story also touches on the life of doctors and cancer patients and is woven around aspiration, love, hatred, betrayal, greed and suspense within the walls of the hospital that takes place during the 45 days of Ashritha's stay.

Book Review on Piyush Jha's MUMBAISTAN

MUMBAISTAN
3 EXPLOSIVE CRIME THRILLERS
By PIYUSH JHA

Piyush Jha’s Mumbaistan is a novel that can be said to be composed of three different novellas. As the title of the book suggests, the entire plot has been drawn from the city of dreams itself, Mumbai. The characters have been picked from the myriad walks of life and the author seems to have picked them up deliberately in order to showcase the plurality of the old, brooding city.

The choice of crime fiction is though quite uncustomary for most Indian writers yet Piyush does handle the genre commendably. Piyush’s writing clearly shows that he knows the city inside out and this helps the readers in visualising the city by means of his words.

The characters in the three stories are commonplace and have been culled from different walks of life. Mumbai is the only link that connects them as they make their journey from revenge to redemption. The novel at times seems like an effort to disrupt the glitzy and glamorous image of the metropolis as it lays bare the squalor of poverty, corruption and crime that thrives within the superficial charms of the city.

The novel opens with Bomb Day, a story that revolves around a cop, a prostitute and her lover. The next story is spun around the life of a doctor who wants to avenge people involved in the illegitimate act of organ trading. The last of the three stories is centred on a man who wakes up to life after spending twenty long years in coma and is now trying to get a grasp of reality.

The diction draws the readers into the storyline which makes for a good reading experience.

Rating: ☆☆☆1/2

~overview~

Mumbai, a city of dreams for many. But for others, a nightmare. Behind the faade of lustre and glamour churns a seething underbelly of squalor, corruption and crime. 

Mumbaistans three explosive crime novellas unravel the subterranean secrets of maximum cityfrom the teeming maw of Dharavi and the wanton streets of Kamathipura to the swank high-rises of Bandra.

A prostitute, her lover and a policeman play for high stakes in Bomb-Day. Injectionwala exposes chilling medical malpractices and a lovelorn vigilantes twisted game plan. In Coma Man, a man awakens from coma after twenty years, and sets out in search of his wife and himself.

Macabre love stories, conniving cops and hard-boiled slumlords form the backdrop of a schizophrenic city that is brooding...dying. 

Welcome to Mumbaistan; a gritty, compelling take on the megalopolis that lives on the edge.

A Chameleon Soul

A CHAMELEON SOUL

A hopeless place where dark shadows surrounded me... A hopeless place where I tried to die every single day... A hopeless place where I had more enemies than friends... A hopeless place where nobody trusted me... A hopeless place where all hope was gone... In that hopeless place I found which finally showed me the Light >>> …To Love Myself...

*

I am out on this open road

Where are you my full time, daddy

It’s getting oh-so cold

Singing songs and searching for a clue

It’s been thirty-three years, isn’t that enough for you?

*

I’m breaking down

Exhausted of traveling

I try very hard

Even with the words I write

*

I’m tired of sitting on this trunk

Why do I always fly so fast

And now alone in this night

I am trying very hard to get into trouble

World War III is on my mind

But all I do is just fly …I just fly

*

A chance to spread my wings will be a grand opportunity to broaden my horizons, and make my life richer. It will add greater dimension to my existence …and will offer me far more opportunities to make my dreams come true. If I'm considering passing up this chance in large part because I think it will force me to leave someone or something behind. I know I won't be missing anything. I won't be leaving out anyone. If I fly when I have the chance to fly, everyone and everything else in my life will soar too …where are you my full time daddy?

*

Did you die young without letting us know?

Did you try playing it hard or ended up making life an abstract

Smoke all day and talk to an imaginative you

That’s how every day goes by …till its dark

*

In his arms, all warmed up, sleepily getting pleasure from this deliciousness… is just a remembrance… it’s quite hazy... but it is still there and reminds me of him. Every now and then, I love wearing ‘BRUT’ …it’s delicious …but I think it smelled better on him ...where are you my full time daddy?

*

Do I care about you my full time daddy?

*

Please leave me now

Just say good-bye

Now turn around

Leave me dried out and far above the ground

*

I love this feeling of being fucking wild

These glitters up in this cold night try to calm me

And then I feel they’re making me hypnotize

I shake my chameleon soul and come to conclusion

It’s not the end …keep searching …keep flying

***** 

Have I moved on? ...I don't think so. If I did... then how could I still miss that (same) person ...even after all these years >>~~> ...nothing to lose ...nothing to gain ...nothing that I desire will remain the same. I wanna/will be wild… I wanna/will have fun… I wanna/will believe in myself… I wanna/will just fly high… I wanna/will be fucking wild… That’s because I'm a free spirit ...and I have a chameleon soul~~~

Book Review on Ishaan Lalit's HEXAGON

HEXAGON

By ISHAAN LALIT

In a scenario where Indian writers are still wary of venturing in to the zone of science fiction, a young author Ishaan Lalit audaciously experiments with the literary style in his second novel, Hexagon.

The novel is a science fiction and revolves around the life of an art thief, Rahul Oberoi. The protagonist is the master of his trade and has successfully committed a series of thefts along with his girlfriend and comrade-in-arms, Ria ...without getting caught till one day. However, the fateful day becomes the precursor to a chain of events that changes Rahul’s and Ria’s lives forever.

The book offers a thrilling ride till the end and would make an ideal pick for all science fiction geeks. It is a kind of book which if picked up once, you would never be able to keep it down before finishing it.

The narrative races through to the end and the reader is almost led by the author to follow him right till the end in one go. 

Imaginative elements abound in the book and the readers are so intrinsically absorbed in to the story that one takes time to step back on the platform of life once the journey through the book is over.

Seasoned with sarcasm, this book is worth reading for people who love to ponder about different worlds, galaxies and about the kind of life forms thriving on them.

I wish it turns into series...  

Rating: ☆☆☆☆1/2

~overview~

Hexagon is racy, fast moving and a thrilling tale about Rahul Oberoi, an art thief whose great achievement was that he had never been caught.

All that changed when he along with his girlfriend and partner Ria are apprehended during a heist.  They are then taken to a top secret underground government facility where Rahul's grandfather worked.  In the middle of this facility is an ancient device made of stone, adorned with mysterious carvings. It is a gateway to six parallel dimensions and six different earths.  They are then embroiled in a war waged by a violent race called the Moths and the fate of the six earths depends on the outcome of this war.