03

Jan

Book Review: ‘Along The Way’ by TGC Prasad

Format: Paperback
Language: English
ISBN: 9788129117847
Pages: 349
Price: 295.00

‘Along The Way’ by TGC Prasad is a novel about Software Engineers by a Software Engineer. With strong vibes of TCS and its work culture reflected in a surreal way in the novel, this Software Engineer reviewer also found it equally enticing and interesting, to say the least. FYI, even the company being the same, no wonder the review also is going to be in a positive note. No kidding. :)

When Rupa Publications takes up a book, which is supposed to be like any other chick-lit novel, you know some undercurrent must be there and you become restless to find out the actual reason of the same. With a brilliant publishing and printing cover to cover, this book did not have any marketing gimmick related to it, unlike our mass-popular writers like Chetan Bhagats and Durjoy Dattas. The novel made it a point to stay mainstream with quality writing and a gripping storyline, and did exactly the same. We, as readers, loved this approach. And hope more and more writers also think this way. If you ask for examples, go through the works of Grey Oak Publications. They have the same theory as their work-ethic as well, seemingly.

‘Along The Way’ has way too many protagonists. And the writer did a good job to handle each of them with utmost care. Like the mother of seven who does not want even one of them to grow up to be a spoilt brat. Among all, Venkat or VSAT and Raj (obviously) stands out as the action heroes of popular Bollywood flicks. And how!
As is the norm with BTL (well, not always though), we save the readers from being divulged the story from before. So, this post contains no such disclaimers, as you may have already noticed. This discussion is more relative to the entire phenomenon that ‘Along The Way’ is. Am going to inform my boss at TCS that I have gone through this book and have shown myself the audacity to discuss about the pros and cons of the author. No kidding, again.

The author puts up an insider’s view of the Software Industry like many other authors previously tried but could not manage to. May be the seniority helped, with which comes the maturity (wisdom) to know (realize) where to stop or pull the brakes. You don’t go overboard with something as security-panicky as the Software Industry scenario in our country and readers with the same background realizes the author’s effort about the same.

About the Author: TGC Prasad offers – Strategic consulting, HR advisory and senior executive coaching to – start-ups, SMEs, Indian and MNC companies. He has worked as Country Manager, Global Vice President for Misys Plc and was on the board of Misys, India. Prior to that he worked with companies such as Wipro, Coopers & Lybrand, PWC, IBM, MindTree, and Alcatel-Lucent in various senior management roles globally and is currently on advisory boards of several companies. He is the author of the best selling books, “Unusual People Do Things Differently” (Portfolio, Penguin) and “Along the Way” (Rupa, Fiction).

He conducts intensive five day “Writing workshops” at quiet mountain retreats and if interested to attend the workshop, you can contact him on tgcprasad@gmail.com.
[Courtesy: http://tgcblogs.wordpress.com/about/]

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

More Details:
The author on Facebook: TGC Prasad
The novel on Facebook: ‘Along The Way’
Author’s website: http://tgcblogs.wordpress.com/

In case you want to buy the book, all you have to do is to follow the link given below:

To get more book review and author interview updates from ‘Between The Lines‘, the must visit place? It’s Facebook page: Between The Lines. Visit, ‘like’, explore!

146 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Book Reviews/Corporate Life/Intern/Intern days/Jobs/Life/Lookback series/Personal

03

Jan

Book Review: ‘Ouch that hearts!’ by Harsh Snehanshu

Format: Paperback
Language: English
ISBN: 9789380349404
Pages: 205
Price: 100.00

In one line, there can’t been a funnier novel. The sense of humor is just perfect and enough to crack a laughter riot. This novel is a sequel to the author’s previous book, and hence one stays unsure to go through this one unless the previous one has been devoured already. I started anyway. After initial hiccups, I was tuned along. The natural writing style with a guy next door appeal worked. There is nothing seemingly plastic or made up and the narration is racy enough to keep one hooked to the book till the last page. The novel had many subtle teachings, about alcoholism and smoking addictions. It’s great to find young writers taking up the hull on their shoulders to include social messages in their novels.

Plot Discussion: The protagonists are Kanav and his girlfriend. They are separated due to the girls tyrant mother who doesn’t want to see them together and hence sends her daughter to her uncle’s house in America. From there they still manage to be in contact but eventually, things get tougher. And at the same breath, the story gets better with all the twists and turns. That’s when our protagonist along with his awesome friends decide to write it all, write it as a novel and present it as a gift to his girlfriend when they would be meeting after a long time.
The story is intriguing, full of emotions, laughter, social messages, harsh reality, and the narration is just perfect to make it all look as if it could have happened with you or your closest friend. There is nothing like the regular IITian story where the protagonist is obsessed about his royal lineage of belonging to an IIT and the story is all about love and the trials it has to face.

The story ends on an incomplete note and author makes way for his third novel in the Trilogy. The last chapter titled from the next book is the most interesting one but I would suggest you not to read it since it would make you wait desperately for the next one. My suggestion or whatever, this marketing gimmick by the author brings him among the likes of Mr. Chetan Bhagat to take up interesting (and cliched) strategies to pave way to brilliant marketing of their books.

Verdict: While I order his previous one, just be assured that you can definitely order this one.

Overall Rating: 8/10

More Details:
The author on Facebook: Harsh Snehanshu
The novel on Facebook: ‘Ouch that hearts!’

In case you want to buy the book, all you have to do is to follow the link given below:

This review has been contributed by Nikhil Mukhija. Nikhil himself is a content developer, marketing script writer as well as an SEO specialist. While he is not busy with his Engineering studies, Nikhil contributes to various online writing platforms.

To get more book review and author interview updates from ‘Between The Lines‘, the must visit place? It’s Facebook page: Between The Lines. Visit, ‘like’, explore!

146 days ago Short URL Comments

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03

Jan

Book Review: ‘It’s First Love!’ by Sachin Garg

Format: Paperback
Language: English
ISBN: 9788171670407
Pages: 247
Price: 95.00

When I read about Sachin Garg and his Credentials like ‘MTV Author Worth Checking Out’ and others from the likes of Times Of India and Red FM, I was Wondering if the hype is justified. It took me to check his blog to get convinced of the substance. The blog is incredible and the sense of humour, incomparable.
I hadn’t read Sachin Garg’s last novel ‘I Am Not Twenty four’ but I started this one first since it proclaimed that it’s the real story of his life. Naturally, I was more inclined as anyone else would have been.

Plot Discussion: The start to ‘It’s First Love’ makes it an interesting read and makes an impact on the reader. The very first chapter ‘Different People, Different answers’ defining different dimensions of love depicted depth and breadth of mature thinking. I started with a renewed interest as the story takes a good plot while holding my breath about how a love triangle forms. Soon it gets simplified, giving me a sigh of relief as if I was praying Sachin to get the girl he loved i.e. Kanika. Their love progresses but as in any story nothing is smooth and there are hiccups. This story goes even more gripping when one gets to know that Kanika’s mother caught AIDS due to drug addiction, and one contemplates about his lifestyle and is more resolved to stay away from such substances.
The story goes on a serious note from there and once again there are a lots of twists and turns. The sideline characters stay sideline and the protagonist gets back his love, for his emotions are visibly true. Gradually, everything starts to take a positive shape. A brilliant climax gets set, and soon enough, well that is for you to find out…

Writing: Undoubtedly a good read, the author makes you live the scenes yourself and that’s the connectivity one expects from a good novel. The humor was not too evident but that’s justified since the plot was on the serious side. Credit must be given if the author claims to disclose his real life on such a scale.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

More Details:
The author on Facebook: Sachin Garg
The novel on Facebook: ‘It’s First Love!’
Author’s website: www.sachingarg.me

In case you want to buy the book, all you have to do is to follow the link given below:

This review has been contributed by Nikhil Mukhija. Nikhil himself is a content developer, marketing script writer as well as an SEO specialist. While he is not busy with his Engineering studies, Nikhil contributes to various online writing platforms.

To get more book review and author interview updates from ‘Between The Lines‘, the must visit place? It’s Facebook page: Between The Lines. Visit, ‘like’, explore!

146 days ago Short URL Comments

Book Reviews/Guest Blogging/Intern/Intern days/Jobs/Life/Lookback series/Personal

25

Jul

The four guys and Nolan..


This was a day very well spent. But not at all well planned.

Well, went out with this very close friend from school (say, M) and his girlfriend (say, G). As usual, I was having creeps while starting from the so-far place I live, even after grabbing up a unfavorable bus ride. The reason I was having creeps is not that I have not managed to manage a seat for my ass in the bus, but that the slower-than- an-ass movement of the bus assured me that am going to be hell late today. And being very certain that am going to get some good verbal volleys for getting late, I started rehearsing my own return volleys. So much for traffic and the heat! And hence, certainly the journey didn’t start well.

But I reached in time, even if it’s just five minutes to our scheduled movie. G was already there, and me and S reached at the same time. It was drizzling a bit, so both of us were thankful that at least we had reasons to cheer up. God had some other plans for us though. I was repetitively calling up M and got to know from G (who is his girl) that he is still a well half an hour away from our meeting place. We got our tickets done. Me and S decided to sit outside with G as well to wait for M, while G kept on insisting us so that we get inside. M’s guilty measures propounded on G, you know! :P

We engaged in talks and kept waiting at the food court. M managed to reach there after 25 minutes, totally drenched, but his earphones still dangling from his ears like some retard who does not know that’s it’s not appropriate to use these devices during rains or storms. But then, when you know you are half an hour late to a coveted movie show, it’s well enough a measure I think to act deaf towards prosecutors. Luckily, we didn’t have the mentality to act like one, and instead, hurried into the hall. Let me say, that the movie we went for is ‘The Inception’ by Christopher Nolan, starring Leonardo de Caprio. And I think that’s enough said. Even it’s not (for you), it’s your loss, am not repenting. The four of us got decent seats, as selected earlier only. The rest three settled down, and I was just going to settle down with ease, when I noticed one of my relative just two rows in front of me. Invariably I took another five minutes to duck in a bit more inside so that he can’t see me well from his position.

Movie was already on, and even though we missed around half an hour, catching up was not a big problem. I thought so and realized my mistake until M started cribbing about not getting anything out of it during the interval. The rest time went the same way, uneventful. Got requests from friends on Twitter to give reviews about the film, which am not for here anyway. Did some tweets, caught up with missed calls and gave replies to texts. My stomach was already on strike and honking loudly. So, we decided to go for our next stop which as previously decided, was TTK, Garia.

Two RBs, one TB, eight LPs were what we finally decided on. Well, for readers, I bet the Greekness of the previous line has been the most till date. Since who orders TB, LPs at restaurants? Well, TB, RBs are popular abbreviations for Tikka Butter and Reshmi Butter dishes, which are our favorites from that place. And LP is my own instantaneous usage standing for Lachha Parantha, in case you haven’t managed to decipher it yet. Don’t think of it as anything related to Linkin Park please. It has got nothing to do with them.
All four of us ate like maniacs, me and M repetitively taking pride on the fact that the place was our favorites from our school days some four years back. And with S already in love with the place too since I took her there last week, seemed G also had fallen for it. Our pleasure! :)

The long story cut short due to various other non-mentionable incidents, here is what worth mentioning – the take off. I and M planned for one final meet before he goes off to Mumbai for higher studies, and me going back to Siliguri for my even more important times ahead. Times spent like this are rare, rarer (as S pointed out that day) when we got to share big laughs and little pleasures with friends from long pasts. Times spent like this are valuable, only if money spent behind can be lessened. I ended this article in such a quirky note, what art thee?

[ P.S. This maybe my worst ending to any article till date. Never mind, intentional it was. Hope you check the others for validating the claim.]

673 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

College life/Foodie/Intern/Intern days/Life/Lookback series/Personal

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25

Jul

A procrastinated Sunday post..


Never knew Sundays could be this boring and more, this sad. I woke up much late in the morning, sleeping late last night (which is obvious) and then, when I woke up I was bombarded with loads and loads of work waiting for me. The list goes like this -
1. I have got my own studies and project works. Regarding studies, I need to run parallely 2-3 heavyweight languages and subjects, which is tough! And then again, I have got to work on the Cryptography related Java project that we took up. Irritating being the fact is that the other guys/girls who are working with me in this project are not upto that mark to work on the same, and as a result they have chosen this project invariably to procrastinate and making weird excuses for the same. SHOULD I need to mention here how much I hate them?

2. Dad has been up with this training and study schedule of his which he pointed out that won’t be able to work on his own. And here you go, he is pushing out works on me. I would have liked to get them done for him, but again being bossy on the deadline doesn’t work on me too well. Deadlines are always so prevalent in my life for the last 1-2 years that I have already grown tired of the same, well, apparently. Works are always welcome (wicked smile).

3. Our tour plan of Mumbai – Goa – Pune have been cancelled, thanks to me (and that’s the saddest part). This year CAT has been planned earlier than it happens the other times, and hence is the amendment. I thought about managing it for a while, but then, breaking of concentration and preparation level while enjoying that good a tour will not be a very wise decision.

4. I don’t have anything more to add up to a post written exactly a week (read 7 * 24 hours) back. So procrastinating I am. Not often though.

673 days ago Short URL Comments

College life/Inspiration/Intern/Intern days/Lookback series/Personal

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15

Jul

Book Review: ‘Lonestar Secrets’ by Colleen Coble

Whenever I sit to write another book-review, inevitably I need to strain my brain hard enough to get to remember the niceties of the paperbacks I was lucky (or often unlucky enough) to go through! But this time, I did make it a point to get it done very soon, if not sooner. And so, here I am.
Unlike the previous hard bound I got from the same publishers, frankly speaking this paperback really did not live upto the expectations the first novel mustered upon me by its quality. But everything can’t and should not be always compared with other equals, and this one has got its own positives, maybe some of which the previous one lacked in some aspects. So, over and all, you don’t loose.

‘Lonestar Secrets’ speaks about the rather coming-back-to-life life of a girl (or rather a woman) who has seen life from different perspectives, be it the jeery low or be it the glorious top by virtue of her own dignified approach to life, she has gone through all of it. And in that way she is lucky enough to differentiate between right and wrong, black and white, and love and hate. Love gave her the jeer of her life, love forced her to loose all trust on ‘trustworthiness’, love forced her down the dungeon of darkness and lifenessness. And that too with none there by her side, her parents being dead on way to their journey of ‘quick-bucks’. Shannon Astor, the protagonist then survived with her own implications of life, pulled herself throughout high school, and after that joined her very close-to-heart vet discipline, for which she can even give up life’s niceties. And this determination with which she took up her life of betterment shoved her way up to more brightnesses. In the meanwhile some drama took place in her life regarding her falling for a shiny-buckled-heartless-cowboy, carrying his twin child, and then a hospital fiasco during her labor which turned out to be a life-changer for her to betterment. And this is the point from where she started to see the light of life, maybe the twin children were god-send to her in that way. And more drama follows, her making up to her babychild-switching, her meeting her childhood crush whom she got forced to marry by circumstances, and then for the rest of the drama was rather in her own side. She won in every aspects of life. She won every hearts and every trust. Which in turn brings up the woman in her in a big way.

Author Colleen Coble has got in her sleeves two more before this one in this series, including ‘Lonestar Sanctuary’ but maybe this is one of her best works, and who can say we are going to get better of her very soon, if not sooner!

If you want to buy ‘Lonestar Secrets‘, all you have to do is to follow this link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003F76HTI/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=betthelin-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003F76HTI

684 days ago Short URL Comments

Book Reviews/Intern/Intern days/Life/Lookback series/Personal

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