Tag Archives: religion

Book Blitz: Whose Country is it anyway? by A.P.S Kumar

Posted in Book Blitz, BookWorld by
About the Book:
India’s rich diversity, both in its physical and natural aspects, is widely known. India has had a great past with achievements in literature, the arts, medicine and mathematics.

Indians were sea-faring and they spread their influence through their philosophy, religion and military conquest too. But Like a cosmic phenomenon, decline is every civilization is inevitable. Indian civilization too declined.

When a civilization rises, people are driven by idealism; when people are possessed of greed, it declines and falls.

Indians today are possessed of excessive, abominable, putrefying greed.

The author tells it all in an honest, engaging manner. He holds a mirror unto ourselves.

Book Link:
About the Author:
I hail from a middle class family. Son of a soldier, I did my studies in Bengaluru obtaining a Bachelor’s degree (from St. Joseph’s College) in Science and then in Law from a different college.
Though not very serious about studies, I took to books with keen interest in social sciences history in particular, literature and natural sciences (in general) and current affairs. I am drawn wittingly towards that abstract thinking – that is, philosophy.
Worked in a Government-owned Insurance Company – United India Insurance Co Ltd – as a Salesman (designated as Development Officer) and retired voluntarily a decade ago.
I spend time reading and writing, travelling both within the country and outside. I ardently believe in community work; I concentrate on education of children, obviously from poor background.
Nationalism – i.e. love of fellow citizens – is my creed. I am passionate about friendships, am devoid of all other -isms.
Contact the author via eMail

Book Blitz : I Owed You One by Madhu Vajpayee

Posted in Book Blitz, BookWorld by

About the Book:

Publisher:
LiFi Publications Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN:
978-9386191281
Format:
Paperback
Pages:
258 pages

Price: 275/-



 

Dev Khanna has a perfect life with his loving wife Radhika and son Neel in Melbourne, Australia. But there is something from his past that keeps gnawing him, an open wound that is a reminder of a debt. His present is very flourishing and future promising but what happens when the past comes knocking? As the skeletons begin to tumble one after other from the cupboard it is now threating his present.

Join Dev on a journey that spans across the tall skylines of Melbourne, the royal Dilwalo ki Dilli to the dingy streets of Moradabad as he battles love, religion, politics and fear questioning his own beliefs at every step. Will he be able to make peace with his past and save his future? Will humanity lose this battle against everything else?


Book Links:
Goodreads * Amazon


Feedback for the Book:

5 Stars “With an intriguing and powerful theme, the author has chosen a realistic and suspenseful plot with
all its subplots tied very well. The characters are realistic and believable. Descriptive writing style along with the confident tone of narration with the extremely good use of vocabulary made it easier for understanding. The suspense that starts building up in the midway is being handled with utmost care and is taken care that it does not loses its grip and holds the capacity to keep the readers engrossed till the last page.” ~ Nikita onAmazon

5 Stars – “Entwined in the backdrop of a courageous young man who let go his turmoiled past and commits
himself to love and fulfill his duty without self-interest to be an ultimate winner, the author constantly reminds and beautifully conveys that secularism means humanism and peaceful coexistence. The book has all the makings of a Bollywood blockbuster. A must read for everyone…” ~ Namita Dimrion Amazon
4 Stars “The story line is no less than a thriller. It has all the elements for a perfect entertaining read. Romance, action, drama, mystery, socio-political angle and lots of thriller. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this unpredictable tale of Dev and travelling across continents with him to witness what is the extent one can go
for a loved one. There are some scenes that left me goose bumps, because of how real it all felt.” ~ PrivyTrifles
 
About the Author:
Dr. Madhu Vajpayee- the writer is born somewhere in those hospital corridors where she has spent the last two decades of her life. Witnessing life at such close quarters pushed her to capture the enigma of life in her words and slowly it became her passion. After writing several medical papers and chapters in books, she started her journey in the literary world. Seeking Redemption was her first fiction book which is now followed by I Owed You One.
 
Having done her graduation, MBBS from King Georges Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow she went ahead to pursue her post-graduation, MD from AIIMS, New Delhi. She was a faculty at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi having been associated with management of patients living with HIV/AIDS. She is now settled in Melbourne, Australia with her family, where she is devoting most of her time to writing, the passion that she couldn’t pursue earlier because of the demands of medical profession and commitment it requires.
 
When not creating stories, Madhu enjoys reading and traveling.
 
Contact the Author:
 
 

Book Review: The Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh

Posted in Book Reviews by

About the Book:

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“In the summer of 1947, when the creation of the state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people—Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs—were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. One of these villages was Mano Majra.”

It is a place, Khushwant Singh goes on to tell us at the beginning of this classic novel, where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one day, at the end of the summer, the “ghost train” arrives, a silent, incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.

My Thoughts:

The story has been narrated quite well and manages to capture the horror of the situation at the time of independence at the borders. The story is based in a small isolated village called Mano Majra where the most exciting thing to happen would be the stopping of a train. This would be watched by all the villagers. The village is also one where people from different religions live together and treat each other as equal.

Amidst all the peace, an unknown person steps into the village and slowly things start happening. First is the arrival of a ghost train in the middle of the night, following the arrival of a number of soldiers. This triggers various incidents leading to slow divisions between the people of the village due to religion.

The one aspect of the story which I felt was a bit out of place or rather did not seem to fit was the love story between a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl. There was no concrete development on this front and though I waited until the end to understand the point of this plot line, I could not find any. Also, there are a few times the story seems to move away from the main plot line and these side stories do not seem to fit with the entire idea. They just seem to be there without a reason.

In spite of the above, the story is well written and does get across to the reader the situation at the time as well as the hardships faced by people. It also shows us clearly, how the people were so easily divided when asked to choose and ultimately how religion started becoming a barrier between those whose families had lived together for generations.

I recommend this book to all as it outlines a part of the history of our country in an interesting way.

Buy link to Amazon.in (courtesy of the amazon associate program):

The Brothers’ Keepers by Matthew Peters

Posted in Book Reviews, BookWorld, Uncategorized by

This book is going to release on 1st October 2014. The book is currently available for pre-order through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and MuseItUp Publishing. I was given an advance reading copy by the author in exchange for an honest review. I must say the book is definitely worth reading.

Links to pre-order The Brothers’ Keepers

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1rAmd7o 

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1qNxMnO

MuseItUp Publishing: http://bit.ly/1nACJCG

 

About the Book:

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Most of us are familiar with Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, and Jesus’ purported spouse, Mary Magdalene. But what about Jesus’ siblings? What role did they play in early Christianity?

Contemporary Jesuit and renowned religious historian Nicholas Branson is about to find out…and the answer will shake the foundations of the Judeo-Christian world.

It all starts with the murder of a United States Senator in a confessional, and the discovery of a strange religious document among his possessions. At the urging of his FBI friend, Branson joins the investigation. His effort to uncover the truth behind the murder draws him into the search for an eight-hundred-year-old treasure and into a web of ecclesiastical and political intrigue.

Accompanied by a beautiful, sharp-tongued research librarian, Jessica Jones, Branson follows a trail of clues, from the peaks of the awe inspiring French Pyrenees to the caves of war-torn Afghanistan. Along the way, shadowy powerful forces trail the pair, determined to keep safe a secret buried for centuries.

How will it end? Read The Brothers’ Keepers … if you dare.

 

My Thoughts:

This is a fast paced thriller which is as good and as gripping any Dan Brown novel.

The story revolves around the controversies related to the basis on which Christianity was established and Jesus and his siblings. There are many conspiracy theories that the author makes use of with thorough research to back up the claims. The author mentions his sources for most things mentioned in the book at the end.

The story progresses at a fast pace with not a single second wasted in unnecessary details. The reader is drawn into the book from the very first second and will not be able to put it down until the end. Nick Branson is a scholarly Jesuit who gets called in by his FBI friend to look over a document found at a murder victims office. Little do they realise that this will lead them on a hunt for something that has been hidden for a very long time, something that can question the very foundation of Christianity and shatter people’s belief. Accompanied by a beautiful research librarian Jessica Jones, the story follows Nick as he races against those trying to kill him and prevent him from finding out the truth. In this race to the finish, we see that even the Christian church, the government an many high ranking people involved and the plot only thickens as deceit runs high and no-one will hesitate to pull the trigger.

The suspense is strong and will keep the reader questioning everything they ever thought about the religion to the extent that they may end up questioning their own faith. A strong and well thought out story, this will drop a bombshell that will have the readers scurrying around to read more and understand. The foundation of this story rests on thorough research that only helps support the claims even more leaving us pondering what we really believe in.

The story is well written and the author has done a brilliant job with it. I am sure anyone who loves Dan Brown’s novels will enjoy this as well! This book is just a taste of what author Matthew Peters is really capable of and a taste of this book will have readers counting down the days till his next book.

A Prayer Series by Samreen Ahsan

Posted in Book Reviews, BookWorld by

About the Books:

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Adam Gibson is a young and powerful Toronto millionaire. Despite his many blessings, he is an atheist, though he has an altruistic soul. He denies there is a God—until he meets a beautiful stranger in a place that does not exist for anyone but him.

Rania Ahmed strongly believes in God, but has lost hope she will ever find her soul mate. Endowed with hypnotic beauty and cursed by a brutal past, Rania has no idea she has cast a spell on Adam, who has never received more from a woman than physical pleasure. As Adam slowly discovers the true meaning of love from Rania, he begins to face his demons and reconsider his beliefs. He learns to love, forgive and repent. But as Adam grows closer to Rania, a series of strange, unexplained events threatens to drive them apart. To keep her from being destroyed by her past, he must persuade her to trust him with her deepest secrets.

In this spiritual romance, an atheist embarks on a path of enlightenment with a tormented soul who may just have the power to change everything he has ever believed to be true.

 

My Thoughts:

This series is a most compelling read. Once started, it is difficult to put down even for a second. A story of love and religion and belief, this series is full of twists. Set against the backdrop of the modern day, the reader is drawn into a story with supernatural  occurrences and strong beliefs. The protagonist, Rania is a strong believer in God and assumes that everything that happens is for a reason. She believes that all you need to do is have faith and pray and that at some point God will answer those prayers. Adam on the other hand is the true definition of an atheist. His experiences since childhood have moulded him that way and rendered him heartless.

Rania brings faith into his life as he learns to love and face his demons. The reader is given insights into the Islamic culture but the overall message is the same, have faith and believe. Rania on the other hand learns to trust Adam and allows him to slowly break through her defenses. Every situation in this story is a result of some circumstance or someone’s reactions. A lot of insight is given into each of the characters in this story and they are built up well.

Rania and Adam develop a relationship and as it progresses, she learns to trust him enough to share her secrets and he learns to be patient. Being a very wealthy man, Adam tries to shower Rania with gifts but all she wants is his heart and soul. This story focuses on how each character is ultimately forced to face their demons and come to terms with their relationships, be it Adam with his mother or Rania with her father. Some amount of supernatural existence is brought into the story with demons and angels and jinn as explained by Rania. The author shows us that there is more to religion than just blind faith. There is a lot of understanding and patience as well as some amount of trust. Everything happens for a reason and that is reinforced in so many ways throughtout the series.

The stories are split into chapters which tell the story from different points of view. It is sometimes from Rania’s and at other times from Adam’s point of view giving us an insight into the thoughts and feelings of each of the principal characters.

The readers are also reminded that relationships built on trust and faith last longer. I would not say that atheists are wrong, it is just how they think, but reading this story will ensure the reader will stop and re-evaluate their ideas and beliefs. All this has been rendered without the author sounding preachy. A wonderfully written series, this is a brilliant set of books to read which will keep the reader hooked till the end. I am afraid that if I continue raving I will end up letting out most of the story. To avoid that I strongly suggest that everyone should grab copies of the books and bury themselves in the story.