Books N Unicorns

Recently I heard from a few male friends that they couldn't crack an engineering exam but a few girls who scored even 10 marks lesser than they cracked the exam due to the reservation of seats for female candidates. Their plight is very justified since half of the seats in any government conducted exam are already reserved for category students. Now in the remaining half, further division of seats is truly heartbreaking since there's a lot more pressure on male candidates for finding government jobs than girls (thanks to our patriarchal society.) But the question arises, are women technically less intelligent than men? For sure there are a lesser number of women than men in prestigious institutions like the IITs, IIMs, etc., but on the basis of this one statistic, can we pass the judgement on the gender's intellect? The Human Resources departments of several Indian state governments played the gamble of introducing reservation of seats in a few educational and servi...

  Santhosh Sivaraj's debut novel The Blue Moon Day is a collection of five short stories of an equal number of men who discover the most beautiful and simple truths of their lives during their journey of life. The novel throws light on the difficulties faced by the five humans of vivid ages and how they discover the joys of living. The first story  The Pizza Engineer  belongs to an intelligent and desperately job-seeking  Abhinav, nicknamed Avi. The 29-year-old is looking for a high-paying job after completing his M.B.A and a Ph.D. during which he crosses path with Mr. Pillai. In the two days they spend together, Avi gets to learn the very basic facts of life in very simple ways, and at times the reader feels jealous why s/he doesn't get to spend time with Mr. Pillai.  The second story The Messenger  revolves around the life of a young and married man Deepak and his best friend Ajay. This story reflects the everyday problems of an MNC employee who is h...

  Mohit Uppal's debut novel Here Be Dragons is the tale of three friends who go on a thrilling adventure in the beautiful country of Italy. Koren mafias, carnival of Venice and tons of bloodshed is all rolled up together in this absolute pageturner. The story begins with a slightly depressed Ayaan Kehal, an Indian guy who has left his job, sort of broken-up with his ladylove and is on a Euro trip to find answers to the questions haunting his mind. He is surprisingly joined by his college mates Aiden Vanderwolf and Kwan-Hoon Lee at the Rome airport. Aiden, a rich American brat  along with South Korean ex-soldier Kwan have been looking for the latter's long lost love, Su Jin, a Korean prostitute. The novel doesn't lose its pace at any point. The author has crafted the mystery very well and presents jaw-dropping twists at proper gaps. The plot is well-defined and the bonding between the three men from different nationalities gives friendship goals. In particular, the de...

  Rashmi Rathi's debut novel Life isn't Such a Bitch revolves around the laws of Karma and how it affects love and life. This is the story of a young entrepreneur who is blessed to have a supporting family, lovely wife and an acclaimed company he runs along with his college friends. Krishnakant Shukla, or what he prefers to be called, 'Krish' co-owns a startup with his IIM-friends which is about to seal a deal with a huge investing company when on the day of the final meeting, their office is raided by the Income Tax department under the notice of search and seizure. On finding out that he has been stabbed in the back by one of his most trustworthy friends, Krish undergoes a state of depression and cuts himself off from the world. Some time later, he starts his journey towards spirituality following a few startling events. He spends a few days at the beautiful hill station of Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, India and observes the nature closely. His dreams are always oc...

  Emraan Hashmi's debut book The Kiss Of Life, co-authored by Bilal Siddiqi is the story of how Emraan's son Ayaan fought the battle of cancer despite all the tough times faced by his family and the four-year-old himself. The book revolves around two time phases: how Emraan Hashmi became the 'actor' Emraan Hashmi and the half-a-year-long cancer battle of Ayaan Hashmi. The Foreword by actor Akshay Kumar is pretty touching and inspiring.  The book begins with an utterly shocked father who ran with his son to a hospital after discovering something very unusual going on in his son's body. The quick happenings in the hospital take the reader to the hospital itself; doctors flashing from one room to other, nurses keeping things quick in the corridor, a stunned yet brave face mother accompanying her son to the operation theatre and a father trying very hard to hold his tears. The entire narration is so straight from the heart, the reader can find him/herself right in th...

Paulo Coelho's thirteenth novel The Winner Stands Alone revolves around a Russian millionaire Igor who is hell bent to win his ex-wife Ewa back. The story is set in a 24-hours span during the much glamorous Cannes Film Festival. The story entwines mystery and fashion in a remarkable manner, bringing a psychopath in the world of the 'Superclass.' Coelho has dug the fashion world and its communities to the core and showed his readers the dark side of the world of glitz and power. The story begins with Igor landing in Cannes during the film festival to give his ex-wife Ewa, who left him and married an haute couture designer, the message that he will destroy other 'world' for her. The Russian businessman is a man of deep knowledge of weapons and contacts. Igor starts killing one by one and keeps informing Ewa that he has 'destroyed another world' for her. Thrill and suspense make the novel an absolute page turner. The struggles of aspiring actress Gabriela ...