Books N Unicorns

Since the release of the trailer, every single person has been waiting for Dangal to hit the cinema screens, and the wait had indeed been worth for. Despite all the opposition for Aamir Khan for his 'intolerance' comments, the charm of the movie has been powerful enough to hush down the noises, all at once. The movie begins with a quick pace, portraying Mahavir Singh Phogat's desire for a wrestler son, fathering four daughters, and preparing them to be world-class wrestlers.  Characters Geeta and Babita Kumari Phogat have been peerlessly played by both the child actresses, Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar, and Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra as adult sisters, respectively. The casting team has done an admirable job; Girish Kulkarni playing the national coach, Sammar as the sisters' close cousin, Sakshi Tanwar as Daya Shobha Kaur, all bring the characters to life with their flawless acting. Coming to Aamir Khan's performance, the PL actor proves that he a...

The Alchemist author Paulo Coelho's latest book ' The Spy ' is based on the adventurous life of the famous accused secret agent of the late 1800s, Mata Hari. Written in the format of a pair of exchanged letters, the novel throws light on the early life of the exotic Dutch dancer, and her side of explanation for the convinced espionage. The story begins with the execution process of Margaretha Zelle - stage name Mata Hari - by the French government. The absence of fear from the dancer's face and body language reflects her boldness since the very beginning. The story moves forward in the form of a letter by Mata Hari to her attorney, Maitre Clunet. The letter encapsulates her entire life journey; from a little girl in Holland to being deceitfully married to finally becoming the desire of scores of men around the world. The 208-page novel has been published by Penguin Random House in a hardcover format, which is pretty handy and kind of cute too, The bestselling aut...

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...