Book Review: Romi & Gang

Book:  Romi & Gang

Author:  Tushar Raheja

ISBN:  978-81-926810-0-9

Genre:  Fiction

Price:  149 (I got it from Author)

Pages:  237

Publisher:  Pirates

 

Introduction:
 
Going by the general consensus: Let me first begin with a question- what’s the most cherished moment of your life.  I am sure without much discrepancy memories of our childhood stands out tall amongst all the reminiscence.  Its right we all wanted to grow up at a certain point in time but there are instances when we all wanted childhood to stay forever.  Romi & Gang is a fictitious tale of such an evocative narration which claws us back to our childhood days, to all those memories we wanted to stay lifelong.

Cover Page & Title:

Romi & Gang is ably depicted through the cover page and any onlooker can visualize through the cover page  i.e.,  it’s a fitting story of school going chaps from the hills who form a group and the title concedes a conform to be partners through all ups and down in line with those of a gang. What is conceals is worth pondering as it encompasses all the passion and those childhood dreams we all want to accomplish.

About the Author:

Tushar Raheja’s first book was the popular comedy, Anything for you, Ma’am. At the moment, he is a doctoral candidate at IIT Delhi in the field of Applied Probability. He can be contacted at tushar@raheja.org


Compositional Report:

Romi, one of the members of York, a cricket team perceives it’s upon him and his team to restore the long lost pride of their School by conquering the Eagles (a cricket championship) after a mysterious disappearance of his proficient brother Kim. Romi is moved by his brother’s skill and more often than not comprehends he has to win the championship for his brother.  A team which could make Romi’s dream into reality includes Versatile Sunny, Dodgy Sukhi and blunt Golu.  Romi considers his team along with Kim’s inspiration is enough to revive his fortunes but is always circumspect about Sunny edging over him in terms of his abilities. 

As it’s said will and determination can follow suit only when it gets the adequate guidance required. No doubt Romi and his group had the caliber but they need to last and there Victor sir came along with timely counseling from Romi’s first coach, his Dad. Coupled with the moral and mental support provided by Romi’s dad and victor sir’s physical forbearance Romi and his gang were up for the grabs first to impress their school as they could compete with the seniors and then challenge five time winners St. Martins for the Eagles.

Characterization of the passion for cricket for me is the highlighting part of Romi and Gang and it does take the center stage as whatever is followed up in the story has a direct impact on the lives of each and every person involved. Victor sir’s note to Romi, Romi’s Father’s inspirational tips as well as sunny staging ahead of Romi even at the end needs a special recognition as far as the story is concerned.
As far as the loose end is concerned it would be Kim’s absence. There was no reference of any whereabouts of Kim which was carried in suspense all throughout and it ended in suspense. Ending also showcased unfortunate partition of Romi’s kingpin Sunny because of the mishap which was again a mystery to seek.

Over all Romi & Gang is an effluent story of Romi, a story of a teenager chasing his dream.
Tushar has efficiently delved into the characterization of Romi along with his other gang members Sukhi, Golu and Sunny. Plots and subplots were carefully fed to bring out the essence and it never did diverted from the theme and thus we get to read a vibrant story of teenagers is aptly conceived and then portrayed through a mesmerizing story line where a reader can connect vividly.  

Rating:  I would Rate Romi & Gang 4 out of 5

Life Adjudication of the book:

A Book where you can go back to your past and relive those dreams with a penchant  smile…!!!

Book Review: The Lost Paradise

Book:  The Lost Paradise

Author:  Anjali Vaswani and Vikas Bansal

ISBN:  9789350880524

Genre:   Fiction

Price:  139 ( I got it directly from the writer)

Pages:  168

Publisher:  MAHAVEER PUBLISHERS
Introduction:
What we do to others comes back to us and it’s our conduct which decides whether it would be hurting or a pleasing one. ‘The Paradise Lost’ proves the camaraderie of our acquit i.e., when we are committed to serve people out of their dungeons staking our lives  we would ourselves be bestowed with those who would stake their life for us. This book would also impel you to reckon the harsh realities of life-‘life is certainly not a bed of roses and more often than not it’s the genuine good people who have to bear brunt the most.’

Cover Page & Title:
 With a glimpse of the Cover page …one could ideate it’s a book invested on woman and the two females in the cover -one proud and confident and the other in her knees, folding arms to herself, looking upwards  gives much insights about the different shades a woman would portray in the story. “The lost paradise” title is as adorning as it could be and it depicts a life which would be a gem worth living as if a life in a paradise but alas it’s lost.

About the Author:
Anjali Vaswani, is working as a Test Engineer in Naukri.dom. She is an avid reader. Her friends describe her as chirping sparrow and person who always wants to lead the crowd, not just be a part of it. She loves to watch Cricket and is a huge Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh fan.
Vikas Bansal, works as an operation Manager in Cilory.com. He is a notorious person by heart. When he is not in office, he likes to watch movies and play games. His friends usually call him a heart stealer


Compostional Report:
 ‘The lost paradise’ started with Anjali narrating a typical day of her life where she was all set to meet Vikas (a person she was in love with)and few other friends at  India gate. It seemed for a moment this would be a story of Anjali and Vikas but yes there was a twist and it was right at the beginning. Here enters Riya Aggarwal who was holding up a peace protest for Justice…and the real story began.

Riya Aggarwal hailed from a typical conservative middle class family from Merrut whose parents (especially her father Mr. Dileep Agarwal) were bent against female education and thus were reluctant to send her daughter to Delhi for her higher studies. Riya’s 12^th result came for her rescue where she topped school and her father finally gave in.  Riya settled in a hostel with one of her Senior Kamini and got finally got admission in one of better known colleges in Delhi (SRCC). It was all like a dream come true as she fell in love with a Senior Vivaan at first sight on her first day at college.  With time closeness between Riya and Vivaan grew and their bond became stronger. Vivaan Proposed Riya on the 20^th birthday in front of the Taj Mahal and it seemed life couldn’t be better than this…and it felt both were living a life in a paradise. Then Vivaan’s ex girlfriend Shaila came into the scene and tried to lament Vivaan’s image in front of Riya but Vivaan like any Bollywood hero came out clean. This wasn’t the end of their problem, a twist in their love story was awaiting them.


No there weren’t any villains from either of the families and the twist came in the form of Kamini’s end, her senior and her roommate. Kamini’s revelation of her involvement in Drug and sex racket and Riya’s dream of making big in the field of politics twined Riya to risk her own life to save Kamini from Hemant a person who was responsible for everything behind Kamini’s demise. Riya along with her friend Chetan and Kamini did manage to put their plan to test and succeeded not only to burst racket but also put Hemant behind bars. But little did she know that she was lurking with danger.  Hemant got a bail within a week of his arrest and in the voyage of revenge tried to kill Riya. Riya Survived the death blow and it was only possible because of Vivaan and his instrumental dedication and love towards her…This was perhaps the beginning of the inevitable.


Riya and Vivaan’s intimacy increased after the mishap and  the fairy tale continued from official reckoning of being a couple followed with the engagement and other customary traditions. But on the day of the Wedding hell broke when Hemant appeared again and this time it was Vivaan’s turn to pay up the consequences and he finally succumbed leading to an inferno for Riya. Riya’s own parents closed doors on her when she refused to abort and when she came up to his father in law’s home she found it locked and thus was left to protest at India gate for a life which deserved to live in the form of Vivaan and Riya’s Son. 


Vikas who earlier enticed Riya into a talk after knowing the entire story dug deep to help Riya and to salvage sympathy from people of the country. Finally all his deeds yielded fruit when a famous Social worker came to Riya’s rescue and finally Riya gave birth to a son and named him Vikas.

As far as the loose ends were concerned I would stress on the unnecessary misunderstanding between Vikas and Anjali right before the end and its advert in the story neither had importance nor relevance. Another flaw according to me is the negligence to cover up Hemant…a person who not once but twice came up to kill Riya and was the sole person responsible for Riya’s fate yet the story didn’t mention anything about his end.

The positives were certainly the showering of True love between Riya and Vivaan along with the story theme which was set to highlight the power of a woman.

On the whole it was riveting story and the characters of Vivaan and Riya were artfully handled, a bit more coverage of Vivaan and Riya initial bonding along with Kamini’s extended role would have been handy. It was refreshing story with passionate ending, delved with the capability and intriguing power of a female, a story inclined for displaying the latent potential of woman. This book is certainly readable and am sure readers would go through it in one go.

Rating:
 I would give ‘The Lost paradise’ 3.5 out of 5

Life Adjudication of the book:
This book is best read at times when one is forced to the wall and needs to overpower the weakness within to come out strong and face the world.