Designing Destiny by Daaji Kamlesh Patel

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My Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: Non-fic, inspirational

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About this book:

What does destiny mean in the course of our lives?

What is fixed and what can change?

How can we design our own destiny?

These are questions that some of the world’s greatest philosophers have asked since time immemorial. In this groundbreaking book, Daaji addresses such questions with simple solutions and practical wisdom. He leads us on to the next stage of the journey after The Heartfulness Way, guiding us on how to use the Heartfulness practices to refine our lifestyle and design our destiny, including our destiny in the afterlife. He elaborates on the subject of consciousness, the role of evolution, and explains what happens to us at the time of birth and death—and how we can act in those pivotal moments when life takes a turn.

It’s all about the click by Priyanka Mathur

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Book Review:

It’s all about the click is as realistic as it is fantastical. Lost in her imaginary worlds, Mitali is searching for someone she will just click with. But finding a perfect partner on the web is never a good choice. With people and their insane expectations, downright demeaning stereotypes and absurd behaviour, Mitali thinks she will never find the someone she is looking for. Until she does. That’s where the realistic part of the story ends and the romantic surrealism begins. Her life is thrown in the whirl wind and she does not know what choices are right anymore. Well, I must say that I don’t like romance very much which is why I was quite disappointed with the second half of this book but the beginning was intriguing and I was surprised to notice that the writing wasn’t that bad. It is a fast-paced book so the story does not drag on for long. Yet, I didn’t quite like Mitali’s character much. Guess I am just over characters who are way in over their heads.

But I appreciate the kind of subtle social message the author has tried to give in the first half of the book showcasing the different stereotypes that exist in the society.

The Jugni by Gagan Saini

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My Rating: 3/5 stars

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About the Book:

Who is Jugni? An angel or a devil? A vigilante? A superhero? Or a ghost of city’s dead super cop Simar? Simar, who against all odds, started her journey to root out evil from the society. Her challenging journey had its consequences. 
Now, call Jugni whatever, but she is the only hope to save the city from a massive attack when no one from outside can help.

Done With her by Chirasree Bose

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My Rating: 4/5 stars

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About this Book:

A gripping tale of love, lust, obsession and murder. It’s a kick in the guts. Love that’s raw, lust that’s insane and obsession that’s frantically irresistible. Twists will keep you on the edge while the truth will stab at your subconscious.
Avesh Mathur, a techie stumbles upon the enchanting and sultry Spreeha at work. Every man in his office wants to have her. But he is struck with horror. She happens to resemble a girl from his past. The past that he’d do anything to keep under wraps.
Spreeha lives next door to Avesh. She watches him furtively day and night even though she has a lover. He intrigues her, however, she’s not done with her lover. She wants them both because they remind her of someone. 
What tragedy awaits Avesh? Is the girl he’s madly falling for as beautiful on the inside as on the outside? Will he finally have to face the frightening truth that he’s been stashing for two years?

The Legends of a Start-up Guy by Prachi Garg

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My Rating: 4/5 stars

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My review:

The Legends of a Start-up guy is a book about entrepreneurship that is intertwined with Hindu mythology. But it is not just a fictional story, but also a motivational book. It could also be used as a reference book by someone looking forward to starting up a new venture.
Now one might think how is there so many things summed up in one book? Well, the book tries to fit the story of an entrepreneur about how he starts a new business. The story is fictional and quite interesting to read. His journey as an entrepreneur is what newbies who wish to start a start-up can learn from.
One faces a lot of problems while making a new business successful. The names of characters in the book are derived from Hindu epics. There are other underlying elements of Hindu mythology as well. The entire story is written with the narrative of real-life events where our protagonist Ganesh gets motivated to start a new venture.
Ganesha is the youngest guy in a powerful family. The names of his parents -Shiva, Parvati and Uncle Vishnu are all inspired from Hindu Mythology. And Ganesh’s character matches the Hindu epic as well. He loves food and is a bit lazy yet clever. His character is shown to be quite intelligent and innovative, much like his mythological counterpart. Since he comes from a powerful family, he tries his best to distinguish himself. He knows that it is not enough to just have a strong background. He is struggling to establish his individuality and so goes through tough times to show everyone his worth. Like most entrepreneurs, he has a strong will and determination. But more than that, he has a purpose. All businessmen who make it big in the world are those who begin with a purpose.
But it is not just a motivational book written in a fictional style. Quite the opposite actually. It gives you actual entrepreneurial tips but with the narrative of an interesting story.
There were so many elements in the book that I enjoyed. Considering that I am fascinated by Hindu mythology, I loved the relatability. When I saw Ganesha getting inspiration from his pet rat, I rolled out laughing. The book is really short and has an apt ending so any person can enjoy it even if they are not particularly interested in start-ups. But those who like reading a business book will find something refreshing in this book.
Since I have read the previous books of Prachi Garg, I am aware of her writing in non-fiction style but I became fond of her fictional writing in this book. She deals with a theme that she is most familiar with – business and writes a fantastic story on it.
The premise is written well-enough to fit into 15 concise chapters. And it was nice to see that the author gave enough attention to the other characters and portrayed them nicely. The plot is nothing extraordinary but one could term this book as a coming-to-age book. I saw the character growth of Ganesha after every chapter and loved to read how he faced the difficulties.
The book also explained important marketing concepts in an easy manner. Usually, it is difficult to explain the practicality of these concepts and with actual suggestions for implementing them. But the book does it nicely, even with the use of technical terms.
Overall, it was a fun read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I’d recommend it for some casual reading to the commoners and for serious reading to the ones who wish to start a start-up.

Chanakya (Itihasa series #1) by Ashok K Banker

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My Rating : 4/5 stars

166 pages

Published June 25th 2018 by Westland

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About this book: 

Jurist, war strategist, kingmaker. Master administrator. Author of the Arthashastra. But before the legend, there was the boy: Vishnu Gupta. Pataliputra, capital of the great Nanda empire, is teeming with crime and corruption. Granted unlimited authority by the hedonistic emperor Mahapadma Nanda, evil mastermind Maha-amatya Kartikeya has the city in a vice-like grip. But another name bubbles up through the chaos; there is talk of a young genius, Vishnu Gupta. When the Maha-amatya investigates the rumours, he recognises a future rival in the boy. He is determined to destroy this competition from the roots – family and all. Vishnu must gather all his wits and his formidable knowledge to protect everything he holds dear. The holy scriptures, his brilliant interpretations of the Vedas and the power of his unmatched mind: these are the only tools he has against the might of the most powerful man in the empire.

Rebel Sultans by Manu S Pillai

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Hardcover, First, 336 pages

Published June 15th 2018 by Juggernaut

My Ratings: 3.5/5 stars

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My review:

Because I am not much into history but this book was good. I haven’t read Manu S Pillai’s The Ivory Throne and read this book because I basically have little to no knowledge about history. So when I started reading the book, I had expected it to be boring text that just went on and on but instead, I got stories of individual characters told in a good narrative.