F?@k Knows by Shailendra Singh

Title : F?@k Knows
Author : Shailendra Singh
Genre : Non-Fiction / Self-Help
Publisher : Rupa Publications
Pages : 256
My Rating : 6/10
Reviewed For : Blogadda

Blurb:

 

Funny and candid, yet rich in insights on how to really live life on your own terms, this unconventional self-help manual is unlike any book around.

What do you want from life? Are you on the right track? Are you truly happy?
If your answer to these questions is F?@k knows!, then this book is for you.

Find the answers to life’s most important questions with the help of uber-successful entrepreneur, Shailendra Singh, co-founder of Percept and inceptor of Sunburn. Told with sparkling, flavourful and in-your-face humour, this book will advise you on how to:

• Find yourself (Because you’re probably lost. Admit it.)
• Follow your heart (Because if you don’t then you’ll die unhappy, you stupid f?@ker.)
• Achieve your goals (You know you want to.)
• Live life like you give a f?@k (Because...why not?)

Candid and thoughtful, F?@k Knows will show you how to really live life on your own terms, to do what you want to do and not what you have to do just because your father said so!

My Review:

So I have a confession to make & it is that, consciously I never ever pick up a self-help book. I rarely read them & less so follow them. My brief tryst with this genre started with “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” & ended with “The Alchemist”. In came along this read from Blogadda and I decided to give it a try & guess what?? I was not disappointed!! What sets this book apart from the others of its genre is that instead of being the usual boring & loaded with complex concepts, this a light and breezy read.

F?@K Knows has been written by Shailendra Singh, who has B.T.D.T. Been there. Done that. A sports marketing guru, an advertising whiz, a Bollywood producer, a shrewd dealmaker, founder of Percept Advertising – on first glance, one may think that he has it all sorted out. However, when twin tragedies strike in the form of his father’s death & his own near escape from death, the author suddenly finds himself asking some the most basic questions about his life. He then realized that he had been living it all wrong and did not want others to repeat the mistakes that he did. Hence, this book was born, where in 73 short chapters he talks about life’s lessons with humorous and interesting anecdotes.

The cover in all its bright yellow glory gets your attention where a man’s head surrounded by a multitude of choices is depicted. As you read the book, you realize that this cover is as apt as it can be since it’s all about the confusions faced by the youth of today. Happy or unhappy, lost or found, heart or mind – what does one follow when given a choice?? Well, I will leave that for you to discover as you read this book.

From the outset, this is a sort-of autobiographical book where the author has used his own experiences from personal &  professional life to give us lessons on life. The chapters are short, very random and that I think is the key to their effectiveness. The author does not use complex or flowery language, neither has he made an attempt to be preachy. He just narrates an anecdote from his life in each chapter in simple, lucid language & then goes on to point what he could have done & what he did instead. He had used everyday situations that all of us face from time-to-time & has effectively driven home the hard hitting facts about life. Though the writing is peppered with humor and the author makes light of every situation, this read will definitely make you stop & think about your own life.

The writer’s writing style is casual, humorous & witty. Thought provoking ideas are put across such that they are easy to grasp. The target audience here is the young crowd & people facing mid-life crisis. However, there is an overuse of the work “Fuck” & the read is laced with sexual anecdotes at some points. Needless to say, it might not go down well with some readers causing them to skip the entire read, terming it as fickle.

Definitely not ground-breaking but overall it is an entertaining read, about introspection, being lost, the road less travelled & self-discovery. Kudos to the author for the outright bold yet thought provoking debut effort.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com . Participate now to get free books!

Find the best price for F?@k knows by Shailendra Singh at ShoppingWish.

R.I.P by Mukul Deva

Title : R.I.P
Author : Mukul Deva
Genre : Thriller / Fiction
Publisher : Westland Books
Pages : 298
My Rating : 8.5/10
Reviewed For : Blogadda

Blurb:

R.I.P. The Resurgent Indian Patriots. Self- appointed guardians of a nation seething with anger at the endless scams and scandals rocking its very foundation. Vigilantes who vow to stop corrupt politicians and colluding civil servants. Even if it means killing them.

Colonel Krishna Athawale and his team of Special Forces officers rally to protect the country from the enemy within. They call themselves the K-Team. And no one is safe from their deadly intent. Hell-bent on stopping them is Raghav Bhagat, rogue para commando, gun for hire and Krishna’s bête noir. Caught in the crossfire is Vinod Bedi, Special Director CBI. Reena Bhagat, a glamorous news anchor, embittered by her husband’s betrayal. And two young boys, Sachin and Azaan, torn apart by the loss of a parent. It doesn’t get bigger.

My Review :

They say that an enemy within the country is far more dangerous than the one sitting outside it. And this is what exactly India is facing today. People meant to take the country on the path of development are manipulating the common man’s wealth & the country resources instead. This novel brings out the sentiments of one such Indian (the author) who like most of us is angered by the turn of events taking place in our country & the mute spectators doing nothing to change it.

When I first read the blurb for RIP, the first thought that came to my mind was “League of Shadows”. To non-lovers of Batman series, League of Shadows is a collective of vigilantes who lead the path to true justice by taking on the criminals themselves. The K-Team here from RIP is something on the same lines!!

Amongst the various Indian thrillers being penned down, this book stands out from the rest, starting from the title to its cover to its plot. The title RIP  is an acronym for The Resurgent Indian Patriots who are a group of vigilantes who won’t think twice before assassinating a corrupt politician. On the cover page, what stands out the most are various elements of warfare - a soldier carrying a gun, a syringe, a bullet & an explosion!! Coming to the plot, this one is a fast paced action-packed punch which kick-starts with 3 high profile murders (here we go…….) & a promise for more assassinations if the political scum is not cleared!!

These assassinations are carried out by the K-Team which is a team of 6 Special Forces ex-officers lead by Colonel Krishna Athawale. In case you are wondering if the “K” factor of the team is inspired by Ekta Kapoor, the answer is no. The K-Team is named so because the names of all of its 6 members start with K (too much of a coincidence, I say!!). The origin of K-team lies in the fact that India as country has become the leading name in the arena of Corruption. Exploited endlessly by the politicians to the point that every day a fresh new scam is discovered, the K-team decide to take matter in their own hands to purge the system. Naturally, there are roadblocks which the K-team encounters. One of them is in the form of an official enquiry carried out by CBI Assistant director Vinod Bedi. And another is in the form of one of the most corrupt politician’s marionette, an ex-army man gone rogue – Raghav. So here is a plot that is at its crispiest & has some shades of Bollywood style masala.

Honestly speaking, this was my first Mukul Deva novel & I wasn’t expecting much but this one does manage rock your world. The most important feature of a thriller is its capacity to keep the reader on the edge & Mukul Deva gives you just that!! Also, the author’s army background is starkly evident in this read as the author dextrously combines his knowledge & creativity with military precision (literally!!). The book has a motley of characters via whom the author brings to fore the most basic of human traits which drive the human mind & the complexities that tag with each of these emotions. However, the most salient feature of this read is that it will strike a chord with every Indian reading this book. Mukul Deva has written in a way that arouses the otherwise dormant patriotism in each one of us & bring out the rebellion. Although the author has put a disclaimer that the book is entirely a fictional work, the readers will find the characters & the various scams described in the book familiar. I thought this was one book that seamlessly kept oscillating between fiction & reality.

This is a simple read with a fast paced plot. However, the pace does slacken a bit at a few places.  The plot could have been more tighter & relatable had not the author adopted the Bollywood style conclusion. This does tend to make the plot a teeny bit fantastical instead of keeping it grounded. All in all, a read that offers radical ideas.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com . Participate now to get free books!

Find the best price for R.I.P by Mukul Deva at ShoppingWish.

The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian

Title : The Bankster
Author : Ravi Subramanian
Genre : Mystery, Thriller
Publisher : Rupa Publications
Pages : 364
My Rating : 8.5/10
Reviewed For : Blogadda


Blurb:

Bankers build their careers on trust, or so everyone thinks, till a series of murders threaten to destroy the reputation that the Greater Boston Global Bank (GB2) has built over the years. Who is behind these killings, and what is their motive? Is the banker at GB2 fast turning into a bankster? Or he was always one?

When Karan Panjabi, press reporter and ex-banker, digs deeper, he realizes that he has stumbled upon a global conspiracy with far reaching ramifications a secret that could not only destroy the bank but also cast a shadow on the entire nation. With only thirty-six hours at his disposal, he must fight the clock and trust no one if he is to stay alive and uncover the truth.

Spinning an intricate web of lies, deceit and treachery, bestselling author Ravi Subramanian, a master storyteller of financial crime and winner of the Golden Quill Readers Choice Award, returns with his most gripping thriller yet.

My review:

Well, to start with this is my first review for Blogadda & when I received a signed copy for review I was absolutely chuffed!! Tearing open the cover (literally!), the first thing that jumped out to me was the cover of this book. It’s throws off an uber sinister vibe depicting our “Bankster” with a briefcase in one hand & a pistol in another standing at what appears to be our own Mumbai’s Queen’s Necklace & with a plane rushing out in the skyline.

Moving on to the author, with three best selling thrillers on banking already in his kitty, Ravi Subramanian continues to keep the readers on the very edge with this Bank lore. To be honest, I have never read Ravi Subramanian before so I did not know what cracker of a plot was awaiting me!! But now after reading this financial thriller, I intend to visit each of his reads...

So the plot kick offs in Angola where a covert CIA agent seals off an arms deal in lieu of blood diamonds. The author then takes us to an episode in the past in Kerala where a resort owner is falsely accused of a crime that he has not committed. Laying down these two brief but essential blocks, the author steers the plot to his home ground – yes you guessed it right!! – The Greater Boston Global Bank (GB2) in Mumbai. At GB2, the author acquaints us not only with the power games (which turn as twisted as the plot proceeds) but also with a sundry of characters. With people in power trying to usurp even more power by manoeuvring each possible opportunity for their own gain while heady & young Relationship Managers trying to climb their way up the corporate ladder by any possible means, GB2 is fast becoming a breeding ground for rivalry & competitions. However, the “who wins it-who loses it” mood at the bank is hampered by a series of murders & it’s long before someone really starts connecting the dots & voila!! A pattern emerges. This is when, Karan Punjabi – the ex-banker, who is now the Financial Editor at The Times of India, steps in & opens up the Pandora’s Box as he unearths the real reasons for the death of GB2 employees.

So basically we have three plots, one with a CIA agent whose work is to strike deals for his agency. Second plot revolves around an aging man’s lone struggle in Devikulum, Kerala against the government. After the horrors of Chernobyl (Russia) & Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (Japan), Krishna Menon wants the government to come clean on the environmental impacts of a Nuclear Plant set up in Kerala & the measures taken to avoid history repeating in India!! Thirdly, we have the carnage going on at GB2 which, on the face of it, are deemed as suicides. Do you get a connection???? Of course, you didn’t & you aren’t even supposed to & neither did I!! But you have to hand it down to the author for not only weaving these three seemingly disjointed plots together seamlessly but also doing so with an edge. However, the absolute smasher of a plot is written in the last 75 pages of this book, where the hunter becomes the hunted & it is revealed who indeed holds the strings!!

The plot is spanned across diverse locales – from Angola to Kerala to Mumbai to Vienna – and as you dart from one locus to another, you will experience what is known as a rollercoaster of a ride!! Also, each character in the plot is relatable, since the author brings out the most basic human instincts through them. Greed for more power, backstabbing, envy, moral bankruptcy - just to name a few!! The plot can be compared to a big game of chess where you don’t know who is a pawn & who is the king till the end!!

Fortunately I received this book on a Friday & before I knew it I was done with over the weekend!! I never realised how I breezed past the bulk of the book!! And I can say that for non bankers like me, the author provides an interesting insight into the banking world - all neatly packaged & beautifully presented replete with its corporate twists & turns where loyalties keep changing every second. The only point that did not go well with me was that at the end not all the characters were given the right attention which left me kind of unsatiated. But other than that, this book is a Total Blockbuster..oops...a “Bankbuster”...

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com . Participate now to get free books!