Interview With Shikha Kumar

Interesting people always leave a great impact of their presence on your heart. Recently I had chance to interview a very 'Interesting Author' who wrote an interesting story which created a great hype among the readers. Here I present, my interview with author of 'He fixed the match, she fixed him', Shikha Kumar.

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1. So introduces yourself -

I went to engineering college for my love for computers. I've been living a busy corporate life until my itch of writing conquered my senses. Today, apart from my full-time IT job and being a wife and mother, I'm an author, relationship expert, a blogger with TOI. Hands are full making life blissful.

2. How has your school and college life been? Would you like to share some instances / memories with your readers-

I have very cherished memories of childhood especially school days. I'm still in constant touch with my friends. We try to retrieve old times in best of our capacity. My friends whose kids goes to the same school tells me that my teachers still remember me for my energy and witty replies.

3. What inspired you to write?

Mostly few bad novels and a quote of Gandhiji - "Be the change you want to see in the world". So rather complaining about frivolous and irresponsible writings, I decided to pen my thoughts and see how best can I do my bit of making the world a better place.

4. You have been associated with bharatmatrimony.com and TOI? How has your experience been working with them so far?

It was very nice to make associations with them. As a debutante author, it was an absolute delight to get them interested in my book.

5. Every person faces a lot of hardships while writing a novel! Be it mood swings , writer’s block or anything else . at that time of point who is that one person who stood by you and had been your support at that point of time ?

I'm a woman, so mood-swings are part of my personality; hence I don't take that seriously. Since I'm juggling multiple roles, I find hard to take out time to write. My thoughts keep running on my mind, and my words keep haunting me the whole day. So effectively I always have much more to write than the time at hand, so writer-block never occurred to me. My husband is undisputedly by biggest support, best buddy and most merciless critic.

6. Tel us something about your debut novel “he fixed the match, she fixed him"

It's a love story of two enemies, Shreya & Kunal. The idea is that if love is determined it can even make two foes fall for each other. Love is a healer and especially the hearts that believe in its super powers, cannot overlook the blessings bestowed on them.

7. What made you write this novel, is it inspired from a real life story?

No story as such is purely fictitious, but thoughts behind it are mine or inspired by few incidents, I  closely witnessed. I took as a responsibility to write a story that could contribute in positivity about relationships.

8. Any one such character from your book which is close to you and is very special to you and why?

Shreya, of course. She's my wannabe. And when girls write back to me that they loved her, and the story has affected their relationships constructively; as an author my job is done.

And certainly I love Kunal equally. He's spoiled one, but that doesn't make him less-loved. I think there's a devil in each one of us, loving that devil is the only way to tame it.

9. Who is your favorite author and any one such person who writing and books has inspired you to write?

I loved "Fault in our stars" in recent times. I think apart from Twilight series that is one book I cherished reading thoroughly.

10. According to you, how does reviews, promotion and marketing help a book to become a bestseller?

You just can't do without them. A well-written book is never enough, word of mouth publicity is very instrumental in reaching readers. And without good reviews, aggressive marketing- there's nothing you can do about getting eyes to your book. With so many books in the market these days, a good book has to be well-promoted to stand out.

11. What do you like the most about yourself and your writings?

I love creating characters. Giving them a personality and an attitude is my favorite part of weaving a story.

12. Anything that you want to improve about yourself.

Trying to be little brief maybe. Keep a check on word count for next book.

13. If you have to describe yourself in 3 words, what would it be

Adamant

Witty

Emotional

14. At we conclude this interview, any suggestion/ message from your end for your readers/ well wishers /friends.

Be positive and insist on only consuming positive thoughts. Be happy and make others happy. Keep doing your bit in making the world a better place.

15. Any piece of advice from your end to your fellow writers.

Write good stories and be original. Perfection is a perception. Eventually a good story & storytelling matters, good English is important but not as such as engaging storyline. So focus on your characters rather vocabulary.

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Karna's Alter Ego - Book Review

ABOUT THE BOOK

Karna, the ill-fated hero of Mahabharata. Many feel he deserved to win. If only luck had favoured him...

5000 years later, we have a man named Vasu, who is much like Karna – illegitimate birth, very talented but denied all credits in life, rejected in love, misses a medal in the Asian games, gets caught for telling an innocent lie, overlooked for promotion. He begins to identify himself with Karna, and interestingly Karna appears to him after every debacle to assuage and encourage him. 

It seems Vasu is Karna’s alter ego.

BOOK REVIEW

Some books are so good that you never want to leave them. They are not just the books but a life itself. Such book is Karna’s Alter Ego by Surendra Mohanty. This book talks about a very simple boy who is living is a village and is finding pretty difficult to move on in his life and then suddenly his own alter ego guides him on his journey. This book is not about mythology of Mahabharata and even not a fiction only but is the blend of both. Basically this book talks about the ‘life’ and how it should be dealt with.

This book takes you on a journey that talks about everything about Mahabharata but from other perspective, from Karna’s prospective and the meaning of those things in our today’s life.  Author has developed both the characters so sensibly that sometimes you’ll get indulged in one of the character and will start to live the conversation between them. This is a kind of book that you’ll love to refer at some time of your life to find out the reasons and solutions of problems you’ll be facing in your life.

The book ends with lots of things that author leaves for the readers to anticipate and that was the beauty of the story and the writing of the author. There's a lot to take from this book but in the end, it's all on the reader himself.

This is a rare kind of a book and it should find a prestigious place on your bookshelf, for sure. I’ll rate this book 4.5/5.

Adhira by Aditti Gaur - Book Review

What will you choose from life or death when you have the choice to take one ? 
And who would u give prefernce to: yourself, your family or you friends..?

The story is narrated by adhira's doctor friend ridhi.. the story revolves around the girl adhira who is suffering from bone marrow aplasia and has only 8 months to survive..though she is married to akshit from the last 5 years but she prefers to live alone. Blessed with a beautiful gang of best friends consists of 4 amazing people ' siddhartha, priya, shikhar and anirudh' ..
Adhira is a person who achieved everything she wanted and made sure that she gives a way to those people who wandered away from their path and no opportunity through her studio.. you will eventually meet some really great characters like stephy,shikhar .. who all are they? And what changes did they bring in her life ? What happens next? What happened to adhira? Did she survived? What about ridhi? Will adhira get her love back? Is it the end of her love story or starting or a pit-stop? 
To know the answers of these questions, come and sit back on the roller coaster and gear up for the ride and hold adhira in your hand and start reading...

Strength : 
The whole novel is narrated by the third person, unique and a very amazing manner to present a book..
Story has been written step to step to maintain a flow which again will hook the readers up to the story till the end..
This novel is totally women centric and the pains and woes have been scripted amazingly, keeping all the struggles of the lady's life perfectly..
Great and high values and we can say importance to every character is given specifically and the author will teach you to take things calmly and to tackle every condition very smartly and patiently.. 

Weakness : the beginning is quite slow and boring, and the ending could have been much better.. you will find lack of editing and proofreading ( but these things don't count in the mistakes of authors, editors kindly look into this ).. again platform is not that much strong and could have been much more impressive..book cover just don't match with the story and these mistakes form a part of publisher's mistakes..

Conclusion :
An amazing book, uniquely narrated..this book will be loved by the readers for the extraordinary narration and coz of a new story writeup..i loved the way aditti gaur has expressed her emotions ..
Die hard love story lovers just grab this book, coz this book will live upto your expectations and will help you to learn to rise up from adverse conditions and stand firm.!!

Writeup : 3.5/5
Editing : 1/5
Proodreading : 1.5/5
Cover page : 1.5/5
Blurb : 3 /5
Overall : 3/5

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Buy your copy from amazon.

One tequila two tequila by Supriya Parulekar - BookReview

Once upon a love, handsome young man, gorgeous young girl, never meant to fall in love.
for the gal ..they were never meant to fall in love..
For the boy..he had failed miserably in the matters of the heart..
Until one day..their paths crossed, fates met..
Love happened, once and then forever..


This story is written in a flashback mode, where kosha's daughter is reading her mom's story..



Story revolves around a girl named kosha, carefree, cool attitude, photographer by profession and a person who prefers to live life on the edge ...she runs away from her own engagement leaving everything behind through the help of her best friend, leaving her would be fiance behind.. 

Kosha never believed in love coz of some of the unfruitful incidents which happened in her life some years back and thus made her believe that love is a sheer waste of time and marriage never lasts..

But suddenly, what happened next? What twists and turns actually took place in her life? What made her believe in love? What are those unfruitful experiences which kosha had? Why kosha don't believe in love and marriages? To find out all the mysteries and the answers to them, just sit back and have one tequila and enjoy reading this tipsy book...

Positive aspects :

The cover and the blurb and the title just simply goes apt with the story and its simply perfect...you cannot find even a single error, neither punctuation errors nor editing..apart from this conversations which take place between tanu and kosha, kosha and her  daughter is simply touching, any person can relate with them..

The characterization of each and every character is beautifully characterized..

Negative aspects :

Supriya has not justified with the rest of the characters in comparison with kosha, i felt everyone was sidelined..besides this, some past moments were unnecessarily written again and again..! 

Story was a bit predictable too..!

Conclusion :

This book is just like a refreshing and intoxicating tequila, and you can simply dive into the different flavors of the book and can enjoy this wonderful book..! A short, simple, catchy book with a different story, with a lesson to learn at the end..!

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Buy your copy from Amazon.

3 @ a time by Diptendu - Book Review

Falling in love is one of the most exquisite feeling, but what if one person falls in love with 3 at a time? 

3 at a time revovles around deepankar and his tryst with trust, love, relationships, betrayal and humiliation with 3 girls at the same time along with maintaining his reputation as the wonder boy of his college..

It is said that love happens once, but what if everytime you fall in love with the wrong person at the right time? 

Will the search for his perfect soul mate be completed after this rendezvous with all the 3 girls ? Will deepankar still have faith in love after facing so much of heartbreaks? And in the end, what will happen, what game will destiny play? 

To find out the answer to all these unanswered questions, read 3@ a time..!

Positive aspects : 

This novel is full of spices and has perfect ingredients, the story will keep you hooked, the die hard college friendship, raging and you can find everything which forms part of college life ..dance, drama, action, lust, love, college crushes, humour, agony and ecstasy are some of the major ingredients and one can easily relate with all these things.and can relive his/her college life once again..

One will realise the need of friends, and the importance of many other things through this story..

The ending was really amazing..the climax part is intriguing and it covered all the boring parts of the book..

Negative aspects :

Publishers and the editorial team just disappointed me, this book needs some serious editing, and lack of proofreading just made it awful..!

 It could have been better had it been edited good..!

Conclusion : 

3 at a time it overall an amazing book with perfect blend of spices, and even after all the flaws and lack of editing, this is a one time read book and has a really good scope, if only it goes for re-editing once..!

Rating :

Bookcover/blurb : 3/5

Editing/proofreading :1.5/5

Title : 2.5/5

Story : 3/5

Overall : 2.75/5

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Buy your copy from Amazon.

Love Beyond Words by Himanshika Sharma - Book Review

Love beyond words is the debut novel of himanshika sharma published by authors' ink publication.. 

Love beyond words is a combination of friendship, romance, pain and happiness with a tinge of love.. this story revovles around kriti, a courageous girl who possess a really positive attitude towards life who fell in love with kunal ..though she is blessed with supportive parents, caring partner, healer friends to betrayal..this story will take you to the roller coaster ride and will keep you hooked till the end..!

Granny's preaching, societies perspective,  and definitely a love filled journey..!!

Positives: 

This story has been written by keenly observing the prevailing conditions of a society..himanshika has done justice with the characters and the story and has made it a page turner from the starting to the end..i just simply loved the characterisation and the way it is done simply filled life in the characters..

Negatives:  writer just have to keep some things in mind from the next time ,that is the punctuation errors and sentence forming other than that i don't feel any kinda drawback..! 

Conclusion : overall its a wonderfull read and will make you go aww at the end..! I am simply in love with the raw writeup of himanshika and she has done justice to the story

Story line : 3.8/5

Writeup : 4.5/5

Story : 5/5

Overall: 4.5/5

*****

Buy your copy from Amazon

@Dreams by Joginder Rohilla - Book Review

At dreams is a book which is written for everyone who has a dream, who wants to follow the inner voice in persuit of his dreams..and keeping this very topic in mind the story of this book is written. this book actually revolves around friends ,bonding ,love and will definitely redefine the meaning of brotherhood and friendship . The story is about  the protagonist umang , a middle class teenager who qualified the entrance exam and applies for admission in govt. College just to avoid the high admission fees. Far from his expectations and dreams somehow he got chemical engineering which was way more different from his dream, amid the financial crisis in his family, he followed his dreams of persuing engineering with the support of his brothers tarang and swastik.. his brother has always been his motivation factor and have always inspired him to achieve something big and to follow his dreams..

But later in college, umang sarthak and virat entangled in everything from bunking classes to drinking..samar had strong feelings for mahina but couldn't dare to open his heart to her where as umang's heart started beating for pavitra.. but the sudden realization of their dreams changed their lives completely.. what exactly happened with umang? What did actually broke him down? His own learning therapy failed to bring him back on life's track ? What could have beenn the reason behind this ? How will umang cope up with all these hurdles? Will samar be able to speak the language of love to mahima ? Yes or no ? And if yes, will mahima respond back in the same language ?

To get answers all this question do read @dreams and enjoy this journey of love, laughter, fun, dreams, learning and inspirations..

Strength of the book : engineering being the core of this whole book is beautifully described ..the scene of ragging is very engaging and have been protrayed very nicely.. a new concept ' learning therapy ' has been introduced in this book by the author which will keep you hooked..one can easily take help from the lead character amd can learn to tackle adverse situations ..impression dialogues, effortless narration.. title is apt and story is amazing and engaging..

Weakness : the story is written in much of a prologue form, which might distract the readers ..

Allover : if you are looking for a motivational book, then you must pick up this one ! Every engineering student will connect to this book and will surely recall their college days..! All in all joginder has done justice with this book and has presented a masterpiece in the form of "@dreams".

You deserve 3 A's : amazing, admiring and awesome..

Coverpic : 3.5/5

Storyline: 4/5

Narration: 4/5

Overall: 4.5/5 

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Buy the book from Amazon