Book Review - One Year Of Stand Up Comedy Journey In India by Dr Jagdish Chaturvedi.

BLURB : 

When Jagdish Chaturvedi, a doctor-turned-innovator-turned-author, could not balance his schedule effectively to perform as an actor, he chose to transition from theatre to a comparatively less schedule-intensive art form - stand-up comedy.
This book is about the first year of his transformational journey, and it delves into several aspects of being a successful comedian, such as the process of writing jokes, delivering them, promoting a show, branding oneself, understanding the audience and even rescuing the show.
What are the challenges? How do you overcome them? How much can you earn and how can you sustain it on a regular basis? What are the key learnings to take from bad experiences? What shouldn't I do?
This book shares raw experiences of a growing stand-up comedian and includes a separate section that provides valuable advice from seasoned and experienced stand-up comedians. This book aims to be a struggling comic's answer to all unanswered questions with the hope to help accelerate their journey towards faster growth as a stand-up comedian.

REVIEW : 

This is the only Indian book on stand up comedy. There’s a beauty about Jagdish sir’s book, is he writes about his success and failures in such a witty manner and inspite of all this, leaves you pondering with such great preachings which is worth remembering and that can be imbibed and followed to succeed. As different people are exploring new and different fields, we are getting several new options of undiscovered and new fields to explore, one such book is ‘one year of standup comedy’ which talks about Dr Jagdish’s journey of exploring stand up comedy for the first year. What's unique is that everything that no one would share is written very honestly. Things like how to come up with jokes, make money, save a show when no one laughs and how to grow as a comedian. The frank and direct way of narration feels like a friend is sharing important tips. Around 40 established comedians from India also share their advices in between sections of the book. This is a must read for anyone who wants to try comedy and explore the profession of Stand-up comedy. So stand up, buy this book, read it and do comedy more efficiently.

RATING :
4.5/5

Book Review of The Benefits of Failing Successfully: 10 Hidden Benefits of Making Mistakes And Failing by Dr Jagdish Chaturvedi.

BLURB : 

 In this book, Dr. Chaturvedi shares ten personal anecdotes of mistakes and failures and gives a perspective of his interpretation, where he positions failures as a part of the process rather than a definitive outcome. Explaining with humorous caricatures and situations, he demonstrates numerous benefits that arise from such mistakes, why they are important and how they have helped him shape his career.
Even though the mistakes and failures made by Dr. Chaturvedi may appear trivial and in-significant when compared to those faced by many others in the general population, they highlight the principles of a very unique and positive perspective that may be applied in mistakes and failures of greater magnitudes as well. This book may serve to be food for thought for many who believe that failures are detrimental and that they should be aggressively avoided and not embraced. It may change their minds to think about failures as steps towards success, by showing how key insights from these failures can be used to empower new skills and opportunities.

 REVIEW :

We live in a world where people boast about their success and doesn’t even share a bit of their failures that they have seen or faced while reaching where they are today, and that is what we get to know ( their success stories ) in those books that they write in the name of memoir or Autobiography. Kudos to the author for being brave and writing about his failures in such an amazing and humorous way that you could actually relate to it. Well to start of with the cover i actually liked it that much that i picked up only because of its bright colors and the illustrations itself caught my attention. I read the blurb and within a minute i was reading this book with rapt attention. I got the best of lines of wisdom by the one liners that the author has shared as 1-2 liners, it is par excellence. The illustrations goes well with the context and the best part of this book is, this book can act as an inspiration and can be read by all the age groups. This book is an ode by the author to all those people who are not afraid of failing and are proud to fall only to rise and soar higher, all over again. This book can actually be considered as one Real ‘self help’ book. You can read it as many times as you want and you won’t get bored and this is what the beauty of this book is. No grammatical errors, no errors.
Go for it without even looking at the price.

RATING : 5/5
 

Book review of Investing Medical Devices - A Perspective From India by Dr Jagdish Chaturvedi.

BLURB : 

In this book, the authors share their experiences, anecdotes, insights, and failures while inventing and commercializing medical devices in India. The objective is to give entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, and clinicians a realistic expectation of the time, money, coordination and teamwork required to develop and launch a medical device in India.

The book includes a special ‘How-I-Do-It’ section and detailed appendices that form a reference and resource handbook to guide budding entrepreneurs. This book also includes a new “Advice from the Experts” section, which shares the key advice to young innovators from 23 industry experts.

The book is a recommended read for all healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, and students who want to be successful in the medical device innovation space.

REVIEW :  

In daily life, we come across a lot of people who are researching upon different medical inventions to help the mankind, and i have never ever come across such a wonderful  book that talks about invention in such an easy and broad way. This book describes an entrepreneur’s entrepreneurial journey and this book is an asset for the entrepreneurs who are trying to enter the healthcare market and try something for their own. The author has brilliant described the process, his personal experiences and easy way to enter this market and to create a product on their own keeping the complexities and India’s environment in mind. What i really liked about this book is the easy going narration and i got to know something about a field and product which was totally new to me. The book is simple without any grammatical mistakes, simple cover and it goes well with the book. This book is a sort of self help book, so it might please the masses but it will surely appeal to the larger audience who are trying to break the shell and get out of their comfort zone and so something for the society.

RATING : 
5/5 

Book Review of Daredreamers-A start-up of heroes by Kartik Sharma and Ravi Nirmal Sharma

BLURB :
 India’s first start-up of superheroes with a mission of saving lives is here to kick ass. Rasiq is riding the highs of life thanks to his successes as an investment banker. But his arrogance soon gets the better of him and he ends up losing everything he holds dear. Managing to salvage only his grit from the wreckage, Rasiq reboots his life and teams up with five uniquely talented superheroes to start a rescue venture DareDreamers. These superheroes Nick: a crazy inventor; Halka: an inhumanly strong man; Arjun: a champion shooter; Natasha: a Bollywood stunt-double; Dr. Vyom, a medical Sherlock Holmes; and, of course, Rasiq: the mastermind combine their unique talents to deliver spectacular rescue operations. Their skyrocketing success, however, comes at a price an enemy hell bent on tearing down their fame and reputation.Will DareDreamers defeat its wily adversary? Or will it become yet another failed start-up?Treachery, action and adventure come alive to make DareDreamers a page-turner.

REVIEW :
As soon as i saw this book on bookstore, i couldn't resist myself to pick this book up. the cover was so intriguing and attractive that i just picked it up without even going through the blurb. after reaching home the first thing i did was to read the blurb and i just couldn't stop myself from diving in further. Rasiq's story is not only compelling, its beyond excellence. The book is about an IIT, IIM and a guy who is full of life and ambitions Rasiq who joins the harsh corporate world after completing his studies, within 48 hours of his joining he realises where his destiny has got him into and he gets a taste of hardships that he will be facing as an employee. Though his professional career prospers but his real life starts getting hampered and that is when he realises that he is just not meant for this job and this is the time to follow his true calling and the idea of Daredreamers shapes up. The authors has beautifully described the pros and cons of both being a employee and entrepreneur. The Characters involved makes this book read-worthy and the way they have penned the story around them, makes it read worthy. I just felt the first part as compared to the second and third is quite slow and could have . been a little better only if the author could have omitted the love story of Rasiq and his girlfriend a bit. This book surely has some grammatical errors. The cover goes well with the blurb and story. this book turned out to be a fantastic read and my favorite character was Narad.

 RATING : 
This book should be picked by every book lover across, this book deserves a place in your bookshelf. 
4.5/5

Review of SUNSHINE TOWN by MANIISSH ARORA

BLURB : 

 Shlok, a lanky teenager, a daydreamer, doesn't want much from his life. A dream to make his parents happy and affection of a neighbourhood sweetheart, Natasha. Though both are poles apart, their interests bring them close. Together, they experience new emotions. But, just when they are ready to acknowledge their feeling of love for each other, it is too late.
The rapids of life set Shlok on an unexpected journey, and he realizes one can't always be in control of circumstances. Unable to crack an important entrance exam and geographical difficulties affecting his love life, Shlok's life goes through turbulent times.
All the while, his faith in God ebbs and flows, but like a wave, it ends up breaking on the shore before returning to the sea. He is confronted with a perennial question-am I good enough for anything? Holding a mirror to himself, he is faced with a decision to give up on everything he thought was right for him.
Set in Varanasi, a city in North India, during the late 90s, before the pervasiveness of technology, Sunshine Town is about the aspirations and emotional turmoil of being a teenager. This story deals with the themes of love, career, and personal fulfilment.

REVIEW : 

Hardly I come across Authors who leave the clichéd genres and write motivating books. Sunshine towns is one of them. This book deals with the hurdles that teenagers faces and the struggle they go through  during their secondary school days and college days. The plot has been woven around the protagonist Shlok’s academic failures and successes. I am personally not a person who chooses such books over murder thrillers but this turned out to be quite interesting, amazing and unpredictable and will serve as a motivation to all the kids who are appearing for any sort of examinations. What I really liked in this book is the way shlok’s parents deal with him when he failed In his medical entrance exam and the way they have always been understanding rather being dramatic ( like my parents have always been ), joke apart this book probably might not be appreciated by the season readers but Manish sir will become quite famous amongst teenagers only if he promoted this book well amongst them. The cover n the synopsis just goes well with the story and perfectly fits the plot, I must give credits to the editor, brilliant work has been done by her in making the book flawless, you won’t find a single grammatical error. Only if the Author would have worked on the supporting characters like Natasha and Yana, I felt the story is focused primarily around Shlok and I wished to see a lil more of the other characters and the one liners ( I felt they are missing ), this book would have turned out to be a perfect 10/10 read for me. I wil look forward to its sequel to know more about Natasha, as I felt she is the ignored character of this book.

P.s This book should be picked up as a Christmas gift or a new year gift by parents whose kids are appearing for competitive exams.

RATING : 4/5 

Book Review - The Prince Of Patliputra by Shreyas Bhave.

BLURB : 
 "272 BC BHARATHVARSHA, LAIID OF THE ARYAS Samrat Bindusar, son of Chandragupta and the second Samrat Chakravartin of all the Aryas rules over the massive subcontinent from his holy seat in Patliputra. Almost five decades ago, his father had laid the wealth and glory of the past has subsided. As the Samrat's health continues to decline due to an unknown illness, problems are arising all over his realm. There is infighting and rebellion. No clear successor to him is present. Ninety nine of his sons stand in line waiting for his throne. Bharathvarsha needs a Chandragupta once again. And it needs a Chanakya too. Can the young Prince Asoka, who is the least favorite son of the Samrat, fill the boots of his grandfather? Can Radhagupta, a mere Councilor of the Court be what Chanakya was to all the Aryas? Begin a new adventure with the first book of the Ashoka trilogy as you read to find the answer to one great question- That who shall be the next Samrat of this holy land of the Aryas? "

REVIEW : The book revolves around the two majestic figures of indian history-bindusara and samrat chakravartin,who have been instrumental in shaping the indian history. The book takes us through the time when their respective dynasties needed a political reform that would register their names in the golden pages of human history.the book is filled with extremely inquisitive incidences as several questions are answered while others are left unaswered. The characters of the book provide an insight into the day -to day scheming and political discussions that formed the backbone of the two most credible dynasties of india. As compared to the textbookish history i felt the one explained by Shreyas is exemplary and made me understand the characters really well. The narration is very lucid and comprehensive and the vocab included can be understood by all the readers easily. I just felt that a sequel is needed to make some concepts a lil clear in my head, otherwise the book is amazing and should be picked up by all the mythology lovers across the world.

RATING : 4/5

BOOK REVIEW - It's got to be love by Prashant Kaul.

BLURB : 
 Meet Dev Sharma, a young student, who has a unique ability – he has nightmares that unfortunately come true.
It’s Got to Be Love weaves around Dev and his friend Vikram. Dev is initially smitten with Carol, a college girl, but due to various reasons, they part ways. He meets Vaani through Facebook and a steady friendship develops between them, which soon blossoms into love. However, Vaani turns down Dev, for reasons known only to her.
Will Dev win back his love?
Will Carol come into his life again?
Join Dev on his emotional roller-coaster ride in Chandigarh, Delhi and Mumbai.

REVIEW : 
 
Writing a love story is the most difficult task in today's time. Prashant Kaul just manages to do it with appreciable flamboyance. To Start with the cover page of the book shows an insight into the the everyday life of Dev whoo rows without the company of his parents and is thus just like a sapling that grows without the shade of a tree. As we read more the novel turns into a quirky narrative pf Dev's love episodes and how he tries to find solace in them, but in vain. The story strarts with a bang but became quite slow in the mid and as the reader proceeds towards the ending the book turns out to pick its lost pace. To begin with the actual review, the cover is catchy enough and the reader shall pick the book up just after looking at it once, the blurb as compared to the story gives an apt jist of the entire story. The editing failed to get all the marks, as i feel i could actually find some major flaws in the punctuation and grammatical errors. Overall the language is lucid and will keep the readers hooked to the book till the very end. For me this book has all the qualities to turn into a movie.

RATING : 4/5 ( i am deducting .5 for editing and .5 for the grammatical errors else the book is a quick one time read )