MellowDrama

I grew up in a small town- Palampur- in Himachal Pradesh in the 80s and 90s. I was the only child in the house for quite sometime and was surrounded by adults- my maternal grandparents and uncles and aunts as well as doting neighbours of the now dead phenomenon called the mohalla.  My grandfather who was fondly called Bauji by everyone, owned an electronics shop, the kind which sells you tube lights and fans and switches. Right next to him was a bookshop. Nothing big or glamorous by any means or standards but more like a rectangular box out of which came all sorts of stationery, chart papers and comics, some college course books  as well and ah how could I forget the copies and more copies of Rapidex English Speaking Course. I was often sent over to my grandparents' house because my parents were both working. I can't recall my age at the time, but I must have been grown up enough to read very well because when Would begin to get on my grandmother's nerves, I would be b...

I AM M-M-MUMBAI is a romantic novel written by @fishyrishi / Rishi Vohra. This is his third work of fiction. . The book revolves around a Mumbai lad Rudra Talpade who wants to become a Hindi film actor. But this wish remains deep inside his heart as he knows that it is just next to impossible to make it come true. Why? Because Rudra stammers. The story progresses and we meet other characters that make up the book among which are his parents, a sister living in the US and his  friends Shibani and Ankur. We also know that Rudra is working as an Assistant Director for a certain film where only the lead actress is kind to him. Soon Rudra meets Richa at a wedding and falls hard for her. Richa agrees to meet him on a couple of occasions and breaks off her engagement to be able to follow her heart which she has been inspired to do, by Rudra. But soon enough she realises that it was a mistake and dumps Rudra who akin to Devdas spirals down to some bar, gets sloshed, finds himself in a...

The Chopra Sisters is Rahul Vishnoi's third presentation after Who Burned The Moon? and a collection of shorts called Love Littering the Lanes. I have read the debut book and one of the 4 stories featured in the collection. Then I read this and I can summarise all that I have to write by saying that he is getting better at his craft. But as a had-been editor, I won't be justifying my previous job title if I do not talk about the lacunae. The story outline first. The main cast of the story that Vishnoi presents to us here is quite apparent from the title of the book. This is about two sisters who are actually more or less disasters. Always at each other's throat, the girls are just too much to handle for their father, especiallyafter the mother dies. (Reminds one of the trailers of Patakha, a film about two forever fighting sisters.) Anyway they go their separate ways once the elder one decides that she wants to marry the boy who was chosen by their father to marr...

Another book by Keigo Higashio that is simple yet complex in terms of plot development, Salvation of a Saint might have strained my nerves because of its length but was in no way a disappointment. I started the year 2018 with the Devotion of Suspect X by the acclaimed Japanese author and was blown away, and so when nothing seemed to work in terms of my reading in 2019, I went back to him, knowing whatever I might pick I will enjoy it and break the jinx that the year seemed to have started on. As soon as the book begins we know that a murder has been plotted. We are introduced to the killer and the victim in almost a single breath. You might wonder then what remains to be revealed. And this is where Higashino's expertise lies. The HOW- How was the murder committed? He presents you the settings for a perfect crime. No one seems to be able to figure out how was the deed done even if the detective at times might already know who did it. This seemingly impossible thing to figure ou...

You know how it is when you open social media and sort of in a moment when you are to being mindful begin to feel sorry for yourself. You get into a rut and keep lamenting about things that could have been. You keep thinking about how good things only seem to be happening to people who take snapshots and frame them for Facebook posts and Instagram feed. Maybe they do it for the Twitter and Tumblr and Snapchat and whatever else there is, what would I know, as I can barely handle those two. So to cut a long story short, lying in the bed till a few minutes ago I was lamenting the lack of holidays and holiday pictures as well parties and party pictures and cursing my luck how I never seem be able to do anything 'fun' and being stuck in this unenviable spot like forever since 1990s. then I began to think of the most momentous thing that has happened to mean the last 1 year and it was like opening the floodgates of memory. I began to realise how giving this whole year had been and...