The Bestseller She Wrote by Ravi Subramanian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author is a well known star writer from South India, also known as John Grisham of India, who spent most of his professional life in senior positions of Indian national banks, after his management degree from IIM, Bangalore. His previous books have National award winning status. His fans and film producers eagerly wait for his next creation always.

Storyline:

Aditya Kapoor, Director of Branch Banking of National Bank in India, is a successful banker and also a successful writer, as his favourite past time. In one of the Alumni guest lectures of IIM Bangalore, he encounters a young beautiful student, Shreya, in the audience, who aspires to be a star author herself. Their unsolicited frequent encounters later, evolve into a passion filled romance, surpassing all limits from both sides. Shreya, cleverly uses Aditya’s lusty love and stature in getting a job in National Bank, simultaneously paving her way to achieve stardom with her debut novel. Ignorant of this plot from the innocent looking Shreya, Aditya goes all out in helping her achieve her goal even by cheating her faithful wife and son. One day, his wife Maya discovers Aditya’s amour with his colleague and confronts him by evicting him out of her house. Just at that time, she accidentally, gets infected with Ebola virus in France while attending an international training program. Aditya, soon realizes his blunder and pleads Maya to forgive him, while she is on her death bed. He now also realizes how Shreya used him to achieve her goal and also discovers another shocking fact how his close friend and colleague, Sanjay used Shreya to distance Aditya from Maya, out of the former’s teenage love on Maya, before Aditya met her. Aditya waits for a right chance and strategically makes all the plots against him public, in front of the Police, thus ending the careers of all his opponents. He re-unites with Maya and quits banking to lead a peaceful life by joining Maya in educating poor slum dwelling children and also pursuing his dream profession of writing.

Pros: As usual, the mind twisting imagination of the author awes the reader in this book also. The author brought out this bold story in times when such situations like lusting for beautiful and sexy colleagues in the office, by seniors, has become a norm in the professional world. It is also true many times, that young women like Shreya, use their sensuality to seduce their seniors in achieving their goals in the organization or personal lives, destroying the values and ethics of marriage, friendship and camaraderie. On the other hand, we still have faithful wives like Maya who break emotionally and lead pathetic lives even after their husband come back to them, as the trust once broken is always broken. The author is successful in highlighting the pristine purity of love in trust filled marriage and dirty ambitions of lust filled temporary extra marital affairs.
I seriously recommend this book to all professionals in today’s world, just as an effort to save the last remaining traditions and cultures that bind two people and later, families on a larger scale. I bet that there are many such victims of such extra marital adulterous affairs in the professional world who are living their remaining lives in hiding or in utter shame, after having lost, all their name and fame. This book is a lesson to many out there who choose wavering girl friends over conscientious wives.
Lastly, one gets to know the nitty gritties of publishing industry in India

Cons: Though the author brought the best of his abilities in using technology (mostly I Phones) to solve the plots in many of his books, I somehow feel that it is becoming routine. There is no notable emotion or wild hatred shown by Aditya, in the literature, after he discovers Shreya’s motive behind using him, like the same shown in the words of Maya, after she finds out Aditya’s affair. It should have been harder, at least after the book launch session, for better result. The author might have felt that the book has a happy-ending but I felt that it has bitter ending as it is a Lose-Lose situation to all the characters though its presentation appears as Win-Win to all.

The best quotes in the book:

“In relationships, particularly those that are adulterous in nature, the first time is always the most difficult. That’s the point in time when one’s conscience makes its presence felt the most and people are consumed by regret. Once that bridge is crossed regret is often forgotten.”

“The instincts of the wife, when it comes to issues that concern her husband are stronger than those of even the best astrologers”

“The problem with trust is that if it is broken, then all acts committed by the perpetrator come under the purview of suspicion”

“Nothing in life can put you in an inextricable position unless you yourself want to be in such a position”

“There is more strength in forgiveness than in walking away”


My rating is 3.75 out of 5


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The Mahabharata Quest, The Alexander Secret by Christopher C Doyle

The Mahabharata Quest: The Alexander Secret by Christopher C. Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author, who started his career in the corporate world as a top notch business executive running businesses across the country, also has a passion for writing science fiction. His books have a peculiar blend of science with ancient historic events that evolve into a gripping page turner with sequels.

Storyline:

Vijay Singh, a prolific, intelligent US returned MIT student, is part of an Indo-American Task Force, that has been formed to explore the dangerous mission of a secret society called The Order, which has its origin in India thousands of years ago. He one day is suddenly visited by his ex-girlfriend Alice, a student of Archaeology and expert in Hellenistic (Greek) history. She narrowly escapes a murder hunt by some unknown professional killers after having discovered an ancient cube and artifacts, during the excavation of the tomb of Queen Olympias, in Greece, connected to her son Alexander’s, expedition to the East, to conquer the world. Coincidently, Vijay’s fiancée, Radha and her Indian Intelligence Bureau friend Imran, accidentally discover a secret, illegal genetic testing facility in New Delhi. This lab is later found to be controlled by the same secret members of the Order, involved in testing the effects of a dangerous bacteria and retrovirus on innocent people to make a drug that can cure all diseases and proclaim Immortality to humanity. Through this drug the Order wants to control the entire humanity, wiping off powerful Governments, across the world. The twist of the tale is that this particular bacteria and virus were found in the ‘mummy’ of Alexander centuries ago, who is said to have been infected after his consumption of a mysterious liquid in an ancient cave near the banks of Indus. This liquid is interpreted as the sweet nectar ‘amrita’, also called as secret of Eastern Gods, mentioned as that obtained through “Sagarmanthan” or “Churn of the Ocean” in the verses of ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. It is said to imbibe immortality to anyone who consumes it. But, unfortunately, Alexander could not benefit from this ‘amrit’ since he hasn’t consumed the right potion containing the retrovirus mixture. The members of the Order, kidnap Radha and force Vijay, an expert in solving riddles and clues, to follow a tedious path in present day Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, leading to several ancient caves containing this Amrit and the right mixture of the bacteria and retrovirus. Finally they gain access to the same and escape with the original samples of Amrit to test for viability, leaving Vijay and his team mates in the dark. To be continued in the next sequel.

Pros: A hair-raising thriller churned with scientific facts behind the great fairy tale of SagarManthan, mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata. The linkage of the tale to Alexander’s motive to conquer the rest of the world after defeating Darius of Persia, is really fabulous. The author must be appreciated for his extensive research on the facts behind this great secret. The description of the human genome and the various permutations and combinations of how genetic structure could have been re-engineered thousands of years ago with the help of such bacteria and retroviruses, leaves the reader awe-struck. In fact there all chances that the reader forgets about the fiction behind the story and would have been compelled to accept the logic explained as the real fact and not as a myth. The stark realities of how science was used by our ancestors when there were no considerable equipment related to finding microscopic organisms, have been strikingly elicited. A must read book by mythological fiction lovers. Bet that they shall remember the story for a long long period in their lives.

Cons: The excessive usage of medical jargon on genetics, could be difficult to understand to many non-biology students. Though there is a perfect sync between the story of Alexander’s conquest of the Eastern world and greatest Indian mythological fantasy story of Sagarmanthan mentioned in Mahabharata, there should have been some more emphasis on the Indian side. The story should have been completed in this book itself for better effects.

My rating is 4 out of 5


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JOY (A HOLLYWOOD DRAMA)

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Edgar Ramirez, Bradley Cooper and Diane Ladd. Directed by David O Russell and Produced by John Davis, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon, Screenplay by David O Russell and Music by West Dylan Thordson / David Campbell.







Storyline:

A simple story of Joy Mangano ( Jennifer Lawrence), a young divorced lady who had been subject to failures in her career, marriage and family. Joy, daughter of a foundry owner Rudy is an enterprising girl right from her childhood, trying to invent and innovate right from her childhood times. She always wanted to invent something on her own and patent the product on her name. Her first failure starts with her marriage to Tony (Edgar Ramirez) who is a failed singer. Next she fails in her career due to the disturbances at her home with divorced parents. She gets bogged down with her tired and burdened life when one day she gets an idea to invent a highly absorbent, self-wringing mop for a regular woman in an American household. She somehow ropes in investment for her product from her dad’s (Robert De Niro) new fiancé Trudy after making an entry to the country’s best home selling television show QVC., run by Niel (Bradley Cooper). Unfortunately, here again she fails as she will have to sell her mortgaged house for not having registered a proper patent right to her product and falls into a huge debt trap. Here’s where she decides to take life head on and transforms into a highly determined woman who will not accept defeat, henceforth. She studies the Patent law and visits her manufacturer to know the nitty gritties of where it actually went wrong. There she discovers that she has been cheated and threatens the manufacturer with law suites, for his false claims and cheating. She not only gets back her lost money but also emerges as a confident, successful businesswoman to establish her own business empire later. The story ends with Niel waiting for Joy’s appointment outside her plush office, which happens to be the reverse of how Joy waited for Niel outside his cabin years ago to sell her mop.

Pros: A clean motivational story of a middle class woman in today’s society who faces the burden of continous challenges and failures in her day to day life. It’s a movie that everybody should watch and learn from the determination of Joy to excel in life without accepting defeat. A compelling mindset driven by constant innovative thought process despite the hardships of a disturbed life which ultimately forces success to embrace anybody unconditionally. Excellent screenplay by the Director and stunning performance by Jennifer. Every modern woman can clearly reflect herself in this character of Joy and one gets to imbibe the inspiration that is generated from this simply powerful character. I appreciate the guts of the Producer for having picked up a story like this in today’s Hollywood scenario where high quality graphics driven action thrillers are ruling the box office collections. Sure this movie will be nominated and win atleast one or two Oscar awards.

Cons: Joy’s lone meeting with her manufacturer in his town and getting back her money with interest by openly threatening him with fraudulent activities, seemed to be little out of the groove to me, in this crime filled world. I don’t think he would have budged so easily for a simple threat from a lone woman in his town, without harming her. Moreover, his consent on a simple white paper doesn’t hold good in the court of law, if at all he contests it at a later stage. Joy’s continued friendship with his divorced husband Tony again, seems to be adverse, even after her runaway success.

My rating is 4.25 out of 5

LAUGHTER IN PARADISE (A 1951 BRITISH COMEDY MOVIE)

Directed and Produced by Mario Jampi, Music by Stanley Black, Cinematography by William Mc Leod.
Starring : Alastair Sim, Fay Compton, George Cole, Guy Middleton.
A 1951 British classic comedy movie which marks the introducing role of Audrey Hepburn as a cigarette girl who later matures to receive many Oscar awards in her later life a star heroine.

Storyline:

A wealthy practical joker called Henry Russell leaves a ‘Will’ to his four cousins Deniston (Alastair Sim), Agnes (Fay Compton), Herbert (George Cole) and Simon (Guy Middleton).
The will mentions that the law abiding, fictitious writer, Deniston has to commit a crime and stay in jail for 28 days, the arrogant Agnes needs to work as a maid servant for 30 days, the timid and good natured banking clerk, Herbert, has to surprise the bank manager with a toy pistol and the playboy Simon has to marry the first single woman whom he speaks to after hearing the will. The story unfolds into a hilarious episode where all the four try and achieve their respective assignments which are quite opposite to their natures, for the sake of the fortune of 50,000 pounds, to be inherited after completion of their respective tasks.
In the process of doing so, Deniston had to break the marriage with his fiancé, a constable in Police department and the arrogant, snobby Agnes finds a new kind nature inside her by helping her master’s daughter to get married to her lover. George Cole becomes the Manager of the bank he is working in after accidentally foiling a bank robbery, and Simon gets cheated in marriage to his butler’s niece. Eventually, the movie ends with a loud and hearty laughter from everyone on screen, when the final page of the Will is read out to mention that there is no such money to be given to anyone and it happens to be another practical joke from Henry.

Pros: A classic comedy of the yesteryears wherein the beauty of script and screenplay coordinated to the best output to produce a clean and healthy entertainment for the viewers. Utmost care has been taken on the makeups and outfits of the actors to result in a classy outlook. The best of the action has come from Alastair Sim who stands out among the rest in giving one of his best comic performance. A truly hilarious movie even todate, that can be watched again and again. Kudos to the cinematographer and Director for bringing the best of the talents out of the actors and actresses.

Cons: As per Simon’s task in the Will, he needs to marry the first single woman he comes across after hearing the Will. He happens to talk to Frieda (Audrey Hepburn), the cigarette girl in the bar first, but marries Beatrice, whom Simon meets later on the road. I feel that this is the technical mistake the Director missed.

My rating is 4 out of 5

Some Day The Stars Will Fall by Mark Hoffman

Some Day the Stars Will Fall: Is evil born or is it made? by Mark Hoffmann
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A narration of the emotions of an imaginary living great grandson of Adolf Hitler, under the name of Adam Holloway. A very plain and simple
book which portrays the emotions of a young confused boy, who cannot disclose his real identity to the world in fear of being he and his family being hated for being the great grandson of Adolf Hitler, for the rest of his life

Storyline:

Adolf Hitler, during his final days before his death, is said to have a mistress called Eva Braun, through whom he has a son, smuggled out of Germany to Australia secretly through the hospital nurse. While doing so he hands over a small bracelet as a sovereign to be passed on to his future generations, commemorating the legacy of the most hated man in the world’s history, directly responsible for more than 6 million deaths. The family name was changed to Holloway from Hitler to conceal the identity of the living descendants. The present story is of Adam Holloway, the third generation direct descendant of Adolf Hitler, who move on to his grandmother’s home in Sydney, after the death of his father Robert Holloway. Adam was never comfortable in his new home due to the racial discrimination being a major problem in his locality due to some Middle Eastern immigrant settlers. He loses his grandmother Margaret, in one of such attacks on his house by the immigrants, when his blood boils to show his real Hitlerian traits in taking revenge. But he refrains himself from any violent acts, just to hide his real identity, which might torture him even more later. His only friend is his Muslim neighbor, Aymen, from Afghanistan, who later becomes a family friend and loses his life to protect Adam, in a major inter-racial tussle between Australian youth and Middle Eastern youth. Adam, at this juncture is put to lot of mental pressure when he starts wondering how his blood, laden with aggressiveness, violent temper, rebellious nature and cruelty, will be able to cope up with the present day situations, without anyone knowing about his noble genealogy, linked to Adolf Hitler. The best part is that this secret is kept and passed on to the male progeny, without the spouses ever come to know about it. The book ends with Adam left wondering whether evil is really born or made. He also keeps wondering as to who he is, either Adam Holloway or the son of the son of the son of the legendary Adolf Hilter !

Pros: Surprised to read that even such a cruel man like Adolf Hitler, wanted to have his own family and progeny to carry on his legacy. The inter racial disturbances of Australia have been well brought out through this book. The author very carefully valued the ideas and emotions of both the locals and settlers without hurting the sentiments of any religion. He could well relate this problem to Hitler’s reason to drive away Jews from Germany, for the same reasons Australians now want Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants out of Australia. He placed Hitler’s progeny in that place to understand as to how Hitler could have acted in the same situation decades ago, in his country. Makes the reader feel that If Hitler was wrong then, then even Australia is wrong now. Superb !

Cons: The author sometimes hinted that the Australian government supports their countrymen and not very liberal in its policies when it comes to mitigating the racial disturbances of the country. The story seemed to have ended suddenly without much of a reasonable climax and how Adam could have tackled his problem.

My rating is 3 out of 5

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The Night Queen by Birister Sharma

The Night Queen: She starts hunting when her preys are in deep slumber...... by Birister Sharma
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The author, a graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication is also a freelance writer.





Storyline:

A happy peasant family of two adults and 5 children, in a remote village of India, who lived life to its fullest. As the children grew, it became increasingly difficult to maintain the ends meet. Owing to severe pressure from the banks and local money lenders, the breadwinner father commits suicide. This event changes the scenario of this happy family. The uncle of the children, Raghu sees an opportunity here to sell off the beautiful eldest and youngest daughters to whorehouses in New Delhi for a huge ransom. This story is narrated by the youngest, named Rani, later renamed as Dolly, as to how she is raped by a client when she first loses her virginity. Later she becomes the Night Queen of sex and power in the dirty world of prostitution. She gains the contacts of best males in the country and abroad for almost ten years only to fall in love with a rich love starved business tycoon, owning a telecom company. Just at the time she was about to surrender to his love, she comes across the brutal murder of her elder sister, Radhima, who was also sold by Raghu, for which she turns violent and absolutely aggressive to kill all those responsible for her and her sister’s fates, including her uncle Raghu. Finally, she discovers that she is infected with AIDS and kills herself under complete satisfaction and peace for she could efface at least some of the agents and touts that are in the business of forcing young innocent girls into the dirty business of prostitution.

Pros: A story right from the heart of a young girl forced into prostitution due to her family’s poverty and helplessness. The reader feels the pain and emotions of a young girl when she is thoroughly raped day and night by strangers and how her mind gets tuned to conquer the dirty sex world owing to her inability to retaliate or escape from the clutches of the dangerous owners of whorehouses. Finally, the author wanted to prove that those who thrive in the crime world would definitely face a similar end and portrayed Dolly’s sudden end in her mid-life. Right ending given to the one who chose the wrong path to gain name and fame within short period.

Cons: The author seems not to have taken much importance to literary grammar, as the narration seems to be like the one from an elementary school. Not very effective when it comes to the story, as it is not very new to a country like India, which is infected with huge population living in utmost poverty and debt, even today, in most of its rural landscape. No mention about the rest of the family after Rani’s entry into whorehouse or what could have happened to them. Felt incomplete.

My rating is 2 out of 5


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The Miracle of Yousef Written by Goncalo Coelho

The author, a Mechanical Engineer by education has chosen writing as a profession through his passion for literature. Basically born in Portugal, in 1978, he lived and travelled across the world to experience the cultural diversity and different facets of the world we live in. This book is his second novel which has been translated from Portuguese to English. The first one is entitled Poker.






Storyline:

Mohammad Yousef, a young boy who is driven by his passion always, from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is identified by Sheikh Omar, a wealthy businessman cum patron of the pro-Islamic extremist group, to carry on the various missions of terrorist attacks on American and other Western civilizations. Yousef is imbibed with hatred against the Americans for having forcefully occupied the Muslim geographical regions just like the Soviets in Afghanistan, resulting in countless innocent deaths of his Muslim fraternity. He becomes a Mujahideen against the Soviets in Afghanistan and later pulled into Al-Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden against the entire Western civilization. He adopts various identities in different parts of the world to carry out his meticulously planned terrorist attacks under the guidance and help from Omar. Meanwhile, he marries his friend’s fiancée and lives under cover until the dreaded New York Twin Tower attack. She later is killed by Omar as Yousef is too much involved in family life ignoring his mission. Her death results in Yousef’s outrageous behavior in carrying out terror attacks more aggressively. But, one day during his narrow escape from FBI, he gets ship-wrecked in the Mediterranean and slips into amnesia forgetting his past. He lands up in a small island in Turkey where he falls in love with Nefisa, the daughter of the person who saves him. By the time his memory comes back to him, he is captured by the Turkish police and jailed for 6 yrs. He escapes from jail only to be again kidnapped by Omar and his gang along with Nefisa, who is now adamant to accept Yousef as her terrorist lover. Yousef tries to convince Nefisa that he is now a changed man and repents for all that he had done as an Islamic terrorist, pleading innocence due to misguidance and wrong interpretation of Islam by his mentor Omar. Finally at the time when he refuses to blow up the Marmaray tunnel of Turkey, opposing Omar’s orders and just at the time of winning back Nefisa’s love and trust, he loses his life in the hands of a stranger shot dead point blank as a revenge for the death of her loved one in one of the terrorist attacks planned and executed by Yousef, long back.

Pros: An exquisite piece of literature by the author truly portraying the emotions of a young, passionate Muslim lad on one side and a different set of emotions in the second half as a totally changed man in the hands of pure love and total understanding of true Islam. Yousef, a classic example of how one can be mis-guided in the name of religion, only to realize later the countless crimes committed under ignorance and trance. The author successfully elicited the fact that one is brought to justice at the end for all the crimes done knowingly or unknowingly. The sentiments of Muslims have been well protected in this novel, highlighting the life story and best of the teachings of Prophet Mohammad. The Soviet and American dominance in military warfare and political interference in the Muslim countries have been well criticized, tactically.

Cons: I somehow felt that the author portrayed Muslim women as those who want to break away from their orthodox traditional lifestyle and liberate themselves into total freedom like in the West. I don’t think this is true always as the values and traditions of a religion are carried forward more by the acceptance of womenfolk of the community.

My favourite quotes in the book:

“ War feeds war, hatred feeds hatred, violence feeds violence, greed feeds greed. The only way to foster peace is through peace itself. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but rather a greater and more dangerous wrong”

“Passion and Love. The intensity of passion is not linear, but don’t give that too much importance. This vigorous clamor of the flame of passion will not always stay the same, but love will. Love is beyond that flame, it’s what remains after it. It’s what you start to feel once the flame of passion gives way to the soft breeze of love”

My rating is 3.75 out of 5


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BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S ( HOLLYWOOD ROMANTIC COMEDY)

Starring: Audrey Hepburn & George Peppard. Produced by Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd. Music by Henry Mancini, Screenplay George Axelrod. Directed by Blake Edwards

Genre : Romantic Comedy

Storyline: Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) was a aspiring and hyperactive social escort girl who left her husband ending her child marriage in search of wealth and fame to support herself and her brother Fred, working in Army. Her long cherished wish was to buy something at Tiffany’s, an up-market jewellery store in New York. She tries to get into relationship with rich men of USA always and in the meanwhile be-friends her neighbor, Paul Vajrack (George Peppard) a small time writer. Paul falls in love with Holly but Holly never accepts the same due to her long cherished wish of becoming rich. She fails in all her attempts to hotfoot rich men and finally gets into a drug racket unknowingly due to which her sure shot marriage with a rich Brazilian falls apart. Just then even her brother Fred dies in an accident. The movie ends with a happy note when Paul explains her that the path she chose to become rich was wrong and would finally end up nowhere. She then realizes her mistake and accepts Paul’s love after she was left with no-one in the world.

Pros:  One of the best Classics of the 1960’s which brought name and fame to this Hollywood actress from Belgium. The shy and introvert actress in real life shows her real talent with her eccentric performance that can be remembered for a long time. The Director was quite successful in portraying the truth of anyone not being successful through short cut methods, through this beautiful story. I liked the way the actress’s emotions were shown in the climax rain scene in the car when Paul reads out the letter from her Brazilian fiancée and he makes her understand everyone belong to each other and no matter wherever she runs, she would finally end up in her own cage and that’s ‘nowhere’. That’s how she rediscovers herself and runs back to Paul. Loved the way Holy’s life was compared to that of her cat in the end, both having no meaning to their lives, without belonging to someone who love them. Music and Screenplay were one of the best anyone could experience, in this movie.

Cons: There were many speculations about Holly’s role as a Call Girl or Social Woman. Her choice of path after breaking her marriage in this film was not accepted by many of her fans worldwide. Though there were many instances where her role was portrayed as a ‘call girl’, it was always shown as narrow escapes from such highly objectionable sexual encounters, in those days.  But I would like to ask the author as to what’s the real character of Holly? Was it a ‘sense of insecurity’ or ‘inferiority complex’ that drove her behavior?

My rating is 4.25 out of 5

Love, Fate and Afghanistan by Tony Thomson

“Afghanistan is not a country in our sense : It is an attitude, a collection of ethnic groups with powerful shared customs and a feeling of being Afghan in some general way but with no willingness to sacrifice local or ethnic interests to higher national goals”

This is the best quote from the book written by Tony Thomson, majorly a travelogue than a book by itself. His passion in 1971 to travel from London to India and re-discover himself from an aimless life and career, made him journey through Austria, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and finally India. And this entire journey in a pre-used Volkswagon alongwith a couple of female counterparts who share the same passion, though for a different reason. During the journey he experienced different lands with equally different people, cultures, historic monuments, landscapes, food habits, dressing, climatic conditions and ofcourse living patterns. Primarily, the author seemed to have taken more interest and love towards Afghanistan more than any other country he visited. Reason behind which he visited the country again in 2009 nearly after 38 years of his first visit. He seems to have been spell bound by the way this country, popularly known as ‘Graveyard of Empires’  withstood the onslaught of many invasions and widespread looting but never succumbed to any of the World’s greatest invaders, even Alexander the Great. I loved the way the transformation of Afghanistan from way back in 1971 to 2009 was clearly elicited explaining each and every aspect about the country’s culture, politics and economy.

Pros : A fine travelogue for a passionate traveler who loves to travel long distances, enduring the hardships of tiresome journey by road. One can find some astonishing facts recorded from ground zero about the historical aspects across Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan. Getting to know the minutest details about every place one visits in his/her journey and recording them for future generations is one of the best and most important quality of a good travel writer. Loved the way some humor was included inbetween to lighten the mood of the reader. The author could also sync his love story and marriage inbetween this travelogue which added flavor to the reading. The title well suits the book wherein Love and Afghanistan is the main course and rest are starters with desserts !

Cons: The hard facts of criticism when it came to India and its lifestyle was a little objectionable as I don’t think India was so bad as it was described here. The author’s knowledge about the Indian subcontinent and its rich heritage dating back to Indus Valley Civilization seems to be limited and it reflects only on the few places he visited in a hurry. The author’s sudden return back to Cleveland for his cousin’s marriage during his first visit could have blocked his further insights into the better parts of the sub-continent’s historic glory.

My rating is 2.5 out of 5