The Cycle Of Spring by Rabindranath Tagore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A beautiful play written by Rabindranath Tagore, the only Nobel Laureate for English Literature from India.
Though one needs a poetic bent of mind to understand the play when reading, it is understood by me as that the Spring season with all its beauty and vigor goes across the Earth to bring happiness and joy to all the living things. The season always takes over the Earth from the deadly sorrows of vindictive Winter, which always tries to subdue the happiness through its natural trait of withdrawal unlike Spring’s natural trait of always spreading spiritual and physical joy, beauty and happiness. This cycle happens every year when Winter takes over from Spring and Spring from Winter. Ultimately the home coming of April every year is always cherished across the world for it brings the beauty and joy of Spring season.
The play is divided into four Acts which are filled with beautiful songs and poems which relate to the daily life of humanity and also give many insights for the spiritual and physical enlightenment. Some of them can be exemplified as follows. “1- When we run forward at full speed, our eyes keep gazing in front of us, and we see nothing on either side of us ; 2- If things did not move on and vanish, we should see no beauty anywhere. How true !!!
Many such truths of life can be explored in this play if at all the reader takes interest in digging out the meaning of each and every poem recited.

My rating is 3.75 out of 5


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You Were My Crush!...till you said you love me! by Durjoy Datta
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A typical Durjoy Datta novel, with a mixture of flings, crushes, girls, affairs, lust and love by the modern youth from Delhi University.
As like most of his writings, this story starts with the flings of a young adult called Benoy Roy, the only son of a rich business tycoon in Delhi. Naturally, he has beautiful girls of his college and surroundings flocking him to gain access to his lavish life in big cars. Just when his life was going on smooth, he comes across a beautiful girl (Shaina), who happens to be the sister of his classmate cum only enemy-turned friend, Diya. He falls in deep love with Shaina but will not be able to win her over like other girls as she was already in a relationship with someone else since five years and moreover she thinks that Benoy is of the playboy types. Despite his many honest trials, Benoy is rejected by Shaina not because of lack of love towards him, but due to fear of her middle class family. Finally, the story comes to a happy ending when Diya meets with a major accident and her paralytic recovery is bailed out by Benoy and his dad. Owing to this help, Shaina’s family develops a positive image on Benoy which results in her break-up with her old lover and unification with Benoy.
This book is one of the most hilarious of all from this author which I read, till now. It also makes one feel that the difference between true love and infatuation (crush) is the never understood subject of today’s youth until they face a situation which breaks them physically and mentally.
Reading Durjoy’s novels gives me a feeling of how easy it is to convince a girl for make outs nowadays, without much effort like in olden days, where we had to marry the same if anything of that sort happened. I wonder if pure love is still hanging around in the air or it is the ever eternal infatuation that shall rule the young minds forever.
My million dollar question for today’s youth is still the same….How will they handle the situation when their married partner gets to know of their sexual encounters before marriage? Probably, the main reason why the divorce rate, depression deaths and unfaithful marriages are increasing day by day even in India, thanks to the so-called Western culture.

My rating is 3 out of 5


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Creative Unity By Rabindranath Tagore

Creative Unity by Rabindranath Tagore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A literary extravaganza from Rabindranath Tagore - the one and only English literature Nobel laureate, from India. His extensive knowledge on every subject with regard to the spiritual and physical aspects of nature and man, which according to him, exist for the sole purpose of creation rather than production is the idea behind this wonderful book.
His literary meaning to some of the great poems by Keats, Wordsworth and Shelley in conjunction with God’s creative unity of nature’s own beauties, are to be well noted. His emphasis on poetry and literary art skills of our ancestors in paving the way for a harmonious existence with nature’s beauty and God’s love is well brought out by the author. The author’s rich knowledge about the importance of birth, childhood, adulthood, womanhood, and old age with respect to their inherent strengths, weaknesses and their synchronization with nature’s own creative ability is the main objective of the author. The influence of Western education on the Eastern value system and its detrimental effects on the thinking capacities of the students of the East can never be better explained. Finally, the need to create a versatile World University to receive and impart education from both the hemispheres and its ability to create learners and teachers that can constructively unify the different varieties of creative thinking into a single unified strength for the benefit of the world citizens is called upon.

A rich celebration of classic literature and the heights of English word experience, in this book. Hats off to the vision and knowledge of this great author from India, who has taken the pride of his country, to every shore of this world. One must read this book to experience the joy of English literature in context to God’s creation and the purpose of its unification with man’s learning.

Speaking about the darker part of this work, the author has very cleverly put forward his hatred towards Western culture and Christianity. Simultaneously he took care in praising its roots of becoming the basis of empowering the West with useful knowledge and creative abilities, probably to avoid the wrath of the British who were ruling India at that time.


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I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Pristine” is the word I would like to use to describe this book. A honest revelation of a young girl called Malala from Swat Valley of Pakistan with respect to Muslim culture and Talibanisation of Swat Valley after the massive earthquake in 2005.
It’s all about how the women and young girls of Swat Valley who were not wanted to be going to schools and pursue education, by a terrorist outfit, Taliban, who took control over Swat Valley and were running a parallel Government. A neat, chronological detailing of each and every event, as to how the peaceful Swat valley was converted into a dangerous place to survive, over a period of time. The complete picture of Pashtun culture, customs and traditions are exquisitely brought out and never can a reader come across another book which can portray the same with such emotions blended with real life events.
Malala Yousafzai, a young girl of fourteen years shot in the head by Taliban on 9th Oct’2012, for raising her voice against the Taliban order of girls being deprived of their basic rights towards education and free life, ultimately had to leave the country, alongwith her family to pursue her dreams, in England, even though she received many awards for her efforts including the Pakistan National Peace Prize and support from UN and other world countries. Such was the power and influence of the Taliban on Pakistan internal affairs. Remarkable efforts by the doctors of Combined Military Hospital, Pakistan and Queen Elizabeth Hospital of England in bringing back Malala to normal life through some of the most complex surgeries ever performed.
Many people, who are ignorant of Islam, would come across, through this book, lot of good things about the teachings of Prophet Mohammed and the base on which this great religion was built upon. One would be awestruck to learn about how deep the religion is imbibed into the blood of Muslims due to their extreme devotion and love towards their religion and countries. One good point one would come across is that Islam never taught extremism. The Quran teaches patience, cleanliness, peace and maximum respect to women and children. Unfortunately, it has been mis-interpreted by some to form their own understanding of the teachings thus having their own fundamental laws, for which the entire population of Muslims cannot be stereotyped. This was what Malala and her father have been preaching.
I sometimes in between, felt that Malala was too obsessed with her religion and her Pashtun clan. Hence she has a much constricted view on those countries which Pakistan is opposed to due to some other broader reasons unknown to her….. Probably, since she was too young to understand them on a holistic approach.

Congratulations to Christina Lamb for excellent presentation of the book, through her elaborate research and traveling done into Malala’s life history. Nice collection of the photographs of Malala through her journey from birth to present day.
A must read by all those across the world to learn how important a family, friendship, culture, religion and government is for a normal human being to survive in some countries.
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Distress to De-stress: Understanding and managing stress in everyday life by Tim Watkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is always good to read such short, cute self help books once in order to relieve one from Stressful conditions, through really useful and simple tips. How to adjust one of our natural inborne trait ‘Flight and Fright’ through 30 quick short term de-stress methods mentioned in this book is quite useful to all those who feel stressed at some point of time, everyday.Apart from the above, the ways and means to combat stress in long term through social engagement, physical health, emotional well being, and healthy thoughts by relying on core skills, are well detailed by the author.
If you want to learn about a computerized programme (Beating the Blues) available to overcome highly stressful conditions in your life, then you must read this book. Also one gets to know about Life Surfing range of services offered by the author for better living.

My rating is 4 out of 5


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