I had earlier blogged about Sabarna Roy’s books here.

Then, I picked this up. Finished it over last weekend; but dilly dallied about writing here. The fourteen stories are based in Bengal and cut it too close to the bone in some instances, particularly some facts/fiction that is similar to some people’s stories I have actually heard over the years.

The stories, separate but all carry a tinge of pathos, happiness, question and leave you wanting more. There is not much to just read about, but even learn from it with different human tendencies that everyone has in some measure, but refuse to acknowledge mostly.

Unfortunately, the poems are not mu cup of tea and hence gave them a miss. But, definitely a read.

A book by Ravi Subramanian, who had earlier written ‘If God were a Banker’ and ‘Devil in pinstripes’ which I liked, had me scrabbling to pre order it and once delivered, first on my list to read.

It begins with a promise, woven well with Naxalite, Foreign Banks, their aggression, deceit, treachery, credit card frauds amidst corporate politics.

But some relations have not been woven well and are abrupt - Kavya & Karan - whilst some parts have dragged, the flitting of naxal movement with banking may appear to be new to readers and the suspense may appeal; however John Grisham it ain’t.

Over all personally disappointed after the first two books but still worth a one read.

A month or so ago, I had either received a tweet or mail from Abhay Nagarajan, wondering if I had read the above mentioned book.

Frankly, it was of no interest to me and had forgotten, till last week, looking for a book on flipkart saw the book and price (Rs. 100/-) ordered it along with Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai The Premier Murder League by Geeta Sunder.

Aha, well back to the afore mentioned book. A sort of poor @sidin about investment counselor from two tier B school and his boss, with too much jargon and extremely thin story line, trying to encash on the so called ‘market melt down’

Personally, I think it should have had a better story line, with less jargon and more humane touch.

Also for me the fact, that everyone wants to write, manage to write publish is ‘courage to follow your dreams and realise them’ is cheers time.

And hey, it may probably work for that age group, B school people, with a great price point.

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague dropped in for a chat over coffee.

Whilst discussing, he mentioned that they were thinking of getting into the publishing business and in this regard, he had read a novel, that he found exciting and would like my view.

Promptly the book was sent, which I dutifully carried with me and left it in the pile of unread books on my bedside table.

Cleaning the sides as part of my virtuous diwali spring cleaning, decided to riffle through the book.

Once upon a time, I was a voracious fiction reader, finishing a Ludlum on a Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai flight and probably remember the plot even today:)

Five pages into the book my suspicions arose; flipped through more pages and the end.

My suspicions were right - ‘Society’ by Mehernosh Kapadia is a straight lift - probably page by page - from ‘The color of law’ by Mark Gimenez with the names and locations changed, a book coincidentally read by me only a month ago.

Why, when, what and other questions are probably best addressed by both authors.

Another book by an Indian author, who was a banker, is good compere, loves scotch, cigars - Anish Trivedi.

A first attempt, which looks an attempt to climb the band wagon of becoming a novelist.

There is nothing new about the story except BPO theme and how middle class life is about and how they make choices.

It looks as if BPO is now the flavor of the month/season.

I prefer Anish as a columnist or compere.

A novel by Karan Bajaj who had earlier written Keep off the grass.

It is a decent attempt to refresh your memory of the great Chase novels, but falls flat most of the time, with time, geography taking a beating.

The hero is ‘IIT’ which makes him invincible enough to escape, run a retail empire carved from drugs, become a IT millionaire and keep giving it all up.

It ends up as a mish mash but at Rs. 100/- makes a decent airport timepass.