The Story of a Suicide- A novel by Sriram Ayer

A book with hand-drawn illustrations that dares to break the stereotypes is a fresh new chapter for bored readers like me, who were tired of the run-of-the-mill heterosexual love stories. I am not a fan of romance but ofttimes, I take a peep into a book that talks of love, that is fresh like the blossoming buds of spring or the dewy mist on the grass after a rainy day.
The first chapter is a chilling account of what a person goes through before deciding to retort to the inevitable. Most suicide notes read exactly like the letter that the person who had decided to give up on life wrote to his loved ones. Only if we were to lend an ear to such voices when they stifle and struggle to tell us their story, many untimely suicides could have been avoided. The writer has wisely created an air of suspicion by crafting the letter carefully. I thought that this was clearly a case of a heterosexual romantic relationship having gone wrong.  
The author has taken careful caution to describe situations and people by using images, sights and sounds that transport you to the world which is being described in the book. Only a clever observer can use noises and mental pictures intelligently to tell a story. 
In chapter 5, Hari narrating his ordeal about how he was first molested by his uncle was a saddening tale, and many abuse victims as we see on social media have bravely dared to speak of the mishaps they had to encounter as kids. In chapter 6, Mr.Narender Hegde reminds us of many of our possessive worried parents who were afraid to let us go from the comfort and security of our homes, the first time we decided to step out to build  a career. 

Writing by the Window by Nivedita N

Title:Writing by the Window

Author: Nivedita N

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 62

Price: Rs 99

ISBN-13: 978-81-929002-9-2

Published by: ParanthesesPhroetry Press

Picture Credit: Sridevi Nayak K

Poetry is an image, it is an echo of words, unlike prose. It is an art wherein the words create a vision. 

This is an experimental endeavour at juxtaposing poetry and images, but as an old world poetry connoisseur, I think the purpose of poetry gets lost in this  exercise. A poem is in itself a complete image, unlike a blogpost. Maybe that's why somewhere down the line, this idea didn't go down well with me. Although that doesn't mean that I am not open to creative experimentation.

I liked the cover page designed by Sridevi, Nivedita's friend. It sits pretty with the title of the book.

In the first poem "House no.4, Street no.10", old memories are revisited which was a visual journey and knock at the door of your heart.

"The aroma of mother’s varied sumptuous dishes

And nailed on the fridge our to do list of wishes

Our nascent chuckles still echo

Ah! For that piece of green paper a lot we did forego"

The souvenirs of memories that the poet left can be visualized by the reader here. 

"Why did you swallow the last breath, Grandpa?" is an emotional read where in the poet talks of the pains of parting with a life partner and the gullibility of old age.

"Smiling and blushing like a shy bride, she looks up to the luminous moon till she wakes up to a mundane ritual laugh aloud till tears swallow her red cheeks

She sits down quietly reading spiritual texts."

These words picture loneliness of ageing and is a visual journey through Nivedita's grandma's life, as she lives it now.

"His mother" was a cute rendition of memories that the poet shares with her friend's mother. I liked the physical sketch of the person to whom this poem is dedicated to. There is too much ache in the frail, bony, droopy eyes. Stray grammar errors could have been avoided.

"Today I met your father" is another poem talking of a relationship between a father and son. 

"His rate of speech like Rajdhani Express" is a beautiful metaphor.

"Today I met an old friend" has loosely woven images that could have been developed more. 

Caged Love is a colorful poem which reminisces the life of the poet's love birds, caged but very deeply in love. 

"They behaved like love birds too.

with their beaks they shared grains day and night.

looking at each other, they let out funny sounds"

The question was a powerful end.

"The Brahmin boy and the Dom girl" was one of my favourites. Talks of the differences dividing our society and how rebellious acts can put to rest such issues.

Poems like "A glimpse of you", "The Station", "Tree story", "Tea', "Wildflower", "The Patriot" and "Colours"were stray poetic doodles that could use some more snapshots and be developed into poems that swallow the readers into a sensory experience.

Love note was a love struck seeking for words. I liked the way she decided to play with her knowledge of different languages here.

Middle Class poet reminded me of my own love for weaving political poems.

"I write while the rice settles to whistle.

I don’t have a writer’s table.

It is used as a dining table."

These lines wonderfully describes the limited resources that do not bind us down.

"Menstrual cycle of a pen" is a bold try to draw a metaphoric parallel between a pen and a woman's period cycle. "

The pen is too embarrassed to explain. Upset, the paper rolls itself and sulks; the pen holds it rib and cries in pain."

Many women may identify with these lines.

I must appreciate Nivedita's observation of people shunned the society and the empathy towards them. "The Artist Beggar" was a wonderful dedication to the common people lurking on the streets, who may have talents much like us.

"Feast of Rose" quietly captures the vagaries of the human heart. It played with colours and captured moments which it was intending to do.

In the "Stubborn Pen" she has conjured images of a strike that usually happen in south india to the life of a pen. She could have used more of the figurative language to transport us deeper into the life of a pen.

Mad Jade by Sona Ghose

Title: Mad Jade

Author: Sona Ghose

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 53

When I first opened the pdf file of this poetry book by Sona Ghose, I was smitten by the cover graphic and the title "Mad Jade". Poetry should be mad and evocative filled with imagery and imagination, which the poet has successfully achieved in some of her poems, while many of her other works were emotions expressed onto the pages of a book, simply like we write a diary.

I was amused by the poetic rendition of her acknowledgement page, which is dedicated to her beau and in clear words were poignantly suggestive of the bond she shares with him.

Her prose piece "Fashion is fickle" tells you of her struggles to get published and more so, to get a footing in this big bad world filled with poets and authors. When she finally decided to listen to her voice and ask her own self for support, this poetry book took shape.

"When do I get myself back?" is a call of her alter ego and I liked the way she plays with the images inside her head, trying to tell the reader of the deeper voice of her alter ego that isn't leaving her alone.  

"For as long as I can remember,

I’ve been tugging at sheets

to tell myself that I’ve still got a hold on things,

but she and I both know

that I’ve never gotten the hang of hanging around her.

Sitting in my car, she’s singing

folk songs I’ve never heard. She brings

something to the table

that I’d left to childhood fables."

Scary images of a confused reverberation of her other self are painted in these images.

In the poem "Names" she has tried to sketch a colour of the seasons like she does it here

"Let me call you April

because I’ve never come across

a brighter storm; you

surrounded by gusts of wind

and rains which beat on the window panes; of me."

Sita's Curse by Sreemoyee Piu Kundu

Title: Sita’s Curse
Author: Sreemoyee Piu Kundu
Genre: Feminist Erotic Literature
ISBN: 9789350097809
Publisher: Hachette India
Price: INR 350

Picture Credit: http://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/a-womans desire/article5706149.ece



Indian women don't talk of sex. Except in their bedrooms. And with their husbands, and sometimes with their girlfriends. To write a piece of erotica in this part of the planet, needs nerves of steel. Sreemoyee tried to liberate the Indian woman from these shackles imposed on her body, by patriarchy. She has used sex as an instrument to expose the religious and social hypocrisy and questioned the Indian arranged marriages by vividly wording the insatiable desires that were never fulfilled in the protagonist's marriage to Mohan. 
Meera, is in tune with her sensuality and the pristine pleasures the body seeks, right from the time she hits adolescence. She sets out on a journey to find a conduit for these carnal cravings. Her first encounters with her twin brother are venerated in poetic language, most of which didn't go down too well with me. All throughout the story, Kartik her brother is shown as that first person who gave wings to her desires and as her most trusted confidante, but what is disappointing is his portrayal as an empty suit, who is made to die too soon. What also left me flabbergasted was her encounter with Binal that made me wonder. Was Meera a nymphomaniac? And which way was her swing? This rendezvous leaves the reader with a distaste in the mouth.

Mystery Shopping- Mock it and fill your Pocket--Book Review

Title: Mystery Shopping: Mock it and Fill your Pocket
Author: Saurabh Bhatia
Publisher: Become Shakespeare
Number of pages: 109

Mystery Shopping by Saurabh Bhatia is a bible for the mystery shoppers. It has only 109 pages which makes it easy on the eye and mind. I happened to hear a lot about mystery shopping and was dying to unravel the mystery behind it when I saw it at the Become Shakespeare book store. 
Although the book is touted as a handbook or guide for mystery shoppers one can learn a lot of lessons from it.  The book underlines and explains the need for effective communication and relationship building which maybe helpful to you in both your professional as well as personal life. 

The first two chapters talk of what is mystery shopping and who needs it and for what reasons. The next two chapters tell you of the qualities you must possess to be a mystery shopper. There are real life examples as well as tips from the author, that help to identify one's grey areas and work on them. The next two chapters are tips and tricks that anyone can use to reap benefits in their professional field. Many guidelines for writing reports and using technology to one's advantage were lessons I had forgotten. Reading the book was a gentle nudge to improve. I also liked the seventh chapter that talks of e-mail and phone etiquettes, that served as a reminder.
The most useful of all chapters is the 'Frequently Asked Questions' section that one must ideally read after reading the first two chapters. Doing so will be helpful for a novice and will lay the background for easy reading of the real life shopper examples.
The language is simple and the pointers make it easier to grasp the tips and tricks. The graphical representation in the beginning of each chapter was a great idea to not make the book read like a boring handbook.
I give it 4/5, four points for the lucidity in the language and chapters that were neatly laid along with the short pointers. One point goes away for the few facts that I believe got repeated over and over again. The author could have worded them differently to not sound redundant.

The Hunt for Kohinoor by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

Title: The Hunt for the Kohinoor
Author: Manreet Sodhi Someshwar
Publisher: Westland Books
Number of pages: 425
Genre: Thriller

It is astonishing to read a fast paced engaging thriller that races past in ninety six hours, without giving away the plot and reading in redundancy.
Her language was simple and lucid with connotative vocabulary in the narration. What held my attention was the protagonist and her daunting adventures, for the Indian fiction market such a character is the rarest of rare. It would make for a great bollywood script with thrilling elements like terrorism and national security in the picture. The story is set in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan with picturesque locales that leave you spellbound. The book begins at a snail's pace which gave the reader all the time in the world to get acquainted with the characters and their mannerisms.
Mehr the main protagonist suddenly discovers that her dead father is alive when a high profile politician of Pakistan gets murdered. Mehr is pushed to investigate the lives of people who are posing as a serious threat to national security.
Much like a Bollywood thriller, it has every kind of a character that a perfect racer of a thriller needs. The characters help the story to flow although the large number of characters crowd the plot, at certain places and make you confused. 

Family Matters by Various Authors

Title: Family Matters: An International Anthology
Author : Various Authors
Publisher : Nivasini Publishers
Genre : Poetry and Prose
Number of Pages : 192

It has always been a tough call to review anthologies, because the space has everything under the sun and you can take some of the words it offers and leave the rest. This book gave a page or two to many talented writers and many more who show promise and should be willing to chisel their craft. 


Geoff Goodfellow is a poet who delves into details. Loved his poem 'In my mind forever' where he beautifully describes his first rendezvous with his daughter. Anand Madhukar is good with the pen but when writing poetry stringent structure could be of great help to him.The poem 'Womb' by Jerrold Yam reminded me of siblinghood and the relationship I share with my brother.
Susan Fealy's poem is an emotional account of a mother's love for her son. 'A tribute to my Father' by Christina Cowling struck a chord with me. Pretty imagery like 'shoes of suffering' make the poem a reader's delight.
Stephen Gill's 'A prayer for children' is a wonderful prayer for the children of the world and metaphors like muddy pellets of abuse, coin of deep human concern are clever.
I remember sharing space with Shigufta in the Aquillrelle May 2011 journal as the Poet of the month. 'Ancedotes' reminded me of my old neighbourhood and old neighbour. 'The Pallu of my mother's sari' is a beautiful tale of the Indian mother and the ends of her sari that act as her third limb. Carolyne Van Der Meer's renidition of the 'modern family time' tugs at your heart. Frank Joussen's poem Excavation Dream made me think of my ancestral family grave. Carol Faber's 'A Child Asks' is an innocent poem that takes you back to your childhood. Fathima E.V paints an Indian wedding with her visionary sight.Her vocabulary is strong. 'Family Bond' has interesting metaphors like tortoises and swords,although the composition can be tightened. Caroline Ilica's translators have done an awesome job in translating her poems. Lyn Vellins 'Earthbound' is a rustic poem that showers fatherhood with the kind of respect that mothers are often bestowed with. The poem is a rare metaphor. Thursday Night Shopping by Lyn Vellins tells us of the values we must not instill in our children. Miachel Farry's 'Grandmother' is like a fresh soft breeze while The First Grandson is a rustic poem. Chiara Gamboz's 'Home' is a neat poetic prose that reminded me of my ancestral house. Brian Wixon's poetry has Godly blissfulness to it. Maie joy Sau Buenaventura's poem 'Grandmother's God' talks intelligently of symbolism in religion. My Lodestar didn't manage to tug at my heart. Joe Kriss's poem uses exquisite imagery like 'weak as a whisper'. Familial Ties by Shloka Shankar is a take on the warring modern families in India. Sunita Prasad's poems are full of love although she can string imagery and adopt a tighter structure omitting the many connectors she uses. Ammama by Nivedita is a soulful poem with bright colors while that with Everette Jr makes you to contemplate.
Anu Cowalgi needs to indict imagery into her poems while Girish Kute's poem needs to be trimmed of the loose edges. Gulzar's poem translated by Pavan K Verma is a intelligent metaphor on relationships.

The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti

Title: The Almond Tree
Author : Michelle Cohen Corasanti 
Publisher : Fingerprint Publishing (Prakash Book)
Genre : Historical Fiction
ISBN : 9788172344870 
Number of Pages : 352

It is one of the rarest of rare stories that tell you of the triumph of good over evil. Not many stories I have read look into very personal accounts of the protagonist,this being an exception. This was too true to be a fiction!
The story takes us to the mid nineteen fifty and talks of Ahmed and his family and their travails in a war hit Palestine.
The story begins with the protagonist's little sister being torn apart by a landmine. What is heart wrenching is they can't even give her a respectable burial that very night owing to the hostility imposed by the curfew.
The heart rending moments from the story make you think twice about how power and hatred can shred this beautiful world into shambles.
The brutal death of his sisters, the holding of Sara's body by his only living sister and mother to keep the maggots at bay, the blowing up of their house charring it to a rubble, confiscation of their property by the Israelites and their life in the tent, their job at the construction site and the slaughterhouse, the inhuman sighting at the detention centre, the disrespectful barbarism of the Israeli officials towards Ahmed and Abbas when they go to meet their father, Abbas and his accident and the untimely death of Nora are agonizing moments that made my heart cringe.

A.P.J Abdul Kalam:My Journey

Title: My Journey- Transforming Dreams into Actions
Author : A.P.J Abdul Kalam
Publisher : Rupa Publications
Genre : Non-fiction
ISBN : 9788129124913
Number of Pages: 146
Price : Rs. 195

Our Eleventh President can never get it wrong, it seems. From having designed missiles, to having devised strategic development plans for the country to having written books that share honest anecdotes from his life, he has done everything with excellence and elan. I particularly liked the book for his accounts of the scientific life and the challenges that didn't cow him down. How each failure only shaped his sight and made him a better human. His humility and spiritual connect to the Almighty God doesn't make you wonder, why he always gets it right. 

The first story My Father's Morning Walk talks of his father Jainulabdeen and his connect with nature and divinity. His calmness and composure made him a favourite person in the small town of Rameshwaram where people always used to turn upto him with their woes and wails. His spirituality was a healer to people battered by loneliness and worries and he had answers to souls scavenged by sorrows. 
The Boat inspires us to not force our ambitions and plans on paper and leave them in the care of the greater force called nature which has already charted a path for us. It communicates to us that surviving is gathering those pieces and moving on, just like his father did everytime a natural disaster failed him and his business.

Business Sutra by Devdutt Pattnaik

Title: Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management
Author: Devdutt Pattanaik
Publisher: Aleph Books
ISBN: 978-81-923280-7-2
Genre: Non-Fiction, Management, Mythology
Pages: 437

Picking up a book written by an author who calls him the Chief Belief officer was a first timer.
And I was wondering what could a once doctor turned thinker turned an author could offer. Since business in an interesting area of exploration and Vedas and holy books from other religions than what I follow have always kept me hooked, this was a heady concoction that did keep me interested until the end.  Reading the book was like turning the pages of a moral science book, but not that redundant. There were some ideals that didn't support the stories they were trying to talk of, but then most of them were ethics one can follow in real life too. Like the best one in the lot was "If ambition is the force contentment is the counterforce. Enjoying what you have is the key and greed would only dash the ambitions, never drive them.
The other ideals I loved were as follows:

Behind the Silicon Mask By Eshwar Sundaresan

Title: Behind the Silicon Mask

Author: Eshwar Sundaresan

Publisher : Westland Books

Genre : Fiction

ISBN : 978-93-82618-39-3



The book cover and the title attracted my attention and I expected a roving thriller in store. But as I started reading, tens of characters and places and events were strewn all over the book with none making sense any or which way I tried to skim through the pages. I read and re-read and got lost with most of my enthusiasm dying down with each page. Until about page 175, I felt I was kicking in the muck until finally things started showing up. The events described and the places that initially read like a travelogue to me became a tale after that. Each character in the story then started showing their significance. 

My Lawfully Wedded Husband and other stories by Madhulika Liddle

Title: My Lawfully Wedded Husband and Other Stories
Author:  Madhulika Liddle
Genre : Fiction
Price: Rs. 250
Pages: 225
Publisher:  Westland Limited (2012)

I have a limited attention span and that might be one of the reasons that I absolutely dote on a collection of short stories. The cover was a captivating one with the red and black in sync to the  darkly humorous stories written onto its pages.
The titles intrigued my mind as well, some like St.George and the Dragon and the Howling Waves of Tranquebar and even Sum Total itch your curiosity and might serve as the perfect Bollywood scripts for alternative cinema I am so in love with . Others like the Silent Fear and Night Train weren't monologues of mystery and were predictable and I guess even dragged, although since these were very very short, I was hooked on till the end. Without giving up on my patience.

Sum Total was a story of delusions and fears, crammed inside the head of a woman who wanted to seek revenge against the people, trying to get even with her. Ofttimes because of the fallacies of other humans hate and anger mushrooms inside us. When selfishness pulls the wool over others eyes and they try to make us a scapegoat for their covetous calling, does deceit disguise into fallacy. Veera's day dreams were a product of that kind of a parsimony.
Geeti, a not so smart girl had a lot to lose in the end, when she decided to trust the most reliable girl in school. And the poor soul couldn't have imagined that the girl she looked upto for succor was the main protagonist of the cliff hanger staged in front of her.
Feet of Clay read more like a fairy tale straight from a castle of dreams. It takes a closer look at one of the most cowardly crimes existing in the Indian society which is usually brushed under the carpet for the fear of social stigmatization.

The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian

Title - The Bankster
Author - Ravi Subramanian
Publisher - Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
Pages - 364
Price - 250 INR
ISBN - 978-81-291-2048-9

This seemed more like a nefarious nexus between the banking official and a gangster with lies, deceit and treachery making you flip through the pages without boredom haggling your senses.
It all begins in Angola, and keeps shuttling in space between Kerala, Venice and Mumbai, sometimes making you wonder if its three stories or just one and the introduction of the protagonist after about 160 pages was later than anticipated, even though it was heroic. Karan's character was feebly identified and involved with the story and until he solves the mystery, I really never knew that he was the protagonist. Rather than telling the story through tens of characters, Karan's tale could have been told in details and the story developed around his character. And the villain could not be loathed at, considering the confusing characterization he was given.

Perhaps, this can make for a wonderful Bollywood script for sure for sometimes I thought, that the next minute will read into a song and dance and I'll see the characters dancing around in the rain. The plot is engaging and fast paced with the too many characters making you confused often, only if you don't read the book with a hawk's eye. The characterization is not as vividly described as the places. Often I felt that I was reading a travelogue instead of a financial crime thriller. But not for long!

The Krishna Key by Ashwin Sanghi

Title: The Krishna Key

Author: Ashwin Sanghi

Price: 250

Publishers: Westland

Pages:475

Characters
Ravi Mohan Saini: An intelligent and well informed professor of history teaching at St. Stephens college, Delhi.

Priya: Saini's doctoral student.

Radhika Singh: A tough police officer, a woman who can give many men a run for their money when it comes to solving criminal cases.

Sunil Garg: Director of CBI

Taarak Vakil: An innocent rich boy victimized to kill.

Sanjay Ratnani: Priya's father and India's top criminal lawyer

Sir Khan: The don in the den.

The book begins with a mysterious murder and a History professor being framed. The murderer kills in the name of God and to be able to stop him and not let himself be wiped out, the professor along with his doctoral student set out on exposing the ancient secret of the human avatar of Krishna which is the key to unearthing the mystery behind the murders. I liked the way in which he has drawn parallels to the mythological characters and crafted a plot that is not rushing, yet very engrossing. One can say, the book is the Indian take on the Da Vinci Code, again with Hinduism playing its role to not hurt the Indian sentiments. It is less furious than the Da Vinci Code in its flow and the twists and turns in the story keep you hooked to the hatch.

What I particularly liked was the way in which  excerpts from the Mahabharata kept appearing to tell of a tale that was a fable for me till now. So also, it tells us of many strange secrets from the Indian history with realistic roles of civilizations and kings, that the history books did not delegate in detail.

The book also gives a discourse on what is good and what is bad and the importance of making the right choices in life. The comparisons between the characters and the mythological personalities make the story all the more a catch.  And without any advisory authority tells us of  how the wicked ways only lead to destruction and nothing else.

The book is a peerless pick for people who are interested in spine chilling thrillers or those who have an eye for history and mythology. Infact anyone who doesn't know the story of Mahabharata can pick it up for a peek.

A few of the flaws in the book I particularly like to point are these.

1) The usage of the word "barked" is sometimes irrelevant in telling us of the characters and what they wanted to say.

2) The author talks of a Smith and Wesson! What is Smith and Wesson for the average Indian reader? No clarifications on that.

3) On Page 245, the usage of "Dot on time for her" doesn't make sense.

4) On page 253, the usage of an extra "out" in the line fitted out with the latest audio and video equipment did not make sense.

5) On page 284, the Don smiled a smile of satisfaction. Is smiling a smile of satisfaction the correct usage?

6) On page 301, Radhika was wrongfully referred to as Priya in the last paragraph on the page.


Then there were many other places where a "would" was replaced by a "will" and present perfect became the past tense in a blink of an eye. These tiny trivialities could have been done away with, to give the readers a better piece of literature.

The book scores 3/5 points on the exhaustive exploration done to provide a whooper of a plot, and 2 points go away for the grammar errors and spelling mistakes and the giving away on the identity of the character Radhika on page 301.

Ah! Poetry by Various Authors

Book: Ah! Poetry.!

Author: Members of Ah! Poetry

Language: English

Publisher: Nivasini Publishers

Date of Publishing: 2012

Price: Rs 150

The anthology offers variety in verses and verbiage with a simple and subtle language that explores all the emotions of the human heart in free verse, rhyming and some other newer invented forms except that love was over exploited in deed and discourse, sometimes bordering somewhere between cliche and originality. So also, in some poems rhymes seems to have been forced. The poets have tried to discover the Indian identity and ideology which reminds you sometimes, of your home state or your favourite Indian food or the social life in the cities or just to say, the simplicity of the rural rustiness.

Abhishek Dua's Two Square Meals A Day stalks the mind of the reader with oxymorons of human emotions plaguing the heart.

Ajinkya Raut's Deflowered explores the lives of sex workers, some that happen due to miseries and others that happen in act of shameless satisfaction.

Akshat Gupta's A packet full of Your Memories is a walk down a lane forgotten and forbidden.

Amanpreet Singh's Vacant Horizons discovers the darker mysteries of life with ease and elan.

Amar Singh' The Day Vision inspires the reader to treat each day as a gift from God.

Amit Charles travels through his grandma's childhood reminding us of hey day innocence with his poem Ammama, Puttu and the Summer Rain.

Amiya Cahtterjee's Middle May explores the good and bad and the middle road running between them.

Anand Madhukar's A letter to my Father pay a tribute to his father's memories that stalked him for a good fifteen years before pouring out in this poem.

Anantha R's I am ready For Marriage talks of a dream theme for a perfect non-plagiarized wedding in these suffocating times of arranged marriages and matrimonial websites.

Anu Cowalgi's Perspectives magnifies the present day scenario in the nation with truthful honesty.

Baljeet Randhawa's A Philosphy of Colours is a poetic perspective of philosophy and its parameters.

Charbak Das magnifies his unsaid memories of love by exploring nature's elements in his poem Sand House.

Deepti Agarwal's Free at Last is a poem delving into suicidal freedom with breath taking beauty.

Dolly Singh's poem A Designer's Muse is a distinctive poem, the kind I haven't read till this day, which poetically pens the kaleidoscopic beauty of the world of fashion.

Hiral Trivedi's To the end of the Tunnel is a lovely collection of short poems talking of a silent suffocating soul wanting to attain nirvana.

Indira Mohanty's poem Love is an an amalgamation of emotions of various hues from red to white to black and even grey.

Jayachandran Ramachandran salutes the supreme sacrifices made by Irom Sarmila Chanu in her fearless fight demanding withdrawl of the AFSPA from Manipur.

Jatin Kuberkar's An Unusual Biography exploits a forsaken love's journey towards nothingness.

Jennifer Robertson makes use of unusual metaphoric images to tell the story of a dream unfulfilled.

Krihsna Dasani's poem Women salutes the power womanhood has been bestowed with gracious charm.

Kunal Sen's poem Vermilion is unusually structured and digs into the elements of an Indian arranged marriage very beautifully.

Leenuka Reddy is a womanist talking of Eve's curse with sad sinister detailing.

Madhav Bhandarkar's Loyal Husband is an exploration of everlasting parting love that doesn't die even with death while Maulik Trivedi respects the yin and yang of fakery and reality in Opaque Reality.

Mayank Sharma is innocence personified in his poem Dedicated to a Bird.

Manish Gautam's Coin in economically worded poetry talking of how life can never be traded for coins.

Mehul Jain skectches his philoshphy of life with attractive adjectives in his poem Life Unexplained..Unexplainable while Nishant Shah's poems Aum had chants of Hindu philosophy driving it.

Nivedita's poems written for her friend is a very honest dedication in the reverence of friendship.

O Sudhir Janardhanan is an imaginative poet with intelligent use of imagery while Payal Aggarwal's Acrostic offers variety to the reader with form poetry.

Philoment Chaudhary explores darker and dreaded secrets of love in all her poems while Pratibha Sofat hankers on hopelessness in an incomplete efforts in her poem Hope-less.

Pravaas Ranjan does justice to his professional paranoia in his poem Raincoat.

Preeti Venkatesan's poem Death Wish looks much like a Suicide Note with Prerna chaudhary utilizing abstract elements to ulterior use in all her poems.

Rajashekhar Sen seems to write a memoir in his poem Intro. Rohan Sen's poems are twining love to nature while Sanket Karkare's uses the Metaphor Butterfly to wonderfully describe independence.

Raj talks of love like other poets but from the purview of a teenager. Sashus' poem Love Note is again a wonderful love poem dancing to the tunes of nature.

Saurav displays his acting skills quite convincingly in his poem A Question while Shabbir Khorakiwala again takes you to a wanderlust journey of nature discovering God's creative prowess.

Shashank Mishra's poem Those papers in my Drawer is a good attempt at rhyming poetry while Shigufta Uzma's The Changing Prefixes and Suffixes talks strongly of the surname culture in Post Colonial India.

Shirish Kota's poem Revised Recklessness is a wonderful tribute to womankind.

Shivraj Amin's I the Thief on the Left is biblically inspired and does justice to the hallowed honour in the crucifixion of Christ.

Simranjeet Singh's Skinless layers of I is a memorable memoir poem while George Everett writes two poems to relegate and honour a martyr.

Sudeep Singh Rawat's I am Sorry explores shameless guilt while Sunita Prasad's Pearls of Wisdom are those you might want to keep.

Surabhi Goswami's finds love in her poems.

Syed Qaisar Gilani's is a wonderful journey of life penned with both innocence and maturity.

Yamini Periwal completes the collection with her poems on love and friendship.

The book is available here.

My rating 2.5/5,  2.5 points go away for some poets who did not manage to strike a chord with me for the poetic prose they had to present.

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