love books – The Ultimate Reviewer

Blurb: Have you ever seen
A smiling man cry?

Of course you have.
You are crying on the inside too..

A Cynic’s Shadow, is a collection of poems that explore the ailments of a melancholic man, whose enticing screams are beautiful when inked.

My Review

Amidst the sea of fog

I saw the sun resurrect.
So weak and wan
Then so full of light and power.
Vaporizing the darkness,
Illuminating the sea of fog.
Raising our hopes
And opening our eyes.
Illuminating some dreams and
burning some.
Ending some cold nights
And birthing some bright days.

-Yash Singhania (A Cynic’s Shadow)

A Cynic’s Shadow by Yash Singhania is a compilation of 64 poems accompanied by beautiful illustrations that are projecting the meaning of each word in it. As said in the book, this writer’ words tend to seep in the readers subconscious, painting fantasies. Fantasies one can’t get enough of.

These poems are penned down when the author was on a voyage of the solitude of self-realization, partly lost and partly in immense pain. Finding light in a road which seems to be dark and being alone throughout the journey is more than enough to light up the creativity of one’s own self. As said by the author in the preface, he convinced his orthodox family into believing that he was destined for better things than CA. So altogether these poems represent his journey of chasing dreams and to remind everyone that, the hope still exists. When you skim through these lines you can feel the pain of a trapped man who was searching for a way out in his own mind.

The illustrations accompanied by each poem are a marvelous piece of art. Once gaze into its meaning, you can’t look away for minutes. These poems are surrounded by emotions rather than the deep meaning. When I progressed reading these pages, I felt like reading a diary rather than a piece of literature.

The title and cover were deep and represent one’s own journey to the inner self. If you are a poetry lover you can taste this one too.

Rating: 4/5

Title: An Unmatched Couple’s Misfit Relationship

Author: Biswajit Mishra

Pages: 260 pages

Blurb: All the time she hoped and dreamed of a better tomorrow in her life in a span of six years. Her experiences both good and bad; the man, the mind and the moral… where, repeatedly she failed, woke up and then moved on.
Paayesha, solely grows with the time, experiences multiple affairs, extensively pulling out her inner persona to face the reality, and finally, she leads by conquering her insight while finding the literal tranquility, and reflects a moral… “Accept what it comes and dare to face, not always that comes what we expect.”
Even she went deep through the life to realize, “the time, the reality and the present are the factual ingredients for the life, rest everything virtual, an unseen mirage…!”

She realized four men in a span of five years. While in the search of the fifth man on her sixth year, what she expects, and finally accepts..? Is that a fortuitous Paayesha finally impounded felicitous?

It would be a favorite stuff in a single gulp, for anyone, whoever had experienced a break-up at least once in a lifetime.

My review

“Once loved, once married, once in extramarital; Paayesha didn’t drown. Still, she hopes to excel, even if in the deep ocean, she learned to live with the third side of the coin.”

-Biswajit Mishra (An Unmatched Couple’s Misfit Relationship)

An Unmatched Couple’s Misfit Relationship: Experience a love, never experiment a Break-up by Biswajit Mishra is an interesting tale of Paayesha when she sails through a course of life’s ups and down. Two things surprised me when I started reading this book. First one is it has a female lead because how often you came across a female lead in romance fiction particularly in Indian literature? Surprisingly the author has quite beautifully portrayed the female lead’s emotions, thoughts, and her decisions.

The second thing is this is not a predictable romantic story as I thought of, because at the end you never get that beautiful fairytale ending as we’ve seen in a lot of Bollywood movies. As a female lead, the growth of Paayesha’s character over the pages is so satisfying. The story of Paayesha’s love and breakups started right from college. Paayesha’s first love Abhishek abandoned her because he didn’t have the courage to confront his mother about his relationship. Once Payeesha came out from her depression, she slowly started moving ahead with her job and career and eventually get married to a guy whom her parents arranged for. She eventually realized he is impotent and moved out. In her office, she found solace from her friend Rishav who was like a breeze in a desert to her. But Rishav too wasn’t really good for her. But Rishav has a secret that he was hiding from her for a long time. He actually asks her one thing back for all the support and comfort he has given for her. What will be it? How she will manage this situation? The main crux of the story revolves around this thread.

I absolutely loved the way of writing of the author. The beauty of writing is the one main thing which made me hold to this book until the end. The diary entries of Rishav’s are absolutely straight from the heart. The emotions are conveyed through the words. This quality solely makes this book a good read. This is a fast-paced story which doesn’t give too much time on unimportant characters. I really liked this fast-paced method of storytelling, because it really helped the story from being monotonous and dragged at certain points.

The portrayal of depression and true heart-breaks are my favorite parts from the narrative perspective. Because it is an unlikely subject in romance fiction and it truly decided the author’s ability to convey emotions. The author has portrayed the female lead from a fragile young girl to a career focused- strong women. Truly her journey to womanhood is very heart-touching. The story also pays attention to the orthodox society which we all are lives in. The strong messages like this are inevitable to change the perspectives of society in things like marriage, life, and divorce.

Altogether it is a refreshing story which offers a handful of new thoughts before you close the last page.

Rating: 4/5