The Art Of Racing In The Rain - by Garth Stein - Not a Book Review

 Bliss.

 I've come across this word many times. Be it in ted talk or various spiritual videos, they talk a lot about bliss. And it's a cool word to use in your day to day life. 

The closest encounter I had with this feeling is when tears are rolling from your eyes and you are still smiling.

And when this book was coming to an end, I could feel my eyes moist and a little smile on my face.

Bliss.

I read about this book called 'The Art of Racing in the Rain' by Garth Stein in another Book called 'i came upon a lighthouse' which I have read a couple of weeks back. 

The book is narrated by a Dog whose name is Enzo. He expresses whatever he sees, whatever he feels, with such a perfection that he'll make you his friend from the very first page of the book. His master, Denny, who is a gifted Car Racer/Grand Tourer (GT) takes care of Enzo with utmost dedication. His life is filled with ups and downs. A beautiful and loving wife, Eve who is not doing well. A little girl Zoë who loves Enzo as much as his Dad.

Eve is diagnosed with something which is taking her life slowly. She is hospitalised once and after that, She decides to be at her parent's house for better care. She is slowly losing her health. In her last months, she develops a loving relationship with Enzo.

After she dies, her parents demand custody of their granddaughter and put false allegations on Denny to get the custody.

The book is filled with lots and lots of ups and downs, and what remained constant and unchanged was Enzo and his love for his family.

The story is simple. Just pick up a newspaper and you see innumerable columns filled with lots of these kinds of articles and clippings. Just pick up those novels with tragic endings, and you'll see many stories like this. But what makes it special is the narrative of a dog. The world looks so different from his eyes. His compassion, his generosity is contagious. His way of dealing with things is so loving. He uses his heart more than his mind. And That's what makes a Dog, A DOG.

A human, when pops out on the planet and gains a certain amount of maturity, tries to unlearn the over usage of his mind and tries to operate from one's heart. And it takes a lot of years for Humans to accomplish that. And most of us even fail in accomplishing that.

But Dogs know that art from the moment they take their first breath on this planet. That's why they come here for such a short period.

This book is for those who love animals and care for them. This book is for those who love that thrill of care race and like knowing the minute things of a car race. This book is for those who love long walks when it drizzles. This book is for... Everyone.

So Here I'm sharing the link to the book. Do let me know your views about it.

Thanks for reading.

Shall I tell you a secret? in Mongolia, they say that when a dog dies, he or she reincarnates as a human. What? You don't believe me? Read it yourself in the book

Love

HRN

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"One Arranged Murder" by Chetan Bhagat - Not a Book Review

 In life, one of the most challenging tasks is judging something without being judgemental about it. Let me elucidate.  While Judging something, you have to be neutral in every aspect. You have to keep aside all your past experiences, earlier records, and people’s opinions regarding that particular thing. On the other hand,  when you are judgemental about something, you bring the past performances and other people’s view into the equation. Don’t worry, this theory is created by me. It helps me to bifurcate between judging something or being judgemental about something. I hope that will help you too, as you read this article further.

Chetan Bhagat, who started his career with the books like One night @ the call center, Five point someone, and Three mistakes of my life, was a trendsetter and converted many non-readers into readers. He brought a different revolution in the field of literature. He became the apple of the eye of millions of readers, specifically in India. But with time, and after lots of success, Bhagat started losing his charm when we talk about his books. Most of his books began adapting to Hindi movies. So, I personally felt like he started writing more for the movies’ scripts than readers. His Books like Half-Girlfriend and One Indian girl was somewhat looked like more of a Bollywood script than a book.

And then, his views upon feminism and gender equality were widely criticised across the nation. However, his books were a huge success and always remain at the top of the charts.

I read his recent book – One Arranged Murder.

If we talk about its story, Two friends, Saurabh and Keshav, are not much in talking terms after an episode of misunderstanding.  Saurabh, who is about to get married in a couple of months, is going to her fiancé, Prerna, at his home as she fasted for him on the occasion of Karva Chauth.  He was climbing the stairs to meet her at the terrace but was welcomed with something alarming. He saw a people gathering around a dead body on the ground. Was that an accident or a murder? The story revolves around that. Sourabh and Keshav, apart from working in a corporate, also run a detective agency called Z Detectives. So no points for guessing; they help the police to solve the case.

Honestly speaking, without flaunting my intellect, I could guess the criminal on the 80th page of this book, which has about three hundred-odd pages. That was more of a work of my emotional instinct than my critical analysis. But with each page proceeding, I started doubting myself, and that’s what I consider the success of this book. New theories came in eventually, and that’s the essence of the book.

It has that Chetan Bhagat factor as it mixes up all the variants like his earlier books. It has that tragedy, that romance, and that masala, his x-factor in the books like two states and three mistakes of my life.

On the other hand, I found some parts of the book quite impractical and hard to believe. The characters were behaving quite differently and beyond the boundaries of their portrayal. At some point, I also felt that this book is also written for a movie or a web-series. But that’s again one’s personal opinion, not a fact.

Do I like the book? Oh yes. It’s undoubtedly a page-turner, and I believe that its entertainment quotient is relatively high.

Will you like the book? That will depend on what you are looking for in the book.

Here’s the link to the book, in case you are looking forward to reading it.

I’ll see you soon.

Love, Laughter, and Peace

Himanshu R Nagpal