Shadow of Life

Family. One word, but too many emotions. When you think of family, A lot of scenarios and emotions, come to your mind. Not everyone has the same experiences, so where one can see the happiness, you might see hatred or sadness for different reasons. It is a bond connected by blood where you do not get the choice. So, you got to have what it already serves on the plate. It can contain your favourite dishes along with things you are not so fond of, but you can’t discard anything and, that’s how you can imagine our relation. We can love them or hate them, yet we to stay together. You tend to save your clan when the time comes because it is yours. This book will take you through phases where it becomes unbelievable to accept the scene going on. Why I’m using the word ‘scene’ because it is a combination of brief moments when compared to your own life, you might go into flashbacks. I could say this because I could relate to many things when I read it. Especially the scene where the protagon...

I always believe whenever you read a book there is something you are looking for in it. You might not know it at that moment, but once you have finished it everything starts making sense. Sometimes you find it exactly how you like it, and later it automatically goes into the category of your favourite book. Then there comes a book which makes you go round and round behind a single thing by keeping you in dark. It plays everything behind a shadow to hide things from you because when they come into the light, the meaning of everything changes. After Dark is one such story that will not make sense but will tell you a lot about a stranger and your acquaintances. You might want to reach the middle ground after knowing the details, but it will leave no stone unturned to keep things apart. It’s a story about two sisters, who are stark apart and don’t connect well, yet you find them longing for each other in a way you crave for someone’s approval when you have been denied for something that is...

T here are certain books where you know you will like them even when you have read just 10 pages. There can be reasons behind it though, perhaps you have read the author before, or have found the narrative interesting, maybe the first para hooked you since the beginning or your instinct made you feel so. All these factors sum up what I feel for this story. It was too much to see Rumi long for the alter ego, meanwhile taking part in the worldly things where he used to judge and help people but from a distance. And as Shams entered his life, things changed drastically overnight. Meanwhile, there is a parallel story going about Ella and Aziz Zahara. These two stories intermingle in such a way where you can’t stop comparing one character to another. This book is all about love in different forms, it doesn’t restrict itself to romance but love between father and children, between two friends, between husband and wife, between a teacher and his disciples and between two strangers. There are ...

It is the sequel to Sleeping Together. In the previous book, the story was more focused on Vanessa and Altan. Here you get to see more of Pete. Things take a different turn every now and then, and you always pray for your favourite character to win. The best part I found about this book is how every character is flawed, but there is more to them. You will judge them based on what they do but when you are having your weak moments. One can grant you some exceptions, as not everyone can be graceful. Yes, terrible mistakes can be made, but later how you look at it is most important. You don’t have to hate a person just because they did you wrong, at the same time you can’t like them either. You land somewhere between where you accept the fact and move on without being bitter about it. I liked and disliked many things about these characters, and they represent someone you know in real life. So, it isn’t hard to get to them. It’s a book about love and to what extent you can go for the peop...

Sometimes you are reading something, and it doesn't make sense. You get snippets of things every now and then that relates to the story, but you remember them individually as if they have been separately stored in your mind. Later you pull facts out of your box which feels coherent with the given situation just how you do things in life. This book feels like a treasure of little tales which involves around the loss people felt at the time of partition, pain revolving around the loss of parents in one's life, struggles faced in the cultural and art sector and the cost one has to pay to fight for their rights. This is the story of Nanaki, who lives with her grandparents in a Punjabi neighbourhood. Her life totally contradicts with other people, but her views stand higher than the society at large. The book gives us a glimpse of societal values which are traditional but with a pinch of a modern approach. One gets to see not just the romance between the younger ones but the age-old...

It is contemporary fiction. I loved the premise of the book as I found it different and entertaining. While reading the book, you might end up wondering if that is for real or such things really happen where fantasy and reality collide. Though there were a few problematic scenes, it refreshed me and got me back to reading. So, it was easy to say goodbye to my reading slump. There are two-person, Vanessa and Altan, who works in a pharmaceutical company and are working on a project where they have medical trials before the medicine comes out to the market. Here, they are working on a medicine called Morpheum, which is a sleeping pill. Vanessa finds out that Altan is stealing it and she becomes his accomplice in the scheme as she wants to have some rest from her nightmares too. Now, how they work on it and what all it includes is interesting. I'm not going to give you a spoiler but, it is a fun read. It also discusses how few secrets in our life can become the cause of some big proble...