Solitude and Books

What is love if not a feeling that changes us, even when it does not stay? As Paulo Coelho says, “Love is not something you find. Love is something that finds you.” When We Were ‘Almost’ explores this side of love through three stories that feel close to real life. They are about young hearts, old memories, missed chances, and the people we become after certain relationships end. Dibakar is at the centre of the first story, set in a small town in Tripura. An unexpected phone call brings him back into contact with old classmates and old emotions.  During the Durga Puja celebrations of 2010, he finds himself caught between feelings for someone from his past and a new connection that slowly enters his life. The story has friendship, attraction, confusion and heartbreak, while also showing how young people often do not know what to do with feelings that are bigger than their understanding. Ganga adds another emotional layer to the story. Years later,...

In a world that is always rushing, offering quick fixes, and obsessed with staying young, this powerful story takes an honest look at the later years of life. Through the carefully organized daily routines of an older couple, Lakshmanan and Chandri, the story shows what it is like to grow old in a fast-paced world. Mixing technical details with deep emotion, the story actually explores the quiet, hard work of holding onto your dignity as your body and health slowly fade. This feels relatable even if we are young but we find older people with similar life circumstances all around us. The story moves back and forth between quiet daily habits and heavy memories of the past. We first meet Lakshmanan and Chandri living a very structured life in a changing city. Lakshmanan keeps a close eye on his health, tracking his weight, blood pressure, and medical logs digitally. When they meet friends like Arvindo at local cafes, they talk about past adventures, old surgeries, and the real...

The Mystery of Number is the perfect thriller to curl up with on a cozy, rainy afternoon and I enjoyed it, while it was thunderstorming today. The story introduces us to the "J Girls", Jinu and Jamie, who are sharp, 22-year-old twin sisters with a knack for solving crimes. Their peaceful summer holiday in Kochi is quickly interrupted when they are called to investigate a tragic string of suicides among young medical resident doctors.  The stakes are immediately high, and the twins dive into a toxic academic environment where these brilliant students faced severe harassment from their superiors before their untimely deaths. What makes this mystery so gripping is the chilling pattern the twins uncover across different medical colleges in South India. Each victim was found with the digits "777" and a peculiar pedestrian crossing symbol drawn in green ink on their right hand. It was like watching a horror movie at one point. As a fan of well-craf...

Antara Mukherjee’s poignant debut novel, Beyond Our Births, tells a touching story about a young girl searching for a place to call home.​ It is a chronicle of the un-belonged.  A bildungsroman- a coming-of-age story thats gonna touch many hearts I can gurentee. The book starts near the India-Bangladesh border, where a five-year-old girl named Nimki is left behind by her family after her mother gives birth to another child. Nimki is taken in by the Sengupta family in Kolkata.  They give her a roof over her head, but in return, she has to help with the housework. Because of this, she feels like she is living in a strange middle ground, she is cared for, but she never truly belongs. She longs for the love of Bina Ma, the mother of the house, but always feels second best compared to Bina Ma's own daughter, Ira. This felt heart breaking for she was just a lil kid. Its like weaving together the silent heartbreaks of those who live on the edges of countries ...

What would you do if your best friend went out to celebrate and never came back alive? Dead in the Quarter by A C Frieden drops you straight into a messy web of corporate greed and dark secrets. Lawyer Tod Rochon dies after a celebratory dinner in New Orleans. His partner Jonathan Brooks refuses to accept the official story and starts investigating.  Did you know the search uncovers a mailed FedEx package containing a July 2007 CD ROM and a note detailing war secrets from Al-Ghazaliya Street in Baghdad? Jonathan finds hidden photos and a deadly link pointing to former Colonel Vincent Labat, who is trying to thrive and run for public office in New Orleans.  Can you guess how a past military cover up connects to a murder in the French Quarter? The plot shifts between gritty war zones and the high end Four Seasons Hotel. It is a smart political thriller that keeps you guessing.

What would you do if a simple business trip suddenly turned into a race for your life? And worse, what if every clue led you closer to spies, hackers, assassins and a country where secrets seem to have secrets of their own? The Pyongyang Option by Jonathan Brooks Thriller pulls us into a world where trusting the wrong person can be a very expensive mistake. Jonathan Brooks is a New Orleans attorney trying to rebuild his law firm after Hurricane Katrina. With work not coming easily, he accepts a business deal in Ukraine. Sounds manageable, right? Well, not for long. His client's executive disappears, Jonathan is attacked, and soon he is chasing clues through Kyiv and even near the abandoned areas around Chernobyl.  I really enjoyed how quickly his ordinary legal work turned into something much bigger and far more dangerous. At the same time, Jonathan's ex wife Linda is in North Korea, reporting on important nuclear talks. She starts asking que...

Sapna Bhattacharya’s When A Met B is a good story set in 1990s Bombay. It is set against corporate world which revolves around two professional women whose lives meet while working at a software company. “A” is a hardworking technical writer. She quietly handles the financial needs of her family.  “B” is ambitious, confident, and very competitive. However, but she has insecurity and fear around technology.  Both women are very different, very contrasting personalities. But what makes it feel realistic is they are like us , having their own sets of fears, doubts, and struggles in life and career.  Its not like one of them is better than the other. Both characters have their own strengths, weaknesses and insecurities but their workplace rivalry feels real and shows how difficult it can be to balance ambition, honesty, and personal values. People in IT jobs can relate to it much more deeply.  As its all happening in the backdrop of 1990s Bombay , the setti...