Zoya Factor

"Zoya factor " a novel by Anuja Chauhan, is definitely a candidature for a a Bollywood masala movie and so it has been  been nailed down bynone other than Sharukh's Red Chillies . Spicy,sweet,enjoyable novel .Though at some places I must admit I skipped the match description :-P .Zoya is a young girl in the field of advertisement wherein her job takes her to meet the Indian cricket team. The common link between Zoya and cricket is that zoya was born on the same day when India had won the world cup.Going with the logic that every 3 minutes a child is born there will be many like Zoya born on that day .Viola! Zoya was born at exact precise moment when the last wicket was grounded off and victory had fallen in our lap. Don’t try to find any logic because there is none There is just superstition called as Zoya factor. Zoya's destiny brings her to the breakfast table of Indian cricket team before a match where she mentions that a year back they had a similar breakfast where the team had won the match.So ,Team never looses a match when Zoya shares the breakfast table and to top it all the person whom she kisses turns out to be man of the match ;-)

So from there starts the luck aka Zoya factor and Zoya is officially tied by cricket board to have breakfast with Indian team so as to help them win the world cup. During all this Zoya developes special feeling for the

Captain of Indian team Nikhil Khoda. He has been portrayed as a real tall dark handsome hero. Actually Dhoni to the core from brown toffee skin to boost add . Narration of Nikhil khoda's character is quite good for any female reader to fall for him. Among this love hate relation ship between zoya and nikhil. There are few characters which we can easily relate to our Indian cricket team heros .

will India will win the world cup or will Nikhil use zoya for winning the cup or Zoya factor will end just on the D-Day .Grab the book for answers to all this questions.Overall its a nice masala movie.A little overly priced.

Overall this books give you a peek to Glamour in advertising,Politics in cricket,Love hate relationship and cricket feaver in this country .

Its a good and recommended read .

I will rate it at 3.5/5 .

                                                                                

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Palace of illusion by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

                                                                        

Palace of illusion is a nice concept that Divakaruni thought of bringing it to audiences.

It the modern avatar of one of the most popular epic Mahabharata. The strength of the story is its feminist interpretation of an age old epic. Though the epic is known to reader still while reading the novel the curiosity quotient persists. Since childhood whenever Mahabharata has been discussed I have been coming across Draupadi as a Krtiya.I used to come across incidences where in women were not allowed to keep their long hair loose citing example of Draupadi’s hair which led to the most devastating war of its time .It is quite interesting to get hold of a book which traces Draupadi's life beginning her magical birth from fire to managing her five husbands who have been cheated out of their own kingdom. In all of these you get to see different shades of Draupadi that manages to take the control of household from Kunti, her friendship with Krishna, her secret love for a man who is the greatest enemy of her husbands. All in all it is an entertaining, insightful and suspenseful story. It an old wine in a new bottle which will be enjoyed by all.

My rating 4/5

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Bad Behaviuor by Sheila O'Flanagan

                                                              

This is my first novel of Sheila O'Flanagan and I am happy to say that it did not disappoint me. It has a good story line that can be adapted for a masala movie. The best part was novel has been narrated in a very lucid manner. Incidents being described can be very well be related to our usual lives .How ambitions can get in the way of our life. How we mess up with our present life by clinging to the past.

Two best of friends Darcy and Nieve who have grown up together and share every moment of their life together .Both have a very contrasting character. Darcy is very good with numbers and since childhood she has maintained a low key profile so that her friend Nieve could get ahead easily .But she never thought that Nieve will sweep away her boy friend Aiden as well .Men will be Men if they have more than one option they will try to evaluate them against each other.Otherwsie what could be the reason that Aiden in spite of carrying a ring for Darcy did not give her the ring and finally jilted Darcy for Nieve.Their friendship falls apart and then they don’t talk for ten years. Both get into financial firm with a lot of aspirations. So what happens to Darcy? Does she find a new man? Will she be able to forget Aiden after all first love is hard to forget? In these 10 years they are un aware of happenings in each others life

and all of a sudden Darcy receives a marriage invitation from Nieve and Aiden. Why didn’t they get married for so long Will she go ?Will finally Aiden marry Nieve? Nieve has planned a big fat wedding for which she is banking on her stock optionsso will it turn out to be a good decision to bank on stock market which go from Bull to Bear any time. To get what is there in Darcy's and Nieve's life go grab this book. It is worth enjoying.

Rating : 4/5

Coming up next is   Palace of illusion by Chitra Banarjee Devakuruni,Above Average by Amithabha Bagchi and Battle for Bittora by Anuja Chauhan,Socialite evenings by Shobhaa De ...untill then Good Bye and take care!!

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Book Review -A Place Called Here -Cecelia Ahern

I always had a desire to start reading books and would normally envy every one who could pursue this habbit.Lately, have staretd reading books and so thought of posting reviews .I hope that I will be get better by time in posting reviews since this is just the start.

From the summary at back of the book I could infer that it would be some detective story which will unfold into an unpredictable ending.Somehow the ending did not meet my expectations. .Sandy Short is a girl who has just one goal in life i.e. to find  anything to every thing .I could relate to Sandy in one aspect ,since childhood I have also been very desperate in finding things if they get lost eihter it be socks ,pencils ,tooth brush to  school diary .I am unable to rest peacefully untill I do not trace the  missing things.Fortunately, I am not  haunted by this habbit  and so did not end up in starting a missing person agency as Sandy did .It all started with Sandy when her class mate Jenny-May Butler vanished.As a part of her professional assignment she gets in touch with Jack Ruttle  to find his missing brother Donal .When Sandy did not turn up for a scheduled meeting with Jack ,he desperately starts searching  for Sandy .To his surprise no body belieives him that Sandy has gone missing since this has been her usual behaviour   .Where did Sandy go ? What is the place like ?Could she find Jenny-May? Could Jack find Donal?How did Sandy get back home ? Answers to all this question lies in the book . The writing style of the author is good and simple for understanding but the story did not appeal to me a lot becuase of its predictable ending .The imagination is very good .The start of the story is good but in between the content could not keep me glued and inquisitive .I could very well predict the ending .For me it was an average read. I will rate it as 2.5/5 .


Next in queue is Review for Bad Behaviour By Sheila O'Flanagan

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I hereby declare to be the part of S. Krishna's South Asian Challenge 2011

I have always wished to indulge into reading spree but somehow have manged to find excuses for not doing so .One thing that can give me a kick is a Challenge .Voila!! Here comes S. Krishna’s South Asian Challenge for reviving my hopes.The challange has been hosted at this address .I am delighted to be the part of this with a hope to fulfill my wish .Address to your queries for S. Krishna’s South Asian Challenge is at Q&A .Are you ready for it?Its just a click away Sign Up . My reading list is under construction and I hope to publish it soon.Happy Reading!!


I was able to read 25 books this year  .This makes me South Asian Guru :-)
Book List

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Aaaaah !!! I am back.

[This post was supposed to be posted long back but Blogger servcie was down since last few days so it could not make on time .]

Thanks to everyone for constantly asking about my dead blog every now and then.Either people like my post or they were reminding me that, what was the use of starting a blog when i could not do justice to it .Life has been too dull in recent past to write about anything .I have been struggling to come out of this bloggers block since long time.
Don't even have the zeal to watch television also these days .I wonder what makes aaj tak a news channel .Few of the UTV bloomberg programmes are worth watching.After a long time was thrilled to watch an interview of Shiv Nadar.I hold a special respect for him, one reason being HCL was my first company :-) and other being i respect few of his ideologies .
I have been regular with Big Boss to get a taste of how bitchy people around you can be .Dolly Bindra is one of the her kind who can go to any extent to get the footage .She was horrible and very bad but since the time she has gone Big boss has lost its charm.The best part was her crying sequence after her eviction .C'mon mam, are we fools ? There are many things you get to know when you watch this show .Firstly, people on this earth can go to any extent to earn money .People around you are actually not as good as they pretend to be .Adversity brings out the actual you .How to be calm and composed when you are placed in the ugliest of situation .No matter who you are behaviour is inbuilt .A dacoit from chambal seema parihar has her manners intact amongst all of these civilized people and yes you can find the difference in behaviour that eductaion impart from Sameer Soni who was a high profile Investmenet banker before coming into acting business.The great khali has a misconception that public not vote him out ever .He forgets that people of india dont forgive the god of cricket also if he unfortunately scores a duck someday .Sara khan ,when i see her I think if one serial old person can be so famous then may be i made a wrong carrer choice.I doubt is she so immature that she dosent undersatnd how to maintain her dignity on national television . The best part is why does veena mallik think that we need a pakistani unknown actress to seduce our indian viewers .we have many desi actreess who can do that so please excuse us. Mr.Patel why you have to fall in love with every other women at first sight and then cry on national televison for your innocence because what he is doing now is no less and yes no doubt i guess he will prefer to marry a masseur . Hrisahnt Goswami not much of a trouble maker, just a soft target for our veena ji to maintain the curiosity among viewers as if it makes any diffrence to us.Last not the least the tiwari duo ,Shewta I some how like her becuase of her stand in most of the things. Manoj, netiher I like nor dislike this bhojouri star .He is playing game but what is the big deal he is there inside the house for playing game .So untill and unless he is following the rule there is no harm in playing.BTW, why Big boss had to spend so much money on pamela they could have acheived the same thing by roping in mallika sherawat for less ;-) .
I am happy that first cororepati on KBC is a women .Apart from this there is nothing exciting to catch on televsion .It has been quite long waiting for a good movie .Golmaal 3 -Bad slangs and nonsense dialouges dont make a commedy .Guzarish -good performance but dont know how good the topic was.I doubt ,in a country where majority will not know how to even pronounce euthanasia how far the message will spread .I was not bound to think anything after coming out of movie hall excpet that the movie was not worth Gold class :-( .Something was missing in the movie not able to figure out what.This is my personal opinion .Many have liked the movie so please dont base your prospects of watching it on my opinion.
I am hoping that life gets better with time and I get to watch good movies and good shows .BTW ,I am happy with Bihar poll so hope continues....for a better tommorrow
So guys and gals share your opinion on the current reality show.what you people have been upto ?

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Story Contd...3 Days to Name and Fame

This post is a beginning for the end of my last post. Now my Grandpa was little scared to keep the mobile with him so it was in custody of my dad. Everyone was busy with their daily chores. It was evening time. All the male members of the family had gone to the neighbouring house for a feast (we call it Bhoj).Then suddenly the honourable mobile started ringing. Generally, I am very reluctant in picking up the phone calls but, somehow I picked this one. There was a person from customer care at the other end with an extra sweet (malai mar ke :-) ) tone .Bihari trying to become Umrican kind of accent.He started off with Good evening mam and asked me the mobile number which I was not knowing .I casually told him to give me 5 minutes of time to find the number because I was not the actual owner of the phone .Then all my younger sisters were running around to find a piece of paper where they had scribbled the number .Meantime the person at other end was constantly asking me where the actual owner was to which I responded saying the owner was in washroom (this is the general statement which I give over phone call when I want to buy time either to find the person or to convince the caller that once the person is back I will ensure that he gives a call back).After a lot of struggle somebody gave me the number written over the brown cover that is inside the outer cover of the Britannia biscuit pack a(the sugar coated one). What an idea madam ji .What a place to save the number .I should pat Anjani’s(youngest among us .daughter of my dad’s youngest brother) back for such an innovative idea to Go Green .So Now I was back to the person on the call I told him the number and by now he had started scolding me saying that madam aap hi fone chura li hai jab fone appka hai he nahi to aapke paas hai kyun .I was like what is this now?I told him that it is my grandpa's phone and he has gone to market you can give him a call in half an hour , by that time, he will be back .But the karamchand at other end was saying aap pehle soch lijiye owner washroom mein hai ya market mein .oh!! shucks I forgot that I had earlier told him owner is in wash room.He was elated finding a thief .I think, he was deciding which suit to wear for 2010 bravery award function.He was telling that madam ji hum to ye number band kar denge .I was shouting at my peak that dont you dare to do this other wise you will have to face the consequences. It is my grandpa's number and nothing should happen to this number. He banged the phone saying no one can save it from getting disconnected. From then to the time I was there at my house whoever passed by me, was giggling and asking me the same question ahi ke chor samajh leleak(Maithli Version )(He took you only as thief) ? and then the whole story was repeated to xyz whoever was standing nearby .Aaaaaaaah!!! what a name and fame I got in just 3 days .

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