Review of Anything Else But Love; Ankita Chadha; Cedar Books 2011; pp 304; Rs 175
For a longish book, the plot of Anything Else But Love moves along at an okay speed. Ankita Chadha, at 22, has done well with her second novel. She is currently pursuing MBA in Human Resources. Anything Else But Love starts with Shewali Singh running away from a wedding scene. The book then takes us to her past, where she has recently moved to Bangalore to head a project. Back home in Mohali, her parents and sister, Sonnel miss her much.
Shewali’s life is quite simple and she herself, plain. Work seems to what drives her, with no intention of getting hitched soon. Avi Malhotra, on the other hand, is a total flirt and a happy-go-lucky fella, with a cute Playboy-like smile and honey-filled words that would make any girl – or woman, at times – swoon for him. He calls himself the Avi, and goes on to make Shewali’s life miserable with harmless fights and loud pranks. But the fact that he starts the relationship on a bet shocks Shewali, leaving her to doubt his love!
The corporate background and the other characters add masala to their lives. The twists and turns are guessable and the situations all-too-apparent. A little more originality would do well. And so would editing. Ankita’s choice of words is good – easy, short and intelligible – but conversations need a lift.
The book takes a more than slight Bollywood style in the way the two protagonists meet, fight and finally, falls in love with each other. Although certain instances are repeated in more or less a similar fashion across chapters, some do bring a smile to the readers’ faces, and probably lets their mind wander back to their younger days. But I found the verbose passages and the really small margins on the three sides of the page making the read a little tiring at various places.
The novel’s cover is nice – a silhouette on a colourful background.
By:- Ankit Singh
Logic and Love
About the book
Close your eyes and think about your College days – What do you see? Girls, Grass, N-10, Crush, Whisky, fight with seniors over a football match… and no studies. What a life!!!!
Saptak’s life was based on 3G. No, I am not speaking about the latest mobile technology. It stands for GUITAR, GRASS AND GIRLS.
Close your eyes and think about your professional life. What do you see? Oh shit!!! f**k! I am screwed.
PNS Technologies, Precisely Pick n Stick Technologies Limited where Saptak works- their motto ‘Creating the Stick that beats its Pick’- reigns supreme. Day in and day out Saptak’s bewilderment continues to rise doing the monotonous Copy-Paste work. Strangled between the war of his mind and heart, Saptak finally quits his job and returns to JyotiNagar where Debaroti, his childhood companion waits for him.
An incredible idea struck Saptak which slowly leads to the creation of his Software product company ‘Innovation Techlabs Pvt Ltd’.
What is the idea? Will he have a life? Or Love? Or both?
Love, Logic and the God’s Algorithm asks every reader How long can you wait to you hear your inner voice? How long can you wait to clear your heart’s doubt?
About the author
Saptarshi Basu is a Gold Medallist in Mechanical Engineering, and has been in the IT industry for last seven years and has worked for three major IT companies in India. However, writing has always been his first love, his passion. His Debut novel Love, Logic and the God’s Algorithm has been recently published. His second novel, Committed Online, published by Vitasta Publishing along with Times group Books (TGB) will be launched in September.
He now works as a Project Manager at Wipro Technologies in Kolkata. He can be contacted at-Saptarshi.basu1981@gmail.com
By:- Shantanu Malik
Keep your PC Safe
Review of Hackers Beware – A Guide To Protect Your PC; Navneet Mehra; Macmillan Publishers 2011; Rs 335; pp 266
- Terence Joseph
In his book, Hackers Beware Navneet Mehra talks about the main themes of the golden age of hacking and ways to protect your computer from hackers and viruses, in simple language. Information about viruses, their origins and what and how they attack are clearly defined in the book, a real help to the average computer user.
He explains the common mistakes that we make which will lead to vulnerability to virus attacks, trojans and hackers. Instead of buying the original software, we go for pirated and cracked versions of softwares which allow hackers easy access to our computers.
Mehra – a young computer professional with experience in the field of Computer and Internet Security – also describes DOS (denial of service) attacks, securing Wi-Fi, protecting hard drives, guarding website servers from hackers, and similar topics. Now these might sound like a nerd’s guidebook, but believe me, the topics covered in this book will come in handy regarding your computer and its use, at some point of time, for sure.
He advises us about creating a strong password – this is quite vital at a time when Internet Security and Identity Thefts are hot debates in the online world. He’s given a list of Top 500 most commonly used passwords from round the world. So avoid using the same!
Spelling errors and a few mismatched phrases hamper quick reading. The presentation of the book, chapters and points are a little text-bookish, giving it a “guide” feel. But at the same time, it might keep away someone who’s not that into computers or hacking. If this book is meant for the young and old alike, as well as for the not-so-computer-literate, the presentation needs to be more aesthetically put forward.
By:- Tausif Ali