LOVE AND (MELLOW)DRAMA - MANALI DESAI - BOOK REVIEW

-

 

Manali Desai’s latest book title ‘Love and (Mellow) Drama’ reads like a Bollywood romcom with all its twists and turns. It showcases romance and friendship as two sides of the same coin. Relationships play a significant role throughout the narrative, which is peppered with lyrics from Hindi songs and movies, provoking in the readers a sense of deja vu as they look forward to that happily-ever-after moment. 

Gayatri Kulkarni and her beau, Varun Agarwal, are the two main protagonists who lead the reader on to a merry dance with their blow hot - blow cold romance. Gayatri with her passion for dancing and her choice of Political Science in college comes across as a bubbly drama queen with a penchant for Bollywood movies like DDLJ. Varun is the quintessential Mills and Boon hero who sweeps the heroine off her feet, even when she loses her footing and falls into his arms. 

Many delightful characters pepper the book - Ayesha and Abhi (Varun's exuberant brother), Sharad (Gayatri's brother) and Nalini, and the older generation of the Kulkarnis and the Agarwals, each of whom have a definite role to play to push the narrative forward. If readers have read Manali's previous book, Love (Try) Angle, (another quirky title!), they will remember the delightful duo of Ayesha and Abhi who were the protagonists there. 

The transformation of Gayatri from Miss Melodrama to Miss Mellowed Drama is achieved through the arch of the book, as she breaks away from the childlike character that she begins as to the strong and transformational co-founder of She Rose, a platform that helps women to blossom forth and become creatively independent. 

As Dieter F Uchtdorf puts it so aptly, 

"It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life's story will develop." 

The chapter titled 'She Rose' is beautifully crafted and brings out the myriad roles played by women who support other women, Sheroes who disprove the stereotypes and who do not accept things lying down. The poem below is the culmination of as entire chapter that lauds these strong women.

 "We're all Sheroes

We're all She who rose

Together we can, we must and we will

For a better today

Than yesterday,

For a better tomorrow,

Than today.

For one, for all."

 About the Author - Manali Manan Desai: Manali is a full-time freelance writer and editor cum blogger. Currently, apart from her ad hoc writing and editing assignments, Manali runs a blog and is also a partner with Pachyderm Tales. In her authoring journey, Manali has written and published five solo books, been a part of a few co-authored books, and has helped new and aspiring writers publish their books as well. She has been a multiple-times bestselling author on Amazon with all her books ranking in the top ten in many categories. Her short story The Walls Have Ears, helped her bag the Best Short Story in 2019. She has also won the Best Author: Fiction Award, and the Book of the Year title in 2021 for her debut novel, Love (Try) Angle. Her short story titled The (Un)Blind Date, which is a part of her Christmas special anthology, Under the Mistletoe & Other Stories, won the best short story prize in an online contest before the book's release in December 2021.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Clouds and Waves by Rabindrananth Tagore - Poetry: The Best Words in the Best Order - #BlogchatterA2ZChallenge2021

-
Image
     CLOUDS AND WAVES Rabindranath Tagore Amazon.com Serenity in the Garden Mother, the folk who live up in the clouds call out to me - "We play from the time we wake till the day ends. We play with the golden dawn, we play with the silver moon." I ask, "But how am I to get up to you?" They answer, "Come to the edge of the earth, lift up your hands to the sky, and you will be taken up into the clouds." "My mother is waiting for me at home," I say, "How can I leave her and come?" Then they smile and float away.    But I know a nicer game than that, mother. I shall be the cloud and you the moon.  I shall cover you with both my hands, and our house-top will be the blue sky.  The folk who live in the waves call out to me - "We sing from morning till night; on and on we travel and know not where we pass.            Sunaina Coelho I ask, "But how am I to join you? They tell me, "Come to the edge of the shore and stand with yo
Read more

THE STRANGE CASE OF THE MISSING TEETH

-
Image
                                                                            Clipart.com I cannot forget the shocked expression on the young dentist’s face. “Where are all your teeth?” “Uhh… in my mouth, where they should be?” I mumbled, perched on the leather chair as he peered into my mouth. His eyes widened with bewilderment as he leant forward, almost falling into the gaping cavern in front of him. “Three missing here… three on the other side! Two more here and a broken tooth!” I was quite shocked out of my wits. Where had all my teeth disappeared to? I did recall a few sittings earlier where some of my wisdom had been yanked out, but eight and a half teeth? I was a walking miracle! More importantly, an ‘eating’ miracle! When my better half agonised over one painful grinder that made life (and mealtimes) miserable, here I was, chewing away at everything in sight with not a care in the world. The mystery deepened. Had I swallowed my teeth unwittingly? The X-ray of my mout
Read more

The Miracle of Love - Fiction - Post Number 8: #MyFriendAlexa

-
Image
Credits: Col. Gopinath Menon The waves crashed on the rocks, a sound that Sudesh loved, as he sat feeling the freshness of the spray on his face. Voices echoed around him, and he could feel the vibration as people jogged along the beach, and his sightless eyes turned towards the movement. He had been coming to this spot for many months now, ever since he had shifted to Mumbai, after his mother had passed away.  The sound of the sea evoked a vision that he could only feel, not see. He could smell the delicious puris that Ram Prasad was frying, very near to where he sat. Every day the cheerful proprietor would look for a moment when there were few customers, and hand over a plate of piping hot puris and delicious potato curry to the gentle blind man who sat there, so young and so uncomplaining!                                                                                                                                                               Youtube Sudesh
Read more