Its your move, Wordfreak! by Falguni Kothari

The title of the book "It's your move, wordfreak" really intrigued me and I assumed the book would be flirtatious talks with quick wit and intelligence. However, that formed a very small part of the book and the book mostly focussed on the heart-throbbing romance between the wordfreak and worddiva. Wordfreak alias Aryan Rajaram Chawla is a handsome hunk who is pretty good at his work and is a Page 3 celeb. On the other hand, worddiva alias Alisha Menon is a successful divorce lawyer who is a workaholic and gives importance to brains over beauty.

However, their online scrabble games change their view towards life and how they embrace the change with great willingness. Reading romance between the protagonists was interesting up to a point, but the romance extended for more than half part of the book which seemed redundant after a point and left me wondering where is the plot leading to?

The characterization of Alisha as a tall, dark and beautiful girl who is very successful and quick-witted is very appealing to me. What interests more is how Aryan, the male protagonist views Alisha. His opinion of Alisha as a lovely, stubborn-headed, easy going and intelligent lady made me like Aryan a lot more than him possessing a ravishing body. The picturization of both the characters looked very realistic and modern, which appeals to the readers of this generation. The mention of Alisha unable to sympathize with a lady who is scared of her husband and is undergoing divorce shows Alisha’s indepence. This particular character is significant and resembles the attitude of most modern educated girls in the society.

Towards the second half, the plot picks up speed and introduces the complications involved in Aryan's and Alisha's relationship. It craftily shows how men deal with relationships when things go wrong and how women deal with things. Alisha with all her strong traits in her personality dealt with Aryan in a perfect manner (atleast I believe so ;) ). Diya's character was well-etched. Aryan Rajaram Chawla and his family were described in a well respected manner and would make one dwell in thoughts of such a handsome prince charming. One particular train of thoughts of Alisha’s minds is that she thinks of Aryan and Diya as two peas in a pod as they think very much alike about fashion, life,etc. This particular thought seems very realistic as if taken from an experience. It is of common experience that an unlike friend is the glue to the friendship of other like characters.

For a first book, Falguni Kothari started out well and kept her readers wanting to go till the end. She has a knack of keeping things in place while weaving the plot. It was a good time pass and fast read for the holidays. If you are interested in a fairy-tale kind of romance, you will enjoy reading this book. I am hoping to see Falguni evolve her writing skills into an engrossing read. I recommend this book to all the romantic people out there. ;)

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The Incredible Banker by Ravi Subramanian

This is the third book written by Mr. Ravi and it definitely shows that it is not his first book. This book is more focussed and more direct in its objectives than his debut novel. I personally liked how he introduced many characters in the first half of the book and kept the reader engrossed and trying to guess what plot is he going to unfold  as they keep on reading. Also, the reduction of adulteration in the corporate world also was a relief.

Towards the end of the book, all the loose ends are tied perfectly and it truely follows the lines of thriller mystery genre. What is thrilling about this book is that, the mystery part of this is not murder or robbery as it is commonly known to us through the books and films; but the mystery part of it is in the financial books and accounting. How money can be laundered through the financial system is slowly revealed depicting the vulnerability of the financial system we are building upon.

It is a bollywood flick in writing and it sure does not disappoint its readers. This book is a good read for the first time and it also educates the reader the risks of the financial system. Read it if you are interested in the financial system.

Attitude...What is it?

People say that attitude is a small thing which makes a big difference. It is also said that our attitude defines us. Attitude...Attitude...Attitude...

We come across this term often than we think about it. Everybody out there is preaching what it takes to be a winner and the first thing to possess in a winner's character is a winning attitude. A confident person takes on things without hesitation. Has a positive outlook even in failure.

The winning person treats both success and failure the same. That is his attitude.

All these sounds very nice to hear and when we hear all these, we are really inspired to think that way and we are also convinced that we have the best attitude that is out there. But, how truly awesome is our attitude?

Are we courageous enough to face who we are?

Can we take a look in the mirror and see ourselves as who we are, rather than who we think ourselves to be? That is really difficult to do and it takes a lot of courage to do that.

Well, I might sound very philosophical to you. However, I just feel like writing on. Of late, I have realized that I had completely different notions of who I was. When in reality, I was a completely different person. Even to accept what kind of a person I was, it took a great deal of struggle. Its not necessarily wrong that you are a different person. We might think of ourselves as a completely utterless and useless person, and in reality we might be the most useful person on the job. We might think of ourselves as a coward, but we might be a very brave person. And it can be the other way round as well. Whatever it is, the first step to progess is to realize who we are!

Getting to know oneself is the best journey one can get onto. The more we discover ourselves, the more we fall in love with ourselves. I found the courage to face myself and I am continously working on improving myself. It is true that people want to give advice to us. There are loads of people out there who want to point out our mistakes and make jibes at us. But, true friends are those who insist on correcting us everytime they think we are doing something wrong. They are the people who love us who help us during the lowest of times and share our joy in all times.

Treat success and failure alike, then you are truly successful. This is a great saying, and to be frank I was never able to treat success and failure alike. When I failed, I was sullen. When I was successful, I was on top of the world. To develop this kind of attitude, I figured out that I would never be able to treat success and failure the same if I succeeded. However, due to continous failure, it was hard to stay dull for a long time. And I finally started seeing what attitude those people who quoted those great sayings talked about. Once, I was able to look past things as accomplishments/ trophies, I was able to understand the objective of each mission. Taking the outcome into consideration will never help me be a perfectionist and possess a right attitude. Hardwork never goes in vain. Every failure is taking me one step closer to success. Every failure is making me a stronger person. Every step I take will be with more objectivity and passion. Thus, every moment in our life is a teaching moment if we are willing to learn.
Learn everyday. Learn everywhere. Learn everytime.

What is attitude?
It is your outlook to life.

What is attitude?
It is your will to succeed.

What is attitude?
It is how you take your failure to be your stepping stone to success.

What is attitude?
It is how you define your next move based on your current success.

What is attitude?
It is the path to self-discovery.