Thursday 12 September 2019

Book Review : Men and Dreams

Book Review : Men and Dreams in the
                           Dhauladhar

"Yesterday is but today's memory,tomorrow is today's dream."
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Title - Men and Dreams in the Dhauladhar
Author - Kochery C. Shibu
Genre - fiction
Pages - 284
Format - kindle
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Plot - The story revolves around three people -
Nanda, an engineer from Kerela is running from his past.
Khusru, a youth displaced from his native village in Kashmir, is on a secret mission to blow up the dam.
Rekha, who is Kathak dancer at heart and doctor by profession.
All the three brought together by fate in a Hydel project in the remote Himalayas of Dhauladhar. This book is all about the aspiration of these people who risk their life to fulfill their dreams.
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Review -
1) The cover of the book is captivating and the title is totally apt.
2) The plot of the story is good and intriguing which is inspired from the real life experiences of the author that makes it interesting. It is a perfect blend of romance, suspense, drama, twist and turns with a tinge of humor.
3) The plot has many sub plots which are very well wooven by the author but sometimes it gets bore due to too much technical words. The life of labor class is portrayed well. The story has two main plots - first about dam construction and other about terrorist plan to blow dam. The details of dam construction seems to be realistic.
4) The language used by the author is simple and easy to understand but Hindi and Malyalam words in between the dialogues is distracting.
5) The writing style of the author is good and mature.
6) There are large number of characters which makes it complex but details of each and every character is given properly.
7) The beauty of places like Kerela, Himachal etc is described so well that one can easily visualise it.
8) The flow of the book is slow paced due to which first half is somewhat boring but the mystery  keeps the readers hooked till the end.
9) Overall, a one time read.
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Rating - 4/5
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I recommend you all to give this book a try.

About the author -
Kochery C. Shibu is a retired naval officer. A graduate from the National Defence Academy he has held several important posts in the Indian Navy. Post his retirement he has executed hydroelectric projects in the Cauvery river basin in Karnataka, Beas river basin in Himachal and lately Teesta river basin in Sikkim. He holds a postgraduate degree in Defence Studies from Chennai University, and MA in English Literature from Pune University. Men and Dreams in the Dhauladhar is his debut novel. The technical content of the novel, namely the setting up of a hydro-project is drawn from his experience in these projects since 2005, as are many of the characters inspired from those whom he encountered at the project site. Kochery C. Shibu was born in Kochi and now lives in Bangalore with his wife and daughter.

Thanks for reading.

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