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Monday, March 26, 2012

The Gap - some notable mentions

My short story, The Gap, got published in Urban Shots Crossroads Earlier this year. It's heartwarming to read some of the reactions to it by reviewers and bloggers. Here are some words of appreciation from some publications, reviewers and bloggers:

...Saritha’s contribution to Crossroads is definitely food for thought. She explains her story, Gap: “It stands for two things – the generation gap between a mother and her daughter and also the gap in their lives.” She adds, “The story is about one event that changes their entire relationship.”...Saritha added her two pennies worth, “The flavour of the urban setting makes it much more intense, the stress at every level is so much more.”...
The New Indian Express - Review of launch in Chennai (http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/To-make-a-long-story-short/365346.html)

...The Gap is a poignant story of a woman living with her daughter and her absent husband Sameer. Does she find a way to move on with her life? And in spite of herself, it turns out that her daughter finds a way to bond with her when she finally moves on...
Itching to Read & Flash News Today - book review

...The characters are what you will find in your everyday life. Some stories fail to make an impact, while some absolutely stand out. My favorite being The Gap by Saritha Rao...
Miracles Happen - book review

...The stories that I liked the best are :
The Gap which talks about the relationship between a single mom and her daughter, and a series of crank calls that makes their bond stronger...

...'Priorities', 'Haiko' and 'The Gap' are some stories the reader can identify easily with because of the quick succession on events and observations the writer puts you through, just like it happens in reality....
 
...Some of the notable stories from the book-
The Gap (Saritha Rao): A strained relationship between a single mother and her daughter. An emotional story about how they rejuvenate their connect and bridge the generation gap...
Ginger & Cardamom (http://prats.co.in/urban-shots-crossroads/)
 
...My favourites are... 
Mervin by Ahmed Faiyaz
Crossroads by Ahmed Faiyaz
The Gap by Saritha Rao 
Pity by Paritosh Uttam 
Look How Far We've Come by Shreya Maheshwari... 

...A woman is strong, but she is stronger with a man beside her. A crisp tale which describes a woman’s insecurities while bringing up her teenaged girl child all on her own, it ends on a beautiful note of bonding between mom and her daughter in the absence of the man of the family and the emotional acknowledgement of the same…
Rated 3.5 stars out of 5
 
 ...My favorite stories from the book were : Hako, Priorities and The Gap...
Nickolai Kinny (http://nickolaikinny.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/book-review-urban-shots-crossroads/)

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

R. D. Burman: The Man The Music


 Anirudha Bhattacharjee & Balaji Vittal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book gets a 4-star not for the eloquence of the writing, but for decision of the writers to stick fiercely to the subject of RDB's music.


A laudable effort is the interviews with RDB's musicians. If this was a typical Mumbai-based film writer, the interviews would have simply been by the famous names, about RDB with a foreword by Asha Bhonsle. But thankfully, it isn't one of those books.


Full marks for not gushing, or meandering into the gossip of those times or indulging the reader with too much trivia. The enthusiasm of the writers as RDB fans is infectious. However, I think the book is just short of being a brilliant biography of the man's music and that's where an objective non-fan may have been useful to give the content better form.


A very simple but useful feature of the book is that the names of the songs are italicised in the content and there is also an index at the end. So, if you happen to hear Churaliya hai and want to know more about it, all you have to do is flip to this index and turn to the pages that narrate the story of the song.


View all my reviews