The Sane Dreamer

About the Book One team. One year. Everything to lose. When Rishabh Bala reaches the tenth standard, life takes a turn for the complicated. The bewildered boy feels the pressure of the looming board exams and finds himself, hopelessly-and hormonally-in love. But what he yearns for most is a victory on the field: at least one trophy with his beloved school football team. Set in the suburban Thane of 2006, here is a coming-of-age story that runs unique as it does familiar. Hopscotching from distracted classrooms and tired tutorials to triumphs and tragedies on muddy grounds, this is the journey of Rishabh and his friends from peak puberty to the cusp of manhood.
My Take on the Book Red card, a word which is synonyms to the football game and surely something which is clearly a familiar term to every football enthusiast. Written by Kautuk and published by Penguin publisher, Red Card took me down the memory lane to the times when I was in high school. The book is a coming-of-age tale of a b…

 About the Book The world should burn . . . burn like a star! The balance of the world is askew. The winds speak of a terror from the south. Ravana, the Lord of Lanka, is on the march. Seers whisper that he has awakened Starsong, a mythical Astra of the gods. And that he thirsts for this weapon that will make him invincible. But there is one thing that he hasn't considered. Up high in the glistening tower of the city of Ulka is a boy, held captive. Today is the day Varkan, the young prince of Ashmaka will taste freedom. Today is the day he will lay claim to his destiny as the wielder of Starsong. And along the way, perhaps he will change the destiny of the world itself.
 My Take on the Book This month I am on a spree of reading YA fantasy and I must say it feels magical. Truth be told, but I am a sucker for fantasy read. Growing up, it was  always one of my favourite genres and till today it holds a soft spot deep down my bookworm spirit. The latest book which I finished reading this week…

About the book We used to live in a world of magic . . . For Alice, life as a teenager is hard enough without turning into a supernatural herald of destruction. And you would think that after causing minor hurricanes with a major sneeze, being visited by a talking fox and ending up on a journey with death around every corner, things can't get much worse. Wrong. They can. Between a blind and telekinetic mass murderer, a girl bound to a shadow-demon and a genetically engineered pseudo-messiah, a whole generation of weird is ready to come of age. And when it does, the world will change. If it survives that long.
My take on the book As a fan of YA fantasy thriller, I couldn’t really put this book down once I started off. The intriguing fantasy filled plot-line kept me hooked, until I reminded myself that I have to come back to reality. The children of destruction written by Kuber Kaushik is beautifully executed in the fundamentals of racy magic filled the life of a teenager, when her life is …

“This is a novel told from the perspective of its male protagonist. It is about being in love with someone who is struggling with depression, and how that affects the person taking on the role of a caretaker in a relationship. The story further explores how mental health issues still have this societal stigma attached, and how their symptoms tend to get overlooked or even dismissed.” – Nikita Singh
About the Book Siddhant meets Akriti during their medical residency in Delhi. Their connection is instant, blossoming from the many similarities between them. So, when Akriti faces a devastating loss, she leans on Siddhant for support. In the heat of an emotional moment, the two decide that this must be love. But as Akriti's depression begins to take a stronger hold over her, she spirals out of control, sinking deeper into an abyss of fear, insecurity, and rage. And while Siddhant struggles to help her, it seems like everything he does is only making things worse. Meanwhile, Siddhant'…

About the Book Bon vivant Charlie Seth, a privileged denizen of Lutyens’ Delhi, leads a life of idle luxury fuelled by money, drugs, sex, and parties. A cocaine overdose kills his ditzy girlfriend, thrusting him into a maelstrom of conspiracy, murder, blackmail, and promiscuity. As the world of Crazy Rich Punjabis unravels, Charlie’s future is suddenly at the mercy of an enigmatic woman, an unscrupulous swami, a society-obsessed policeman, a slippery drug pusher and a disloyal valet. The only person who can help him is his missing aunt. Holed up in the country palace that his grandfather had won in a game of cards from a raja on Diwali, Charlie plots his revenge. Killing Time in Delhi is a brutally funny look into the shenanigans of Delhi’s ultrarich who live in the fast lane and are high on hypocrisy, borrowed money, and dubious deals.
My Take on the Book You may be wondering, 'if the title of the book is really about 'Killing Time in Delhi?' then,  yes, it is. Also, it is ab…

WINNER of the JCB PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 2018 An Excerpt I sat again in front of the microphone for my beloved live programme, Rush Hour. It had been three months since I was in the studio. No one had expected me to go live as soon as I returned, or for that matter, even return. Maybe that is why our programme manager, Imthiaz sir, told me, ‘You don’t have to go live if you are not up for it, just record something.’ He was trying to be kind, but it made me sadder. To not go live? Is that why I returned to the studio even though Taya and my chachas told me not to? Is that why I asked the studio to announce my return even when they were hesitant? Does Sameera give in that easily? About the Book Young Radio Jockey Sameera Parvin from Pakistan immigrates to an unnamed city in the Middle East where she tells the story of the Arab Spring of 2011 in Benyamin’s new novel. Sameera moves to an unnamed Middle Eastern city to live with her father and her relatives. She thrives in her job as a radio jock…