Book Review – Phases of Moon

Posted on by chickenbiryanii

Title: Phases of Moon
Poet: Neha Jindal
Pages: 54
Published in: 2017
Publisher: Notion Press

Phases of Moon- A poetic journey of a girl, is a debut book of the author, Neha Jindal. The book is a collection of twenty poems that beautifully describes the journey of a girl. It is a short yet engaging work by the author. The poems are written in a rhythmic pattern giving an emotional flow.

Author has been able to cover divergent phases of a girl’s life, starting from teenage to womanhood. She has been able to clearly bring out the essence of the title of the book, “Phases of Moon”. As the moon changes and grows through distinct phases, in the same way a girl’s life goes through different transitions.

The book is divided into three sections:

  • Teenage Shower – It will make you dive into your teens filled with silly infatuations and seasons of love.
  • Tied the Knot – This section shares beautiful poems about the marital phase of a girl’s life.
  • Emotions Unleashed – I found poetry in this section interesting as it covers some symbolic poems and other avenues of life.

I would like to share excerpts from some of the poems that appealed to me a lot.

From one of my favourite poem, Teenage, that felt like my emotions were re-written,

“We want someone, with whom we can chat for a while,
If not so, at least a person with whom we can exchange a smile.
At night the cosy bed has began to create fears,
As we need someone to smile for and in his love to shed tears.”

Another poem that touched my heart is Small saint, which is a symbolic poetry and portrays heart as a small saint. I loved how the poetess beautifully describes the attributes of a heart. Sharing some lines from the same:

“This little saint is calm and serene,
But when it goes mean, it creates an awful scene.
The hut destroyed and the garden ruined,
Both by the destiny are twined.
All the servants who used to bow, lose their worth,
Ready to be buried, in the earth.”

 

I would recommend this book to all the poetry lovers. The best part of this book is its written in simple English and is very relatable to our life. If you are looking for a refreshing poetical read do check it out at Amazon at the link given below.

Amazon – Click here

Book Review – Lantern

Posted on by chickenbiryanii

Title: Lantern
Poet: Sprith Shrivastava & Shashikant Singh
Pages: 126
Publishedin: 2017
Publisher: Notion Press

Lantern is accumulation of poetries with some short stories. It contains 44 poems and 5 stories. The book can be read altogether in about two to three hours! The book is simple and crisp. The stories are of fictional nature, with twist and turns here and there. ‘The Mind Traveller’ is story of a scientist with an ironical ending. ‘Aurum’ on the other hand is a story of pirates and their dilemmas. The authors have really pulled out the story quite well especially with respect to the accent and dialect of the pirates. The story is engaging and well narrated. On the other hand, ‘The Master of Time’, a science fiction story, of how a boy turns a boring day into an adventure by eliminating a probable terrorist attack. There is also a spine-chilling horror story to keeps the reader engaged till the end!

Apart from the stories, the authors have put up a great content of thoughtful yet amazing poetries.

The poems are centered on myriad subjects such rains, street lights, love, thoughts etc. For e.g. in the poem, ‘The Shepherd’ the authors have beautifully compared one’s thoughts and one’s self to the sheep and the shepherd. In the poem, ‘Fallen Leaves of Autumn’, the authors share one side of love and have put it out with beautiful rhythms. ‘The Sweet Family and Me the Culprit’ portrays the life of mother hen and its tragic story. It very carefully sheds light on the very tragic and sorry life story of chickens and their death one by one; and how we as humans are culprit in it. Truly an amazing creation. We all do sins and we know it. ‘The Werewolf’ captures the same and shows how one fights and tries to keep himself away and yet cannot restrain himself and gives up before his sins.

Apart from the above, the book has many good write-ups to offer. It is worth a one-time read and a book to keep and refer to.

The book is engaging and has refreshing content. Some of my best excerpts from the book:

“… we don’t pillage! We trade with principles and rules … good man, ye be… All of you… British merchants trading in India … Ye be quite rich and well to do…”
“… if destiny has other plans and I don’t return … Then perchance this letter would be my last…”
“… some are silent
some are weak
some are tender
some are sleek…”
“… standing around the mountains,
I look down on the sunny days,
I couldn’t find you, amongst the crowd…
Against the sun, to find me, do you look up and gaze?”
“…I yelled on my fate…
For what I had this date…
I found myself as the culprit…
For I had seen the whole lovely, innocent family Converted in to spirit…”
“… the agony is unbearable,
And he tries to break the shackles…
For every second seems an eternity,
The affliction that needs to be tackled…”

The book is a must read. Won’t take much time and will be a worthwhile. A recommend. Kudos to the writers… Job well done!

Amazon Link –  Click here

Book Review – The Lonely Drummer and other poems

Posted on by chickenbiryanii

Title: The Lonely Drummer and Other Poems
Poet: Abhishek Goswami
Pages: 74
Published in: 2017
Publisher: Notion Press

There are 35 poems in this debut book by poet Abhishek Goswami who has decided not to make it a monotonous affair by writing poems on vivid themes and issues. Poems in his book is on life, happiness, sorrows, joy, pleasure, pain and other abstract ideas including some of the verse-tales, as critics have called it.

The very first poem in the book, which follows the signature title as well, begins with a note of gloom and we get to know that the lonely drummer has been ‘left alone’. During my reading session, when I read it further I realized that many interesting poems which were not only interesting in the terms of content but also quite relative to our day to day life and nature. At the end of the book, you will see a very long poem divided in parts – “The Blue Book” which is a very interesting story told in verse and I liked it. You will surely love this concept.

My personal experience with the book has been great because I got a meaningful collection of English poems to read. The collection of poems in the book varies from pessimism to optimism – the bright and the dark – the good and the bad and this journey was wonderful.

“When happy while doing something,
That’s the mantra which success bring.
Marching ahead with vigor new,
Joys surround us, sadness bid adieu.”

With this book, one thing that readers will like in his collection of poetry is that he keeps it simple and hence, it helps to connect the readers easily you can relate.

The journey that Abhishek has talked about in his book or he has started with his debut book will see him going a good distance. His poems are worthy to be praised and reflect the modern dilemmas and inquisitiveness in the mind of people.

These poems by the debut poet Abhishek Goswami have been wonderful to read and interesting to be enjoyed. He meets the expectations that you might have from a debut book in poetry! You can get his collection from the below Amazon India link and see which poems connect with you and in what manners… This book is also available in Kindle version.

Amazon Link – Click here

Author Interview – Neha Jindal

Posted on by chickenbiryanii

Neha Jindal is an author of debut book “Phases of Moon”. It was pleasure interacting with her.

Q 1 – Hello Neha, Thanks for giving time from your busy schedule. Tell us something about your background.

[Neha] : It’s my pleasure to interact with you. I hail from the land of Virangana Rani Laxmi Bai, Jhansi. I have completed my basic education from RLPS, Jhansi, that has laid the stones of courage and self-confidence in me. I am Commerce graduate from Barkatullah University, Bhopal and also a semi-qualified Chartered Accountant.

I have 10 years of corporate experience in the finance and accounts. I left my corporate job in 2015 and now I am a full time author and mother of 5 years old twins.

Q 2 – Please tell us something about your journey as a writer. Would you like to share us a source of inspiration?

[Neha] : I started writing poetry from my teenage years, had a big gap of 15years before I resumed my passion. My inspiration for writing poetry comes from my schooling days. I would thank my school English mentor, Mrs Sangeeta Suri, whose teaching style of poetry made me inclined towards English poetry. My father has also been into writing Hindi poetry and that gives me an inherited love for poetry.

Q 3 – Please tell us something about Phases of Moon”.

[Neha] : My book “Phases of Moon”, is a collection of beautiful poems that reflects emotions of a girl from teenage to adulthood. It is an outpour of small feelings that we experience in our lifetime; feelings of love, infatuation, view about life, marriage, motherhood and many more. I would say it’s a complete package emotion.

Q 4 – Are you happy with the response on your book? How are you trying to connect to your readers?

[Neha] : Yes, I am very happy to see the response for my book. During last few months I have been able to reach a respectable number of genuine readers for my book and its growing every day.

With respect to increasing the reader base, I have been promoting my book on various social media platforms i.e., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and WhatsApp groups. In addition to that I am also trying to connect with people with the help of Poetry events organised in the city. So basically a blend of online and offline means.

Q 5 – How Long does it take you to write this book?

[Neha] : My book “Phases of Moon” is conceived over a long period of time. As I mentioned before I started writing poetry during my teens, so you can say it’s a result of my work over a period of 15 good years.

Q 6 – How was your experience in World Book Fair in Delhi and Chennai?

[Neha] : Amazing is how I would define it. Being at World Book Fair in Delhi gave me an opportunity to meet so many new authors with different genres of writing. Was able to learn how readers see your work and what they look for in a particular genre of writing.

This was the first opportunity for me to make offline sales and helped me to interact with the readers face to face. Overall it was a great experience.

Q 7 – How did you get a chance to published?

[Neha] : I would not call it a chance but would rather say that I encashed the opportunity at the right time. I was in the process of compiling my poetry work and was searching for the publisher. I came across my publisher’s site and found the same to be convincing place to put my trust in. I sent my sample work for the publisher’s approval which turned out to be positive and resulted into a beautiful book.

Q 8 – Can you please share your editing experience about your published book?

[Neha] :  I did not opt for any editing services with the publisher in particular. I went for self editing of the book, deciding about the paragraphing and second review as it’s a poetry collection. In poetry if you don’t punctuate the text well, the essence that you want to convey to the readers gets lost. So, I personally feel, self editing is best for poetry.

Q 9 – How did you react when you saw the first copy of your debut book “Phases of Moon” which is creating a buzz in the market?

[Neha] : It was a pretty heart-warming moment for me when I saw the first copy of my book. I was waiting so much for my collection to come out in the market and when I saw my book for the first time, it was like a dream come true.

Q 10 – What can we expect from your next book? Are you going to focus only on English Poetry?

[Neha] : My next ventures would give my readers a taste of diversified genres, as well as language. My upcoming book would be an engrossing collection of Hindi poetry co-authored by my father, Shri Surendra K. Gupta and the other would be a non-fiction work of words in English language.

Q 11 – Would you like to share any specific pattern or style of writing with our readers?

[Neha] : I have been more into a rhythmic style of writing where the consecutive lines sound coherent to each other giving your words a flow. Recently I am diversifying my style of writing poetry into non-rhythmic one. My recent poem “Smile in the womb” is one of this type, not a part of my book “Phases of Moon”. You can check it out on my blog nehajindalauth.wordpress.com.

Q 12 – Who is you favorite authors? What do you like about his/her work?

[Neha] : I haven’t got a chance to read a series of books by any particular author as of now, more in a habit to pick different authors every time.

Q 13 – What do you do in your leisure time? What does yours prefer timing to write?

[Neha] : For a mom of twins having leisure time is a luxury :-0. Jokes apart, whenever I get some spare time, I devote it to writing and music. Words and rhythm is soul reliever for me.

Q 14 – Have you done any course for writing?

[Neha] : I haven’t done any course for writing. I am really thankful to my education that laid the platform for me to express myself freely.

Q 15 – What advice you want to give to aspiring authors? If your readers want to connect with you, how can they do that? Tell readers about your socials to connect. If you have any blog/website, please tell.

[Neha] : For all the aspiring authors, I would like to suggest please do work on your reader base for sure before you bring out your work in print. Also I would like to say that to be a good author you need to be a good reader. Read a lot that will help you to portray your work in a much better way.

You can reach me at:

Mail – neha.nids@gmail.com

Facebook : http://nehajindal.com

Twitter : @Nehajinauthor

Instagram : neha.nids

You can grab a copy of my book at Amazon – Click here.

Author Interview – Abhishek Goswami

Posted on by chickenbiryanii

Abhishek Goswami is an author of debut book “The Lonely Drummer and other poems“. It was nice interacting with him.

Q1 – Hello Abhishek, it’s nice to have a chance to interact with you. Please tell us something about yourself.

[Abhishek]: Thank you. I am born and brought up in New Delhi in a middle-class Bengali family.  I did my schooling from St. Francis De Sales School in Janakpuri, New Delhi and then did Bachelor in Science from Delhi University. I also completed my PGDBA in HR from Symbiosis, Pune. I am employed in different MNC firms in Delhi NCR for last 16 years and am currently working in Gurgaon. In my leisure time, I do love to read fiction books, especially mysteries and also watch movies.

Q2 – How was your experience as an Author in World Book Fair of Delhi and Chennai? How does it helped you to established as an author?

[Abhishek]: My experience in both the fairs was wonderful. It felt very nice when people showed interest in what I have written and were curious to know more about my book. Most of them wished me well for the future as well.

This experience helped me to understand the readers very close upfront and direct interactions with them has generated a lot of ideas and thoughts in me which I will surely leverage in my upcoming creations.

Q3 – I have read your poem which was recently published in a leading newspaper. How does it feel getting such recognition?

[Abhishek]:  It feels great when your efforts get rewarded and you get recognition. It serves as a great motivator for the future as well. When you realize that the thoughts and ideas which you grappled with in a corner of a room or while travelling and which you wrote sitting lonely in a room has finally reached thousands of people via a newspaper article, the feeling is both humbling and overwhelming.

Q4 – When did you write your first poem? Who inspired you to get it Published?

[Abhishek]: First poem, good question! Let me think, it might be for a School magazine where I was the chief editor, maybe 20 years back!

However, if you ask me about the 35 poems in this book, out of these, a handful were written around 15 years back which I then included in this collection. But the majority were written in 2016-17 only.

It was always my dream to write a book and get it published. Also, a few friends of mine have recently got their books published which has given me encouragement to go ahead and publish my own.

Q5 – Please tell us something about your journey as a writer. Please tell us something about your book “The Lonely Drummer and Other Poems”

[Abhishek]:  As I said earlier, it was always my dream to become a published author. Right from childhood, I always liked reading books across genres like Adventures, thrillers, mysteries, historical, science fictions etc. Gradually, I got interested in writing stuff like short stories etc. One day, many years back, Me and one of my friends decided to write a novel. We developed the synopsis, the main characters, the plot etc and even wrote a few pages. But then, as life is, we were slowly drawn away by our daily life routines, office jobs, family life etc. So, the novel remained unfinished and my writing process also stopped. All these years, the desire to write something worthwhile and reaching out to the wider world with it remained burning inside, but I did very little to fulfill it. I thought with ever increasing responsibilities in life, I will never be able to do it and so did not even try doing anything about it. I also realized that writing a full-length novel is indeed a very compelling task, in terms of dedication, time, mental energy involved and it requires a lot of patience to plan the whole thing out as well. Maybe I lacked the patience and determination to carry out this task. I did use to write short poems to popularize a few office fun activities like the cricket tournaments and wrote a few blogs as well about our offsite trips as well. However, something was still missing and I was not getting fully motivated to write further.

During one of the office events last year, I witnessed some wonderful stuff displayed as exhibits like paintings and photography done by some of our colleagues. I felt that I also can do what I want to do and felt encouraged and motivated. I made up my mind to capture some of the experiences I had in life in the form of short poems. I made a separate Facebook page dedicated to my poems and wrote several of them which got helpful reviews and I felt confident enough to think and plan and write more stuff.

This collection of poems in my book covers several topics like Life, Spirituality, Nature, Humor, Mystery, Science, Lives of famous personalities and even science fiction. This book is intended for all age groups and can be enjoyed by one and all.

We all are surrounded by natural objects like the Sun, moon, stars, clouds, trees, rivers etc and a few poems are dedicated towards these objects. Also, there is one poem in this collection titled “The Blue Book” which I have written in 5 parts as it is a suspense/mystery genre poem. In brief, as humans, we all have various emotions, feelings and interests, this collection of poems does reflect the true variety of all the things we are made of.

Q6 – Why did you choose a title “The Lonely Drummer and Other Poems”?

[Abhishek]: The Lonely Drummer is the title poem. It talks about the fate of a performing artist and the state of “Arts” in our modern world today.

There are 34 more poems in this collection which are of different flavor, tone and intensity.

This collection would take the reader through a gamut of human emotions and feelings and tickle the reader’s imagination and curiosity levels as well. If the “Lonely Drummer” talks about the fate of a performing artist, the “Memoir of a Currency Note” deals with a first-person account of a currency note’s life journey and how it is similar to humans as well. The “Blue Book” is a poem of the suspense/mystery genre and is sure to appeal to the curiosity level of the reader.

Q7 – How do you think a poetry can help to shape a society? In your view how does it create an impact?

[Abhishek]: Poetry by itself is a form of literary art, just like prose writing. Where it is different from prose is its ability to convey maximum thoughts and emotions in minimum words as possible.

Today we live in a world of supersonic pace and agility. We have achieved tremendous progress in almost all fields possible. Whereas we have gained in speed, we seemed to have lost in keeping our calm in different situations and be composed and retain our emotional depth. Here, I feel poetry plays a significant role in our lives. It shows us a clear picture of where we are and what we think currently in a short, sweet and subtle manner and encourages us to develop our latent emotional depth and sense the world once again, not in a hurry but in a calm and composed manner.

Q8 – How did you get a chance to published?

[Abhishek]:It was very tough to get any big publishers to even read my sample poems (Hazards of being a first-time author). Still I persisted and sent samples to around 12-13 different publishers, and with a little luck and help from one of my friends who has published one book, I could finally figure out the scheme of things and make my way forward. It was a very challenging and sometimes lonely and frustrating journey, but I kept my self-belief and went on.

Q9 – Can you please share your editing experience about your published book?

[Abhishek]:The editing experience has been good overall. The right suggestions from the experienced folks does help and it was a very smooth ride.

Q10 – What was your reaction when you saw the first copy of your debut book “The Lonely Drummer and Other Poems” which was placed in World Book Fair.

[Abhishek]: Wonderful. It was a dream come true for me!

Q11 – Are you working on your next book? What can we expect from your next book?

[Abhishek]: Yes, I am working on my next collection of poems and have already written a few of them.

The next book would also touch topics about Nature and lives of people around us. But it would be different in terms of scale and intensity, that is for sure.

Q12 – Would you like to share any specific pattern or style of writing with our readers?

[Abhishek]: So, I use all kinds or forms possible. Broadly, a poem can be either rhythmic or non-rhythmic. The non-rhythmic ones generally follow free verse and bit content heavy. So, I do not need to embellish it further with any special forms. In this book, you can find “Circles of Life”, “The Tenth One” to name a few on this pattern.

The rhythmic ones can be Alliterative (repetition of same sound in a line), Limerick (5 line in a stanza with a strict rhyme scheme – AABBA) etc. There are poems based on Alliteration (“Striking Storm”, “Butter Biscuit”), Limericks (“The Lonely Drummer”) in this book.

Connection with nature is one of the recurrent themes in this book which talks about our connection with nature (“The Floating Messenger”, “The Long Walk”). The younger readers can also expect to read and enjoy some lesser known facets about our solar system, scientific discoveries and history in a few other poems. (“Signs of Science”, “Original Nine”, “The Brightest Jewel”).

Q13 – Who is your favorite debut authors? What do you like about his/her work?

[Abhishek]: I do like the “Asura” by Anand Neelakantan and “The Emperor’s Riddles” by Satyarth Nayak. Both the books use historical and mythological references and offer a completely different take on what we know commonly with fresh perspectives on some very well-known characters.

A must-read for all fiction readers!

Q14 –How is your regular day as Abhishek Goswami? Have you experienced a situation where people have identified you in a public place? Please Share that experience.

[Abhishek]: I work for an MNC firm in Gurgaon and stay in Greater Noida (West). As such, the travel time is very high, thankfully I have got time flexibility and don’t need to travel to office every day. In between travels sometimes I get hold of an idea and quickly jot it down for later reference. And then write something out of it in my leisure time.

Still awaiting that moment when people recognize “The Lonely Drummer” in a public place!!

Q15 – What advice you want to give to aspiring authors? If your readers want to connect with you, how can they do that? Tell readers about your socials to connect.

[Abhishek]:Go all out to complete that book which you are planning for a long while.

Don’t get disappointed with delays as they are bound to happen. If you really plan and go for it, you can make it happen.

I am reachable at:

Mail – abhigos@rediffmail.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/abhigos99/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/abhigos99

Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek-goswami-66995267/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/abhigos/

Best Wishes Abhishek. Hope, you achieve a great Success.

Grab a copy of “The Lonely Drummer and other Poems” from Amazon at Click here