Exploring the Bookish World

Karan Sharma's novel Sometimes it Happens is a romantic tale of two smart professionals - Gautam, who is a twenty-five-year-old upcoming professional and Roshni, a senior management member working in the same multi-national bank. However, as Roshni is twelve years older than Gautam, they themselves have doubts about their relationship in their minds. The author has done a commendable job in portraying such a beautiful relationship between the main characters. The society has always been judgemental about relationships which involve a woman older than the man. It's high time, and people need to become more open-minded. The story is narrated in a perfect pace and written in a lucid language. It is a very light read and does not take much time to read. I completed reading it within a few hours. The plot is much like a Bollywood movie. However, the message conveyed in the story is really amazing. If you are someone who loves romance novels, this book is for you!

A collection of thirteen short stories, originally written in Urdu, translated into English: Preeto & Other Stories is a book which makes you contemplate and leaves a huge impact. Each one of the stories is thought-provoking and unique in its own way. Female characters in stories and novels have always been viewed by male authors through a monochromatic tinted glass. There can be no in-between, no 'grey' area in the female characters. This book brilliantly portrays how famous male authors, who mainly write in Urdu, has depicted female characters in their works. Often the primary idea of the original work gets lost in the translated version. However, this has not been an issue here. Each of the stories has been impeccably translated and has retained the original idea and feel. I personally liked most of the stories. Among all the thirteen stories, I liked Preeto by Krishan Chandar, Man by Gulzar and Driftwood by Deepak Budki the most. There is one single thread t