Welcome to Sarath Babu's Lifestyle Blog

Naresh  wakes at 3 AM in the morning and searches his wardrobe. He doesn't find  “ it ”  and runs towards his laptop bag to search for it.  Found it! But…w hen he  held  it  a moment longer ,  he  felt the emptiness in it. He realized that it got over two days back. He was not weak yet, but the thought that it is empty made his body shiver. He slowly walked back to the bedroom when his wife came out of the bed in search of him. She had seen it before, and she asked him if she should go out to get it. Naresh  shook his head no and  quickly took his  Scooty  out .   He  woke up the pharmacist running a 24x7 medical shop inside a small hospital. " I nh aler, please."   Naresh  requested, as he puffed out his breath heavily. His hands were shivering and no wonder he behaved like an addict waiting to feel the  Asthalin  spray into his lungs. He got relieved the moment he puffed it int...

Book Title: Piku & Viru (A Fan-Actor Drama) by Priyanka Agarwal Author: Priyanka Agarwal Format: Kindle Total Number of Pages: 420 Language: English Publisher: Amazon Publishing Date: 2018 This story runs like a movie for me, probably it has a movie star in it. As the story opens up I got introduced to our lead character name Piyanjali Kumari aka Piku. She is a content writer – mainly write travel stories for a website that deals in travel and lifestyle kind of stuff. I always had the impression that content writers in Mumbai get well paid as compared to other cities. Her story reveals something else. Her boss and a few other members do not sound co-operative to her. May be she is smart, extra talented, or better than them in creativity. In nutshell, it is revealing that her life in office isn’t that good. She thinks of leaving the job but lacks the temerity. On the other hand, she is worried about her age, as she is brooding for marriage with a right partner...

Title - Gift of Confidence Author - Rohit Narang Genre - Motivational Fiction Publisher - Partridge Publishing India For a student, what’s the biggest fear? The most probable answer is, that be it any kind of student, bright to average to poor, they all fear failing in exams. From a student our society expects a lot, especially our parents always hope that we should always finish the line first. This novel, Gift of Confidence by Rohit Narang is based on a student’s phase where he fails to clear his CA final exams and thereafter what all events unfold that drastically change his life forever. The book is all about that change and discovery! Like most other relevant novels, this too possesses a question: as how to be confident in life and how to utilize that confidence for achievements? And we get all answers through the explicit characterization of Pancham, the CA final year student. Pancham is on a quest – he needs answers on as how to handle failure, how to brace...

Are you a reader? Do you love reading books? Have you had the habit of reading  books real fast while you were a kid but witnessed the speed dwindling to record speed as you grew up? Whatever we have read or learned till date would hardly make a fraction of the resources available out there. We have got Google to refer to our queries but don’t you think that we cannot depend on them all the time – 24/7? Information is equivalent to GOLD. I am sure you would agree to this for how many times have you let your favourite book go despite of watching them on “Lightening Deal” on Amazon or Flipkart.  Due to lack of time, you felt that you wouldn’t be able to read it due to your packed schedule or you couldn’t afford to spend 8-10 hours to completely read the book? You could overcome this. Are you surprised? I was also surprised when I stumbled upon something. This isn’t a MAGIC or some rocket science. Enough said – there is something called as PhotoReadi...

Title - Wild Things Author - Leena Saldanha Genre - Poetry Publisher - Leadstart Corp ISBN - 978-93-52010-78-3 This is one of the exemplary collection of poems I have read till date. The book revolves around various aspects including Love, Nature, Hope, Motherhood, Dignity, Childhood, Prayer and many more. The book has a collection of 86 poems which has been divided into 4 categories namely - Deserts, Forests, Mountains & Ocean. Though I have liked all the poems, I would like to touch upon few which really moved me. From DESERTS , I liked India's Daughter & Sands of Time where in the former, the author/poet has brought out the stark realities of a girl child in India - where we worship women in the form of Goddess but also see them as a material of lust. The country which has witnessed some gruesome rape incidents like Nirbhaya, has been captured very vividly in the poem which would leave you in tears and also to ponder as to how this could be add...

Title - Suvarna Mohur Author - Arun Ramamurthy Genre - History Publisher - NotionPress ISBN - 978-1-64429-816-9 Through this excellent book " Suvarna Mohur ", Author Arun Ramamurthy has beautifully combined history and also the coins associated with it. This book completely focuses on Indian History spanning over a period of almost 2500 years.  What I liked the most is the size and quality of the book. It is as big as a coin album, made of thick paperback outer cover. All the pages in this book is made of superior quality,glossy finish, colour papers with a "Gold Theme" since " Suvarna " translates to " Gold ". It begins with an introduction followed by the barter system. The book has some unique pictures being used in each chapter which very much complements the subject. The history of coins begins with Janpadas(600-400 BCE) followed by the Mauryan Empire(400-200 BCE), Yavanas of India(200-100 BCE) and then by the S...

Title - The Ineligible Millionaire Author - Tarun Varshney Genre - Fiction Publisher - Invincible Publishers and Marketers ISBN - 978-93-88333-12-2 This novel has already got some rave reviews from authors like Ranjit Arora, Geetika Saigal and iMagazine called it "Real.Engaging.Heartbreaking". When I finished reading this novel, I couldn't agree for more. The book despite being a non-thriller has kept me hooked till I finished reading all the 263 pages in one go. This is a rarity because only few books has done this prior. This shows how engaging the content is. To start with, I liked the cover page as it very much corresponds to the story. It shows the image of a man, who has got everything but ends up with nothing. When I mean nothing, it isn't the material thing, I am discussing about. What it is then? Arjun, the protagonist hails from a middle income family. His dad ran into debts after he encounters an accident. He could not work and henc...

1.What motivates you to write? Love of the story and the characters! That, I’ve realised, is the only thing that makes you want to keep writing, that brings you back to the book again and again, amidst all the periods of self-doubt and low inspiration. That’s what happened for me with ‘The Shrine of Death’ – the story wouldn’t let me go. 2. How did you feel after publishing your book? For someone like me, who has always loved books and reading, to see my own words within the covers of a novel was an incredible feeling, almost surreal. I remember holding it in my hands for the first time and feeling almost tearful. It was, quite literally, a dream come true. 3. What are some of your favourite novels and authors? I love reading fiction across all genres -- I enjoy Edgar Allan Poe and Anne Rice as much as I do Georgette Heyer or P. G. Wodehouse. Crime writer Dick Francis is an old favourite of mine – Ilove the way he deftly ...

Title - Brahmahatya Author - Rajiv Mittal Genre - Fiction(Religious & Spiritual) Publisher - Amazon KDP ASIN - B074L25N6P Brahmahatya in Sanskrit translates to "the act of killing a Brahmin. Well, the story is based on this theme. Firstly, I liked the cover as it very much correlates with the novel and after finished reading it, I was not surprised that it made it to the "Finals of 2017 Self Published Books Awards". Author has touched upon the sensitive issue - Religion and he has drawn references from Bhagawad Gita and few other Hindu spiritual references which has blended with the characters/story in a perfect manner. These references were used in such a way that, you end up learning more than you would have ever thought. The story revolves around a caring son - Ravi Narasimhan. Though he was working overseas, all the time, his thoughts were tied to his ailing father.He did his level best to keep him happy but when it was about to get him admitte...

Title - The Shrine Of Death Author - Divya Kumar Genre - Thriller(Fiction) Publisher - Bloomsbury ISBN - 978-93-87457-54-6 Idol theft is a serious offence not only in India but across the globe. This is pretty much rampant in India due to various reasons like lack of documentation corresponding to respective temple/shrine,  no regular audits being carried out(at least in the past decade or so), ignorance among the officials who is suppose to safeguard, greediness etc to name a few. The release of this book couldn't have come at a better time when the State of Tamilnadu is already battling the smuggling of these idols which has seen a fierce battle across various fronts. These idols which were made of various metals has seen its value grow up by leaps and bounds due to the history associated with it. There was no surprise when couple of bronze idols go missing in the story and Sneha Pillai, who use to be a good friend of the protagonist, Prabha also disappears after m...

Title - Ballad Of A Belle Author - Rahul Tushar Genre - Fiction Publisher - Adhyyan Books ISBN - 978-93-87502-03-1 To start with, when I received this book, I was dumbstruck by the design and the outer cover and had an intuition that I am going to have a great time reading the story and I was not wrong. Though this book isn't a thriller or a crime-fiction, Rahul has written it in such a way that you would keep hooked to your seat from the beginning till the end. The flawless writing coupled with usage of  language would make you wonder whether he has already published few books. Despite the fact that this is his first book(second book - The Sinful Oracle is in the making), I must say that he has struck the chord which would surely connect with the readers. Usually we do not give much attention to Prelude (I don't though)and if you carried the same mentality by either skipping it or not giving the proper attention which is requires, you may miss out on somethi...

Meeting author's and speaking to them would bring out the best from them. I have had the opportunity to meet few of them in person and few over the internet(Mail, WhatsApp etc). Today I had the opportunity to meet Chitrangada Mukherjee who has authored #SecretDiaryOfAnIncurableRomantic ( You could find the review here ) I have tried to reproduce her wordings(as I recorded her answers for my questions). 1. What motivates you to write? What motivates me to write is that I can't do anything else. The only craft I know is writing and if I don't, I feel like I'm falling into the annals of darkness in my mind.So writing keeps me positive and makes the world a brighter place. 2. How did you feel after publishing your books? My first book was an eBook which I published on Amazon. After waiting for months, one of the publisher did revert as they liked the manuscript and wanted the marketing plan. I was not aware of any back in 2014. I did not come up w...