I have already retired. Why do I need to invest?

Post retirement period is considered as a third chapter of one’s life and quite so, since our whole life we have been working and had little time to explore and experience the things we always wanted to. This is that time of a person’s life when one need not worry about working if they have got an extended family. There is a culture of joint family in India and the older generation expects newer generation to take care of them. This may still be ubiquitous in the small villages, but it is fading away right in front of our eyes even in non metro cities.

Apart from the urbanization & migration of families, the older generation has to also worry about the lower interest rates in the recent years. As we progress toward becoming a developed nation, we have started witnessing lower interest rates in the form of Bank FDs, RDs, etc. The issue does not end here. Due to improved medical science, we now have increased longevity. A person retiring at the age of 60 has to fend in for himself at least for the next 20-25 years. There is no social security provided by the government. So it is our responsibility to create a large enough corpus which will provide us the monthly income.

Many times we take some wrong financial decisions and instead of Wealth Creation we end up Eroding our Wealth. Unless we have a sturdy income source or a joint family, it is imperative that we do our Financial Planning even before we retire. Let’s take an example of a person to understand this. A 35 year old, having 30,000/- Rs monthly expenses today will have to shell out 1,44,830/- Rs per month to maintain same lifestyle at the age of 60. At an inflation of 6.5% he will require 2 Crore 98 lakh Rupees just to live out his life till 85.

Let’s assume we have just retired and have got a lump sum amount lying in the bank account, with a plan to keep withdrawing amount equivalent to the monthly expenses. Will it work? How long will the money last? Will we get good returns?

Today’s interest rates are not even enough to withstand the inflation rates, forget about withdrawing money from the corpus. A good choice would be a good asset allocation between Equity & Debt which can given returns of around 8-12% with a monthly withdrawal option. To give an example, a person investing 50 Lakhs towards his retirement fund can opt for 30,000/- of monthly withdrawal to support his lifestyle and in 15 years at 10% returns the value of the retirement fund can be as good as 1 crore. Now this value along with the total of 15 year’s withdrawal will be 1.54Crores. This is called Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP).

Studies show that retirement is not on the ‘top of the list’ item for most people. But the key is to start as early as possible to get the best chance at a dignified retirement life. If you care about money today, it will care about you tomorrow.

Let us know if you are retiring soon, so we can become a part of your happy retirement.

What is Financial Planning?

We all have heard this term “Financial Planning, but whenever we come across this term, we either stop reading, or escape from the conversation, the result of which is Financial illiteracy and engaging in bad financial decisions. In today’s article, we will try to understand what Financial Planning means and why it is important for us.

What is Financial Planning?

Financial Planning is a process to make the most of our money as well as assets so we can fulfill our life goals/financial goals. All of us have certain aspirations about how we will give good education to our child, where we want to buy our new house, what features should our dream car have, how ostentatious our daughter’s wedding will be or having a happy ending to our life post retirement. All such financial dreams/goals come with a price tag that you put on it. But do we have 15 lakh Rupees to get our child in a good B-school or a college in 2 years? or what about that wedding you have been planning for your daughter? Do you have another 10-20lakhs already? We Indians often spend a lot more than we can handle or are capable of.

A child is born in a family. It goes to school, then college, gets degree and a multinational Company gives the child a high paying job. The child goes out, spends all surplus money with no thought of the future, meets someone and they marry each other and have kids. Now they need a big house and a car and to fulfill those dreams, they ask the bank for a loan. The bank happily gives a loan at 10% Then comes a time when they want money for their child’s’ higher education and again the bank comes to the rescue at 12% rate of interest. They are happy but burdened under all the EMIs and so they learn a new skill and get a new job, the salary increases but so do the expenses. Now they are 50 years of age and again looking for a loan for their child’s marriage. Bank again gives a loan and they are very happy that their most distant relatives and friends appreciated on the lavish spending they did at the wedding, but deep down they know, between the bank EMIs, credit card bills, rent, and household expenses, they are buried under debt but don’t see an escape from it and they continue to pay the loans and then comes the time when they reach the age of 60, but looking back, they never got to enjoy their money, always running around paying bills and loans and savings were never sufficient. But now they have to rely on someone else for the daily expenses as the income has stopped and they cannot just leave house and explore the world completely free of stress now. The cycle continues.

This happens when there is no plan in place. But approaching a good financial advisor will help you to look at not only these goals but they will also help you to plan for any uncertainty like loss of job, loss of life or any medical emergency.

Now, that you know all these calculations and your future requirements, after talking to the advisor, you can take much better financial decisions. Some very important reasons why we should get our Financial Assessment done from a good financial advisor are:

1. Our goals keep us going and we can prioritize accordingly. Having no goals is like sitting in a taxi and asking the driver to take you any place where the road leads. It will not help you in any way, the money that you earn every month will get spent every month without any thought given to the future.
2. These goals will prompt you to take action and with the right direction, you can choose how hard you should work for that promotion.
3. Financial Planning ensures you don’t spend money on unnecessary things. A simple example can be, spending on an iPhone vs any other company’s phone or buying lots of jewellery, when you know you are only going to use it once or twice. I am not saying, you shouldn’t spend money on expensive phone or jewellery, but you know when you are not going to use the features of the iPhone professionally to create money from it or any such depreciating asset like an expensive car or a bigger house than you need, it will only make you poorer.
4. A good financial plan can help you to remain calm even during a big financial decision. We all have seen parents being afraid of getting their kids in a good school/college, just because the fees are too high, people buying a high end model of a car get stressed when they look at the price of the car, nowadays lot of people opt for a small wedding, not because they always wanted a smaller wedding, but because they just didn’t have that extra buck to go that extra mile. If, not having enough money when you want to spend it is a problem, it’s because, you didn’t plan for it.
5. Having a good Financial Plan means you could achieve all your financial goals and have the money when you need it.

If you would like to get your Financial Assessment done, please contact us here or on any of my social media. We will be coming out with more blog posts and other content. Please consider following us and give this post a like, if you found it to be useful.

My Experience at Post Office (Postal Life Insurance)

Government came with numerous schemes for the welfare of the people at large and one such investment option was Postal Life Insurance. Many people pay premiums every month towards their PLI policies as they get higher returns than usual Life Insurance policies. One would expect at least a timely service from the Post office.

One such incident happened with me as well on 16th June 2021. My mother’s policy was supposed to be surrendered and so we submitted all the documents to the PLI office Bicholim branch, Goa, Pin code: 403504, to Mr. Santosh Dhavaskar on 4th, June 2021, Friday. I wanted to get a copy of the form we had submitted so I had to step out to get a photocopy. He was in such a hurry that and told us to just leave the form on his table which had Aadhar, PAN & Bank proof appended to the form. This was the first sign we saw of the carelessness and how easy it is for Government employees to get their salary. We had to tell him repeatedly to stay till I come back with the form, and will hand it over only to him. Upon coming back he told us the printer was not working so he would keep everything ready for us and we should come back the next day and sign the surrender quote as per their procedure.  We agreed and came back the next day.

On 5th, June 2021, Saturday, Mr. Santosh Dhavaskar put a hand to his temple upon seeing us abiding our time. Clearly something was cooking. He met his subordinate and back and told us the printer was still not working and the technician was supposed to come in just a few minutes. He again told us to come back on Monday. I told him to ask his clerk to run to the nearest print shop and get a print out for us to sign. Upon seeing that I’m not taking “No” as an answer, he said, the other printer in the office is working but its not connected to the computer by LAN and he would try for us. We waited and he came back with the surrender quote in a while. My mother signed the quote. I don’t know what was running through his mind, but he didn’t want us to surrender the policy at any cost. He came running while we were leaving and asked why we won’t take a loan so our monetary requirements get fulfilled. I explained him why we won’t do that and left the office.

Before we move on to the incident, I should tell you, Mr. Dhavaskar told us, my mother’s bank account would be credited in around 5-7 days.

Cut to 12th June 2021, Saturday. Since 1 week had passed, I checked my mother’s bank account and told her that money hadn’t been credited and called up Mr. Santosh. The call was unanswered.

On 15th June 2021, Tuesday, I called Mr. Santosh 3 times to no effect. Again the calls were not answered. Before leaving the house at around 12.30pm, I called him again; no answer. When I reached the Post Office, I waited outside and called again; no answer. I went inside and asked them on the counter. Now, Mr. Pravin Bhagat who sits at the counter said, Mr. Santosh is ill and all our surrender details are with him. Unable to get a satisfactory answer, I asked to see the docket number for the surrender of policy they have sent to Panjim Branch. He did not answer. I asked if I could check the status of the policy online or if I could ask the customer care executive; Mr. Pravin said ‘no’. I urged him to call up someone in Panjim Branch to check if everything was alright with the form, documents, etc. Upon repeated requests, he called someone and then told me, the policy had not even reached their Panjim office and that it would take 15 days for the surrender of policy and told me to come back the next day so I can discuss the same with Mr. Santosh Dhavaskar, who was on leave.

Now, 2 things to note here:

1: Mr. Santosh Dhavaskar said 5-7 days as TAT and Mr. Pravin Bhagat said 15 days as TAT. They themselves don’t know what they are talking about and such incapable people cannot be handed over hard earned money of poor and middle class people.

2: The most surprising thing for me to hear was, he said the policy form hadn’t even reached Panjim. Usually Bicholim to Panjim, by road takes an hour, which is 20kms apart and this fine gentleman had told it hadn’t reached the office after 10 days.

So I decided to call Mr. Santosh Dhavaskar, again on 16th June 2021 and again the call was unanswered. I was furious but decided to keep calm and headed to the Post office Bicholim branch. There I met Mr. Rohidas Gaonkar, another employee servicing people on the counter. I asked him same questions, he gave me same replies usually given at government offices. (Ask him when he comes back on the job, I don’t have your details, we will search and let you know, etc etc). Not taking no for an answer, he made me wait for over half an hour and asked me to give policy number. I gave it to him and waited near the window. After a few minutes, I saw Mr. Rohidas Gaonkar, handing a document to some other person, what looked like my mother’s surrender form, so I asked him if that is her form and said I want to see myself. With his permission I entered the inside cabin and saw my mother’s form and documents lying on the desk. The person processing it now was Mr. Shiva Parab. Forwarding letter was dated 16th June 2021. This was the point I pulled my mobile and started video recording all events. I have tried to get everything on camera, since this is the first time I have pulled something like this, the camera work is tacky.

At first you can see that the surrender quote as on 5th June and forwarding letter generated on 16th June. Why should common people do all the heavy lifting and remind, provoke and fish for the information, which should be readily available to us? Should we be put under mental stress as to figure out why this was not done by Post Office? Who knows, if we had kept quiet for a few more days and then due to hectic life we had forgotten about this? This form would still be lying eating dust after months of waiting.

So you can see in the videos I am trying to understand the next process and I am also trying to get all these people’s faces and names on camera as evidence, because of the amazing work done by all of them. Mr. Shiva Parab is seen saying, the money would be credited to the policyholder’s bank account in 3-4 working days. Let us wait and see if it proves to be true and whether they need some more motivation. In the meanwhile, I urge the Government of India, Ministry of Communication and anyone who has the power given by law to act on this information and start the process of punishing those who are punishable and take strict action.

This is my story. And I came forward with my experience. But imagine the number of people who go through such bad experiences everyday across the country. How can we empower our nation if we encounter such hassles every day?

Badrinath Ki Dulhania Movie Review: An average story with a great message and lots of laughter

Movies are a great emanation for making people aware about the issues ubiquitous everywhere and not just for entertainment and this film doesn’t fall short of that. Women empowerment and abolishment of dowry system are the issues elucidated and infested through this film in a very light manner. Inspite of such sturdy messages, the camaraderie of Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt succeeds in getting the audience laugh on their punches.

Story, Screenplay and dialogues:

When it comes to romantic movies, the story has always been, the boy meeting the girl and they falling  in love and enduring the perseverance of either, the society or family and then the happy ending. How this movie differs is the circumstances under which the two meet. More than the story, the screenplay has elevated the performance of the film.

Every now and then, a punch is thrown at the exact moment when the audience may feel weary from the message that the film has to offer. The tone of the dialogues and the accent of Uttar Pradesh is a real charm and a welcoming chortle.

 

Direction and Star Performances:

Shashank Khaitan who started off his career with Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania has improved a lot. He has not only worked on the direction, story and script of its predecessor but also this film and if you’ve seen this latest work, then you would agree that, it goes without saying this film is far better than the last one.

Alia Bhatt in Student of the year was very lame. But since then, she has galloped quickly. She has become one of the best young actors in Bollywood and it reflects in this film. Her character Vaidehi meaning, Sita, wife of Lord Ram, in Sanskrit, is very inspiring and often breaks the trend. She is the real protagonist in this film.

Varun Dhawan as Badrinath, is a maverick person, but due to the constraint of basic education, cannot match the intellectual level of Alia Bhatt. He has done exceedingly well.

Sahil Vaid sharing a greater screen space than other actors, gives a sturdy performance. Other good performances came from Shweta Prasad, Yash Sinha and the person whose name is nowhere available, who played Vaidehi’s sister.

The Last Word:

It’s a good film, if you’re going for the laughter and the strong message, but a predictable story ruins the fun. Nevertheless, laughter packed, good cinematography, a great screenplay and dialogues, make up for the gaffes. But if you’re looking for a bit of action, beasts jostling each other and a great editing, then go for Kong: Skull Island.

My Rating: 3.5/5

 

 

Love Animals Unconditionally

It oftens happens that you take your children for picking fruits, but never take them to a slaughterhouse.

I just got off the phone with my mother and she was telling me, how one of her friend stopped eating chicken after perceiving the brutality which the chicken has to go through.

Her father used to get the chicken ready by skimming off its feathers and she used to cook it for the family. But when her father passed away, she had to kill the hapless bird herself. It was then that she decided not to eat chicken.

My mother always used to say this when I was a kid, “The animals always feel it when the butcher comes toward them. They can sense that he’s going to harm them”. They are very sensitive and full of emotions.

Do you know that pigs are the fifth most intelligent animals?

Courtesy: Mercy For Animals

Many people ask me how my protein intake is met through a vegetarian diet. Even plants have protein. You don’t have to take a life just so that you can enjoy your meal. One of the most atrocious facts is that, meat consumption is one of the causes of climate change.

Vegetarianism or veganism is not just the diet chioces, it’s a way to reduce animal sufferings. The animals that we eat, live a life we can’t even fathom. They are kept in close confinements, with grimy conditions and fall prey to heinous mutilations. In the end, they are all slaughtered.

 Many of us, call ourselves an animal lover. You just can’t get you hands off of that cute little puppy that you brought into your life a month ago. You can’t go without petting your beautiful cat, but at the same time, you have eggs, fish,chicken, bacon or beef for your dinner. Loving animals doesn’t mean loving only some them. We need to understand our fellow animals and treat them like equals and our own. The unconditional love, that our dogs and cats receive, we need to spread it amidst other animals too and infest this culture in the next generation.

A regular meat eater eats 100 animals per year. But a vegetarian saves 100 animals from being killed. You just see it as another dish on your plate, but for that animal/bird, it is their life. Be the glimpse of hope for those love deprived animals. They need us.

You can save animals, by leaving them off of your plate. If you can’t control the urge to eat meat, instead of eating it may be five times a week, you can consume it once a week.

 1% of Baby Boomers are veg.

4% of Gen X’ers are veg.

12% of Millennials are veg.

The future is vegan.

Go check out Mercy For Animals, they are awesome.

Commando 2 Movie Review: The trail leads nowhere

What’s Good: Vidyut Jammwal’s knack to perform stunts.

What’s Bad: Almost everything other than the action. The melodramatic dialogues and a tedious plot.

Watch or Not?: You can watch this when it airs on television. There’s nothing great about the action or acting in this film.

Commando 2 stars Vidyut Jammwal (Karan) as a commando, Freddy Daruwala (Bhaktawar), Adah Sharma (Bhavna Reddy) as cops assigned to arrest Vicky Chadda, a money launderer in Thailand.

The movie opens with Vidyut Jammwal, single-handedly beating thugs on a mission, which leads him to Vicky Chadda. He teams up with Freddy and Adah Sharma to put Vicky Chadda behind bars. Freddy and Vidyut cannot see eye to eye for no reason and Adah is just stupid with her Hyderabadi accent, who apparently is an encounter specialist and runs around her target foolishly, just to kill him from point blank distance.

Direction & Writing:

A good name in the industry such as Deven Bhojani, conjuring such a bland comes as a shock. An action movie needs to be adroit with crisp dialogues. This movie lacks the pace to be an action flick. It seems anyone can write an action movie these days. You just have to follow Bollywood movies and think that an archetypal story will suffice.

With dialogues like, “Mere haath pair toh toh khud mere orders nahi mante”, “Zinda rekhke konsa swach bharat ka zhanda uthane wala tha yeh?” or “Next time tum aisa kuch karenga na, toh mein bol rahi mereko jabardasta pyaar ho jayenga tumharese aur mein hoton pe chapka dungi ek do”, a film can only look so crass.

 

Star Performances:

When it comes to action, there’s no one better than Vidyut Jammwal. But with his countenance, he only comes off as a person with no emotions.

Adah Sharma is a peculiar encounter specialist with a Hyderabadi accent. if her character was to evoke fun, then she has succumbed to do so.

Esha Gupta, Shefali Shah, Suhail Nayyar form an average cast. There was a lot of anticipation from Thakur Anoop Singh and as a debutant, he does well.

The Last Word:

You feel lucky when you realize there’s no song in the movie, but then you hear “Commando” every time Vidyut moves. Commando 2 is a very formulaic film, with bad acting and dialogues. If you want to endure 2 long hours then watch it for yourself.

My Rating: 2.5/5

Fifty Shades Darker Novel Review: The novel might not intrigue you but this review might.

Even after the terrible start to series I decided to read Fifty Shades because I thought there was some mystery in the novel and I had to know what happened to Anastasia.  I try not to admit it, but it was also the fun factor which reeled me in.

To be quite literal with this one, Salman Khan wouldn’t beat people this many times, Jason Statham wouldn’t fire as many bullets in a movie as the number of times Grey and Ana have sex.

Bad writing style made me a little dizzy, as at least giving this novel a bad rating will rejuvenate me. This novel was as bad as its predecessor, Fifty Shades of Grey. It was still a fast read, don’t get me wrong, but badass Grey was lacking in the novel, maybe because he didn’t get to tie up Ana as much as he wanted.

The novel starts where the prequel left off, Ana dashing out of his playroom. The twitching palm of Christian Grey continues to twitch, but doesn’t get the necessary fuel (spanking, that is).

The dialogues and the phrases used are unintentionally funny, like the very first sentence:

“He’s come back. Mommy’s asleep or she’s sick again.” You really can’t help but laugh at it. And we begin with a prologue of Christian Grey having a nightmare regarding his childhood memory. It’s kind of awkward when you’re faced with, “You are one fucked up bitch”, six times in a row on the very first page.

We catch up with Ana, where now she is working as an Assistant at SIP publishing House. After a lot of whining of the likes of, “Have I really broken up with Christian Grey?”, “Is it really over between us?” and shit. Christian swoops in at the first opportunity with yet another proposition, and well, Ana is back into relationship with him. A lot happens between the pages, none of which is truly intriguing and the book ends with Ana saying yes to Christian’s marriage proposal after having sex or before. I don’t exactly remember. They have sex many times, you’ve got to understand.

Sex scenes are very insipid, more precisely, their content. Christian flashes Ana a look, Ana bites her lower lip, his eyes darken (I think he has an eye problem) and says, “You’re biting your lip again” (Oh God! Like she didn’t know), everything south of Ana’s waist paralyses under his gaze, some undressing ensues, he establishes that she looks beautiful or beguiling, he kisses, sucks, nips, licks and Ana, who has been passive, all of a sudden explodes. Seriously, this woman needs to improve her track record.

The worst moment after sex is, Christian always up on top of Ana after his release and Ana looses consciousness after orgasm!!? Christian elevates from “fucking” to “love making” which is kind of soothing as it does the much needed romantic ambience to the wane looking novel, Christian looses his rage-inducing, all domineering look all of a sudden.

EL James’ understanding of discussion is that, if they’re into an argument, Christian Grey gazes at Ana, she’s disarmed, when he touches her, she melts and when he has sex with her, and the discussion is over.

What’s more is, they have sex after every few pages. I mean, you’re going to make them have sex, at least have the courtesy to describe it in a better way. I was literally left with the same stuff to read for at least 15 times. My God! Think about the poor souls who’re still chaste, they might get turned off, forever.  EL James has dealt with the whole story in a tacky way and what’s worse is the poor execution. This isn’t even a love story, when it’s brimming with just the carnal pleasure.

You know what’s nauseous? Ana whining about how she has spent the past week. In one scene she’s like,

Christian: “Stay with me a moment. Taylor wants us to wait while the crowd disperses.”

Ana: (thinks) Oh.

Christian: “I think that fireworks display probably aged him a hundred years.”

Ana: “Doesn’t he like fireworks?”

I’m like, “WTF did you just say?” Funniest part is when,

“Christian gazes down at me fondly and shakes his head but doesn’t elaborate.”

Christian be like, “Oh honey, if you weren’t so hot and hadn’t said yes, I’d be taking you in Charlie Tango (helicopter) and push you from above.”

The incident at the rear end of the novel with Elena was unnecessary and could have been avoided, doing no harm to the story. (Assuming that there was room for that “harm”.) EL James got caught up in the execution by accommodating thrilling moment to conjure a perfect moment.

The twist, more precisely, the clandestine at the end seems another poor archetypal effort to fill up the void. The theme for the next novel seems clear from the end of this novel.

As a result of all of the above, all I have for EL James is no obeisance as a writer.

My Rating: 1/5.

Word Count: 
“Oh my” – 47
“Crap” – 36
“Jeez” – 84
“Holy (shit/fuck/crap/hell/cow/moses)” – 124
“Whoa” – 30
“Gasp” – 44
“Gasps” – 17
“Sharp Intake of Breath” – 5
“Murmur” – 91
“Murmurs” – 194
“Whisper” – 140
“Whispers” – 113
“Mutter” – 71
“Mutters” – 48
“Fifty” – 95
“Lip” – 47
“Inner goddess” – 58
“Subconscious” – 59

Te3n Movie Review:

Can you relate yourself when I tell you someone is playing bang-bang and then, at first, all the blood rushing through their body, all that effort being rewarded for and all of a sudden they realise exuding less force within? Well, that’s exactly how this movie was, but get out of the earlier context.

A case of kidnapping, a troubled grandfather with the determination of finding the kidnapper follows a trail till he meets the convicted.

The movie starts off in the present and the scenes from the past are revealed with great directorial care. The likes of Bijesh Jayarajan of ‘Yudh’ fame and Suresh Nair meant a complete package of thrill and mystery. Following Kahaani’s huge success in screenplay, this film too had the same enigma following around.

Directing was of the top notch, may be a par better than the writing considering the figment of imagination put forth by the story writers. The first half was the epitome of graceful and refined conglomeration of directing and cinematography.

When I think of Amitabh Bachchan, all I can perceive is simplicity; elegant simplicity. Age is no bar for this great actor. He makes each expression his own feeling.

Talking about simplicity and great acting, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vidya Balan are not far behind. Nawaz’s acute and sharp performance coupled with Balan’s captivating act take away any second thoughts you’re having about watching this film.

Suffice it to say that this movie has all it’s bearings in place. But an archetypal trend in the last four years of Bollywood films makes it all, a little déjà vu. I was constantly thinking of Jazbaa, which is, on so many levels, an alike movie. Another movie would be Wazir, which was released earlier this year, exhibited a very similar framework of the story and the twists in this movie were almost as if pried off from Wazir.

The Last Word:

Inspite of all of the above going on, I’m pleased with the film, not so with the climax. Having said that, strong and compelling performances of the three musketeers, a great host of background music, along with nail biting mystery makes this film a good finish.

My Rating: 3.5/5

If you haven’t watched the trailer, here’s the link:

 

50 Shades Of Grey Novel Review

When a novel is classified under a certain genre you start reading it, expecting it to be exactly that. But as far as 50 Shades of Grey and EL James are concerned, the said rule doesn’t apply to them. But then again, EL James didn’t really bother herself with the writing much, as long as sex lingered in the pages of this so called roamance-erotic novel.

When Anastasia Steele conducts the interview of the multi-millionaire Christian Grey, she gets smitten with his ruggedly handsome looks and gets fascinated by him. Christian Grey’s stalking skills allow him to find Ana and offer her an agreement and she falls for his arrangement. But as she spends more time (for lack of a better word) with Christian Grey, she learns that he is tormented by his past. As the novel reaches it’s climax, because of lack of understanding and for the need to have more, Ana finally breaks up with him.

If you’re not familiar with the basic concepts of BDSM, the events in the novel may appear bizzare. However, the most pivotal aspect of the novel is not exhibited properly in the novel that is, of course the language. Any and every novel, irrespective of what the content is or for whom it’s intended to, demands a certain caliber writing. As we dive in to read the pages of this particular novel, you come across the manner of language that is incongruous, incoherent and repetitive. And that is not just bound to the kind of language but also to the content involved.

Most of the romantic novels always eloquently describe the sensual interactions between the protagonists and Fifty Shades of Grey wasn’t an exception. But when it got to a level when there was nothing else but those two engaging in coitus time after time, regardless to say, it was creepy, monotonus and in a way verbose, almost as if EL James had nothing else other than their sexual encounters to show for.

There were just a few moments, that got me going. Ana’s persistant efforts to show Christian that he could open up to her and her little negotiations to pry the information out of him, these and a couple more moments piqued my interest.

The creepy agreement instead of a free flow love story was a big let down for me. Why is it bad? Because, its just a fancy name for prostitution, except the fact that she wasn’t getting paid in money. But apart from that, it curbed a good setting which the novel got at the inception and of course restrained the characters to have any romantic involvement with each other. It was utterly unromantic (I don’t know who suggested 50 Shades be classified as a romantic novel) and more about carnal pleasures.

The Last Word:

I want to see Christian and Ana have a normal relationship in the sequels, but somehow I know Christian is going to f**k, not make love, which is the least romantic and the most repelling thing for me. Though there’s so much bad in the novel, the mystery is still eating me up and I’d still give it a go, as long as it doesn’t creep me out.

My Rating: 1.5/5

Angels and Demons Novel Review

I didn’t quite like the Angels and Demons the way I expected to. But that’s all right, when you read all about how Illuminati symbols are engraved on the chest of the cardinals and then executed using the same element of science. Robert Langdon has to stop these four killings and a bomb (antimatter) which is ticking, somewhere concealed in the Vatican City, by following an intricate trail using his expertise in symbology.

A mystery-thriller, but it’s more than just your ordinary detective stories. It has one of the good old, Science vs. Religion debates to offer. This novel demands to be looked at seriously because, the setting of the novel accentuates the accomplishments and failures, the strong points and flaws of both, the science and the religion. As far as India and Hinduism is concerned, each individual needs to strictly follow some of the proud creeds mentioned in this notable work by Dan Brown.

The novel is gripping and well acclaimed by the readers around the world and the content and the virtuoso of the author speak for it. Apart from the mystery which is the major feature of this novel, I did find the few moments between Robert and Vittoria quite intriguing. Dan has quite adroitly explored the personality of Robert Langdon, which adds up to make the novel more captivating.

The Last Word:

Dan has surely written a robust mystery-thriller, but we also need to ruminate on the essence of the religion before we overlook its importance. Quite a cliffhanger, protruding most mystery-thrillers, because of the addition of symbology, the killings, Illuminati, Camerlengo’s character and the amalgamation of science and religion. The only flaw I realized was the length of the novel. It could have been less.

My Rating: 4.5/5