One Night @ A Call Centre by Chetan Bhagat

It is about a night at a call centre with weird ongoings including a call from God. Vroom, Esha, Shyam, Priyanka, Radhika and Military Uncle are the characters that define the novel. In one night, all of them come to know they may lose their jobs to rightsizing of the firm. Vroom proposes Esha and gets rejected. He also comes to know Esha's nefarious activities. Esha gets to know that the one inch of her height would not get her a modelling role even if she slept with hundred thousands designers. Shyam realises that his relationship wih Priyanka was over. Priyanka was about to start jer life with Ganesh, an NRI software geek who has a bungalow with a swimming pool and is about to buy a Lexus. Radhika, who was anyways troubled by her mother-in-law and was on anti-depressants, came to know that her husband was having an affair with someone else. Military Uncle realised that neither his son nor his daugter-in-law appreciated him contacting his grandson. All the frustrated souls were on their way back from a lounge when the vehicle crashed and landed on the framework of a construciton site. There was no network to summon help. Suddenly Shyam's phone starts ringing and he realises it is GOD calling. God gives them a piece of advice on how ro live their life and whenever they are confused to take some time off and focus on that inner voice which is God speaking. Life can be lived with intellignce, imagination, self-confidence and a little bit of failure.

Good read for a lazy Sunday or a train journey perhaps. Style of writing is strictly mediocre. Does not help the vocabulary in an sort of a way. Pretty wannabe at times. Unbelievable but God is really that small voice that tells us this is wrong and that is correct.

Overall rating: 2.5 star

Thanks for the memories by Cecelia Ahern

Joyce, a 33 year old, has a miscarriage with a revelation of a loveless marriage, resulting into a complete breakdown of her 10 year old marriage. Due to severe loss of blood, Joyce is given blood from a general blood bank that leaves her completely changed as a person. Her tastes, likes, dislikes had ceased to be her own and suddenly she was speaking about art, architecture and foreign languages as if she were a connoiseur. She keeps bumping into Justin, the blood donor. Both are not aware that he is the donor of the blood which is why she was having identical tastes, interests and even memories. A series of stalking incidents bring Joyce the knowledge about the donor being Justin. The plot ultimately ends with Justin wooing Joyce after a series of issues including even assuming Joyce is mad.

Cecelia Ahern, author of 'P.S. I Love You', fails to make an impact like her first bestseller. Predictable plot, repetitive characters but charged with an emotional writing that albeit does not leave you in tears like P.S. I Love You. The plot is so surreal that it makes you even want to reconsider before donating or getting blood. Cecelia had created magic in her previous book but the same touch was slightly missing in this one. A good read for a rainy day although doesn't really make you feel fuzzy or feel like cozying up to someone special.

Overall rating: 3 star