TOWARD GUILTY BY CHOICE by SHANTI PARAMASHIVAN

Towards guilty by choice By SHANTI PARMESHWARA Review by Shanti

I loved reading , thanks to my friend Deepti for inculcating the habit in me but I never thought that someday I would actually call my self an “author “.(It feels awesome) The word was there in my dictionary but surely for someone else ,whose books I admired to read . It was totally an unexpected thing to accept that my name was soon going to join their league of community . It all started with diary writing .I understood that during this entire time the one thing which stayed and was blooming inside me were the words which flowed beautifully making the narration impactful and touchy. I was loving every bit of what I wrote and the way I was expressing. However, the passion developed as I started writing articles for a company’s website. This was followed by maintaining my blogs (though not on regular basis). Standing by me were my mom and dad, along with my close friends who started appreciating and motivating my work of playing with words. It won’t be wrong to say that writing came as a choice , a choice which I fell in love with . 🙂 I was moving strong with my attitude and my love for words , hence the desire for writing grew and I decided to pen down a story which was slowly dwelling inside my heart .I was in a different world,until I lost my father. That day changed my perspective towards writing. Though the story was the same but the meaning of it had changed . Realization opened my mind , which changed my thoughts and made my emotions stronger. My life was never the same when I started writing Guilty by Choice , It was like living a second life all together .The real journey started when the characters became part of my family .Emotions revealed my state of mind and the story took me to a world of experience and fantasy . They were with me always ,as my own world seemed to get defined and started connecting with them one by one . The reason to write this book was simple-my experience with emotions one which allowed me to get back to my past and make this book for the future. Atlas! it happened , almost after seven months my baby was with me – Guilty by Choice was there in front . I felt the urge of making this book work at-least once for the people who loved me. At the end, all I can say is that –anything is possible . You just have to believe and dream, as “I always felt that dreams have wings ,and if you want to make it a reality then go smoothly ,feel it heartily and balance it lightly and there you are -ready to fly”. GUILTY BY CHOICE BY SHANTI PARAMASHIVAN Review by A Lot OF pages Kiana Shetty is a young, dynamic and beautiful girl who lives in Mumbai with her mother and a younger brother. Like every recent graduate, she dreams of making it big and making it big quickly. But fate may have other plans for her in the form of her own brother: meet Viraj, Kiana’s younger brother, who works at a call center but wants to open his own tattoo studio some day and he will do anything to make that happen. While Kiana deals with Viraaj’s dreadful secrets, she also has to put up with Abhit, Viraaj’s best friend, who won’t stop professing his love for her at every opportunity he gets. It looks like the only person she can trust in all this hullaballoo is Sarthak, her best friend and collegue. But for how long? ‘Guilty By Choice’ is a story about dreams, about love, about friendship, and above all, family. Because in the end, you do it all for the family, right? Usually I do not read the blurb right before I pick a book ( I read it only when I buy and then forget about it ) But it so happened that I did read the plot before I opened the book and some where I expected a very messy situation and to see how the writer gets Kiana out of it. What I got was a build up too long and the end cut short. There were lot of possible angles for the story and none was followed. But instead we get a pretty detailed account of a Mallu wedding, the usual life of Kiana and the cast in their society , how we fail to recognize worthy friends and more so how idiotically the love story of Kiana and Abhit goes to the stage of mutual acceptance by the end of the book. And then comes the twist which the reader might be waiting from a long time. But before you could settle down with the flow , the book ends. Ok , I would even have made peace with the end if there was not that last page of epilogue !! Either let me figure or decide things on my own or give me an explanation that makes total sense. I enjoyed the breezy tale of Kiana and her loved ones but the last page was a little disappointing. My rating : 2.5/5 GUILTY BY CHOICE BY SHANTI PARAMASHIVAN Review by Kalyan Panja Guilty by Choice by Shanti Paramashivan is a hymn to life, to the melancholy of living it for others. After all, life is beautiful, despite everything that can happen and it is for us to address the problems in the right way, surround ourselves with people who love us, celebrate friendship and love, diversity, and the simple things. Kiana Shetty is a youthful, full of life and good-looking girl who lives in Mumbai with her mother and a younger brother and like each graduate, she dreams of making it life-size and making it fast other than destiny has other plans for her in the shape of her brother Viraj, who works at a call centre but desires to open his own tattoo studio one day and he will do no matter what to make that come about. At the same time as Kiana deals with Viraaj’s frightful secrets, she also has to put up with Abhit, Viraaj’s best buddy, who won’t stop professing his affection for her at each chance he gets and it looks like the lone individual she can trust in all this clamour is Sarthak, her best companion and associate as she has to get out of the muddle that she in fact has nothing to do with as Viraaj has by now gone too extreme and that Kiana can’t help but be the collateral damage. The subject is very interesting though many pages are too bitter and full of sordid feelings with the book looks at the world and is able to see beyond the barriers of appearance, beyond the common thinking, beyond the prejudices, all over the walls that human beings are so good at building between them. The book as if by magic, turns it all into words, and the plot does not forget to leave a teaching, a track, the grip with which the eyes of the soul of the reader are wide open and are filled with a sense that helps you to ponder over, the same way that gives meaning to a reading you will not forget. When you close the last page the book does not have the feeling of emptiness and this thanks to a dry style and direct writing with the content of the novel is touching with a reading bitter and painful but terribly true steeped in reflections, from the most obvious to some really interesting and challenging. As the question that begs Kiana: “What’s wrong?” A question to which all will think they can answer, and just when you think you have been able to understand the solution, here is a doubt, an uncertainty or just a slight reversal of things and the answer is no longer reliable. Sometimes more than the previous question we should ask. In the midst of a thousand problems and a thousand complications that are part of life itself, there are moments of weakness and fragility in which the questions like these are normal and indeed encouraged by the conscience of everyone, at the helplessness of the individual who asks the questions you create and build a wall so high as to isolate themselves and hide their inadequacy. The story from the narrative point of view and style is very complex with the book is written in the form of interior monologue, which sometimes follows tortuous paths and complex in line with the thoughts of the protagonist with her reflections are left open just like when you think and concludes the argument but did not find the right answer. From the stylistic point of view they are very nice and especially clarifying the metaphors used by the author the lexicon seems quite sought after despite the technique used to qualify better ideas, impressions and complex experiences of the protagonist, but that also characterizes the environment around her. With great style, smooth and pleasant reading, each chapter ends creating somehow a certain suspense that makes you want to read immediately the next chapter with the story is simple and the characters seem shadows but as soon as you begin to outline their past appearances become very strong where we can not remain impassive in front of the extreme truth and frankness of some reflections of the protagonist. The writing style is pleasant, the reading is very smooth, there are some very beautiful sentences with the novel manages to combine positively stylistic clarity and depth of content and is a novel that tells in a very delicate emotional universe that runs and which is steeped in the difficult periods of life. The emotions of the protagonist, her thirst for family values, friendship lived with transportation and emphasis on the characteristics of men and women are the ingredients that give the plot a light touch but where everyone can find in part, feelings and troubles lived in middle between the journeys of life.