• Title – From Where I See
• Author – Ajay Yadav
• Publisher – Lifi Publications Pvt. Ltd.
• Genre – Fiction/ Religious
• Pages – 401
• Price – INR 300
• ISBN – 978-93-82536-81-9

Synopsis –  Ajay meets his childhood friend Shruti on a social network site. He finds her to be struggling with intrapersonal, interpersonal, inter-social and inter-religious conflicts. Eventually the conflicts kill her. Even if the police solve the case, will it prevent hundreds of Shrutis from getting killed?

How long will we think of ‘who’ killed as more important than ‘what’ killed a person? Till we don’t address this issue and work on it, many Shrutis will keep on getting killed. We need to cure the disease, not just the symptoms.

This book is an effort by the author to find the root cause and probable remedies of conflicts, and tries to explore hundreds of pertinent questions like “Why does it become so easy to get volunteers to blow up themselves and others for the sake of religion? Does religion divide or unite? What precipitates extramarital affairs? Is the immature and wrong interpretation of female emancipation the reason for a 13 fold rise in divorce rates in the last 5 years?

It’s not only a book, it’s the path to revolution, a journey towards an utopian world. Accepting the truth is the toughest job in the world. If you feel that you are open minded, have the courage to accept the truth and a desire to change the world. Be a part of the change and take the first step to build a road to the ideal world.

Review – The book has an interesting cover that brings forth the two sides of the story,while it evokes deep thought and analysis, it also highlights the importance of the perspective.

The title of the book is well thought and very apt.

The book starts with murder investigation in progress but soon turns to flashback mode. The candid anecdotes of the life and difficulties faced by the people in rural areas have been narrated in a very interesting way. The story is fast paced with realism standing tall and strong, gifting the book a realistic warmth that envelopes the reader in this engrossing read.

The book impresses with a logical, open-minded, analytical approach on everything that makes up our life and mindsets. Be it the social,national, political, biological, historical, mythological or even the religious issues. I’d like to congratulate the author on successfully putting forth a new line of thought where the reader is evoked to dig deeper than the information that is dished out to us in many forms day in and day out.

It’s time for us to read, research and the analyse with an open mind everything big or small before following, accepting or adapting it in our life. The author succeeds in showing the reader the rational behind many societal beliefs while smartly introducing us to the flip sides of the popular beliefs. Having said that, I felt the political and religious topics could have been presented in a more interesting way by cutting down on the monologue and curtailing the elaborate details.

While the author has tried hard to accommodate all topics in a pragmatic form, I somehow felt the book got preachy mid-way making it go dull as the original plot seemed to have been lost in the deluge of information. The climax of the plot comes across as hurried. The promising start of the book gets diluted by the forced and abrupt ending.

The language of the book is rich but the narration could have been better to keep the reader engrossed despite the abundance of thought-provoking information. The issues touched upon are very relevant to the present times. But, there has to be a limit to the length of talk that can be given on a topic, over a cup of tea or over a dinner party for that matter. This in particular was a huge let down.

The book is an eye-opener on many fronts and inspires the reader to adopt an open-minded thinking. The book shares its treasure of research references at the end of the book.

I’d like to suggest everyone reading this book, to read it slowly, giving themselves enough time to chew the information provided, to make the best use of all the facts and knowledge shared in the book.

About the Author – Dr. Ajay Yadav is a consultant anesthetist, intensivist and pain specialist. His textbook of anesthesia is the most sold textbook for medical undergraduates in India, Southeast Asia and Africa. He is a rational, logical and analytical thinker and is fond of reading, travelling and long distance running.

Rating – 3.25/ 5

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