Book Review - Pound of flesh by Mukul Deva

Pound of flesh by Mukul Deva

Retired Inspector General of Police, Ravinder Gill knows that he has only few hours to track down and recover the missing girl, his daughter Jasmine's college mate and friend. As he digs deeper he realizes that Pamela is only one of scores of young girls who have gone missing. Not one of them has been recovered alive. And those found have had their organs harvested. 

The search for Pamela turns even more vicious and murkier as the finger of suspicion swings towards Harpal Singh, a powerful political broker with a shady past, and also the father of Dr.Mandeep, a surgeon, and recently betrothed to Jasmine.

Spearheading Harpal's operation is the mercurial Santosh Kumar aka SK aka The Hammer, a ruthless enforcer who hates Ravinder for killing his father. The battlr becomes intensely personal for The Hammer when he realizes that Pamela is the friend of Ravinder's daughter.

Torn between rescuing Pamela, finding the truth and protecting Jasmine's happiness, Ravinder battles alone.

Could Harpal be the man behind this deadly gang of human traffickers and organ traders? Could Mandeep, his future son-in-law, be the surgeon who is cutting up these missing girls and harvesting their organs? And why is Chetan, the police officer investigating the case, covering up the facts?

Book Details:
Book title: Pound of flesh
Author: Mukul Deva
Publisher: Westland books
Pages: 484
Cost: 350 INR.

My review:

A book belonging to suspense and thriller genre is always exciting to read. The same goes to this book. It was a racy read, which makes you want to know what will be happening to the characters in the next chapter.

The storyline involves human trafficking and organ harvesting. The core of the novel is a heavy topic, and it actually gives you a scare. But, the book has many sub-plots. Like, the romance of Jasmine and Mandeep. The story of Harpal Singh and his relationship with his family. The police officer Chetan.
Also, there is a small flashback, about the  main antagonist of the story, Santosh Kumar. It also shows the rise of his hatred for Ravinder Gill. But, being such an important one, it rather felt like a flashback in a movie which was inserted in the plot forcefully. Even the antagonist himself would not have been able to justify his actions based on such a weak flashback.

The search for Pamela, done by Jasmine, her father, Ravinder Gill and her other friend Rekha is interesting to read at first. As the pages are turned it keeps getting mundane. Ravinder is not satisfied with the help provided by the police officer, Chetan. But, he keeps on asking him to help.
Also the small fights between Rekha and Jasmine comes and goes throughout the novel. It comes so often that you are expecting it to happen, whenever their names come in the same page.
Also, there is Mandeep, a surgeon and the son of Harpal Singh. Ravinder doubts him to be involved in the organ harvesting scam, until the final pages. But, we readers know from the first few pages who was involved in the scam along with Santhosh Kumar. It would have been even more anxious for the reader, if we too saw Mandeep from the eyes of Ravinder Gill.

The whole plot would have been so great, if the reader could see only what the protagonist could see. And, as he discovers the hidden plots, we would have been as surprised as the protagonist too. But, the reader is fed with a good amount of plot from the beginning, and finally, the whole plot is visible.
For such a good storyline, the actual story lacked a few good elements of surprise. It will always be nice to find out something new in the last few pages.

A good suspense or mystery book should be like a treasure hunt. You should not know the final treasure until the last clue.

This book was a treasure hunt. But, like a treasure hunt, which was actually seen by the participant even before it started.

Overall, it was a good one. Could have been made better.

My rating : 6.5/10

I would like to thank the Westland Publishers for sending the book for review. The opinion expressed in this review is my own.

Living a meaningful life

Sometimes life doesn't give you second chances. All you have got is one life and what we all do is spend that life in what we think is important.
What all we had sacrificed for it?
Getting up before the sun rises and not a chance to sit down till the sun sets. Life has become one crazy ride and we feel ourselves tied to that roller coaster. We are busy worrying about the downs when it is going up and we are busy getting ready for the ups it will offer soon. But one thing we all fail to do is to catch the view it offers. When you are the peak and before it takes you down, you can look at the world differently than ever before. But how many of us do that? Our eyes are busy zooming in on the impending fall. Even if you don't focus on it, you will go there and ultimately the peak. So, why not enjoy the view?
Our life is one huge roller coaster where we go along the rise and fall in which it had planned.
We are busy creating and enhancing it, that we fail to feel the intricate part of it.
The mechanical life has made us into machines. Soon our souls too will become mechanical. And then there will be no turning back for us.

So before we lose our lives to the daily pressure and the worldly life, let us think. Think about what you want to do before we become robots to work.

Some pleasures. Some activities you had always liked. The act of doing itself makes you energized. When was the last time we immersed ourselves into it?
Long long ago and so long ago.

And when I sat back and gave a thought about what I would like to do, I came up with the following three. It may sound absurd to some. But the passion it gives you when you indulge in your favorite activities, you can never derive it anywhere else. It gives the ultimate satisfaction of having done something in life. It gives you the joy of having achieved the goal in your life which the long hours at the office doesn't give.
Without further ado, let me tell you the activities I have been only dreaming to do.

First

Writing a Novel

I have been wanting to write a novel for a very long time. Many a time I have sat down to pen one. I would write a few pages and then my life would overtake me and the story itself would have been forgotten. This is my first and foremost longing and I have been procrastinating it for a few years now. If given a chance, I would like to become an author first. Sitting among the trees and dreaming about the sky is certainly my cup if tea.

Second

Learning French

I don't remember how I became fond of the French language. I remember asking my parents to join me in a French class during school days. But time never permitted me to explore into a new language. Time has been my greatest enemy and it had me chained and constrained that I was unable to pursue my passions. Passion gives the life a meaning and a direction. Even now I want to learn it and I sure would if I have a chance. So, this is the second in my to-do list.

Third

Exploring the world around - Leading a Nomadic life

Time truly is vengeful. It never gives me time to go on a little adventurous exploration. My exploration I am not painting a picture which involves archaeology or mountain climbing. A simple mind with which I have been blessed never think of such extravaganza.
By exploring, what I really want is to get on a bus or train and go to a new place and to wander around. I want to go wherever the vehicle takes me. I want to get down and explore. Some few clicks wouldn't hurt too.
The world is one beautiful place and by sitting and leading the life in a small four walled room doesn't make any sense. Going to new places, meeting new people will certainly give me the experience of a life time and will lead to a meaningful life.
So given the chance I want the nomadic in me to dominate my life.

The three things I would want to do are the above and certainly I would like to satisfy at least one yearning of mine.

This post is a part of #SecondChance activity by Blogadda in association with MaxLife Insurance.

Quikr Nxt

A few years back, shopping existed in only one form and that certainly was not the online way. This era could very well be called as the era of Online Shopping.
Online shopping gives you the comfort of shopping at your place, at your time and pace. You can buy it or you can skip it for a better one. The life is full of options and online shopping gives you many such options.
Quikr is one such online shopping portal. It offers you services according to your place. You can access it from your computer as well as from your mobile. It offers various products. You can use it to find a house for rent as well as for sale. You can find a new or a used product from various sellers from your city.
You can go through the pictures provided and select one according to your preferences.
Now Quickr has an other feature. Which is Quickr Nxt - a chat option.
Whenever you look at an item, your mind is filled with all possible questions.

According to me, the 3 advantages that the Quickr Nxt chat option has over the conventional phone conversation is as follows.

The first advantage would be

Sharing of photos instantly

Even though the specifications would be mentioned in the ad for a product or house, you will definitely have something more to ask. If you have been looking for a house, you can contact the seller through the Quikr Nxt chat option and ask for even more photos. You can ask for the view of the whole house or the view of a particular room. The seller can send you the photos immediately and if it is to your liking, you can proceed with your purchase.
Even though you can call and clear your clarifications, it will certainly not be as satisfying as seeing a picture.

And the second one is

The Backup

Not all of us are blessed with photographic memory. The Quikr Nxt chat option also has an other useful feature. It saves all the chat you have done. And as I have said above, you can share images. As soon as you get the picture you had requested, you see once or twice. But later when you are sitting idle in front of the television, your brain wakes up and reminds you that you have missed some important information. That is when Quikr Nxt comes in useful. You can go and revisit your chat history. The pictures will be there. The details will be there. You don't have to worry about forgetting the intricate details.
But when you call and talk to a person for any query, it is human nature to forget little details later. So, in this criteria the chat option certainly has the advantage.

And the third one would be

Do not wait

We are living in a very busy world and we certainly cannot expect anyone to be extremely free all the time. Whether you are using the Quikr Nxt feature as a buyer or as a seller, you need not wait for the other person to pick his or her call. The person might be busy and as a result she might be unavailable to take your calls. If there is no chat feature, you just have the option of calling. And when you ultimately decide to purchase from that seller and call the person to settle the deal, the seller might be not available to pick your call. You might try once or twice and then you will fret and leave that deal. Some might even consider things like these as a bad omen and that would be the end of it. But a good deal might have been lost for both the buyer and the seller.

When you are using the Quikr Nxt option, you can send a message to the seller and you can do your own work. The seller will surely reply as soon as he or she is available. Then you can settle the deal. A good offer wouldn't be lost anymore.

You can also use the Quikr Nxt feature in both your mobile and desktop.

Although the Quikr Nxt feature offers many advantages, I found the above three to be the best features. These three will make the chat feature certainly useful and even more beneficial for the prospective buyers and sellers.

This post is written for the Quikr NXT Happy Hour at Indiblogger.