In The Dog's World (Book Review)

Book: Puma - A Soldier's Dog

Author: Richa Kashyap

Publication: Quignog

Puma - A Soldier's Dog by Richa Kashyap is a heart-rending story of an Indian pariah breed pup who is rescued, adopted by an army officer whom he lovingly calls ‘Dadda’ and trained to become a soldier. Narrated by Puma himself, the story takes us through the twists and turns of Puma's life where he is immensely loved and pampered by his ‘Dadda’, faces hostility from various people and dogs within the cantonment, gets lost searching for his ‘Dadda’, meets new human and doggie friends in the process and eventually re-uniting with his ‘Dadda’.

Puma takes us through the process of becoming a canine soldier, going through the rigors and discipline that every soldier should imbibe. He tells us, how he overcomes mountain-high challenges and faces a shocking conclusion for no fault of his. But eventually in the end, redeeming himself and proving to be the big star of the entire cantonment and the regiment. The ending has an unexpected, somber twist that no pet lover would want to go through.

The book is well written with no room for errors. You will strongly fall in love with the central character, Puma, and feel his happiness, pain and agony. The narration is very strong and it puts the reader into Puma’s shoes in every scene.

The entire book first reflects upon the neglect that the Indian breed dogs have to face in India. Born in the streets and having to fend for themselves, 99% of them live and die in the streets of India. In the book, Puma is lucky to have been rescued from the streets and given a life of happiness and comfort that many specially bred dogs live with their owners. The message that people should adopt Indie breeds is very strong in this book. They adapt and survive in any condition, have strong senses and stay active throughout their lives.

As a dog-lover, I could strongly empathize with Puma and the entire Indian pariah breed. Richa Kashyap has done a wonderful job here and I wish she comes up with more such books.

Ratings - I will give 4/5 to the book mainly for the freshness of the story, narration, and good quality writing.

About The Guest Reviewer:

Varun N Rao is a Senior Content Specialist at a US-based software company in Bengaluru. In his 'strictly me' time, he creates realistic portraits with pencils and paints, paintings and funny caricatures. He also creates digital works and explores new trends in the art world both, digital and fine art. Follow his works at www.facebook.com/vartoonss/
Apart from this, he helps his wife to create delicious, mouth-watering chocolates under the banner Eat More Chocolates (www.facebook.com/eatmorechocolates).

When not creating portraits or preparing chocolates, he indulges in some lazy time to read biographies, fiction and non-fiction books, editing his wife's articles/blogs/short stories or just watch movies, comedy serials etc.

I received a review copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Never Gone: Nostalgic…Back To ‘Bachchpan’ (Book Review)

Book: Never Gone Author: Anusha Subramanian Publisher: Penguin India Do you remember that feeling, when you had your first crush back in good old school days? Or, the days you spent trying to impress your love interest? This book will transport you back to those wonderful days – school days. At least this is what it did to me. It took me back to the days of learning and comprehending emotions such as feelings, emotions, love, friendship, companionship, sympathy, empathy, trust, happiness, sorrow, jealousy, hatred, revenge and the list is endless. I have completed my education in co-ed school and college and very closely witnessed love stories bloom and relationship break. I could completely identify with the story, plot, the setup and the characters. I loved the way the characterization has been done and the flash backs described.

Draupadi - Action Prevails Emotions

The woman of Kaliyuga…. before the Kaliyuga descended One of the few very clear memories I still have of my childhood is when my mother was feeding me lunch and we were happily chatting about Mahabharata. While talking, I said ‘when I grow up, I want to become Draupadi’. She yelled at me ‘ pagal ho gayi ho kya?, kuch bhi bak bak karti ho. Khana khao chup chap ’. I was taken aback by her sudden anger. Barely 7-8 years of age, I didn’t quite understand the reason for her annoyance, then. Today, after decades I certainly do. Indeed, I do understand, why a mother wouldn’t want her daughter to become Draupadi or even get closer to what she suffered. All said and done, she was the heroine of the one of the only two greatest epics of the country’s history – Mahabharata.

From ‘ASL Pls’ To Emoji’s

I don’t get tired; no really, I do not get tired or bored at all narrating our story to anyone. Infact every new person I meet, I try to grab this opportunity to talk about us – You and I! And I surprise myself when I realise that I still remember it all so well. Every single detail of 4 years of friendship, 4 years of long-distance relationship, and 7 years of being married. Well, can’t really say that about the last 7 years :P, but the first 8 years are like embedded in my DNA. Pic clicked by Sudipto Roy I think our story is unique. It’s beautiful. Just 15 years old but so much has changed in this one and half-decade. Or not much?

A(NU) Thought

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