Heart of Bullets by Nikhil KushwahaMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.8 Stars to Heart of Bullets by Nikhil Kushwaha
First of all welcome back! I am also back with one more book review. And this review is quite special for me because I am writing this first blog post from our new home!! Okay… I finished reading a fantastic book Heart Of Bullets by Nikhil Kushwaha. This review was expected to be published in the last week of Feb but I apologize to the author for not publishing this review within time due to my busy schedule. Anyway, I don't want to bore my readers with a long introduction so let me come to the book review now…
BOOK COVER:
On the front cover, one can see a soldier with his sweetheart. Rifle in a standing move keeps distance between a soldier and his sweetheart. A helicopter of the army is in the background. Three fighter planes are flying in the sky in three different directions (\|/). Saffron, White and Green color of background makes tricolor. Petal Publishers' logo is printed below the rifle in the middle so it looks like a bullet. In short, Cover of Heart Of Bullets is filled with patriotism and love. So, I would give full marks to Jimmyeric Films and Media for the cover designing. Title Heart Of Bullets is quite impressive which commemorates me the title To The Last Bullet which I read and reviewed few years ago.
SETTING: There are 26 chapters along with prologue and epilogue in 296 pages. The author narrates the story in present tense as the first person.
THEMES: Heart of Bullets covers various themes like pride, patriotism, friendship, love, betrayal, philosophy, motivation, bravery, intelligence, and thriller, etc.
LOCATIONS: The story of the novel runs through so many locations like Uri, Kashmir (a place near LOC), Ranchi, Gir (Gujarat), Kargil, Banaras, Calcutta and Pakistan (Pak).
WRITING STYLE: Author elegantly uses literary terms and figurative language. This is a novel, however, author Nikhil Kushwaha mentions his self-written poems and one-liners which touch to the heart. The author wisely arranges twists and turns and keeps suspense until the end. One-liners by Nikhil Kushwaha make his writing style unique and interesting.
CHARACTERS: There are so many major and minor characters in the novel. But I would like to introduce few of them.
Arpan: Author portrays Arpan as a narrator of the story who works as a soldier in an Indian Army. Arpan is the protagonist in the novel.
Sameer Das (Sam): Sameer is the second protagonist in the novel. Author portrays Sameer as a friend of Arpan and a senior in the army. Heart of Bullets is the story of Sameer narrated by his friend Arpan.
Shradha: Author portrays Shradha as a classmate of Arpan. She loves Sameer and she works as a social activist.
Soni: Mutual friend of Arpan and Sam in school and junior college.
Dr. Kumar: Dr. Kumar is the listener of this story of Sam from the narrator Arpan.
PLOT: The Heart of Bullet starts with a beautiful, touching, sensitive and patriotic poem ‘The Story Is Old' in the prologue of the novel.
First chapter ‘Terrorists hiding' is about the humble aspects and different roles in soldier's life apart from his service. When I read about the successful mission by Arpan, I felt like a soldier for some moment. In this chapter, Arpan tells the facts about the army and their service. Arpan tells soldier's respect towards the nation and army and pride about his duty. The first chapter is filled with fun, sarcasm, patriotism and a thrill. Author Nikhil Kushwaha gives the glance of woman's life. Arpan tells the truth of soldier's leaves in an emergency. Author gracefully scribbles the tough life of martyr's family after a sacrifice of a soldier. It seems that author Nikhil has researched or have knowledge about missiles, rockets, advance 7th generation rocket science technology and Combined Defence Service (CDS). He also gives the brief information about heart transplantation. Fighting scene in the fourth chapter ‘Attack at MH' seems like a war. Indian soldier's fight till the last bullet thrills us. Author writes about the difference between soldiers and terrorists. ‘Towards a new home' comes with an unexpected thrilling scene. Some quotes and one-liners touch to my heart and relates to my own life.
Chapter six commemorates me my college days. When Sameer gets caught while stealing question papers, I remind my experience when I had raise a duster on my science teacher in SSC (Wo matter alag hai, yaha nahi padhne milega!!). Arpan elegantly defines the difference between development and growth. It is noteworthy that author make us worried about current generation's priorities in life. Story narrated by Sameer Das touches to the heart in the twelfth chapter. Poems and lullabies are also nice. The thirteenth chapter touches me. I wish the one too could thief my personal diary/diaries and find her name on almost every single page as Sameer reads secrets of Shradha in her diary.
Nineteenth chapter is about true friendship. Sameer's apologetic answer to Arpan touches to the heart. He quotes the importance of apology and forgiveness in friendship "After all, friendship means forgiveness. It means forgetting the thing that ruins it. A small gesture of apology sometimes saves a bond whose value is more than millions." Bittersweet introduction of love at first sight in the fifth chapter ‘The first time I saw' is really fantastic. Sameer's conversation with Shradha and Soni are just pleasant. Author comments on sacrifice in love and relationship "Sometimes, one needs to sacrifice the things that matters the most, for them who matters the most, and that's the truest form of love that exists. It's just stupid to breathe when there is no reason to live. When you love someone for true, you will do anything to make them happy, even if that happiness doesn't include you." "It's better to be hated for what you are rather than being loved for what you aren't. Relationships aren't built on bases of lies."
He beautifully portrays the romantic scenes. Author indirectly scribbles short description about intimacy in beautiful way in chapter ‘Once in a monsoon'.
Author comments on Indian Railway. In the second chapter ‘Sudden call', he comments on people's patriotism in an ironical and satiric manner- "People talk about politics, war and condition of country for hours, but very few do something to change it, to make it better. Everyone wants a change but no one wants to change. Being patriotic is one other thing and doing something for a county is another." He comments on inactivity of peoples "The world suffers, not because of the dirty works of bad people, but of the ignorance of good people." The author raises some other social issues. He criticizes private tuitions. He also comments on the education system in India where more importance is being given to grades and marks than knowledge. But at the same times, he remarks some positive comments about teacher's profession. Author comments on gender equality in his quote "No matter how much we change, it's the woman who has to carry a baby in womb, and the man who has to light the fire." He defines WOMEN as the World Of MEN. He comments on parents' dignity and social values more importance over children's happiness. Arpan's comments on fate commemorate me the conversation between Karna and the protagonist Vasu in novel Karna's Alter Ego where Karna explains the philosophy of fate to Vasu in detail. Author messages to the people (like me heheheJ) who sleeps late.
Unexpected but guessable suspense gets revealing in chapter 25. Heart of Bullets ends with the totally unexpected climax which is truly sensitive. I have told you so much about the story and now don't expect me to reveal the climax also, to know whether it is happy or tragic, you have to read the book.
Oneliners from the book:
"Money is like a fire. If used correctly, it can make food but if in wrong hands, it may burn the house."
"There is nothing more painful than living a lonely life without being a culprit for it."
"Love doesn't always mean togetherness, it also means sacrificing something for the one you love."
"Perhaps, true happiness lies in happiness of the one we love, that's the truest form of love people talk about all the time."
DRAWBACKS:
1.Typing and Grammatical Errors: There are so many typing errors like Apran (Arpan) on page 45 and 48, wired (weird) on page 70, punchure (puncture) on page 116, feeing (feeling) on page 225, taking (talking) on page 240, laud (loud) on page 253 and so many… I don't deserve to find grammatical errors as my own English is not too good but there are so many grammatical errors in the novel Heart of Bullets.
2.I felt narration confusing a bit because of a combination of present and past tense. In my opinion, it would be better if the story would have been told by Arpan in a past tense.
3.Some words have fainted.
4.Reference to Facebook: Reference to Facebook use by Shradha at an age of 22 (in 2002) is irrelevant because the social networking website facebook was launched 2 years later than 2002 on 4th Feb 2004.
5.The story is stretched: The story of Heart of Bullets is quite stretched but the last fight of Arpan in the climax is in brief.
REVIEWER'S FEEDBACK:
Heart Of Bullets is the fantastic novel by Nikhil Kushwaha. I liked the way author narrates the story, quotations, and one-liners touch to readers' heart and relates to own life. Heart of Bullets make you think on social issues and thrill you, the story brings tears in eyes with Goosebumps!! I have mucked almost every page of the book as my favourite. I would have liked more if the story would have been narrated within 250 pages. The weakness of the book is so many typing errors and grammatical mistakes of the book but I am sure that Author Nikhil Kushwaha and publisher will take care of this in next editions of the book. I would recommend this book to my readers because the story, theme, poems, quotes, and one-liners are much more apart from the mistakes.
MY RATING: The story of Heart of Bullets deserves at least 4 stars but I am cutting 0.2 stars for grammatical and typing errors. So I would give 3.8 out of 5 Stars to Heart of Bullets by Nikhil Kushwaha.
Blurb: ‘The only way to get close to those glittering stars in heaven is, to look at a soldier with stars on his shoulders'
Every time, they're around, the thing that we see is the bravery awards, medals, the pride, but what we can't see is their heart that lies inside the iron chest, some untold stories, sacrifices, and the hardship they've been through. Every soldier has a story that is unique and extra ordinary.
A tale of brotherhood & heroism, a tale of love & betrayal, ‘Heart of Bullets', is about two best friends, Arpan & Sam, and the untold story of their friendship, untold story of their love, Shradha, but what happens when Sam gets hit by the enemy – across the border?
What will Arpan do to save his friend? Will love prevail over friendship of lifetime?
There is a decision to be made, is the life without love, and friends, better than dying to save the one we love the most?
About Nikhil Kushwaha:
Founder of Perx Studio, a complete photography solution, and a professional photographer himself, Nikhil Kushwaha has already touched hearts of many through his previous works, ‘Six Teen Mistakes' published in 2014 and ‘The Waning Moon' published in 2015.
Born and raised in beautiful city Ranchi, he graduated in 2013 as an Electrical & Electronics Engineer from NIST, Odisha and after working for some time, he left his job to change his dreams into reality.
Heart Of Bullets' heart
Title: HEART OF BULLETS
Author: NIKHIL KUSHWAHA
Publishers: PETALS PUBLISHERS & DISTRIBUTORS
Copyright © NIKHIL KUSHWAHA
First Edition: December 2015
ISBN (13): 978-93-85440-12-0
ISBN (10): 93-85440-12-8
Language: English
Printing: Paperback (Printed in India)
Designs & Branding: JIMMYERIC FILMS & MEDIA (Facebook)
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 296 (Excluding cover)
MRP: Rs. 195
Reviewer: RAJESH D. HAJARE (RDH)
Rating: 3.8/5
Disclaimer:
This is my personal opinion about Heart of Bullets and your views may be vary.
Reviewer has used quotes and one-liners in this review with the permission of the author.
Reviewer of this book works as the Gondia district president at Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Parishad
Previous Review: Without You (Rating: 4.25/5, Visitors:6630 , 4 Comments)
Related review: To The Last Bullet ( 5 Comments)
Also Read: Karna's Alter Ego (Rating: 4.5/5, Visitors:24720 , 4 Comments)
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