37+ Grace Marks Paperback – 1 May 2017

BOOK REVIEW OF- 37+ Grace MarksBy- Vishal Anand• Paperback: 200 pages• Publisher: Srishti Publishers & Distributors (15 May 2017)• Language: English• ISBN-10: 9382665978• ISBN-13: 978-9382665977THE PLOT IN BRIEF-What happens when you fall in love at first sight? That too in college, which is supposed to be the best time of one's life. But is it the best place to find love too?Viraj falls head over heels in love with his classmate Nimisha, who could make boys on campus go crazy. While his friends Punit and Sahil just want to have fun - despite poor mark-sheets, grace marks to pass, and other everyday adventures - Viraj wants more from his life and love.Life has led Viraj to the edge of a cliff. He has a choice to make – to forget everything and jump, or fight.What brought him here? An unrequited love, encounters with law, or the dilemma of grace marks? Where does Viraj's story eventually end?Welcome to 37 + Grace Marks, Viraj's journey to discover that there is more to life than marks.THE TITLE-Are marks everything? As you work to become a better student, remember that learning is far more important than the numbers on your transcript. I know it can be hard sometimes to remember what you're in school for. In some places, students go crazy over a tenth of a point - but this is an unhealthy and unsustainable way to manage your education. The real reason you're in school is to grow as a person and fulfil your potential. But in a country like India it is not so. Grades really cover up failure to teach. A bad instructor can go through an entire semester leaving absolutely nothing memorable in the minds of his class, curve out the scores on an irrelevant test, and leave the impression that some have learned and some have not. But if the grades are removed the class is forced to wonder each day what it’s really learning. The questions, what’s being taught? What’s the goal? How do the lectures and assignments accomplish the goal? Become ominous. The removal of grades exposes a huge and frightening vacuum.REVIEW OF THE BOOK-Education system in India is very different, where marks matters everything. From ones childhood, a kid is always forced to get an A+. Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.This plot beautifully highlights marks entangled with emotions. Especially the plot sequence of Viraj and Nimisha reflects that everybody has a home team: It’s the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens. It’s the people who, near or far, know everything that’s wrong with you and love you anyways. These are the ones who tell you their secrets, who get themselves a glass of water without asking when they’re at your house. These are the people who cry when you cry. These are your people, your middle-of-the-night, no-matter-what people.And then? What happens when you can’t cope up with this A+? Stress, anxiety, depression and finally Suicide. Sometimes you're trying so hard to get your life together and still it's not enough, everything is falling apart. What to do, you're asking. Just keep going through hell for yourself, not for everyone else. Richer with that wisdom, I will build my happiness from nothing. I will rise from the dust. And I will do it on my own. I will live for myself and I won’t look at the others. Without being push to the wall, we will have remained in our comfortable zone. But this circumstance challenges us to find the courage to move on.That was a glimpse. To read about what exactly happens to Viraj’s Life please order your book fromhttp://www.amazon.in/37-Grace-Marks-Because-Numbers/dp/9382665978?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1496022677&ref_=tmm_pap_swatch_0&sr=1-1YOU SHOULD READ THIS BECAUSE-1. THE BEAUTIFUL AMALGAMATION OF GRADES WITH EMOTIONS.2. THE FIGHTING SPIRIT DESCRIBED THROUGHOUT THE PLOT3. THE FEELING OF-Whatever happens to us, God gives grace to endure and overcome the situation.And lastly you can victory overcome every situation by faith and hope.RATINGS-Overall I would like to rate the book 45 on a scale of 50.5 stars out of 51. Originality of the plot and sub plots- 9/102. Net emotions in the story- 9/103. Usage of words and phrases-8/104. The title, cover and the illustration-10/105. The net impact on the readers- 9/10KUDOS TO Vishal- It was really a beautiful plot.ABOUT THE AUTHORVishal Anand is the author of a bestselling short story collection, Emotions Unplugged. His book has not just carved a niche in the readers’ hearts, but has also remained popular since its release.After completing his schooling from Ranchi, he received his undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering from Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering, Pune and his post-graduate degree in Business Economics from Department of Business Economics, Delhi University. Vishal works with a talent consulting partner to several domestic and international companies. Currently, he lives in Bangalore.Reviewed by-Sayan BasakKolkata

Review by Sohinee Dey—As soon as I received the book, the first thing that I noticed was its title. When my eyes hovered over it, I was in a dilemma as to what the book would be about but at the same time I found the title to be very fascinating. The author did woo me with the book title.Next, on scanning the book cover, I derived a superficial impression of the book. It had to be an young adult story. Well, I am not into young adult books much but I thought of giving it a shot because I was quite impressed with the book cover. Yes author, you scored another point there!On reading the blurb, I understood that the plot was of a college student and mostly focused on the problems and emotions that an individual of that particular age undergoes. On further assessment, I got to know that the plot was staged in an engineering college and mostly revolved around the college life, and of course with college life comes premature love and it's consequences. 35+ Grace Marks is about a boy named Viraj and his life; the high tide of emotions, friendship, love and the most important of all...scoring good marks. The blurb though precise and written in a manner highlighting the overall story and leaving out any spoilers, I believe could have been written in a better way. It was um...how to phrase it...was not quite professional and adept in delivering the overall theme of the book; too much of questioning and less enunciation on the plot.So, the book mainly focusses on late teenage problems, highlighting that life is not all about scoring good marks, which is indeed true. I would give a thumbs up to the author for bringing up such a theme and writing a book on it.As I started reading, the first chapter, 'Lets begin' acts mostly as an introductory chapter, leaving out the details yet offering a base line of the plot for the readers, the location of the plot and period or time it is based on. Also, there was the entry of the 'heroine' of the story and the rest is history!Viraj's life goes tumulting down the cliff with his new found attraction towards the college girl, Nimisha. As described, almost every boy in college and particularly in the class, had the hots for her. Viraj too fell into the same category. The only characteristics that the author allowed him to have that made him different from the rest was that he was not so vocal about his attraction towards Nimisha and kept that piece of discovery to himself.The sub-plot mainly revolves around Viraj's friendship and the unrequited love. With the company of his friends, he starts getting himself into trouble, starting for being chased by police officers to ending up in jail. Also, it is shown that he has a hard time keeping up with studies with his growing attraction towards Nimisha followed by endless sleepless nights. Viraj is shown to be an average student while his friend Punit was better in studies and well Sahil, the third member of their group depended on the microxerox version of the answers! Yes, the sub-plot is cliché but with narration and the style of writing, the author kept up with it and gave a depth and was able to create a new dimension in the story.I found the book to be a good read though I was a tad bit hesitant at first. But as the story unfolded, I found that my interest in turning the pages was increasing with each chapter. I would say that it was quite gripping. The language was very easy to understand and lucid. It didn't have tough looking words that would make you run to your dictionary! Though the language is easy, it's not at all amateurish. The flow is quite good and the chapter connectivity was proper. The pace was appropriate; neither hurried not too slow.The narration was in first person and was maintained throughout​ the book. The tense used by the author is past tense but I found some fluctuations between past and present tense. Grammar and punctuations were proper and I didn't find any typos which is of course a good thing for Grammar Nazis like me!Author, Vishal Anand had approached the plot in a very friendly manner and the same is evident in his style of writing. The flow was really good and wasn't frigid at all. The dialogue play was very lively and expressive but some of the adjectives used to depict a scene or describe a character or a personality that the character exhibited could have been skipped or could have been replaced with well-fitted adjectives, like the use of the word 'white' to describe Nimisha's skin colour could have been replaced with other well-suited word. There were certain plot holes in the book that could have been avoided with better editing or with better development in ideas. Other than that I enjoyed my time reading this book. I loved the ending; it was a complete end to the story leaving no questions in my mind.My final verdict—This book is definitely worthy of a reader's attention. Though there were certain plot holes and didn't really address on the theme directly, the narration makes it a good read. I would say this once again, it was not one of my best reads but it was definitely not one of my worst. Overall it is a very light read and the tell-tale sign of humour adds a refreshing touch to the storyline. One thing is for sure that once you start reading it, you'll be engrossed into the book completely and would resist leaving it unfinished! But once you have read it, you might not be compelled to give it another read. So, if you are looking for a book that you can re-read again and again without getting bored, look elsewhere because this one might not fall into that category.I would recommend this book to all. Yes, everyone can read it, especially young adults and people who are looking for books that deals with college life and the problems one faces during that course of time. Teenagers out there, give this is a read!My ratings:Book title: 5/5 (It couldn't have been any better and most importantly it wad relatable to the storyline)Book cover: 5/5Blurb: 3.5/5Theme: 4/5Plot: 3.5/5Sub-Plot: 3.5/5Language and Vocabulary: 3.5/5 (could have been a bit better)Narration: 4/5Grammar and Punctuation: 5/5Characters: 4/5Style of Writing: 4.5/5Overall, I'll give this book 4 stars out of 5.