Two of my best friends are cousins. One is 10 year elder to me and one is 10 years younger to me! The funny part is, I share my love for music, art, books, movies, thoughts and so much with both of them. The younger one shared a book with me one day and carefully described how important it is to her and how she re-reads it every now and then. I promptly told her that I treat books as priced possessions and never fold pages, and never drink coffee besides it! With this promise, she lend it to me and I laid my hands on the first book and began my journey in the Anuja Chauhan wonderland!

I started reading Anuja Chauhan with ‘Those Pricey Thakur Girls’. The book is based in Delhi in the 1980’s and revolves around the family of 5 sisters who are alphabetically named! Anuja’s writing is like a cool breeze on a hot summer day. The combination of hindi and English with easily spoken syllables makes the reading experiences so much fun! The details with which she describes the locations gives you the feeling of wandering in those lanes. The characters are so well thought of and the storyline is so captivating that is hard to let go off the book once you start reading

The sequel to The Pricy Thakur Girls was ‘The House that BJ built’. Usually sequels are known to not reach the same level as the previous one but Anuja Chauhan does not fail. It is so incredible to meet the same characters in their later years and the way each character has evolved is beautiful to read!

The third book that I binged was Baaz. Baaz is a story of a fighter pilot who hails from a small Indian town and makes his way to fly one of the most important mission of IAF at that time. (The Bangaldesh War)

Instead of describing how awesome this book was in words, let me tell you about it through an interesting thing that happened to me. Last week me and M, we were watching Top Gun Maverick. Just when the fighter planes mission ended, I asked M : Which was the movie we watched which had just the similar kinds of fighter plane sequences? We tried hard to remember and realised after a long time that it was not a movie but a book : Baaz! I was stunned to know that a book gave us a similar experience like that of a million dollar big movie production!

The Zoya Factor was the fourth book that I read. I already knew it was made into a movie (and thankfully I hadn’t seen it yet) So, I enjoyed the book even more. I am always books-before-movies person. Have I already said it ? I might have, so many times. This book is about cricket. And just like Zoya in the book, I am not a die-hard cricket fan and am always curiously puzzled when my dad, husband and brother discuss intricate details so passionately. So what? It is just a game – says Zoya ( and I could resonate) The book revolves around her getting involved with the Men in Blue and is a very entertaining read. I finished the book in 2-3 days. The night I was reading, the chapter started with the India – Pakistan Cricket match update and I HAD to know what happened, so I binged and binged and reached the semis after 2 hours 🤷🏻‍♀️ (Okay Spoiler Alert, India reaches the semis in this book!!) But to know more, I prefer you read! Anuja Chauhan’s illustrative writing will give you the illusion of watching the matches LIVE!

I have a few other books written by Anuja Chauhan in my read-list now and can’t wait to experience them. If this blog ever reaches Anuja, Ma’am I am a huge fan, thank you for creating books so valuable which take us away from our screens! Wish to read hundreds of books written by you!

What are you currently reading?