Title:
- Six Degrees by Blogadda
Publisher:
-Leadstart Publishing and BlogAdda.Com
Publication
Year: - 2015
ISBN:- 9352013891 (ISBN13: 9789352013890)
Number
of pages: - 422
BlogAdda, is
a platform for bloggers to connect with each other, showcase their blogs
and participate in interesting activities. The Adda has given writers various
avenues to introduce their blogs to a large audience and interact with their
readers.
Six
Degrees is a product of the first collaborative blogging effort in India. It is
a novel that is co-authored by many bloggers who are winners of the #CelebrateBlogging initiative
by BlogAdda [that ran the first edition of Game Of Blogs in September 2014].
The objective was to write a fictional story revolving around five characters. Bloggers
from across India came together as teams and after three rounds filled with
it’s own set of twists & turns, three stories were adjudged winners by
coveted panel of judges.
Each
member had to write a blog page everyday and it all had to then come together
in the form of a cohesive story. All the teams came up with their own distinct
stories and writing styles and out of those thirty teams, the top three teams
were selected for this book. Hence this book is the labour of love for writing
of not one or two but 30 bloggers!
Hence,
Six Degrees is not an ordinary effort but the result of “Collaboration +
Creativity.” The most fascinating thing about this book is that
– Five characters are same and have the same characteristics in three
stories narrated in the book.
The
title isn’t clear at first glance and after reading I found that it relates to
the six degrees of separation between the characters, stories and the
storytellers. The cover is covered with a crowd of various types of smiley
faces.
'Six
degrees of separation is the theory that
everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction,
from any other person in the world.'
As
mentioned earlier, the book has three different stories with five characters
(that remain same across stories). All the stories are set in Mumbai &
Delhi. What we particularly liked about the book is that the language used in
the stories is simple and authors (three teams of bloggers across India)
have made a great effort to make the stories more engaging and keeping the
readers hooked.
The Lead characters around
which stories have been plotted are below:
Shekhar
Dutta – A freelance writer and also a stay at home father
Tara
Dutta – Wife of Shekhar and also a Media Professional
Roohi
Duta – Their nine year old daughter. All the three stay as a close-knit family
in Mumbai
Jennifer
Joseph – Kochi based photographer
Cyrus
Daruwala – Law student staying in Delhi
Three
Stories that have been written by three different teams are below:
The Awakening
The
Awakening is about Tara Dutta, Shekhar Dutta and their nine year old
daughter Roohi. They are a close knit family who stay in Mumbai. It is a
science fiction story with interesting twists and turns. They are leading a
normal life until the arrival of a surprise guest – Jennifer, after which their
lives become topsy-turvy. Every day, there are new revelations and incidents
that threaten to tear the happy family apart.
Just
like a Hollywood sci-fi flick, you can visualize the scenes and the good part
about the story is that the scenes change at a very rapid pace. This keeps the
readers glued to the story. The graphical representations of the aliens and the
powers they possess adds more Masala to the entire story.
I liked
the graphic descriptions of the aliens and their super powers and the story
stays sharp till the end.
Would
the ‘Once upon a time- Happy Family’ succeed to find out who are the strangers
that have entered their lives ? What is the secret that holds the key to their
happiness ? Would they be able to defeat the super-powers and save our earth ?
These are the answers that lie in ‘The Awakening’, read it to believe it.
Entangled Lives
In
Entangled Lives, a small seemingly happy family is thrown into turmoil with the
arrival of strangers in the house. Tara and Shekhar Dutta have similar job
profiles. Cyrus is an illegitimate child of Shekhar Dutta. She studies Law.
Jennifer Joseph is an over-ambitious wild-life photographer. It is an intriguing
story about an out of work writer, a power-hungry media head, a wild life
photographer, 9 year old child and MURDER. The mystery that needs to be solved
is who has murdered the maid of the Dutta household.
There
is no direct evidence to link the murder to the crime though there is an
eye-witness that will help in solving the mystery. For me, it was an edge of
the seat thriller and a complete page-turner. Just like a Bollywood flick, this
story has all the ingredients to make a great story – Relationships, Lies,
Secrets, Betrayal and Revenge. We won’t be surprised if some Bollywood Director
expresses interest in making a feature film on this story!
Missing – A Journey Within
As the
title rightly suggests, this story is about a Missing person. Roohi, daughter of
Shekhar Dutta goes missing from school. Roohi was accidentally clicked by
Jennifer [photographer] when she was clicking pictures to complete her
assignments. She recognizes Roohi since her parents have circulated her
pictures on Social Media. So, who was Roohi last seen with?
Missing
traces the journey of love, hope, care and affection right into hatred, ego,
prejudice and negativity. It beautifully etches the pain that a family has to
go through since there is a fear of losing Roohi forever. Just when hope to
find Roohi starts to dwindle, journey takes a fascinating turn.
Would
the family manage to find Roohi or they would loose her forever, Missing holds
all the answers.
Overall Verdict: The
USP of this book is the fact that the characters, their nature, the physical
appearance and basically every other factors used for character development has
already been defined and the teams had to think of stories around them. Usually
it is the plot that defines the characters but it was a very unique experience
to read how one set of character can be visualised in so many different plots
and scenarios. “Wouldn’t too many cooks spoil the broth?” - I was worried that
being a team campaign, there might be inconsistencies in the writing style but
I have no such complains after reading the book. Written by a plethora of
bloggers, with well knit stories - this book is a pageturner! All three stories
are totally different from each other, but the characters and situations are
believable which make them easy to connect to our lives. This book is a labour
of love for writing. If you like to read about different perspectives in life,
love drama, suspense; than Six Degrees is the book for you!
Rating: 4/5
