Book Review Title of the Book: Memories of my Father Author's Name: Jayanthi K. Manikandan Available on: Blogchatter Website Format: E book
About the Author: Jayanthi K. Manikandan is a tech blogger who blogs at blogtechonline . She is an engineer who took up writing as her passion and turned it into her career meticulously. Her attempt to simplify technological jargons and make it user friendly has been very well appreciated by her readers. She is a proud mom, a dutiful wife and above all a very loved daughter!
Narration: The narration is very simple and it is like a straight from the heart narrative . A
Book Cover & Title:The title is self explanatory and the book cover is beautiful. It has a delicate feel to it and potrays the tribute of the author in her heartfelt words.
Content: This book is more like a personal anecdote where the author has gone back in time and remembered the tiniest details of a father and a daughter. This book takes you on a time journey where as if the author has turned as the tour guide and helps the reader see the little moments that she had shared with her father and how it has shaped her become what she is today.
Losing a parent is like losing a part of your own self and the grief is that of a life time. We all know this fact and understand that one day or the other, such a situation arises when suddenly in a moment , everything feels meaningless. And how many of such events have been captured in a book format ? Very minuscule. Because it needs immense courage to pen down the emotions one has with a parent especially when they are no more with us.But, Jayanthi has been brave enough to capture all those sentiments and I personally applaud this act of hers .
In the book Jayanthi has catelouged every detail about his life and has infact captured his life journey from a daughter’s perspective. Her father whom she fondly used to address as Appa, was a self made man , who despite having zero expertise in technology wanted his daughters to have the best education in the field of science & technology especially computer science. A picture of a personal diary of him, writing down about the entrance exams of his daughters made an impact on me, which showed the kind of vision that he had to give his daughters the best education possible!
He was surely a man of foresightedness who thought ahead of his time and every daughter can relate to the sentence when the author says that at one point, she wanted to marry her father! This book is a very relatable book because of its simplicity , personal narrations and detailed description of life events of a common Indian family.This book showcases the very fact how fathers who genuinely love their daughters, help establish a future generation equipped to tackle life in a better way and live on even after they are gone !
The only complain that I have is the use of emojis and exclamation marks by the author. Giving it a more professional look can actually increase the aesthetic value of this great personal memoir.
I wish the author best of luck in all her future endeavours.
Download the book here.
Interview with the Author :
Q- Please introduce yourself
I am Jayanthi Manikandan, wife, mother, daughter, engineer, programmer and now a technical and personal blogger and author (I know – that is a long introduction! )
Q-How would you describe your recent book to your readers?
My latest book ‘Memories of my father’ is about my father who passed away in October of 2020. I had written a lot of sad details about his passing away in the immediate year he passed away and I thought this time, I will write about the wonderful ways in which he brought us, daughters, up!
Q-How did writing happen and how has it helped you?
My writing did happen accidentally – I am the case of an accidental writer! I was on the lookout for suitable job openings in the Java or Information security field about 10 years ago. I had two small children and stepping out of the house for long hours was ruled out.
One person did call me and asked to create e-learning modules for Java certifications, and it was a work-from-home opportunity. I was not even aware that writing was a career then! The kind person put his trust in me as I created my Java modules. The rest as they say is history and I have evolved in my writings over the years.
Though I was a purely technical writer initially, I did start writing my personal stories as well! My US experiences became a physical book and many other books followed as well. While my technical posts help me to master my technical concepts, my personal posts have been highly therapeutic.
Q- Technology & women, even today are not normalized and people find it hard to accept. What is your take on it?
This is so true…either woman shy away from technology or parents do not inculcate enough love for technology in young girls. I think there is just not enough encouragement given to women at any stage to embrace it which must change. Plus, technology is not hard if we get the hang of it.
I was taught to embrace technology by my father from a very young age, and I have never shied away from teaching the same to my daughter as well (btw, she is a tech brat and knows more about Instagram than me! )
Ultimately, it is the society that must help women cross the technology bridge rather than push it under the carpet.
Q-Please tell us about your previous books and where can our readers find them?
These are some of the books that I have authored (Please click on the name of the books if you wish to purchase them):
Q.Blogging or authoring a book? Which one would you choose & why?
This is actually a very good question and I have thought of this question for a long time as well. Interestingly, I think I like to blog slightly more than authoring a book (which is not to say, I despise it entirely )
But authoring a book demands more concentration and more content. The flow must be excellent throughout the 200 or 300 pages for which it is written. I think it is very hard to keep the reader hooked for the entire stretch of the book as it is very easy for the reader to keep the book down.
Blogging, on the other hand, is more concise and I feel I have the content more in my control. I think I can keep the reader glued to the post better as well. It is wonderful to explain the concepts in the technical post or pour my heart out in a personal post on my blog!
Q-Who do you consider your role model in the field of writing?
I have admired a lot of people weaving magic with their words. I think it would be unwise for me to pick one person as my role model since the pen seems to be flowing beautifully for so many people!
My Twitter blogger friends, ex-Simplilearn writers, my college mates from the US – I have admired them all!
Q-You have mentioned about favorite books of your father? Share some of your memories about how your father taught you the importance of books in your life.
My father is the person who introduced me to the world of books. Be it magazines or novels, we have preserved all his books even today. My father had only a simple strategy to make us read books. He will just buy a lot of books and keep them on the table quietly. It was up to us, to pick the books up and read!
Of course, there were times, when he used to insist on us read certain books but for the most part, the quiet treatment worked decently well!
Q-Who is your favorite authors and which genre do you enjoy the most.
As you know, I am mostly a technical blogger and author and I really like all these techy and geeky books! CISSP by Shon Harris was hands down – my all-time favorite book for a long time (Of course, newer editions of the CISSP came up and I was still referring back to her book!) Now, I seem to be gravitating to the world of privacy and enjoy reading all about the privacy rules and regulations around the world.
On the non-technical side, I enjoy all the Sudha Murthy stories and all ACKs!
Q-Anything else you want to share with us, please feel free to do so.
Do read my books and motivate me to write more!
P.S. This review is a part of Blogchatter Ebook Carnival.
Love,
Chinmayee
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