Book Review - Lost Edges by Salini Vineeth

Disclaimer: There may be a few spoilers and if you would like to read the book without being influenced by the review, please come back here after reading the book.

As reviews started coming in about the book, touching upon mental health and its importance, I decided to order the book. I placed the amazon order on 28 May 2023 and the book was due to be delivered on 30 May 2023. While I was eagerly awaiting to receive my book, Life had a different plan for me though. On 29 May 2023, I was injured in a freak road accident, admitted in the hospital for compound fracture in my right tibia & fibula which resulted in a surgery and put a long road of recovery. The book arrived on 30 May 2023 and my family brought it to the hospital the next day.

I started reading the book during my hospital stay. It helped me navigate through my own emotional journey during my recovery as I was reading about the life journeys of Geetanjali & Ravi. 

The very first chapter caught my attention specifically because of the aspect of how well it dwelled on the internal conundrum of Ravi in the waiting room of a mental health professional and the myriad of irrational thoughts that keep popping in his consciousness asserting the Tamil idiom “மனம் ஒரு குரங்கு” (Manam oru Kurangu - meaning our mind is a monkey – or more elaborately, our mind jumps around like a monkey with no rhyme or reason). As his mind jumps around, we also a get a glimpse of Geetu (Geetanjali) from his perspective. As the story progresses, it was a pleasure reading the inferences of events from both Ravi & Geetanjali’s perspectives. This is the reality of life. Every incident has multiple perspectives. These perspectives are from the biased views of the specific individuals who view them through their biased lenses that are a result of their lived experiences from childhood that shape their values systems and learning as a result of navigating situations & circumstances.

Amit, the friend who is the first point of contact for Geetanjali to seek out for professional relationship counselling, does justice to both his personal and professional relationship, by making sure that he just serves as a first point of contact guiding them towards the appropriate support systems either of them need and not letting the conflict of interest of the personal relationship cloud over the professional services that he could be providing. The hand off has been dealt very well.

The research for the book for addressing the sensitive topic of mental health care, childhood trauma and its long-lasting impact including the shaping of one’s persona, importance of therapy, the Indian context of the associated taboo & inhibition is evident in the way the plot unfolds. Both the lead characters have their fair share of childhood trauma and experiences that have been instrumental in shaping their coping mechanisms, which travels with them well into adulthood. 

Though Arnav as a character is very short lived in the plot, he still managed to make a place in my mind as I saw him to be an individual with a deeper character who could be largely misunderstood by most, as he does not care to fit into the societal mould of expectations. He is his own master and slave to none. 

I loved how the story ventured into the different relationships & their quality, that each of the lead roles have in their life – parental, sibling, and friends. And in doing so, the plot touches upon the way they perceive every challenge that life throws at them. Without mentioning the technical terms, the plot touches upon temperament, lived experiences, resilience, trauma, PTSD, self-medication (and its harm), and more. 

Kudos to the author, Salini Vineeth, for being verbal about the need for regular follow ups for prescribed medication and its adjustment for better mental health. She also highlights the need for the psychiatric treatment and therapeutic intervention to go hand in hand and overlap with each other for the intervention to be effective for the individual seeking these services and support. 

As a person who has been passionate about human behaviour and its drivers, I have consciously pursued to qualify myself to understand this from a holistic perspective in both educational context as well as in reading up about current research including interdisciplinary research in biology, sociology, & psychology that shed light on the interplay of these fields in driving human behaviour. From this position, I would say the Salini Vineeth has done a fabulous job of bringing the interplay of emotions, relationships, and environment on an individual’s behaviour shaping beautifully. The importance of appropriate support systems and the complexity of its availability in the Indian context is also well highlighted. 

I would recommend that this book be read by mental health professionals too for them to understand the client’s world with its multiple layers and their complex interplay on the client’s cognition, behaviour, and everyday choices. This will enrich the therapeutic intervention for the client, as it will be an approach that is holistic. It might also motivate the therapist/professional to explore & understand areas outside their specific area of expertise, thereby making eclectic intervention a norm in therapeutic strategy! 

Salini Vineeth – also an alumnus like me from BITS, Pilani, has also authored other books: 

1. Everyday People: Tales of People you know, a collection of short stories. This was the first book that I read. What pulled me to read this was her Tiny Tales. I have been a fan of her writing long before this book because of Tiny Tales. She has a way with words in expressing the layers in the fabric of human emotions and interaction.
2. Magic Square, a novella. This is on my TBR (To Be Read) list.
3. Travel Guides for Hampi and Badami.

In addition to the above self-published books, she has also been part of a few anthologies. Her stories have also been published in various magazines. You can find the links to these on her website.

This post is also part of Blogchatter’s #TBRChallenge 2023. This blog is also part of #CauseAChatter challenge, as this book focuses on individual mental health and its long standing impact on relationships through its various characters. 

This is not a sponsored review.

Book Review - BITS and pieces by Harshita Nanda

Setting the context (or should I say disclaimer) before I delve deep into this book review – I am a BITSian too, Harshita & Girija’s batchmate, have been their ‘wingie’ during my 5 years (a dualite) in BITS, Pilani. So as Girija mentions in the foreword ‘It was a pleasure illustrating her BITS and bits of my BITS through this wonderful book’, my book review might be a place where I share my BITS as I review Harshita Nanda’s BITS. So, if you feel my review is biased, you now know why!

By the way, if you are wondering what wingie means, you can read all about it in Chapter 23 of the book BITS and pieces : A Collage of My BITSian Memories 😊. 

Incidentally this is the first book that I got issued from the Blogchatter’s Book Review programme. 

I always read any book from the foreword to the glossary, and I was pleasantly surprised to find my name in the acknowledgment section of the book, and I was jumping up and down in joy because that made me feel it was like old times again, journeying together – took me back to our BSL days from when we were together in BITS. And the mention of BSL in Chapter 2 of the book took me on a trip down my memory lane which included the streets of Triplicane, Chennai (India), where one could scout for used books at heavily discounted price (better your bargaining power, the better is the deal). This was my go-to place for filling the racks of BSL with choice of books that I wanted to read and stock-up for my fellow BITSians. I am sure by now you are itching to know what BSL expands to😊, you can buy your copy of BITS and pieces and jump to Chapter 2.

As her narration continued from one chapter to another, my personal memories of BITS were also playing out in my mind and I vividly remember getting ready for the Fresher’s welcome in a Black & Grey silk saree (my Mom’s), as an invitee of Bharath (my now spouse) to his hostel (Ram Bhavan) day and then the memory is fuzzy. I don’t remember if I went and got back or as I came to the open space near the entrance of MB we were told that the fresher’s welcome was cancelled. Now you are wondering what MB means… I know 😊… There are two expansions for MB with a slight differentiation and both these expansions are part of the Chapter 13.

When I was reading the book, I noted down a lot of points and pages as references on which I wanted to talk about. Seeing how just talking about a couple of memories, has made my book review verbose, I am just going to add one more part of the book that was a pleasant surprise… It is a mention of me again in the Chapter 20, when she was talking about our cherished train journey on Tamil Nadu Express. While I knew I had relatives meet me at a couple of stations in between Madras (now Chennai) and Delhi, I completely zoned out on the home food that got delivered to me. This was a welcome aspect especially on our journey back home from Delhi as we would be dependent on the food from the pantry car or the snacks, we picked up on specific stations like Itarsi for bread omelette, Nagpur for the oranges (especially during the season) and Vijayawada for its Aam paapad.

 

A review of this amazing book, about BITS & its personal vocabulary which is weaved into our personalised memories for every BITSian, would be incomplete if I do not mention a few more things:

• Blue Moon's Fried Maggi is an emotion that connects generations of BITSians. (Chapter 3)
• Saraswati Mandir on the campus was my go-to place when I needed to centre myself. The inner sanctum and the lawns outside on either side of the temple were my favourite spots to achieve inner peace. The eyes of the goddess Saraswathi seemed to emanate compassion and love that felt like the fuzzy safe hug of a mother. (Chapter 19)
• OASIS - Annual BITS Cultural Fest - meant 5 days of staying outside the hostel without worrying about the curfew at girls’ hostel. Of course, the current generation would not know what that curfew meant as it has been removed. (Chapter 15)

I have just one disappointment as I was reading Chapter 15, which is, the club that I was part of when I was a student at BITS, Creative Activities Club (CrAC), which now has grown to the size of a department did not find a mention when Harshita was listing the various clubs & departments that functioned efficiently during the cultural fest of OASIS. Of course, we all were busy and engaged with our own personal groups and clubs that missing to name a couple of them is bound to happen. Yet, having donned the role of Joint. Sec and Secretary of this club for 2 consecutive terms, my attachment to this club made me feel sad when I did not find it in the list. We had various creative competitions in the Sky Lawns & Pappu’s chai was our staple drink during our college fests. 

Having talked so much about the book, my personal BITSian memory, I do not want to leave out speaking about the illustrations. I have loved Girija’s artwork from my BITSian days and actively follow her art journey on 2Flatbrush. My most favourite illustration in this book is for the Chapter 4, the letter D and of course the cover design. The common reason for liking these two is the Clock Tower, the iconic symbol of BITS, Pilani. The letter D also had the main entrance gate of our campus and the two convocation caps to indicate the unique dual degree programme, of which I am one of the beneficiaries.

BITS has been a significant piece of our lives to make a huge impact in the way we think, act, and speak. Our way of looking at problems were always as challenges that we would work to overcome, and this is what has helped many BITSians navigate change without too much of a resistance or hassle. We are ever ready to take on any challenge life has for us with a fighting attitude, and we almost always overcome the challenge with grace and success.

I mean, I would love to go on, but then this would not remain a book review of BITS & pieces then and turn into a memoire of my memories from my BITSian days. Every chapter I read, brought back memories that were personal to me, some that were overlapping with Harshita’s narration. Harshita’s narrative style captures the essence & spirit of the Pilani Campus of BITS, which is now an Institute of Eminence. 

For every BITSian alumni, this book & its narrative style would surely bring back memories and associated emotions in their fullest glory. For the current BITSian students, especially in Pilani campus, this book will serve as a comparison point to explore areas within the campus to see what has changed from the late 90s to current day. For future aspiring BITSians, I think this book will serve as a motivation to want to get to experience the magic of BITS that every BITSian will proudly vouch to and get a sneak-peek into the much talked about exclusive BITSian vocabulary. The illustrations are a true representation of everything that the words in the book talk about and close to the reality of what it used to be on campus in the late 90s and early 2Ks. You can buy this book of her’s, BITS and pieces, on Amazon. 

Harshita Nanda has also authored another book, Xanadu, which is also a title available on Amazon. Her work is also one of the featured works in the COVID-19 Anthology titled Life During COVID-19 by Antara Pandit. As a bibliophile she also shares a lot of book reviews on her personal blog, which you could use to update your To be Read list, if you have one!

I am participating in Blogchatter’s #TBRChallenge 2023. This post is part of that as well, in line with this month’s theme “My collection of books” and Blogchatter's #BookReview programme.

A Potpourri of Drabble by Harshita Nanda

I was hearing the word Drabble for the first time. I am a fan of the way Harshita spins her stories, full of emotions, twists and turns, and social messages. It was a no brainer that this would be on my reading list. I had the time of my life reading through the 100 drabbles that are part of her book aptly named A Potpourri of Drabble. 

This collection of drabble brings with it a potpourri of stories filled with social message, highlighting the social conundrum, hypocrisy, irony, manipulation, love in all its form and more. In 100 words she spins a beautiful picture not just about the characters, but also their background, emotions, the event that is unfolding and, in some cases, even the back story. While the stories themselves are complete, it also leaves you wanting to read more about the incidents of the characters who appear in the drabble. 

Cover page of A Potpourri of Drabble by Harshita Nanda

The story titled Kitchen was most gut wrenching and highlights one of the most sinister issues in many homes, yet the least discussed societal evil. While awareness is quite high about what constitutes domestic violence many do not understand how to deal with the issue when it unfolds right up close to them – in their neighbourhood, friends’ homes, within family relations or even inside one’s own home. Understanding the various layers and kinds of domestic abuse/violence and knowing how to address them for self and others is a high time necessity. With just 100 words, Harshita not only spun the story, she also was able to express the trauma that Sheela endured due this societal evil. 

The closest to my heart is The Hidden Power. It highlights the power of Humanity above all. If that is alive, then there is a meaning to our lives on this planet. 

The Red Nail Polish was another one of my favourites, that brought out the importance of guilt free self-indulgence and the humaneness of inclusivity in extending the same courtesy to those who make our lives easier every day. 

The Messy Room brought out the ugly facet of our lives that differentiates based on social status. It was soul stirring to read this reality that is still very much existent even in today’s times. 

In Malini from Who Is Saner?, I saw a bit of myself. To know what I mean, do read this story and then my blog on My Volunteering Journey.

I just could not help but smile when I read A Bowl Full of Gulab Jamuns, remembering my younger days when I used to feel similar urge when I saw a Boondhi Laddoo. Now I would like to think I have a little more control or at least learnt to regulate that urge.

The last few stories that were inspired from the happenings of the 2 years of pandemic life were hard to ignore. The most soul ripping one was Time was Running out. How many families went through similar realities during those two years of lockdown lifestyle enduring hardships that we never thought could be possible. Many lives lost, affected, and damaged beyond repair. A time when many of us felt trapped and stifled inside our homes yet itched to do something to lessen these traumatic experiences of complete strangers, through our network, writing, or any other means. Glimpses of humanitarian efforts gave us hope that the fire of humanity is still burning.

Do download Harshita Nanda's A Potpourri of Drabble, published as part of the Blogchatter's Ebook carnival at - https://www.theblogchatter.com/download/a-potpourri-of-drabble-by-harshita-nanda and give it a read. You might find your own favourites and relate to a few stories as your own too. 

You can also download my book - Free Rein to Thoughts – a collection of quotes & shorts highlighting the colours and patterns of life at - https://www.theblogchatter.com/download/free-rein-to-thoughts-by-aarthi-prabhakaran

This blog is part of the #BlogchatterEbook carnival & #TBRChallenge

Memories of my Father by Jayanthi K Manikandan

The bond of a father daughter bond is such a beautiful bond of understanding, protection, hero worship and more, that we all have heard, read, and seen in multiple movies in almost every language. This is a universal affection and bond that brings a warm feeling within us that almost always results in a spontaneous 'Awwwww' from our mouths. If our father was close by, then an unconscious hug, or at least a physical touch is inevitable in those instances. 

Jayanthi K Manikandan’s Memories of my Father is a loving memoire that gives us glimpses of this beautiful bonding between a father and daughter (in addition to insights about her father itself), during her growing up years, as well as her adulthood, the various phases that this relationship goes through and the myriad of changes that happen as the child grows and starts having a mind of her own.

Cover Page of Memories of my Father by Jayanthi K Manikandan

As I was reading through the memoire, I saw a lot of similarities in the life of the author and mine that I could relate to, specifically with respect to the changes that come due to the father’s job, the family structure, and the culture in which she and her father have grown up and more. Through every chapter about her father, I was able to see the admiration that the little girl had for her father, the hero worship that is such a normal part of a girl child's image about her father. Girls are blamed for expecting their father (a version of him at least) in their spouses. This is true to a large extent because they feel well protected and cared for within the loving embrace of their father. This protective shield of care, pride, and trust in them and their abilities is what women seek in their life partner, but many a times are left earning for it. 

I was thrilled to read the name of the place called Virudhunagar, a place that is as much a part of me as Chennai, Lalapet, Lyon, Groton, Harrow, and Alexandria are. Virudhunagar is a small town to the south of Madurai. Though a business town, not many people are even aware of its existence. 

As the chapters move on, I saw the happenings that was common in almost every home, in the state of Tamilnadu. Culturally, the entire state wasn’t so different in what each family wanted for their children and their wellbeing, and how they implemented and executed these visions and ambitions by supporting, guiding, nudging, and paving the way for their children. 

In Jayanthi, I saw every child who had multiple dreams during their growing up phase that came nothing close to the path they chose for themselves (or in many cases their families chose on their behalf) with respect to their studies and career. I saw bits and pieces of my grandfather, my father, father-in-law, and every other father figure I have seen while growing up, in the various habits, incidents and events that Jayanthi narrates. 

Reading the Memories of my Father was mixed bag feeling for me, especially considering the formal relationship that I had with my late father.  

One small thing that bothered me while reading the book for the formatting of text, which probably is an occupational hazard as a documentalist & facilitator, writing and reviewing multiple documents and presentations as part of my job role. In many sections I found myself automatically trying to place the cursor and remove the additional line spacing or the indent that was a bit out of place. 

You can download Jayanthi K Manikandan's Memories of my Father, published as part of the Blogchatter's Ebook carnival at - https://www.theblogchatter.com/download/memories-of-my-father-by-jayanthi-manikandan

My book - Free Rein to Thoughts - is also part of this Ebook carnival. 

This blog is part of the #BlogchatterEbook carnival & #TBRChallenge

Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats by Tomichan Matheikal

The title of the book and the cover page were what intrigued me a lot to start reading the book of short stories. Humpty dumpty is a nursery rhyme character that I always felt bad for, as a child. Even today, when I hear (or see) the rhyme, it makes me wonder why the illustration of Humpty Dumpty was egg like? This visual representation painted by the rhyme gives a very gory image of the person – Humpty Dumpty - as the progresses. The phrase 10 Hats… though Humpty Dumpty also wore a hat in the illustrations, this brought the image of the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit, from Alice in Wonderland – probably the result of the cover image where a woman is walking towards a grand archway that looked like a gateway into another world…. Rightly so. 

Cover page of Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats by Tomichan Matheikal

The 10 short stories transported me into a different world than my home, through its narration. It elicited a rainbow of emotions, feelings of fear, smile, laughter, awe, affection, love and more. While this was for the words that one reads, each story has layers to them highlighting the societal hypocrisy, duality, reality in each of the events that unfold. The people in the short stories feel like they were one among us, our family, friends, neighbours, conmen, godmen, and leaders whom we might know, and probably also met in our real life, who think like us, and sometimes we might probably also see a reflection of ourselves in one or more of the characters from these stories. Some we might accept while some we might be against. It was pleasure to read names that I have been used to hearing from my everyday life, experience the beauty (and eeriness of) locations that I have visited with family and friends during my school excursions and family vacations, all over again.

My favourite story from the 10 short stories was Phantoms on a Desert. I loved the way in which it brought out the uncanny similarities of emotions, needs, and behaviours of two people who were poles apart even with respect to their gender (among other things), which highlights the stark reality of life, that underneath all those layers of exhibitionism, barriers & boundaries, wants & needs, likes & dislike, at our core, we all are one and the same, especially when we are at the safety and security needs level in Maslow’s theory of hierarchy. The other reason why I loved this short story was the coinage of the words Musanghies & Kirshangies. This is the first time I am hearing these words and the explanation for them had me in splits, pulling me completely out of the fear/horror that I was still experiencing after reading the first two stories (just before retiring for the night). 

After a long while, I was motivated to read through a book, without wanting to break away from it for any reason. It was an absolute pleasure to read the narrative style of the fiction stories that brought out political, societal, and communal lack of standards, the mind and it’s complex working, the beautiful shades of people that we come across in our everyday life – good, bad, ugly and the myriad of other variations across these three. 

I would surely go back to these short stories more than once, and maybe it might also become a bedtime read that I would read with my children too whenever that happens (now that they are older and overlap time for bedtime reads have considerably reduced).

This e-book, Humpty Dumpty's 10 Hats, has been published as part of the #BlogchatterEbook carnival 2022 and can be downloaded at - https://www.theblogchatter.com/download/humpty-dumptys-10-hats-by-tomichan-matheikal 

My book - Free Rein to Thoughts - is also part of this Ebook carnival. 

This blog is part of the #BlogchatterEbook carnival & #TBRChallenge

The Radiance of a Thousand Suns - Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

A one-liner before I delve deep into this book – I agree with what Gulzar sir has given as a caption for the book ‘Has the radiance of Blood and the Sun’. 

I won this book for posting a comment on an Author live session on Blogchatter – #BlogchatterWritFest – in March 2021. 

While I have read many storylines with a woman as the protagonist (starting with Nancy Drew & Alice in Wonderland, during my school days), this book was completely different to read and connect emotionally as well. In fact, the narrative of the entire masterpiece was so well interwoven from the point of view of different women who had different lived experiences and strong in their own sense of being, to bring about change in the societal narratives, in their own ways. 

I was floored by the author’s take on Violence and Silence in that order while bringing out women-centric narratives on the 1947 partition of India and the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots. Violence always leaves a deep gash not just physically, but also emotionally, that takes probably generations to even become a scar. Healing would take forever, as the grief that violence leaves behind is just too heavy to process and handle any faster. 

In a conversation between a grandmother and a granddaughter (who lost her mother at birth – a story of gross negligence due to misplaced priorities – read the book to know more on this), the grandmother, Biji, talks about a metaphor of all women invisibly pregnant, carrying inside them millions of stories to tell, yet silent and hence yet to deliver. This metaphor was just mind-blowing and so well relatable, especially as chapters unfolded and story after story showed why women chose to remain invisibly pregnant. Even today many of us choose this path for the exact same reasons. Wish it were not so. Reading this book strengthened my resolve to use my voice and writing to break that vicious cycle of pregnant silence and bring out narratives from the point of view of a woman if not for the world, at least to my circle of influence and create a shift in the way things have been traditionally valued and acted upon, some of which are so outdated and devoid of logic. 

The entire book speaks volumes on various coping mechanisms that women have traditionally practiced dealing with violence, trauma, idiocy, and more, of this patriarchally structured society, including memory holes that are so relevant even during the #metoo movement where the trauma of rape, sexual abuse (especially Child Sexual Abuse – CSA) and harassment follows this pattern of a non-event because the society wants to erase the unpleasantness of such occurrences. By making them non-events and not recording them in the narrative of history/news, we, as a society, tend to forget the event completely, a few days (probably months) after its occurrence. This gives rise to invisible people – the unperson – those who were silent sufferers of the traumatic actions meted out by perpetrators (whether it is war or abuse) - one such story is that of Jyot a survivor of both these traumatic incidents. 

I could never relate to the heroic narratives of 1947 and 1984 as part of recorded history, without feeling the pain, suffering, and the feeling of emptiness when the question invariably popped ‘What was the point of all these?’. This book brings to light why I kept feeling that emptiness and why that question kept popping. Despite not being close to the places where these two historic traumatic events happened, it still has a wrenching effect in my gut. I can only imagine how much it must have hurt those who were strongly associated with these events in any form. 

The first few chapters that dealt with the 1947 partition narratives/perspectives, from the point of view of women and girl children were overwhelmingly traumatic to read without breaks. Yet they were descriptive enough for anyone who reads it to see what a woman/girl saw from her point of view. 

This book needs to be read by everyone to understand a woman’s point of view of how it is to be considered as an invisible being or as an object of possession every time a man wanted to prove his superiority! It also would serve well to be reminded that in doing so there is no manliness that is depicted, but only the childish aggression of patriarchy is exhibited, showing how immature the entire concept itself is. Women always bounce back to move on with life irrespective of the bad cards they might be dealt, not by life itself, but by the idiocrasy exhibited in name of patriarchy, religion, caste, gender, race, and more! This proves their high emotional intelligence – either developed by force of situational demands or by design and their ability to heal themselves and the world around them every single time, till it becomes too much for them to bear (the inter-generational trauma - which also is beautifully depicted through the book).

The radiance of the narrative by author Manreet Sodhi Someshwar is blindingly bright to go through all filtered glasses worn. 

This post is part of Blogchatter's #CauseAChatter - #GenderTalks

Amazonia (Novel) vs. Avatar (Movie)

Having read most of the fiction novels in "Medical Thrillers / Scientific Adventures" category, by Robin Cook / Michael Crichton, I decided to try different authors this time. Last week, I did a random search in our Groton Public Library, and picked up this book - Amazonia by James Rollins. When I browse 'Editorial Reviews' of novels, I look for Amazonian Jungles, Egyptian Pyramids and other Ancient Myths, Mutations / Genetic Engineering and Aliens :-) This book seemed to have some of these "feelers" and so I got it issued. Having completed this 420-page novel in less than a week (usually, I take 3-4 weeks) is a testimony that I enjoyed reading it. Yes - It did meet my expectations with all elements of Amazon - Native Indian Tribes, Anacondas, Swamps, giant Caimans & a good dose of Scientific unknowns - Mutated Creatures, Pre-historic Healing Tree, Incurable Virulent Plague etc. From an 'Action' standpoint, you have Quasi-military rangers, trails & chases, death traps, stealth weapons, explosions to keep you glued to the story's mainstream.

A very interesting point is, I did notice lot similarities in this novel (released in 2002) and "Avatar" movie (2009). I have seen the movie earlier in Dec. 2009. In the movie, you have Hometree - the Tree of Souls, deposits of Unobtainium (!?!) beneath it, Na'vi tribe protecting it and RDA corporation trying to destroy / exploit it. In this novel, you have Yagga - the Healing Tree, source of evolutionary genetic library beneath it, Ban-ali tribe protecting it and St. Savin Pharmaceuticals trying to destroy / exploit it. Coincidence?? James Cameron should answer this question, though I did not see credits/reference given to this author/novel in the movie. I also noted that many readers reflected similar thoughts in the writer's blog @ www.jamesrollins.com.

Now that I have got a new author, who writes the genre I love, I am looking forward to read his other novels like Excavation, Subterranean, Deep Fathom, Ice Hunt etc.

I also googled some trivia below:

• In 2007, James Rollins was hired to write the novelization of the script for the movie "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".
• James Rollins and James Clemens are two of the pen names of American veterinarian "Jim Czajkowski" - He sold his veterinary practice in Sacramento, California, to concentrate full-time on writing.