Author: Tushar Raheja
When my friend gifted this book to me two months ago, I thought I got hold of a book that was everywhere around me. Most of the book shops had this on their Indian writing section, and all the pavement book sellers had a pirated copy, a girl in red salwar on a sky blue background asking every passer by to pick it up. Just a bit of curiosity about a book on the IIT phenomena, IITian turned author genre.
I didn't exactly love this book, but this could have been a script for a bollywood romantic comedy genre than a novel. There are too many coincidences, and though I agree that coincidences does happen in real life , the way in which those coincidences crop up every now and then makes it a bit unreal. Especially the part where three IITians meeting up in train and they get adjacent seats in the same compartment. This could happen in real life, and such things has happened for everyone, but for me the way it was treated felt a bit made up. Fiction is not about making up a story from incidents, is n't it is more about making the reader relate and accept the fiction as a possible reality.For me, being from south of India, it is hard to differentiate a Sardarji from another, unless they are absurdly different both horizontally and vertically. A Sardarji too might be confused when faced with a similar looking South Indians. Whatever be it, it is hard to digest that a policemen can take a random Sardarji for a dacoit, and a bald dacoit in that. Just to create tension ?
The tone of the book, the patronizing tone with a lot of inspiration from P.G Wodehouse and early writers may not go down well with everyone. Some of the dialogues are extremely dull, and pathetically artificial. I might be too harsh on the book, but this book is definitely not for someone who has already read a lot books , for they may feel a bit let down.
The bottom line is that though the book makes a valiant effort in portraying the predicaments of a young romantic, it falls desperately short of realism by a long way. A dull train journey.
