Keep of the Grass

Book: Keep off the grass

Author: Karan Bajaj

Plot: A ABCD(American born confused desi) Yale-graduate joins a investment Bank only to realise that he is not very happy. He wants to discover himself. So decides to do an MBA from India which will give him a chance to connect with his roots and in the process find answers to all his questions and self-doubts. Thus he joins IIMB. Plot then revolves around his 2 year experience at IIMB and the way it changed his life...

My views: For those who enjoy light-hearted, simple-written, without any life-altering gyaan fiction cum real life experiences book, this for sure is a winner. The novel starts in a filmi style and then takes you from Manhattan.,Wal-Street to IIM Bangalore's campus life and Bangalore's streets and bus drivers.

Two central characters apart from protagonist are Sarkar and Vinod. Sarkar,funniest chararcter, is an IITian. Always smoking a joint and having a sab-moh-maaya-hai attitude towards studies and things in general. He likes to live life on his own terms. The guy is gifted with an awesome mind and is among the toppers without any real effort.

Sarkar gives you the feel of an IITian. When it comes to numbers and logic, it's his world.

Author has tried to keep it very simple. He has stated his life experiences and his learnings from them, but has not tried to hammer it in a reader's mind. How much a person learns from this novel in terms of listening to your heart and being-where-you-belong is left for reader to decide.
All incidents and IIM life is presented in a very comic style with some hilarious sequences...

Like the one when he is on a summer intership and along with 29 other Management trainees is listening to the HR head of a firm. He is apparently bored by their general gyaan and is looking around when he founds a chap dosing off. Author says," I immediately started liking that guy."..

Or when he tells how during intership he hates the question forms containing questions like "Illustrate an experience where you demonstrated leadership abilities". According to teh author, most of the questions are repeated. His friend Sarkar does a funny thing. To one of teh questions he says," Check answer 2".

Or when an intern is asked, if given an option what animal would you like to be...and the chap replies,"I would like to be Pamela Anderson's lap-dog..because..because..do i need to say why?"

The way a Yale-graduate ends up in the bottom half of the IIM class reinforces one's strong belief in our education system. Novel definitely makes one ponder over life's choices, though not in a serious manner.

Read it for funny guy Sarkar, IIM's hectic but magic life, post quiz parties, joint-smoking with friends, vomits after drinking binge, I-Bank's lure , general reflection on life, confusions of ABCD's and their effort to come to terms with it.

All in all, a good read.