Having just read the debut novel “Keep off the grass” by Karan Bajaj, am left wondering what the book was all about : extolling the virtues of being ‘stoned’, or promoting Vipassana or yet another novel by a now ubiquitous ABCD ?? (That for the uninitiated: American Born Confused Desi)
In comparison to many other novels on debut, what this one particularly fails is it leaves the reader as confused as the author (or was that the purpose??)
Novels such as Ravi Subramaniam’s “If God were a banker”, Lavanya Sankaran’s “The Red Carpet” do not exactly titillate you. But they fascinate you not only with the content, but with also the style and the single direction the novel takes you (even if they are a short story collection).
Which brings to mind, " Seven Steps in the Sky" - fascinating novel with a female protagonist !!
I still recall this particular novel for its style and content and although that am unable to locate at any good store( which was again I think, coincidentally , written / translated by a South Indian lady – now if u think that was sheer coincidence, well…that happens!!), am sure I will want to read that again...Afterall, chick lit is a fashionable term only recently!!
Which is why a unglamourous novel may not be , well, a commercial success. But if it is deep rooted enough, it would make up for all the ‘lost’ directions it intends to convey !!
Partly (or wholly if you will) autobiographical, what I could connect more is to the protagonist’s friend Sarkar rather than Samrat who doesn’t seem to know what he wants , even after Vipassana and hippies to boot!!
Benares, and the oddly-in-place meeting with Ruskin Bond are extremely very filmy. More like in film placements, if you choose !!
Perhaps Chetan Bhagat and his clan of the new age Indian writers debut a novel with a film in mind!! And why not, the moolah is good. The PR gets done by the producer, and the poor masses (read us) are the scape goats. !! Ha ha !!
What with brilliant ones from books produced in the past like Godfather and the ilk, these novels (and therefore the movies) are not a blot on the titans produced!!
Am not exactly against people making money, or for that matter writing for one !! But what sets the classes from the masses is the way your (debut) turns out to be. For all the churned out PR and media expose', the heart to a reader is not to make him squirm (leave that to the Amitav Ghoshs please), but make him relate, and appreciate your first one !!
For me. Finally. This one’s a no getter. And then, anyways, one man's food is another man's poison. Even if it is grass, of the 'other' kind !! :)
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