Posted by Saumil Shrivastava.
Jul
19
Posted by Saumil Shrivastava.
Book Review by VP Dainik Bhaskar Group, IIMA Alumni 1987
“A Roller Coaster Ride – When an IITian Met a BITsian Girl” review by Mr. Sanjeev Kotnala an IIMA Alumni PGP1987, who is currently with Dainik Bhaskar Group as Vice President.
Book Review:
I recommend to ride through exhilarating roller coaster ride of Maddy. This CAMOBS ( campus and first job) novel bridges the gap left by the new emerging IIM – IIT campus experience authors.
Trust ‘A Roller Coaster Ride’ ( RCR) has one of the most exciting twists to the characters. The initial buildup is slow and moves along the predictable path of MUST HAVE A GIRLFRIEND PRESSURE syndrome of these professional colleges, layered with NO PLACEMENT scenario threatening hero and in between BEER AND ASSIGNEMENTS to finally LOVE BLOOSOMING with much in awe women who they meet accidentally.
This is where Saumil Shrivastava makes a considered choice in creating situations among friends, dilemmas where simple decisions are tough to take; trapping you into tranquility of ‘OH I KNOW’ comfort zone. Once there wrapped in this 3rd gear reading – he rips up and turns the story on its head throwing new angles to the whole story.
This makes it a completely palatable tasty treat to reading pleasure. As a story it has EMOTIONS, DRAMA, MYSTRY, CRIME (Yes I consider it so), SEX (or the thought of it), ROMANACE (Maybe in that order), FRIENSHIP and COMFLICT (maybe not in that order) and a STORY in real sense.
Worst thing in a novel is to have your own loyalty as a reader shifting among the characters. You side with some and would want to remain on the same side at least in a love story- but it does not holds true for this. I moved between Maddy, Pooja and Divya. And there is another good thing- the situation- props and locations are so well described that I could walk with Maddy in his office- of H-93 his house- or even share SUTTA (smoke) on terrace.
The last 66 pages to be precise are where the story operates into ‘EMOTIONALLY INVOLVED’ level with the readers. Result you finish the novel with a smile on your face, PAISA MORE THAN VASOL. The reason for its success will be the comfort & emotional touch it has with both male & female readers. The appeal is not restricted to sub-30 age group. It strategically takes on IIT Mumbai students meeting a BITS Girl- working in GURGAON –NCR- a job in IT Sector. Quite a lot of English reading crowd covered in that zone.
This is slow burner and will take some time to get recommended across groups. I do hope CROSSWORD places RECOMMENDED sticker on it soon enough. I know a lot of buyers do follow that simple process.
Yes, it’s his first book, some pieces in sub-plots leave a lot potential untapped. But then you say BALLE BALLE- would want to read the next one.
You now enter into ‘OH IS THAT SO’ and ‘SAALA KABUTER KUCH BHI NAHIO SAMJATA’(Duffer does not under anything) to ‘PHIR LAG GAYI’ (Got beaten once again) to ‘OYE TERI, SAALA YEH TOH SOOCHA HI NAHI THA’ (oh &^%$ I never thought in this direction). I love the last reaction. In my recent readings of nascent breed of authors, the unique track of thoughts en-cashed by Saumil is one of the rarities.
Book review taken from: Sanjeev Kotnala Blog
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There are 3 comments to this post.
ghughutibasuti had this to say,
Jun 28, 2010 @ 9:58 am
Hope to read your book soon. All the best.
gb
Basant Singh had this to say,
Jul 2, 2010 @ 9:10 am
Looks like the story-line is young, informal & presentation is witty. The last one I read something of this sort was “2 States” 
liked it.
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I am desperate to get hands on your first book