One of the best spent 4 and half hours of my life. Review on Johnny Gone Down - Karan Bajaj

The sole reason I picked up "Johnny Gone Down " was the name of it's author.I had never heard about this one earlier, yet I had thoroughly enjoyed"Keep off the grass" by the same author.There were basically two things I had liked about Karan Bajaj's writing, the first being the readability and the fun factor associated and the second being the delightfully subtle yet definitely impacting way in which he had handled the hundreds of questions and doubts embedded in the protagonist's mind.As I was picking up a book for a journey where I didn't want my brain to work overtime with too many characters or too much desolation, I went for this one. Little had I expected that this innocous looking book would take such a toll on me.

As I flipped through the first few pages I realized that this is not going to be some yuppie novel about an IIT -ian chasing his childhood sweetheart(who actually ends upchasing her away unwillingly, which happens mostly, both in real life and in the novels, why?, that's a different story).The main protagonist is Nikhil Arya, a one-armed, middle aged and haggard looking man.As he is peppered by innocent questions from a fellow traveller, he keeps diving into his past, one that has taken him across the world.Starting out as an MIT grad and having already been offered a position at NASA, he had stars in his eyes and a confident optimism about all the good things that awaited him in the future.But life had other intentions and had charted out a very different path for him, one riddled with pain yet enriching in it's own unique way.

All of us would agree that life is determined by the choices one makes, although at the end of it we might thank or curse our fate according to the consequences.Nikhil Arya comes to such crossroads many times in his life.First one being infront of the American consulate at Phnom Penh with the rampaging and blood thirsty Khmer Rouge soldiers on their way to trigger a genocide where Nikhil had to choose between his own safety and his otherwise doomed friend Sam's life.

The next time being in a Buddhist monastery in remote Thailand where he has a choice of getting back to his life in the US after two years of turbulent ignominy(actually words fall short of describing what he experienced in that period) or continuing in the monastery, although the only feeling he has towards faith is a heightened degree of skepticism.

Some years later he is again at a position where he has to choose between his own safety in the face of flying bullets at a street in Brazil or stick around with a Don named Marcos.

After having had to desert the love of his life(mainly for her safety), homeless and penniless in the US(he finally goes back there but definitely not in the way he had originally thought of) he does stumble upon a goldmine of an idea but then again he has to make a choice of pursuing it or relieve himself of the unbearable emotional agonies his life had granted him.

Life gives him yet another chance of trying to resurrect himself but then he has a choice between that and rescuing a hapless partner with a mountain load of responsibilities.

It is the choices he makes, that lay down an extraordinary life and take him down a path where he meets people as diverese as chalk and cheese.

As you might have guessed by now that it is quite an action packed story.What you will be pleasantly surprised by, is that in addition to being a gripping(start-to-finish, I completed it in one sitting) affair, it does take you on an emotional and phillosphical ride as well.One, where the stereo-types of life as we know are questioned relentlessly.It is not a typical story of redemption where the end justifies everything that happened before in his roller-coaster of a life.It is a story of Karma(much in the same way as the Bhagvad Gita says karm kar, fal ki chinta mat kar).Kudos to Karan Bajaj for coming up with such a thought-prorvoking yet mostly light-hearted take on a journey which quite frankly should be described as so many lives rolled into one.

On a personal note, I could identify with Nikhil a lot.Having lost count of the number of mistakes I have committed in life and number of situations where I have thought(in hindsight) of doing things differently.But today when I don the uniform of the Indian Army and see some pride on the face of my parents and close friends, I wonder if I would have it any different.