Book Review #91: Johnny Gone Down By Karan Bajaj

Title: Johnny Gone Down 
Author: Karan Bajaj
Publishers: Harper Collins India
Genre: General Fiction/Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 324
Source: Personal Copy

Rarely few books keeps us engaged from page 1 till the end. Especially with the new age Indian authors, who write mostly the college romance, marriage and such similar stuff? This has become a mundane affair to see every tom, dick and harry who claim themselves as authors and writers. There is no fresh perspective whatsoever with it. 

Johnny Gone Down, by the author Karan Bajaj is nothing of that college romance as such. Though it has its fair share of college story but, it’s just at the beginning and the novel takes an entirely different route. I liked this novel. It has all those elements that a reader expects. If I may say so, it has more than what one would expect from a relatively new author.

The plot of the novel seems quite unusual from the page 1 itself. We see the protagonist in a gun duel bet, where he can lose his life in any moment. At the pull of each trigger, the protagonist imagines what transpired his life to this end. He imagines his happy days, his sorrowful days. His other opponent, a cancer patient, who is in a need of money to perform his daughter’s wedding is ready to give away his life in a snap. This gun duel is quite impressive as it helps the story to move forward. 

The readers will be in a strange quest before even starting with the initial few pages. As the title by itself is more intriguing. Why the hell this book is named Johnny and why he has gone down? The readers begins with this question in their mind. The protagonist of the novel is Nikhil Arya or Nick. Born to a wealthy NRI parents who moved out of India to settle in America. He lost both of his parents while he was young. As charming and studious as he is, expectedly Nick gets his ticket to MIT, Boston. 

Well, the story does start from his last examination day. He and his friend Sam begins their unplanned trip to Cambodia. But what awaits at Cambodia is a surprising factor. The country that is torn by the rebels uprising had made it worse for the civilians. Expectedly, the protagonist does gets stuck in Cambodia, but the fate had other plans. While Nick rescues Sam by showing his passport as his friends. And, he gets caught by the rebels and story takes it first major turn.

As one reads through the pages, more or less, the story goes on in a predictable mode. The readers could guess what might happen. The protagonist was captured and made to rot in closed jail for about two years. By somehow, he escapes from there and finds himself in a monastery in Thailand. 

In Thailand, our protagonist Nick, thought of staying for a long duration than he was anticipated initially. He learns meditation, he becomes a teacher and a monk as well. The quest continues further as we read through. Nick, now travels to Brazil to set up their meditation school. There he finds a different life altogether and he ends up being a drug lord and money launderer. He meets Marco, a drug lord, who happened to get saved by our protagonist Nick. There is a special love track in this part of the novel that might shape the future of our protagonist.

As the book progresses in each page, we feel a sense of urgency to see what is in store for Nick. From Brazil, his journey takes him back to USA. There he is homeless, cashless and even identity less. The writers can actually construct the most unbelievable events that makes no sense in real life, but still, in this novel, like any regular novel, the unthinkable happens. At the age of nearly 40, the protagonist Nick learns to code and builds an alternate virtual life game. Now here is the overdone part in this novel. How much ever the readers tries to comprehend the luck factor of Nick, it doesn’t become a convincing factor. He finds himself in the most horrid situations, but he has this extraordinary luck factor, that binds his fate in safe hands.

So, as the novel inches in for climax, we feel a sense of relief that, something good will happen to this Nick or let him die peacefully at least. Quite expectedly, he meets his childhood friend Sam, now a big tycoon of media industry. They meet and greet each other and share their whole bunch of successes, failures and stuff, like a reunion. There, our protagonist, changes his name from Nick to Johnny for a better future, but decides against it and let the JOHNNY GO DOWN!!

Overall, a good attempt with the contemporary style fiction. The story is quite unthinkable. Readers should come to terms with many events in the novel, because it happens only in fiction world. Language is simple and lucid. Can be read within few hours. Not highly recommending stuff, but yeah, you can give this book a shot. Worth it.

My Rating:
3/5

Book Review #37: Naayi Neralu By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

A book that speaks about reincarnation and occult science. I think, this book is an example of what actually a reincarnation means. It speaks about Karma, the way of life. This book explains in a tone where modernists shall out rightly reject rather than discussing it. What is Karma after all? SL Bhyrappa explains this rare terminology in this short book that spans over 160 pages. The title of the book "NAAYI NERALU" can be translated to english as "DOG SHADOW".

A child (Kshetrapala) at the age of 3 started saying things that are totally irrelevant “I am married; my wife’s name is Venkamma. I have a child too”. Probably, these statements from a 3 year old don't in any way indicate that, this kid is planning for a con job in 15 years down the line. Then what is this? Has some devil spirit possessed in that little kid’s body? Or, as the author writes, he is a reincarnation of a man (Vishveshwara) that died 18 years ago.

The book begins with the plot that reveals an engrossing tale in future chapters. Does everyone have to finish his duties as per his birth? If not, does nature allows him to take rebirth? Author had brilliantly imagined the symbolism here, a dog, that represents the Karma of a man. We all know, Dog follows his master no matter what comes as an obstacle. The same way Karma follows every living being on earth. This is depicted even in Mahabharata as well, when Pandavas were entering the heavens in their last moment; everyone fails except for Yudhistira and his dog. Here, dog is just a representation of the Karma that indicates the good or bad deeds of a man.

In this novel, Kshetrapala (the re-born Vishveshwara) enters the house of Acchannaiah, his father from previous birth along with his dog. The dog doesn't have any name as such in this novel. When Acchannaiah’s own dog was skeptical about this new dog that has just entered the house, it never reconciles to its presence in the house, but the local dogs in that village was in acceptance mode, though showed some resistance in the beginning. This particular dog of Kshetrapala plays an important role in this novel.

There are some weird stories that you may read from the novel. This Vishveshwara (now reborn as Kshetrapala) often gets reminded of something is incomplete in his birth. As the story reveals further, you get to see that, Acchannaiah had cheated a monk by stealing his gold ornaments, replacing it with the iron duplicates. Here the story takes another turn that actually brings us to the 1^st birth of Vishveshwara who is none other than the same monk that gets cheated by Acchannaiah. Readers cannot believe these stories where a person reincarnates 2 times to finish of his karma. But, that’s the crux of the novel.

There are few sub stories of a monk that stays in the temple of a hill station, who often advises the local villagers regarding Karma, Moksha (Salvation), etc... Achyuta, the grandson of Acchannaiah, a college student and did not believe in all this re-incarnation stories. Achyuta, who believed that Kshetrapala as a con man and decides to lodge a police complaint and puts his re-born father (Vishveshwara) in jail for 7 years.  Venkamma, the wife of Vishveshwara, was in total dilemma whether to accept this reborn person Kshetrapala as her husband, who is actually 18 years younger than her. She suffers the most throughout the novel. Her own son, Achyuta admonishes her for accepting this new person (reincarnated person) as her husband. He mocks his mother in front of everyone.

Whether to believe in such occult stories or not is entirely up to the readers. As a novel, it strikes the chord with the readers by raising important questions regarding these reincarnation beliefs. This novel is particularly works a specific theme that you will certainly enjoy while reading. There are few village practices that author tried to bring up in this book, mainly, the grama-devathe (the village goddess) that answers people's questions in the form as a possessed priest. Acchannaiah recalling his tale that he has kept to himself for many years is one of those revealing acts from the novel, which actually gives a complete picture of the novel. Yet, there is no happy ending. But, that’s acceptable, since it is not a fairy tale to end in happy climax.

Overall, this book can be read once. A movie by the same name “Naayi Neralu” has been directed by Kannada’s renowned director, Girish Kasaravalli who made several changes to the existing characters that gives a new perspective to the novel itself.

My Rating:

4.5/5