KARAN BAJAJ

The upcoming Indian author Karan Bajaj who has written two best selling novels keep of the grass and john gone down is telling you about his reading recommendations in his own words.


Reading Recommendations
Early readers of the website asked me for reading recommendations so here I list a few of my favorites. Certain classics - The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies - endure of-course, but with a few notable exceptions, my top picks are closer to home; perhaps because books that touch a chord are usually ones that trigger memories of similar experiences.


1. English August by Upamanyu Chatterjee

Upamanyu Chatterjee’s delightful slacker novel with its wickedly funny portrayal of timeless themes- the angst of suddenly being thrust into adulthood, feeling hopelessly out of place in one’s surroundings, and being unable to shake off the uncomfortable feeling that “life just isn’t meant to be this”- easily rises to the top of my favorites. Agastya Sen, the novel’s cynical, lost protagonist is my favorite character in Indian literature, and you can’t help but like him despite (or perhaps because of) his spending all his time smoking marijuana, inventing new excuses to shirk his duties as an IAS officer, lying dementedly, sneering at everyone, and reflecting on the futility of everything. I also really dig the various philosophical nuggets from the Gita, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, and his own beliefs that the author has liberally sprinkled through the novel.

Upamanyu Chatterjee has written a few more novels after that which I religiously picked up. I admire his wry, caustic writing which seems to be quite reflective of his own self (e.g. the dedication in his third novel, The Last Burden reads: To my wife, Anne- while the going is good.) Wow, is that a dedication or a doomsday prophecy? However his last novel, Weight Loss is avoidable and so twisted that it is almost sad in a way. In English August you get the sense that the young Agastya Sen is teetering on the edge of a cliff, and you desperately hope for his redemption. If Upamanyu Chatterjee is anything like Agastya, it seems that he couldn’t help himself from falling off by the time Weight Loss was released almost twenty-five years later—in 2007, I think.


2. Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist- both by Mohsin Hamid

Moth Smoke, Mohsin Hamid’s first novel, is the story of the wasted life of Daaru, a young Pakistani banker, who slowly, almost deliberately, destroys himself and those around him with his heroin addiction. I tend to enjoy writing with self destructive, wasted youth themes (please resist the impulse to play my shrink!), and Mohsin Hamid seems to be a resident expert on the subject. Highly recommended if you dig that kind of stuff.


The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid’s second novel, chronicles the impact of 9/11 on Changez, a young Pakistani management consultant in New York—but not in the usual sense. Rather than dwell on the reactions of the U.S to immigrants and assorted clichés, the narrative instead focuses on the contradictory, sometimes eerie response of Changez to the attacks and the unexpected decisions he takes as a result. The novel is innovatively written in the form of a single monologue but never slackens pace; and the rich descriptions of both Lahore and Manhattan had a lingering impact even on someone like me, who usually glazes past overdone, lyrical writing.


3. Ruskin Bond (everything by him)

One of India’s best-loved novelists (and an undiscovered one internationally, I think), Ruskin Bond seems to capture a lifetime of ache, hope, and longing in a few measured words (e.g. ‘Its not time that is passing by; its you and I). I really dig all his poems, short stories and novellas—he seems to be a man who has lived within the boundaries of society, but always on its edges- someone who fitted in, but didn’t want to fit in; alone, but never lonely; busy but never lacking the idleness of solitude; a nicer Holden Caulfield, a less confused Agastya Sen.

He was so much of a role model for me in college (before IIM corrupted me with dreams of power and glory) that I went to meet him once unannounced at his house in Mussourie. But that is another story for which you will have to read Keep off the Grass where the meeting has been fictionalized. For now, I quote one of his verses that I really liked:

“As I walked home last night
I saw a lone fox dancing
In the cold moonlight.
I stood and watched.
Then took the low road, knowing
The night was his by right.
Sometimes, when words ring true,
I'm like a lone fox dancing
In the morning dew”


Sometimes (a very few times) when I was writing Keep off the Grass and Johnny Gone Down and the words seemed to flow, I felt like the lone fox by the midnight lamp as well.

4. Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

Forrest Gump is probably my single greatest writing influence, though I can’t claim to hold a candle to Winston Groom yet. I’ve read the novel multiple times since I first chanced upon it as kid, and though the movie version was quite brilliant as well, the novel takes Forrest to even more interesting places—a NASA sponsored space shuttle to Mars, a tropical jungle full of cannibals and a Hollywood blockbuster starring Raquel Welch, for instance. I’ve always been attracted to “unlikely hero”/ “ordinary men in extraordinary situations” stories and this is a near perfect example of that genre. The novel has everything I think makes for great fiction: an uplifting, life affirming message presented in a tight, dramatic, almost bizarre story which stretches the boundaries of believability but doesn’t completely break it and arouses deep emotions in readers without resorting to clichés.

I aspire to write a Forrest Gump one day and take heart from the fact that Winston Groom was almost fifty years old when he wrote this masterpiece. Until then, I hope to live enough to gather the bizarre experiences that are required to write a novel like this one.


5. The Bangkok Series (Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tattoo and Bangkok Haunts) by John Burdett

I hadn’t read murder mysteries and detective novels in years until I chanced upon John Burdett’s Bangkok 8, which turned out to be a gem. I’m an armchair spiritual seeker and have dabbled unsuccessfully with many religious philosophies, meditation practices and spiritual discourses over the years, none of which have provided the answers I seek. Instead, they’ve added more questions to the list! In that, I found myself relating very closely to the Buddhist detective protagonist, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, of John Burdett’s Bangkok novels who is unsuccessful in his quest for spiritual enlightenment and Nirvana, but remarkably successful in solving some of Thailand’s most surreal, morbid crimes.

I’m eagerly awaiting his next novel, The Godfather of Kathmandu as he changes scene from the underbelly of Bangkok to that of Kathmandu, a city I really dig, but sticks with his spiritually confused crime-solver, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, my most favorite fictional detective of all time.

P.S. If you want to visit his website please click on the title of this blog.