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The grass is green
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Debutant author Karan Bajaj about new age hippie experiences
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Ready to rock Author Karan Bajaj
There’s no social message. I’m not that big a person. I wrote purely what was fun and entertaining.” Debutant author Karan Bajaj is ambitious, successful and clearly unapologetic. To be published by HarperCollins, his debut book, “Keep off the Grass”, promises to combine various genres. Taking from life and leasing from fantasy, Bajaj’s book echoes of an autobiography. The protagonist Samrat Ratan is a bright IIM graduate like Bajaj. Character and author also share a similar love for the nomadic and a curiosity about the unknown.
Now a management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Washington DC, Bajaj is “shamelessly promoting” his book, releasing at the end of the month. He lists the reasons why his book defies classification. “First, it deals with issues of a second generation immigrant family. Second, there is the IIM part, which is like a campus story. Third, there’s the spiritual travelogue. And finally the drug addition.”
In search of his roots
All this happens to the 25-year-old protagonist Samrat, son of immigrant parents. He throws away a mighty career of a Wall Street investment banker to search for his roots in India. His hunt takes him through IIM and Indian towns and even throws him in prison. The plot evokes the hippie journeys of the ’70s. Does Bajaj feel that today’s hippie — is the all too successful investment banker/management graduate? “That’s really the point,” he says with a genuine smile. “The new age hippie is the IIT-IIM graduate with a lot of money and some time. I feel that new age hippie experiences haven’t been written about before,” he says with victory in his voice.
While the title “Keep off the Grass” clearly refers to the drug culture, Bajaj emphasises, “It’s not about drugs overtaking you.” Irony and humour are used to narrate Samrat’s experience with the drug culture. Drugs help to fuel his fantasies of succumbing to escape.
He quickly adds, “If there’s a message — it is: let go of your middle class values.” He continues candidly that he grew up with conventional values and a set trajectory that led from high school to engineering to business school. He adds, “I want to tell people — it’s okay to let go. Life will take you. Don’t be boxed in. Allow yourself to experience India.”
This debutant author has had it more lucky than most. Working through a literary agent, his manuscript was accepted by three different publishing houses. HarperCollins finally won the bid. Selected as one of the Top 40 under-40 marketers in the U.S (by Advertising Age 2007), it’s no surprise that Bajaj is using his marketing expertise to promote the book. Now on his way to Bhutan, Bajaj is hopeful that he finds his next novel there.
NANDINI NAIR
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