Friendship Love And Killer Escapades

by Pankaj Giri, Apoorv Wanikar

Prakash a shy, self-effacing, spiritually-inclined simpleton from Gangtok; Purvesh a cocky, strapping young lad from Mumbai; Richa a sweet, vivacious girl from Bangalore; Anand Kumar a mysterious, enigmatic personality from Jharkhand.

Friendship, Love and Killer Escapades (FLAKE) is a captivating story, primarily revolving around four protagonists pursuing engineering courses in a run-of-the-mill institute in Bangalore. The story encompasses a unique, intriguing, realistic love plot between Purvesh and Richa, numerous escapades, and thrilling adventures. Throughout the four-year roller-coaster, the academic and personal fortunes of the chief personas fluctuates à la the great Indian stock market!
What impact will the inscrutable character, Anand, have in the lives of Prakash and the other protagonists? Will Purvesh and Richa succeed in sustaining their relationship over time? Will Prakash be able to transcend the stage of infatuation and eventually fall in love? What
predicaments will Prakash and friends encounter in the academic journey? Read more to find out. Ready, FLAKE, Go!

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2015

About the author

Pankaj Giri was born and brought up in Gangtok, Sikkim—a picturesque hill station in India. He began his writing career with a book review blog, and after several years of honing his writing skills, he wrote his debut solo novel The Fragile Thread of Hope.

The e-book version of the inspirational fiction novel was selected as a “Top 5 Finalist” in the Amazon Pen to Publish Contest 2017 and received critical acclaim worldwide.

The paperback version—published in late 2019 by Fingerprint! Publishing—also got an excellent reception, a 5-star rating from the renowned literary blog New Asian Writing being the highlight. It was a commercial success, too, selling more than 4500 copies. In July 2020, Pankaj won Best Author (Fiction) at the Indian Literary Awards 2020. He has also been featured in top media houses like The Sentinel, The Morung Express, The Statesman, and The Echo of India.

In September 2023, Pankaj released his next book The Unforgettable Woman, an emotional, inspirational story exploring the themes of drug abuse, love, regret, and forgiveness.

Pankaj is currently working in the government sector in Sikkim. He likes to spend time listening to music and watching movies and sitcoms.

Reviews

[Madhulika Liddle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Random sentences from this book:

However, he cognized the futility of proliferating his blood pressure ruminating anent him.

Prakash ejaculated a muffled wimp....

He dressed himself meteorically

... clasped her soft, creamy paw with his other mitt.

Prakash supersonically glanced towards his mobile.

He squashed the face of the green button and confabbed with her momentarily.

Befuddlement prevailed in his mind-palace.

He dressed himself dapperly and skedaddled to Shantana Bakery.

After devouring the succulent nimbu-paani...

The guys bobbed their noggins; the lab attendant scooted.

You get the drift. At least when it comes to the language. If you can stand to see English being slaughtered in this cavalier fashion, FLAKE (which, by the way, is an acronym for Friendship Love And Killer Escapades) might be your cup of tea. Not that it’s got much of a plot; this is basically just another campus novel that follows the lives of a bunch of engineering students—Prakash, Purvesh, Anand, Amish, Tenzing, etc—through their years at college. There are loves found and lost, quarrels, pranks, exams, passes and fails, cheating, partying—just about everything that happens to young people. Nothing new, nothing unusual, and not all of it interesting. In fact, some of it (especially a couple of metaphor-heavy descriptions of diarrhea and masturbation and sex) is either downright disgusting or hilarious (have you ever thought of equating sex with a wizard and his wand, with which he’s approaching a tree, to pierce its bark?)

But, back to the language, which was what really got my goat. This is English at its very worst: a frightful attempt to cobble together ‘big’ words without really understanding how the language works, what goes together, and what doesn’t. Without realizing, for instance, that corroboree and wassailing are words for very specific gatherings, not just any food-and-drink party. Without realizing that it’s silly to substitute—wholesale, with almost no exceptions—‘simple’ words like about, hear, late, talk, quickly and all at once with anent, discern audibly, tardy, confabulate and tout de suite.

When you don’t know idioms, when you don’t know that someone rang his girlfriend on her phone (not ringed her, like some bird), or that the past tense of spit is either spat or spit, not spitted (unless over a fire?)… what hope is there? When you don’t even realize that bringing together so many disparate elements in language—archaic words like ere long and anon on the one hand, slang like skedaddled, vamoose, collywobbles and bushwhacked on the other, and the sort of stuff you usually find only in medicine and law courts (ad interim, juvenescence, diurnally and so on)—just results in pandemonium, how can you call yourself a writer of English?

Befuddlement prevailed in my mind-palace, therefore the 1 star. I got this book as a free copy for review from one of the authors; I wish I could’ve given it a higher rating. My conscience won’t allow that, however. This is one of those you shouldn’t touch with a barge pole.

[Pankaj Giri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hello! Yes, this is a review by the author himself. Whether an author should review his/her book oneself is debatable, but I proceeded nonetheless. Initially, I gave 4 stars to my own book, because there is always scope for improvement. However, one of my Goodreads friends commented on my review asking whether I didn't believe in my own work. I reflected on it and then decided to give 5 stars, because I certainly, wholeheartedly believe in my work. Yes, there are limitations. I might have overdone the language part a tad by using certain uncommon words repeatedly, and maybe due to over-concentration on events, the story is not as well-knit as it could have been. Also, I have used a few more characters than what was necessary.

However, the fact remains that it is one of the very few (if not the only) books to be written based on a run-of-the-mill college in Bangalore rather than based on an IIT/IIM (commonplace in the market over the years). Readers will be enlightened about the completely different perspective of the challenges encountered by students in such colleges. Shayaris, Hinglish, unending SMS conversations, native slang (generally found in Indian authored books which are inappropriate in a English fiction novel) are conspicuous by their absence. FLAKE is not just a common campus love story but friendship, unique adventures, infatuations, and academic challenges faced by students are given equal importance. Also, I have employed language much richer than the colloquially written books prevalent in the market which adds to its uniqueness. I have also tried our best to minimize grammatical and editing errors.

Nevertheless, I request everyone to at least try out my book. Yes, it might not be perfect, but its an honest attempt to create a unique, fresh, and realistic piece of literature. I would welcome your reviews (good or constructively critical) because no review is bad :) God bless all!

[Merril Anil · Rating 3 out of 5]

snippets of college life

First of all a huge thanks to the author for contacting me and recommending this book to me and also showing a faith in my reviews. secondly i want to mention how much it breaks my heart to write this review since the author has been nothing but sweet and kind all through our interaction and i am probably going to rip his work with my review. I am afraid that the author would be sending ninjas anytime now ... so if for a prolonged time there is no reviews or activities on my goodreads account....you know who to blame and where to look for me ;)...

To be fair to the author and the book i am taking this review in sections... so lets begin the scrutiny

Plot: The book to me basically sounded as snippets of college life. More like your friend telling you stories and instances from his hostel and college days. SO basically there is no continuity or a thread that holds together all the stories but individually these short stories or snippets give you a very vivid and bold peek into boys hostel and their pranks and struggles and dilemmas through four years of college. The whole book is somewhat like diary entries.

narration since it is like recollection of memories and events, things does start right in the middle and end abruptly and in fact the ending is still a question mark for me as there are so many characters that i am curious about as to what happened to them. The end felt like hasty and cut short almost immediately. Narration is jerky and sometimes the various tracks that is running parallel in the book do tend to overlap each other and breaks the smoothness of the flow of the book.

characters since you spend so much time listening to all these characters you do get involved with the stories through the help of these characters. some of the characters do create impact while lots of characters that keep popping in and out add a bit chaos as in "where did that guy come from?". Two characters of the story stand brighter than others since basically they get more coverage in the book.

Language Now this is the section that would keep me here all day. It seems that the whole book was run through thesaurus ( which kind of reminds me of an episode from the series "friends" where joey was supposed to write a letter and he uses thesaurus for this purpose ... remember!! ..anyone??)








Another thing with the language is that there was brutal abuse of certain words like ... erelong, heretofore, withal, hitherto, anent ... these words were used and repeated at least a million times in the book which kind of takes away the charm and beauty of story telling and then there are certain words like "paws" and "mitt" which i am not even sure was the right word they were looking for and neither was the word "ejaculation" (which was totally inappropriate and out of context) wherever it was used.

But i will gladly admit that compared to many other contemporary indian authors, the book actually has a cleaner language in the sense that there is no "Hinglish" and "shayaris" (oh Lord !! we thank you for this day and this tiny little miracle) ;). Yes maybe the authors have repeated the words more times than i would have appreciated but at least they have maintained and justified the language used and have not adulterated it with native slang and jargon and still able to capture the Indian teen verbal behaviors.

wow ain't i am being a Grammer Nazi ?

There are certain parts that you will be able to relate if you have been a victim of Indian engineering college and the turmoils of examinations and never ending assignments added with the confusions and trials of being in a relationship for the first time


The book is good with its capture of college and dorm life but as a work of fiction there are lots of areas that needs a tender care and one of being the language and the weapon of narration. The book kind of starts and ends instantaneously and leaving lots of questions open. In bits and parts yes the book has its charm but for me on other levels the book still requires a nice thick coat of polishing.

[Reetwika Banerjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for 4 good things:-
1. Liked the concept of naming the novel - an abbreviation in title is very innovative.
2. Though co-authored, there is no discrepancy in any of the chapters or references made in diff chapters.
3. Language used is very simple and easy to understand.
4. Last but not least, the story revolves round a final yr project happenings and tyranny. An engineer reader can very well relate to the content. However, not sure how much will it attract the nontechies who have not undergone the similar experiences.
Improvement suggestion:-
Good as a debut novel. But as a reader, will expect more in depth coverage of topics in future novels so that a wider range of audience can better relate to the characters.

[Rachna · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I think -

When I was asked to review the book FLAKE - Friendship, Love and Killer Escapades I was really excited. One because the title seemed interesting and second, it was co-authored by someone from Gantok, a place very close to my hometown. Pankaj sent me a pdf version of the book as soon as it was out in the market. This review frankly states what I feel about the book. I understand that the authors have worked hard on the novel and I hope that after reading they will not be disheartened, but work towards weaving better stories in future.

Here it goes –

I began reading this book sometime early this month. I started with great enthusiasm, but somewhere along the way I was not sure I wanted to complete the novel. Why? To begin with the story is simple and predictable! The authors have woven a story that they felt would appeal to the masses, but in this endeavor they did not realize that the only people who would actually relate to the novel are 18 to 25 year olds who would be just starting college or who have just finished college and can relate to the experiences. Well to think of it .. I guess it is a large enough crowd !

Soon I lowered my expectations and continued reading the story, despite the fact that the words used in most parts of the book just did not appeal to me. As a language teacher, the words like – hitherto, anent, ere, ergo and the improper use of some words along with a few grammatical errors just stood out of the page and demanded more of my attention that the story itself. Some of the words used are out of context and difficult to comprehend. In some sentences, the words can be understood from the context, but in others the reader would have to keep a dictionary handy to understand the meaning of the sentence.

Being a feminist, another thing that did not appeal to me was the way the women are described - Charlie’s Angels are “voluptuous,” a simple girl in a Kurta is shown as a “good” girl while someone who wears short skirts, tight jeans and/or smokes is described in poor light! This is not what I expect from the young writers of today!! Having said this I am sure that the writer's perception does not match mine and that they had no idea that what they have written could be interpreted or misinterpreted like this ;)

I wish Pankaj and Apoorv all the best for the future!

[Akshat Solanki · Rating 4 out of 5]

FLAKE is the story of Prakash, Purvesh, Aakash and Co, revolving around the four years college life in the city of Bengaluru. The story begins with the dream further on experiencing many adventures, escapades throughout the book. This book is a campus novel presenting you the ups and downs of college and hostel lives; hence reader should not expect much of stimulation but keep reading until the end. First thing first, the strongest point of the book is the language with which it is written. Considering, it as an Indian debut novel, this book scores high in the matter of language and the words used. It doesn’t bore you, but keeps you reading till the end. Some pranks and jokes sound amateur but make you laugh. Although, repetitive use of French words and proverbs as well as words like ‘Withal’, ‘Hitherto’ irritate readers to the core and terminate the flow and ease of reading. Characters of protagonist Purvesh and Prakash could have been improved by adding a proper plot or adventures. The conversation between Richa and Purvesh looks like an amateur one. The writers have shown college love, but don’t go in depth which could have given them sight to write more. There are many scenes that could have been advanced with more imaginations and writing skills. Some characters have been introduced but as you read the book you would find them lost without a proper plot or story. Over all this book is all about one’s college life and adventures and it shows how one deals with the situations, problems. The writers have scope to improve in those fields and surely I would be waiting for their next book.

Ratings

Plot – 2.5 stars

Language – 4 stars

Ending – 3.5 stars

Reader’s interest – 2.5 stars

Overall rating – 3.5 stars

#Paperback#GeneralFiction#PankajGiri#ApoorvWanikar#215pages

[Shalini Sharrma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, the book i read by a North - East writer for the first time was good enough as there were WOW moments as well as SIGH moments....
Let's begin with WOW moments first - the language , narration is good along with few paras in Italics that are quite amazing. The story surrounds out of IIT campus, in a simple college RIP ...which is good (am still laughing on that name) , It is precisely an honest a/c with less exaggeration which narrates amazing moments in college, the PJ's and jokes embedded were pretty good. Even every emotion is described in a most realistic way.
Now the sigh moments - The use of high fi words that compliments at times but distort the sentence when used repeatedly, even those characters being in Bangalore don't ever let me realize they are in Bangalore , The love relationship was not charismatic enough and loose connection amid the plot.
I will appreciate if in future the author use the language, culture and the surroundings of the place in which he places his characters instead of some French words like tout de suite used repeatedly.... In this case few Kannada words would be applaudable.
I am giving 2/5 bcz i know the author has more potential which definitely will fetch him 5/5 stars on his next book. Keep working... Good Efforts :)

[Darshika Chettri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me down memory lane. It basically includes every aspect of college life - Friends, Roommates, Crushes, Studies, and Relationships. I was smiling, crying, laughing, getting anxious and connecting with the characters on every page. Author deserves a pat on the back for awesome story building.
The language used is neither too simple, nor too extravagant. Author has played with words, arranging them beautifully. A talent, I think most of the authors lack now. It truly deserves to be called a campus book with literary content. I was totally mesmerized by the way author has used his imaginative skills to express some beautiful human emotions and feelings. It is hard to believe that this is his first creation.
It totally stood up to my expectations .An awesome reading experience. A must read for all!!!!

[Njkinny (Njkinny's Blog) · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.njkinnysblog.com/2015/09/b...

Rating: 3 out 5

Friendship Love And Killer Escapades by Pankaj Giri and Apoorv Wanikar is the story of four people so different in nature and yet connected by the college they all join to study Engineering. This story is their story full of their experiences in an Engineering college filled with struggles, first love and all the usual mix of action one goes through in college.

I liked the cover of the book that is catchy and attractive. The title is also intriguing. The blurb is interesting and had me intrigued enough to pick up the book to read.

The opening chapters of the book are slow and contain several wrongly used words that are out of context and difficult to understand, phrases and misused tenses. It seemed like the authors were trying to fit in difficult dictionary words to make an impression on the readers. While some people think that a book is good only if it contains new words and makes you look up the words in a dictionary several times, I don't agree with this. I have read some really memorable books that are written simplistically and yet leave such impact that they remain in our minds for ever!
So while I wanted to read the book, the misuse of words and grammar had me wanting to stop but still I persevered because I wanted to read more so I could form my opinion about the book.

The plot is predictable and I have read many books with similar story line. The pace is slow at the beginning and then catches up but still stays medium paced.

The characterization is promising and the authors managed to give us four very different people and their own experiences are described admirably. Prakash sounds like he represents the author himself. He is shy and his innocence reminded me of myself when I went to my Engineering college for the first time. :)
Purvesh, Richa and Anand fit their roles well and I could connect with them.

It shows throughout the book that this is the first book by the authors. The intimate scenes are described with shyness and it looks like the authors are not comfortable writing sex scenes which sometimes sounded awkward and sometimes so funny that I could not help from laughing. Now, I don't think one should write things one is uncomfortable writing. It is not necessary to include intimate scenes to make a story good. The plot is the king and can be made entertaining even without including sex scenes.

Some opinions on women in this book rankled like girls' dressing categorized them either as good girls or not-good-girls which is unwarranted and definitely not expected from well educated young people like the authors or for that matter, from anyone.

My advice to the authors is to write in simple, conversational sentences without going all opinionated on someone sorely based on their attire or other external factors. A little more time spent on plotting and researching the story will make them go a long way.

All in all, Friendship Love And Killer Escapades is a predictable story but a promising attempt from the authors. 3 out 5 to it and recommended to readers who love college stories. I wish the authors the very best and look forward to reading more from them in the future.

I received the book from the author, Pankaj Giri and I am very thankful to him. The above review is my honest and unbiased opinion and in no way influenced.

[Komal Priyani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Congratulations For your debut Book and Thanks For counting me in your "Reviewer List"

To begin with,The title and cover page is quite an eye-catcher,I simply loved the way Acronym was aptly used to enhance outlook of the book..

F.L.A.K.E = A Campus story which is a blend of "technicalities and emotions".. This story keeps revolving around the "Crazy Gang" of Prakash ,Purvesh,Anand,Aakash and others, who are pursuing engineering courses From R.I.P institute in a techno-city of Bangalore..The blurb and outlook of the book will definitely add a fuel to your expectations but with the time that will extinguish abruptly..From The Crazy friendship to the killer pj's , From the Deadly lectures to the scary results, from hostel's conspiracies to exotic "Movie plans", From the faded romance emotion to the "Awesome Buddy-ship between the three musketeers"...this story is a bouncy ride (which was
on- off at certain points ,the only factor that was holding this story was The "slightest sense of humour Tenzing n co.had other than that, the is story is simply flat or you can say just like any other "stereotyped campus story" )

Wow And Oops Of The Book :-

1) Language -Though this book taught me few new words which enhanced my vocabulary to some extent but the language was totally irresistible,one cannot read this book without a dictionary, using high-tech thesaurus of simple words, repeating the words beyond the tolerance level was totally unbearable.

2) Beat around the bush :- The simple things were beaten to the bush in this book ,though it might seems funny in the beginning but when this "beating of words" continues its not at all funny....Let me enlighten you "He concentrated on his life-breath as it soared up and plummeted down.He repeated this exercise momentarily... Ere long, he experienced a divine light surging with him, perceptible somewhere within the eyebrows.... And ultimately attained a state of pure , absolute bliss.." Cant he simply say he was "Meditating" same were the cases while explaining sex ,Shitting and fantasising..

3) Audience and connectivity :- This book can be "Momos party " for the engineers and guys as they can connect to the technicalities of their field whereas for a commerce-based person like me this was "bouncer ride" plus the way girls were described based on their outlook and clothes was not appreciated on my part

4) Emotions and Emotionless :-
Initially the emotions like "love" and "Friendship" were satisfactorily expressed but as the main focus was given to "P&A gang" other characters like Tenzing and all were totally out of picture..Love which was in air initially was washed away by the end making this story emotionless to certain extent

Overall , This book is combo of some engineering spices brewed with some killer pj's and hi-tech words..
Authors All the best for your future escapades

Rating :- 2.5/5

Komal Priyani ❤️

[Kamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a good reader who is interested in passing my time reading books, however I do read few books maybe a book a year sort, that is filled with humour and anecdotes. This book "Friendship Love and Killer Escapades" was referred to by my friend who himself found it interesting and informed me that it would be a good time pass. I took this book while I was having my train journey and I would it not just a good read filled with humour but also it took me through my memory lines too.
The book made me so nostalgic that I started wondering if it was his story or mine :). The storyline was gripping and never made me feel put the book down till I complete. I wouldnt say it was so interesting, but it was surely a good read which I completed in my to and fro journey. The Authors hailing from the North presented a story that seemed to be more with a Northern touch and I being a South Indian, seemed to pass through a parallel journey with Southern Masala :) and despite differences the overall story was more or the same and hence I was able to relate to the story really well.

Does that mean there isnt any shortcomings of the book, I wouldnt say so. I felt the lines at few places could have been simplified instead of using complex English vocabulary and structure and that is just a suggestion as it could connect to the readers well. I felt the authors couldnt connect to the local culture and havent done a good research while penning the book, as the students other than the North Indians, seems to be only Tamilians. This shows how poorly the authors absorbed the local culture while their stay in Bangalore for their studies and wonder if they met any Kannadigas in their classes.

Apart from these shortcomings, the book is really worth the money and I am sure the other readers too would have got transported to their college life.
As the book claims, the book is set in an academic environment and therefore the pace of the book is medium pace unlike a fast thriller and a slow non-fiction.
With these words, I wish the authors all the best and hope they come up with more such good books.

[Ilonita50 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book from author to provide an honest review. Thank you.

The book cover is interesting and gives a credit to the book for new readers.
Being familiar with Indian culture and have read couple of Indian novels it was easy to recognize the culture backgrounds and style. However, book needs editing, starting with vocabulary issues.

The story is about main character Prakash and his boy gang in College, they live together and they discover odds and secrets about each other, face study difficulties and Prakash gets into relationship with Richa, a girl who is temperamental and does not want to fall for guy who may use her. Prakash is a guy who develops sudden feelings to many girls at the same and is ready to promise the universe and love, commitment. The relationship between Richa and Prakash develops, and ready to break up without much intimacy, thus Prakash plays a prank on Richa, and gets his plan through to have sex with her. Soon he gets tired with it and cant fulfill the relationship's emotional level. He often cheats on her and doesn't realize he's digging a hole in his own attitude towards his girlfriend. Prakash seems a guy who gets attracted to the girls from distance - they are everything he has wished for - some girls dont take him granted.

The book needs editing also on characters-apart from "couple" the characteristics to all involved is fine, fits to mentality and dialogues. The "couple" is flat, there needs to be depth! Their relationship often seems in the air and nothing happens between them apart from "hello, hello" episodes, but the story has time gap, where reader has no clue where did Prakash's girlfriend Richa is, has they broken up or she does is long story in the past. Prakash has new few days relationship with some other girl. The next chapter brings back Richa without the explanation.
The parts of the book where font goes italic is - too poetic for the whole set of book's language, story line and character development.

The plot would be fine, but it needs editing.

[Shalini Thakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much of brilliant narration. overuse of words! haha. But the content is covered with the excellency in writing... loved the parts with inverted commas described with the overhovering poetic style. Despite the coolly obsessed college life as we experience..the author has collected that decency in his writing ;)
Purvesh and Richa seem mischievous while prakash gives out a real, sweet and too honest personality. book is rated with 5 stars for language :D and three stars for plot!! best wishes author brother!!!!!

[Shristy Sinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice book. Language is rich. Thou few words seemed blunt. Story line is an account of a complete college life. There is not a single plot but FLAKES from the life of the characters. It shows chunks of character's lives which keeps on shifting from ones life to another's.
Overall a nice book for those who want to relive college time. :-)

(I would have given a four stars if the blending of the events have been more smooth. 3.5/5 from me. )

[Reezal Hemu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is enthusiastic as it reflects the life of college days. full of excitements, ragging love and mischief-rows conducts of student.

[Girdhar Joshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title suggests, FLAKE – Friendship Love and Killer Escapades by Pankaj Giri and Apoorv Wanikar is yet another tale of college life, friendships, love, and plethora of other incidences happened during a four year journey in the engineering college. The story revolves around three friends Prakash, Purvesh, and Tenzing (and many more, who appear later on the scene), who took admission in an engineering college aptly named, RIP College. The story is based on real life episodes that transpired in the life of young students, and predictably covers love, lust, ambitions, and skirmishes that obviously take place in order to survive and appear best in the lot.

Friendship Love and Killer Escapades by Pankaj Giri and Apoorv Wanikar is the debut novel by the collaborating young authors. The story is interesting and binds the reader to read more till the end. Though many turns and episodes in the storyline are predictable, as happens in the college-life-real-escapades of the protagonists, yet it keeps the reader glued to the pages. Given the first time authors, this is a really appreciable effort.

The authors can be criticized for frequently using uncommon words and phrases. Some of the words like ‘sexiness’, ‘cuteness’, etc. have found wrong grammatical usage. Similarly, some of the words and phrases like ‘tout de suite’, ‘anent’, ére long’, érgo’ etc. irritatingly overused and appear every next paragraph of the story. Notwithstanding the unwanted and erroneous grammatical usage, the language is successful in carrying the intended message to the reader.

The chapter layout is in chronicle order and the main protagonists have been suitably introduced. But within chapter, the reader finds sudden change or unrelated episode in the next paragraph. Though, some of such sudden jumps have been demarcated by a dotted line, yet the reader finds it unrelated to the chapter.

Overall, a good and appreciable effort. Hope to get more such literary works from the computer engineers.
3.5 Rating.

[Pink Wine · Rating 3 out of 5]

FLAKE: Friendship Love And Killer Escapades, is a reminder of those memories. I am far-far away from an engineering background or any technical influence for that matter, but I believe such experiences occur in everyone's lives in one way or the other. Everyone has had a friend who betrays yet you remain friends till the end, the patient little heart-broker, the one in relationship, the one who is witty, and so on. That's a part of life to have such characters in our lives, matter of fact, in someone's own version I am a character too.

Flake reminded me of my beautiful memories and happenings with my mates and buddies I would cherish for a lifetime. It was beautiful reading through each chapter and a mini-chapter within each chapter, which does not bore you and leaves a sweet taste even of the bitterest memories. After-all that was a part of life and today when I think about those times, they do bring a smile across my face.

I thank the author for such a sweet treat of memories.
______________________________________________________________________________

Flake talks about friends, who went through different situations in their lives while studying in college together. It talks about their friendship, lust, love, enmity and exciting adventures. The ups and downs faced together and cherishes those memories through chapters and sub-chapters.

The story was presented in a narration style and every character was given equal importance briefly talking about their lives and experiences. Generally, I enjoy reading books which are from the aspect of one character, that helps me relate to the character on a personal level and gives a whole new experience of reading. In this case, that was a void that I felt though the short stories kept the enthusiasm running.

Full Review, click here Iread2express.blogspot.com

[Remesh R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, first things first. A few pages into the novel, you'll realize what you are going to dislike about it: wrong word usage. The mix up of archaic and hi-fi words is undoubtedly a turn off.
This is the first campus novel that I am reading in my life. NO, I haven't read Chetan Bhagat. So I don't know any other book to compare it with. I liked this book. As an engineer myself, i could easily relate with all the characters, except Anand.
The rest of the characters can be found in all engineering colleges. The life of boys in hostels and rented apartments are the same everywhere. Weed, alcohol, cigarettes, girlfriends, its the same story everywhere.
What strikes me as peculiar is the style of the kindhearted author. A sort of innocence is in the writing as well as in Prakash. I have a feeling that he is Prakash Bharti himself. The sex scene involving Purvu nd Richu is a good example. It seems the author is shy to depict sensual scenes and uses a Harry Potter metaphor instead(like Prakash would do if he wrote it). That metaphor was hilarious and I laughed out. I think he could have used first person narrative which would have made this book more unique.
I wish Pankaj all the best for his next book.

[Shayam Hazarika · Rating 4 out of 5]

The debut novel of Pankaj and Apoorv takes us through the roller-coaster journey of few students studying in a private engineering college in Bangalore. I can gladly say the novel is quite a refreshing change from the already popular books in the same genre which concentrated mostly on the elite colleges of our country. The audience can expect a story which deals with simple emotions such love,friendship, anxiety, inferiority complex etc narrated in a brilliant way. Although this might sound common , but the backdrop of the story which touches the lives of a few individuals who started their independent journey away from their families for the first time will definitely bring back memories and smiles to everyone who had an eventful college life.
The book took me back to those lanes of Bangalore where I guess some part of my soul still roams and says cheers to this wonderful book and definitely puts a smile on my face :)

Kudos to the new writers and all the best.

[Arpita Giri · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a marvelous read! A modern masterpiece. This is how the top Indian writers should write. Impeccable language, exceptional narration, unique characters, hilarious at times too! Unlike most contemporary novels, the plot and ending are quite realistic. Readers will get a unique perspective of students belonging to ordinary engineering colleges rather than IIT/IIM/JNU.

Moreover, this is not an ordinary campus love story. The authors have put equal emphasis on various novel adventures, escapades, academic challenges experienced by students in college life. And, no vulgar words are used; had got sick and tired of vocal vulgarity in books of this genre. No stupid shayaris too, what a relief!

All in all, a wonderful read! Perfect execution of a quintessential campus novel with brilliant language and literary content. A must read!

[Gowtham Sidharth · Rating 3 out of 5]

the story is basically about engineering students and their struggles in four years of engineering life. prakash and purvesh are the lead roles accompanied with many more like anand,akash,vipul,richa,abhimanyu etc.. (i lost count after certain period.). Richa, smiriti , revathi and another girl who looks like a model (sorry forgot her name) are the female leads and love interest of purvesh and prakash

ts a very good clean story, snapshots of life moments, author tired to give most of college life.

the narration is non-linear,didn't conclude on many characters, focused only on prakash,purvesh and anand. (i still wonder what happened to richa). the end is pretty rushed up.

checkout my full review @ http://readersrejoice.blogspot.in/201...

[Book Reviews & Promotion · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book from the author in exchange for honest review.
As it is clear from the blurb, that this a story of friendship and love.
I liked the concept of the book.The plot is wel written.This is the story Prakash, Purvesh, Aakash and Co, revolving around the four years college life

I like some parts of the book,its very interesting to read. I was smiling, crying, laughing, getting anxious and connecting with the characters on every page.
However in some parts i think the author has used words unnecessarily and wrong use of words which the author should check & need to note it.

It was an entertaining read and i am looking forward to read more from the author.I would recommend this book for all the readers.
Overall i would give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

[Bandana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally, I might have liked this if I had not read Five Point Someone more than decade ago.
I felt that this book was just sequential order of events in one’s college life and bit of an overdose.
However, amidst all this I did laughed at Revathi’s response – replying to Prakash’s mail to focus on his career, Prakash and his dream (kitchen episode), getting into movie hall without ticket was refreshing (had not heard about it earlier).
I appreciate the effort by the authors will be biased to give this book a rating of 3 (first book).
The authors sure do love the word confab/confabulate/confabulated.

[Birendra Thapa · Rating 4 out of 5]

FLAKE is a wonderful short novel wherein the author lucidly and categorically tries to describe the experiences of friendship,love,escapades and other events which shape the life of the main protagonist,Prakash, who belongs to the land of Sikkim in India's Northeast, pursuing a career in engineering from RIP(Rest in peace) college of Engineering, as the author fondly refers to his college, situated in Bengaluru, Karnataka, South India.

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel.I wish him all the success in his future endeavors.

[Khusboo · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, Congratulations!! A story all of us can relate to,got me nostalgic , reminded me of my engineering days . A very well written (awesome words used, well explained), well sequenced and plotted . It was indeed a very good read . Its hard to believe it is the debut novel. Well, according to me , it gives a head on collision to many good authors in the country. All the best . Would love to read more of your work.

[Ameya Agrawal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Congratulations for the debut book. Even though being a debut author the book engages the reader well. Hope to see more of your work soon.