Ever felt that your life is a quagmire of uncertainty and dissatisfaction? Ever felt that destiny has struck a raw deal for you?
About The Author Nishant Kaushik is a twenty-six year old business consultant working with a leading multinational company. His first novel Watch Out! We are MBA was published early in 2008, and is selling successfully across India. A Romance with Chaos is his second novel.
Nakul, an employee of Bytesphere, always thrives on being a worthy contributor to his organisation while navigating through the politics in his office and the usual humdrum in life. With a boss who never recognises his worth, a girlfriend who always yaps about brands and luxurious life, and a mom who wants to get him married, how will he make peace with the chaos in his life?
Every employee in the IT sector might relate to this story. There is always a rat race and fear of being left out of your team. Some people make your hard work their stepping stone to success. Unfortunately, this is the reality we live in. Nakul experiences the same. With his zeal to achieve success and make money, he forgets his past perky self. Only when he was bogged down professionally and personally did he realise his goofs.
This entertaining and humorous corporate drama doesn’t bore you till the end. It talks of nuisances one encounters in life while illuminating us with the “X” factor that might add purpose to our existence. Giving us the vibes of a usual corporate story, it also instils in us an iota of social responsibility through the characters.
It’s a breezy and wholesome read even though it’s predictable. I admire the author for his witty narration besides the characters he moulded. I liked Nakul for evolving as a better person and learning through Eric( a comical character) while retaining his bubbly self.
Ah well it's tough to go through the old read books to decide to unhaul them especially you read them 10 years or more ago and don't remember nothing from them so another to the unhaul pile then. Oh man I sucked updating books in Goodreads earlier.
Meet Nakul Kapoor, a 20-something corporate executive, who gives you a hilarious account of how he struggles through a cobweb comprising an unacknowledged position at work that leaves him with nothing but the feeling of being an objectified resource, a stupid boss who thinks he is a smart Alec, a gorgeous girlfriend who can't think below D&G and Gucci when it comes to shopping with his credit card, and an extra pious room-mate who thinks that watching sleazy films and lusting after material comforts are trivialities that one needs to rise above. And then, one day, a few random sketches drawn by an acquaintance seem to give him the answers he has been looking for. Does he manage to wriggle out of the muck?
If you can look beyond the abundant stereotypes from the corporate world, there is fun in exploring the world of Nakul. There is a dickhead boss, a punch-you-in-backside colleague, an all-beauty-no-brains girl friend, a friend who is secretly in love with him, a random stranger who turns out to be an acquaintance and many more. The author neatly packages all the elements of love life, corporate politics, chaotic youngsters life and most importantly, life as an IT professional. It does not fall into the trap of touching the daily life of IT industry on the surface, but delves into the quotidian activities with depth, and abundant details. Those teleconferences, those outlook messages, those water cooler conversations, those back-room gossips; it all adds up.
To me as a reader, the chaos portrayed in the life of Nakul was extremely mature and delved with utmost sincerity and simplicity. The author portrays this chaos through sketches, making you instantly recognize what is exactly going wrong in his life. It does help that the author keep the tone straight and simple, though an undercurrent of humour is sprinkled all through the narrative. It is only in the final act that the author let us down with abundant coincidences thrown in. The boss and his daughter Natasha sub-plot is done conveniently, it looks contrived and so out of place. It makes very little sense and it appears writer was running short of ideas or time or both.
I am going with generous (2.5+0.5) = 3/5 for Nishant Kaushik's 'A Romance with Chaos'. Look beyond the usual stereotypes characters, and there is a good heart beating in this book. Not a bad way to spend a lazy weekend, and specially reliving those moments as an IT professional.
Picked this one up from the railway station for a 3 hour journey home. Wasn't disappointed at all. A nice lil story every indian corporate employee can identify himself/herself with. It's a rgeat plot, the eric series of paintings forms the life of the novel. I found there are a couple too many characters in the novel, but that's fine. A story set in india can't be told wid just a couple of chars i guess. Though everyone can find that they've been the Eric at some time of their life, not everyone finds a couple like Lekha-Shirley i guess, maybe that's more typical of mumbai/delhi culture. Overall its an interesting read, everyone who is frustrated with their run-of-the-mill IT jobs can actually find hope not bcoz that a solution is provided, but because a hope is provided dat no problem is big enough to remain unsolved!!!
Yes, there are some stereotypical depictions, but you can't blame the author because these stereotypes actually exist, as real people, and all of us know people like them The book touches a few raw nerves while dealing with the “dreams vs. current reality” issue. This means, the idealism each one of us has as youngsters before we enter the world of work somewhere gets buried and a more cynical, tainted version of ourselves emerges.
Overall, a good read. So all you “not much of a reader” types, and you who have quite a commute to work, and you, who simply like to complain about your job – hop in to the bookstore next door, and pick up the book!
Uff ... if only Indian authors would stop being influenced by Bollywood for their literature ... !!? The idea is books becoming movies, not being a filmy prose guys .... Anyhoo ... this book is an easy, light read ... with the protagonist boy hating his life, job, etc ... mucking it all up ... and then he makes it all perfectly all right in an angelic way and finds the girl of his dreams in the process too ...! Blah blah .... oh and blah .. !!
This is a typical corporate life story of a person who immediately completing his MBA degree joins a software firm when he realises that he wasn't meant for the job. He used to sulk about hi boss and his peers only to find out that the job he was doing was comparatively better than the rest of his friends job. His life's journey. The ups and downs in his life. A nicely written story buy Nishant Kaushik.
Writing very similar to the Chetan Bhagat style but doesn't deliver that class of boy-girl interaction. Written with half calibre as that of Bhagat. Turns very annoying and boring in the middle but is followed by a nice 2nd half.... a decent novel !
An Average Masala Mix of Indian Writing. Nothing too great about it, but the life of the protagonist in a byzantine labyrinth of events is all the more hackneyed. Could be a good start for neophyte readers.
some of the lines really struck a chord.. sometimes the writing felt like straight out of an MBA book, it might not have the jargon but it had that feel to it... the ending was unexpectedly rosy, there was not much leading to it.. but it was ok i guess...
I dint had much expectations from this book but to my suprise it was not that bad. It very well captured the anxiety of young professionals and many realities of life.