A Romance with Chaos by Nishant Kaushik

fiction

by Amit Gupta | on December 29th, 2011 | 0 comments

Author: Nishant Kaushik

Publisher: Rupa & Co

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.

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