Keep off the grass – Karan Bajaj

Are you happy with money, job and a good relationship? Samrat was not. A Yale valedictorian working in a Wall Street financial jumbo leaves his job and heads towards his roots in India. His trip to India is a trip for self-realization and search for answers to some unknown questions.

 

He lands up into the ultra competitive IIM, Bangalore (foreign quota thoughJ) and sees a dramatic fall in his grades from a valedictorian to a mediocre student. But all of this doesn’t matter in the bigger picture (as Vinod says). He ultimately finds what he wants to know and stays back in India.

 

The story defines the state of confusion in the minds of American born kids of NRIs. It really made me think.

Where do these kids belong?

United States? But they are Indian.

India? But they no longer are in India.

 

They would always lack the sense of belongingness to a place, a culture. They would always be seen as second class citizens in the country they have chosen as theirs; and now as foreigners in their own country. Away from family and friends to pursue a high paying career and in a foreign land, is it really a good deal? In my opinion, it is not.

 

Another thing which made me think was the author’s mention about happiness. Many of us think that happiness eludes us in our pursuit of life. But the fact is that happiness is always with us. It’s just when we find it. And we will find it as soon as we really look for it. It is we ourselves who elude happiness and not try to look for it.

 

The book very beautifully makes you introspect and know some good things about yourself.

 

Hats off to Karan Bajaj!!! He really made me think.