Review: I For India

I For India, is 26 year old Karan Khanna’s debut book. Karan writes a story weaved around the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai and how the protagonist of the book also named Karan reacts to it.

The story is pretty simple, easy to read. Karan Sehgal is an Indian living in Australia and has everything going for him in life. His father owns a huge construction empire and there is nothing that is missing in their life. Except for the pull of motherland! This is what brings Karan to Mumbai, India and as is likely to happen with any NRI who has never stepped on the soil of his motherland and witnessed firsthand the issues facing the country, he finds himself utterly disillusioned and unhappy seeing the state the city is in. The rampant corruption, the class divide, the close to nothing development. So he is not too happy with the state of affairs but life goes on, till he finds a girl who he falls in love with hook line and sinker! The day he proposes marriage to her is 26/11 and they happen to be at the Taj. He manages to escape but sadly his fiancée cannot. Utterly miserable he returns back to Australia, but the call of motherland brings him back, this time with the aim to improve the life of the others. Till this point the book was all good but after this the book goes into a total I, me, myself mode. Where he only talks about his success, reaching new heights in social entrepreneurship but that too is cut short when he has a bitter encounter with the UP cops. He once again decides to chuck it all and chooses to become a politician, since he realizes, that that’s the only way he can make effective changes in the country, if you please! And then again it goes into a monologue of how successful he is at that. Also successful enough to be shot at and acknowledged by no less than the PM and asked to share the platform with him.

Yes the book does get unreal at times and leaves you with unbelievable optimism. Also in parts you feel the author is far suspended from reality and at places too filmy! But the thought behind the book is commendable. 26/11 managed to change a lot of perspectives in the youth of our country, else why would, a businessman turn to writing a book on his ideas of changing the country’s scenario and more youth involvement.

Here’s wishing Karan Khanna a long and happy innings as a writer from The Book Lovers!

Book Launch : I for India

Karan Khanna's debut book,I for India, will be launched at the Oxford Book Store, Mumbai on 6th May 2011. For more details follow the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=216710871688020

Book excerpts :

http://bit.ly/izPgXz

http://bit.ly/iDC6MC

Book Summary of I For India: A Novel

Is living in India becoming a joke? Do we always have to be ridiculed and remain disgusted? And why are we so vulnerable? Indians of every shape and size and of every hue and colour must have at least once in their lives felt ashamed of being an Indian! I for India is the fictional story of ‘Karan Sehgal’, a young man from Australia,

who came to India and fell in love with his nation, and then found himself in the middle of the horrendous November 26th Mumbai terrorist attacks, which changed his life forever. His passion and vision for his motherland became his purpose for living, and in doing this, he paved the way to an India of his dreams. Based on the author’s own dream for India, Karan Khanna’s novel is sure to breathe new life into the debates we have lived through in the last couple of years. Khanna’s book is one of the first in the emerging genre of disaster fiction and is path breaking in its efforts to awaken the youth of today and usher in a new era of hope and prosperity in this crisis stricken country. It will leave you inspired, thinking and thrilled at the same time.

About the Author

Born in 1985 in Mumbai, Karan Khanna grew up and spent his entire childhood there. After a two year high schooling in Bangalore, he went off to Australia and did his bachelors in Business Management from Monash University in Melbourne. On returning from Australia he joined his father’s textile business in Mumbai. Not finding the interest and enthusiasm he hoped for in his family business, he decided to pursue an MBA. During the application process he realized his passion for writing, and this, combined with his dream for India, led him to write this story. Dropping his MBA plans, he took up writing this book as his life’s biggest goal and realized his love for fiction writing and story telling. Besides writing, he loves movies, sports, travelling and reading. Karan lives in Mumbai with his family and continues to write.