A Roller Coaster Ride by Saumil Shrivastava is another one of those endeavours by the MBA/IIT/BPO tribe of writers who have been finding a good number of willing publishers and some shelf-space for themselves in bookstores across the country.
It starts with Maddy in his IIT hostel room in December 2005, being once again overlooked by the campus recruiters. Having found no placement in any of the top notch corporates, that offer lucrative packages to the proficient, he settles down to whole-heartedly handle preparations for the Mood Indigo festival.
The crowds descending in on Powai for the festival also include some beautiful girls (‘chicks’ is still being used by some of these writers including Saumil, even though this term has now already passed into the section of derogatory words) who have been installed in the girls’ hostel. Maddy gets his chance to rescue them from mosquitoes after biking across for an ALL OUT, and conveying to them some yarn about going through a lot of trouble to get it for them. A gushing thanks and a handshake, into which he reads many things, are reward enough. But Maddy even gets a date, beautiful and in a white long dress. A heavenly evening dinner at an upscale restaurant, which, after much sharing of confidences actually ends like this:
I was about to take out the cash but she stopped me and gave me the heart attack. “See, I am elder to you, you are just like my younger brother, lemme pay the bill.”
Pooja, a friend/girlfriend, is an online find, who emerged from about fifty girls from Maddy’s ‘own caste’ list. Again a date, at Juhu, where is Pooja is cheerful, friendly and then seated close to him on the bus back home to Anushakti Nagar, with him having gallantly offered to accompany her all the way. He gets back to his room, happily anesthetized from his earlier pain and moroseness at not yet having found any placement.
There is Divya who comes into Maddy’s life and workplace in Delhi.
A Roller Coaster Ride by Saumil Shrivastava
Published by Srishti Publishers
Price Rs.100