Book: Kekacauan – This Can Happen To You
Author: Prasad Deshpande
As we have posted earlier, we are reading books from PD’s collection. They are all classics which may have impacted the language and way he describes in his books. We were trying to read a play by G B Shaw – to be honest, it was heavy for a first time readers, so PD gave his own book Kekacauan to us. He said it is in simple English and will be no trouble for us to read it. Upon asking, he mysteriously told us that the book is about a thrilling travel adventure through parts of Malaysia… and Kekacauan is a Malayan word for Topsy-Truvy, Chaos, etc. Meaning something going wrong… We know he is a fantastic author (having read his earlier books – Akhand Hind Fauj and Shadyantra) and knew that something was up his sleeve when he told us this…
Anyway this was before the book was published and we were reading the original draft of the story which was finalized for publication. We read the blurb of the story…
“KEKACAUAN is a Malay word for Topsy-Turvy, Chaos and for everything that is going wrong…
Chaits (Chaitanya) is on an incentive trip to Malaysia. He senses something is wrong – only to find out – everything’s going wrong in his life…
This is a story of love and sacrifice.
This is a story of danger and terror.
Being honest is a reason enough to make enemies…
Follow the rules – or This Can Happen To You.
Not everyone is resourceful and resilient…”
We became interested immediately to know what the story is – the words Love, Sacrifice, Danger and Terror attracted us and we sat down to read the story…
Kekacauan meaning Chaos, Topsy Turvy is an apt word for this story.
The beginning of the story builds up the suspense you are looking for and keeps you wondering who she was and what happened to her…
The main character of Chaits (Chaitanya) is an ace sales person. He is good looking and impresses people by looks. He has a persuasive tone of voice which makes girls go weak in their knees. He is flirty, has a good heart and extremely honest. He tops the Sales figures in the country and is awarded an Incentive trip to Hong Kong and Macau… He is travelling to Delhi when he recollects his Incentive trip one year ago when he visited Malaysia… The entire story is a flashback of what happened there…
As written in the foreword, the actual story begins with a tour of Malaysia. Minor skirmishes which can happen in any part of the world happen with Chaits. It’s a travel log kind of description – that’s what we thought till character of Ms Lisha Pein entered the story in Penang. We thought of romance but nothing of that sort happened. He has to leave Penang with his group and we were a bit disappointed. Then he meets Laila at casino in Genting Highlands and again the expectation of romance soared… once again he has to leave her and Genting with his group.
The business idea at the casino is something casino owners can ponder about and implement. It’s a wild imagination and we are sure guys would love to dream about it…
We were getting to the point where the tour was about to get over, we realized that more than 2/3 of the book is yet to be read. Confusion followed – what next?
That’s when a dangerous plot exploded right in our face. Full marks to the danger of the plot and the danger Chaits was in…
Then we began reading an adventure of fantastic action and we stayed awake almost overnight to see what happened next… we finished this book in one go…
The action is fantastic if you like action movies like Mission Impossible, or the movies of Jackie Chan and likes…
The story from here is fast paced and leaves you breathless. The chases seem realistic, enigmatic and are described in a cinematic fashion that allows you to imagine what’s going on… You are just kept riveted to the book.
The suspense is nerve racking. The romance is scintillating even though the plot is dangerous and deadly. It’s better than watching most of the action movies. Another feather to a book like this is… it’s our imagination that lets us decide how the characters look like (their features, their appearance, their style of walk, et al) which doesn’t happen in movies because actors there define the characters…
This is a rollercoaster ride of suspense, danger, and romance and we know you will enjoy the story as we did… We are not going to spoil the suspense.
Our first question to him was – “When are you writing the sequel?”
We know he has travelled abroad to many places and has a variety of information for the places he has visited – so we asked him about Malaysia, the experiences he has not written in the book… He told us that the casino at Genting Highlands existed – he doesn’t know if it still exists.
He then told us how Malayan language has same words that we use but have completely different meanings…e.g. ‘Pintu’ there means a Gate. ‘Keluar’ (pronounced as Kalua) means an exit. He told us how he had trouble at a shack when he visited Penang beach – he was wanting to sip on a cup of tea and how he was served a black tasteless tea – after much discussion in sign language he found that the strong tea we normally consume with milk added to it is known as English Tea and they call milk ‘Susu’… He then asked the guy how Malayan people thank in their language and he was told to utter ‘Terima Kasiya’ which sounds somewhat like swearing in India.
He told us about a massive Cave Temple of Lord Kartikeya he visited on his way to Genting on outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. He told us that the most watched Hindi movie was ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’ – Malayan people loved that movie… and yes, they did broadcast Indian movies in the afternoon on their National Television. When we probed, he slowly mentioned that he did meet one Ms Pein (didn’t know her exact name) at Eden Sea Food Village and she looked beautiful enough to create the character of Lisha Pein in this book…
He does that – he has this habit of looking at beautiful girls, much to our irritation, to see if he could write a character based on her looks and style. Girls sometimes give a hard stare back not knowing that though he is looking at them – he doesn’t see them – he is looking at his probable character…
Do not forget to read the book – it is a fascinating adventure based in exotic locales of Malaysia and the characters do make an impact on you…
Just FYI – currently this book is Free to read for Kindle Unlimited users for a stipulated time – if you are a member, do make most of this offer.
See you all till our next book information…