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Though Ganesh Chaturthi always held huge importance in Hindu calendar, its widespread popularity can be accredited to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The valiant freedom fighter turned this domestic festival into a public celebration in 1893 with an intention to bring people together and garner support for freedom movement. However, Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav which was meant to bring people together and alleviate all communal discrimination has turned into a foul display of power and authority in the recent years along with having bizarre effects on the ecosystem. Every corner in every city has a different Ganapati, each one trying to belittle the next one with a bigger idol and over-pretentious decorations. Blocked roads and electricity theft become flavor of the season. Irrelevant obscene songs from the blaring loud speakers make everyone cringe in disgust and discomfort. Well, it would be unfair to say that purity of the festival is completely lost. There still are communities and grou…

Author: Karan Bajaj
 Publisher: Harper Collins (April 2010)
 Genre: Fiction, Thriller
 Price : INR 91 (paperback) and INR 99 (ebook)                              

When I finished reading The Seeker by Karan Bajaj, I was in awe of the author. So I picked up Johnny Gone Down. I can’t say I didn’t like the book but it was nowhere near The Seeker in terms of storyline and passion. Still worth a review and a few good words.

So you take one Ivy league scholar all set to start his career with the coveted NASA, add some unbelievable twists and turns to the plot, add some thrill to it along with a pinch of drama….and voila! You have Johnny Gone Down. And when you have all this in one dish, it can be anything but boring. I practically finished this book in 6 hours (spread over two days). It was so gripping that I was thinking about it even while driving and working . For me, that is good enough.

          Nikhil Arya or Nick aka Johnny, our hero here, has everything planned for his life. A…