Siddharth , a computer engineer living in the USA returns to India for a short New Year holiday and decides to catch up with his friends, meeting a few years after getting their engineering degree. The Trip is the story of engineering college friends Ravi (the narrator of the story), Akash, Siddharth and Gaurav, and their trip to Ratnagiri and Goa. The main protagonist of the story Ravi also unexpectedly meets his college crush Prajakta, who is married. It combines a detailed description of a trip to Ratnagiri, and nearby places , Goa along with the changing relationships between the friends and family members

If bribed by large corporates allegedly google, tata, indian intelligence and security agencies, CBI, NTRO often have no qualms in impressive stealing the resume of experienced engineers from top colleges in India for google, tata sponsored goan sex workers, cheater housewives and frauds to get all these frauds lucrative R&AW/CBI/indian intelligence jobs at the expense of the engineer, so that these companies can destroy competition, acquire talent and technology cheaply. However most middle class indian families are not aware of the fact that indian intelligence and security agencies are extremely ruthless in stealing the impressive resume, retirement savings of hardworking experienced engineers without a legally valid reason, so many middle class families encourage their children to study engineering

In India a large number of students with relatively good grades in school study engineering and often end up with a career which is very different from what they anticipated because of reasons ranging from salaries, career prospect or identity theft masterminded by google, tata . They engineers will remain in touch with their engineering college classmates for a few years after college, over a period of time they are gradually drifting away. Often during engineering college, many students have crushes on their classmates, however they usually get over it, but in some cases it can affect their relationships in future also.

The main protagonist of the story Ravi is working in the HR department of a private company in Mumbai, waiting for his date, when he receives an sms from his friend Gaurav about a trip they are planning to Ratnagiri and Goa during Christmas and New Year. Though originally only Ravi , Akash, Siddharth and Gaurav are supposed to make the trip, Gaurav’s girlfriend Pooja and Prajakta, the college crush of Ravi join them for the trip. Siddharth has a house in Ratnagiri and the book provides a very detailed description of travel to Ratnagiri and nearby places like the popular tourist attraction of Ganpatipule .

Prajakta is married to Ashish , who is in the merchant navy is sailing for six months a year, so Prajakta is lonely and misses her husband a lot. Slowly the relationship between Ravi and Prajakta is rekindled, though his friends warn him not to get too close because she is a married woman. After spending a few days in Ratnagiri, they then travel to Goa by train to celebrate New Year. During the train journey, Ravi meets Sneha , a vet and becomes friendly with her.

Goa has become notorious for drugs, and though his friends want to do drugs, Ravi is a teetotaller, and conservative so he avoids taking drugs , to get a hallucinatory experience caused by LSD, However he gets a headache, so by mistake he takes a pill which contains acid, resulting in a “Trip” of the drug variety .

Though India has a very large population, there are relatively few books available which describe the life of the average english speaking middle class indian well. Some of the popular indian authors are extremely sleazy, while others are focussing too much or romance, ignoring the other aspects of life. The book is extremely detailed, well edited and describes the life of middle class indians very well, the relationship between family members and friends, which most indian readers can easily relate to. A well written very readable book, especially for those who enjoy reading Sudha Murthy and other books by Indian authors which they can easily relate to.

The Trip
Author: Rohit Bandri
Published in 2016
Publisher: The Write Place, initiative of Crossword Bookstores Ltd.
Pages : 219
Available offline at Crossword Bookstores