There are some debuts which will make a difference! One such debut is this Amreekan Desi. Totally mesmerized  by the book especially the narrative was simple so close to your eyes. You would be walking, running and flying alongside the characters and not to mention making you laugh all the way even whenever they were thinking aloud.

Now to the story, we have three main characters, all get to the same campus at Amreeka, let me also turn the Punjabi way! Differing backgrounds, different families, and different aspirations to make it in Amreeka all in the way they have mentally prepared.

Meet Akhil Arora, the protagonist of this story, your goody goody boy and the eye of all the studious lot. In his portrayal the author has given us a valuable friend and advices galore just in case you are preparing for GRE or even the idea of America in a different vein.

He has a girl friend in Nandita, who actually gets introduced during their first flight onward to Amreeka and the blossoming of the relationship is beautifully woven without the extreme characterization that you normally find with the characters in love.

Then you have Jaspreet, oops he’s gonna kill me for calling him that name, its actually Jassi if you wana call him that.

He is your quintessential American addict or the dude who thinks that all women behave like they show on MTV.  Its his adventures which make it pretty interesting and gives a lot of insights into why there is so much we misunderstand American Culture. Oh I forgot he is the biggest fan of Pamelaji! Now dont ask me who is Pamelaji!

Its a nice story of all these three characters and more,  the families, the student friends at the campus, the life and times of these people in a new land and how they get transformed, adapted and make a beginning like no other. It casts the best of human frailties and emotional setbacks in an academic environment and transports us to the lives of these people over the two years they spend graduating from the University.

It also portrays how we stereotype the America Desi and for a change this book revels around the true picture without taking the liberty to be a novel. Its a pretty close to heart narration that makes you turn page after page till the end.

You will probably yearn to know – what would happen to Jassi, and curse Akhil when he does the worst and feel bad for Nandita during the course of the reading. The best part of this is the characters might be close to someone you know and may be someone you may meet in the future.

A class act, I would say some of the instances in the story like Akhil making his effort to convince Nandita’s parents, though it would seem filmy, it was grounded. Sprinkled with wit and laced with humour, this is an easy and a fast paced read that you would enjoy any time and I am sure yo uwould put it down only when you finish it. You would really have a new idea of America and also start loving your own country as much as you will start appreciating the diversity and the Indianess  associated with us. I have been asked to use the word appreciate. Hope the Americans appreciate that.

Absolutely great read and an awesome debut in this genre for young people, and according to me  the sense of humour it evokes is its biggest achievement.

Thanks to Nimi – The Readers Cosmos   Review Program for the opportunity to review this book.

To know more about the book : http://book.amreekandesi.com/ and for some excerpts of the book go here: http://book.amreekandesi.com/excerpts/

Senthilkumar Rajappan