Johnny gone down…
The latest offering by Karan Bajaj leaves you a tad breathless…well almost!


If you love a sense of madness grounded in some moments of lucidity, with just enough life lessons thrown in (no not another self help book, we the masses scream) then this one’s for you. Within a span of three hundred pages, Karan Bajaj takes us on a trip on the wild side- We travel continents, meet monks and drug lords, indulge in spiritual orgies and through it all cannot help but think how it would be to life in bite size chewable tablets of utter delightful madness. This lasts long enough till we realize we need to pay the bills on Monday morning…



Johnny Gone down traces the story of life of Nikhil who through a series of adventures, or rather misadventures, dons various avatars of life. From the hallowed halls of academia, Nikhil ends up as a genocide survivor in Cambodia and is witness to the depravity and senseless violence that humanity is capable of. Through a series of twists and turns the narrative then moves on to our protagonist experiencing monkshood followed by the most bizarre series of life events, none of which one would wish to delve into. That would take away the sheer joy of just watching our hero navigate through life and all its eccentricities.



Johnny gone down is reminiscent of part motorcycle diaries, part Indiana Jones, part Bollywood like coincidences (Think Kites!) and part love story. It screams, whispers, shouts and in a rather sneaky way asks us to look at our own lives…nicely!-Highbrow literature it is not…what Karan Bajaj has given us is an honest, unpretentious and a rollicking adventure – a perfect antidote for a sunny Sunday afternoon.



And at the end of it all, you just want to whistle, clap and cheer for our hero. Its not every day, that you read a book that makes you want to do that-and you just want to shout, hey Johnny don’t be good!