The Off-Site Tamasha by Abhay Nagarajan – review

Abhay Nagarajan’s protagonist has had by now three (un)eventful years at work with no trace of what-so-ever love life and being the same docile, all-bearing subordinate under the same old boss nested in their pigeon hole sized Bangalore branch but this time the novel takes a raunchy, sexy turn instead of just pouring into numbers and selling mutual funds to HNI clients.  So all the team members of Wealth Capital Advisors  from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore branch travel to Kyari, a 10 hour or so remote destination from Delhi for an off-site relaxation program for the stressed out employees. What was supposed to be a regular team-building episode takes a hilarious turns with titanic arguments between HBS and the Delhi colleague with lavish, crude pot-shots taken at each other that could rival the script writer of a B-grade bollywood masala sexed up- comic caper.  If the men’s pot-shots at each other are not enough, you have the three men’s sexual cravings and it flares up with the arrival of the two ladies, who in turn have their own agenda to finish.  Who are the ladies? Why are they at the resort? Did the men get to fulfil their carnal pursuits? makes the off-site “sexed-up” tamasha.

While Abhay’s first novel took you along a comical journey of the young finance executive’s first year at work that also coincided with the euphoric stock market rise and fall and his encounters with assorted, mercurial HN1 clients, in this second book he leaves behind the financial stresses and picks upon largely the sexual stress plaguing the three men, that the novel circles around.  Yes, like in American Pie movie series, you do tend to laugh at some of the crude jokes that the novel is laced up with.

If you have read my review of Abhay’s first book, you would get an idea of what to expect from the author and in this sequel he takes it two steps ahead (or should I say two steps down?!).  In the words of a movie reviewer, the story can be termed largely aimed at front benchers of singleplex!  And in the end you also have the author taking a dig at Chetan Bhagat’s titles, reminding again of some deliberate Bollywood pot-shots.  The book is not clearly for all tastes and since I have co-related with Bollywood, I am sure you can gauge if it would suit your tastes or not. As a reviewer who has read both Abhay’s novels and perhaps sensing what he is capable of,  my word would be to give the financial executive a new beginning in life and may be a change of company that would set free even the author within Abhay to discover more.

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