Along the Way by TGC Prasad.
Venkata Subramaniam Adisankara Tanikaburla alias VSAT, an engineer and this time a software guy shares his love story and other non-trivial issues of his life. As the title of the book goes- Along the Way, the story actually gives you a feel, the way life goes along unpredictable different paths meant to converge into one sometime later.
There is a gang of five to keep the readers busy on and off joined by the manager and HR at TCS. With the protagonist Venkat, there is Raj Malhotra from Delhi, Aditya from Andhra Pradesh. Anjali, his Coorgi girlfriend and Srila, the girl from Chennai. The story commences from college days where placements are a priority. Luckily the whole lot gets placed in TCS and four of them get set to start career from Bangalore except Srila who joins from Chennai. So now its time for the just pass outs to set foot in the IT industry. The book captures Software life and its intricacies quite delightfully keeping exaggerations at bay, be it the hate and love relationship with the Project Manager, HR or the onsite clients, its been all put in funny but realistic way.
When the fight for survival in the IT industry, extra efforts and day-night labour for the increment, visits to US is all put in the kitty, VSAT has the extra mile to walk. The love story with Anjali is not to be forgotten and parents on both the sides have to be convinced for them to live happily ever after. Father of Anjali, a retired colonel was a character unique in itself and I loved his special interest for trivia and general knowledge and his demand was simple to have a son-in-law who would be a master at it all. So VSAT was all game for it but the journey was not easy. This is the part I enjoyed most and alongside picked up some hidden facts and general affairs too.
Next, comes the surprise element, phone call from SRK, who helps to do the impossible. Half the battle won, Venkat sets out to convince his parents who have their own set of issues but later its love that wins and thrives above all. Its a story which is simple and quite next door. I mean 1 in every 10 engineer has a love story, gets placed in an IT company and has to go a little longer way to have a happy ending. The humour was rightly placed but again the story was not new.(myself being an engineer, have been witness to stories like this)
I liked the Colonel’s character, etched out quite well and it stands out definitely. All in all, a breezy read, its hilarious and could turn out enjoyable if lately you have not read many of the engineer love stories. But its quite better than the others that I have read of the same genre.
🙂 🙂 🙂
