Zero Percentile : Missed IIT, Kissed Russia

Don't get misguided by the tag line.  If you are thinking this is another story about IIT then you are mistaken.  It has nothing to do with IIT but with Russia, thats where the whole story takes a wild turn.

Pankaj is the destiny's child born to an ordinary middle class family.  The story starts on a very cheerful note when the author details on why, how and when Pankaj was born.  His father wants nothing but the best for his son, so admits him in a good public school.  The school life, his friends (Priya and Motu) and the world that revolves around them which includes exams, competitions, misunderstandings, bigger hopes and more responsibilities flows throughout the part 1 of the book.  To keep the promise to his father, Pankaj starts preparing for IIT, but misses it due to an accident.  Left with no choice, his father gets him an admission in a Russian University.  This marks the end of Part 1 and thus begins Part 2.

The part 2 of the story sees the transformation of Pankaj from this innocent boy to the mature man.  Russia, an unknown country with unknown culture intimates him at the beginning.  His separation from the family and friends and the financial burden on his family depresses him,  but his fellow students keep company and he slowly comes out his shell and treat them as his family.  The hostel and Volgograd becomes his second home.  He starts to fall under bad company and succumb to peer pressure, which makes him get real bad marks.  But thanks to the corrupt Dean, he manages to get good marks through good bribes.  The author has made episodes involving sex, that goes to make an awareness about the Red Ribbon.  The end of Part 2 is marked by the death of his father, which puts things in order and Pankaj resolves to settle for nothing but the best.

Part 3 is where Pankaj the student turn to become a successful entrepreneur.  Pankaj returns to Russia and again bribes the Dean to make arrangements so that he can take up all the exams from the start and pass out with high scores in order to get the Red Degree of Excellence.  Though he knows how to get high scores, he does not know how to arrange the money for the bribe.  He goes to work for his seniors who had set up an imports exports office (thanks to the economic reforms at that period).  After a series of incidents he sets up his own establishment and makes it big.  Finally he also finds his love, but more problems begins as he is supposed to leave for India.  Did Pankaj receive his Red Degree, did he return to India, what would happened to his business if he returned to India, forms the rest of the story.

Neeraj Chibba though an debutante has given us an intense read with the right dose of emotions and problems we face every day.  He gives a hint in some places about how these turn of events would reflect in his future.  But the future would be some thing we would have totally not expected.  I was racing the pages hoping that Pankaj would not lose track of his goals and spoil his life.  It was a very enjoyable read with more realism than fiction.  It had been in my TBR pile long enough that now the author has written a sequel to this book called Zero Percentile 2.0: Missed IIT, kissed Gurgaon.  Hoping to review it also soon.  You can also visit the authors webpage and blog.  Also here is an interesting interview he had given to blog adda.