Pankaj "Point Blank" Pathak

One of the key drivers of apnuahmedabad is to highlight the not so common traits of our every day amdavadi.

One such proud amdavadi is Pankaj Pathak. You must have heard of the boy next door, well he IS the boy next door till you have a chai sutta with him and feel the passion emanating from his eyes.

I call him Point Blank Pathak because this guy comes across as such a genuine human being, it is tough missing his point. It is simple - you get only one life. So apart from being a senior HR manager, father of beautiful twin daughters and shuttling between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, this dude has gone ahead and written his first book and managed to get it published too! At last count around 5000 copies have already been sold. And did I tell you he is only 27!

Drawing from his personal experiences, some exhilarating, some sinister and some so damn common that you cant help but associate with him, he has done a commendable job.

Everyone who is anyone has heard of Chetan Bhagat. Extraordinary academic credentials, great sense of story telling and ofcourse now a youth icon. Movies have been made on his books and others are in the pipeline. The stories of 2 of his books have Ahmedabad as his backdrop.

There are others from IIM Ahmedabad who have also written works of fiction on life at the best B-School in this part of the world. But I am sure we all agree that Ahmedabad is so much more than just IIMA! Hell I have many who will swear that Rambhai and Bobby is much more in sync with aapnu ahmedabad.

But none of the books conjure up mental images of Ahmedabad, the way Pankaj’s book “But Santa Came Late” does. The storytelling might not be top-notch but the story in itself is fascinating and it is more so because it’s heavily drawn from real life of an average amdavadi youngster. Pacy narration, nicely sketched characters, right play of emotions. All in all a great first attempt!

But hey! Don’t just blindly believe me, pick up a copy.

Kya pata kal picture ban ne waali ho aur apna Pankaj, apnuahmedabad pe auditions lene lage?!

www.pankajpathak.com