Dork - A Book Review

Dork written by Sidin Vadukut, is a compilation of diary entries which chronicles the sequence of events in the protagonist - Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese’s life from the first day of placement in his reputed MBA College to his sudden stardom as a consultant.

Well of course the real story is the journey between the start and the end.

I finished reading up about Robert Einstein Varghese in 4 days with two hours of read every day.

Day 1
Robert Einstein Varghese (REV) is a very optimistic human being with extraordinary abilities of turning sand into gold with sheer imagination in his mind. However most of the people around him would hold a contradictory view. He never gets bogged down with anything except for intermittent outbursts of Hindi/English slangs to express his disgust for other people’s doings. He is in love with a young pretty thing in college and thinks of ways to impress her and but the young pretty thing is not really aware of his deepest feelings for her.
He settles for a decent job. Well ‘DECENT’ is what other people thought; but with REV’s optimism – the offer was no less than extraordinary and specially tailored for his grey matter!

He leaves college on a hung-over note with alcohol playing the mischief when the entire college witnesses the sight of him sitting on the divider of the road outside his college campus with his shirt ripped apart.

That was not all, when the young pretty thing attempts to help REV move into his room along with another batch mate, Mr. Einstein bathes her in puke.

Well the puke smell may not have been such a good idea for a parting gift – but it sure served the purpose of having a lasting effect on his lady love! Mr. Einstein, on the other hand however, does not remember any of this. Thank God for that! Alcohol sure has some advantages.

Day 2

REV lands in the city that never sleeps (aamchi Mumbai). I can relate to this part of the story :P

He goes through the usual grind of moving into a new city like finding a house to live in, getting used to the climatic conditions. It is in this part of the story that he gets a little carried away and manages to plant a big hole in his pocket because of his optimistic expectations from the firm. He deep dives to grab the goodies on offer at the company provided hotel accommodation only to realize that they are not covered and with this realization Mr. Varghese lands on a hard rock solid bottom without a life jacket on.

The job keeps him quite busy with plenty of things to deal with, ranging from misleading the client into believing that he is senior personnel at the firm by goofing up the conveyance that was meant for senior officials with his own; to another alcohol driven act at a party with a senior partner which makes him the talk of the firm. And it does not stop at that, the party act gets captured in a video upload on you-tube for the world at large to watch.

Day 3

Robert Einstein Varghese turns out to be a stud, who not only manages to win the girl (remember the YPT from college) he had been chasing (in his dreams) but also manages to evoke interest in another one and finds it difficult to choose between the two. Work life continues to be the regular grind of wining some and losing a few until one day when he is lost totally and loses all hope of moving up the ladder on speed as he had imagined, when the infamous you-tube video spreads its wings and lands within the client’s radar!!

Day 4

He reaches the rock bottom levels of his frustration with the job and one last time again under the influence of alcohol he does the unthinkable! He lashes out at senior officials, the firm and the client over a line which gets copied to the entire network of the firm. (This time blame it on technology along with alcohol).

The interesting thing to notice here is that on all the three occasions where alcohol plays havoc in his life – he wakes up the next day morning with an erased memory of the previous night!

So it is only the impact that guides you to the intensity of the actual act.

Nonetheless, the story ends with REV becoming the international hero and a management guru overnight. I shall leave it up to the reader to read the book and find out how.

MORAL OF THE STORY: When you are too bogged down with life; turn to Alcohol! It may not solve your existing problems but it sure gives you the ability to think through them like a King who has all the power. And while you are in power you can do whatever you want – who knows you may just do the right thing like Mr. Einstein!!