When you read the series 'Horn OK Please (HOP)', the author comes across as a self-acclaimed ‘moron’ travelling around the world with a keen eye for unusual details. But once you meet him in person, you’ll be convinced that the dimwittedness is just a façade.
Bengaluru-based Kartik Iyengar just released the second book in the series, titled 'The Scrotum Scrolls'. He tells us how travelling all over the world, meeting new people and being an adventure sports junkie has helped him garner attention and gain enough profit to send most of his proceeds to deprived children of India.
Ask him why the explicit name for the book and he questions, “If one of the best broadway plays in India can be called Vagina Monologues, then why not this?”
This progressive Indian, whose love for driving began in USA, where he lived seven years, says he came back to India by choice. “I want to change the way a few things are. For instance, Indians are not ambitious enough. They never dare to dream. But I believe that the more you dream and discuss your ambitions, the more you’ll achieve,” he explains.
The author, whose style of writing is dangerously funny, touches upon topics like doomsday, time travel and alien invasions in his second book. A philosophical thinker, he believes in everything he writes, although it’s tagged fiction. “While travelling in Nevada, I learnt of several UFOs that had landed in the desert there. It’s true,” he exclaims. He goes on to reveal that he has already written the manuscripts for his next four books, which he plans to release in 2014. His plots seem to be all over the place! “I’m writing about this secret cult of nine people, based upon whose decision, events occur in the world. That’s in my fourth book titled 69 Palms,” he says. His fifth book, titled Supernova, speaks about the power of superstitions.
“My aim is to publish a book a year until I die,” he states ambitiously. What started off as a road trip from Kanyakumari to Leh, ended up in a visit to the Tibetan Children’s Village, where he met the Dalai Lama. When everyone else tries various ways to raise funds, this is his way of contributing.
“In a way, you could sum me up as SMAK. That’s Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and K is doing it my way, that’s Kartik’s way!” he smiles.
