How I braved Anu Aunty & Co-founded a million dollar company – my thoughts

Author: Varun Agarwal

Blurb:

How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company by Varun Agarwal is a compelling and humorous account of the fulfilment of entrepreneurial dreams.
How does an unfocused young person such as Varun Agarwal, become the co-founder of a million dollar company? How does he get pesky Anu Aunty off his trail? The book is an interesting real-life story of how the author, Varun Agarwal, managed to brave all odds to reach the peak of his career.
Varun Agarwal is shown to be an unfocused human being, with no real interest in pursuing a career, even though he does harbour dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur. Varun whiles away his time, hopping from pub to pub, spending time with friends and keeping a track of his love interest on Facebook.
These traits worry his mother to the bone, compelling her to put the very meddlesome Anu Aunty on the job, to help get her son moving in the right direction in life. Anu Aunty does a rather good job of this, much to Varun’s dismay. He then does all that he can to get her off his track, while pursuing his dreams to become an entrepreneur.
How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company is the author’s debut novel and is on its fourth reprint already. Having sold twenty thousand copies in only a month, the book has become a bestseller by national standards. It has also occupied a firm foothold on the bestseller charts for eighty days at a stretch. The author attained initial popularity with his Facebook blog posts, a few of which were sent to his publishers. The book was conceived once they demanded a full manuscript.

My thoughts:

I had bought this book way back in 2012 but somehow delayed reading it. No specific reasons to explain why! Anyway I finally did manage to read it and it was quite a good experience. 🙂 The book is the story of Varun Agarwal, told by him, about how he and his friend Rohn, co-founded an e-commerce store – www.almamaterstore.in, fighting against all odds.

The quirky name and cover of the book is what appealed to me in the first place. I had not heard about the book anywhere at all but the Aunty ji with the red bindi was appealing enough for me to hit the BUY button!

The protagonist, Varun, has been an average student throughout his life giving his mother no scope of showing-off her son in her kitty parties. He completed his B.Tech to comply with the wishes of his parents and but never managed to get a ‘good’ job owing to his not-so-good academical performance. And he does not mind that he has no 9 to 5 job because he was more interested in starting something of his own. But then in India, for a 20-something guy it’s not an easy job especially with your parents and character like ANu Aunty. In the story, Anu Aunty gets quite a limelight. 😛 Actually she is the face of those typical next-door-neighbour aunties who poke their noses at other people’s business and offer their expert opinions on anything and everything. The author has built up her character nicely and I could relate to it very nicely and I am sure many others have and will.

The books is definitely a light read with humour thrown in generously to entertain the readers as Varun tells his story of co-founding their million dollar company. The language is simple and flows smoothly. Varun’s thoughts to himself (shown in a different font style) surely make the reader laugh a lot. 🙂 And since the story is based in Bangalore all the popular places of the city gets a mention and I am sure this will strike a chord with the Bangaloreans. 🙂

Final words:

It is a light and fun read with the story flowing smoothly. Budding entrepreneurs can definitely check out this book for some practical and really useful tips. 🙂

Note:

1. The book was bought by me and my opinions expressed here are honest & unbiased.
2. This review is linked to my Indian Quills Challenge 2014 target (read about the challenge here)
3. Image and blurb has been taken from Goodreads