For No Reason At All is a thinly fictionalised version of a very interesting and a very real story. High stakes and high intrigue—the story follows a young, feckless lobbyist, Solly Nilla, who is tossed into a situation that attracts the involvement of foreign interests including the embassies of France and the Soviet Union. And eventually, the direct involvement of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the President of India, R Venkataraman.

The Prime Minister must decide if he will standby locally developed technology or allow a government department to import technology from the Americans.

The novel is written in the genre of spy thrillers—pacy, tense, and funny to the point of hilarious. And it captures the New Delhi of the 1980s in the ambience of the Cold War and an omnipotent bureaucracy and a powerful national press. And the last phases of a sexually permissive era.

In this episode, Ramjee Chandran becomes a guest. The show is co-hosted by The Literary City co-host Pranati Madhav and guest host, Karthik Venkatesh, Executive Editor of Penguin.

Buy For No Reason At All here: https://amzn.to/3DWE1Hj. Or at your favourite bookshop anywhere.

ABOUT RAMJEE CHANDRAN

Journalist, author and media entrepreneur with decades of experience, he is the host of The Literary City podcast—on literature and books, featuring guests who include acclaimed authors; and The History of Bangalore podcast about the rich history of his home city, Bangalore.

He is currently working on his second book, The History of Bangalore—a scholarly work crafted as narrative history. This meticulously researched account spans the region's deep-rooted past, beginning in prehistoric times and tracing through epochs of transformation and cultural significance, traversing across its colonial heritage.

ABOUT KARTHIK VENKATESH

Author of "10 Indian Languages and How They Came to Be" and "10 Makers of the Indian Constitution: Stories of 10 Indians Who Shaped the Nation", Karthik Venkatesh grew up in Bangalore, speaking Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, English, Dakhani and Hindi. He tried to learn French but failed. He did learn Punjabi though. Once an MBA, he later studied education and taught English and History in a school. He now edits for a living and writes whenever the fancy strikes him. Karthik lives in Bangalore. On weekday mornings, he often runs. On weekends, he naps.

PRAISE

"Ramjee Chandran is among the most elegant writers we have. We are fortunate he has brought his talents to fiction. What writers want, above all, is material and this novel is what happens when a proper writer assembles his material."

—Aakar Patel, author and journalist"

"Debonair, stylish and uproariously witty, For No Reason at All reads like you have ringside tickets to the pandemonium of 1980s India—narrated to you alone, by the most sparkling of raconteurs"

—Anirudh Kanisetti, historian and author.

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