Wanna hitch a ride to The Ursa Major?

I never thought I would enjoy a science fiction novel to this extent that I finished it almost over night. So I read this famous book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” written by Douglas Adams.

A lot of my friends had recommended me to read it and assured me that I will love it. Oh I would probably buy them all a dozen chocolates just for the recommendation. I mean I haven’t come across a book that includes so much detail and yet inserts comedy in such a way that you start laughing half way through the sentence and it takes about 5 minutes for you to come back to your senses.

My absolute favorite character is Marvin, the depressed robot who just keeps giving out remarks that gives a rather a deep sense of how depressed people are actually being treated in today’s society and yet makes you give him a high-five for speaking out how he feels.

What exactly is this guide? Well it is a guide that guides you right from the cover. “Don’t Panic” will be written in bold letters so that the person using it is not supposed to panic at that. And that is where the comedy starts. Some of the descriptions that Arthur gets from the guide are hilarious and he just wonders who the hell comes up with such stuff (which happens to be fellow hitchhikers) and an editor actually edits it all. Oh god! I would love to see the kind of entries the poor editor might be getting.

Some dialogues are just gems that you would actually feel like framing it in your mind and keep it there safe.

“You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young.”
“Why, what did she tell you?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t listen.”

So this guy from Earth escapes right before it gets destroyed by the Vogons because they were putting up a space highway kind of thing and our planet was in the way. Sounds a lot like what Indian Corporate officials do to the people they hate. I know the reason and all is there in the sequel books.  I am right now in the second book. So the expectation to come across a guy who respects a towel will be there for quite a while.

Oh I should mention the towel. It is one of the basic items a Hitchhiker must have along with his guide to the galaxy, which is an electronic calculator like device.

 

And in their adventure these guys get in the way of finding the answer to The Life, The Universe and Everything (the answer is 42) and then go about to have dinner at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

This guy Douglas Adams has a knack of describing things and a better knack of describing someone’s feelings in a way I am trying to master these days. This guy comes up with awesome come backs that you will think a bit before trying to give a counter dialogue. Oh I wish I could talk to him some day! Seriously!

Now I am continuing my journey through the galaxy and it is as exciting as it was when I first started it.

A genius book and a must read for anyone and everyone…..

 

 

Image courtesy: crowsnbones and dailygalaxy