because a great book deserves this.
Disclaimer & Consciousness
Not because the book starts with one too. Rahul Verma is my friend—a very close one. We were friends, and at some point, we stopped talking for years due to something that seemed important then but is utterly, bitterly useless now. One fine evening, we met in a bar, hugged each other, and became friends again. I cried, and he probably did so in the toilet (or at least, I’d like to dramatise the situation that way). We then chose different paths in life and have remained friends forever.
He is my friend, someone I care about deeply, but I chose to read the book as though it were written by a stranger. I am the best friend my friends have seen and also play the role of Ityadi once in a while for their well-being. Knowingly or unknowingly, in order to remain independent and still help my friend, I assumed the role of Ityadi while reading this book. The name Rahul Verma was incidental to it.
That was my approach to reading it. I took about four days to finish the book—unusual for me. I am the kind of reader who goes through just a couple of pages and then mulls over them for hours or even days, depending on their depth. But I was chasing a deadline to meet my friend and didn’t want to see him while I was still in the middle of reading. That would make me blabber and fail to be coherent in my thoughts. This was not something I wanted to do for someone who had put in a dedicated effort to get their first official big, serious (satirical, I mean) book out.
I don’t read fiction. I just can’t follow too many characters and their names—especially for an extended period. It’s not my cup of tea. So, when RV—the one chosen by Satyadi—decided to send me this book to read (and he didn’t say review or give feedback), I chose to read and write about my experience mostly for my own sake. It just happens to be incidental that I am sharing this with Rahul Verma too. Maybe Ramit and JP as well.
However, before I decided to read it, I did a quick smoke test on the book.
I first flipped through the pages of the PDF that was shared with me. I read the Foreword that Vipul probably thought I wouldn’t read and the warning from Jose. I skimmed through the chapters and a few paragraphs of a random pages to gauge the writing style and understand how I was supposed to consume this.
To my disappointment, the book wasn’t my style or my kind of read. It had characters, names, depth, and a continuation of those characters across several sections and chapters within a mega Khand. I wasn’t immediately impressed.
I know Rahul Verma a little too well. He is a fucking genius. And when he isn’t being a genius, he is fucking his own genius. He can go off on a tangent. He can go too deep—deeper than Pra-deep. He can be more philosophical than anyone. He can chase the impossible. I have listened to a 50-hour pitch on the Arjuna framework from him. The beers certainly helped. I didn’t know what to expect from him this time. I was both excited and afraid to read this book. Afraid because—if I got bored or if he had gone off on a tangent I didn’t like—I would have to tell him. And I would tell him. If I didn’t, it would be a disservice to him, his work, and our friendship.
So, here I am, sharing what I went through on this journey of reading the book. At this moment, I must admit that I kept switching between reading it as a friend and reading it as if I had no clue who wrote it. This is my consciousness about my bias and my deliberate effort to de-bias myself.
This is an experience report. Just that.
Structure of My Report
I have many things to say, and the best way to put them down is through a structure. Why? Because structure helps capture the complex set of experiences I went through on this journey of reading the book—unfiltered, just as Rahul Verma would like it.
Reading Pace
I took about 10–12 sessions to read the book—on my commute to the office, after a meeting got cancelled. I am a super slow reader, and I needed to finish this book, so I dedicated everything to it. This section, though, is not about my reading pace. It is about the pace of the book. I looked at the story arc. It slowed me down in some places—there was drama in some sections that I was just about to get bored of, and then, suddenly, something sparked excitement or an immense amount of curiosity, making the book gripping in places.
Like a Netflix series, I was hooked. When I read the title “The 15th Mile”, for instance, and saw the corresponding image of a man standing by an old truck, I thought, “Oh no.” But this section ended up adding deep meaning to my life. In other words, I was an unsuspecting buffalo, unaware of what this part of the book had to offer. It was pushed down my throat, and I swallowed it like the sweetest cud.
This book has multiple instances where the pace slows down too much, only for something unexpected to happen, keeping all buffaloes awake in the middle of the night—writing an experience report at 1:28 AM—despite being the kind of buffalo that prides itself on consistently sleeping by 10:30 PM.
The pace is set that way. It just is. One of the few things in Aadi’s Pyramid that works is the pace—the intentional disinterest it caused me at several points and the surprising slap it gave me at others. Aadi had something to be happy about. I felt good for him.
The Characters
As I mentioned—and will keep mentioning—I hate such books. Too much to follow, too much to remember. This book was no exception. There were too many characters and too many details to keep track of.
Just when I was about to dismiss this as yet another book written to enthrall a teenager who loves Harry Potter, I became a character and got lost. Sometimes I was Meera, sometimes Jasleen, sometimes Vikram, and sometimes Kaam Debo.
The first time the book introduced me to these characters, I was not happy. But when I started identifying with them—how could I dislike myself?
Not just them. As I finish reading and reflect on the book, I realise that I have lived, am living, and will continue to live all those characters. I have been running Nirnai and Shilpai in my mind. Or rather, they have been running me over the years.
“Main sab kuch hoon, isi liye, main kuch bhi nahin hoon.”
The Emotions
If boredom is an emotion, I began with it. If pressure is an emotion, I began with it. If goosebumps are an emotion, I ended with it. I even took a picture of my body covered in goosebumps after finishing this book. The last time something like this happened was when I finished reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
I smiled while reading. I winced with an “ouch” while reading. I gasped with an “OMG” while reading. I thought “Really?” while reading. If I were an expressive Bharatanatyam dancer, I would have brought out all the emotions and expressions through my dance to depict the emotional journey this book took me on.
What About Tears, Pradeep?
Yes, I shed tears. Thinking about the pain of writing such a book, I felt the physical and emotional toll Rahul Verma must have endured. This must have been physically exhausting. He is not used to this level of endurance, so I felt his pain (imagined, I must admit) and had a tear.
Are Tears Only for Pain?
Nope. I had a tear out of sheer joy while reading certain parts. I thought, “Wah! This is brilliant.” It takes an artist to appreciate another. And in that moment, I felt like an artist who could truly appreciate something like this.
The Khands
Aadhar
Aakar
Aahar
Wah!
The Past
The Present
The Future
Deeply engaging.
I am human, and by that, I mean I have my favourites. If Aadhar Khand had not been as mega-engaging as it was, I would have skimmed through the others. Rahul Verma saved himself by making it gripping, entertaining, and leaving me wanting more.
I was deeply disappointed that Aadhar Khand ended so soon.
Every moment of boredom in the other Khands had me hoping that Rahul would bring back something from Aadhar Khand. The past is never over 🙂
Aahar was the right Aahara—food for thought.
The Plot
Insane plot.
At times, I found myself imagining—if I became a billionaire, I would love to shoot this as a movie, adding my own flavour of drama to it. I wouldn’t even try to come close to the book’s conclusion—just wouldn’t be able to—but I would produce a DDLJ-style climax to make it extra exciting. That way, I would preserve the essence of the book.
This book is a plot of plots. So many intertwined narratives that we never know what to expect next. Who is the protagonist? Who is the antagonist?
Everyone is everything. How can it be? How can it be?
The Parts Rahul Verma Should Delete
Oooh! He would be surprised to read this.
Aakar Khand is the lengthiest one.
At some moments, it moves here and there—sometimes slow, sometimes fast.
To tighten it up, I would have loved to remove the section on The Party. The joy in the party didn’t just kill the excitement of the people in the party, but also mine as a reader.
Similarly, Aakar Khand could be shortened by another section. That would trim about 10–15 pages and make the reading experience much tighter.
Testing Book? Really?
Testing is incidental to this book.
It is deep in testing, and it is deep in everything.
For people who know testing—it might seem like a book on testing.
For people who know beyond testing—they might keep one eye open.
For people who know life—they will have both eyes open.
For people who want to open their third eye—this book is for them. 🙂
There are enough reasons for people to hate this book.
That, in itself, is its biggest marketing. 🙂
Courage
I don’t think anyone has the balls to write what Rahul has and publish it as a book.
Among many other things, this book is a masterpiece of courage—just as much as it is about satire and Rahul’s love and dedication to his mother.
Ramit and I were deeply concerned that Rahul barely expressed the grief of his mother’s passing. But reading this book, I discovered that whatever was suppressed found an insanely beautiful expression through these pages.
This is the most courageous expression of grief and gratitude from a son to his mother.
The Profoundness
My realisation in life is this:
Profoundness doesn’t answer questions. It makes the need to find answers to questions disappear. This book does that. For people like me, who slip between consciousness and oblivion, the ending is explicit enough so they don’t miss the profoundness of this book.
Rahul didn’t realise he was doing it. Why would he? It was Satyadi who was asking him to do it. It is going to take years—decades, even—for Rahul to realise what he has done with this book.
He will be surprised and feel happy once in a while, but all that will just be a reaction to what he hears from people. The profound impact of the profoundness won’t be fully felt until several years have passed.
Writing Style
I was skeptical.
Given Rahul Verma’s deep research in AI, at several points, I wondered—did he really write this? Or is he making a joke out of us by getting the whole book written by ChatGPT?
I asked myself—Is this really his writing style?
Why have I not seen this style from him before?
Not to this level.
Did he master this?
Why would he do it?
At one point, I thought—maybe he only wrote the prompts, not the book. 🙂
Maybe he wrote it and asked ChatGPT to improvise.
He must have taken some help.
The images were stunning.
At first, I dismissed them. Then, I fell in love.
They are AI-generated, for sure.
And then there was the Cameo Foreword from ChatGPT. That got the tester in me thinking—there’s some ChatGPT in this book, but I don’t know how much. So, I became skeptical.
Look at the age we are living in.
We are skeptical about talented people like Rahul Verma.
Long live AI.
But as I continued reading—the plot, its twists, and the deep meanings this book helps us derive from our own experiences—I gained confidence that the main writer of this book is, indeed, Rahul Verma. The book, its flow, and its writing style carry so much of the Rahul Verma I know—and the one I thought I knew.
I have always prided myself on my ability to write creatively in the testing space.
And now, I have just found a meta baba of creative writing in testing—who is damn good at it.
A Section I Deleted
I had written another section of my experience report—but I deleted it. It distracted from the flow of everything I had written so far.
It was about the timeline we live in.
And the bottom line of what I deleted is this:
Right now, we are living between Aakar Khand and Aahar Khand.
Book Review
Now, I am writing a review. This is part of my experience report—not the experience itself.
This book is a masterpiece. This is truly The Last Book on Testing that people should read, but not the last book from Rahul Verma. Rather, it should be the beginning of many books he must write. This book puts India and Indian authors’ originality on the global map. Rahul Verma, using references to testing, makes it a testing book as well—and a great gift to the testing world.
I went through different thoughts about this book, such as: Is this an India-specific book or a global book?
If Chicken Tikka Masala is a globally loved dish, then this is a global book.
Through this book, I believe Rahul Verma opens doors for the world to experience India in profound ways and subtly discover that they, too, have a Meera within them—who is, at her core, very much Indian.
I think there is a certain type of person who will love this book immediately. And everyone else? They will also love this book—as they age gracefully. A 24-year-old with two years in the industry may not appreciate certain things today, but when this person turns 42, this book will feel like a wow they failed to notice when their body screamed a younger age.
The only people who won’t like this book are those who are disappointed with themselves—or those who are disappointed that they are not the author of this book (and what a flattery that is!).
This book doesn’t offer lessons learned.
This book doesn’t offer anything.
The offering is left to the reader.
My offering and another reader’s offering will not be the same—because our experiences are different.
For Better Readership and Sales
This book needs to be 20 pages shorter. A sharp 200. I leave that to Rahul to decide.
Why the magic 200?
There are fiction readers who consider 300+ pages to be their kind of fiction. This book has no obligation to cater to everyone, but if LinkedIn readers are factored in, their best attention span is at 200 pages. I figured this out by publishing two books—one within 200 pages and another exceeding 200.
If it stays above 200 pages, it would take four years for people to start talking about this book more and more.
If it stays below 200 pages, the early readers will push it forward.
That’s important.
As Richard Bach did with Jonathan Livingston Seagull—adding a missing chapter 20+ years after the book was first published—Rahul has the opportunity to add another Khand and take the book to 300+ pages after it crosses 100,000 copies in sales.
However, take this with a heap of salt.
Don’t let Pradeep screw the book.
Let Rahul Verma be out there, as he always will be.
This Masterpiece Deserved a Damn Detailed Review
I would have loved more time to write this review.
Me being me, I could have written a 100-page review of this 220-page book and still felt insufficient.
That’s not just an indication of my love for Rahul Verma—it’s a testament to the impact this book has had on me.
At the end of the book, when Rahul writes his sincere gratitude and love for his mother—I was in tears. I felt his pain. I felt his gratitude. I felt the bill for his drinking too. And since I absorbed all of this, the book I read is a gift of joy from Rahul to me (and to many others like me).
Marketing This Book
A book like this needs marketing.
I am praying and wishing that the marketing burden is carried by the readers—through a mega word-of-mouth effort.
That said, I want Rahul Verma to do a book launch.
Call his friends. Call his family.
Arrange for lunch afterward.
Celebrate this.
For himself. For his family. For his mother.
Bugger has money and hardly spends—so he must! 😀
Rahul Verma doesn’t need this book to grow his identity.
But this book needs Rahul Verma to grow its identity.
As this book ages and more people read it—Rahul Verma will fade away in their minds. And when that happens, people will no longer see Rahul Verma in this book. Instead, they will see Meera, Vikram, Jasleen, Joy, Debo—and, eventually, themselves.
So, Rahul Verma should spend enough time marketing this book—
so that his name fades away—
and people begin to see a Meera, a Vikram, a Jasleen, a Joy, a Debo—
and, finally,
a Rahul within them.
Pradeep Soundararajan and Rahul Verma
I knew from my first meeting with Rahul that he was a far better tester than me.
Seventeen years ago, we sat together in a coffee shop and created a performance testing cheat sheet. It still remains relevant—barring the tool names, maybe. I brought him into performance testing for Cogknit, one of Moolya’s customers, and the way he worked—I could have felt intimidated by his brilliance. But instead, I chose to complement him, and that decision put me in a safe spot in my career.
If I had tried competing with Rahul Verma, I would have wasted my own potential. And more than that—he would have been disappointed in me for doing that with him.
I met him at The 15th Mile.
At The Test Mile.
At the intersection of The Test Mile and Moolya, we found a conflict of interest.
Both of us were Vikram there.
Truth, the lorry driver, and the cleaner—all were making fun of us.
Thankfully, we got the joke.
And returned to being friends.
The Sweet Journey After That
It has been phenomenal.
We have kept our vision and mission going.
We are more aligned than ever before.
After publishing two books and listening to Rahul Verma’s talks, I kept wondering—why hasn’t he published one yet?
Rahul has this tangent (as I mentioned before) where he can get lost. He needs a Vipul or Jose or—at bad times—a Ramit, JP, or Pradeep to get him off the tangent.
But Rahul’s life is just beginning.
After this book—he is going to begin.
He won’t see it.
That is how it is designed to be. He is a gift.
And I am just glad— That this gift occasionally passes me. I’m glad to read that all of them had to come together this time to pull him off the tangent.
I am not better than Rahul Verma in many things.
I am better than him in one thing—quitting smoking.
I wish he would beat me in that as well.
I wish, “Today is that day.”
This pic was taken by a wonderful security guard of The Filter Coffee, Indranagar when Rahul gifted me a signed copy. Love you Rahul!
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