Book excerpt: Peppered Minds is about the journey of a young geologist, Neeraj, beginning his professional life. His imaginative mind conjures up a thesis presented on a brainstorming session for the welfare of his countrymen and the nation. The book provides an interesting insight to explain blatant problems that contribute to the lack of innovation, misconduct and all kinds of frenzy we see around today. The writing of the book is a lighthearted account of the protagonist, Neeraj, brought up in a conservative middle-class god-fearing family, who travels from Jaipur to Hyderabad to start his professional life as a geologist. The story depicts his bitter and heartening experiences, be it meeting an astrologer, making a railway reservation, going on a rail journey from Jaipur, joining up at his new office in Hyderabad or eventually completing a successful geological expedition in the wild. Neeraj’s tryst with the various characters along his brief journey brings to light the mind set, personal traits, beliefs and culture of a vast cross section of the ordinary public that span age groups ranging from the child to the octogenarian. The book depicts several interplays of events that envelope the geologists in the office as well as in the field. One of the momentous events that overwhelms Neeraj is his meeting with the Moon and learning of the unbelievable history of human existence on earth. There are also hilarious episodes, including the one which describes the use of kerosene as the basic material for nuclear research.