Aam Aadmi Party volunteer Pran Kurup’s new book Arvind Kejriwal and The Aam Aadmi Party: An Inside Look maps the growth of the politician and the party that rose from the India Against Corruption movement. Kurup is a close friend of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from IIT Kharagpur. The book was launched yesterday (July 19) in Delhi by Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. The event was moderated by Newslaundry CEO Abinandan Sekhri. Click here to watch him in conversation with Kejriwal.

Excerpt: The Goa Trip

August-September of 2014 was a relatively quiet period for Arvind and the AAP. Elections for Delhi hadn’t been announced yet, and the media had all but forgotten about AAP. During this quiet period, Arvind was slowly but surely marshalling his ground volunteers across Delhi. After some cajoling from friends, he agreed to take a day off and hang out with friends in Goa. I happened to visit Delhi at that time and succumbed to the peer pressure to join the group. Besides, I had never been to Goa before. Another very good friend from IIT, Arvind, and myself travelled together from Delhi to Goa.

It was quite an experience travelling with a celebrity! Everyone at the Delhi airport seemed to want to have a picture of themselves with Arvind and he obliged. After playing cameraman for a while, I slipped away to a corner waiting for the photo sessions to be completed. Then we boarded the flight. Interestingly, one of the airline staff at the gate didn’t recognise him. We eased into a cab in Goa after a few more photo sessions at the Goa airport. We made sure the local AAP folks were not informed, lest the whole plan be hijacked.

It was a long drive from the airport. Somewhere along the way, I suggested we make a stop on the roadside for tender coconuts – my eternal favorite! While we were enjoying the drink, my friend said to Arvind, “It must be a relief to enjoy some anonymity for a change!”He had barely finished the sentence and Arvind smiled, when a young man tapped Arvind on the shoulder and said, “Arvind ji, main aapka bahut bada fan hoon!”After talking with the young man for a bit, we continued on the drive.

Back in the car, my friend, an atheist himself, asked Arvind,“Back in IIT, you didn’t believe in God, now what’s all this God-shod business you keep talking about?” he asked.“Guru, he is a politician now, so it is very simple − he knows God has all the votes!” I joked. We had a hearty laugh and soon drifted onto other topics.

Other friends flew in from other parts of the country. By the time we got there, the rest of the gang had already arrived. Once at the hotel, it was like being back in hostel − jokes flying around, pulling each other’s legs, people getting into arguments while others were taking sides and egging them along to add to the fun. As expected,soon Arvind faced a barrage of questions on anything and everything- his resignation, bijli-pani, Varanasi, Shazia, etc. He was very candid as always. The guys made him watch some of the spoofs on YouTube like Nayak 2 and others that he had missed.As usual, some folks radiated funda and spewed unsolicited advice on various issues.

When the conversation got very intense, one of the guys would say, mimicking the media, “Acha Arvind ji, aap pehle yeh bataiye, aapne Ford Foundation se paisa kyon liye?” When he starts to answer,the same guy would go, “Pehle yeh bataiye, aap ne Anna ji ko dokha kyon diya?”

By then, some of the others would get the trip and start yelling,“Abhey chup!”

To add fuel to the fire, this guy would then go on, “Arvind ji, aapke sathi Prashant Bhushan Pakistan ko Kashmir kyon dena chahte hain?”

“Abhey, chup, usko bahar nikaal,” yelled another, and others joined in the howling and hooting that followed.

Then, this guy would go, “Arre, we want Swaraj yaar. Hai ki nahin, Kejri-da, bolo? Main hoon Aam Aadmi, mujhe chahiye swaraj. Main dharna pe baithoonga.” Saying this, he sat down on the floor next to Arvind’s feet.

“The nation wants to know, Kejri, why did Shazia (Note:Shazia Ilmi, formerly with AAP, is now with the BJP) leave AAP? Forget the nation, yaar, we want to know! You can’t escape. Idhar charon taraf hamare aadmi hain. Tum hamare kabze mein ho,” he boomed!

Arvind tried to go into excruciating details of how he was in jail and could not meet her when she wanted to and so on. It was of no avail. People were in no mood to listen. AAP.

“Nahin guru, you are not being honest with us. Shazia was an asset. You can’t lose her like that. We are going to start a ShaziaforAAP Twitter hashtag and trend the hell out of it right now. Come on, guys.We need her back!” he went on.

There was raucous laughter, as you can imagine, while Arvind simply ignored the hulla.

“Hey, forget Shazia, yaar. She left AAP and cuts a sorry figure bad-mouthing AAP on TV 24×7. You have excellent bench strength Gul Panang, Meera Sanyal, Atishi Marlena all come across as very credible and articulate,” said another.

“He’s right. In politics and life, you should always look ahead.Politics is about personal sacrifice. It has to come from within. You can’t force anyone. If they want to go ahead and do other things with their life, you should just let them be,” pontificated another.“Guru, you are too good! Arre kya fundu baat boli Dadu ne,” said another, pulling Dadu’s leg.

“Boss, Kejri, you despo need to set up a margdarshak committee and put Dadu on it,” advised another.

“That kid Raghav Chadha is awesome BTW! But guru, you need to ask Ashutosh to stick to Hindi channels where he is consistently good. He writes very well, but strangely, on English channels, he gets worked up and completely loses the plot,” said another. A few more seconded the observation.

“You think this is easy?” Arvind chimed in after a long time. “It is very hard to remain calm and still argue your case. You can go a hundred times and still mess up the 101st time. Ultimately, these debates don’t serve any purpose, that’s why I stopped. Also, I don’t decide who goes where, etc. The media team handles all that stuff!”“Arre, we thought you make all the decisions, bro! No?”someone popped the question.

Arvind smiled and said, “Lots of people think the same way. It is impossible. There are too many things to deal with. I can’t, even if I wanted to. I don’t get involved unless I have to.”

“Guru, in general, looks matter on TV. Like it or not, you need to have good looking people in TV debates,” said someone, only to be shot down.

“That’s rubbish. Kejri does well always and is popular. He is not exactly hot!” said another.

“That’s nonsense. Come on, yaar. Kejri is mucho hot. Haven’t you seen that topless photo of him taking a dip in the Ganges?”chipped in another.

“Yeah, Kejri was smokin’ hot in that. That was his Mandakini moment! All the housewives in Delhi are going to vote for AAP en masse in the next election, you just watch!” predicted another.“I believe, Salman bhai called him after he saw that pic. Seriously,I am not making this up, ask Kejri!” joked another.

“Sab bakwas hai,” said Arvind, laughing.

One guy took off his T-shirt, jiggled his breasts and his pot belly,and said, “Come on, Kejri is not as hot as this! Maybe I should go for these debates.” A bunch of guys were instantly on their feet chasing this guy around the room to grab him. One could have set the clock back by 25 years and this would have been a scene straight out of our hostel. Except we had one Chief Minister of a state, a couple of CEOs,and other executives in the room. (I can imagine one of the wives seeing this and saying, “God! You guys badly need to grow up!”)

It was evident that alcohol was starting to have more than its share of influence on the proceedings. It was noisy, fun and hilarious all at the same time, in the midst of some supposed serious discussion and Q&A.

Arvind, who is a teetotaller, didn’t mind any of the badgering he was receiving and took it in his stride.

Then a sumptuous desi dinner followed, vegetarian for the most part since Arvind and a couple of others were strict vegetarians.Interestingly, after dinner, Arvind, the only diabetic in the group,asks, “Sir ji, kuch sweet-weet organize karo. Yeh kya hain, no sweet after such a nice dinner!”

By then, the hotel staff had recognized Arvind. They were able to arrange for some terrific sweets at short notice.

Being a strict disciplinarian, Arvind retired to bed around 10.30 p.m. while the party went on. At midnight, a couple of guys had a strong urge to explore gambling in Goa! After a valiant attempt to find a cab, the duo gave up and returned to an extended adda session that went on into the wee hours of the morning.

The next morning, we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel.Someone took a picture and a few hours later, it was on Facebook!Promptly after breakfast, Arvind was in task master mode goingaround the table to see how everyone there could help AAP. Forvarious scheduling reasons, people left Goa in different directions atdifferent times that afternoon.

I am sure it must have been a very relaxing trip for Arvind. The Lok Sabha elections had been a disaster. There was no clarityon Delhi elections, AAP’s future was on the line, and there were troubles brewing within AAP.

It must have been nice for him to be able forget his immediate troubles and goof off with a bunch of people who had no axe to grind and only cared about his goodwill.He is not the emotive kind of person to talk about such things, but somewhere deep down, I suspect he welcomed and enjoyed the weekend distraction.

The next time I met Arvind was the day before the swearing-in ceremony in Feb 2015 for his second stint as Delhi CM, and this entire goofy group was gathered in his house minus the alcohol!