New Delhi, July 24 - Twenty-nine- year-old IIM-graduate Karan Bajaj's debut novel 'Keep Off The Grass' has done incredibly well, selling 25,000 copies. Taking the story one step further, the book is now being made into a film which, the author promises, will be a 'desi' version of the hugely successful movie 'The Motorcycle Diaries'.

While 'The Motorcycle Diaries' was based on the journey and memoir of 23-year-old Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, Bajaj's book is about a psychedelic road trip of a 25-year-old Yale graduate through the length and breadth of India.

Released last year, the storyline of the book may seem familiar, even cliched, at the first instance. A brilliant youngster born to immigrant parents in the US goes out in search of his roots.

However, the manner in which the story is developed, how Samrat, the protagonist, ends up in prison for possession of marijuana, his drug addiction, how he meditates in the foothills of the Himalayas, has a one-night stand with a hippie in Dharamsala and meets flesh-eating Aghoree saints on the banks of Varanasi, makes for a gripping novel.

No wonder his publishers HarperCollins, who have a 10,000-copies-sold mark to call a debut novel a success, are simply overwhelmed by his over 25,000-copies-sold mark.

The storyline also aroused the interest of Hollywood movie makers, the Mosaic Media Group that has produced blockbusters like 'Batman Begins' and 'Dark Knight'. They lapped up the script in no time.

To be directed by Ben Rekhi, who has directed independent Hollywood films like 'Waterborne' and 'Bomb the System', the storyline has however been modified -- surprisingly much to the pleasure of the author.

'You know now when I read the book, I actually cringe at times.