Rajiv Surendra has narrated 3 audiobooks on Listento.it by 4 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 299 ratings. The most-rated is Life of Pi.
Life of Pi
Summary
Winner of the Man Booker Prize
One boy. One boat. One tiger.
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a 16-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orangutan - and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and beloved works of fiction in recent years.
©2002 Yann Martel (P)2017 Vintage Canada
The Elephants in My Backyard
Summary
Rajiv Surendra (the rapping mathlete from Mean Girls) read Life of Pi, discovered it was being adapted into a major motion picture, and embarked on a 10-year journey to land the role of a lifetime - but this is not a journey of goals and victories; this is a story of obsessively pursuing a dream, overcoming failure, and finding meaning in life. In 2003 Rajiv Surendra was acting in Mean Girls, playing the beloved rapping mathlete Kevin Gnapoor, when a cameraman on set gave him a copy of Life of Pi, inadvertently changing the course of his life. Rajiv dove into the novel, mesmerized by all the similarities between Pi and himself - they are both five foot five with coffee-colored complexions; both share a South Indian culture; Pi lives in a zoo, and Rajiv grew up in Scarborough, Ontario, right beside the Toronto Zoo. When Rajiv learns that Life of Pi will be made into a major motion picture, he is convinced Pi is the role he is destined to play. To land the role, he knows he must embody the spirit of the 16-year-old Tamil schoolboy. In a great leap of faith, he quits university and buys a one-way ticket to India. Thus begins his enchanting and bumpy years-long journey from Toronto to the sacred stone temples of South India and the actual private school in Pondicherry that the fictional Pi attended, to rural Maine, where Rajiv befriends a real-life castaway, and culminating in the most unexpected of places - the cobbled streets of Munich. Poignant, funny, colorful, and absolutely unforgettable, The Elephants in My Backyard is an inspiring tale of taking risks and following one's dreams, of process and determination, and looking back on one's endeavors - be they successes or colossal defeats - with new appreciation and meaning.
©2017 Rajiv Surendra (P)2017 Penguin Random House Canada
I Am Gandhi
Summary
Gandhi's peaceful revolution is the focus of this audiobook, part of the inspiring New York Times best-selling biography series about heroes. As a young man in India, Gandhi saw firsthand how people were treated unfairly. Refusing to accept injustice, he came up with a brilliant way to fight back through quiet, peaceful protest. He took his methods with him from South Africa back to India, where he led a nonviolent revolution that freed his country from British rule. Through his calm, steady heroism, Gandhi changed everything for India and inspired civil rights movements all over the world, proving that the smallest of us can be the most powerful. This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great - the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America's icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest children and that always includes the hero's childhood influences.
©2019 Brad Meltzer (P)2019 Listening Library