And Chetan Bhagat definitely isn’t one! Well, what did you think? I am going to whine about my life story too? Naaah! There is time for that.
“Two States” – as his new book-cover cries out – is about his struggle to marry the girl he loves. If you remember well, his character is the same person from Five Point Someone – Krish (the loser who falls in love with the professor’s daughter).
In the newest release, the loser turns over a new leaf. He becomes an IIMA graduate, with one of the highest packages in his batch with Citibank, and has a sky-high dream of quitting his job to become a writer.
Chetan Bhagat has been famous for his witty and simple way of delivering his thoughts, a kind of manifestation of how a common man thinks. The success can be measured in terms of the number of directors jumping at his stories (true, no genuine concepts with our Bollywood nowadays)!
But who am I kidding, even though there is no great literature or whatsoever, I have actually ended up reading all four of his books! It can be slapstick humour, or a snail-paced monotonous biography, his stories does pick up pace at the later stages. Though “One night at the call center” was complete bogus, I did enjoy the rest of his books.
Enough of analyzing Bhagat, now back to the book at hand. “Two States” is about the girl from Chennai and the Punjabi munda from Delhi. The initial chapters are snail-paced, as I said. The writing style similar to his other books, at one point of time I was wondering why the hell I actually picked up this book. The culture difference is quite stark, with the garrulous, property-laden North-Indians and the hyper-educated, “The Hindu”-loving South-Indians (for the dumbstruck ones, no it’s the newspaper The Hindu, which it appears from reading the book, is the staple breakfast in Chennai!).
But as I entered his Final Act (which says – Delhi & Chennai & Delhi & Chennai), I actually had bouts of tears and giggles! You can call me over-engrossed or over-indulged with books; I do tend to empathize with characters. And with Bhagat, it is like a conversation with the next door guy, who is venting out to his close friend. Anyways, the book begins with sweet / half-matured / peer-pressured / impulsive / over-spoilt love, which inculcates into a long-drawn struggle of different cultures, misunderstandings, too much of effort and patience to pacify all parties, leading to a short-stint of break-up before things fall back into place.
I was really flabbergasted with one thing – if the book is actually a reality-narrator then it is quite over-whelming to know that Bhagat’s Dad is the way he has portrayed. Maybe that is the first question I will ask him if I ever get to interact with him (high-hopes there!). Whoever has read Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s “You Are Here” will know how blatant and frank one can get in her blog / book. Bhagat’s style is similar and he has definitely marketed himself well, IIM graduate after all!
One more thing kind of struck a chord, his decisiveness and aim since early on in life to become a writer. A goal that was so adamant that he knew he had to save some money before he could sit down to write full-time. Does give some hope to folks like me… Snort!
