2 STATES - Chetan Bhagat

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Chetan Bhagat is apparently the most widely read Indian English author. But I can assure you it is not because of his literary genius. And it's definitely not the amazing storyline of his books. I guess the reason is probably it makes for easy reading, and also the continuous mention of IIT and IIM. 2 States falls in this category as well. Yes, it was definitely better than his previous works like One Night at the Call Centre and 3 Mistakes of My Life, but far far away from 5 star material. The lack of imagination, and also the point that this is the kind of writing that has made him a best selling author result in Chetan Bhagat not even making an effort to write something a little more, say, responsible.

2 States is loosely based on Bhagat's real life and also a sequel to his first book Five Point Someone. It follows the life of two students in IIM Ahmedabad, Krish Arora and Ananya Swaminathan. They fall in love in college and have a nice time. But the problem arises when they have to tell their respective parents. Krish belongs to a typical Punjabi family settled in Delhi whereas Ananya is a Tamil Brahmin. The entire story revolves around how the two convince their families which are poles apart. Here, yes the story does make you smile. He has pretty convincingly captured the cultures of North and South India. While Krish’s mother and aunt remind you of those neighbourhood aunties, Ananya’s parents are typical conservative Tamilians who distaste everything from the North. Though the story is told from the point of view of the male protagonist, he never takes sides and brings out the best and the worst in both the communities. Also, the sarcasm hits the right spots.

In all, this book is a run-of-the-mill Hindi cinema romance, and even the writing gives the impression that it was written in a way so that converting it into a movie script would not take a lot of effort. Given that almost all his previous works have already been adapted into movies, this book seemed like expecting it to become a movie as well was in Bhagat's mind since the beginning. And very soon it is actually going to come out as one.

Although it is not good as a novel, it may make for light reading. Not recommended, but good enough to pass time while travelling!

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