Well this just might be my first ever review, but its finally happening. And the book that made me come out of a shell of sorts is 2 States by Chetan Bhagat, an earnest attempt by the author to spread a message and one that I totally believe in. But this being a Chetan Bhagat novel needs to be over the top and unbelievable at times.
The book starts off like all his other books in which the protagonist is narrating his story to a third person who has no involvement with the main storyline. His story starts at IIMA where he meets and subsequently falls in love (after a few fights of course) with the best looking girl in college. College ends in two years and so does the fairytale which included living in with each other at an IIMA hostel (ya this is trademark Chetan Bhagat), they realize that them being in love is not the only criterion. There families need to accept each other and hence the tagline of the book-marriage of two states. So the next 200 pages or so go in trying to make the two families accept each other and some where down the line u realize its not just two families but two communities. Agreed that it can be difficult for two people from totally different backgrounds to adjust and adopt each others habits but it’s not impossible is it, you after all have the rest of your lifetimes to adjust. And that is where one connects with the book, how the guy tries to bring around the girls family to accept and then bring around his own family to accept the girl. Yes you got it right, the guy does almost everything!!! By the way guy's called Krish and girls called Ananya. Apart from the main plot you have several side plots woven into the story:
1) Krish and his brother-in-law (Manju- future IITian who has nothing to do other than study)
2) Krish and his father --> they don’t get along all that well, his father has a history of domestic violence other than being over-imposing, a habit he couldn’t get rid of after retiring from the armed forces.
3) Krish with Chennai -->Apart from getting his family to accept Ananya, he himself has to adjust to ways of Chennai and so called "Madrasis"
The books moves at a slow pace compared to other novels by the same author but the climax with marriage and Krish's father showing up was appropriate and well written. Its always better to give out only bits and pieces than the whole storyline………
The real reason it helped me come out of the shell and write this post was that this books sends across a very important and relevant message, that of not favoring communities that of two people going out of there way just coz they love each other and not being held back just because there parents said so. It shows the way our country is evolving or can evolve into a new and better India. Not only will inter-caste inter-community marriages help to reduce the chaos and turbulence (raised by people with nothing on their mind but politics and too politics of power) it will also help bring together the people of this country together. It will help them to think of India before they think of Punjab or Chennai; help them to think of themselves as Indian before they think that they are Tamilians or Punjabis. I am sure that most of our parents will react in much the same way if something like this happens in our case but I hope most of us also have the will power to stand for what we believe and be the change we want to see around us.
All in all the book is a good read and will make you think about the whole community system we live in, the few pros and loads of cons.
untill next time..................
