India's author for masses Chetan Bhagat is back with his new book "2 states: the story of my marriage" a fairy-tale about bonding between two individuals whose lineage are from diametrically opposite cultures. I managed to get a copy of the book from flipkart.com at a discount price of Rs. 65 only.The protagonist of the story Krish(a Punjabi, an IIT alum) and during his stint at IIM-A falls in love at first sight with his batch-mate Ananya Swaminathan(a Tamilian, an economics graduate). The relationship progresses from just friends to live-in and many more things. But they face difficulty in carrying it forward beyond IIM-A endeavor due to resistance from their parents.
Krish tries all possible methods in books and out-of-books to nurse the impression with his to-be-in-laws whether it was giving tuitions to his Ananya's brother or helping Ananya's father for an office presentation or helping Ananya's mother fulfilling her ambition(live stage performance in Chennai).
As in his previous books, the author is spot on in his characterization and especially in this book highlighting stereotypical opinions of people from one side of India on people other side of India.
According to me best parts of the story are
- First day interaction with Ananya at IIM-A mess and describing her as an outlier by IIM-A standards.
- Krish's mission-impossible at Chennai where he undergoes plain culture-shock.
Amusing moments are his encounter with (in)famous Chennai Autowallahs and his first impression about Ananya's home mentioning embarrassing moments such as getting orders from his to-be-father-in-law to keep the footwear outside and later on treating him as a non-existent entity by getting engrossed in editorial of Hindu!
Grab a copy of the book to read many such amusing moments. Overall, a good read especially for the folks who like to read the stuffs which have DNA of Bollywood. Regular reader of literature can skip this.
Other reviews:
Fingers to Keyboard - Chetan Bhagat: 2 states
ps: The major feature of the book is that it is semi-autobiographical and author's real life love-story has been fictionalized. Read more at When Punjabi Harry met Madrasi Sally.
I also finished reading this book recently and was planning a review.
ReplyDeleteGuess its Ananya Swaminathan?
thanks for pointing out :( it's been corrected.
ReplyDeleteand awaiting for ur review.
visting ur blog for the first time.liked ur blog.will keep visiting.
ReplyDeleteI was searching for reviews on 2 states and landed here. A nice story told by Bhagat as usual.
ReplyDeleteThink that Mr.Chetan Bhagat has caught up with some kinda of mental illness while writing this book. And his description about the tamilian people is completely biased making them look like they are always inferior to them. And that comment about LTTE is completely unbearable. What the hell does he know about our people?? U guys sitting in northern india will never understand our sentiments. He should first better learn how things work out here rather than making racist comments about the south indian people. I didn't expect this from the author of his stature. It took days to come out of my stress after reading this book. Nice try Mr.Bhagat come back better next time against us.
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