Yes sir! This Chatan Bhagat dude is back with a bang, only this time the bang is called "2 States – The Story of My Marriage". A witty novel which will refresh your ‘Five Point Someone (FPS)’ memories. It is a fresh book and delivers exactly what you would’ve expected from Chetan Bhagat after FPS, but to everybody’s dismay got One Night at… and Three Mistakes…. It is like after FPS he took a sabbatical during which some smartass writer dude published two crappy novels on his name, but then the original Chetan came out with 2 States. How did I end up reading the book… let’s see…
Well here is how it began…it was a usual evening, by usual I mean boring, came back late from work to an overwhelming surprise of "Dude…you are spending the night all alone in your haunted/ugly apartment" so I somehow made my way through the stupid T20CL match between teams that I had no idea existed and lost all interest in their existence after watching them play and then a bland dinner which I ate just because my lonely stomach wanted something for company. Then the routine…come back from dinner, talk to girlfriend for 30 minutes happily and 15 more minutes irritatingly, watch TV till 12:00 (sadly) and then from 12:00 to 1:00 happily (courtesy two back to back episodes of Friends) and then Good night! But today was special…first you are all alone and tired, then you had a mood wrecking dinner and just when talking to GF was a little respite you hit the worst horror, No Cable TV!!!…No FRIENDS tonight thank you very much!
So I started digging into my roommate’s drawer to find something to read myself to sleep and that’s when I saw "2 States – The Story of My Marriage". Seeing Chetan Bhagat’s name on the cover didn’t excite me because my last experience reading one of his books was awful, yeah I hated "Three Mistakes of My Life"…in fact I’ve rated it as the worst book I have read so far, but then I just wanted to sleep so it was worth taking the risk. So I took the book and started reading it and within 10 minutes I realized that I’ve struck gold!
The story is about a couple, Sukanya and Krish (a.k.a Hari form FSP) who meet in IIM-A, fall in love, have sex, live together and pass out of IIM as a couple committed for life and all this ends within first 50 pages (I was already loving this book…no faltu ka melodrama). The only problem in their life was that Krish is a Punjabi from Dilli and Sukanya is a Madrasi from Madras you’d think but actually that and the rest of the Tamil Nadu too and to make matter worse their parents didn’t quiet hit on the right note to begin with.
Then the fun part of the book starts when Krish goes to Chennai to impress Sukanaya’s parents, spends 6 months there and works his ass off doing so, keeping in mind that he had a job to do at Citibank, but succeeds eventually and Sukanya returns the favor, successfully too, within 1 week (6 days to be precise). The book is full of insights on Krish’s thoughts, full length descriptions of madness and hysteria, of different levels, in Punjabi and Tamilian cultures, feelings of our protagonist couple expressed in a sophisticated yet cool way (which by the way completely fits in the backdrop and does not give you the mucky feeling of aped western antics).
The book, I accept, is not the most ideal reading and has its flaws but it also has the same old magic of wit and innocence combined with a lot of character buildup, which by the way is not lengthy but is deep and meaningful. You will instantly strike a chord with the protagonist (Krish). The book has its moments and each one of them deserves a dedicated 5 minute laugh on it, no interruptions allowed. The witty, first person, writing style of Chetan Bhagat is back with fantastic results, he has mastered the art I would say, but the in depth analysis of Punjabi and Tamil cultures and the descriptions of unexplainable hatred between North Indians and South Indians is the icing on the cake. The way Chetan Bhagat has knitted the story with incidents from the first novel gives you a feeling of belonging, we know what our guy did in IIT-D now it is time to find out what he does in IIM-A and the life after.
So to sum it up I loved the book so much that I slept at 6:00 in the morning only after I had finished the book and re-read a few bookmarked pages just to enjoy the comedy of the situation and the choice of words. Had to leave at 9 in the morning for work so on a totality the book ruined my good night’s sleep and the next whole day…but who cares…maffff…
My verdict - the book is worth it, buy yourself an original copy and enjoy the story of 2 States…
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