Two States - Chetan Bhagat

After a long, long time I got back to reading books. I have been cramming over the last two years, trying to remember various two by two matrices! But that aint no reading ;) I wanted to get back into the habit of reading – absolutely anything and everything under the sun. I read almost everything except science fiction…right from comics (Archies, Tinkle, Tintin,….) to philosophy.

I got hold of Chetan Bhagat’s Two States, and thought would be interesting to read it during the break, finished it over the weekend! And it was a disappointment – a typical ‘filmy’ love story - boy meets girl, falls in love, undergoes a lotttt of struggle and then they live happily ever after! The book had subtle Bollywood-ish style in each chapter, but the end was very apt for a Bollywood movie - an arrogant and abusive father suddenly realizes his responsibilities and turns into a new leaf!

The story goes like this - the hero, Krish, (apparently loosely based on Chetan Bhagat’s real life!) who undergoes so many hardships to live in Chennai! Really? There is no other dimension to his life other than being a knight in shining armor to Ananya’s family. He has no interest in making new friends or doing anything else apart from winning over the in-laws. Is Mr Bhagat trying to signal one Indian state or is he trying to subtly indicate that ‘north indians’ can never be friends with ‘south indians’ and vice-versa, only falling in love is possible! Someone rightly said that Chetan Bhagat has started writing filmy stuff to suit Bollywood producers and directors.

Not that I am a feminist, but why is it so that if a woman is successful, or is well educated, she should be portrayed as someone who cannot cook and do the ‘normal’ womanly things. Why is she always portrayed as an outlier, someone who has no interest in cooking and other normal things but is only interested in her career?

The description of the Punjabi and Tamil families was a very standard and templatized description, it was neither humorous nor entertaining. Ananya’s character was so weak, Krish is the struggler and she is the one who can’t even make an effort to cook a meal to please Krish’s mom. All said and done, the book was a disappointment for me. Very predictable, and lame!

However, I love Chetan Bhagat’s writing style, it is very simple and easy to read just lacks content. Better luck next time….