Friday, November 13, 2009

Ananya Swaminathan from Mylapore...huh? ..

Its time for Chetan Bhagat fans to cheer. Chetan Bhagat is back to his 'Five Point Someone' Form. I did not like his 'Three Mistakes of My Life.'(I personally thought writing that book was the 'Fourth' Mistake of His Life). Now... Chetan Bhagat offers an happy ending 'Ek Duje Ke Liye'.(and no..this one is not his 'FIFTH' Mistake.)

The Story(There is little story and lots of exaggeration)of Miss Ananya Swaminathan becoming Mrs.Krish Malhotra.

The Girl is pretty and is a Tamil Brahmin from Mylapore. (This was my first motivation to read this book.Somehow 'Prettygirl Mylapore' sounds to me like an oxymoron.).She is Intelligent(Intelligent girl a?.. that too from Mylapore..a!!?.Believe me.. I have stayed in Mylapore for nearly 2 decades ... It happens only in fiction...) and she is in IIM A. The boy is from Punjab and he also gets stuck up in IIM A.

What to expect next...?

They Love.They Make Love.They want to marry.They want their parents to accept & they do not.He opts for a job in Chennai to woo her parents.He takes tuitons for his brother,arranges for a music concert for her mother and prepares power point presentations for her father.

& They Agree...

Now the couple come to Punjab to woo 'His' parents.She solves a marriage crisis in his family in a smart way and wins over HIS relatives.

& His mother Agrees..

Both parents do not like each other due to cultural differences.She feels His mother insulted her parents.She parts ways with him.(How easy..??).

& He gets mentally disturbed.

As expected his Father makes a twist in the end ,& they end up marrying(In Tamil Brahmin Style)

& She Deliver's TWINS two years hence...
...

Nothing new story wise.(We have seen this in all our movies).BTW who wants story in a Chetan Bhagat Book.?

Here is an Indian Novel writer who does not have a 'Story', who is not 'literary' in the real sense of the word.However..HE does have his 'First Person' Narrative ,the
'One Liners' and a huge dose of Raw "'AAAAAAAAdult'erated" humour content to win over the readers.

We were all waiting for the 'One Liners' that he gave us in 'Five Point Someone'.
He does not disappoint this time. In fact some of them are Terrific !.Wow.. Here are some excerpts !

--> "Why wud any guy want to be friends with a girl? It's like agreeing to be near a Chocolate cake & never eat it. It's like sitting in a racing car but not driving it. Only wimps do that."

-->'Baby, I'm sleepy', she said, trying to pull me back into bed.
'My landlord is here', I said. She didn't respond even though i shook her maniacally.
'Your appa is outside', I said.
She sprang up on the bed. 'What?'

--> This is the Introduction of Ananya.

'I stole a sideways glance -- definitely above average. Actually, well above average. In fact, outlier by IIM-A standards. '
'Ananya Swaminathan -- best girl in the fresher batch,' seniors had already anointed her on the dorm board. We had only twenty girls in a batch of two hundred. Good-looking ones were rare; girls don't get selected to IIM for their looks. They get in because they can solve mathematical problems faster than 99.9 percent of India's population and crack the CAT. Girls like Ananya, if and when they arrive by freak chance, become instant pin-ups in our testosterone-charged, estrogen-starved campus.)

-->Krish:My father never smiled through his wedding.
Ananya:How could he?.He was marrying your mother.

--> Conversation between Manju & Krish. (Manju is Ananya's younger brother for whom Krish takes tuitions).

Manju: "Krish Bhai.. Can something bad happen if you watch blue films?'
Krish: 'If you just watch them?'
Manju: 'Just watching....and' hesitantly,'and if you do something else afterwards.'.
Krish: 'Why dont you ask your Appa?'
Manju: 'Aiyo, what are you saying?".
Krish: 'You could become blind'-with a serious face.
Manju: 'Really'?

-->"Its amazing how in love the vulnerability initially lies with the boys and it gets transformed immediately to girls after the moment they had sex".

-->When Ananya says Krish of how she got she rid of Harish(Her to be Fiancee)

Ananya:He hinted at my virginity...
krish: Wat did u say?
Ananya: if there was an entrance for virginity test, u can be sure I would never top it!!

-->
'You are from two different states, right? so, what will be their state?" the nurse said and chuckled."." They'll be from a state called India, " I said.

-->
Krish:'If all young people marry outside their community,it is good for the country.That is the great purpose'.
Ananya: "oh,so the reason you sleep with me is for the sake of your country?"

-->" It is fascinating to see a sardar-ji speak in Tamil.LIKE SUN TV'S MERGER WITH ALPHA TV"

--> After the Scene at Rathna Stores T Nagar.
Krish:'You shoudn't have kissed me there.why did u do it??
Ananya: Because I couldn't help it,you are irresistible sometimes'.
Alright Mrs swaminathan if your daughter can't resist me,there is no way you can either.

-->Pretty Girls behave best when you ignore them (Of course, they have to know you are ignoring them, for otherwise,they may not even know you exist).

-->She looked at me. "Can you eat this?" she wanted to know. "Try it." I took a spoonful of sambhar. Warm and salty, not gourmet stuff, but edible in a no-choice kind of way. I could eat it for lunch; I had stayed in a hostel for four years.
However, I saw her face, now prettier with a hint of pink. I compared her to the fifty-year-old mess worker. He wore a lungi and had visible grey hair on his chest.
"It's disgusting," I said. When in doubt, the pretty girl is always right.

.....
Chetan Bhagat probably will never win a 'Booker' Prize. However he is making people who do not read novels read them and thats an achievement.

You'll surely enjoy this book if :
-->You are from Chennai (though you have to digest some racist attacks)
&
Even more if :
-->You are from Mylapore.
&
Much more if:
-->You are a Brahmin.

&

I am all Three.

20 comments:

Saravana Prabhu M said...

Interesting..

I think i ll give the book a try despite not liking the other book what was it.. haan.. "One night at the Call Centre" (But i liked to some extent his style of writing)

Can you lend me the book?

Varun said...

I did read 5 point someone ---- it had only one use : I named my quiz team : 2 POINT SOMEONE :).... ha ha ha... never liked his writing...

Keerthi said...

loved the book...loved your post
thumbs up! :)

maalik.sen said...

a lovly awesome n heart stealing novel -2 STATES........

Unknown said...

oh man wat can i say bout 2 states its a wonderful book which ll take you to dream land of love with racist attacks of chennai and bhari bharkam punjabis.... i loved it.and let me nt forget it was my first novel i read in my life.hmmmmmmm

Unknown said...

'Chetan Bhagat's style is masaledar and bollywoodish...', that's what many people say about him. This is a truth, and the another truth is that he has a great sense of writing which touches heart every young indian

reader. I being a reader of Ayn Rand and Paulo coelho stuff too felt that Chetan;s style is filmy. But the Indian inside me screamed that I love this thing... He has brought freshness to the Indian writing and people are

loving it.. even the non readers have started reading.
I liked 5.some1 a lot, dint like 1 night, felt OK for 3 mistakes.. but this time. man.. im totally bowled over by 2 states. I loved the way he has described his own love story in this book with all the cultural differences

shown as the villian. I loved the way he has described the small incidences and I love all the one liners. His way of writing is simple, lucid and fill of humour. I was laughing thru out the book and each chapter left a huge smile on my face. sometimes ROFL
Being a Punjaby myslef, I can completely relate to the fat, boastful, unaware of the outer world punjabi relatives. They look like live characters to me.. i meet them everyday ! And as I have been living in the south for

last couple of years and that too with a Tamil roommate, I have understood how S-Indian people are..I can completely relate to the way S-Indians have been shown in the book. their obsession with Gods,

temples, IIT-IIM and other degrees, music sense (which is never understood by Punjabis who feel that butter chicken was the greatest ever creation of human civilization) everything made me love the book as I

completed each page. I loved how Punjabi relatives spoke about 'Madrasis' (felt like real sentences as I have heard the similar ones from my relatives) and completely agreed to how Southies think about Northies

(staying in south has made me know enough). Everybody can relate to the even the petty things mentioned in the book . autowallas, S-Indian vs N-Indian food, punjabi vs tamil weddings, banana leaf, paranthe with

butter, worried moms and dads, interfering relatives...
Except for a few over the top things in the book (like sudden transformation of Krish's father without much explaination, Guruji incidence) did looked a bit filmy but that is accepted when you can relate youself to every

other part of the book. I am a person who loves detailing, that's y Khosla ka Ghosla is my all time fave movie. No way 2 states is filmy, I can see many krishs and ananyas around me, I can see many Kavita aunties

and Radha aunties around me.. do our Indian films ever show such real ? What they show most of the times is larger than life, grand and NRI'ed. Thank god we are getting movies like KKG, Bheja fry these

days.. otherwise people like me would surrender reading and movie viewing hobbies to some sport activity.. water polo, river rafting, there are many !!

manisha sharma said...

hey , nice blog , like it ,
won't be nice if i u can clickover to my blog page too ,
& post some suggestion

Unknown said...

Very gud outlook to the novel brother. The finest line is "Chetan Bhagat probably will never win a 'Booker' Prize. However he is making people who do not read novels read them and thats an achievement. "

Ish said...

Wonder what they would name a movie based on this book..!!!

Ish said...

Wonder what they would name a movie based on this book..!!!

Anonymous said...

I think you will want to put a twitter icon to your blog. I just bookmarked this blog, however I must complete this by hand. Simply my suggestion.

Unknown said...

awesumm book...luvd it...

Siddhesh said...

Lol. Nice review.

I fulfil all the 3 criteria you mentioned in the above post, and yes i do luv this book a lot. Its sweety, sappy and yet manages to crack ya up like no other.

Anonymous said...

the book is nice but the review isn't nice

Anonymous said...

the book is nice but the review isn't nice

zain said...

2state is awsm for teenegers lyk me. Dnt kno case of grown ups.
I am south indian(mallu) so south indian part ws easily digestd.
Overall book is cool

priya said...

I jus goolged ur name and started reading ur blogs .. they are just cutee :) .. guess u wld hv by nw guessed the reason for me lyking ur blogs ..

Sundararaman said...

I see a clear case of mistaken identity...

Anonymous said...

superb book i would like to read more and more such as fictions.

Deepak Narwad said...

two states and Revolution 2020.thease books are awesome.language is also simple to understand readers.