New books of any best selling author is awaited eagerly by his readers. Chetan Bhagat is the same case. I had read the prologue of 'The 3 Mistakes of My Life', which had been given in his site www.chetanbhagat.com. After reading the prologue, I had the option to send the link of the just read stuff to 3 more people by giving their e-mail adresses to get the Ist chapter for reading. In other cases, it would have been the case of spamming but considering Chetan and his credibility, I proceeded and read the first chapter, got thrilled and on the following weekend bought the book from Landmark, Forum, Bangalore.
Chetan in his new book, has stuck with a story revolving around 3 friends much in the similar fashion as in his first book, Five Point Someone. But this time, the story is not from the corridors of prestigious IITs. As he says, it is from small towns like Ahmedabad. Anyway, I never thought Ahmedabad was a small town at all. As the book's synopsys says it is a book about 3 of India's passions - Cricket, Religion and Business, personified by the 3 characters - Ishaan, Omi and Govind. As in Five Point Someone, this story is told by one of the characters, Govind in first person.
Though Chetan starts off with Cricket, story line turns into religious aspects quickly. Chetan follows up the series of India v/s England and India v/s Australia in 2001 and shows up how these 3 guys react to the match results and this forms the core of the story but there is nothing extraordinary about that as you would have already heard or seen yourself the live analysis, aftermath of the cricket matches in regular households.
On the other hand, I felt most of the times that he is presenting the same old stuff about religion, churned out most often by the media again and again, which shows up only one side of the story. I also saw little merit in tracing Gujarat's history from 2001 which comprises earthquake, religious clashes etc, as enough has been said and it has been the hot topic of discussion in the intellectual circles of the country. What is disappointing is the same perspective of the state from India's west, thrusted upon by the media is reiterated by the author. But Chetan has attempted to be different when one of his characters says about Chimpazees kissing after the fight among themselves akin to religious clashes and that dialogue among people is what is missing in India in these situations.
Cricket, a national time pass has also been seen from a businessman's point of view, which may be relatively new to the young readers. Businessman also sees religion in an agnostic point of view. The common glue which binds the 3 characters though they pursue different passions is cricket. Well, how can one forget the romantic part of the story, typical to Chetan's novels. Here too one of the characters falls in love with a girl and events which lead to this is presented in almost similar way in Five Point Someone. But Chetan here conveys some serious stuff yet jokingly.
Happy ending is any author would love to provide to his readers after all the trauma and Chetan follows the tradition here too but with some sacrifices. One liners like his first novel are witty and worth 2nd read. All in all, it is not a must read but can be useful if you can take the real jist out of the full write up.
Regards
Raveesh
Chetan in his new book, has stuck with a story revolving around 3 friends much in the similar fashion as in his first book, Five Point Someone. But this time, the story is not from the corridors of prestigious IITs. As he says, it is from small towns like Ahmedabad. Anyway, I never thought Ahmedabad was a small town at all. As the book's synopsys says it is a book about 3 of India's passions - Cricket, Religion and Business, personified by the 3 characters - Ishaan, Omi and Govind. As in Five Point Someone, this story is told by one of the characters, Govind in first person.
Though Chetan starts off with Cricket, story line turns into religious aspects quickly. Chetan follows up the series of India v/s England and India v/s Australia in 2001 and shows up how these 3 guys react to the match results and this forms the core of the story but there is nothing extraordinary about that as you would have already heard or seen yourself the live analysis, aftermath of the cricket matches in regular households.
On the other hand, I felt most of the times that he is presenting the same old stuff about religion, churned out most often by the media again and again, which shows up only one side of the story. I also saw little merit in tracing Gujarat's history from 2001 which comprises earthquake, religious clashes etc, as enough has been said and it has been the hot topic of discussion in the intellectual circles of the country. What is disappointing is the same perspective of the state from India's west, thrusted upon by the media is reiterated by the author. But Chetan has attempted to be different when one of his characters says about Chimpazees kissing after the fight among themselves akin to religious clashes and that dialogue among people is what is missing in India in these situations.Cricket, a national time pass has also been seen from a businessman's point of view, which may be relatively new to the young readers. Businessman also sees religion in an agnostic point of view. The common glue which binds the 3 characters though they pursue different passions is cricket. Well, how can one forget the romantic part of the story, typical to Chetan's novels. Here too one of the characters falls in love with a girl and events which lead to this is presented in almost similar way in Five Point Someone. But Chetan here conveys some serious stuff yet jokingly.
Happy ending is any author would love to provide to his readers after all the trauma and Chetan follows the tradition here too but with some sacrifices. One liners like his first novel are witty and worth 2nd read. All in all, it is not a must read but can be useful if you can take the real jist out of the full write up.
Regards
Raveesh
Buy Three Mistakes of My Life here
good work...
ReplyDelete