Recently, i read Chetan Bhagat's 2 states novel. It was original, novel and mind blowing. The story revolves around the love marriage between a Punjabi guy and a Tamil girl. Despite the fact that, they are the students of India's premier Management institute (IIM-A), when it comes to love, it is not that easy. Especially playing the guy's role in winning the lady love is a damn shit, and getting approval from both the families is a damn hell. There are many instances in the novel that makes me think that the author is erratically brilliant while narrating how he felt in those instances. I would like to comment on those parts which i enjoyed really a lot.
1. The writer describes his campus as "testosterone charged and estrogen starved campus". How poorer sex ratio affects the psychology of the students. Even in ordinary campus with the balanced sex ratio, "girl friend" is a privilage of a selected few. It is always the guy who turn as the hunter, virtually hunting for the scarce games, that are simultaneously being hunted by fellow hunters. And especially in those premier institutes where the girls compose only 10% of population, the situation is even graver as exactly said by the writer.
2. The writer's view about "just friends" clause with a beautiful girl is laudable. How this "just friends" clause is most acceptable to almost all the girls. Why would any guy want to be just a friend with a girl? When it comes to the opposite sex there can be no such relationship as friends, well it can be a starter, but should lead to some other relationship. Chetan Bhagat scores when he aptly describes "It's like agreeing to be near a chocolate and you can never eat it".
3. Chetan reiterated one more universal rule in love. When it comes to sex, the girl stands back. When it comes to marriage, the boy stands back. Girls want commitments with out sex. Boys want sex with out future commitments. This rule applies anywhere and everywhere.
4. Chetan has introduced the novel term "WPM". When he was asked what his career ambitions are, he outrightly says i will work for anyone "WHOEVER PAYS MORE".Most of us choose careers not because we can develop our own area of expertise, it is because those careers come under "WPM" category.
5. The writer's proposal of marriage to his lady love, when she was being interviewed by an MNC, though it looks filmy, it gets going very well along with the novel. These incidents donot take place in real life, even in books it is not that exciting.
6. The real crux of the story is how the Punjabi and Tamil house holds bang against each other. All the Tamil girls are like SriDevi and HemaMalini, who finally end up with fair complexioned North Indians. The dark complexioned Tamils have inferiority complex for milk like white north Indians. North Indian bosses always corner the south Indian subordinates and take their credits. South Indian girls are only endowed with brain and nothing else. When it comes to marriage the Tamils value education much, where as the Punjabis value the assets much. Tamils live in families, Punjabis live in clan. Tamil fonts resemble optical illusions that can create headache if stared long enough. Tamil heroes picture make you feel that even your uncles can be heroes. A foreign degree to a Tamil is equivalent to a marble house to a Punjabi.The writer also clearly differentiated the marriage ceremony of Punjabis and Tamils.
7. There are some other comments which I very much enjoyed. "When a MNC corporate finds a great future in you, You have a FUCKED UP present or no present life at all" , "Stinky rich customers are the priority banking clients" , "IIT'ians and IIM'ians are the endangered species in a corporate priority banking zoo" , "In acustomer service, you need to smile more than a tooth paste model" and much more...
All I would say is Chetan Bhagat's latest version is worth reading.
1. The writer describes his campus as "testosterone charged and estrogen starved campus". How poorer sex ratio affects the psychology of the students. Even in ordinary campus with the balanced sex ratio, "girl friend" is a privilage of a selected few. It is always the guy who turn as the hunter, virtually hunting for the scarce games, that are simultaneously being hunted by fellow hunters. And especially in those premier institutes where the girls compose only 10% of population, the situation is even graver as exactly said by the writer.
2. The writer's view about "just friends" clause with a beautiful girl is laudable. How this "just friends" clause is most acceptable to almost all the girls. Why would any guy want to be just a friend with a girl? When it comes to the opposite sex there can be no such relationship as friends, well it can be a starter, but should lead to some other relationship. Chetan Bhagat scores when he aptly describes "It's like agreeing to be near a chocolate and you can never eat it".
3. Chetan reiterated one more universal rule in love. When it comes to sex, the girl stands back. When it comes to marriage, the boy stands back. Girls want commitments with out sex. Boys want sex with out future commitments. This rule applies anywhere and everywhere.
4. Chetan has introduced the novel term "WPM". When he was asked what his career ambitions are, he outrightly says i will work for anyone "WHOEVER PAYS MORE".Most of us choose careers not because we can develop our own area of expertise, it is because those careers come under "WPM" category.
5. The writer's proposal of marriage to his lady love, when she was being interviewed by an MNC, though it looks filmy, it gets going very well along with the novel. These incidents donot take place in real life, even in books it is not that exciting.
6. The real crux of the story is how the Punjabi and Tamil house holds bang against each other. All the Tamil girls are like SriDevi and HemaMalini, who finally end up with fair complexioned North Indians. The dark complexioned Tamils have inferiority complex for milk like white north Indians. North Indian bosses always corner the south Indian subordinates and take their credits. South Indian girls are only endowed with brain and nothing else. When it comes to marriage the Tamils value education much, where as the Punjabis value the assets much. Tamils live in families, Punjabis live in clan. Tamil fonts resemble optical illusions that can create headache if stared long enough. Tamil heroes picture make you feel that even your uncles can be heroes. A foreign degree to a Tamil is equivalent to a marble house to a Punjabi.The writer also clearly differentiated the marriage ceremony of Punjabis and Tamils.
7. There are some other comments which I very much enjoyed. "When a MNC corporate finds a great future in you, You have a FUCKED UP present or no present life at all" , "Stinky rich customers are the priority banking clients" , "IIT'ians and IIM'ians are the endangered species in a corporate priority banking zoo" , "In acustomer service, you need to smile more than a tooth paste model" and much more...
All I would say is Chetan Bhagat's latest version is worth reading.
well,just thought of commenting on the "just friends"thing.I think u mean the boys and girls who roams around like lovers but claim that they r just friends.Many a time girls do this labelling as a precautionary measure and boys do this to camouflage their lust.But it is absolutely possible to have a normal friendship between a boy and a girl(even if the girl is beautiful because just because of the beauty one cannot fall in love..it needs a certain comfort level with the person).just because u might not have come across something like this do not think that such a thing does not exist.
ReplyDeletekeep writing..we liked ur style...
I agree with ur view on Chetan bhagat's writing style -parody with comedy. but i think after reading all his books his style has remained unchanged and there is melodrama culminating in pre-marital sex.
ReplyDeleteand about this book i feel many films have done this story eg: surya jothika starrer poovellam ketupar but hero and the heroine try to convince each others in-laws changing positions.and also in many bollywood movies