Two States

Another Chetan Bhagat’s book launched around 2 months ago, Two States, being considered to be adapted for movie versions (like, Five Point Someone adapted as Three Idiots and One Night @ Call Center adapted as Hello). While reading, you can easily relate some or the other instances in the book with your real life experiences if yours is also a love marriage. At least I could feel the same as I went through a roller-coaster to turn my wedding dream into reality. Though at times you might feel as well that you are reading a fairy tale where in prince and princess fight to all odds and sometimes turn impossible to possible, yet you find yourself occupied until you finish the entire book.

2 States is Chetan’s autobiographical take on inter-caste (or community/region precisely) love marriages. The story revolves around Krish (a Punjabi boy from Delhi) and Ananya (a Tamilian girl from Chennai) who had their first encounter in IIMA. Ananya was the most beautiful, smart and sought after girl of the batch. Their friendship started on terms of only friendship and nothing else. Terms and conditions were forced by Ananya; otherwise you must admit a boy would never expect only friendship with a girl especially if she is the most beautiful girls aroundJ. Later on Krish realized that he had a huge crush on her and he could not be only friends with her. Some dramatic stuff took place and Ananya let him free of all her imposed terms and conditions. In the midst of study, exams, love and intimacy, their 2 years long stint with IIMA ends on a positive note with their dream jobs in hand. They decided to meet each other’s parents on convocation day, but events took place in a manner that worsened the situation. Then story takes a heroic turn and Krish joins his first job in Chennai (Ananya’s first posting was also in Chennai), recognizing he would get an opportunity to stay closer to Ananya’s family and would get ample chance to woo them. Ananya’s parents wanted her to get married to an IIT+MITian, who along with his parents came to Chennai to see Ananya. Lots of events took place like, Krish tutored Ananya’s brother on IIT entrance examination, helped Ananya’s father to create a classic presentation and boosted his morale to do it before senior management and finally made Ananya’s mother’s log time dream real to become a singer. All his efforts helped him to reap rich rewards finally. Girl’s parents gave a green signal on Krish and now it was her turn to woo Krish’s family. Meanwhile, Krish took transfer to Delhi and Ananya also followed him for a week. She stayed at Krish’s home, only to see her would be mother-in-law’s growing hatred towards her. She went to attend a wedding ceremony of Krish’s cousin where Groom side created some trouble and almost decided to end everything minutes before the final rituals. It caused panic in the family and then Ananya helped them come out of the trouble single handedly. This incidence suddenly turned the wave of appreciation and affection towards Ananya; even Krish’s long distant relatives were in favor of Krish and Ananya’s marriage. Now that Ananya’s family accepted Krish and Kirsh’s family accepted Ananya, but both the families had yet to accept each other.

Another side of the story was Krish’s poor relationship with his father. During the course of time the pit between their relationships also filled in. It was in fact  Krish’s father who played instrumental role to bridge gaps between two families. Finally Krish and Ananya tied the divine knot in Chennai with some funny and humorous instances quoted in the book, which you would definitely like to read.

Many books have been written on love stories, but this book scores high because of the way author has presented the story. There are times when you would feel that certain insignificant part of Krish’s life is described in vast detail. And then, there are times when author rushes through some of the relatively important parts. You might feel to stop and leave the book as it becomes too predictive at times. But, Chetan’s ability to hold the reader’s imagination ties up it for him. A nice story, full of Masala, and over to that it cost your pocket just under Rs. 100, is a worth bet.