Book Review: "Two States" by Chetan Bhagat

The book "Two States" is a fast read about Chetan's courtship with his wife, where he ends up courting his South Indian in-laws and convinces them to let him wed their only daughter to a North Indian Punjabi boy. The book clearly brings to fore the prominent two governing aspects of the Indian ethos. One is the strong regionalism which divides the otherwise unified India. The other is the rigid caste system which predominates the thinking of even educated Indians, even to this date!

Chetan being from the same alma-mater and the same hostel where I had stayed during my IIT Delhi days, strikes a familiar cord, when he mentions to his would-be girlfriend and subsequently his wife, that the reasons for so many IITians hitting on her was that they had not yet "discovered" the art of wooing girls. Students at IIT come from varied backgrounds from all four corners of India, being the Top 1% of the students from across the country, who could make it through the World's toughest and the most competitive test of a person's intellect and technical knowledge of science. Only 40% of students make it through IIT in their first attempt and the rest in multiple attempts. The rigor of studies required ill affords most to have an active social life. Within IIT too the environment is cut-throat. No wonder that most students learn the softer interaction skills with the fairer sex only in their later years.

Coming back to the book, Chetan has once again written a riveting and a fast paced book, taking the reader through his days at Ahmedabad when he managed to meet the prettiest girl at campus and wooed her using his vast experience with women. His writing style is lucid, funny and easy to comprehend. The book will appeal to both North and South Indians since it touches upon the common idiosyncrasies of each region and which are typically the butt of many-a-jokes in either regions.

In the book Chetan opts for a career in the same city as his in-laws and narrates his story of how he goes to great lengths to convert his future in-laws to come to start liking him. The point where he helps his father-in-law loose his inhibitions of drinking in front of others and also of promoting his own achievements at his office, is the most poignant moment in his endeavor. The icing on the cake though is when he manages to convert his mother-in-law from a grumpy old housewife to a stage music artiste.

The only negative which I found in the book was slight exaggeration of facts and situations but I think it was very much within the limits of literary freedom which any author is allowed to indulge, in order to make his book an appealing read.

The plot itself moves like a movie, where there are highs and lows in the author's endeavors to win the two families to like the kids and each others. The point where Chetan mends his dead relationship with his father, gives a glimpse of a typical father-son relationship in many a Indian families.

Overall, a page turner and certainly worth reading once, though not multiple times. A good book to pick when travelling by train or plane or when one has some time at hand to read a leisure book or two.