Chetan Bhagat's "2 States" is a story about Krish and Ananya who are from two different states of India,the former being a north Indian Punjabi boy and the latter being a South Indian girl belonging to a conservative Tamil Brahmin family.Both are truly,madly and deeply in love with each other and want to get married.Offcourse,their parents don't agree.To convert their love story into a love marriage,the couple faces a tough battle in front of them.After all it is easy to fight and rebel with your parents,but much harder to convince them.The only catch is, Krish and Ananya don’t want to elope or be estranged to their families,therefore,they choose to convince their parents for the marriage.Even in real life,Chetan Bhagat is a punjabi and his wife,Anusha Bhagat,is a Tamilian.
His latest book is perhaps the best one after his much promising debut.
He dedicates this book to his in-laws.He admits that the book is inspired by his own experiences and yet he requests the book to be treated as a fiction.One can also call this book to be a sequel to "Five Point Someone" as the story continues after his IIT days are over.It starts off at a doctor's chamber followed by a flashback where the readers are taken to his day one at IIM A.No doubt,it starts off like a typical Bollywood movie eeshtyle.
At the back cover of the book,one can notice that the author has expalined a very valid statement.
He said that "Love cum arrange marriages around the world are simple:
Its all about the boy loving the gal and the gal loving the boy,hence,they get married.
But in India,its not all.There are a few more steps to it:
1)Apart from the girl loving the boy and the boy loving the girl,the girl's family has to love the boy and the boy's family has to love the girl.
2)Also the girl's family has to love the boy's family and the boy's family has to love the girl's family".
So,to make the above two steps successfull,the boy and the girl does whatever it takes by shedding all their ego and self-respect for the sake of getting married.Even after facing all this,if the girl and the boy still loves each other,then they get married.
Both Ananya and Krish take turns to win over each other’s families and then they try to make both the families like each other. After all in India, you don’t marry the guy (or girl for that matter), you have to marry the entire family.
Undoubtedly, this book gives its readers the perfect opportunity to dwell into the age-old ‘North India versus South India divide’.Krish may be a Punjabi boy, but he is blissfully unaware as how,in his community,greedily and offensively ‘boy’s’ side can come on the ‘girl’s’ side during
a Punjabi wedding.Similarly, Ananya, the Tamilian girl is completely unlike other Tamil girls.For one, she is not as dark as the usual southern girls and unlike her staunch family,she drinks beer as well as eats meat.(May be we should thank IIM for breaking the latter stereotype).
The book draws your attention to cultural differences in diverse India.There is this loud Punjabi music versus quiet, mellifluous Tamilian Carnatic music.Also the author has left no stones unturned to mock the Tamilians at almost each and every page of the book,thus,making it all the more funny and entertaining.So if you are a Tamil Brahmin,you would all the more enjoy this book if you have the ability to laugh at your own community.The only thing i would like to do the most,after reading this book,is to wish its author a good luck so that he does'nt have to enter into any kind of controversy as he has tried to extract comedy by making fun of the South Indians in every possible way.Although,he has mentioned in the Acknowledgement that he loves South Indians and he sees them to be his very own,thus,throwing an indirect appology.But who knows?This act of Chetan Bhagat might well hurt the sentiments of South Indians.
The book is written in such a way that it is definitely going to instill a few valid questions in the mind of its readers.The book would definitely question about the racism India practices against its own countryman? It questions that why we are scared to marry outside our clan? Lovers themselves have the dilemma whether it is worth it to marry someone outside their clan,thus making so many members of their families unhappy.Is it worth it?
But then since, we have been asking these questions for a long time with little progress, I personally read the book with complete detachment in one-go.I had a fair idea what was to come, so there weren’t many surprises for that matter.
Every Indian must read this book once,if they want to laugh out loud and if they want to know what lovers from different communities go through at the hands of their families.And i can bet on this fact that every alternate couple in India,who if reads this book,would find enough situations with which they can relate to the family problems that they had faced or are likely to face.How love is at mercy of societal,familial norms.And how a man eternally finds himself torn between his girlfriend/wife and mother.And if u r a fan of Five Pont Someone,then this is a must read because there are situations quite similar to the once the author had faced in his IIT days and in order to relate to them,he takes u back to his first book,hence,giving you a sense of nostalgia towards the National bestseller.
There is also a steamy account of a college affair,something which you could find a bit of Five Point Someone to relate to.Also the author has not at all taken any pains to explain the love-making scenes,thus making it somewhat different from his previous books,where,he did'nt
mind explaining each and every loving-making scene in complete details.This act of Chetan Bhagat might well upset all the perverts who loves to stay glued to the books like "Letters from Penthouse" or the novels of Sydney sheldon.
Review all said and done, I sometimes wonder why couples from different communities give into their feelings for each other when they know that they would not be able to go against the will of their families and that their families will never ever accept their partner.It is an unnecessary heartache and heartaches do leave scars, even if time heals them.I am glad at least Krish and Ananya, Chetan Bhagat book’s protagonists, tried even if the results are not always desirable.So,will krish and Ananya be able to make it?Read it out and find it out.
2 comments:
From your review the book seems interesting..depending on your review I'll read the book.....surely from your review the book looks promising.....
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