This is a very sweet and “not so simple“ love story. As done in “Five Point Someone“, Chetan Bhagat has delivered yet another account of an important chapter in his own life, with all the fervor, madness and openness that he could muster. Beginning the book with an account of how the central character is sitting in a psychiatrists clinic itself is enough testimony. He goes on to explain what exactly happened to him and the reason for his presence there. IIM Ahmedabad is the first chapter, and as anticipated, the story begins in a boring ambience with geeks and oily-haired boys and girls talking about the hottest item on campus, "Ananya Swaminathan", economics topper and what not. Upon seeing her in the college mess queue, Krish Malhotra, just another boy with an IIT degree, now slumming it in IIM ends up sharing his sweet dish with her.
As the quintessential college love story goes, after sharing sweet dish, its impossible that a friendship does not form, and obviously then love follows suit. This part in the book is all very good, but there are still some loopholes in this love story. They obviously want to get married and be together forever. But since real life is not that simple, there are few complex scenarios which the author decides to tackle. He has made the concept of inter-caste marriages sound or read so cool. The college romance is really cute and fresh in the sense that the characters in the book have really shared some true intimate moments together. Simple things like playing footsie, cleaning 'paav bhaji' off of the guys face, sending love letters in the classroom, looking into each others' eyes. These are all adorable moments.
There are simultaneuously some moments in the book which make you wonder if love - cum- arranged marriage is really worth it or no. Moments when the parents don't see eye to eye, cultural differences, intellectual differences, family issues and also the fact that not all parents can be good parents, hence the great role of the relatives in our Indian family system.
The book was an entertaining and if it can be said so, a gripping read. The writing is simple, easy-to-understand and the author had no qualms about writing about Mickey Mouse underwear during the course of the elaborate narration of how he got married to his girlfriend, love- of-his-life or to-be-wife. The chemistry, physics and mathematics was spot-on.Spoiler alert. And the cutest part was when he proposes to the whole family, no matter how crazy he really thinks they are. Four rings is something to be proud of. Though personally I would have definately thought it was super-cheesy, it gave a nice setting for the girl to get entry into his own crazy family. Some characters in the book like the mamas and the maasis don't really impact the reader, but they serve their purpose. Chennai is described beautifully, and the Ashram scene where Krish finds the answers to his baggage is also quite serene.
The drama comes in when the families have to like each other in the latter half and they still feel like they just cannot get along with each other. Dry, inexpressive Tamilians and over-the-top obnoxious Punjabis come to mind. But they still have a good heart at the core, and the truth is that that is all that matters in the end. This is conveyed succintly via Ananyas fathers speech towards the end, simply stating that parents don't want anything more than to be a part of their childrens' life-choices and feel that they had a part in their decisions. Finally alls well that ends well, where Krish and Ananya have twins who will be known as Indians and not as Tamilians or Punjabis. Its all about the greater good after all isint it.
