Review, 2-States By Chetan Bhagat….

Most of the time, I read Oracle related books. Its not very often that I do get time to read anything else. Its either some market book related to Oracle or the books that Oracle University supplies that are around me. But this doesn’t mean that I don’t like to read anything else. Don’t believe me, no honestly its true! I do like to read and I have made a promise to myself that I am going to increase the count of non-oracle related books as well. So towards this, I took an initiative and read 2-States( Chetan Bhagat) few days back. This post is part review of the book and part things which I felt after reading it.

Chetan Bhagat has become a household name with his novels. A banker turned novelist, he has hit the right chords almost all the time with his novels which are almost inspired from the real life stories. This novel is again inspired from a real life story and guess whose, of Chetan himself! Yes its the story inspired from the life of Chetan that how he got married to love of his live, who is actually not from his religion. Surely, as said also in the novel, there are some plots of fiction which are added to the book to make things more spicy. Chetan has a complete control in throwing witty lines at places where they are most unexpected, some thing which I guess, comes to Punjabis naturally (yes he is and I am as well) :-) . Okay okay I promised myself not to do any such kind of comparisons so I should stop here only. Over all, a good novel which one must read to see that when two people are deeply and madly in love, how much effort and struggle they have to go through and they do all that if they are determined to be with each other! Also, the burning question that Chetain raised through the book, is it really so important to talk about being “one” and yet fight over being a Punjabi, Muslim, Tamil, Christian? All what should matter is the understanding , that bond between a gal and a guy. If both of them have decided to be with each other( and the keyword is “both”) , rather than fighting and cribbing over one being a Punjabi and other being a Tamil/Telugu/whatever, we should support them and stand for their decision. They didn’t choose to be a Tamil or  Punjabi by themselves at the time of their birth and being one or the other doesn’t make him/her superior or inferior! Hope this simple yet so true fact people, at least young people would understand and start following after reading 2-states!

I got some other feelings also after reading the novel. First, there is one very obvious thing that’s there in the novel that the guy did most of the stuff. Be it making gal’s parents accept him or his mom/dad accepting the gal, what ever you say, he did it all! Yet it would be really wrong to say that the gal didn’t do anything. She stood with him all the time and that’s the biggest thing which I can expect from a gal doing despite all the pressure that she has to face from  her family and society. There was a time when the gal in the novel Ananya has some other guy visiting her home for marriage. The hero, Krish asks her what they are supposed to do now, what he is supposed to do when she is going to get married to that guy and she replies, “let’s not give up!” , a real support she gives with this small sentence! You may call it weird but I have seen another, real story in front of my own eyes involving a guy and gal from two different castes and creeds. That story  involved a Punjabi guy and a Gujarati gal. Yes, in that too there is a Punjabi guy :-) . But that’s the only thing which does match with the story of 2-states as rest everything is different. Yes, the guy did what ever he could possibly all the time to make things go smooth. Like Krish goes to Chennai for his gal, he also went somewhere for his gal, that’s another part that unlike Ananya, his gal had a different say about it. Still, all this are really small things. Where lies the major difference is in that one sentence which I just quoted from Ananya, “let’s not give up” and what that gal said to her Punjabi guy. She didn’t say I am with you or let’s not give up or I am going to be with you and stand with you in all the times. She didn’t ask her guy unlike Ananya that he must come to her home, try to win over her parents but she said something totally different. She told the guy that if he would step into her home, she would simply refuse to even recognize him in the first place. Unlike Ananya who got number of times into situations when she had to take scolding from her parents, especially from her mother, very close some times even to get a slap too, that gal said to her guy that if her parents would come to know about this guy, they may scold and slap her and she can’t get insulted, embarrassed for him! And unlike Ananya who stood with Krish all the time, she chose a better career, study in abroad compared to her guy telling him that she has to be selfish as being with him will deprive her of from all this. When you would read this novel, you would see that even Ananya did so much for Krish, still in the end,for some issues, she tells him that “its over now” and Krish is almost on the verge of being dead. In fact, he even starts searching for different ways of doing suicide over Google! Still in the end, Ananya comes back to him because that’s what they both wanted all this while unlike our own Punjabi guy for whose tears too, he was told that there is no time for them and she has got nothing to do with him anymore! Sigh! Yes, that’s  a story as well depicting what it really needs to make two , one! If you are wondering how I know all this about these Punjabi guy and Gujju gal, well I know both of them that’s how! But reading the novel, immediately made me link things one to one, only to see a huge contrast in what gal in the novel Ananya did to the gal in real life! I am not sure why some people are selfish enough not to see anything beyond a career or money or a degree from abroad and fail to see some one’s teary eyes? Why people fail to understand a simple thing that all this can and will come at any point of time in life but the chances of someone crossing oceans for you, for a promise given to you is not something that happens daily or often? But may be this world now is full of those only who think getting a scolding for their beloved is not worth it and thinking to leave your career compared to leaving your beloved is much better! I guess, we are keep on forgetting and doing it more often now that it always takes two to tango! It always take both of the persons in a relation to put efforts if they are true to each other and to their relation. Any one of them not being true or standing for his/her man/woman would only lead to disasters and tears in the eyes of the other person. But may be giving tears to others is not such a big thing now I guess for most, so they don’t even bother while doing so! Yes, they do have guts to say that “they don’t have time for these tears and have nothing to do with them anymore” though! Times are changing I believe and certainly not for good if you ask me!

Last but certainly not the least, I want you to know that Sidhu and Vaibhav both have also written their own reviews about 2-states here and here. If you haven’t still read 2-states and are looking for some more reviews, these 2 fits into the bill perfectly, so do read both of the posts! I shall conclude by saying what Sidhu has written as well but with a twist ;-) . If you are Krish, you may get your Ananya and if you are Ananya, you may get your Krish and may god make you one! But remember, for being one, you two need to stand together as always it takes two to tango, two hands to clap! Only for a slap, you need just one hand! God bless you!