2 States: The Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat

I never expected Chetan Bhagat to write anything I can carry ahead in my life. His writing symbolizes fast food culture of India. No. His writing is not junk (literal meaning of fast food). All I’m saying is his books are ‘quick read’, ‘nothing to carry’ types. He tried to break this stereotype in 3 Mistakes of My Life & that was his second mistake (first one being writing One Night @ Call Center). As a matter of fact, even he agrees his books are 90% entertaining & 10% reforming. Though, I’m not in accord with latter part, I always believed his books are entertaining. He sure manages to create page turning urgency. You can read his entire book in one stretch.

His latest book 2 States... is about Krish, Ananya & their journey towards marriage. Punjabi boy in love with Tamilian girl with their parents opposing. To unite, the protagonist will have to battle cultural drift, deep rooted in the society. So what do they do? They first impress each other’s families & then try to make both families like each other. Sounds familiar? So will paranthas finally marry idlis, will coconut accept paneer?

This book has its moments. Book has some good smiles & great metaphors. The cultural drift between North-Indians & South-Indians has come up very well. In fact, austere differences among Punjabi & Tamilian forms nub of the book. May be in form of loud music loved by North-Indians against silent carnatic music preferred by South-Indians, or Krish’s journey in ‘Chain-nai’. CB manages to come up with witty humour. CB for all right reasons dedicates this book to his in-laws. All in all, struggle; both protagonists go through sets the cadence of the book. Oh, did I mention this- This book harks back to the steamy affair of Five Point Someone!

So if everything’s so well with this book, why did I find myself completely detached with this book? Rather than ‘page turning urgency’ why was I hastening to the end? (Probably, I need to revisit my first line.)

By the way CB, I’ve some questions for you:
Which boy will propose a girl in amidst of her dream company’s job interview? I've seen enough of this in 90's bollywood movies, where reel life-boy proposes his girl in un-im-manageable situations? I found it very hard to guzzle down. Request you to get over this familiar b-grade bollywood cliché. Also, sweet end to father-son saga didn’t work for me, though I knew it was coming!

So to conclude, though this book offers nothing new to read, yet, you should read it once, to know what lovers from different communities go through. Come on guys. Not bad at all to refresh your memories of 90’s movies.

I’ll place this book in number two slot, amongst his four books. First one of course - Five Point Someone. And last one undoubtedly - One night @ Call Center. This book ranks second more on poor performance of CB’s last two books as against its individual performance! To be honest, CB just manages to escape committing 3rd mistake of his life!