Like I was saying in the last post, I have been reading Indian authors lately. Yesterday, I picked up two books by Chetan Bhagat, thought I would gift myself something for a week of hard(ly) studying! :-)
Chetan Bhagat is a IIM, IIT alumni who is currently working in Hong Kong. About the books:
His first book 'Five Point Someone- What not to do at IIT' was released about a year ago and became an instant best seller, it still is. The book is about that Mecca for engineers in India, the Indian Institute of Technology. Every year thousands of aspirants of a guaranteed future try to get but only a handful do. The book tells the story of Ryan, Alok and Hari, three former brilliant students who have managed to get into IIT but have failed to keep up their scores. A lot of fun and their GPAs stay at five point something, making them the 'losers'. That doesnt really bother our heroes. They booze, they do dope, hari falls for Neha, the prof's daughter and by the time they pass out, they manage to almost get expelled, attempt suicide, eat paranthas at two rupees...classic college stuff. There is however nothing about funny incidents in classes, except a few, or anything much about other classmates. The story is almost only about the three guys and Neha .
The story is an ordinary one about college, even though it happens to be about the best one in the country. The writing is extremely simple and very funny in some places, especially some one-liners. There was this one place where two of them pile up some un-identifiable stuff on their plates in the hostel only because they want to have some colour on their plates! That is so like what I do in hostel too where most of the time I do not know what vegetable I am eating!
The boys try to play sports, lose weight, look at porn, listen to Pink Floyd, cheat, flirt, watch movies with mindless fights and sloppy Hindi ones, the stuff that boys do. I had heard my guy friends talk about such stuff and this book reaffirms my views about them (let me keep them to myself for now!).
Last night, I was tired and had decided to sleep early. But this book was too good and I sat up till two AM to finish it. I was also giggling throughout the book and my roommate had begun to think I had finally lost it! There arent many books out there that can make me lose sleep. But Bhagat is good enough to lose sleep over!!(his book I mean!)
His second book 'One Night @ the Call Centre' was released a couple of weeks ago and has become a best seller too. It is about six people who work at a call centre and what happens when they get a call from God. I am just 70 pages into the book. It is good too but I think I like the first one better. If at all you can lay hands on these books, grab them without a second thought. They are not serious works of literature but could be just what you need after a boring, monotonous day. They are cheap too, compared to other books in the market, just Rs 95.
If ever there was good value for money, these are right on the bull's eye! You can also check out www.chetanbhagat.com for more on the author and his books. Take a word of advice, read them and be entertained!
No comments:
Post a Comment