~ North meets South in India ~. Review on 2 States The Story Of My Marriage - Chetan Bhagat

I mostly read Business related books, Autobiographies, Inspirational & Motivational Books, Management books etc.Fiction & Novels is not my genre.But in Chetan Bhagat's case its an exception.

I have read all the books that he has written till date & for me he is one of the Best Indian Author whose book instantly strikes a chord specially with Indian Youth.

Two States was released in Oct 2009 & is Chetan Bhagat's fourth novel & I completed the reading the book in the same month of the release.Chetan Bhagat's first book was One night @ the Call Centre, the second one was Five Point Someone, the third one was 3 mistakes of my life.

This books depicts a story of inter-state marriage in India. Love story of  a Punjabi guy  Krish, and a Tamil Brahmin girl Ananya. Marriage of paranthas and idlis, paneer  and coconut.It's a book that is inspired by Chetan Bhagat's own experiences which seems like a typical Bollywood movie story(PS: Chetan Bhagat too is  Punjabi and his wife is a South Indian.)

Chetan, in his own style, dedicates this book to his in-laws. In the disclaimer,  he says, though the book is inspired by his own family and experiences, he  requests the book must be seen as a work of fiction.

The initial pages of the book are set up in IIM-Ahmedabad.Krish maybe Punjabi boy, but he is blissfully unaware 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 southern girls( a fact she will be  reminded over and over  again by Krish’s Punjabi clan) and unlike her staunch  family, she both  drinks and eats meat.(May be we should thank IIM for breaking  the  latter stereotype.

Krish and Ananya meet  in the canteen for the first time and eventually over a few days of combined  study, fall in love. Life is great for them until their families meet each other but then the struggle arises to marry over the cultural differences as Krish is north Indian  Punjabi boy & Ananya is a South Indian Tamilian Brahmin.The only catch is, Krish and Ananya don’t want to be estranged to their families, therefore, they choose to  convince their parents for the marriage.

The meeting of two families on the convocation day at the college, sets the  drama into motion.Rest of the story is about how youngistan fights oldistan to  get the approval for marriage.Both Ananya and Krish then 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 family. In fact,  Krish does get 4 gold rings made to propose girl’s entire family!

:-/ Sounds  cheesy?

The best thing about this book like other Chetan Bhagat's book is the Humoristic narration which is loaded with some really good similes and metaphors.It continuously evokes an excitement within you of What would happen next?Chetan Bhagat's got an amazing sense of writing which makes you imagine the real situation of what you are reading,

The other thing that I particularly liked the most in this book is the narration of  the cultural difference of north-indian families and South-Indian families in a funny way.The funny instances & the cheesy lines gives a finishing touches to an another well written book by Chetan Bhagat.

The recent update about this book is that it is been made into a full fledged Bollywood Movie.I am eagerly waiting to see if this film too can replicate 3 idiots which was inspired by Five point Someone, which according to me remains Chetan Bhagat's best book till date.

If you like reading novels, This book should definately be included in your list.I am pretty sure you would like it.I hope you liked this review.Do pour in your valuable comments if you have any suggestions/feedbacks.

Thanks & Regards,

Prashakth Kamath