2 states

Synopsis by C.Bhagat:

Love marriages around the world are simple:
Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.
They get married.

In India, there are a few more steps:
Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.
Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don’t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it? From the author of blockbusters Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The 3 Mistakes of My Life, comes another witty tale about inter-community marriages in modern India.

My Review:

I have read Chetan Bhagat’s previous 3 books, 5 point someone being my Fav. I read this book in one go. Though I feel Indians who watch Bollywood movies will get a feel of the book by its cover and will not jump off their seats after reading the twists in the book, but the book is good enough to grab your attention and interest.

The book is dedicated by the author to his in-laws* (with a * marked which says which does not mean I am henpecked, under her thumb or not man enough). Men…!! :P Its ok if they express their gratitude to their in-laws for giving their daughter to him, why * and clarify..!

The story is about Krish and Ananya, who met at IIMA. Krish is a Punjabi boy and Ananya is a Tamilian Brahmin girl, who fell in love with each other (a little 5 point some-one like love story in college.)

Krish is fair, intelligent, and good in economics and is madly in love with Ananya. He likes to take care of her Mom but is in no talking terms with his Dad, as in mostly pissed off when at home.

Ananya is independent, modern, educated, practical and logical (like most girls are) and is fair unlike other South-Indian girls (exceptions include Sri devi and Hema malini)

They both try to convince each others family in-turns. Krish got posted himself in Chennai ( Ananya’s hometown), lost his sleep, had to give tuitions to Ananya’s younger brother, and then helped her Dad in his (Bank) office work and her Mom by acknowledging her singing in a huge public. Hard work to get the love of his life. After all nothing in this world comes for free.

Also, asked the complete family to marry him and gave all three of them gold rings. Tons of appreciation and gold gifts….they liked the guy.

Ananya then went to Delhi to meet Krish’s parents, and received a lot of sarcasm for she being a witty and clever Madrasin and having trapped her baby boy. Later, Ananya’s parents gifted Krish’s mom with 3 sarees, krish wid 4 shirts and with dry fuits fromGoa.

Dowry system in Punjabi weddings is written well, and how “boy’s side” can put a life long relationship to hold if they don’t get a free luxurious car from the “girl’s side”.

Our MBA girl showed her smartness and confidence and subsidized the dowry, at the same time getting blessings and admiration from Krish’s family.

The book has well portrayed the differences in North-Indians and South-Indians, weddings, music tastes, food, clothes, cleverness etc etc.

Also, prejudices about caste system still prevalent in the so called modern India is shown well and not only parents smirk about it but also the children tend to think that will this be worth it? Giving unhappiness to everyone in the family for their own sake will not be worth..! Marrying outside the clan is still a huge question, why so narrow minded about it?

2 States brings together people of 2 different states and unite it to one- called India.
I hope people in my country open up and free themselves from the clutches of caste system and think of all as One, all as just human beings.

Overall, the book is a nice read.
Wedding is quite funny.
Though there was a time travel in the book I suppose, as he once said mobiles had not become very popular yet and are its very costly to talk on mobiles on the other hand he made Ananya’s mom sing the song from Kaho na pyar hai… :-/

Rating : 3/5

PS: Author kept the price unchanged since his first book in 2004. It is still Rs.95. The prices of commodities have increased, but Chetan Bhagat's books are still priced what it was five years ago.