Friday, October 24, 2008

the 3 mistakes of my life

Just finished savoring my second Chetan Bhagat's. 'the 3 mistakes of my life' is the story of a young guy with two close friends, his desire to be a successful businessman, his small indian-style love story, packed neatly against the backdrop of Ahmadabad. It revolves around his life and the externalities which 'affect' it big time - natural sabotage, communal violence and norms of the indian society.

I don't relish much of fiction per se, but sometimes it's a nice break. I do enjoy reading what Chetan Bhagat writes - casual, easy, fast-paced turn of events with intermittently embedded smart witty one-liners.

Here are some of the funny one-liners to give a glimpse of his style :
...
'This is a suggestion. Don't take it the wrong way. But do consider taking a bath', my wife said.
I looked at her.
'Just an option', she said.
I this she is overcautious sometimes. I don't bite back.
...
It looked like a marriage party where only priests were invited. Most of them carried some form of accessory like a trihsul or a rudraksha or a holy book.
Ish and I exchanged a what-are-we-doing-here glance.
Omi went to meet a group of two bald-whites, one grey-saffron and one bald-saffron. He touched their feet and everyone blessed him. Considering Omi met these kind of people often, he had one of the highest per-capita-blessings ratio in India.
...
She had a track pant on that I think she had been wearing since she was thirteen and a pink T-shirt that said 'fairy queen' or something. How can a grown-up woman wear something that says 'fairy queen'? How can anyone wear something that says 'fairy queen'?
...
There were many others. This is something inseparable to Chetan Bhagat's style. Overall, a fast-paced, funny, (minimal-junk but not no-junk) nice read, but its fiction after all. Fiction of the cheesy type - the Bollywood type? more so,the atrocious type? Enjoy the humor - thats what marks his style I would say.

5 comments:

Varun said...

Read this one couple of months ago. Dint fancy it much as in 5PS was some standard, now that i think that ZING has gone..
Anways last read 'Keep Off The Grass' by Karan Bajaj diff and intriguing (I felt so).. do read if u lay ur hand on it!!

Indu Bhagat said...

Yeah, true the ZING has quite faded. After I finished reading it, I couldn't gather how I felt! I like his style of humor, but the story line kinda sucked :P.

I have a sincere problem with bollywood-style obnoxious turn of events (the author flying all the way back to Ahmadabad :P, worse the guys going to Australia)...I was like - C'mon, Aren't we done already ?!

Kaustubh said...

Ah! If you don't mind, I would like to see your collection of books. I've got some books from home,but I'm gonna run out of them soon.

Indu Bhagat said...

I don't maintain a collection per se. But whatever books I have, sure you can take them to read if you like!

Maverick said...

Read "The Motorcycle Diaries"
If you get ur hands on it ...