I am not a big fan of travelling by plane... in fact I hate it .. I havent met a single person (except those who are flying for the first time) who is excited about the plane travel ...there is hardly anything you can do on a plane.. you are cramped up for space all the time, food is never good, you hardly get the service you want and you cant talk on phone ... all you can do is just read or sleep or watch crappy movies they show... I pretty much always end up sleeping the whole time ! Anyway, thats not the point of this post ... This time when I went to Austin, one smart thing that I did, was to take a book with me .. and it was not (just) good ... it was very very good !! :)
'
Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT' is one superb book written by
Chetan Bhagat. Looking at the title you may think its one of those books that help one to get into IIT but its not ! Its a short and simple story of an IIT student Hari and his two friends Alok and Ryan. Each one has his own personality which is quite different from the other in various aspects. They are broght up differently and hence their thinking is very different from each other. Hari is the happy go lucky guy, Alok is completely bent under the burden of the family expectations and Ryan is the handsome rebellious original thinker. Starting from the (in)famous IIT ragging which brings these three batchmates together, the book revolves around the four years of IIT for each of them, narrating the good, the bad and the ugly!
What makes this book so special is that the story is very touching and feels so real. Everyone who has had at least a little bit of fun during their bachelors (be it IIT or not) can relate to the story in more than one ways ! You may not have stolen exam question papers or may not have slept with the daughter of the head of the department :) but still that whole '
shararati' part reminds you of the kid in you and the good old days ... Its romantic but at the same time very realistic .. It will make you laugh , it will make you cry, it will make you happy, it will make you sad ... most importantly it will make you think ! These three batchmates challenge the good old IIT education system which according to them is the cause for suppressing the real talent in them and as a result they face the consequences in terms of their low (5 point) GPA ... it takes them some time to realize that you need to fight the system by being a part of the system .. This book vaguely reminds you of '
Dil Chahta Hai' (DCH) (I can watch this movie any number of times and have already watched it I-dont-know-how-many-times) where the focus is the friendship of these 3 young guys and their life ... Its similar but also different in the sense the book is tightly coupled with the guys and their life inside the college ... complete fun !
Its a simple story and the narration is just awesome ! The one liners are just amazing !! I did not keep the book down until I finished it cover - to - cover !! The four hour flight to Austin felt so short and also got nominated as the most-enjoyed domestic flight so far :) .. A must read book according to me !! I am waiting to get my hands on the '
One night @ the call-center' ...
p.s. For those who have read the book already : would you wanna be Hari, Alok or Ryan or Neha ? Do you find yourself closer to any of those characters ?
Labels: novels
