In the book “2 States-The Story of My Marriage”, Chetan Bhagat has done an absolutely outstanding job of dissecting the psyche of today’s Indian middle-class family and brilliantly narrating in fiction the very real problems they are going through. people when they are between castes. /creed/religious/state marriages are performed. Relationships are built. Lives are upside down. Enormous efforts are made to achieve even a semblance of acceptance. Relationships break down. Sometimes they stay broken and other times (thankfully) things work out and in the end love triumphs, as Bhagat’s characters in 2 States attest.

The book opens very cleverly with the protagonist of the story: a Punjabi boy named Krish Malhotra, in a psychiatrist’s office, doing a class Devdas act, desperately trying to come to terms with the apparent loss of the love of his life, a Tamilian Brahmin. . girl named Ananya Swaminathan. It then goes into flashback mode, where the love story “where all love stories begin” begins, with Krish and Ananya meeting for the first time in the IIMA dining hall, where they are both fellow students, each with ambitions of their own. own and ambitions driven by their own reasons.

Sharing a terribly strained relationship with his father, Krish also has to deal with an overzealous and overprotective mother, who wants him to marry the first Punjabi girl who crosses his path, tied up with a fleet of cars, a house and money as dowry. The Malhotra family is as dysfunctional as any family can get, with Mr. and Mrs. Malhotra not speaking, Mr. Malhotra having a fiery temper and unchecked anger, and a large number of nosy relatives of Mrs. Malhotra.

The vivacious and bold Ananya, on the other hand, comes from a typical well-educated, education-hungry mainstream Tamilian Brahmin family in Chennai, which is in stark contrast to her rebellious and outgoing personality. Born to a quiet and reserved father, she is the closest to him, while she and her mother share a frustrating yet interesting relationship. She also has a bookworm brother, whose only goal in life seems to be to become more of a bookworm and possibly graduate from the best institutions in the country.

Amidst tumultuous family problems, irate teachers, truckloads of study materials, and raging hormones, the two meet, fall in love over many conversations, study periods, chicken, and lots of chai. As they graduate and accept their respective placements, their relationship progresses to one of full commitment but with a corresponding non-acceptance from the respective families.

Bhagat then dives into weaving and weaving his way through their respective lives and the various attempts they both make to please each other’s family. After many emotional upheavals and a breakup, he gives the story a wonderful twist that I definitely didn’t expect. Suffice it to say that the novel ends in a happy marriage between Tamils ​​and Punjabis: a strange setting where north meets south, which brings a warm feeling to the heart and a smile to the face.

As an author, Chetan Bhagat has taken a risk with language that may not go down well with the ancients, but the book is aimed at the youth of India nonetheless. And they relate to him. He has quickly become an icon of youth and his attempts to bring about a change in narrow-mindedness among our people, his plea to young Indians to marry outside their caste to promote a sense of Indianness and not be tied to the caste itself, promises a very positive change in the county. Drawing on his own life, Bhagat has been quite brave in not holding back on his claims about the sexual games of youth and his sarcasm about the Punjabi and Tamil communities, as well as his own parents, in-laws and Citibank. But this is the real reason for the original story which has a genuine and honest touch. That is something every reader appreciates.

Once a reader starts the book, it would be quite difficult for him/her to put it down and would in all likelihood prompt the reader to read Bhagat’s earlier works as well, namely ‘A Night at the Call Center’, ‘3 Mistakes of My Life’ and ‘Five Point Someone’.

Chetan continues: your loyal fans await you!