Book Review : 2 States (The story of my marriage)

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.

Each of the steps above is more difficult than the previous one. And that is what this book is all about. Many would say step 1 in itself is too difficult, let alone the other steps. The story is that of Krish and Ananaya who meet up at IIMA, fall in love and want to get married. Step 1 is complete. Now all the challenges in their life start. Krish is a Punjabi whereas Ananya is a Tamilian. So there is a hug task in front of them – to gel into the families of their to be in-laws and to unite two culturally different families. The story nicely explains the North Indian – South Indian cultural divide.

 Well the price of the book is Rs.95. The same as that of ‘Five Point Someone’. In the last book ‘The Three mistakes of my life’ Chetan had talked how difficult was it to maintain the same price. Surprisingly the price has remained same even for this book. I really appreciate him for that. It ensures it doesn’t burn a hole in the pockets of a middle class Indian.

 And BTW this book is dedicated to his in-laws, which according to him may be the first time in the history of the books. The statement comes with an asterisk saying ‘which does not mean I am henpecked, under her thumb or not man enough’. Now what is that suppose to mean ?J. Also in initial acknowledgements page Chetan says ‘I would also like to tell all South Indians I love them’ which can be read as ‘be ready, you are the butt of all jokes in this book’

I liked the narration. Its soft and decent. Again like other Chetan Bhagat books, this one will get you glued till the end. I would say this book is better than his previous two. Its enjoyable and practical. If you are working in a MNC, then you would be able to connect well with the Krish’s office life – the way he clears his interview faking himself… hyping team names eg. CSC-Consert Steering Committee… meetings ending with no conclusions… and when the stocks crash and clients lose money instead of admitting the mistake, claiming that the stocks  are in ’self correction mode’. That was too good. There are a few funny lines in the beginnig but as the story moves it gets serious. I am not going to reveal any story. Its worth reading once.

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