5 point someone ...

Just finished reading it last night (or early today morning to be precise). Never has an Indian author's work in English held my attention as this ( Barring of course the extraordinary story of Augustya Sen, "English August" by Upamanyu Chatterjee). It was hard to put it down. The work seems to be autobiographical but I seriously doubt whether any student would indeed have the audacity to do such things in their grad days! The book is refreshing. We get to hear the story through the lips of Hari, one of the four lead characters of the story. Story line is predictable and yet the author's mettle is proved when he brings in a kind of Quentin Tarantino style of story-telling!

Story starts in an ambulance when the author promises himself that he would pen the story of their escapades in case his friend in the ambulance makes it through! The author delivers and he delivers in style! Thus the story begins as a flashback. Once into the story, The other 3 main characters add their own point of view to the story each reiterating the fact that "It is of course Hari's book and he will edit it if we say too much". So much for Quentin Tarantino!

I would never have believed that there would be characters like these 3, least of all in an IIT, had I not seen people like that in a premier institute like BITS. Perhaps the labor and hassles from late high school to get into the top institutes of the country drove them so hard that they just wanted to relax - now that they are in! How true ... Even I did the same when I was into the first year of engineering.

I was doubtful whether or not to buy the book when a line caught my eye: "This is not a book to teach you how to get into IIT or even how to live in college. In fact, it describes how screwed up things can get if you don't think straight." That was it. I bought it and it was worth it!

The story is light hearted except for a few serious moments (even these elicit laughter from the reader because of the sensuous humor interlaced between the lines). The narrative races across their four years. The smile never vanished from my face all through the time I was reading it as it brought back the sweet memories of my college days!

About the author: Chetan Bhagat