So it's Chetan Bhagat all over again. But this time he isn't spending a night at the call centre or showing off his heroics at IIT (things he did were certainly risky) though. Rather he has used his own life as the plot. To be precise, it's the story of his marriage.

Story of a marriage..!!?? Couldn't he have found a better plot…? Back to predictable plot, on the lines of the 80's blockbuster Ek Duje Ke Liye, Chetan Bhagat has seemingly run out of ideas. The only reason the book slips out of the genre of his earlier writings is its predictable plot. However, he compensates predictability through his racy prose that keeps the reader glued.

What's so special about marriages apart from tonnes of flowers, kilos of makeup, carats of gold, glitzy saris, lehangas (not to forget the girls who wear them), high-calorie food and unlimited gossip. That's the basic scenario of a basic (north Indian) marriage. It's an exciting affair I agree (especially the lehanga part) but certainly it can't be that exciting for anyone to write 270 pages and sell it for mere hundred bucks.

…But…

If the boy is a hardcore Punjabi (Krish) and the girl a beautiful Tamilian (Ananya) and somehow they fall in love and want to get married (obviously against their parents wishes)…. sparks are sure to fly and the unexpected can be expected.

According to Bhagat -
Love marriages around the world are simple. Boy loves girl, girl loves boy, they get married (irrespective of the fact that they might divorce the very next day)

But in India it's not that simple.
Boy loves girl, girl loves boy.
Boy's family has to love the girl and the girl's family has to love the boy.
Boy's family has to love the girl's family and the girls family has to love the boy's family.

So with a firm resolution to see their parents smile on their wedding day (had they eloped, it wouldn't have been 270 pages), both set out to bring families of two entirely separate communities together and join them with nothing but love. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but much harder to convince.

And what ensues is a gripping Bollywood style story- the schemes and planning of the boy and girl to convince each other's parents and how their respective parents try to keep their respective children within the bounds of their respective traditions.

But as it goes in Bollywood- hogi pyaar ki jeet (love will always triumph) and so does it happen at the end.

But the crux of the whole story isn't the plot; rather it is Chetan Bhagat's style of writing. He literally gives us the sight, sound and taste of the story just through the pages. Like the other three books, Bhagat writes in a style that instantly connects with the slang of teenagers. But with all the fame, he also has his share of criticism. Many veteran writers and authors believe that Bhagat's writing skills isn't a credit to his popularity. According to them his books are a runaway success with youngsters and his 'incorrect' writing is influencing the younger minds to learn the same 'incorrect' English like him.

A strong stratagem and its good portrayal can make a book a bestseller. Chetan Bhagat achieved both the milestones for "3 mistakes of my life". But 2 States could be an even bigger bestseller than its predecessor. The contrive is good (a bit filmi and hard to believe sometimes) but it's actually the description of things that scores high and covers up the small faults and hard-to-believe parts of the story. Even though it is essentially a real life story, yet Chetan Bhagat had already declared that it has been dramatized a bit. So maybe we can pardon him for those hard-to-believe parts. Apart from being a guaranteed entertainment, the book (like its predecessors) serves a higher purpose.

After reading those 270 pages on day 1 itself, what gave me food for thought was that even after 60 years of independence we still remain divided. Why are north Indians considered cousins of ET in down south? Why are south Indian traditions and language a laughing matter to north Indians? Are we not Indians and part of the same country?

The cultural divide in India is more than what meets the eye. Industries, infrastructure, transportation, and modernization… in the last six decades our country has grown faster than anyone could imagine. The times may have changed, but attitudes have remained rooted!

With all this growth we haven't been able to outgrow our old mindset. We seem to be slaves to the traditions that have long lost out on logic. Modernity in living hasn't yet erased the engrained ideologies. Caste system was abolished years back but we still follow it blatantly. Even racial discrimination creeps in when anxious parents look for a 'perfect match' for their young ones. In the best of moments, we are outwardly modern but inwardly, we are still living in the past.

Bhagat quotes an incident where his mother insists him to marry a girl just because her father owns six petrol pumps and they are rich. It shows how a typical middle class parent wants her child to achieve what she could only dream to achieve. And she sees her hopes fulfilled through her son's matrimonial alliance whether or not the boy or the girl are comfortable in each others' company.

We 'self proclaimed modern' are still backwards in thoughts. And it is time we break free from the manacles of caste and traditional customs.

2 States
by Chetan Bhagat,
Rupa & Co., 2009
Paperback price: Rs. 95.00
Pages: 269