Predictable Plot , Low Moral Values. Review on 2 States The Story Of My Marriage - Chetan Bhagat

What do you expect when you read something like this on the cover page of a novel?

Boy Loves Girl. Girl Loves Boy. Boy's Family needs to like Girl. Girl's Family needs to like Boy . Both Families needs to like each other.

You almost know the story. Its about how a young couple meet, fall in love, parents intially object but later are forced to succumb to the demands of their kids. Finally the marriage takes place, the girl becomes pregnant and the couple lives happily ever after with their own children.

Though the storyline is cliched with not many surprise elements, the narration is pretty good. You start reading the novel and can't stop till the end. Don't get me wrong, it is not the plot, it is the low moral values of the protagonists Krish and Ananya that keeps you interested throughout the novel.

The story starts describing a geek, a moron, a loser, an idiot or whatever you call him, a below average, dumb five point something Punjabi guy Krish Malhotra from IITD entering IIMA campus. And there he meets an extremely beautiful and exceptionally talented Tamilian girl Ananya Swaminathan, a brilliant student, who is not only a university ranker in economics but also has great marketing and PR skills.

Our geek is a non-achiever and certainly no match to the South Indian lass by any standards and he knows it well. It looked highly improbable that the beautiful lady would even consider talking to our moron given the fact that he was too ordinary and uninteresting. She was awesome, he was plain crap.

But luck or fate or whatever you call it, she falls straight in his lap without much effort. She becomes his friend just because he sarifices one dessert for her. An IITian(even with miserably low grades like that of Krish) is still good at solving certain quant problems. So, the moron manages to impress the pretty girl with his mathematical prowess. On the pretext of studying together, he comes close to her. She starts liking him and our guy wastes no time in having sex with her.

This is what I wondered about the two protagonists.

She is a typical Tamil Brahmin coming from a highly respectable and cultured family. So, I expected her to be a vegetarian, a teetotaler and having good moral character.

But our girl is not like that. She eats meat, drinks alcohol, does everything prohibited. She uses some indecent phrases while talking. She even moves in with Krish. They stay together in the same dorm and have sex regularly. Wow what a girl, outstanding!

Besides, she seems okay when our geek tries to dominate her and does even not mind him speaking disrespectfully about her parents, relatives and culture. Any other decent South Indian girl would have trashed Krish for all the loose talks and obnoxious comments, but Ananya takes it in good humor. Her weak moral values and so called open mindedness sounds disgusting to me atleast. She is not the innocent one, she is open to sex. She's cool about being asked out, kissed, used, fondled etc. So, Krish takes full advantage of her vulnerability for two years of their stay at IIMA campus. Can’t blame him. No sensible guy would have lost the opportunity.

Moroever, considering Krish's below average looks and low IQ, he could not have found a better girlfriend and future wife than Ananya even in his dreams. He didn't deserve her but was fortunate enough to get her. The plot revolves around how the low bred guy who was disliked by his own father manage to marry such a wonderful, highly desirable girl despite all odds.

The thought that Ananya loses her virginity to our worthless moron just because he was good at quants is haunting me. I am sure she could have got a better deal from other IITians studying in the IIMA campus. Why did Ananya chose Krish as a friend with mutual benefits? Not fair. Any of the five Mohits or the thirteen guys who had proposed her in the campus would have been better choices.

But the question which keeps lingering in my mind is why did Ananya reject a well settled guy like Harish for substandard Krish? Was it just because Krish helped her brother Manju in studies? I think Ananya was really stupid. Though she was into marketing, she did not know her own market value. It is ironical that she understood what is a marginal utilty curve so well in the economics class, but she ended up showing her curves to somebody who didn’t even have marginal utility value. It is truly painful

to see a classy girl in love with a tawdry, quixotic guy.

I fail to understand the following.

1. What on earth made Ananya’s parents accept her foolish decision to get married to him? Our moron had got rejected by five banks during the placement season, while Ananya got in HLL in first shot. Didn't they realize that this low calibered guy was not a suitable alliance for their intelligent daughter?

   
   




2. Why couldn’t they pursue their daughter to see, that the geek would spoil her life one day? Couldn't they sense that the moron was not even sure whether he wanted to pursue banking or become a writer? And the IITD-IIMA education could not enlighten him towards career orientedness or social responsibility. He wanted a job for money. what a loser.

   
   




3. Ananya’s father was a banker, so why didn't he realize that Citibank India would soon run into bad debts thanks to its bad recruitment strategies? How on earth could they hire a loser like Krish? I presume that the five other banks which had outrightly rejected him are all doing quite well today.

   
   




4. Wasn't it obvious to Ananya herself that a guy who imagines his aunt storing credit cards in her cleveage wasn't somebody to look forward to? Why didn't she dump him then?

   
   




5. How could Krish, who had once wished ill for his own father, become a good husband? Or a good human being for that matter?

   
   

Parents, whether Punjabi or Tamilian love their children and bring them up with a lot of love, care and affection. They will accept their children even if they become terrorists. So, intercaste marriage is no big deal. After initial hesitation, parents will eventually accept their son-in-laws/daughter-in-laws, even if the person is from a different state, religion, culture or whatever. That is because they love their children and not because they have changed their beliefs or because they have started liking their son-in laws/daughter-in-laws.

So, why can’t children reciprocate the same love by showing some respect for their parents feelings and reservations? Instead of thinking about uniting 2 States, why don’t they first think about making their parents proud? Why do they create a situation wherein their parents are embarrassed and are forced to compromise on their values and beliefs? Why can’t they focus to make their parents happy first? I fail to understand and these values are not addressed in the book.

This book is a good read especially for those who have just started reading novels. It would be thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated by the young generation and will successfully misguide them further.