5.someone. Review on Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat

Umm well I can’t really figure out what audience Chetan had in mind when inking this book. The book has little to do with iit or to put in a better way; it has very little of what IIT is all about. He could have as well used any other college as setup just ensuring that this college had relative grading system, was tough and had discipline. And well that is indeed a very narrow perspective of what iit is. It doesn’t talk about inter hostel rivalry, extra- curricular activities, politics, socials, massive rendezvous, final year turmoils, and the now present internet connection in every hostel room (that had transformed student life at iit like anything) , nothing that would actually differentiate iit from other colleges. So be assured for once that this book is not about iit. So is it about underperformers? To some extent, but it doesn’t seem to give any cogent arguments for their underperformance, in fact it doesn’t in fact care to dwell into it at all.

So if you are an alumnus and intend to read this book to recall your iit days or an aspirant who is curious to know about life at iit then in either case, you'll be terribly disappointed. The book is maybe a little more about friendship and romance then anything else. Chetan has really done a wonderful job in capturing this part. Many of my fellow colleagues who are IITians

(I still regret that I wasn’t one of em) and who have read the book are head over heals in love with the fictious Neha Cherian. So much so that they were uncomfortable why hari had to end up having sex with her.

The characters precisely map to the characters of dil chahta hai. Aamir-Ryan, Akshay-Alok, Saif-Hari and Preity-Neha. The difference being that unlike in dil chahta hai, here characters differ in their approach on academics instead of love.

At book launch, Chetan claimed that he is the hari in book. He has tried to use self-humility throughout the book to establish a connection. You know, self humility charms like anything, TRP ratings of jassi jaisee koi nahi should be evidence enough.

The first 14 chapters of book are really cute. There is this very interesting concept in the book. Each of the three out of the four central characters in the book have a chapter devoted to themselves where they put their perspective on the way things are or why things are the way they are. The fourth character is the author for the rest of book. These chapters are particularly very sweet and cute. Each of the characters cribbing about how hari had been biased in the rest of the book, giving their own justifications. In fact one of the characters said he can’t take too much liberty even in his chapter cos hari might edit it. But despite that the book lacks perspective. It’s as other characters in book insist Hari's (chetan's) very narrow perspective on iit and life. I really doubt if majority of iit males would romance with a girl just for getting physical. Chetan has portrayed all 9 pointers as nerds. While that may be true for some but I think that some of the coolest guys around are 8 pointers. Its again hard to believe that someone studying regularly for 3hours a day is 5 pointer if he is really studying You study 3 hours a day and you need to be really dumb to get anything less than 7.5 particularly if you are in mechanical.

Actually half way through the book, that’s chapter 14, I was disappointed why only just 130 more pages are left, there should have been more. But well 15-20 pages more and I was cursing the enormous number of pages still left. While the first half went into defining characters, their aspirations and problems and maintained a slow and steady pace, the latter part was just pure fiction too difficult to digest particularly given the iit setup. Imagine an iit student making out with a prof's daughter in prof's house!! Imagine a student falling from 9th floor of MS building and still surviving. Was Chetan trying to crack a joke when he justified saying the guy survived the fall bcos of his fat fleshy bottom and 6 inches of water on floor!!!

At many places, there is sudden transition in the attitude of characters for no apparent reason. Some incoherency too like Ryan getting a scooter in middle of first sem at christmas! At iit, first sem is over much before Christmas. Again Ryan gets a scooter after they already went to see terminator on his scooter. Hari finding cooler at the dhaba, comfortable in midst of winters and that too in Delhi. But I guess all this can be pardoned.

So what I am trying to say is that though this book (at least the first 15 chaps) are real cute and might give you a faint flavour of the hardships at iit BUT it is a very narrow, incomplete perspective of a very small aspect of iit. So read it as pure fiction and do not, I request DO NOT conclude or infer anything about IITians or 5-6-7-8-9 pointers from this book.

I felt so wasted at the end of the book; I mean what was the book trying to tell? Damn it, why did you associate name of IIT with it. I mean there are at least 5000 mis-informed people around if it has actually sold 5000 copies that is.

DISGUISING FEATURES: - The front cover of the book feigns about the book as if it all about the IITs and about the tech stuff. But, hardly any of these is there inside.

ABOUT CHETAN (what he actually did at IIT):

He made and still holds these two records at IIT:

Sent a stainless steel glass flying high in air for 7 seconds using a diwali fire-cracker.

Blew four bubbles simultaneously while chewing bubble gum, each 3 inches in diameter.

Source: BSP (board for student’s publication, iit Delhi) book of records 1995)

Note: Available at its cheapest price in Koramangala, Bangalore in front of Forum ( I got it for 40 bucks , and of course I had to bargain with the hawker for half an hour ).