WILL ALWAYS REMAIN A FAVOURITE. Review on Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat

I chose to write a review about this book because some dude chose to showcase his stupidity on this board by writing gibberish.

Five Point Someone is one of my favorite books. In fact, it is not just another novel, it is a path breaking one. Someone had just shown the way that stories can be written the way we want them to enjoy reading them. The characters of this story are down to earth, the language simple and the narration enticing. Though I must have to say that story of similar style was written long back that went on to become a top seller of all times. However, why no one followed the footsteps of Anurag Mathur and emulated 'The Inscrutible Americans' all these years is not quite clear to me.

The story as we all know are about three friends in IIT - Hari, Ryan and Alok. The book is narrated in the first person by Hari, with some small passages by his friends Ryan and Alok, as well as a letter by Hari's girlfriend Neha Cherian. It deals with the lives of the three friends whose elation on making it to one of the best engineering colleges in India is quickly deflated by the rigor and monotony of academic work.

Most of the book deals with the numerous attempts by the trio to cope with and/or beat the system as well as Hari's fling with Neha who just happens to be the daughter of Prof. Cherian, the domineering head of the Mechanical Engineering Department.

While the story is overall humourous, it has an undertone of tragedy as well. The suicide of Prof. Cherian's son, the deep anguish felt by Neha over her brother's death, Alok's attempted suicide add to the appeal of the story. Hari's sneaking into Prof. Cherian's house to have sex with Neha adds to the 'tiltilation' factor that sells a book.

I must say it is a pioneering work by Chetan Bhagat. We never had Indian writers focussing on young minds and international writers, however bestseller churners they are can never write an Indian story. I, unlike some of the intellectuals on this board love to read Indian stories.

I will sign off mentioning a little about the blockbuster - 3 Idiots. Whatever manner, Vidhu Vinod Chopraji may try to claim that this was an original story, the fact remains that the first part of this movie is a straight copy from Chetan's book. And it is because of the first part that the viewers thronged the cinema halls.

Those who haven't read 'Five Point Someone' as yet may do so. It's still relevant, and will remain so, as long as our present education system is there.