Almost Full Points to "Five Point Someone". Review on Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat

After wondering for over 2 years what all the fuss over this book was about, last week I finally got around to reading "Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone-What Not to Do at IIT." One thing I must say is that Chetan really understands the art of story-telling. The book starts off a little tamely but soon picks up momentum and energy and and the characters (Hari, Alok, Ryan and Neha) that seem to be two dimensional in the first few chapters start growing on you and reminding you of persons you knew in college. The book traces the lives of these four characters over a period of four years that Hari, Alok and Ryan study at the IIT Delhi campus, where Neha lives in the staff quarters with her dad, the tyrannical Prof. Cherian.

Though the book is full of cliched personalities (the tough-as-nails HOD, his cute lovelorn daughter, the friendly young professor, the poor student with family problems, the carefree-yet-intelligent rich brat, the oily-haired bookworm, et al) as well as cliched incidents (the secret getaway where the friends meet over vodka and pot, bad grades, breaking into girlfriend's home, first sexual encounter, getting caught stealing exam papers and so on), by the end of the book you realise that the stereotyped people and situations in the book are actually the ones you lived with and through during your own college days too. In that sense, FPS is a good curtain-raiser on campus-life, IIT or otherwise, and a must-read for 16-17 year olds on the verge of completing school.

Chetan's writing style is simple and fluid - short sentences, no big words, vigorous verbs, colloqual conversation style (with plenty of cuss-words thrown in) which makes FPS a book that one can actually read in one sitting or in a day. He knows his core arget audience and the narration style that will click with them. No wonder the book continues to be up there on Indian bestseller lists even two years after it was published, just like Anurag Mathur's "The Inscrutable Americans" did for over a decade.

While FPS is a thoroughly enjoyable read, one does get the feeling that Chetan has held back a little - almost to the extent of sounding prudish at times- maybe to gain acceptability with a larger audience besides young adults. For example, while Hari, Alok and Ryan become bosom buddies real fast and practically live together, Alok and Ryan are simply not clued in on Hari's "progress" with his girlfriend most of the times. When they do ask him about her, like once every year, it's almost in a by-the-way manner, after all other topics of discussion are exhausted. Anybody who's been to college and lived in a hostel with roomies knows the extent to which friends discuss the most insignificant interactions with the opposite sex during those hormonally-charged years.

All in all, FPS is still a strongly recommended book, especially for high-school students, young collegians and even those who are out of college now. While readers who have not studied under a grade-point system might require a little effort (or research) to understand the IIT's peculiar performance assessment system, that still does not come in the way of enjoying this funny and irreverent book. Not only is FPS excellent timepass, it's also a lighthearted commentary on our education system. Besides, owing to the fact that FPS is such a cult book now, not having read it could make you feel left out within your friends circle, almost like a five-pointer in a class of nine-pointers. So go on read it - and relive your college days or fantasize about them, depending on where you are in life at the moment.