"2 States" Couldn't agree more!!!

Yes! I had it. "2 States The Story of my marriage" by Chetan Bhagat.The book that most of India's "youth" had forced upon themselves. As is my habit, I read the teaser on the back cover, and prepared myself for what I believed would certainly be worth it....

I opened the book and seeing the first page, a smile flickered across my face. "With Love" it said, and there below it was her signature. Don't raise your eyebrows! There is still no place for a lady love in my life( I guess that is about the best way to put that am still single :D ). I'd borrowed it from my friend and there is no prize for guessing who had gifted it to him. And so, I turned to the Prologue of the book, with my mind telling me "here is another story while you start off reading one" and hoping that "they would cross the finish line as well :P" .

Over the next couple of days, I spent a number of hours (having become a so called Corporate I can't even spend those few hours at a stretch and finish the book at one go! Guess I'll have to blame myself!) and I was through (as I read the last 100 odd pages from 10pm to 12.30am on Friday night, it gave me the opportunity to wish my mom at 12 on her birthday as well :D ).

I was impressed! Here was a book, with which I could relate in almost every possible way (is that why Chetan is called a "youth icon"?).

The story revolves around Krish (a Punjabi) and Ananya (a "Tamilian".... now, does anyone call us that way??); how their lives intertwine while at IIMA; and how, having wanted their parents and families to accept them and smile at their wedding, they fight all odds and scrape through, just when you start thinking its all doomed and over.

The style is simple, humour aplenty (what with two communities to go at!), conversations taut and most importantly, gives a flavour of India as it is! Every character in the book, however small their role might be, is well carved out. Be it Neeta, the psychotherapist, who comes in passing; Manju, Ananya's brother, who calls out gold's atomic number and name when given a gold ring; you start predicting how each one of them in the book is going to behave given the situation!!!

It does seem strange that the country which boasts as the world's largest democracy, which talks a lot about unity in diversity and all such rot, fall flat out when it actually comes to people from different regions or religions coming together, not just in cases of love and marriages, but as such, in any phase of life.

Somehow, it seems to me, that the younger lot of today's India are more open when it comes to regional, communal issues unlike the older generations who still seem to fuss over things that seem so trivial to us (or would it be the same case when we become a part of the older generation as well?!!?).

I kept the book down, hoping it would have changed a few hearts, if not the whole nation's!

P.S. I was talking about the book with one of my friends at IIMA who'd brought it home with him while he'd been here in Chennai for his holidays. It seems, his father, who'd read the teaser at the back cover, enquired casually over breakfast if he had any such plans! My friend was left aghast, and had some explaining to do as to why he'd took to the book :D.

Makes me wonder!! Chetan, I think you should see to that this book of yours reaches the parents as well!!!

The Prestige

The Prestige is a novel by Christopher Priest with the title derived from the novel's fictional practice of stage illusions having three parts: the setup, the performance, and the prestige (effect).

Having heard a lot about its movie adaptation during my third year at college, I automatically took the book from the shelves of the British Council Library when I came across it.

A month passed, and still I had not read the book.

This is all that I'd have had to report had I returned it then, but it was now that I finally mustered myself to take to it. And once I had taken to it, I couldn't drop it. It took the better of three days to finish the book, but it was certainly worth every minute of it.

The story is structured into five parts and takes place at the present with the actual story dating back to a few generations. The story revolves around two characters( or is it two?), Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier. Before they go on to become world class magicians, a meeting between the two ends up in a bitter rivalry which takes the better part of most of their lives. They constantly try to out do the other, and even sabotage the other's acts.

A trick which involves transporting oneself into a seemingly impossible new position in a matter of seconds, forms a pivotal role to the plot. Borden develops it first, calls it the The Transported Man, enhances it with better effects and calls it The New Transported Man. Angier, having always the difficulty of coping with a trick, in spite of being a magician himself, goes on a search to emulate his rival. Borden, who strongly believes that no one would ever find his secret, tries to mislead Angier. Angier, in his search, meets the physicist Nikola Tesla, who develops an apparatus, which helps Angier achieve what he is thriving for, with a bizarre effect.

Angier calls his version of the trick as In A Flash and with it becomes a great success. Borden, unable to comprehend this, tries to find Angier's secret, and what happens then and how it has come to haunt their families even after generations have passed, form the rest of the plot.

A bewitching read for anyone who has the slightest interest in legerdemain or the liking for stories with the protagonists lives running in a parallel fashion.

Next up, I'm looking to catch up with the movie!