What starts as an interesting story, ends rather abruptly in Chetan Bhagat's, 'Three mistakes of my life'.The story line is quite similar to his previous writings. The blundering protagonist, his love-interest, friendship, sacrifice, blah and some more blah is what makes up his third book too.
One exception is that, the Godhra riots, Gujarat earthquake and the India-Australia series are interspersed with the story quite cleverly, with each of these events paving way for the protagonist to realize the mistakes he commits.
What ever happened to the trademark self-deprecatory humor, Chetan's books were famous for? Humor is almost non-existent in this book, which makes a few parts very yawnable and forgettable. Further the hero is projected as being too perfect in the first half of the book and too flawed in the second. The readers are fed an over-dose of cricket as well.
The book has its good moments too. All the scenes between Vidya and Govind are well-crafted and thoroughly enjoyable. Vidya's reaction to Govind's explanation of probability with greeting cards was exceptionally amusing.
"Let's say i take all your cards and put them in a sack. Then i pull one out. What is the probability the card is colored?"
"Why would you put them in a sack?", she said.
At the same time, a few scenes make me wonder if guys really do think the way Chetan explains or if it is exaggerated!!!For instance, there is one part where Vidya touches Govind's hand and he notices the fairness of her arms, long fingers, blue veins,nail polish, what not and that too in a few seconds. (Read: gag gag)
On the whole, it is definitely not a great book nor is it Chetan's best work. Three mistakes, is an entertainer, but that's about it.
3 comments:
ha ha... to sum it up it will be a great story for a masala movie!! ;)
"i wonder whether guys really think like that?" - a guy like Govind who had only Mathematics & Money in his heart, who had buried all his emotions and feelings till then - he could feel all those. Its not exaggerated.
Dhivya & Varsha - story for a masala movie - yea, it could be. But then 90% of life we see around is - they are all excerpts from masala movie scripts.
Three Mistakes of my life doesn't deal with life of IITians nor of those 'dudes' in call centres in metros. Its life of three average guys from a north indian village.
Contents of the book reflect exactly that.
As Varsha says, 'the Godhra riots, Gujarat earthquake and the India-Australia series are interspersed with the story quite cleverly'. You can argue about the significance of the third one - even though no cricket lover would have any arguments on that(we live in a country where Cricket is practically the only 'religion' that binds all Indians together). But the Godhra riots - Chetan has given us a chance to witness that riot from within. He has brought it clearly that normal people(hindus as well as muslims) of Gujrat had nothing to do with the riots - it was the political parties who injected the venom. Chetan's sarcasm towards the non-secular religion based extremist political parties is evident throughout the book. We who live in South India just say it was a 'riot', thats it. But it was an event that tore north india into two. i can see it everyday here in Mumbai. nomore Indians here, only Hindus and Muslims.
"At the same time, a few scenes make me wonder if guys really do think the way Chetan explains or if it is exaggerated!!!For instance, there is one part where Vidya touches Govind's hand and he notices the fairness of her arms, long fingers, blue veins,nail polish, what not and that too in a few seconds. (Read: gag gag)"
man is a hunter by instinct
a hunter has to observe and react
observation and reaction need to be instant
observation needs to be panoramic modeled into compact
reaction needs to be swift,
reaction is driven by instinct and intention and is consistent with self preservation
this combat concentration lends a heightened awareness
human being observes changes within the framework of stillness
(yet a pair of dream drenched blue eyes invites a suspended stillness)
yet a lightning makes the panorama etched in your mind in an instant
a hand that reaches out to you is like “creation of man” from heavens
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