New books of any best selling author is awaited eagerly by his readers. Chetan Bhagat is the same case. I had read the prologue of 'The 3 Mistakes of My Life', which had been given in his site www.chetanbhagat.com. After reading the prologue, I had the option to send the link of the just read stuff to 3 more people by giving their e-mail adresses to get the Ist chapter for reading. In other cases, it would have been the case of spamming but considering Chetan and his credibility, I proceeded and read the first chapter, got thrilled and on the following weekend bought the book from Landmark, Forum, Bangalore.
Chetan in his new book, has stuck with a story revolving around 3 friends much in the similar fashion as in his first book, Five Point Someone. But this time, the story is not from the corridors of prestigious IITs. As he says, it is from small towns like Ahmedabad. Anyway, I never thought Ahmedabad was a small town at all. As the book's synopsys says it is a book about 3 of India's passions - Cricket, Religion and Business, personified by the 3 characters - Ishaan, Omi and Govind. As in Five Point Someone, this story is told by one of the characters, Govind in first person.
Though Chetan starts off with Cricket, story line turns into religious aspects quickly. Chetan follows up the series of India v/s England and India v/s Australia in 2001 and shows up how these 3 guys react to the match results and this forms the core of the story but there is nothing extraordinary about that as you would have already heard or seen yourself the live analysis, aftermath of the cricket matches in regular households.
On the other hand, I felt most of the times that he is presenting the same old stuff about religion, churned out most often by the media again and again, which shows up only one side of the story. I also saw little merit in tracing Gujarat's history from 2001 which comprises earthquake, religious clashes etc, as enough has been said and it has been the hot topic of discussion in the intellectual circles of the country. What is disappointing is the same perspective of the state from India's west, thrusted upon by the media is reiterated by the author. But Chetan has attempted to be different when one of his characters says about Chimpazees kissing after the fight among themselves akin to religious clashes and that dialogue among people is what is missing in India in these situations.
Cricket, a national time pass has also been seen from a businessman's point of view, which may be relatively new to the young readers. Businessman also sees religion in an agnostic point of view. The common glue which binds the 3 characters though they pursue different passions is cricket. Well, how can one forget the romantic part of the story, typical to Chetan's novels. Here too one of the characters falls in love with a girl and events which lead to this is presented in almost similar way in Five Point Someone. But Chetan here conveys some serious stuff yet jokingly.
Happy ending is any author would love to provide to his readers after all the trauma and Chetan follows the tradition here too but with some sacrifices. One liners like his first novel are witty and worth 2nd read. All in all, it is not a must read but can be useful if you can take the real jist out of the full write up.
Regards
Raveesh
Chetan in his new book, has stuck with a story revolving around 3 friends much in the similar fashion as in his first book, Five Point Someone. But this time, the story is not from the corridors of prestigious IITs. As he says, it is from small towns like Ahmedabad. Anyway, I never thought Ahmedabad was a small town at all. As the book's synopsys says it is a book about 3 of India's passions - Cricket, Religion and Business, personified by the 3 characters - Ishaan, Omi and Govind. As in Five Point Someone, this story is told by one of the characters, Govind in first person.
Though Chetan starts off with Cricket, story line turns into religious aspects quickly. Chetan follows up the series of India v/s England and India v/s Australia in 2001 and shows up how these 3 guys react to the match results and this forms the core of the story but there is nothing extraordinary about that as you would have already heard or seen yourself the live analysis, aftermath of the cricket matches in regular households.
On the other hand, I felt most of the times that he is presenting the same old stuff about religion, churned out most often by the media again and again, which shows up only one side of the story. I also saw little merit in tracing Gujarat's history from 2001 which comprises earthquake, religious clashes etc, as enough has been said and it has been the hot topic of discussion in the intellectual circles of the country. What is disappointing is the same perspective of the state from India's west, thrusted upon by the media is reiterated by the author. But Chetan has attempted to be different when one of his characters says about Chimpazees kissing after the fight among themselves akin to religious clashes and that dialogue among people is what is missing in India in these situations.Cricket, a national time pass has also been seen from a businessman's point of view, which may be relatively new to the young readers. Businessman also sees religion in an agnostic point of view. The common glue which binds the 3 characters though they pursue different passions is cricket. Well, how can one forget the romantic part of the story, typical to Chetan's novels. Here too one of the characters falls in love with a girl and events which lead to this is presented in almost similar way in Five Point Someone. But Chetan here conveys some serious stuff yet jokingly.
Happy ending is any author would love to provide to his readers after all the trauma and Chetan follows the tradition here too but with some sacrifices. One liners like his first novel are witty and worth 2nd read. All in all, it is not a must read but can be useful if you can take the real jist out of the full write up.
Regards
Raveesh
Buy Three Mistakes of My Life here
Background: I had never been to any cricket stadium to watch a live match. But Sandeep’s josh transformed me to go for one, that too for the wholesome entertaining IPL match(not exciting enough though, as our home team Bangalore Royal Challengers was on a loosing streak). But the tickets had been booked by Sandeep long back when he was on a business trip to Paris and when in Bangalore you have no choice but to go for the match in which one of the teams is always Bangalore and you may expect less fireworks from them. Sandeep had bought 2 tickets for the Bangalore v/s Delhi match on May 19th but his colleagues had also booked ticket for him for the same match. Now, he had an extra ticket. He asked me whether any of my friends were interested to join. That’s when I called Deviprasad, a cricket freak. He instantly accepted the invitation and we had a big team now around 10 people to watch the match. But it was only when Sandeep saw the tickets booked by his colleagues, he realized that our stands were different. So, I and Devi headed for our stand which was McDowells Best View(Stand A).
Initial Proceedings: I had left office early to reach Chinnaswamy stadium as you never know with Bangalore traffic. Though Devi had told he would be around 6 PM and me much earlier, he was the first to reach the place. With rain pouring heavily and Sandeep and friends still on their way, we decided to go inside the stadium. I was skeptical whether we would have a game at all with all those rains and if it all it stopped raining whether we will have a full match. Routine security checks were in place and one of the security personnel wondered about the rechargeable batteries I had carried in my bag. I told it was for the camera and he seemed convinced. Well, we were now inside the stadium with early birds already occupying strategic positions i.e seats! 
Film as a whole is refreshing and full credits to Ramesh for choosing a good cast and crew for the film. Cinematography by G S Bhaskar is simply awesome and at times you enjoy the cinematographic aspect more than the scene intself! List of films Bhaskar worked tells a lot about his skill - 'Tabarana Kathe', 'Ondanondu Kaladalli', 'Tabbaliyu Neenaade Magane', 'Bannada Vesha', 'Nagamandala', 'Hoomale'. Well, he also worked as an associate in Academy award winner, Richard Attenborough directed 'Gandhi'. Yes, climax would have been done better avoiding all those shoot outs among bad men to kill themselves. But Ramesh, the director keeps the audience guessing till the end as to who the ultimate villain was.
Drama Name : Kutumba
Drama Name : Madime
Well, Mangaloreans did not have this work around to avoid the unpleasant Charmadi Ghat travel. But with the introduction of Mangalore Bangalore train, there might have been some relief if one had booked the train tickets in advance! I have travelled both via nightmarish Charmadi and Sampaje ghat routes and yet to experiment with newly introduced train route! Twice I had to catch the another bus after the bus broke down in Charmadi Ghat and dont ask me the number of over time journeys to Mangalore solely because of the traffic jams in the ghat section because of the slow moving and overloaded trucks.
