indian novels

Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat – review

Chetan Bhagat – the name inspires the readers (I thought so until this one). Many followed their writing dreams after reading him and he opened the Indian literary world to the masses. He was a revolution himself when he wrote Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center, The 3 Mistakes of My Life and 2 States!

The Revolution went haywire somehow midway with the Revolution 2020!

The story is set in one of the pious cities of India – Varanasi or Banaras. It is a story about 3 friends – Gopal, Raghav and Aarti.

It begins with Gopal crashing down after some pegs of drink and our writer friend is left with no other option but to take him hospital, because he won’t get up on his own (!!)  and thus begins the story as a flashback.

Gopal – he is the director of the Ganga Tech College, too young to be a director and only a graduate!!

Raghav – Gopal’s school friend

Aarti – Gopal’s school friend and love interest of both Gopal & Raghav

First chapter gives an impression the book would be a sweet story of 3 buddies. The first scene is set in the school when Gopal & Raghav are stealing lunch boxes during the assembly time and the first victim is our lady “Aarti” and thus begins the everlasting friendship of these 3. The book has been divided into various sections.

Gopal comes from a middle class family whose father is a teacher and the family doesn’t have much income as such. His mother had passed away when he was 4 years old. His father wants him to be an engineer. After all, engineers earn decent money. Whether Gopal manages to become engineer or not is another story altogether?

All 3 grow up together with their own dreams and share of problems.

Both Raghav and Gopal appear together for AIEEE & JEE for engineering and Raghav clears his exams whereas Gopal could not make to any of the engineering colleges. After mulling over all options, he decides to appear again for the exams and goes all the way to Kota for coaching classes leaving his ailing father alone and his love interest.

As it is suppose to happen, Gopal being away for a long time, these gives an opportunity to Raghav and Aarti being together and seal their relationship. When Gopal gets to know, he is devastated and again as it generally happens, his grades fall (well, typical Bollywood style) and then again he starts all over again from scratch. Coaching over, he is back in town; results fail him again. His father also passes away one fine day leaving him in debt from top to bottom. Lonely and devastated, he decides to attend a local college on the advice of one of the friends from coaching classes, and here he meets Sunil. This is the turning point of the story. Sunil takes him to local MLA – Shukla. Thus, begins the story of Gopal as the Director of Ganga Tech College in Varanasi. This portion if full of political drama, agricultural land being converted into college, bribery at all level and we name it, we have it. Along with this, we have Raghav, who is not interested in joining a MNC after completing his engineering but wants to be a journalist and wants to bring the revolution in India. He wants to change the scenario of the country. Then, there is Aarti who wants to be an air hostess but becomes a front desk officer at one of the reputed hotels in Varanasi.

Amidst all this, Raghav doesn’t have time for Aarti and fate again brings Gopal and Aarti together.  What happens next? Whom does Aarti finally marry? What happens to Raghav? Does he become a hot shot journalist? What happens to Gopal as a Director? What happens to his college? All these questions and many more; to find out the answers one needs to read the book.

However, this is not one of the best works of Chetan Bhagat. Period.  As a reader, I felt the story is boring, it is a typical stuff which each one of knows and I believe has seen many a times in our Bollywood movies or even T.V Serials. I guess that we have so much of overdose of corruption and bribery in our country that reading it in a novel does not excite anyone.  The story actually drags. There are no twists and turns, it is just so very predictable. After “2 States”, the expectation was more but some where the book fails to meet that expectation. I have read all the books of Chetan Bhagat, and I must admit for an otherwise quick reader, this one took me so much time to finish it and it was a sheer disappointment. I am still confused, as to why it is named as Revolution 2020? May be the newspaper columns he writes these days have influenced the writer in CB and he ended up loosing his original flavor.

I suggest, please read the book without any expectation, you may actually like it then.

My verdict – As a reader I expected a lot more! And as a writer, Mr.Bhagat could have done a better job or at least tried doing so.

 

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Corporate Atyaachaar by Abhay Nagarajan

So you are in the final year of college and awaiting campus interview? And then the day comes and you got recruited after a teaser of an interview. Your days have arrived. You proudly join the company and then you realize reality could be quiet different. Nevertheless, the journey of reality could enrich you with valuable experiences to build the foundation for the future.  Corporate Atyaachaar is one such journey of a twenty four year old financial advisor, freshly recruited from campus interview and posted in a new city where his new journey begins.

The protagonist, the young freshly minted financial advisor, lands up in Bangalore to join his first company, Wealth Capital Advisors with full of dreams and energy only to learn the non-financial sides of his Boss , The Human Ball Scratcher the very first day. Yes, that is how the author has chosen to nick-name him for some obvious reasons and the other colleague is nick named Sweet Lady.  This three along with an office assistant and driver comprises the Bangalore team nested in a pigeon hole sized office.  The story takes you to their journey in one eventful year that saw the stock market euphoria of 2007 and the subsequent market crash of 2008 and the High Net worth Individual clients the young financial advisor meets in his first year of work – an old business man, an inflated ego man, tough speaking ex-wall street banker, a CFO and a truly happy family man.

To be honest, the book is just a gist of one year of the protagonist first year at job. A quick summary told in a comical way of his one year at work and the clients he met. Stay clear, if you are allergic to finance and stock markets even if laced with comedy. Also I am not sure to call it a plus or minus point, there is no romance angle in the story, except for the love of stock bulls and bears. In that sense, the author deserves a mild pat for not getting tempted to introduce a love story into an otherwise a treaded path.

GingerChai Verdict: Of late, the racks of the book houses are filled with a genre of novels that is typically low priced (read under 100 bucks) and light on subject. The authors and the publishers make no pretence of selling a highly literary content but a very casual, time pass read while munching snacks or on a go. It is like our Indian masala flicks. Some movies are super hits, some average and some flops but new movies continue to hit theatre. Some make it big like Chetan while some goes unheard. Corporate Attyaachaar belongs to this school of Indian masala novel.  It is average, don’t boast an arty treatment, has a mild comedy elements thrown in.  Some may like it for one time; some may not but for Rs.100 (you get it for a further discounted price in some online shops) it won’t hurt your pocket much for a casual read.

 

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