The 3 Mistakes of My Life

the 3 mistakes of my life

You can not read it like a novel.

It is written as a script for a Bollywood movie.

Two fights: One at the beginning, to make readers understand how much the heroine Vidya’s brother, Ish loves her. Another at the climax, a friend of the hero Omi dies to save the twelve year old Muslim boy from his own uncle Bittoo mama. Inturn Bittoo Mama will be killed by the future Tendulkar, Ali. hitting straight sixes to his face.

Romance: The hero teaches maths to the sister of his friend. She does everything to attract him, he falls in love. They have sex on her 18th birthday when her brother is fully involved in watching cricket match. She tells “I’m no more a virgin” without a trace of guilt feel. They had sex 9 times in 2 months. She is a middle class Ahmadabad girl!

Item song: 100 topless women at Bondi beach of Australia; six were playing Frisbee. So there are 200 breasts to look at. Hero loves maths, he counts the breasts too.

Scenes you remember even after years: The member of a Hindu political party, kills the twelve years old Muslim boy, consuming marijuana, after his son’s death in Godra incident. The communal fight starts. At the same time, the hero’s cell gets an SMS from the girl stating that she got her periods and no need to worry. Her brother reads it as the cell is with him. There are many other ready-made scenes for the director adopting this book for a movie.

Writing something on Indian Religion system and communal riots is far tougher than writing CAT. Author should have done more homework on these issues. One will enjoy reading the story lines with cricket and love. But to enjoy the political issues of the story, you need to be inclined to left or be a pseudo secular. Every political and riot events tries to convey Hindu party workers are devils. I believe the author should have balanced the views on the religions and left the decision to the readers.

The book says only Hindu party workers are devils, not Muslims. The book is at safer side, not to get banned.

An Evening with Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat, the author of the best seller “Five Point Someone”, was there at Big Bazaar- Old Madras Road , Bangalore to promote his new book “The 3 Mistakes of My Life”. The event was organised by ‘The Depot’, the stationary and book store partners of Big Bazaar on the evening of 18th May, Sunday. The young fans of Chetan got a great opportunity to discuss with him and get his autograph.

I’m recalling some of the discussion here:

Chetan avoided calling him as young icon. He told he liked to be called as an author of all ages without confining himself to young metro readers. One participant questioned him why he likes number in the titles(‘Fve’ Point… ‘One Night... The '3' Mistakes…). He answered he is an engineer and every engineer likes number.

Most interesting question on Five Point Someone was whether it was a true story. He told some scenes in the story were happened in his college life. But not hundred percent true. The ice-cream parlor and the railway tracks scene were some true parts. The story also related to few of his friends which he can’t disclose. He accepted the fact that another Five Point Someone one is not possible for him. Chetan is also an IIM graduate, but he is still fond of IIT. This is because nobody can enjoy their post graduation life like their UG life.

After the success of the first book he wanted his writing to reach other than the people of IIT or engineers or a group of young adults, which made him to write "...call center".  Call from the god was an unbeatable novel idea in the novel One night @ The Call Center. He could reach most of the young metro readers through this book. This will be soon on silver screen as a Bollywood film by Atul Agnihotri casting Salman Khan.

To reach the suburban readers, Chetan wrote his third book with the three very common matters of everyday life of an Indian- business, cricket and religion. He hopes to reach the non metro readers through this book. The story happens in Gujarat, a state known for business, cricket and religion. The communities mentioned in the book accepted the books so far and he didn't face any disputes till now.

I'm reading 'The 3 Mistakes of My Life' now. I will post a review soon.