By Chetan Bhagat
Price: Rs 95; Pages: 258
Rupa Books
The first thing that stands out about Chetan Bhagat’s novels is the fact that this author writes about Indians and for Indians. His characters are young, ambitious and passionate and have the same moral, social and religious dilemmas as many of today’s young Indians. At the same time, its context and sensibility are also unashamedly Indian. Bhagat’s new and third book, “The 3 Mistakes of My Life”, has all these qualities.
The setting is the city of Ahmedabad which, although urban, is not as metropolitan as many of its metropolitan counterparts. It retains its small-town flavor in pols (colonies), traditional Indian homes and small vegetarian restaurants. You have the protagonist Govind with his passion and acumen for accounts and business, you have Ishan for whom cricket is the element around which his life revolves and you have Omi, the son of a priest and loyal friend who is ready to anything his friends ask him. for.
The book is based on real life events. It begins in a rather dramatic manner when Bhagat receives an email from Govind, who had taken many sleeping pills and was writing to him while he was waiting for the embrace of mortal sleep. Chetan was shaken enough by the incident to trace the boy to a hospital in Ahmedabad. Luckily he was still alive to tell the tale. The book is loosely based on the three mistakes that Govind made in his life.60575e96-20f4-11dd-9711-000b5dabf613.flv
What follows is a mix of cricket, religion, business, love and friendship. Govind opens a sports shop along with his friends in the temple premises with the help of Omi’s family. The shop prospers as Ishan coaches young children in cricket and Govind teaches mathematics to Ishan’s sister Vidya, who also captures her heart. Ishan then meets Ali, a boy master with a hyperreflex condition that causes him to hit every ball to score a six. Ali shows the talent that Ishan never had and Ali’s destiny becomes his own.
Enter Omi’s Bitoo mama (maternal uncle), a communal party man bent on turning youth into fighters in the name of Hinduism. The situation comes to a head and Ahmedabad burns amid riots. Omi dies saving Ali and Ishan discovers about Vidya and Govind, a betrayal that he does not forgive. These events lead Govind to his deathbed and that is when he writes the email to Bhagat.
Perhaps this is the highest praise an author can receive. It’s not when the New York Times describes him as the country’s best-selling English-language author or when he crosses the coveted figure of two million books sold, but when someone chooses to remember him in his final minutes, that makes a writer go further. from the common. After all, isn’t the purpose of all writing to touch someone’s heart?
“The 3 Mistakes of My Life” is simply written and has the quality that makes you want to read the book from beginning to end in one sitting. The price of the book is fair for the target audience: young people. This book like Bhagat’s previous one, “A Night at the Call Center, also has the masala, excitement and pace to become a potential blockbuster.
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