2 States: The Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat is a love story inspired by his own. I had read Chetan Bhagat’s Three Mistakes of my Life and found it engrossing. Cricket and politics along with a bit of romance had me interested in the first book I read of Chetan Bhagat. After this book, I decided to read 2 States: The Story of My Marriage as it was generating a bit of a hype in the media. The hero in this love story is a Punjabi and the heroine is a Tamilian. They are IIM graduates and want to get married with their parents’ consent. How they get their parents to consent to their wedding forms the rest of the story. The story is engrossing in the middle but starts to wear down on the reader as it progresses. This is noticeable as Chetan tries to cut it short towards the end. The language is easy and has a generous mix of Desi words, which in this case includes Tamil ones as well. As is the case with Chetan’s books, the language includes swear words (including the F word) in English, Hindi and Tamil.
One gets the feeling that the author is a bit biased towards Punjabis and shows his racist tendencies towards Tamilians, often making the Punjabi characters comment on the Tamilians’ skin color. Also, from his interactions/perceptions, the author portrays Tamilians as cold-hearted people; things that I found unpalatable.
The book is strictly one to pass time and not a great literary piece of work. The story is nothing novel and can be summarized as a rehash of the movies Ek Duuje Ke Liye and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
