Chetan Bhagat's 'Two States'

Chetan Bhagat can create interesting narrative out of common events. What he uses for this purpose are short and pithy dialogues, sudden twists and turns in events and sublime characterization techniques. He has successfully followed this trend in his fourth novel 'Two States', as he had done in the previous ones.

Bhagat has used plain and lucid English with simple vocabulary and sentences without 'and', 'but', or any other conjunction. Therefore, even a reader with basic English skills can read and enjoy his novel. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that have made him one of the best-selling English writers of India.

Based on the writer's personal experience, as he has admitted in the preface, the events in the novel are described with the first person narrative of Krish Mulhotra, a Punjabi boy, who loves Ananya Swaminathan, a Tamil girl from Chennai. They want to change their relationship into a successful love marriage, but their families are against their decision. So, they have to struggle a lot to change their wish into reality.

The novel begins when the main character and narrator Krish has been admitted to the clinic of a psychotherapist in Delhi. He is suffering from a series of early signs of nervous breakdown such as sleep deprivation, loss of human contact for more than a week, loss of appetite and google-searching on best ways to commit suicide. Having been coaxed by the doctor, he goes into flashback to tell his story of relation with Ananya, his girlfriend.

Krish meets Ananya while standing in the queue for lunch at the IIMA mess in Ahmedabad. He is immediately fascinated by her beauty and hopefully attempts to draw her attention. At first, Krish agrees with Ananya to be 'just friends'. But once he starts going to the girls' hostel at night to study with her until midnight, Cupid, the god of love, strikes his heart with his arrow. Then, suddenly he stops going to her room and shows apathy toward her. After some days, Ananya comes to the boys' dorm in the hostel to meet him with two Frootis. He admits his love for her which she replies with a 'stunning' kiss on his cheek and leaves the room. After that incident, they spend many romantic nights together.

After their graduation, both Ananya and Krish join lucrative jobs and plan to settle down. But their families, which have completely different cultural bases, stand against their will. They try really very much to put their families together, but the more they attempt to do so the less hope they find.

Krish's mother, a die-hard Punjabi housewife, doesn't like a Tamil girl for her future daughter-in-law because she finds her arrogant. She also doesn't like Ananya's parents and kinsfolk, for their skin is not fair and they cannot afford as much dowry as any Punjabi family for her only one son. On the other hand, Ananya's parents find Krish's mother insulting and ignorant. So, the parents hate each other strongly. But their son and daughter do not give up easily. They keep on trying to win each other's parents.

After being a good helping hand for Ananya's father, brother and mother, Krish finally wins their heart and makes them ready to accept their marriage. Ananya, too, manages to win her boy friends' kith and kin but her future mother-in-law is adamant to her opinion, and she finally gives up her hope and returns to her parents. She also disconnects communication with Krish for some time.

Krish has a very bad relation with his father, so he always avoids talking to him. But it is his father who helps him at the last moment. He asks for the forgiveness of Ananya's parents for his wife's insults to them. Then, everything is settled and the novel ends happily after Krish and Ananya marry and give birth to twin sons.

Bhagat has skillfully woven the plot to depict the differences between the people and cultures of two states (Punjab and Tamil Nadu) of India. He has been able to show how the differences among people can be settled with patience and love to each other. He seems to support inter-cast or inter-culture marriage for this purpose. Bhagat has used his specialty in creating the plot in such a way that the reader finds any part of it interesting and enticing. But too many filmy flips have almost made the plot a boring stuff.

The reader generally expects the epilogue of the novel to start from exactly where the section 56 of the plot is. But with the elaborate description of the wedding party Bhagat seems to want to check his reader's patience. The epilogue, where he describes how his wife gave birth to twin-sons in the hospital, seems too dramatic and unreal.

The nicest thing about the novel is that it can be a window to peep into the cults and cultures of Indian people. And with every event in the novel, you'll feel as if you are watching a mainstream Bollywood movie. If you enjoy reading for pleasure, the novel is a good one for you.