Book Review: The Three Mistakes of my life by Chetan Bhagat: AmitL

Hi,all..I just finished reading my first book of the holidays, amidst re-tiling work going on at home, the search for a new flat and getting rid of all the dust accumulated in the house,in the span of a year.

I've been a Chetan Bhagat fan,since I read his 'One night at the call centre', and, later,'Five Point Someone'. The reason? I can identify with his writing...perhaps because it's so day-to-day activity related, told in a simple style, and also because he's an ex-Ahmedabad-waasi. This book,in fact,is based in Ahmedabad.

The background is created by Chetan getting an email from someone,who tells him that he is going to commit suicide. And, Chetan calls his ex-professor,to get the guy located. He also lands up in Ahmedabad, to find out more. And,then,the story begins through the eyes of Govind, the protagonist. A brief review, just to around interest,without revealing the whole story is as follows:

There are three friends, Govind, Omi and Ish. Govind is the baniya businessman of the lot,and, beginning with a small sports shop in the premises of a temple, he dreams of making it big. He even invests in a shop in an upcoming'Navrangpura Mall', only to find his dreams dashed to pieces when the quake of 2001 struck. However, he recovers, bit by bit, and begins earning in the thousands again.

Ish, his friend, is a cricket-fanatic, he also takes a 12-year old Muslim under his wing,to train him for the Indian cricket team.He also has a sister who first takes Maths tuitions from Govind,'graduating'to falling in love with him, etc(The 'etc' is self-explanatory).

Omi is the other friend, but, he is more in the background than in the foreground, except when he gets killed.

In between the story of progress of the three friends, is weaved in the trauma of the burning of the coach of a train near Godhra around the same time, the winning of the cricket match by India against Australia at Kolkatta(And, the soaring sales of their sports shop after each win, highlights how fanatic most of us Indians are about cricket..if India loses a match,their sales fall..grin).

Also intertwined into the story is the post-train coach burning riots, the wild anger in the minds of the people out for revenge,and, the innocents who were affected by it.

Take my advice-read it..it's un-putdownable,especially since it covers so many true events!!