Review of Two States

The New York Times called Chetan Bhagat as the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India’s history and his latest book "Two States" is also gonna add to this credit.

It’s a story of a Punjabi guy Krish, and a Tamil Brahmin girl Ananya who are in love and want to get married with their "parent's approval" and the hurdles being the incompatible differences between their parents, their cultures and the language.For a successful Indian marriage, the mandatory conditions are 1.Girl's family should like the guy, 2.Guy's family should like the girl and 3. Most importantly the guy's family should like the girl's family and 4.Guy and the girl should like each other(should - to be replaced with may/may not).Krish actually gets 4 rings and proposes the whole family and gets their acceptance..

The whole plot is very naturalistic, delineating the cultural differences in diverse India like the boisterous, loud Punjabi music versus quiet melodious Tamilian Carnatic music, the parathas versus the idlis etc. In the illustrations where he describes the way Ananya reacts to the mess food,when Krish for the first time comes to south India is all sooooo realistic. The pacing of the book is again perfect no unwanted fittings. Though the cover page itself tells us the story, it could have been designed better..

Readers,it sure would be a good addition to your library.. Have fun reading it..