It was almost 12:30 a.m. when I finished reading the novel ‘One Night @ the Call Centre’ by Chetan Bhagat. From the title page, it hooked me up till it’s last page of it. Well, i had a complete package of pleasure while reading it. the story of the day goes somewhat like this:
Ajay sir, Saish & Rohan left for Ponda & I waited till the book exhibition opened. I bought Vyaktee Ani Vallee by P.L. Deshpande and ‘One Night @ Call Centre’ or ON@CC by Chetan Bhagat. While I was in the bus travelling back to Ponda from Panaji, I had finished reading two chapters for PL’s book with delighted pleasure as always. Somehow I was not intending to finish up Chetan’s novel because I didn’t want a triangulation of 3 epics of three generations in my mind. I had already started reading “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand, which is in its past 50th Anniversary edition, on the other hand I had fresh copies of the books which I bought at the exhibition in the morning. Reluctantly I switched to ON@CC, may be just to have the current youth essence which other two books did not offer in some manner.
I’ve read Chetan’s “Five Point Someone’s” translated version in Marathi. It too hooked me up till the end. Chetan is an IIT + IIM graduate which add to his tariff (at least for me) as a writer. I have never met him; neither have I sent him an e-mail (I may) nor have I visited his official website. But still, I met him through his first person characters in his books. I quite figured out how he must be while reading his second book. He must be vey naughty guy in his college days and I hope he still continues being one. There are quite few similarities in both of his novels. A peculiar way of writing, sprinkles of intelligent jokes (of the level what you can expect from a naughty engineer, that to an IITian one) and 4-5 excerpts off the scene, but still related to the story. Secondly, the language that he uses is so youthful and has a kind of geeky flavor to it which makes people like me go mad while reading it over and over again.
I am not a kind of guy who would love our English text books for what they offered like some of my classmates and just crack my English paper off with every bit of correct & meaningful grammar. In short I am not a lingual pundit but still I take this critic’s job to analyze this author, not because I want to be a critic (it sucks anyway!), but for the heart to heart relationship that is set up between me & the author.
He has not penned down a hell lot of bestseller novels, but I am making my so called THESIS on the basis of the two books which he has published so far. His books are in narrative style of the first person type category, though in both the books, he is not the first person. His first person characters or FPC’s are obsessed with their life style (in Chetan’s words…hmm I’ll say FUCKED UP!) They are intelligent but not smart and assertive and rather hate themselves for not being one, while there’s another guy who is smart, active and sprinting (hiding away his personal problems) of a sort of “I don’t give it a damn/fuck” attitude. The FPC indirectly wants to be like this other guy. But FPC’s in his book enjoy a special thing that is not enjoyed by any other character and that is a love affair with a ‘not so beautiful’ kind of girl and has enjoyed love with her in mental and physical realms too. Well, let’s not make it more adult gossip here! The love affair thing is solely enjoyed by the FPC. The story kicks off describing each character in a lucid way and in a funky language, and they are caught up in a dead end moment and they overcome it somehow using the every resource available to its fullest (must be IIM funda) and end with a happy ending.
This is what I can sum up on my literature abilities about his two books, but this pattern is not a stereotype of both of them as they are presented in a quite diverse ways since both the books narrate a story with diversities. But on a macroscopic level, it commonly represents the youth.
Another interesting thing about his books is his sense of humor. He must have done M.Tech in it. His jokes are intelligent, perfectly timed and are not at all sub-standard. A perfect engineer + management level humor added with a naughty flavor, he keeps his book alive every now and than with breathes of his jokes. The following one was too funny not to share:
The situation is that Shyam (FPC from ON@CC) is pissed off about the Xerox machine’s paper jam in his desk. He explains it like this
“The copier in our supplies is not a machine. It’s a person with psychotic soul & a grumpy attitude towards life. Whenever you copy more than two sheets, there’s a paper jam. After that, the machine teases you: it gives you systematic instructions on how to un-jam it --- open cover, remove tray, pull leaver. Now if it knows this much, why doesn’t it fix itself?”
I burst into silent laughter when I read the above part. There is lot more such but I think you should enjoy them with the flow. Also his philosophies about girl’s behavior have solved many mysteries in my life that I encountered whenever I dealt with a girl. Believe me, they are true! (I mean philosophies, not the girls)
Anyways, it was already 2 a.m. and I was not at all feeling sleepy while writing this post. But still my *inner voice* told me to stop here. In the whole day, I had gained a continuous pleasure of reading such a fantastic book which made me to make this whole write-up dedicated to it. Otherwise I rarely criticize, or even appreciate anything socially.
I’ll say, read both of his books. They’ll drive you crazier and you will not even fall asleep while waiting for a *phone call from God*.
Happy Midnights!!!!
Ajay sir, Saish & Rohan left for Ponda & I waited till the book exhibition opened. I bought Vyaktee Ani Vallee by P.L. Deshpande and ‘One Night @ Call Centre’ or ON@CC by Chetan Bhagat. While I was in the bus travelling back to Ponda from Panaji, I had finished reading two chapters for PL’s book with delighted pleasure as always. Somehow I was not intending to finish up Chetan’s novel because I didn’t want a triangulation of 3 epics of three generations in my mind. I had already started reading “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand, which is in its past 50th Anniversary edition, on the other hand I had fresh copies of the books which I bought at the exhibition in the morning. Reluctantly I switched to ON@CC, may be just to have the current youth essence which other two books did not offer in some manner.
I’ve read Chetan’s “Five Point Someone’s” translated version in Marathi. It too hooked me up till the end. Chetan is an IIT + IIM graduate which add to his tariff (at least for me) as a writer. I have never met him; neither have I sent him an e-mail (I may) nor have I visited his official website. But still, I met him through his first person characters in his books. I quite figured out how he must be while reading his second book. He must be vey naughty guy in his college days and I hope he still continues being one. There are quite few similarities in both of his novels. A peculiar way of writing, sprinkles of intelligent jokes (of the level what you can expect from a naughty engineer, that to an IITian one) and 4-5 excerpts off the scene, but still related to the story. Secondly, the language that he uses is so youthful and has a kind of geeky flavor to it which makes people like me go mad while reading it over and over again.
I am not a kind of guy who would love our English text books for what they offered like some of my classmates and just crack my English paper off with every bit of correct & meaningful grammar. In short I am not a lingual pundit but still I take this critic’s job to analyze this author, not because I want to be a critic (it sucks anyway!), but for the heart to heart relationship that is set up between me & the author.
He has not penned down a hell lot of bestseller novels, but I am making my so called THESIS on the basis of the two books which he has published so far. His books are in narrative style of the first person type category, though in both the books, he is not the first person. His first person characters or FPC’s are obsessed with their life style (in Chetan’s words…hmm I’ll say FUCKED UP!) They are intelligent but not smart and assertive and rather hate themselves for not being one, while there’s another guy who is smart, active and sprinting (hiding away his personal problems) of a sort of “I don’t give it a damn/fuck” attitude. The FPC indirectly wants to be like this other guy. But FPC’s in his book enjoy a special thing that is not enjoyed by any other character and that is a love affair with a ‘not so beautiful’ kind of girl and has enjoyed love with her in mental and physical realms too. Well, let’s not make it more adult gossip here! The love affair thing is solely enjoyed by the FPC. The story kicks off describing each character in a lucid way and in a funky language, and they are caught up in a dead end moment and they overcome it somehow using the every resource available to its fullest (must be IIM funda) and end with a happy ending.
This is what I can sum up on my literature abilities about his two books, but this pattern is not a stereotype of both of them as they are presented in a quite diverse ways since both the books narrate a story with diversities. But on a macroscopic level, it commonly represents the youth.
Another interesting thing about his books is his sense of humor. He must have done M.Tech in it. His jokes are intelligent, perfectly timed and are not at all sub-standard. A perfect engineer + management level humor added with a naughty flavor, he keeps his book alive every now and than with breathes of his jokes. The following one was too funny not to share:
The situation is that Shyam (FPC from ON@CC) is pissed off about the Xerox machine’s paper jam in his desk. He explains it like this
“The copier in our supplies is not a machine. It’s a person with psychotic soul & a grumpy attitude towards life. Whenever you copy more than two sheets, there’s a paper jam. After that, the machine teases you: it gives you systematic instructions on how to un-jam it --- open cover, remove tray, pull leaver. Now if it knows this much, why doesn’t it fix itself?”
I burst into silent laughter when I read the above part. There is lot more such but I think you should enjoy them with the flow. Also his philosophies about girl’s behavior have solved many mysteries in my life that I encountered whenever I dealt with a girl. Believe me, they are true! (I mean philosophies, not the girls)
Anyways, it was already 2 a.m. and I was not at all feeling sleepy while writing this post. But still my *inner voice* told me to stop here. In the whole day, I had gained a continuous pleasure of reading such a fantastic book which made me to make this whole write-up dedicated to it. Otherwise I rarely criticize, or even appreciate anything socially.
I’ll say, read both of his books. They’ll drive you crazier and you will not even fall asleep while waiting for a *phone call from God*.
Happy Midnights!!!!
4 comments:
Hey Kaustubh actually when U gave me this book I was reading a novel by David Baldacci, however when I read the first page of ON@CC I forgot the novel and ......
This guy has got good style, the story flows smoothly. Though the events occur in one night the author uses flash back effectively to narrate the interesting past!!!
However near the end the rejection of Ganesh by Priyanka on the basis of faked photograph is not a convincing twist!!!!
writing an end to a story is a very difficult task....not all IITans end up very well!!!
are yaar i want in marathi version
Post a Comment