When someone gets married in India, it’s not to another one individual that they are getting married but to an entire family! Yes, even in this age of modern technology, women empowerment, busy schedules and the new hype of spiritualism, the family dramas are still live, may be with a little more spice in it. The love marriage, which are supposed to thrive well away from family interferences are also not saved from these dramas. India’s bestseller writer Chetan Bhagat’s novel 2 States is all about the marriage dramas in India.
Taken excerpts from his own life, Chetan Bhagat narrates the initial trouble that any couple faces in a love marriage. Just like many other lovers in India, the hero and heroine-Krish and Ananya- have to face the basic but complex issues while they decide to get married. The problems may seem weird to anyone outside the India-they have to be loved by each other’s families, they have to combat the ego clashes between families, even being the same nationals they have to adjust the cultural issues and above all they have to keep their love alive in this battle to get married.
Krish and Ananya eventually win their battle unlike many other lovers who fall apart during these dramas. The story is actually about their strategies to take their marriage to an occasion where their families smile over them. One in an Indian marriage can easily relate to their situations, even those who are in an arranged marriage.
However I couldn’t stop wondering on one fact. Why marriages are so complex in India? Why families play such a critical, interfering and sometimes annoying role in one’s marital life?
Apart from the main theme, the book also give glimpses of some problems that today’s young generation faces such as family disputes, office politics, cultural discrimination, insecurity in love etc. There is also a part in the novel that put light on the increase of interest in spirituality among Indian youngsters.
Krish visits the Aurobindo Ashramam in Puducherry. It’s a unique experience for him as he opens up his hidden past to the Guruji at the Ashramam. Guruji asks Krish to forgive others who had hurt him in the past. To make this attempt easy the Guruji says:
Forgiving doesn’t make the person who hurts you feel better; it makes ‘you’ feel better. (p. 168)
What the Guruji advice Krish about the past traumas seems to be applicable to most of the readers too. Most of us have heavy bags of ‘anger, pain and loss’ on our heads. Guruji advices Krish:
Imagine you are wearing a thick cloak that is wearing you down. Pardon the hurt that the others caused you. What they did is past. What is bothering today are your current feelings that come from this load. Let it go. (p.169)
Wow! I just loved the book for this advice if for nothing else.
The Guruji’s advice revives Krish for some aspects in life for sure. However the later parts of the book also give the thought that life is never easy. Krish cannot apply this advice at many times in his life and there come many hurdles in his way of union with Ananya. Well, I think it’s same with most of us, who tend to forget some soothing advices in critical situations in life.
Overall, 2 States focuses on a major topic for the Indians to discuss-the complexities in Indian marriages. Why it is so complex to get married if you belong to different states, or languages, or religions even after being an Indian? Why should there be racism and prejudice between the people in the same country? Why should there be a rat race between states in the same country to become superior to one another? Krish and Ananya decide not to elope and Krish tell his ideas clearly while stating that elopement is easy but do not curtail the issues
Yes, this stupid biases and discrimination are the reason our country is so screwed up. It’s Tamil first, Indian later. It’s Punjabi first, Indian later. It has to end. (p.102)
I am not intending to say much about the writing style and language that Chetan Bhagat has used in this novel. I read this book with a short span of two days just in time that I finish any easy reading book that doesn’t require much to ponder on. It was just hilarious for me since I’ve witnessed many real life incidents as quoted in this book. The book definitely helped me to look at these real life dramas in a humorous way for some time at least!
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