Of books and such

Mom got me a few select books this time. Chetan Bhagat has become a house hold phenomenon in India and I knew nothing of him. So I hastened to fix the lapse.
Over the past two days I have read two of his three books, Five point something and One night at the call center. There is a third book, not by him, but I have had enough; I am not going to read the third book.
He writes coming of age books for middle class Indians. One is focused on IIT, a dream that every for every middle class parent dreams for his child. And the second about a call center, a place where the highly educated, perfectly accented 20 something’s work thru the night helping the ‘dumb Americans’, making as much as a burger flipper in MickeyDs.
the books
He writes in first person present. The book feels like an enlargement of a very low res picture. He skips any in descriptions of surroundings, state of mind anything that would be passive voice. No delving into whys-- just a description of what, sometimes how.These are plays. To be specific a screen plays for a bollywood movies. I could compare it with DCH and fine them comaprable.however DCH brough nuances and depth to charecters by association and suroundings and the actors. The book does nto have this option. You don’t love characters and are only mildly moved by them. The entire 270 page story could have been told in 30 odd pages.
the characters
It might be because I did not go to an IIT or work at call center, but the treatment to me seems very cursory. He wants you to believe that Alok and Ryan and Hari are real. They might have been based on real life people, but they are either based on a single myopic aspect of a person or many people. Allusions to Ryan’s errant sexuality are interesting as is abuse in Hari’s past but Alok's whinny parents take over. The dialog inside the guys head is funny and fairly appropriate, but the female charecters are stereotypical, perhaps that is how women appear to men. The set of values these guys use to judge each other are black and white. Ryan's hidden hatered of Hari and Hari's love for Ryan or all that Ryan represents... interesting angle, but it goes no where.
the language
American idioms with a generous sprinkling of crap, damn and fuck thrown in. No hindi words in English, some of the comments are a complete translation. Some of the constructs are very indian, but no trnaslated words. Wonder why he did that, does it make the book more readable for non -indians? but it does not carry enough descriptive material to be something that a non -indian eng would read to, say findout more about IITs or life in delhi or IITs. Most people would read this for nostalgia, college ke woh din, and what a strange time it was when friends were closer and we lived without the wand of parents for the first time, they would miss the hinglish, No? Or is it IITians and call center folk do not speak hinglish ?
The narrative is inconsistent. Hari starts with ‘acknowledgement’ that indicates that though this is the story of the three of them (and what of Neha?) he had to have his way because the other two could not ( or would not) write …. And yet includes a chapter by each of them. In the second book, he starts of in narration mode… yet he starts at the beginning of the evening and somehow never ties up the thread of narration at the end. And the epilogue is depressing cliché.
I am a little surprised at the 50th reprint. The books are dismal. When I compare it to Interpreter of maladies or Incantations or Arranged marriage, Chetan Bhagat’s books are a sad comparison. The other three are short story collections written by people of Indian origin about their view of the Indian experience. I compare each of these short story collections with CB’s three books because to my mind each of his novels is really a bloated short story.
The question that comes to mind is why is each of these short story collections not ubiquitous as the five point something book?
The snob in me says that is because it is easy to read, no need to think or concentrate and you have read a book. The realistic part of me says that it is an approachable book, with images and characters we know and identify with, evil bosses and professors and parents whose expectations we cannot meet. and familiar is good. it highlights the good in each charecter with a naive optimism. It is tangible and has no lofty aspirations. The credentials Chetan Bhagat possesses, lend him an air of authenticity, he went to an IIT, even if it was not IIT - D. And then he made it to an IIM, IIM - A no less. In the post-independence area, meritocracy is the new royalty. Even the snob in me relents, it takes a lot of mugging to get there :)
All in all a pretty decent effort, but it will be forgotten.