Five Point Something .

Well, I was a Mechanical Engineering student and spent 4 years of my college life in an hostel .But my college was not IIT. Yes, not IIT , the only place next to Nirvana for any engineering aspirant.
But I did appear for the entrance test and I still remember looking blankly at the answer sheet for the entire period of the exam.
Ofcourse, I had no clue what those around me were scribbling on the sheet.
Some of them might have cracked it. The IIT JEE , that is, the toughest entrance exam for getting into one of the best technical institutes in the world.
So, let me suppose(or dream) that I did crack the exam and made into IIT. So what would I call myself . Son of Einstein or something. Yes, I would ...or rather would bask in the glory for the rest of my life.
Well, 'what if' I do the opposite and end up screwing my entire 4 years and ofcourse, the rest of it.
Chetan Bhagat's national bestseller, "Five Point Someone" tries to answer my 'what if'.
And it does it with a unique raunchy humour and style that befits the typical student mindset and lingo.
No, you dont need to be an engineer to understand this book, or rather you dont need to be anyone close to being scientific to relate to the events in this story.
The characters are much like ordinary college students who just , yes just, happen to have made it to IIT. Because once they are in, they want to get out.
So you have these 3 friends, Ryan , Alok and Hari (Mech Engineering students) who typify three different personalities you would find almost everywhere in your life, and definitely within you. But then at times, these characters end up being caricatures drawn intentionally just for the purpose of the story.
Though it is a work of fiction, you can not escape from the fact that Chetan Bhagat was an IITian himself and he chooses the first person narrative to make it look like autobiographical account through the protagonist Hari.
Ryan and Alok are opposites and Hari plays the neutral maverick and then there are a few Professors who do their bit , one of them having a beautiful daughter , Neha who ends up making out with Hari. Way to go!
Well, I liked the parts where Chetan indulges in some serious thinking mechanism about a typical Indian middle class family depending on their only son (Alok); a rich businessman's son (Ryan) hating his parents for their money; the hard boiled Prof Cherian 's daughter (Neha) nudging between modernity and tradition while her brother ends his life for not making into IIT.

Yes, serious enough to excercise your lazy brains because otherwise this book is as light as its weight (30 gms paperback). It borders in its langauge and narration from mediocrity to slapstick to rauncy and ugly to being plain simple naughty. And ofcourse , funny throughout. But no , it did not made me laugh till the end , neither it moved or touched me deep within. It was just too easy on my nerves to go in some sort of emotional imbalance. Fair enough.

Its an idea that was so simply told and simply sold. And yes, its a bestseller just for the very fact that it catered to the fastfood taste of so many young readers who would definitely enjoy reading the antics of the 'three idiots in IIT' who would do all stupid things to 'screw' up whatever sanity was left with them. And Hari's take on girls and their behaviour and mannerisms is the most enjoyable of the entire lot. His dating with Neha and then ending up making out with her in her room in broad daylight was dealt quite effervescently.
Neha's subtle outcry of 'now I am a bad girl' and feeling 'liberated' after having sex with her 'boyfriend' Hari was a dark look at our society's so called 'traditional' and 'ethical' trap . For anything outside it , is considered to be a sin. But then Chetan leaves so much dangling pointers in this story that you have hardly anytime to think whats wrong or right.

Back to IIT. I have seen IIT Delhi and also remember Kamaon Hostel (the premise of this story). But that was years ago when my father took me to the institute and told me 'Son, thats where I studied....and thats where I want you to study."
No, I couldn't but my younger brother did. He cracked JEE and is studying in an IIT. So I can almost feel the pulse of this tale of 'what not to do in IIT' , because I know their Grading system , the GPA, is a torch you can hold for the rest of your career. So if you are a Five Pointer then you are considered an underperformer and things can be quite difficult and strange. And thats where this book tells you the horror of being Five Point Someone.

So, towards the end, as Prof Cherain delivers his HOD speech on the convocation, he puts so many things in context ....of the importance of being an IITan, the value of a GPA, the 4 years that change your entire life, how to think straight and make the best of the system, how being too ambititous about your children can ruin their lives, how friendship is the greatest relationship in this world...etc, etc.
I just wished that this speech was not a dream sequence for Hari and more of a profound reality.
But thats about this book, it teases you with reality and then cooks up so much of make believe to relish. If only it dealt it more scruplously and had better literary connotations, it would be have been a great work of fiction. Nevermind.

So, here's my grade.
On a scale of ten, I would rate this book...'A Five Point Something'.