Two States by Chetan Bhagat

I had borrowed "Two states- the story of my marriage" (on an exchange program :-)) from a friend and completed it in just two sittings this saturday. The book is good 268 pages thick , so dont undermine my achievement:-). And, yes, thats how captivating the book is.

Two states is the story of Ananya and Krish. It begins with how our protagonists meet in a B-school and fall in love with each other. Reading through their college life sprinkled with combined study sessions, late night phone calls to their families when STD rates are lower, gossip sessions et al. leaves you feeling nostalgic of the days gone by. The story then moves on to how they struggle to convince their respective in-laws particularly because Ananya is a tamilian and Krish, a punjabi. The chapters where Ananya's mother tries to emotionally blackmail her to marry a Tamilian well settled in US or the one where Krish's mother makes him forcefully meet eligible girls in Punjabi community seem so realistic and just right out there.

The book is no literary marter-piece, but the story has the right mix of romance and drama , that make this book a page turner. The characters come alive right from the opening paragraph and are woven so finely that anyone who has been to college will feel a connect with them. If you have been to an engineering college or alike or have had a stint at trying to convince your parents about the person you love, chances are that you will like reading this book.

The Professional by Subroto Bagchi

I have been thinking of putting down my thoughts regarding this book ever since I finished reading it , but I havent been able to do so . Why? One , I was a little too busy last month with hardly any time to spare to blog (yeah, I do get busy at times :-)) and two, I had set really high expectations from this book which unfortunately were not met and therefore the motivation to write about it was missing.But anyway, here I am...

Well , just to recap, "The professional" is the third book by Subroto Bagchi (co-founder, Mindtree) and aims at answering the seminal question of what makes a true professional and what are the challenges in future that a professional should be prepared for. The book no doubt provides a comprehensive set of qualities that a professional should possess encompassing integrity, self awareness, managing volume, managing complexity etc. But, in my humble opinion, it can be treated more as a handbook of professional qualities which would need to be referred to every now and then, as it is literally impossible to remember everything by the time you finish reading it. As it goes with Subroto Bagchi's writings, the book is dotted with anecdotes but there is so little space dedicated to each chapter and so many views , that it ends up getting too preachy.

The good things? Lively stories and lots of them.... If not for imbibing professional qualities, you may just want to read this one for "the larger than life and so close your heart" kind of stories spilled all across this book.