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BOOK REVIEW OF
“The 3 mistakes of my life”
Book By: Chetan Bhagat
Price: Rs.95/-
Page: 258
Rupa books publishers (2008)
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Titled “the 3 mistakes of my life”, has nothing to do with Mr. Bhagat’s
life in itself, but it’s something fictional but an entertainer in all, it is written
simply and has the quality that makes one to read the book cover to cover in
one sitting. The price of the book is just right for the target audience-young
people and makes it affordable, even piracy-proof! This author writes about
Indians and for the Indians. His characters are young, ambitious and have the
same moral, society and religious dilemma as many Indians today.

Before I consume your patience with vague descriptions, let me get

started with the review…

The book is based on real life events. It begins in a dramatic enough

fashion with Bhagat receiving an email from Govind (gopi) who had taken
many sleeping pills and was writing to him while waiting for the deadly sleep’s
embrace. Fortunately he was still alive to tell the tale, and loosely based on the
three mistakes Govind made in his life.

The setting is the city of Ahmadabad, yet enough urban, but still retains
a flavor of pols, and traditional Indian households. Cricket fever, small town
politics, riots, and first love all are intermingled in the lives of three teenagers
in early 2000, A few years out of school and with nothing better to do, so they
start their own business, and follow their ups and downs against the current
events.

The Main Players:

Govind (Gopi) patel is among the three friends, with his magical affility for
mathematics and logic, and he is the narrator of the story, since his father left
them when he was ten, Gopi and his mother have eked out a meager living for
themselves; Gopi by giving math tution and his mother by running a small
Guajarati snaks business.

Ishan(ish) is the sports man and most fanatic cricket love, his father works at
the telephone exchange, earning a modest but stable income, and forever on
Ishan’s case to do something with his life, since he got thrown out of the army.

Omi is the follower and calming force between Govind and ishan. He has
known both friends since first grade at the Belarampur municipal school. He is

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the son of the swamibhakti temple priest but has no desire to follow in his
father’s footsteps.

Substitutes:

Ali Nasser is a 12 years old cricket wunderkind at the friends’ old school
whose specialty is hitting sixes.
His fame soon attracts ishaan and gopi’s attention, who end up coaching him
in cricket and math. But being Muslim and son of a political almost cost him his
young life.

Vidya is ishaan’s sister and maths hater. She needs to pass the college
entrance exam to study in Mumbai, her ticket out of ahmedabad. So she takes
tuitions from Govind and quietly predictably, they soon find themselves
studying more than maths. Which is a problem for Gopi because of unspoken
rule to never, ever hit on your best friend’s sister?

Bittoo Mama is omi’s uncle and symbolizes the forceful older generation that
constantly criticizes the youngster for not being more religious or politically
involved.

Real Events in “the 3 mistakes of my life”:

The three friends open their “Team India Cricket Shop” in an ordinary
20X10 feet space in the temple compound with omi’s family’s help in April
2000. Soon becomes their refuge and success of the shop becomes benchmark
against turbulent events. The shop prospers as ishan coaches young boys in
cricket and Govind teaches maths to ishan’s sister vidya who also captures his
heart. Ishan meets Ali, a child master with the hyper reflex condition that
makes him hit each ball for a six.

First is the Bhuj earthquake that strikes Gujarat in January2001, killing

thousands. Though the shop remained intact, and a just rented new one is
reduced to rubble, throwing the friends in to debt.

Second is the miracle soon followed disaster when India wins a cricket
match against Australia in March 2001, letting the cricket supply business
soars.

Third, when the terrorist attacks on September 11 take place and fuel
religious tension even in faraway India. The situation exploded in February
2002 when miscreants set fire on a train carrying Ayodhya pilgrims near
Godhra station in Gujarat. A Bloodly sectarian riots.

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Here Enter Omi’s Bitto mama, a communist party man converting the Youngs
in to fighters in the name of Hinduism. Situation comes to a head and
Ahmadabad burns in to riots fires. Omi dies saving Ali and ishan finds out
about vidya and govind, a betrayal he does not to forgive.

These events lead Govind to his death bed and that is when he writes the mail
to Bhagat.

CRITICS, COMMENTS & MANAGEMENT ASPECTS:

Perhaps this is the biggest compliment an author can receive, when

someone chooses to remember him in his last minutes, that makes a writer
beyond ordinary. Bhagat creates or set up certain things carefully, even he
choose the best possible time-span to set the story in between 1999-2002.
When India faced the worst of all, worst of riots, worst of earthquakes and
hoard problems in Gujarat he spotlighted.

I want to point out that some MANAGEMENT points that strikes to

our mind in this book are:

. Expensive education system and lack of sports education, lack of infra-

structure in schools
. Lack of development in small towns
. Conservative mentality of parents
. Extremism in politics and sick politicians
. Religious extremism and
. Bios toward agnostics and atheist
. Poverty amongst the brighter lower middle class youth
. Extreme competition in entrance exam for college education
. Success is hard to get
. Offbeat ideas receive suppression
. Complete study oriented school
. Small scale business is extremely risky
. Advance coaching for exams is expensive so only upper- middle class receive
. Drifts between religions, casts, etc.
. Hypocrisy among the public, politicians and every one alike
. Lack of awareness, foresight and ideas due to lack of quality education
. Small school lack of funds and money in everything, than big schools
. Bad quality contraceptive devices that don’t allow Indians to get bold early
. Monotonous books, pathetic teachers, result oriented study
. Lack of scientific temper
. Students prejudiced about certain subjects and losing interest
. People just want to earn, passion for anything else is dead.
. Talented folks are mostly unrecognized and all that dies away with as
unharnessed potential

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. Expensive international air tickets, nice food and even good reference
material
. Stereotyped mentality of 99% of parents

. And many more..!!

Finally:

I did find the book an entertainer, with simple writing style. The story was just
a nicer way of illustrating the most extreme faces of the problems, and in the
end seems a little more than a detailed study of those problems.

Seriously speaking, it did feel like a wonderful plot to a Hindi movie with
chetan bhagat, trying to keep the book as riveting as possible. The way he
managed to put the thoughts sitting in the mind of many of us is something
that brings me to no surprise to have his next book soaring for success.

I would be waiting to read more from him.. !! Soon!!