Sunday, May 18, 2008

The 3 Mistakes...

Ok so i finished reading the 3 mistakes...so thought i'll review it.listening to 'o re
piye' from aaja nachle right now...an absolutely wonderful song.yes so as i was
saying i finished the book.the first thing i thought when i had heard that the author had published a book on his 3 mistakes was that those mistakes must be his previous two books and this one! but obviously i was mistaken.it revolves around cricket,business and religion.and i guess friendship, politics and love too.the story revolves around 3 friends, Govind,Ishaan and Omi,similar to that of 5 point someone.thats what i have noticed in his previous books too.the central characters are almost the same.while 'hari' in 5point someone had matured to 'shyam' in one nite @ call centre, vroom was the some-what mellowed down version of ryan i
guess.and now Omi is an absolute replica of alok placed in a new situation.the guy who just follows his friends in whatever they do and who is regarded as an idiot by Govind (friendship?!!). but its Govind who completely amazed me.the businessman to the core.one who always weighs the cost and benefits in every situation,the
emotionless geek who finds maths in everything and who feels life is an optimisation function (something i had crammed up for my exams!!). he has had a hard life with his dad leaving him and his mom, and takes tuitions to earn money.he has two best friends Ishaan (Ish) and Omi and they like every indian are crazy about cricket.Ishaan is a district level cricket champ who couldnt make it to the indian team and who had
run from NDA.while Omi was a priest's son,who didnt want to follow his dad's footsteps.all the three are living in Ahmedabad (the favourite place of the author).the story starts with the author getting a suicide note from Govind and then the story moves from Govind's point of view.so we get to know what he's thinking which is
quite less coz most of the time he seems to be calculating.so the trio wants to do something meaningful and so they start a shop which sells sports items (read cricket).the story proceeds to show how they manage it and we also get to see Govind's skills at business and Ishaans' at cricket.the first mistake that Govind made
was to decide to shift his business and this gets shattered with the earthquake.meanwhile they also get entangled in the political parties who mix religion for their evil interests.at the same time Ishaan discovers a child prodigy Ali who is amazing at cricket and decides to coach him.we also get to see a glimpse of the cricket matches taking place,the aftermath of the gujrat earthquake and how the political parties used it for their benefit.while all this is taking place to add more filmy 'masala' (as said by the author himself) Govind falls in love with his best friend's sister (remember hari falling in love with his professor's daughter) and he pays a heavy price for it as Ishaan stops talking to him but this happens only later.the world trade center attack and the hindu muslim riots also gets a place in his story and such a riot takes place on one night which is the climax. actually everything happens together in the climax so that it seemed more like a movie which initially moved at a slow pace and then got over with just one night.we see the people who are after Ali and suddenly Ishaan discovers that his friend had cheated him and then the sacrifice of Omi and finally the third mistake that Govind made (which was'nt so very convincing if you ask me).All this in one night.and its left to the author to set everything right.the story is about friendship more than anything else which might make you feel that you are almost reading 5 point someone.even the thought processes are similar (or maybe all boys think alike).the element of God does not go unnoticed as Govind passes on from the phase of an agnostic to a believer.on the whole, the story is once again about the indian youth and to a certain level the author does meet with the readers expectations as it is fresh in its theme.but then dont expect too much coz this time the author didnt have God to help him out in an isolated compartment :) so i guess thats it for now.hope i havent killed your interest in the story by giving such a long review.if so do let me know so that i can make amends.bye