Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT! is the first (2004) novel written by Chetan Bhagat, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad. It is one of the highest selling English novels published in India, and has remained on the bestseller list until 2007 since its release in 2004. It was adapted into a play by the theatre group Madras Players, and may be converted to a bollywood movie soon.

The novel is set in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in the period 1991 to 1995. It is about the adventures of three mechanical engineering students (and friends), Hari Kumar (the narrator), Ryan Oberoi, and Alok Gupta, who fail to cope with the cruel grading system of the IITs and come to be known as five pointers due to their perennially low 5.something GPA's.

The book is narrated in the first person by Hari, with some small passages by his friends Ryan and Alok, as well as a letter by Hari's girlfriend Neha Cherian. It deals with the lives of the three friends whose elation on making it to one of the best engineering colleges in India is quickly deflated by the rigor and monotony of academic work. Most of the book deals with the numerous attempts by the trio to cope with and/or beat the system as well as Hari's fling with Neha who just happens to be the daughter of Prof. Cherian, the sadistic head of the Mechanical Engineering Department.

While the tone of the novel is humorous, it takes some dark turns every now and then, especially when it comes to the families of the main characters. Most of the action, however, takes place inside the campus as the boys, led by the ever creative Ryan, frequently lament how the internationally lauded IIT system has stifled their creativity by forcing them to value grades more than anything else. Uninspiring teaching and numerous assignments adds to their woes although the boys do find a sympathizer in Prof. Veera, the new fluid mechanics professor.

It is rumored that a film will be made on it starring the superstar Shahrukh Khan and to be directed by Rajkumar Hirani, his third directorial venture after the Munnabhai series. He plans to make the film before the third installment of Munnabhai and hopes to start shooting by October 2007

The novel is filled with IIT lingo which is an important part of IIT life.

I FOUND THE BOOK AT http://www.download-bookz.blogspot.com/ BUT IT HAS 16 CHAPTERS ONLY, REST WILL COME SOON BUT DONT KNOW HOW MUCH TIME IT WILL TAKE.

DOWMLOAD THE BOOK FROM:
http://www.download-bookz.blogspot.com/

Download link for Anthony Piers has been reactivated.

Download link for Raymond E. Feist has been reactivated.

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Search Engine Optimization - Made Easy By Brad Callen
Millionaire Traders How - Everyday People Are Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game
Stop Paying For Shit - Education Not for Sale
Telephoning in English
The Book of Marketing Plans
iLounge The Free iPod Book
English Grammar - The Oxford Dictionary of New Words
The Biggest Secret
the evolution of death why we are living longer
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMANISM
This is Your life not a dress rehearsal
TOEFL Exam Success In Only 6 Steps
Vocabulary
Vocabulary - Spelling Success
Wiki Web Collaboration
Word Formation In English
Word Fugitives - In Pursuit of Wanted Words
Words Without Meaning
Writing from Start to Finish
Writing for Animation Comics and Games
Your First Interview
Google Secrets - How To Get A Top 10 Ranking
Pink Floyd - Guitar Tab Anthology Guitar Songbook
Oreilly - Amazon Hacks ebook
Handbook of Fiber Chemistry
Steve Hampton - Modern High Security Locks - How to Open Them
Ron Louis David Copeland - How To Succeed With Women
How to print your digital photos
Howard Linda eBook - Fiction Collection - 36 Books
Collection of Illegal Ebooks
MANY BODY THEORY EXPOSED
Math Wonders to Inspire Teachers and Students
Mind Power - How to use control your unlimited potentials
Negotiate to Win - The 21 Rules for Successful Negotiating
Numerology - The Power of Numbers
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
Amazing Palmistry Secrets
Presenting to Win The Art of Telling Your Story
Psychometry
Quotations for All Occasion
500 Quotes
Richard peet - Unholy Trinity

Riddle When Is a Joke not a Joke
Search Engine Optimization - Made Easy By Brad Callen
Millionaire Traders How - Everyday People Are Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game
Stop Paying For Shit - Education Not for Sale
Telephoning in English
The Book of Marketing Plans
iLounge The Free iPod Book
English Grammar - The Oxford Dictionary of New Words
The Biggest Secret
the evolution of death why we are living longer
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMANISM
This is Your life not a dress rehearsal
TOEFL Exam Success In Only 6 Steps
Vocabulary
Vocabulary - Spelling Success
Wiki Web Collaboration
Word Formation In English
Word Fugitives - In Pursuit of Wanted Words
Words Without Meaning
Writing from Start to Finish
Writing for Animation Comics and Games
Your First Interview
Google Secrets - How To Get A Top 10 Ranking
Pink Floyd - Guitar Tab Anthology Guitar Songbook
Oreilly - Amazon Hacks ebook
Handbook of Fiber Chemistry
Steve Hampton - Modern High Security Locks - How to Open Them
Ron Louis David Copeland - How To Succeed With Women
How to print your digital photos
Howard Linda eBook - Fiction Collection - 36 Books
Collection of Illegal Ebooks
MANY BODY THEORY EXPOSED
Math Wonders to Inspire Teachers and Students
Mind Power - How to use control your unlimited potentials
Negotiate to Win - The 21 Rules for Successful Negotiating
Numerology - The Power of Numbers
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
Amazing Palmistry Secrets
Presenting to Win The Art of Telling Your Story
Psychometry
Quotations for All Occasion
500 Quotes
Richard peet - Unholy Trinity

ANOTHER REVIEW 4M THELUMINAR.NET

This one was long anticipated. The best-selling Indian novelist brings together another installment in showcasing the everyday life of some of the most common, unassuming and inconspicuous people of India. Titled 3 Mistakes of my Life, but disappointingly, has nothing to do with Mr. Bhagat’s life in itself. Anyway, its something fictional, but an entertainer in all. Before I consume your patience with vague descriptions like these, let me get started with the review…

The plot is pretty simple, 3 average students, Govind, Ish and Omi having a hard time living think of entrepreneurship. In middle come an an entire big host of people, problems and pressures. Its about how they react, solve and live with those problems. Just like his older books, he chose a batch of people who truly represent a good proportion of urban India. This book is picturised in the older and slightly lesser developed part of Ahmedabad, Gujarat and features loads of Gujjus(Read: Hindi slang to refer to Gujaratis). Although no vernaculars could be observed in the book to make it funny in the slapstick sense, the very style of writing makes it really funny and entertaining. Many things that might feel Gujju there might be references to several places or locations in Ahmedabad, Gujju food, and of course, names that truly sound Gujju. But then, I really missed the name Jigness Kumar and a whole bunch of *readable* Gujju vernaculars there!

After reading the book, I kind of felt that it had just one major objective. Making the Indian youth vigilant and aware of some of the biggest problems that plague its society. The list of problems could be very long, but well, Wordpress’s tinyMCE editor does have a bullet/numbering functionality for some reason, right? Feel free to scroll down and continue reading the rest o the review. I just wanted to point out that Chetan covered the following problems in his book…

Expensive Education
Lack of development in smaller towns
Conservative mentality
Extremism in politics
Sick politicians
Religious extremism
Bias towards agnostics and atheists
Poverty amongst the brighter lower-middle class youth
Extreme competition in entrance exams fr college admissions
Success is hard to get
Offbeat ideas receive suppression
Lack of sports education/infra-structure in schools, etc
Completely study oriented schools
Small-scale businesses are extremely risky
Advanced coaching for exams is expensive so only the upper-middle class receive that
Drift between religions, castes, etc
Conservative mentality of parents
Hypocrisy among public, politicians, and everyone alike
Lack of awareness, foresight and ideas due to lack of quality education
Smaller schools lack funds and money in everything, just bigger school students get everything
Bad quality contraceptive devices that don’t allow Indians to get bold early
Heavy mugger-friendly curriculum
Monotonous books, pathetic teachers, result oriented study
Lack of scientific temper
Students prejudiced about certain subjects and losing interest
People just want to earn, and passion for anything is dead
Prodigies and talented folks are mostly unrecognized and all that dies away as unharnessed potential
Expensive international air tickets, nice food and even good reference material
Stereotyped mentality of 99% of parents …. I had enough of it and I guess you did too. Just know that it had many more of it…

Oh well, I could go along all my life just covering the problems Mr. Bhagat put on those measly souls. But then, he makes a point clear. Indians live with many of these, even most of the readers do. The story was just a nicer way of illustrating the most extreme faces of these problems. In some places, the book does seem a little cliched with a few situations seeming too obvious in the setting. Like there is this bloke named Ish, who is a talented cricketer who didn’t go anywhere thanks to his involvement with cricket. So well, it was too obvious that his parents, especially his stereotypically grumpy Indian Dad always taunting against his failures, sometimes, simply for the heck of it! And simply for the heck of covering many of these problems, Bhagat creates or sets up certain scenarios a tad too forcefully… He even chose the best possible time-span to set the story in. Between 1999-2002, India faced the worst of all. Worst of riots, the worst of earthquakes and there were a hoard of problems especially in the part of India he spotlighted on. So well, the book in the end seems a little more than a detailed study of these problems… The book did go pretty much on the over-board side, especially in the ending. 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.

But then, I did find the book an entertainer, but not for the same reasons why I found his previous books, Five Point Someone and One Night@the Call Center. Story and setting did slack off at places, but the writing style simply caught my mind. Several one-liners, witty metaphoric comparisons and unique usage of words with examples plucked from lives of all of us living in the sub-continent did have me bowing down at the same time munching at the food for thought he provided. A few things that he wrote in the book were such that, we might always have it in our mind, but then never have we ever managed to phrase that situation out into a clever statement… At times, he feels just so right. But then at times, it feels that parts of this book were just Chetan speaking out to the public and having his opinion read. And the pricing of the book makes it affordable for even those people documented in the book and even piracy-proof!

There are lofty many things that make Chetan Bhagat a wonderful writer targeting Indian youth. His writing isn’t the same as H2G2, where enjoying the humor means inclination to something, isn’t the same as fantasy writers, who spend a large portion of their publications just explaining the jargon and commodities that they imagined, and neither is it like those philosophical but anecdotal ones like say Sudha Murthy… It just feels almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Me, and many others who are a part of the growing India. The way he managed to put the un-phrased thoughts sitting in the minds of many of us is something that brings me to no surprise to have his third book soaring for success. I would be waiting to read more from him… I wish he updated his so-called blog more often!

Price: Rs. 95/- although ask for discounts in leading book stores.

PS - The book doesn’t have as much of cricket or the fanatic kind of cricket you might assume after looking at the cover, which does look pretty neat.

FROM MOUTHSHUT.COM

The Three Mistakes of My life... Mistake thy name is human. I live through my mistakes. My whole life revolves around them. I just read the new best seller by Chetan Bhagat .. the three mistakes of my life.. Well I’d say the book isn’t a mistake at all but it isn’t a life changing great literary work that will go down in history.

I love Chetan’s writing because I feel its so much like mine, like yours, like anybody else’s! After the typically youth oriented Five point some one and One nyt @ the call centre, this book seems to be different. The writer has matured with experience. Although he is the same vain self, starting with himself in the picture he goes on to narrate a real life story amalgamated with real events. This makes the read worthwhile because it’s like discussing amongst friends.

The story is narrated by Govind( I must say Chetan has a knack in selecting the most catchy narrators). Its about his life which is full of people- his mother, his friends, his love and the top most being his dreams of making it big, touching the sky and to reach the stars. Does any thing seem out of place. Isn’t it everyone’s story??!! It is... What does the writer try to show us - Hypocrisy which is very common in this so called broad minded modern world. Govind is a born businessman with a gift for numbers. His friend Ish is an awsome cricketer with no future, discouraged by the Stereotyped Indian parents who want their son to earn! Omi the son of a priest who does not want the same path but has been brought up in that environment incorporating the deep rooted religious sentiments! Vidya - Ish’s sister, the hottie behind the naive innocent worthy girl fighting for her dreams and wishes under the veil of a worthy reputation!

The plot follows.. A new business selling sports wares in a shop in the temple complex starts by the three friends. It builds up with good business and extra cricket as well as math coaching.Ali - a child prodigy in cricket pops up to throw Ish out of balance. Teaching Vidya is no easy job because of her blossoming age for Govind. Omi is caught up with religion based politics because of his uncle. Then there are the usual ups and downs and the emotions related to the huge earth quake that hit Gujarat in 2001. A loss is well survived and is pushed to the past. There are visits to Goa as well as Australia to get Ali into the top rung! Behind all this is a love story brewing up between Vidya and Govind. Few questions are subtly brought up here... Isn’t Vidya a grown up girl? Is there something wrong in falling in love with a girl just because she is your friend’s sister while it doesnt matter if it is anybody else? Then comes the religious politics and Godhra riots which the common man never wanted nor accepted but was thrust into. Horrendous killing of innocent people on religious basis with no humanitarian thoughts, by a select few! This is how the plot throws various questions to the readers. It culminates into facing religious politics, natural calamities, unaccepted love and one’s dreams! Well as Chetan loves it, he has a part in the end and its okay because we love his usual witty self interfering here and there. It ends in a happy tone just like most of our bollywood movies - selfishness and lessons learnt, forgiveness, way back into love with a horrified soon to be mother in law and yes a recovered Ali for the last suspense.

All in all a good read. A simple narration with far deeper meaning! I am sure I am not the kind (specially English teachers) who wants to dig out some so called symbolic sense when it doesn’t prevail!! I am a Virgoan- critical and yeah as Linda Goodman would say, most probably right!!! I guess Vanity, Selfishness and yeah the letter I are inbuilt involuntary human virtues. So there you go.. read through and wait for the nest surprise! The three mistakes of my life-- 1. I can’t remember. 2. Is there really something??? 3. Naaaah me and mistakes?? no Way! Kudos Chetan you atleast you were being truthful about the mistakes or maybe your narrator was so I guess or maybe.. Okay fine this book is on the path to success again...!!! Sayonara.............Finally!

Firstly I am no great critic or anyone but I am a huge fan of "CHETAN BHAGAT" and I am highly disappointed by his work this time as he considers himself an youth writer than I guess the judging part should also be left to us. This is what I think of this book:
So this book released with much anticipation and finally I got a copy of it I grabbed it from the stores shelf to ensure I get a copy of it. Little did I know they were going to stay there for long.
So is it that bad? Yes to some extent. I know it is disappointing but its the fact. There is nothing cool about this one. The characters are inspired from his earlier books "Five point someone" and "One night" Same ol' ordinary guy(in this one it's Govind patel) his cool Friend Ishaan(ryan in five point) and a dumb guy "omi" a character which is very much similar to 'Alok" from his first book. The first phase of the book is simply boring and will take you back to the memories of his first two books on how the three guys have fun and the times they met and so on, and also the introduction of the city(Ahmadabad) is very short and non-descriptive, surely the author does not pick up the nerves of the spirit of small towns as he had captured the magic of the "II T's" and the "call centre's" this is where the main drawback of this book is there is nothing of small town in this small town story, India is off course changing but the small town mentality is surely not covered in this one and there is too much of pointless cricket in it(may be it seems too much because of the ongoing IPL series)tough the book have been better without it,as cricket has no important role to play in this small town story I guess it's just introduced hoping to cash on the cricket love of Indian people but it goes in vain.. After our protagonist makes his first mistake(the earthquake part)it lacks emotions, but from that point the plot moves on then reading is made fun as MR.Bhagat again enters his favourite "love angle" and the way he handles such issues have always being a favourite with us all. But this fun does not stay long as the author again goes into the dark phase of politics and religion and that is told in an uninteresting way.Then the trip to Australia is like a yash raj movie where the screen couple just escape to any foreign locations for their dance sequences surely there is no dance in here, and the reason for the kid declining the Australian citizenship is not understood if he declined it out of patriotism or any other one? Till the time the second mistake happens, you already pray for the book to end soon. And then again the "Five point phase" romantic moments between the protagonist and his best Friends sister, and then it's the final take(thank god!) Yes the riots and then there happens the third mistakes. The story is nothing you have never heard of it's the same one with all the masala of the Hindi movie and the way the sensitive issue of religion and riots is handled in the book is far from real and the para' in which the author describes the riots from the bank's roof is straight away a seen from Deepa Mehta's "1947-Earth". I surely see why MR.Bhagat is moving to bollywood because inspiration is the base of this Indian film industry. I can say that if the protagonist made three mistakes in the book I made a fourth mistake by reading it! So if you are a die hard "CHETAN BHAGAT" fan you'll surely be disappointed by this one, but I know he'll come up with something interesting the next time.
This is an average book and it'll be getting not more than "two and a half" star out of five.

The 3 mistakes of my life
By Chetan Bhagat
Price: Rs95; Pages: 258
Rupa Books
What strikes you first about Chetan Bhagat’s novels is the fact that this author writes about Indians and for Indians. His characters are young, ambitious and passionate and have the same moral, social and religious dilemmas as many of the young Indians today. At the same time their context and sensibility too is unabashedly Indian. The new and the third Bhagat book, “The3 mistakes of my life”, has all these qualities.
The setting is the city of Ahmedabad that though being urban is yet not as metropolitan as many of its metro counterparts. It retains its small town flavour in pols (colonies), traditional Indian households and small vegetarian joints. It has the protagonist Govind with his passion and acumen for accounts and business, it has Ishan for whom cricket is the element around which his life revolves and it has Omi, a priest’s son and a loyal friend who is game for anything that his friends are game for.
The book is based on real life events. It begins in a dramatic enough fashion with Bhagat receiving an e-mail from Govind who had taken many sleeping pills and was writing to him while waiting for the deadly sleep’s embrace. Chetan’s was shook enough by the incident to track the boy down to Ahmedabad hospital. Fortunately he was still alive to tell the tale. The book is loosely based on the three mistakes Govind made in his life.
What follows is a mix of cricket, religion, business, love and friendship. Govind sets up a sport shop along with his friends in the temple compound with Omi’s family’s help. 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 then meets Ali, a child master with hyper reflex condition that makes him hit each ball for a six. Ali becomes the talent Ishan never had and Ali’s destiny becomes his own.
Enter Omi’s Bitoo mama, a communal party man bent on converting the young into fighters in the name of Hinduism. Situations come to a head and Ahmedabad burns in riot fires. Omi dies saving Ali and Ishan finds out about Vidya and Govind, a betrayal he does not forgive. These events lead Govind to his death-bed and that is when he writes the email to Bhagat.
Perhaps, this is the biggest compliment an author can receive. Its not when New York Times describes as you the biggest selling English language author in the country and not when you have sold more than two million books but it is definitely when someone chooses to remember him in his last minutes. After all, the purpose of all writing is to touch someone’s heart. And Bhagat seems to have done just that.
“The 3 mistakes of my life” is written simply and has the quality that makes one want to read the book cover to cover in one sitting. The pricing of the book is just right for his target audience. At Rs95, this book is indeed value for money and time. Bhagat’s other book, One night at the rate of call centre is already being made into a Bollywood multi-starer. This book too has all the masala, emotion and pace to become a potential blockbuster.

There is always a refresh button on the browser.

On the silver screen Chetan Bhagat believes in giving complete freedom to those adapting his books to different media .

Chetan Bhagat, like another famous novelist insists he is not in the Shakespeare stakes. The other novelist was Ian Fleming and he created James Bond. Chetan is also responsible for a seismic shift in Indian writing in English.

With “Five Point Someone” a coming-of-age novel set in IIT, Chetan opened the floodgates and soon the market was inundated with bildungsroman.

Chetan followed “Five Point Someone” with “One Night at the Call Centre”. Chetan has moved back to Mumbai after 12 years in Hong Kong and continues with his day job as investment banker while putting final touches on his third novel, “The Three Mistakes of my Life.”

In Bangalore for good friend, Shinie Antony’s book launch, Chetan took time out to talk about books, films and coming home. Excerpts.

What is “The Three Mistakes of My Life” about?

Like the tagline says, it is about cricket, religion and business. While the book is more serious compared to my other two novels, the time-pass element is very much there.

It is light treatment against a serious backdrop. The book tells the story of three boys in Gujarat who decide to start a sports shop.

Any particular reason for setting the novel in Gujarat?

Gujarat is the only State where businessmen are considered ideal husband material. Salaried people are looked down upon because they work for others.

Also I felt I had to earn the title of youth writer. Both “Five Point Someone” and “One Night at the Call Centre” have a cosmopolitan look and feel. The themes they tackle are also rather urban and elitist. I wanted to broaden my base, to do something different and talk to youth across the country.

I think the ‘60s-to-‘80s generation is boring and intolerant. The generation before that were very cool as they got us Independence.

I think a lot of our problems are because of the Doordarshan generation ruling the STAR TV generation. We need a revolution. There is always a refresh button on the browser.


Considering you are tackling serious issues, are you nervous of the reception?

Actually I was more nervous about “One Night at the Call Centre. This book has a positive buzz. The advance reviews have been good. We have a 200,000 advance order.

It is all happening. I am in the middle of promotional activity. We just launched the web site. I am convinced we are onto a good thing.


What made you return to India?

Well, the country has given me a lot and now it is time to give back. I just like India, it is as simple as that. Yeah, living is easier in Hong Kong. Like just yesterday the maid had malaria.

I thought all these diseases were eradicated. Everyday is a challenge and everyday you have something to be thankful for. But that is perfect for a writer, there is so much fodder for further plots. The other thing is my three-year-old twin boys were the only brown skinned children talking in a Chinese accent which was quite freaky.


When are the books going to hit the screen?

I have written the script for “Hello” which is based on “One Night at a Call Centre”. The film, directed by Atul Agnihotri, will star Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif. Rajkumar Hirani, who made the Munnabhai movies is making “Idiot” which is inspired by “Five Point Someone”.


What is your take on film adaptations of books?

I write for passion unlike some writers who write for ego. For the screen adaptation, I have given the concerned people full freedom. Even Nikhila who adapted “Five Point Someone” for stage had complete freedom to do what she wanted. “Idiot” stars Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor. We all know Aamir does not take up rubbish projects and I respect Raju’s work. You should have confidence in the people who are putting Rs. 30 crore into a project. I do, and I am here to help.


How about your readers who might feel upset with how their favourite characters look on screen?

It is all open source programming. I would like to see a different take on my work.


Is this a good time for Indian writing in English?

You tell me. I know I am not the greatest writer ever. I believe that you cannot call yourself an Indian writer unless Indians read you. Everyone tells me I should get a foreign agent and publish abroad. I think a brown clap is the same as a white clap.

We have reactive all the links, please let us know if we missed any link.

Launch Events: Citywise Schedule

Mumbai- 8th May - 7:00 PM
Courtyard, Near Big Bazaar,
Phoneix Mills Compound, Lower Parel, Mumbai
-
Delhi - 10th May - 6:30 PM
Ambience Mall, Big Bazaar,
Ambience Mall, Near Gurgaon Border, NH-8, Delhi-Jaipur Highway, Gurgaon
-
Kolkatta - 11th May - 4:30 PM
Kankurgachi Pantaloons
Pantaloon Kankurgachi, Orchid Point, 33/1A,
Upendra Chandra Banerjee Road, Kankurgachi
-
Kolkatta - 11th May - 7:00 PM
Hiland Park, Big Bazaar,
Big Bazaar Hiland Park, 6, Hiland Park 1925 Chakgaria,
Near Peerless Hospital, Em Bypass,
Kolkatta - 700094
-
Hyderabad - 17th May - 6:30 PM
Ameerpet, Big Bazaar,
Big Bazaar,-Hyderabad-Ameerpet, 8-3-949/1, Ameerpet,
Hyderabad - 5000016
-
Bangalore - 18th May - 6:30 PM
OMR, Big Bazaar,
Salapuria Nova, No.1 & 2, Varthur Road,Nagavarapalya, Old Madras Road
Bangalore - 560016
-
Ahmedabad - 24th May - 6:30 PM
Himalaya, Big Bazaar,
Big Bazaar, Himalaya Mall, Drive in Road
Near Drive in Open Theater, Gurukul,
Ahmedabad
-
Pune - 25th May - 4:00 PM
Kothrud, Big Bazaar,
Plot No. CC3 of S. No. 20/2, Adjoining City Pride Multiplex, Kothrud
Pune

P.S.: There are 2 events in kolkata on same day. Irrespective of the launch events, the book will be avaliable in bookstores across India from May 8. 2008.

We have reactive all the links, please let us know if we missed any link.

Synopsis

In late-2000, a young boy in Ahmedabad called Govind dreamt of having a business. To accomodate his friends Ish and Omi's passion, they open a cricket shop. Govind's wants to make money and thinks big. Ish is all about nurturing Ali, the batsman with a rare gift. Omi knows his limited capabiltiies and just wants to be with his friends. However, nothing comes easy in a turbulent city. To realize their goals, they will have to face it all - religious politics, earthquakes, riots, unacceptable love and above all, their own mistakes. Will they make it? Can an individual's dreams overcome the nightmares offered by real life? Can we succeed despite a few mistakes?

Based on real events, from the bestselling author of "Five Point Someone" and "One Night @ the call centre", comes another dark, witty tale about modern India.

Excerpt
It is not everyday you sit in front of your computer on a Saturday morning and get emails like this:
From: Ahd_businessman@gmail.com
Sent: 12/28/2005 11:40 PM
To: info@chetanbhagat.com
Subject: A final note

Dear Chetan,
This email is a combined suicide note and a confession letter. I have let people down and have no reason to live. You don't know me. I'm an ordinary boy in Ahmedabad who read your books. And somehow I felt could write to you after that. I can't really tell anyone what I am doing to myself - which is taking a sleeping pill everytime I end a sentence, so I thought I will tell you.

I kept my coffee cup down and counted. Five full stops already.

I made three mistakes, I don’t want to go into details.
My suicide is not a sentimental decision. As many around me know, I am a good businessman because I have little emotion. This is no knee-jerk reaction. I waited over three years, watched Ish’s silent face everyday. But after he refused my offer yesterday, I had no choice left.
I have no regrets either. May be I’d have wanted to talk to Vidya once more – but that doesn’t seem like such a good idea right now.
Sorry to bother you with this. But I felt like I had to tell someone. You have ways to improve as an author but you do write decent books. Have a nice weekend.

Regards,
Businessman
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17, 18, 19. Someone had popped nineteen sleeping pills while typing a mail to me. Yet, he expected me to have a nice weekend. The coffee refused to go down my throat. I broke into cold sweat.
“One, you wake up late. Two, you plant yourself in front of the computer first thing. Do you even know you have a family?” Anusha said. In case it isn’t obvious enough from the authoritative tone, Anusha is my wife.
I had promised to go furniture shopping with her – ten weekends ago
She took my coffee mug away and jiggled the back of my chair. “We need dining chairs. hey, you look strange?” she said.

I pointed to the monitor.
“Businessman?” she said as she finished reading the mail. She looked shaken up, too.
“And it is from Ahmedabad,” I said, “that is all we know.”
“You sure this is real?” she said, a quiver in her voice.
“This is not spam,” I said. “It is addressed to me.”
My wife pulled a stool to sit down. I guess we really did need some extra chairs.
“Think,” she said. “We got to let someone know. His parents may be.”
“How? I don’t know where the hell it came from,” I said. “And who do we know in Ahmedabad”
“We met in Ahmedabad, remember?” Anusha said. Pointless statement, I thought. Yes, we’d been classmates at IIMA years ago.
“So?”
“Call the institute. Prof. Basant or someone,” She sniffed and left the room. “Oh no, the daal is burning.”
There are advantages to having a wife smarter than you. I could never be a detective.
I searched the institute numbers on the Internet and called. An operator connected me to Prof. Basant’s residence. I checked the time, 10:00am in Singapore, 7:30am in India. It is a bad idea to mess with a Prof early morning.
“Hello?” a sleepy voice answered. Had to be the prof.
“Prof. Basant, Hi. This is Chetan Bhagat calling. Your old student, remember?”
“Who?” he said with nil curiosity. Bad start.
I told him about the course he took for us, and how we had voted him the friendliest prof.
“Oh that Chetan Bhagat,” he said, like he knew a million of them. “You are a writer now, no?”
“Yes sir,” I said, “that one.”
“So why are you writing books?”
“Tough question, sir,” I stalled.
“OK, a simple one. Why are you calling me so early on a Saturday?”
I told him why and forwarded the email to him.
“No name, eh?” he said as he read the mail.
“He could be in a hospital somewhere in Ahmedabad. He would have just checked in. May be he is dead. Or may be he is at home and this was a hoax,” I said.
I was blabbering. I wanted help – for the boy and me. The prof had asked a good question. Why the hell did I write books, to get into this?
“We can check hospitals,” Prof said. “I can ask a few students. But a name surely helps. Hey wait, this boy has a gmail, may be he is on Orkut.”
“Or-what?” Life is tough when you are always talking to people smarter than you.
“You are so out of touch, Chetan. Orkut is a networking site. Gmail users sign up there. If he is a member and we are lucky, we can see his profile.”
I heard him clicking keys and sat before my own PC. I had just reached the Orkut site when Prof Basant exclaimed,“Aha, Ahmedabad Businessman. There is a brief profile here. The name only says G Patel. Interests are cricket, business, mathematics and friends. Doesn’t seem like he uses Orkut much though.”
“What are you talking about Prof Basant? I woke up to a suicide note, exclusive to me. Now you are telling me hobbies. Can you help me or…”
A pause, then, “I will get some students. We will search for a new young patient called G Patel, suspected sleeping pill overdose. We will call if we find anything, OK?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, breathing properly after a long time.
“And how is Anusha? You guys bunked my classes for dates and now forget me.”
“She is fine, sir.”
“Good, I always felt she was smarter than you. Anyway, let’s find your boy,” the prof said and hung up.

Besides furniture shopping, I had to finish an office presentation. My boss Michel’s boss was due from New York. Wanting to impress, Michel had asked me to make a presentation of the group, with fifty charts. I worked three nights last week until 1:00am, but had gotten only halfway.
“This is a suggestion. Don’t take it the wrong way. But do consider taking a bath,” my wife said.
I looked at her.
“Just an option,” she said.
I think she is overcautious sometimes. I don’t bite back.
“Yes, yes. I will,” I said and stared at the computer again.
Thoughts darted through my head. Should I call some hospitals myself? What if Prof Basant dozed off again? What if he could not collect the students? What if G Patel was dead? And why am I becoming so involved here?
I took a reluctant shower. I opened the office presentation, unable to type a word.
I refused breakfast, though regretted it moments later – as hunger and anxiety did not go well together.
My phone rang at 1:33pm.

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One Night @ the Call Center or ON@CC is a novel written by Chetan Bhagat and first published in 2005. The novel revolves around a group of six call center employees working in Connexions call center in the Delhi suburb of Gurgaon in Haryana. It is filled with a lot of drama with unpleasant things happening to all of the leading characters. The story takes a dramatic and decisive turn when they get a phone call from God.
This is the second best-selling novel from the award winning author.


Plot introduction
The story begins with a train journey from Kanpur to Delhi, During the journey, the author meets a very beautiful girl. The girl offers to tell the author a story on the condition that he has to make it into his second book. After a lot of hesitation, the author agrees.

Claimed to be based on a true story, the author chooses a person named Shyam Mehra (alias Sam Marcy) as the protagonist, who is one among the six call center employees featuring in the novel. The remaining are Esha Singh (Eliza Singer), Radhika Jha (Regina Jones), Varun "Vroom" Malhotra (Victor Mell), Priyanka and Military Uncle. All of them belong to the same team and their manager is a person named Subhash Bakshi, who is a very cunning and negative person.

CHARACTERS
Shyam
and the narrator of the story.He lives in Gurgaon, Haryana with his parents. He is portrayed as a very ordinary person, someone who can be easily related with. He used to have girlfriend called Priyanka who works in the same Call Center as he does. He loves her even after breaking up and is quite frequently shown dreaming about the good and bad times that he spent with her.

One of the main reasons for his break-up was that Priyanka's mother did not approve of Shyam as she felt that in order to wed her daughter, Shyam should at least be a team leader. Shyam tries hard to become a team leader , but his current manager Bakshi dissapproves him saying that Shyam is not a go-getter. Shyam feels that Bakshi is very bad under, yet he continues to work since he has very few options. Shyam works with Vroom on a Troubleshooting Website, which he feels he should be able to get the required recognition that makes him eligible for the post of teamleader.

Shyam also has a temporary girlfriend Shefali whom he doesn't approve of completely, but still hangs on to go ahead with life. She is a hopelessly romantic girl and quite stereotyped.

Priyanka
Priyanka is a typical. She loves Shyam, the protagonist of the story, but breaks up due to difference of opinion and also due to her mother's constant disapproval of Shyam. Priyanka is frustrated with her mother and has a difference of opinion on almost everything. Priyanka is a woman who strongly stands against whatever she feels as irrational and wrong.i.e.,a pure form of feminist who can become the president of women's liberation society. There are two incidents that justify her behavior 1) During a date with Shyam, she reprimands an old lady who curses her daughter in law. 2) When she slaps Vroom for abusing Esha . Priyanka later breaks up with Shyam due to his incompetence and "too compromising" attit She still continues to work with him ,to see him go-strong one day and when he finally does,she approves him once again.

Vroom
Vroom's original name is told to be Varun Malhotra. He is popular with the former due to his fascination for high speed and cars. A media person by heart. He stands for what he feels is right and rebels against whatever he finds unethical. His call centre alias is Victor Mell. He is portrayed as a confused but patriotic person, who is dissatisfied with himself. Vroom has strong anti-American feelings. He is infatuated towards Esha, but she doesn't approve his relation as she wants to go ahead with career in modeling. Later he finds out that she slept with a fashion designer in order to get a favor from him. In fit of rage he belittles her in front of his team. Later on he apologizes to her after being seriously reprimanded and slapped by priyanka.Varun worked with Shyam on a Troubleshooting Website which happens to be a big success but he eventually finds out that his boss bhakshi has taken all the credit for it and he plans for revenge.

Esha
Esha's full name is Esha Singh and her Call Center alias is Eliza Singer. She is shown to be a highly attractive girl with aspirations for a modeling career.Esha has trouble getting opportunity as she is considered not tall enough to be a good model. Though she had feelings for Vroom, she disapproves the relationship fearing that he would might find out about a misdeed she has done in the past and he might eventually ditch her.

Misdeed: She accepts for a sexual favor from a fashion designer in order to model in a fashion show. But after being ditched by the fashion designer after the sexual favor is satisfied, she feels betrayed(even though she still doesn’t leave behind her modeling aspirations)

Radhika
Radhika is a married woman trying hard to keep things together at her home. Her husband often works away from home. She takes care of her demanding and extremely traditional In-laws during the day and does her work at the call center at night. Although this tends to get too demanding, she never complains as she loves her husband. Later she finds out that her husband is seeing another girl behind her back and she plans for divorce.

Military Uncle
He is the only elderly person in the team, who handles clients via chatting. He lives separately on his own after parting ways from his son who has broken up ties with him due to misunderstanding.

Bakshi
His full name is Subhash Bakshi and is shown to be a bad person in the book. He tries to show off his management skills by using lot of management jargon. Bakshi is a typical bad boss who thrives on the achievements of his team members and constantly demotivates them with all types of rhetoric.

Major themes
One of the salient features of this novel is that all the characters featuring in this novel have a dramatic and disturbing event during the night when they receive a call from God.

Shyam's woes
Shyam is very upset to learn that Priyanka is engaged to a person called Ganesh Gupta, who works at Microsoft in the US. To add to his woes, he is horrified to learn that Bakshi had cheated him, and Vroom, by submitting the Troubleshooting Website to the Boston centre as his own without crediting himself and Vroom.

Priyanka's woes
Priyanka is first happy when she is engaged to Ganesh Gupta, who works for Microsoft. But is furious when she hears that her parents have planned her marriage the very next month; which she feels is too early. Both her mother and Ganesh press her to agree to this proposal. She is even more saddened by the fact that Shyam was eavesdropping on her conversation with Ganesh. When Vroom and Shyam show her that Ganesh had forged his pictures to hide his baldness, she disapproves Ganesh for having cheated her.

Esha's woes
Esha had earlier done a compromise by sleeping with a designer to get a modeling contract. However the guy turned out to be opportunistic as he betrays her by telling that she can't become a model due to her height. He also tries to console her by sending her some money. Esha feels terribly betrayed and tries to suppress the mental pain by inflicting herself with physical pain by purposely cutting her skin.

Vroom's woes
Vroom is shocked to learn that Bakshi has cheated him and Shyam by submitting their work as his own. To add to his miseries, he overhears Esha telling the other girls that she had slept with a designer to get a modeling contract.

Radhika's woes
Radhika, who loved her husband very much, is shocked to learn about his dark side. When Vroom calls up her husband portraying as a radio jockey and asks him to dedicate roses and a song to someone special, he chooses his girlfriend over his wife. Radhika who listens this gets terribly upset as her husband has betrayed her.

Military Uncle's woes
Military Uncle tries to be nice to his son and grandson. But when he sends some pictures via mail to his grandson; his son loses his cool and asks him to keep out of his life. This leaves Military Uncle heartbroken.


Phone call from God
The phone call from God is one of the salient features in the novel. The author has represented god as a friendly figure rather than a boss. He is shown as speaking in modern English rather than the stereo-typical pure English or Latin that one usually encounters God saying. The circumstances in which the characters of the novel get a phone call from God is discussed in the next paragraph.

In order to cheer themselves up, all the lead characters of the novel decide to go and enjoy at a night club. After enjoying for a while, they leave for office. Midway through the journey, Vroom starts to feel nauseated after drinking alcohol and so they stop and venture out. Vroom throws up and also breaks the window-pane of a shop thus spreading an alarm. They rush out of the place in fear. While returning, they face a life-threatening situation when their Qualis crashes into a construction site hanging over a mesh of iron construction rods. As the rods began to yield slowly, they started to panic. They are unable to call for help as there is no mobile phone network at that place. In this situation, Shyam's mobile phone starts ringing.

The phone call is from God. He speaks to all of them and gives them suggestions to improve their life. After that, God also advises them on how to get their vehicle out of the construction site. The conversation with God motivates the group to such an extent that they get ready to face their problems with utmost determination and motivation. Meanwhile Vroom and Shyam hatch up a plan to throw Bakshi out of the call center and prevent the closing of Connections call center, whose employees are to be downsized radically.