Chetan Bhagat's The 3 mistakes of my life

Chetan Bhagat's The 3 mistakes of my life is another of the "pot boilers" (Yeah. The Sidney Sheldon kind. I'd rather call 'em time pass stuff.) that are gripping yes, but are too shallow and simplistic in content(Well, if you think there's any!). The plot has every ingredient that might appeal to the masses ranging from cricket to love (not platonic) to Godhra riots!! This was what pissed me off but at the same time managed to glue me to continue reading it. Sounds oxymoronic, ain't it? I was enjoying ( or may be making fun of it) every bit of it. The novel begins with a suicide attempt scene in a hospital a la Five point someone( I don't know about One night@ call center. Haven't read it). There's also the obligatory "making love" scene. It was all in the five point someone mould. Too childish, too amateurish. The thing that infuriated me the most was the simplistic presentation of the Godhra riots. It was pretty cheap, clearly based on the stereotypes at best and lacked conviction. And the fact that I read this novel immediately after a well written piece like Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths made me frown upon this . Seems like Chetan Bhagat will never grow up. Or may be he doesn't want to. Because then he won't be able to manage a pre-publishing order of 2 lakh copies of the book. Clearly, it is the IIM-A grad in him that's calling the shots, not the writer.

The Don't Quit Poem

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

Nerd's love poetry!

From the movie "Harold and Kumar Escape from guantenamo bay"

For all those who think mathematics cannot be romantic :)


I fear that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

P.S: If you are a strict no-no to obscenity/vulgarity/profanity etc, don't try checking the movie out even on IMDB. :D