About the Book:
‘Five Point Someone’ by Chetan Bhagat is a very good account of life in India’s prestigious institute of IIT. Every year there is strong competition amongst the students to get in to the premier engineering college. We get to know the behind the scenes happenings in the lives of the three ‘good’ students who are kind of ‘average’ amongst their peers.
What it covers:
The story set in 1995 takes us on a roller coaster ride through the four years that the trio spends in Kumaon. Three students with totally different backgrounds and thinking get together because they get a five point something GPA at the end of the first semester. And that’s how they end up being known as five point someones. Ryan, Hari and Alok set out to defy the prevalent educational system but end up nonetheless graduating tamely as everyone else. We follow their ‘mis’adventures through the Vivas, the classes, the hangout places etc.
Roundup:
Ryan is the typical ‘I-don’t-care’ about the system guy, who although not very smart, always thinks out of the box. His plans and creative thinking help out his friends at times and at other times lands them in a whole lot of trouble. Hari, the protagonist is someone who has no fixed opinion about himself or the world. He is the kind of person to whom things happen and not who makes things happen. Alok’s character although beset with familiar problems, has a deep love for food, which sort of runs in the family.
At the end of the book you realize that its not Hari, but Ryan who is the hero of the story because by his actions. He is a practical example of a proper (I guess) balance between books and extracurricular activities. Notice his fixing up a radio in the lab class, the "modified screw jack" explanation, the squash games etc.
Many readers must have noticed in the story that the author has left many things unexplained (deliberately?). Some of the vague things like the reason for Hari’s blank outs, his family background, are all unexplained as the story draws to an end. Maybe the author will take their story forward in a sequel to this book or something like that.
I liked Chetan Bhagat’s style of writing but I somehow feel that the book is a little over hyped. Engineering students can travel down memory lane with the incidents mentioned in the story. ‘Five Point Someone’ will have you nodding and smiling throughout the book.