Book review: Five Point Someone (What not to do at IIT)
Writer’s name: Chetan Bhagat
published by Rupa publications India Pvt, Ltd 2004 (270pages)
“The World’s most sensible person and the biggest idiot both stay within us. The worst part is, you can’t tell who is who. “
This book is not a guide on how to live through college. On the contrary, it is probably an example of how screwed up your college years can get if you don’t think straight. So, I found the subtitle of the book “What not to do at IIT” ironic because I thought this book could be a lesson of how to be disciplined in college to live a stereotyped conventional life.
The title “Five Point Someone” is based on the GPA system of IIT( Indian Institute of Technology) and five-point is the average rank in IIT GPA system.
Summary:
The book is about a troika of three strange students’ life in India’s one of the most prestigious institutes, IIT which is considered the MIT of India. It has several contradictory aspects such as friendship or selfishness, career or passion, study or amusement, family pressure or ambition.
Ryan, Hari and Alok are the main characters of the book and Hari narrates most of the part of the story. Ryan—a son of rich parents—wants to become an innovator; loves his friends selflessly and thinks the IIT education system to be a crap. On the contrary, Alok comes of a poor family. He has the pressure to get his elder sister married off. So, he is too serious about getting job, and Hari is an average student who wants to become a free-will agent like Ryan.
They become close after a ragging session by seniors where Ryan rescues Hari and Alok from being tortured. Ryan’s heroics are enough to make them all glued faster than fevicol. Besides, they are hostel- neighbors and study in the same engineering Department.
They find themselves stuck in the education system and want to enjoy their college life fully. For these reasons, all of them screwed up their first quiz miserably. The first mishap reinvigorates their commitment to study for a while. But when the result of first semester comes out their GPA points are the lowest. After this Alok becomes depressed and their friendship gets vulnerable. Meanwhile, Hari falls in love with the daughter of the Head of his Department, Cherian. Hari tries hard to impress Cherian but in the viva he gets drunk and his attempts go in vain.
While going through these messy situations they get chance to meet professor Veera and he inspires them to ponder differently about life. He becomes the guide of them and motivates them in their worst days.
When three of them realize that their future is in question, they plan to steal their question paper. What is the conclusion of their plan? Would Hari get Neha? Would Alok fulfill the expectations of his family? Could Ryan accomplish his dream?
I have learned valuable thoughts about pondering life in these lines _
“One, believe in yourself, and don’t let a GPA or a performance review or promotion define you. There is more to life than these things – Your family, your friends, your internal desires and goals. And the grades you get in dealing with each of these areas will define you as a person.”
“Two, don’t judge people too quickly. It is great to get into IIT, but it is not the end of the world if you don’t. All of you should be proud of your IIT tag, but never ever judge anyone who is not from this institute-that alone can define the greatness of this institute”
“And lastly, don’t take yourself too seriously. Life is too short, enjoy yourself to the fullest. One of the best part of campus life is the friends you make. And make sure you make them for life. ”
Sayings
Chetan Bhagat is also an IITian and in this book he questions the conventional mugging education system. He also lives up with his dreams and he inspires today’s youngsters to do so.
The stereotype process of studying in IIT is mugging. Mugging is the price one pays to get IIT tag. You mug, you pass and you get job. But mugging never enhances one’s creative thoughts.
Good grades don’t make a good person. Every family should understand what there child’s ambition is and should inspire their child to live up with their dreams. Living with dreams makes one’s life beautiful and satisfactory definitely.
I read this book cheerfully because of the simple conversational language. For this reason, I recommend the basic English learners to read the book.
“3 Idiots”, The famous movie of Bollywood is based on this book but there are distinctions between the movie and the book.
I want to end up this review with my most important lesson_
We stress over things which we don’t get in life and become hopeless. But we don’t have the patience to think about what we really want in our life and work on it.