Synopsis: Once upon a time, in small-town India, there lived two intelligent boys. One wanted to use his intelligence to make money. One wanted to use his intelligence to create a revolution. The problem was, they both loved the same girl. Welcome to Revolution 2020. A story about childhood friends Gopal, Raghav and Aarti who struggle to find success and love in Varanasi. However, it isn't easy to achieve this in an unfair society that rewards the corrupt. As Gopal gives in to the system, and Raghav fights it, who will win?

Thoughts:

The book has received somewhat mixed reviews. Some people expected too much, and too different out of this book, while others like me, who have read books by Chetan Bhagat before, bought it with a mindset of light read. The story is about 3 childhood friends; Gopal, Raghav and Aarti. They are in their teens and discovering the world, sorting out their way in life. The story is set in the holy city of Varanasi where people come to wash off their sins. Its a small city and does not have much to offer. All 3 of them are planning what to do with their future. The story is being told from Gopal's perspective who is an ordinary Varanasi boy from a poor family. He and his father are the only members of the family. His father was a teacher and wishes to see his son become an engineer. It seems engineering is the only way his father thinks Gopal can get them out of misery. Gopal's father's health is declining day by day and he needs a surgery which they can not afford. When Gopal's father's brother offers them to pay 10 lacs for the land they had usurped illegally to get rid of court cases, Gopal's father refuses to sell the land as the price was too low.

Raghav, on the other hand is from a well settled family and like any other Indian household, Raghav's parents also want him to become an engineer and land a good job. In the book, Raghav is depicted as an easy going, funny guy who has it all. 

Finally, Aaarti. I fail to understand what is it with writers, why they have to portray the woman as the most confused being who is too dumb to figure out what she wants and how to get it. As much as the author has tried to portray her as a strong, confident woman, he contradicts himself time and again. She comes out as someone dreamy, not sure what she exactly wants, undecided between man she wants to be with and someone who can easily be manipulated thereby negating the strong, confident woman, the writer has insisted her to be. Aarti belongs to a family with a strong political background. Her grand father was a prominent elected Government figure of Varanasi and her father holds a top Government office position of Varanasi. Aarti aims to become an air hostess and make something out of herself with her own efforts and not follow the typical way of getting married and producing kids only.

The story takes off from Raghav and Gopal being AIEEE and IIT aspirants where Ragahv clears his entrance exams and Gopal fails. Fitting a typical poor family profile, born in debt, Gopal is an epic picture of failure and tough luck. He notices how people started treating him differently due to his failure. Raghav becomes the star boy all around and Gopal is either treated with sympathy or ignored. Raghav sets off to study in a prestigious university whereas Gopal is faced with multitudes of decisions. He can not afford to pay the huge amount of fees of a private university, he failed to pass his entrance exam thereby shattering the dreams of his father, who is in no way willing to accept it and does not want him to study anything else other than engineering. His father sets him off to Kota where "repeaters" are admitted in coaching centers to be prepared for entrance exams of these flashy universities. Gopal describes the vicious circle of institutional greed where the coaching centres are looting people to prepare them for AIEEE and IIT and another tier of coaching centres prepare below average students to take admission in these top tier coaching centres and so on. It is in Kota where Gopal loses the love of his life - Aarti. Gopal fails once again in clearing the entrance exams and his father passes away out off grief leaving him to take care of the debts. 

Life presents an opportunity to Gopal and fed up of the hardships of life, negative behaviors of people around him and his sheer bad luck, he decides to take on this opportunity which changes his life completely for the better. With the help of Shukla, a politician, Gopal starts building a college on his disputed land settling the score with his fraternal uncle in ten folds brutal manner. Shukla is another prominent character in the book, a textbook corrupt Indian politician who is pile deep corrupt. His only clean business is GangaTech, opened up in partnership with Gopal over his land, but off course with bribery and corruption. The inception and building of GangaTech explains how corrupt the education system of India is, and how its only benefiting the institutions and what turmoils children and their parents go through. Education is no more a learning experience in essence, rather a business nowadays. 

Gopal, who now has it all, becomes a completely different person, He becomes vain and materialistic and approaches Aarti with the same mindset and easily manipulates her. Aarti, as depicted by the writer to be naive and stupid falls for Gopal's shrewdness. But at the last minute, something inside Gopal jolts his consciousness. The only twist is at the end of the story which is quite unexpected but equally bland. The writer fails to make an impression with the said twist and the story falls completely flat after this in my opinion making it a cliched love story and killing the underlying context of highlighting corruption in educational sector and bringing a revolution. As the writer mentions at the end that he has left the decision with his readers whether Gopal was a good guy or the bad guy, I like how, as always, Chetan lets his characters hang in the middle ground with no attachment to negative or positive. The book is a light read with easy language and focused on youth. It took me 4 to 5 hours to finish the book, which is another good thing as I like to end books quickly. However as strong as the name of the book is, the book fails to deliver. Its a good read for young but lacks a lot for mature readers.

Rating:

              3/5

Verdict: 

A good light read for young adults.

Have you read this book? Did you like it? Share your views with me. Stay healthy and beautiful. xoxo!!!