Revolution 2020

Chetan Bhagat

Once Upon a Time, In a Small Town India, There Loved Two Intelligent Boys

One Wanted To Use His Intelligence To Make Money

One Wanted To Use His Intelligence To Start a Revolution

The Problem Was, They, Both Loved the Same Girl.

Revolution 2020 is the story of three childhood friends: Gopal, Raghav, and Aarthi. The story is setup in the holy-city of Varanasi. Gopal and Raghav are schoolmates from the childhood and share the same bench in school. Aarthi is also from the same class. Gopal loves Aarthi from the school days.

The story’s narrator is Gopal. I am not going to tell you the entire story and be a suspense spoiler.

Gopal comes from a filmy-Indian-middle-class background. Raghav is from an almost well to do family, where as Aarathi comes from a kind of bureaucratic and political family. Three of them have their own ambitions in life. Gopal wants to be a rich man, Raghav wants to change the world, Aarthi wants to become an air hostess.

After the failure in getting through JEE and AIEEE exams, Gopal is forced by his father to repeat the exams next year. But Raghav secures a good rank and joins the top college in Varanasi. Aarthi falls in love with Raghav.

After the failure in getting through JEE and AIEEE exams, Gopal is forced by his father to repeat the exams next year. But Raghav secures a good rank and joins the top college in Varanasi. Aarthi falls in love with Raghav.

What happens when Gopal returns to Varanasi after his one year stint at cracking the entrance exams is the main part of the story. Apart from losing his love, he couldn’t find a seat in engineering to fulfill his father’s dream.

How Gopal chooses corruption as an aid to become a successful person while Raghav tries to change the world(read as India) with his revolutionary ideals is what the middle pages of the book are all about.

In the ending, things kind of change though, and you will be left to yourself to wonder who is right and who is wrong. Except for a faint hint in the end, Chetan doesn’t really judge what Gopal does is good or bad.

Following the tradition of the latest Bollywood movies, you can find few swearing words which start with letters b and a and f. I leave it your imagination to figure out those words. I really wonder whether Chetan added those words in the drafts after those movies are released or those words were there from the beginning.

Few of my favorite sentences:

I am reproducing few of the sentences I have underlined while I was reading the book.

"People come to my city to feel the presence of god, but I could feel her presence everywhere."

"Ease of cremation is one solid advantage of being in Varanasi. The death industry drives the city."

"Stupid people go to colleges. Smart people own them."

"We don’t fix cases, we fix the people in the cases."

It’s a really good read if you like reading light fiction.

If you like reading books to pamper your literary senses, definitely this book is not for you.

If you haven’t read Chetan’s books before, I would say you better start with Five Point Someone.

If you are too lazy to read books, then wait, I am sure this book has everything in it to be a Bolloywood movie.