Five-Point Someone

A book, I picked up last sunday. A light-breezy book, considering I have finished it already. Somehow I always find Indian writers easy to read. I can skim through the book really quickly.

My personal review of the book ... Good story, not so well written.

I could very well relate to the story, since I studied in one such school myself too. My school admitted the best of the best students in Bangalore. The cream of high scorers from Class 10th. This made the competition very very high. I remember those days, when I used to slog my *** off, score pretty well (on an international basis) and yet, my class rank was just average.

The entire 2 years of my life there, I never knew I was good enough to be a Microsoft employee today or even someone who is capable of doing an undergrad course on a 100% scholarship. The school gave me absolutely no confidence in myself or my capabilities.

Anyway ... back to the book. The story, striped down, is the story of a lot of Indian students like me. That is the best part of the book. The mugging vs learning routine is pictured very well in the book. Some of it, I thought was cliche ... but then again, maybe it is just my personal experience that makes me think so.

Style of writing ... I could never understand why the continuity was intentional messed up in the first half of the book, such as, why was the IRAQ war stuff split up into two parts, even within the same chapter. And what is the deal with 'Alok Speaks' or 'Ryan Speaks'?

Nevertheless, the book was worth the read just to reflect back on my life.