2 States- The Story of my Marriage

“2 States - The Story of my Marriage” is a 2009 indian novel by an Indian author Chetan Bhagat. The same book was adopted into a movie of the same name in 2014 which was a major success.

The story revolves around two adults who are from two different states studying in IIM-A. Ananya Swaminathan, smart, popular girl in college, a Tamil Brahmin & Krish Malhotra, studious, an IIT’ian Punjabi lad. As the story begins, we see how they fall in love, live together & decide to get married. Upon completing their courses, both of them get jobs in the companies they had wished. Now, In order to get married, they needed their parents consent(something which is very common in India). For this, Krish takes up a placement in Chennai to win over Ananya's parents. After staying there for over half a year against his mother's wishes, he wins them over. Then he takes her to his cousin's wedding in Delhi wherein after a little incident in which Ananya helps in the best possible manner, wins over his family. Both the sides meet in Goa to plan the wedding ceremony. During this time, an incident between the two parties results in the wedding being cancelled. This leaves Krish broken-hearted & depressed. They go on months without talking to each other. Then one day, Krish plans to go see Ananya one last time & win her back. This ends badly as she doesn't even want to see him. We see that he spends his afternoon in a therapist's clinic, telling the Doctor everything that has happened to him till this point in his life(also the prologue of the story). He returns back home. Upon reaching we see that the wedding is back on because his father met her parents & convinced them for the marriage, despite not being on good terms with Krish until now. Krish genuinely thanks his father & resolves all that had happened between them. After this we see the wedding take place in Chennai with all members of their family minus Krish’s father. After a few funny incidents, Krish's father's surprised entrance, a few tears, some drama, the wedding is beautifully done. We see Ananya & Krish happily looking over their Tamil-Punjabi relatives. In the epilogue, we see that Krish has quit his job & became a full time writer. They are blessed with twins.

The book is written in a simple easy to understand language. Although the author states that he took input from his own life, it is still an art of fiction. The book released at a time where even love marriages were a taboo, so the fresh, new modern thinking of the youths were put forward in the book. The book shows us how much we as Indians, view marriage as not the union of two people but two big, fat families wherein everyone must like each other, be from the same caste, religion,etc. This is something we can all easily relate to in weddings in our families even today. So, all in all, a good light read.