The novel, based on fictional events, is set in the years 2000-2005, when a young boy in Ahmedabad named Govind

dreams of starting a business.[2] To accommodate his friends Ishaan and Omi's passion, they open a cricket shop. However, each has a different motive: Govind's goal is to make money; Ishaan desires to nurture Ali, a gifted batsman; Omi just wants to be with his friends. Govind is the narrator and the central character of the novel, and the story revolves around the three mistakes caused by him and the religious politics.

Govind: Govind Patel is an ordinary guy with whom anybody can relate. He has very few desires but he is obsessed with the desires he covets. His main ambition is to become a businessman as he thinks that being a Gujarati, business is in his blood. His best friends are Omi and Ish (Ishan). Govind is an agnostic. His father has abandoned him and his mother, who runs a business of selling home-made food items. To support her financially, he takes mathematics tuitions. He continues these tuitions even after starting the cricket shop business. He is the narrator of this story and the one who makes the "Three Mistakes". During the course of the story he falls in love with Vidya, Ishan's younger sister for whom he is a private tutor. Govind is the one who looks after the financial part of the business as he has good business sense and mathematical skills.
Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974), is an Indian author, columnist, and speaker. Bhagat is the author of four bestselling novels, Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of My Life(2008) & 2 States (2009). All four books have remained bestsellers since their release and two have inspired Bollywood films (including the hit film 3 Idiots). In 2008, The New York Times called Bhagat "the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history".[1] Bhagat, a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, is seen more as a youth icon than as an author.[2] Time magazine named him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.[3] Bhagat also favoured the forming of a system similar to the Lokpal as early as January 2011 through his articles.[4] He quit his international investment banking career in 2009, to devote his entire time to writing.