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Even an average Indian reader would have heard of Chetan Bhagat.

His last book 2 States-The story of my marriage was released in
2009. A lot has changed since then. He has shifted his base to
Mumbai after quitting his job as an investment banker in Hong Kong
so that he can devote his full time to writing. Another novel of his
Five Point Someone has been made into a film (3 Idiots) that
broke all sorts of records at the box office. Most of Chetan Bhagats
books are very appealing, written in a casual language and
entertaining. They might not be great examples of literary work but
theyre surely fun to read. The New York Times called him the the
biggest selling English language novelist in Indias history. Time
magazine named him in the 100 Most Influential People in the
world and Fast Company, USA listed him as one of the
worlds 100 most creative people in business. Chetan writes
columns for leading English and Hindi newspapers, focusing on
youth and national development issues.
Revolution 2020 is the story of three childhood friends: Gopal,
Raghav, and Aarti. The story is set in the holy-city of Varanasi. Gopal
and Raghav are schoolmates from the childhood and Aarti is also from
the same class. Gopal loves Aarti from the school days and as their
school years pass they become very close friends.
The storys narrator is Gopal; he comes from a simple middle class
background whose mother is no more and father is a teacher who is
sickly most of the time. Raghav is from a well to do family, where as Aarti
comes from a kind of political family. Three of them have their own
ambitions in life. Gopal wants to be a rich man and doesnt want to
become an engineer as his father wishes him to be, Raghav wants to be
an engineer at first but later wants to change the world, and Aarti wants
to become an airhostess.
After the failure in getting through JEE and AIEEE exams, Gopal is
forced by his father to repeat the exams next year and is sent to Kota for


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tuitions. But Raghav secures a good rank and joins the top engineering
college in Varanasi. Aarti falls in love with Raghav while he is away.
What happens when Gopal returns to Varanasi after his year away
from his hometown is the main part of the story? Apart from losing his
love, he couldnt find a seat in engineering to fulfill his fathers dream. As
it is suppose to happen, Gopal being away for a long time, these gives an
opportunity to Raghav and Aarti being together and seal their
relationship. When Gopal gets to know, he is devastated and again as it
generally happens, his grades fall and then again he starts all over again
from scratch. Coaching over, he is back in town; results fail him again.
His father also passes away one fine day leaving him in debt from top to
bottom. Lonely and devastated, he decides to attend a local college on
the advice of one of the friends from coaching classes, and here he
meets Sunil. This is the turning point of the story. Sunil takes him to local
MLA Shukla. Thus, begins the story of Gopal as the Director of Ganga
Tech College in Varanasi. This portion if full of political drama,
agricultural land being converted into college, bribery at all level and we
name it, we have it.
Gopal chooses corruption as an aid to become
a successful person while Raghav gives up engineering and starts to
work in The Times of India office. He wants to change India and tries to
make people aware of the corruption that takes place around them. This
is when his revolutionary ideas come in and he is sacked from his job. He
then starts a weekly leaflet called Revolution 2020. Aarti wanted to
become an air hostess but becomes a front desk officer at one of the
reputed hotels in Varanasi and claimed to be in love with Gopal. But after
seeing an unfortunate event on Gopals birthday she gives up hope.
Amidst all this, Raghav doesnt have time for Aarti and fate again
brings Gopal and Aarti together.
In the end, things kind of change 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 doesnt really judge what Gopal does is good or bad. Aarti gets
married to Raghav which Gopal cannot stand.


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As compared to Two States which has a lot of funny moments. This
book is a serious one. Even though there are few sentences that make
you laugh, the obvious fun factor is missing when you compare this to his
previous books.
The story portrays many issues as it precedes - the corruption in
education and the mad rush for seats in esteemed engineering and
medical colleges. But the story is basically a love triangle and the issues
that each one of them faces and who wins in the end and who is right
and who is wrong.

The story becomes too predictive in few places and you might as well
skip through paragraphs at times, for instance when Gopal is chatting
with Aarti on the internet from Kota it is obvious to us readers that she
and Raghav are together.

The first hundred pages dont really add much to the entire theme of
the book. It could have been easily conveyed in fewer
pages without really degrading the overall effect of the story.

I would have liked the book more if it had handled the revolution part
in more detail instead of focusing more material on the triangular-love-
story.
Four books after his bestseller debut novel, Five Point Someone, I
guess Chetan is unable to re-create the same magic like he did with his
first book.
I would like to conclude by saying if you are a Chetan Bhagats fan, I
am sure you will enjoy this book. But I am not sure whether you will like it
better than any of his previous books. You will be disappointed if you
expect a lot on revolution from the book. It is a regular love story with a
modern backdrop and written in a typical Chetan Bhagat style. The


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books title could have been anything else, for Revolution 2020 is not the
major theme in the book.
I think Revolution 2020 is a good book on a whole, but not as
revolutionary as one might guess from the books title and books back-
cover summary. After the books title and pre-release interviews and
promotions on the Internet, it is reasonable for an average reader to
expect more that a small love story with a few revolutionary ideas added
here and there.
Its a really good read if you like reading light fiction and if you like
reading books to pamper your literary senses; this book is definitely not
for you. The story is all about who wins the girl and in life; the boy who
has everything after having sold all he believed in or the boy who has
limited means but stands up for what he knows is right.
As it was dedicated to the Indian Student, it was hard to ignore. Thus
my final opinion would be that if you are a keen reader of Chetan Bhagat,
then go ahead and read this book, but I would rate it as a onetime read
only.