Missing Pages !!!

Krish had managed to convince his girl friend’s parents to take them on a date, on a beautiful beach side hotel in Chennai. He had prepared himself well to propose, not just the girl, but her entire family. Ananya, Krish’s love, was already very much impressed with him.

This was a read from a novel that put me in thoughts. 80% of the read was complete. As far as I remember, this is the first book which had my concentration glued on to it like no other book before. I had cruised through the major portion in as less as four days, squeezing through my hectic schedules (trying to portray as though am a busy person; though not), I usually end up having no time for these kind of stuffs.

Author of this book had, in fact, aroused my lost habit of reading. I was eagerly waiting to reach the end of this story as it was based on a love marriage, in fact on a typical Indian love marriage to be precise.

I was reading this portion (mentioned at the beginning), at around midnight while lying on my bed. I was eager to know the reaction of Ananya’s parents’ towards the proposal. Krish, the main character of this book, after doing all the hard work to impress his would-be In-laws, had the perfect arrangements for his D-day planned. After finishing dinner, it was during the time of desserts, he starts to put forth his formal proposal.

After reading the first two sentences of his most important talk of life, suddenly I felt a sort of discontinuation. Let me tell you, it was the crunch of a situation. As I looked thru the page numbers, had a shock, oh god, after page number 182 I had jumped to page 189 instead of 183. It was a printer’s error, which drove me crazy at midnight. All my interest had suddenly collapsed, taking form of anger mixed with frustration. I had all sorts of swearing running thru my mind. I had spent lotta time & gone thru some pain (I mean neck pain) reading this. Whenever I found time, I had this book in my hand.

Four days went off without continuing my read thru the remaining part since I had to take a new copy. Tried downloading, tried renting it out from a nearby library (which said “rented out”). Last week, my dad had an appointment with his infamous homeopathy doctor, which prompted him to wait for nearly an hour at his clinic. I had accompanied him. Instead of sitting there inhaling the smell of the medicines, I went out for a lonely ride thru the streets of Jayanagar (Bangalore).

A crazy idea hopped thru my mind as I was passing thru a popular book house. I rushed in to the book house, hoping to find a copy of my unfinished novel. Closing time 8:15 PM sir, neevu naale banni (you come tomorrow), a dull faced watchman who was tired, standing all day at the entrance told me. Disappointment still continued for me. Without showing my frustration on the book store or on the equally frustrated watchman, I started my ride again. While waiting for the traffic signal to turn green near “cool joint” (popular hangout in the area), my eager eyes noticed another book shop on the left hand side. I will try my luck again I mused.

Thankfully, the next shop was not as crowded as I had expected. Again the crazy idea kept crawling in my mind. I grabbed a copy of this lovely book, strolled thru the vacant store filled with books everywhere. I was the only customer at that moment since it was around thirty minutes past eight in the night. The crazy idea, which was lying in mind so far, began to take shape in the form of a reality. Yes, I started reading that book in the book shop itself. The craziest thing I was ever doing. I kept on strolling thru the huge racks of books, to avoid the staff’s eye on me. I had held two or three books in my hand to give an impression that am looking to buy some, though I was not in any mood to buy any. I was very fascinated and at the same time I kept laughing at myself on this stupid act of mine.

Krish had won his battle, half way though, in this story. It was nine thirty when I finished reading those 6 pages which were missing in my book. I was so happy to continue my read thru the most interesting part of this novel. I remembered my childhood when I used to do all kinds of pranks. I had literally no excuse if the shopkeeper had caught me doing this. A sigh of relief went thru as I kept the books back on the shelves. I came out of the book store politely telling (lying, rather) them that I will visit them again.

I was fully determined to complete the remaining part of my read as early I would, since this story had initiated lot of curiosity to know what the climax is about. As I started to read further, to my astonishment, the missing pages were surfacing back, but at a misarranged order. It was around 2 AM when I completed my marathon read, satisfied for mainly two reasons, one having finished the book and secondly because the story ended happily.

“2 states” by Chethan Bhagat was the book for which I had taken so much of trouble :-) to complete. I hope he will read this excitement some day. Bye for now.
By the way, if you haven’t read “2 states” yet, please do.