"2 States" was pretty good. I've enjoyed all of Chetan Bhagat's books so far, and was pleasantly surprised to find this was a sequel to his first one "Five Point Someone" that had the characters I liked the most.

Told from the perspective of Krish starting when he joins Indian Institute of Management and meets Ananya in line at the cafeteria where she doesn't like the food. After a little rocky start, they fall in love, move in together in the college and graduate, with most of their school time not told in the story.

At graduation the trouble begins… They're in love, but they're from different states in India with different cultures, and their families instantly hate each other when they try to get them to meet during the graduation activities. Both families are rude to each other, with Krish's mother far outdoing Ananya's parents in her hatred of south Indians.

While it's not looking good, Krish takes a job in Chennai so he can be close to Ananya and work on getting her parents to accept him. It doesn't start smooth, with him an alien in Chennai and Ananya's parents flat out telling them they cannot marry. But since he's working there, he has time.

Once he's accepted by them, then it's time to work on his mother during a weeklong business trip Ananya has to Delhi.

By the end of that fiasco, I was so sure the marriage wasn't going to happen, except that the subtitle of the book is "the story of my marriage" which gave some hope. I cared about the two of them and wanted a happy ending.

Overall it was a good book. Lots and lots of tension, lots of hopeless situations. Krish and Ananya have to really work to get what they want, Chetan Bhagat doesn't simply give it to them without a struggle. ( )

An awesome love story by chethan.. The well crafted story is blended with humour to make the narration non boring.. Though I felt Ananya's personality is bit overboard.. The twist of Krish's dad convince Ananya's parents is cool too...
Overall we are proud Indians and thats what matters the most... ( )

To be honest, I did laugh at the jokes in the first few pages, like describing the girl's father etc, and I was also liking the chemistry between the girl and the boy. But after those few early pages, the jokes became too much and started taking precedence over the actual narrative, which breaks the whole flow for a reader. Perhaps the only book I read where the movie was better than the book it was made on. ( )

Delightful! ( )

Funny, Realistic and Precise. Good Read. ( )