Similarly, one of his best friends and cricket coach, Ishaan (known as Ish), is not interested in religion either-and is even less interested in combining religion and politics. (Only one is Muslim.) However, the first person narrator for most of the tale, Govind Patel, considers himself more of an atheist than religious. (Incidentally, it is also the home of Mohandas Gandhi's ashram.) This tale mostly takes place in the year leading up to the Great Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 and the period then leading up to the terrible ethnic communal riots and violence of the following year.įive of the six main characters are of Hindu descent. (a) one's first love, (b) love of mathematics, and (c) love of the game of cricket.ģ Mistakes is set mostly in Ahmadabad, Gujarat where the author spent many of his formative years. He does it by handling very youthful genres of love, i.e. In 3 Mistakes, Bhagat takes on the topics of intra-religious hate and political warfare in India. For the non-Indian reader, the works of Bhagat provide great insight into 21st century experiences of Indian youth. Currently, both of his first two books, one night the call center and Five Point Someone, are being made into Bollywood films.

Bhagat's first three novels have been called block busters. Baghat is still in his 30s and lives much of the time outside of India. In the context of modern India, Chetan Bhagat has been reported to be the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India's history. The number of Hindu nationalists seeking to attack Christians, especially Christian deists, in recent years in that eastern India state have increased greatly in recent years-as the leaders of Orissan government refuse to intervene and truly protect religious minorities. In this case a Christian orphanage was attacked after a Maoist murder of a Hindu leader. The second event in August 2008, which dealt with the same problems of intra-religious and intercultural infighting in India, was the rise of Hindu attacks on Christians in Orissa. This renewed manifestation of protests has occurred in response to the June and July boycotts of Jammu-Kashmir by Hindu groups who were upset at the loss of a land grant which had been awarded to them under shady circumstances some months ago. The first occasion in August 2008 that I am referring to was the rise of youthful and sometimes violent protest once again in Srinagar, with the greatest call in years for Jammu-Kashmir to separate from India. In the wake of two sets of events in India this past month, it is appropriate to review Chetan Bhagat's recent novel, The 3 Mistakes of My Life. THE 3 MISTAKES OF MY LIFE by CHETAN BHAGAT: A Book Review By Kevin Stoda

The three mistakes of my life novel