My first encounter with this book came under very unusual circumstances. I was sitting at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan hall in Mylapore, Chennai waiting for the inauguration of the dance festival at Karthik Fine Arts where rather than discussing the latest fashion at RASI silks or talking about new jewelry stores, silk saree clad aunties were discussing this book which was apparently selling like hot cakes. Tickets to the play based on this book were sold out! This quite perked my interest, for I wondered what it is about a book on male IIT life that could perk the interest of women who seem rather disconnected from the IIT scene?

After a read of the book I realized that the charm was due to the fact that Chetan Bhagat had in a J.D Salingerish manner has addressed parental pressure, familial obligations, gender roles, dating, sex, drugs, suicide - just about every teen issue is addressed. While the setting is IIT Delhi, the characters could be transposed to any campus in India which perhaps contributes to the personal connection many feel with the book.

The novel is set in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in the period 1991 to 1995. It is about the adventures of three mechanical engineering students (and friends), Hari Kumar (the narrator), Ryan Oberoi, and Alok Gupta, who fail to cope with the cruel grading system of the IITs and come to be known as five pointers due to their perennially low 5 something GPA's.

The book is narrated in the first person by Hari, with some small passages by his friends Ryan and Alok, as well as a letter by Hari's girlfriend Neha Cherian. It deals with the lives of the three friends whose elation on making it to one of the best engineering colleges in India is quickly deflated by the rigor and monotony of academic work. Most of the book deals with the numerous attempts by the trio to cope with and/or beat the system as well as Hari's fling with Neha who just happens to be the daughter of Prof. Cherian, the head of the Mechanical Engineering Department.

The book is an easy read. It is fast paced and the style of story telling is very informal. There are many melodramatic moments in the lives of the characters. Bhagat also hints upon certain problems in the teaching-learning-research environment at IITs.  A lot of the lingo is very IITian and the authors details of the IIT setting makes this work of fiction very believable.

While the book strikes a chord with students, pressurizing moms and dads may do well to read the book for it gives an insight into the workings of the well meaning teenage mind.

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