My Thoughts !

The first time I heard about this book was from Jo. She said its a very good book. Its written by a IIT guy. It said 'What not to do at IIT'. I've asked Jo to get me the book, but meanwhile, iView team presented it as a parting gift to me. I was getting bored at my new desk waiting for a PC to arrive and so started reading this. Only then I knew its not about the author's life in IIT, rather its a novel :-) I started it yesterday around 2.30 PM and before I left the office by 7, I've almost completed it. The flow was so perfect and you would get immersed into it once you start it.

This is all about life of 3 guys at IIT. Alok, Ryan and Hari. The whole book is written in first person in the view of Hari. Half of the book is very fast moving and the rest is comparatively little slow.

The novel starts on the first day at IIT and ends at the last day of their course. All thru the course, these guys get a GPA as 5.* out of 10, while the toppers get 9.*. And that's why the name of the novel is "5 point someone". Each of them are different type of characters. Ryan, the smart & cute guy, comes from a rich background; has no responsibilities and never worries about anything, including writing back to his parents abroad. Alok is just opposite background. He comes a from a poor family; cares about his family and has a responsibility of his sister's marriage & dad's medical bill. Our man Hari is just in the middle of them. All he needs is a good grade in exams to get introduced to one of his Prof as his daughter's boy friend. Now with different backgrounds, different characters and different responsibilities how do they manage to get out of IIT and were their goals satisfied? That is the story line is all about.

When reaching the end, I was reading the convocation stuff, I thought it should have ended in a much more practical way, rather a little dramatic. I guess the author &// reviewers also felt like that and so he changed it as a dream of Hari and moved towards a bit more practical one. On the whole, the book is a very good read and worth of that 95 bucks you are going to pay.

Thinking on my college days, I've spent 6 long years in two PSGs. First 3 yrs with PSG CAS, where education & discipline is a very distant goal & you can virtually do anything you want. And the other 3 yrs at PSG Tech, where education & discipline is the primary goal. With completely different environments and people with completely different mind sets, the transition was little hard for me. But no matter whatever the environment was, I still my good friends from both institutions and definitely had fun and enjoyed both. May be one day I'll write a book on "What not to do at PSGs".

My rating would be a 5 point zero, in the scale of 1-5 :-)