I had bought the book on the 14th of this month after reading about it in TOI. Having read Chetan Bhagat’s earlier books, Five Point Someone and One Night @ The Call Centre and enjoying them immensely, I had quite a lot of expectations from this book.
But after going thru’ a few pages, realised that the book was shaped as if to be adapted later on as a movie.
Its about 3 guys from Ahemdabad, namely; Govind, Ish and Omi and their journey thru’ life along with the ups and downs provided thanks to the earthquake, Godhra kand and the chief one being Cricket not to mention love too.
The novel starts off with the author receiving an email from a certain ahd_businessman aka G.Patel and that he couldn’t cope up with the mistakes he committed in his life and was to commit suicide.
The author tracks him down and then goes to Ahemdabad to meet him. Govind tells him the story that goes on to become the book, “The 3 Mistakes of My Life’.
If you are thinking that it passes the certain standards being the 3rd book by the writer, you’ve been gravely mistaken.
Personally I wasn’t able to connect with the story because you would find stories like these in every city and would never term them as being readable material. Seriously, who would like to read about 3 people doing business but making bad decisions termed as mistakes and then suffering.
The main protagonist seems a very selfless yet selfish guy. Just because he is money minded and his friends or I should say business partners are not, he is the sole decision maker in their business. Yes, he could be termed as a time-manager considering that he helped his mother with her snacks business, taught math tuitions and operated the Cricket shop.
Ishaan belonged to a well-off family and was a spoilt brat having run away from the NDA. It was told that he used to be the best player of his school but then couldn’t play well in the selection match adding up to his frustration. Omi’s parents ran a temple in Ahemdabad and he went about doing nothing. He only knew one thing in life that he didn’t wanted to be a Pujari just like his dad.
It basically takes on from their. The cricket store shop is started, they provide math tuitions, cricket coaching along with it. Govind dreams to be a big businessman but because of the various incidents that take place, is a real shattered guy in the end.
The book has a ‘phoren’ angle too
i.e they visit Australia for getting coaching tips for one of their special cricket student , who only knows to hit sixes.
I would repeat that one would think that he/she is watching a movie while reading the book.
It paves the way for an “ok” read because of the tame languages used. And unlike Five Point Someone and One Night @ The Call Centre, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.









