I couldn’t have read this book at a better time. The book takes me to my initial years,
preparing for JEE and thereafter the hostel life. At the present moment, I feel a strange happiness trying to recollect those times; the pressure, the excitement, friends, classes-tuitions, politics, the indecision, the dellusion, the growing up etc. It is an excellent narration, very honest and truthful. I could associate with much of what the central character experiences and at places empthaize with him too. What I liked most was that the protaganist was not a loser unlike those in the previous bestsellers viz “The catcher in the rye”, “Five point someone”, “One night at the call center” etc. The guy is “above average” , in fact his AIR rank in JEE is a wow! 62. Dr. Amitabha Bagchi, IITD Alumni and currently an assistant Professor at IITD has done a commendable job in his debut novel. I’m sure, in many ways he has mirrored his own life through the fictional character in the book.
Following are a few statements from the book which I loved the most. Though I have not experienced very emotion first hand I could still associate with them through my friends and colleagues. They are so true 
“It wasn’t as if I was certain I would do well at the JEE but I pooh-poohed the board exams because everyone in school did. JEE was the big one, the real challenge.”
“We all lied in one way or another.Some lied brazenly,others went about it more subtly. Some lied just to others, some to themselves as well. It is not enough to catch a liar in his lie, it was much more important to figure out whether he believed the lie himself.”
“Unshakeable self-confidence was key to wining the battles we fought.The battle for grades and academic achievement was just one small part of the larger war, the others being the battles to appear unconcerned, in control, well rounded, cultured, self confident. Accustomed all our lives to being lauded as exceptional, we were all scared that the true measures of ourselves, our unremarkable selves,would emerge one day. Each difficult task carried the potential for failure. But attempting simple tasks was complicated too. We knew that if we took a soft option, or even if we failed at something difficult, the scorn of our peers- or,worse, their pity- would pour down like napalm and burn us down to our bones. If we lived past that assault we had to face our parents’ disappointment. And, finally, burnt and beaten, we had to answer ourselves.”
“My fear of being exceptional was inextricably linked to a deep desire to be accepted as ordinary. The averageness that I was ashmaed of showing became my most intimate friend. I started thinking that those people who were in the touch with their inner ordinariness even while they went about the business is self aggrandizement, which was the business of survival itself, were fundamentally okay. Those people were, somehow, more likely to survive the trials life was to bring. “
“The strongest and the deepest bonds we form in our lives are with people who know how to hurt us in the most devastating ways.”
“Making a minor mistake in attempting something hugely ambitious is worth much more than being entirely correct about something pedestrian.”
“Defeat, when it came so unexpected and sudden, left you bewildered and shaken. It made you question your self-worth, it condemned you to years of fighting battles you might not otherwise have chosen to fight.”
“It is a blessing to be understood, and that it is an even bigger blessing to be granted understanding.”
“To write about people meant having to leave oneself behind and enter into them. It was also the earliest point in my life when I learned that to love someone also entailed roughly the same thing.”
“Loneliness is a disease whose symptons grow worse at night.”
“We are what we want. It elaborates itself out and as it does I can feel my blood pumping with anger and helplessness. We aren’t what we do or what we achieve or what we acquire or what we become, we are and we always will be what we want.”
“It wasn’t the opportunity to do what I wanted that I needed, it was the recognition that I was worthy of it.”
Quote of the day: Mujhe maloom hai uska thikana phir kahan hoga,parinda aasman chhuune mein jab nakaam ho jaaye – Bashir Badr
.. Im loving it 