The 3 Mistakes of My Life : A Story about Business, Cricket, and Religion

An enjoyable story...

Chetan Bhagat reuses the literary device he used in his previous novel, "One Night @ the Call Center" of listening to someone else's story and retelling it to us. But that only means some pages in italics at the beginning and the end and doesn't really interfere with the novel, except for switching the perspective at the conclusion.

It opens with Bhagat receiving an emailed suicide note from someone in Ahmedabad he's never heard of before. Intrigued and worried he wants to do something to help, but doesn't know what to do. Fortunately, "there are advantages in having a wife who is smarter than you" and she tells him to call an old college professor there... Finding out the unknown suicide's name and what hospital show more he's in, Bhagat can't relax at all and flies from Singapore to India to talk to him.

From there it's all Govind's story about his and his two oldest best friends' ambitions and the three big mistakes he made that drove him to kill himself.

Set against a backdrop of real events in Gujarat and India, earthquake, religious riots and international cricket, we follow the rise of Govind, Ish and Omi's small business as they try to balance their individual interests. Only Govind has a head for business, math and logic, but he learns about passion from his friends, like Ish's passion for cricket and Omi's for his family's political ambitions. And when he curses strongly in front of Ish's younger sister and apologizes she says he needn't, it's a sign of passion and she likes when he does it.

In the end, all three mistakes are resolved, of course. One is resolved long before the end and hardly seems a big mistake at all. The others take a bit more time.

I enjoyed the book overall. It was a fun read. show less

I had to read this book after I promised myself to finish first 3 books from Chetan Bhagat. I just could not stand looking at these unread books on my bookshelf from last many years.

This one is still ok, when one is recovering from One Night @ Call Center. Standing alone, 3 Mistakes is not any better in literary quality, but it has better story. This book is narrated by Govind, the main character, but quite often his descriptions sounded artificial as if author had a hard-time to step into the shoes of our Gujarati boy. 3 mistakes of Govind were also to too superficial. Depending upon the person, they just may be biggest mistakes, but Govind as narrated in the book just did not set the right kind of background for those mistakes to be show more significant.

And, keeping with tradition, 3 Mistakes stands out as pretty good script for a good masala Hindi movie with just about enough intrigue for 2 hours followed by full range of emotional twisters in last 30 minutes. By the time, one gets into elated mode with cricket match, scene changes to 9/11 and one need to get into shock mode, then suddenly scene changes to Gujarat riots and one needs to go into nail-biting nervousness. Its Mama Bhanja (Uncle Nephew) battle has potential to become one of the talked about scene for decade. As you must have already guessed that I haven't seen the movie. You are absolutely right. I neither wants to see the movie, nor I want to read any more of books written in similar fashion. show less

great book to read. i must say Chetan is back. now why did i say that !!!! For me, Chetan disappointed with his second novel but third one is as good as his first book. it links the three most important thing of (most) Indians life (politics, religion and cricket). Fact and fiction are very well mixed. Three cheers to Mr Chetan :))

Thanks to this novel I know what makes people tick in Ahmadabad (cricket, business, sex, cricket, religion, cricket, cricket and cricket). I’m guessing it is aimed at a young adult market – parts were banal in the extreme, but carry on and you discover it packs a considerable punch.

Following the fortunes of three friends who open a cricket shop but get embroiled in politics and religious warfare, it is written in a readable if unspectacular style. I did struggle a bit with the character Mama who was neither someone’s mother nor female – he confused the heck out of me and I suspect many other Western readers too. Parts were a culture shock: the idea that you can smash up the car of someone you suspect is stalking your family – show more with witnesses – and not expect to receive a strongly worded solicitor’s letter in the post...an earthquake lays waste to a city and nobody gets any financial help: the absence of a compensation culture is both refreshing and disturbing.

The writing isn’t perfect – managing to fall somewhere above amateur but below professional, but despite what might appear an indifferent review I cannot give this less than five stars because, whether or not I was too old for it, I was hooked from start to finish. show less

This was on my "Heck No!!" list for quite sometime. I had a prejudice that reading this 3rd novel by Chetan Bhagat would be my 3rd mistake - the first and second ones being the debut and the follow up of Chetan Bhagat respectively. An easy read, it caters to the non-reader quite succinctly. The story is flawed, melodramatic and really silly at times. The ending seemed rushed... Mr. Bhagat should concentrate on longer stories, better characters, etc. all that are hallmarks a good literary work. P.S. I specifically gave it a 1/2 because I kept thinking how it made me waste 5 hrs for the last 12 hrs.

This novel tell the story of three friends living in Ahmedabad, Gujrat, India at the turn of the century. It revolves around the major events like the earhquake in Kutch, the legendary cricket match between India and Australia, the Godhra train incident and the subsequent communal riots. The story takes us into these incidents first hand.

The language is simple and the author has tried to make the events melodramatic which robs them a bit of their crediblilty.

A SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL TALE SET IN AHMEDABAD ABOUT THREE FRIENDS CHASING DREAMS OF CRICKET, BUSINESS, AND LOVE—UNTIL A SERIES OF MISTAKES CHANGE EVERYTHING. BHAGAT’S STYLE IS EASY TO READ AND RELATABLE.