Love marriages around the world are simple: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married.
In India, there are a few more steps: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl. Girl's family has to love boy's family. Boy's family has to love girl's family. Girl and boy still love each other. They get married.Nah! Accidentally hari itu chat facebook yang ngga diduga muncul, menanyakan apakah gw tahu novel 2 States karyanya Chetan Bhagat atau engga. Kata Alfi (you remember him? the guy in FAR), Chetan Bhagat adalah penulis novel yang diangkat jadi film 3 Idiots. Naluri Bollywood gw langsung memerintahkan jari-jari buat ngetik "download 2 states chetan bhagat free". Begitulah. Downloaded.
Premis dari novel ini adalah memperjuangkan pernikahan beda suku antara Punjabi dan Tamil di India. As you all can guess, hal pertama yang menarik gw adalah latar belakang novelnya yang ngambil lokasi di India, dengan pemaparan budaya yang jelas banget, lebih gamblang dari semua film India yang pernah gw tonton. Yang kedua tentu saja premisnya, yang lalu bikin gw berpikir kalo ternyata hal serupa ngga cuma ada di Indonesia tapi juga di India dan mungkin di banyak belahan bumi yang lain.
Bercerita tentang Krish, cowok Punjab dan Ananya Swaminathan, cewek Tamil brahmin yang cantik, beda sama kebanyakan orang Tamil disana. Mereka ketemu di universitas tempat keduanya kuliah S2, universitas top yang mencetak MBA idaman seantero India. Then it just happened. Walaupun di novel, jatuh cinta pada pandangan pertama ternyata masih jadi daya tarik sendiri dan sukses bikin senyam-senyum pembacanya. Tapi dalam sekejap Krish langsung melupakan impiannya buat deketin Ananya for simple reason that there are too many boys who are wooing her. Saingannya terlalu banyak. Krish memutuskan untuk jadi temen Ananya yang setia ngebantuin ngerjain tugas, terutama tugas eksak karena background S1 Krish adalah teknik dan Ananya adalah marketing.
Tapi hati memang nggak bisa dimanipulasi.
Kejadian setelahnya adalah mereka ternyata saling suka, dan mereka optimis orangtuanya akan saling suka juga. Lalu?
Perjuangan dimulai. Buat orang Punjab, menikahkan anaknya dengan orang Tamil adalah hal langka, begitu juga sebaliknya. Settingnya bolak-balik Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chennai. Setelah lulus, Krish kerja di bank dan milih penempatan di Chennai dengan misi besar mendekati keluarga Ananya. Ditolak mentah-mentah tentu aja, tapi dia ngga hilang akal. Krish melakukan berbagai cara, mulai dari ngelesin adeknya Ananya buat masuk kuliah sampe ngebantuin bapaknya Ananya bikin presentasi yang menyelamatkan karirnya. Di Delhi, Ananya pun ditolak oleh keluarga Krish, sampai ada satu kejadian yang bikin Ananya diterima. Penasaran? Baca aja sendiri :p
Endingnya manis banget. Ayah Krish yang super galak, selalu berantem sama Krish dan ibunya, jarang pulang dan suka main tangan tiba-tiba menyelamatkan hubungan anaknya dengan sang calon istri, Ananya. Di hari pernikahan mereka (fyuuhh it's like, finally!) ayah Ananya giving speech yang isinya begini:
In fact, when Ananya first told us about Krish, we were quite upset. As all Tamilians know, we are so proud of our own culture. We also thought our daughter is one in a million, she will get the best boy in our own community. Why must she go for a Punjabi boy? We did our best to discourage her. We didn't treat Krish well even though he moved to Chennai for us. We even showed him Tamil boys. But you know kids of today, they do what they want to do.
So why do parents object this? It is not only about another community. It is the fact that your daughter has found a boy herself. We as parents feel disobeyed, left out and disappointed. We bring our children up from babies to adults, how can they ignore us like this? All our frustration comes out in anger. How much we hate love marriages, isn't it?
But we forget that this has happened because your child had love to give to someone in this world. Is that such a bad thing? Where did the child learn to love? From us, after all, the person they loved first is you.
Actually the choice is simple. When your child decided to love a new person, you can either see it as a chance to hate some people - the person they choose and their families. Which is what we did for a while. However, you can also see it as a chance to love some more people. And since when did loving more people become a bad thing?
Yes, the Tamilian in me a is a little disappointed. But the Indian in me is quite happy. And more than anything, the human being in me is happy. After all, we've decided to use this opportunity to create more loved ones for ourselves.
Waaaaaaaaaa ><
Terus terus, setelah mereka menikah, Krish bilang gini "Ananya, I love you and your father and your mother and your brother and your relatives." Ananya menjawab dengan "I love you and your clan, too."
Hah oke this is more than a review I know because I give a clear hint about the ending.
One year later.
....
Twins.
"You are from two different states, right? So, what will be their state?" the nurse said and chuckled.
"They'll be from a state called India," I said.
***
Bahasa yang dipake sama Chetan Bhagat enteng banget banget banget. Ngga kaya novel bahasa Inggris lain yang gw baca
"I sent Krish to be an MBA, but I get two MBAs in return. How can I not be that happy?", Krish' mother said.
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