‘2 States: The Story of My Marriage’ Inside of the book
The Story of My Marriage is partly autobiographical. The story is about a couple Krish and Ananya, who hail from two different states of India, Punjab and Tamil Nadu respectively, who are deeply in love and want to get married. It is narrated from a first person point of view in a humorous tone, often taking digs at both Tamil and Punjabi cultures.
The story begins in the IIM Ahmedabad mess hall where Krish, a Punjabi boy from Delhi sights a beautiful girl Ananya, a Tamilian from Chennai quarreling with the mess staff about the food. Ananya was tagged as the “Best girl of the fresher batch”. They become friends within a few days. Both graduate and get jobs with serious plans for their wedding. At first, Krish tries to convince his girlfriend Ananya’s parents by helping Ananya’s father Swaminathan create his first PowerPoint presentation and by giving her brother Manju IIT tuition. He later convinces her mom by helping her fulfill her biggest dream of singing at a concert by arranging for her to perform at the concert organised by Krish’s employer CitiBank.
With Ananya’s parents convinced, the couple then has to convince Krish’s mom. But they run into problems as Krish’s mother’s relatives don’t quite like the relationship and do not want Krish to get married to a Tamilian. They are won over after Ananya successfully intervenes to help one of Krish’s cousins get married. Now as they have convinced both their parents, they decide to make a trip to Goa to give their parents an opportunity to get to know each other. But this too ends badly as Ananya’s parents have a fallout with Krish’s mother after which they leave, deciding that the families can never get along with each other. Krish returns home and becomes a depressed workaholic.
It is shown throughout the story that Krish was not on good terms with his father and doesn’t share a close bond with him. But finally, it is revealed that Krish’s father travels to Chennai to meet Ananya’s parents and successfully convinces them, by spending a whole day. Thus, father and son are reconciled and the novel ends with Ananya giving birth to twin boys. Krish says that the babies belong to a state called ‘India’, with a thought to end inequality.
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