One Arranged Murder Story

- December 03, 2020

About Author

A book titled 'One Arranged Murder' written by Chetan Bhagat on September 28, 2020 . The fiction book depicts a murder mystery in the backdrop of an Arranged marriage. Westland Publications Limited published this book. It's the author's 9th Novel and 11th book overall . Earlier his book was Five Point Someone in 2004, One Night @ the Call Center in 2005, The 3 Mistakes of My Life in 2008, 2 States in 2009, Revolution Twenty 20 in 2011, Half Girlfriend in 2014, One Indian Girl in 2016 and The Girl in Room 105 in 2018. Several of his novels have been adapted into successful Bollywood films also.

According to the New York Times Chetan Bhagat is the biggest-selling English language novelist in India’s history.

Summary

This Novel tells the story of two young detectives Keshav and Saurabh. Prerna (Saurabh's Fiancee) get Murdered on the day of Karwa Chauth in her house in the middle of celebration. Can Keshav and Saurabh find out the Killer? This forms the main point of this story.

Things which I learned from this book are:-

1) If you ask me to describe this novel, I can say that the mistranslation of the Latin aphorism carpe diem to the millennials and the wrong interpretation of it by them forms the crux of this story. We can see one of the main character in this novel so influenced by this mistranslation. Which led the character even to tattoo it on the side of the chest.

What Roman poet Horace meant by Carpe diem is to "Pluck the day" just like plucking a fully ripened fruit. Gathering or plucking flowers or fruits is a gentler image of enjoyment than the forceful and violent interpolation of "Seize the day." One of the main reasons for this mistranslation was the movie Dead Poet's Society, which stars Robin Williams as an inspiring English teacher at an all-boys prep school. "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary", William's character says in the movie.

"Seizing the day brings up images of people taking what they can get, people who can get things done — active, self-reliant individuals who are agents in pursuit of their own happiness, reflected in the #YOLO-infused, instant-gratification-obsessed consumer culture that exhorts us to 'Just Do It' by buying products. Even life experiences have become commodities in a world where people can no longer afford to buy a place to live. We're encouraged instead to buy into precarious economic lifestyles celebrated by ad campaigns like freelance startup Fiverr's 'You eat a coffee for lunch … Sleep deprivation is your drug of choice. You might be a doer.' This is the 'carpe diem' aesthetic of a modern world of aggressive action, not all that different from the 'work till you drop' mentality of industrialism." Chi Luu (NLP researcher about the consequences of the mistranslation of carpe diem in the 21st century)

I am sure Chetan Bhagat might have thought about this angle of carpe diem while writing this novel. As he was well aware that he was writing a murder mystery and not literary fiction, he didn't dive deep into it even when it formed this novel's central theme.

2) This is a very serious topic to be discussed among the millennials. We can see one of the characters deluded by his own conscience saying in this novel,

"After the break-up, she was in depression for six months. It was not the depression that needed treatment. But she was sad for a long time."

This is the common mistake that everyone makes nowadays. Misinterpreting normal grief as depression.

3) The author perfectly portrays that we should be cautious about intellectualism's negative connotations during our conversations through this novel.

"I am just curious about the case. We can't just drop it. In fact, things have become more complex and interesting.", Keshav said.
“Is that all this is to you? An interesting puzzle? You realize there are people with real emotions here?,” Saurabh shouted back”

My Favorite parts in the book:

"It is funny how you forget fights and automatically switch back to caring mode when your best friend really needs you"

"I am afraid of liking you too much and not knowing what to do with it"

"One of the signs that you've planned a murder well is that people find it hard to believe you did it even after you confess"

"Yes, Buddha said," What's better? The mosquito doesn't bite you at all, or that it does and you get to scratch it?" Think about it ”

One Arranged Murder, an unputdownable thriller from India’s highest-selling author. A story about love, friendship, family and crime, it will keep you entertained and hooked right till the end.

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