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Above Average
Above Average is the story of a middle-class Delhi boy with an aptitude for science and math but a yearning to be the drummer of a rock band. Both of which necessitate his admission to the premier engineering college of India: IIT. So, in keeping with his high grades and all that is expected of him, Arindam effortlessly graduates from being a colony kid to being amongst an elite bunch of techies, the best of science graduates from around the country whose lives revolve around rarefied mathematical truths and the more immediate pleasures of the IIT Rock Fest. But, even as he drifts unquestioningly down the path laid out for him, a few stray incidents and some less lucky people make Arindam pull up short and reassess his life's direction.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
31 people are currently reading
306 people want to read
About the author
Amitabha Bagchi
13 books65 followersAmitabha Bagchi was born in Delhi and went to school there. The last few years of school was a blur of exams - Junior Science Talent Search, National Talent Search, Annual Maths and Physics Olympiads - and coaching classes to prepare for those exams. He finally found himself at IIT Delhi in the summer of 1992 thinking that the worst was over. It wasn't.
Belying the expectations raised by his uninspriring performance at IIT, Amitabha got his PhD in Computer Science in 2002. Then, after loitering around for a couple of years with the nebulous designation of post-doc, he returned to IIT Delhi where he is currently employed as an assistant professor.
Belying the expectations raised by his uninspriring performance at IIT, Amitabha got his PhD in Computer Science in 2002. Then, after loitering around for a couple of years with the nebulous designation of post-doc, he returned to IIT Delhi where he is currently employed as an assistant professor.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
May 16, 2015
First of all, I fail to understand why this book has been stated as "Poor" by most of the reviewers.
I also feel that this book doesn't deserve a rating of 2. It deserves even more.
This book is strictly not for -
1) The Chetan Bhagat/Durjoy Datta fans who especially would want a story full of love,sex,comedy and masala.
2)This book is not suitable for the ones who expect a lot from a book.
It's basically about the story of adulthood being forged out of adolescence; a story about wanting, always wanting, without necessarily knowing what we want.
Most of the readers have the mindset that Indian Author books are always so typical. So they have this mindset before reading such book. So ultimately they fail to recognize the good stuff in the book.
According to me, This book wasn't written by the author to grab the attention of the masses. It's purely for the genuine readers of book.
The book was neatly written, the emotions were beautifully expressed. It's a 300 page book and MUST appreciate the hard efforts taken by the author in presenting such a Well-written book.
The pace of the story is slow. Most people would term it as "Dragging" . But it was a book which kept me hooked to it all the time. It wasn't thrilling but the characterization of the Arindam was too good and that made me care for the character. Most of the instances that happened in his life will be relatable to most of our lives.
Overall it was a good read :) I don't usually rate a book 4 stars. But When i saw the overall rating for this book which was around 2.6, I felt that the author should be credited a lot for his honest, and sincere work put-forwarded by him. Hence i rated it 4 stars.
Lot of people gave negative reviews for this book
Because they thought "Amitabha Bagchi" was just like any other Indian author who writes typical masala type stories. But when they came across this book, they found it uncanny and rated it 2 stars. This author has a great style of writing and has wonderful vocabulary skills. As I mentioned earlier, the pace of the story is slow which actually adds to the beauty of the book. The story doesn't have a Cinematic/Dramatic ending. But nevertheless, It din't disappoint me.
Please try to appreciate the authors geniune work or else loathe it politely. Don't post absurd/Meaningless reviews stating the book was bad. It would really hurt the author.
I also feel that this book doesn't deserve a rating of 2. It deserves even more.
This book is strictly not for -
1) The Chetan Bhagat/Durjoy Datta fans who especially would want a story full of love,sex,comedy and masala.
2)This book is not suitable for the ones who expect a lot from a book.
It's basically about the story of adulthood being forged out of adolescence; a story about wanting, always wanting, without necessarily knowing what we want.
Most of the readers have the mindset that Indian Author books are always so typical. So they have this mindset before reading such book. So ultimately they fail to recognize the good stuff in the book.
According to me, This book wasn't written by the author to grab the attention of the masses. It's purely for the genuine readers of book.
The book was neatly written, the emotions were beautifully expressed. It's a 300 page book and MUST appreciate the hard efforts taken by the author in presenting such a Well-written book.
The pace of the story is slow. Most people would term it as "Dragging" . But it was a book which kept me hooked to it all the time. It wasn't thrilling but the characterization of the Arindam was too good and that made me care for the character. Most of the instances that happened in his life will be relatable to most of our lives.
Overall it was a good read :) I don't usually rate a book 4 stars. But When i saw the overall rating for this book which was around 2.6, I felt that the author should be credited a lot for his honest, and sincere work put-forwarded by him. Hence i rated it 4 stars.
Lot of people gave negative reviews for this book
Because they thought "Amitabha Bagchi" was just like any other Indian author who writes typical masala type stories. But when they came across this book, they found it uncanny and rated it 2 stars. This author has a great style of writing and has wonderful vocabulary skills. As I mentioned earlier, the pace of the story is slow which actually adds to the beauty of the book. The story doesn't have a Cinematic/Dramatic ending. But nevertheless, It din't disappoint me.
Please try to appreciate the authors geniune work or else loathe it politely. Don't post absurd/Meaningless reviews stating the book was bad. It would really hurt the author.
October 20, 2011
At first i was a bit skeptical about this book considering it to be yet another book by a iit graduate who got himself into writing following an ill trend. What immediately strikes one while reading this book is the extent of honesty that the author brings to the book. None of the plots are overdone and the subtle emotions are presented as they come. But that leaves with one downside; it geeks. Having grown up in the 90's and being a geek at the core myself can relate to the protagonist on several levels. One of those books you like because you forge a strong bond with the characters.lovely read.
May 16, 2015
This book is not for the average Chetan Bhagat fans- who like a good mix of drama, sex, fight and cheap thrills. This is a book for above average readers or more serious readers, the ones that like bookers, etc.I always doubted the mass market would appreciate this book. The getting into IIT, the rock band,insults from the professor on how average the class was, PhD application recommendations, experience at Johns Hopkins University as a PhD student, the peer group comparisons and the inferiority complex - every bit is as true as a sensitive soul could feel.
His descriptions of Baltimore and Seattle are accurate- I have walked the roads around Johns Hopkins , where he gets his phd and find that he has kept it real to the last level of detail.Kind of makes me wonder this is more than "Semi"-autobiographical. Guessing by others' comments, it must be true of his description of Delhi as well.
The beauty of this book is in its honesty- especially, the description of vulnerabilities of Arindam. The other guy getting into IIM after realizing he was not the best at algorithms and cant get a reco from professor -is very real. Some people fiercely want to be number 1 or not compete at all. The only part that I found hard to believe was the bit about the brilliant techie who holds on to an orphan kid ( or something like that - it has been 2+ years since i read the book) and is willing to sacrifice his career to take care of the kid.
At the end of it, the book radiates sadness, which is true of a lot of brilliant people. Absolute happiness has never mattered, it is all about relative happiness. How much you have doesn't matter, how much more you have than your neighbor or friend does; and this delta is directly responsible for happiness.With the academically bright, things that lead to happiness are- more publications, more research grant, phd from a better ranked university, how quickly you get tenure; Well, comparison is a way of life for us Indians.
Of those books that have "novel by an IITian" on front cover, I have found this to be the only book to belong to "literary" segment. Most others have been written to appeal to mass segment. I wish Amit Bagchi the very best for his upcoming works.
His descriptions of Baltimore and Seattle are accurate- I have walked the roads around Johns Hopkins , where he gets his phd and find that he has kept it real to the last level of detail.Kind of makes me wonder this is more than "Semi"-autobiographical. Guessing by others' comments, it must be true of his description of Delhi as well.
The beauty of this book is in its honesty- especially, the description of vulnerabilities of Arindam. The other guy getting into IIM after realizing he was not the best at algorithms and cant get a reco from professor -is very real. Some people fiercely want to be number 1 or not compete at all. The only part that I found hard to believe was the bit about the brilliant techie who holds on to an orphan kid ( or something like that - it has been 2+ years since i read the book) and is willing to sacrifice his career to take care of the kid.
At the end of it, the book radiates sadness, which is true of a lot of brilliant people. Absolute happiness has never mattered, it is all about relative happiness. How much you have doesn't matter, how much more you have than your neighbor or friend does; and this delta is directly responsible for happiness.With the academically bright, things that lead to happiness are- more publications, more research grant, phd from a better ranked university, how quickly you get tenure; Well, comparison is a way of life for us Indians.
Of those books that have "novel by an IITian" on front cover, I have found this to be the only book to belong to "literary" segment. Most others have been written to appeal to mass segment. I wish Amit Bagchi the very best for his upcoming works.
February 7, 2025
I planned to write extensively about all the things I read in Amitabha Bagchi's Above Average - the Delhi he describes, life in an engineering college, the friends you make there, the way it maps so much with mine and my dad's college life. Heck, my dad and the protagonist are even from the same hostel at IIT D. As I progressed through the book, I found new things that caught my fancy, new revelations that reflect the time when this book was written and set in - it describes Agarsen ki Baoli a hidden unknown spot. But after finishing it, I am left with a vastly calm feeling and a deep longing of my own formative years at college.
The basic plot is fairly straightforward. A young man goes into an engineering college and how his life develops and changes from there. So straightforward and even generic, that I had dismissed this book ever since it had come out. I had labelled it a campus book like any other. Chetan Bhagat had just broken out. We didn't need another writer talking about his IIT Delhi days and romances. But I was also intrigued after a chance encounter in the school library led me to actually like what I had read. I never got around to finishing the book back then, so I picked it up now in a run up to Bagchi's spiritual sequel of sorts, Unknown City.
There is a word that kept coming to my mind throughout this book - wispy. Bagchi writes his past (presumably) as fragments of time no longer in reach. Ending every chapter with the knowledge of how his younger life has faded away, he uses the protagonist, Arindam Chatterjee, as a mode of expression of this wispy memory than one of a tightly held on past. Arindam is very aware that things are changing, but there is a heavy retrospective lens through which he, and the reader, views it.
Above Average manages to be so much more than the sum of its parts (HEAVY pun intended). There are times I was put off (a lovely realisation by Arindam about SC/ST students in his college ends rather abruptly and politically, coming off as even demeaning), and there are times I was jealous, because Bagchi's style of writing seems to be too close to mine. Different levels of skill, though.
Most of all, however, I felt a strong sense of companionship to Arindam. He felt like someone I would have known, maybe disliked even. But someone who seemed suspiciously close to me in life. A probashi Bengali. The balance of his own individuality against the culture shock of a national level college. A good amount of the college my father went to. A good amount of the city I live in and love so much. A good amount of yearning for the best years of one's life.
The basic plot is fairly straightforward. A young man goes into an engineering college and how his life develops and changes from there. So straightforward and even generic, that I had dismissed this book ever since it had come out. I had labelled it a campus book like any other. Chetan Bhagat had just broken out. We didn't need another writer talking about his IIT Delhi days and romances. But I was also intrigued after a chance encounter in the school library led me to actually like what I had read. I never got around to finishing the book back then, so I picked it up now in a run up to Bagchi's spiritual sequel of sorts, Unknown City.
There is a word that kept coming to my mind throughout this book - wispy. Bagchi writes his past (presumably) as fragments of time no longer in reach. Ending every chapter with the knowledge of how his younger life has faded away, he uses the protagonist, Arindam Chatterjee, as a mode of expression of this wispy memory than one of a tightly held on past. Arindam is very aware that things are changing, but there is a heavy retrospective lens through which he, and the reader, views it.
Above Average manages to be so much more than the sum of its parts (HEAVY pun intended). There are times I was put off (a lovely realisation by Arindam about SC/ST students in his college ends rather abruptly and politically, coming off as even demeaning), and there are times I was jealous, because Bagchi's style of writing seems to be too close to mine. Different levels of skill, though.
Most of all, however, I felt a strong sense of companionship to Arindam. He felt like someone I would have known, maybe disliked even. But someone who seemed suspiciously close to me in life. A probashi Bengali. The balance of his own individuality against the culture shock of a national level college. A good amount of the college my father went to. A good amount of the city I live in and love so much. A good amount of yearning for the best years of one's life.
August 21, 2016
Really interesting book for anyone who has been through the competitive examination complex in India, and even more so for someone who emerged from an undergraduate education in IIT with an academic career (PhD followed by more suffering) in mind. Personally it told me how much of the totality of this experience is entirely commonplace. The characters and circumstances inhabiting this book are easily recognizable in my own version of the same experience some 15 years later. Yet so much is the same. We end up wanting the same things, chase the same dreams, find ourselves unhappy for the same reasons. Really interesting book. I would think that much of what is described and what is discussed would be lost on someone who didn't share the same experience, which in a way lessens the value of this book. Nevertheless I recommend you to read this with this in mind.
December 2, 2010
It is a nice read, written in simple, lucid English... you can just read through the uncomplicated prose style without thinking too much about it.. you know what I mean.. the Chetan Bhagat kind of effect... easy going and simple. Amidst the easy flow, there are some very deep sentences.
The characters are portrayed fairly, although one feels like reading through a time machine… flashback and present, past and future get referred in the same flow… incidents diverge, and unite once more.
What I didn’t like is the ending. That is perhaps the problem when you are accounting someone’s life.. it hasn’t ended, and hence, your story has no proper end as well.
The characters are portrayed fairly, although one feels like reading through a time machine… flashback and present, past and future get referred in the same flow… incidents diverge, and unite once more.
What I didn’t like is the ending. That is perhaps the problem when you are accounting someone’s life.. it hasn’t ended, and hence, your story has no proper end as well.
September 13, 2014
An average book, definitely not above average. The flow frequently jumping from flashback to present to future is annoying at times. I could complete the book since I always find it interesting to know about the life in IIT and that of IITians and IIMs! Otherwise pretty boring.
May 26, 2011
not readable .....boring
August 27, 2019
So far. Not bad. I mean its interesting. The way of writing is simple.
'I might not be good-looking, but I'm definetly above average...'
Well said!
'I might not be good-looking, but I'm definetly above average...'
Well said!
December 16, 2022
Bagchi's Above Average, is a coming of age book that describes in meticulous details the sights, sounds, taste, and confusion of growing up in a hostel of a competitive university. Extremely well written--one can almost live vicariously through Bagchi's narration of scholarship, ambition, expectations, while crashing and burning at the slightest provocation. People, this is FICTION! Don't impose your NONFICTION "truths" about how it should have been at an IIT college and how it's not in the book! Read the prose, the nuances, and the efficient way in which Bagchi moves the reader from one space to another. Again, people, this is a NONLINEAR narrative, covering wide swathes of time, numerous characters, and multiple sub-stories. If you want a linear narrative, read Once-upon-a-time stories where the beginning, middle, and ending of the story is neatly wrapped up for your effortless consumption.
June 1, 2015
It is just like any other indian writer books.. Base like Chetan Bhagat.. I read it because my father told me to read Indian writers' books.. But.. Seriously... I didn't like this book.. at all... I just dont like these kind of books..
MANY PEOPLE would be against my opinion and i am going to make myself more clear that not EVERY indian writer is bad or of not my liking, it's just that i felt this book was not of the standard and was somewhat similar to Chetan Bhagat's books.
MANY PEOPLE would be against my opinion and i am going to make myself more clear that not EVERY indian writer is bad or of not my liking, it's just that i felt this book was not of the standard and was somewhat similar to Chetan Bhagat's books.
April 18, 2015
Much better depiction of IIT Culture than Chetan Bhagat's novel although the sexual activities inside campus have been exaggerated.The novel doesn't proceed in usual way but is a culmination of various incidents in author's life.
May 17, 2008
pathetic has tried to replicate chetan bhagat ....failed miserably
July 24, 2023
Definitely above average, provided your IQ/EQ levels are, too.
To understand why this story of an average IIT-ian who goes to the US and ruminates on his time at IIT-D would appeal so much to some people and so little to others, one would have to understand that this book came out in the mid-2000s - almost 20 years ago, which doesn't seem like a long time, but it IS. The India that it came out in, as well as the India it portrayed, are no longer extant. In the world of cheap-n-fast internet, tiktok, social media, 'naagin' serials, reality TV, and Chetan Bhagat Bollywood adaptations, this slow, somewhat melancholy narrative of knowledge, love, loss, and growth would likely be quite alien to the average wannabe-IIT-ian (the inhabitants of the milieu the book describes in such loving, vivid detail).
As a bildungsroman, this book isn't without its flaws, and sometimes Bagchi milks a phrase or a plot point until it turns tart, but that is a very minor quibble. I think the overwhelming majority of negative reviews come from people who expect this to be a spiritual sequel to "five point someone" (or worse yet, the movie adaptation, 'Three Idiots' - never was a movie more aptly titled), and then find themselves amidst a slow, reflective narration of adolescent ambitions thwarted by tragedy, ennui, or just life itself.
What kind of a closing paragraph can one write for a novel that seems to trace the curves of one's own life with such deadly accuracy? As a fellow IIT-ian, as someone who is still standing on the periphery of academia looking in, and as a brown person who recognizes some of their own complexities mirrored in Bagchi's protagonist, I can only reiterate that the past is a different country. I should know, I used to live there.
To understand why this story of an average IIT-ian who goes to the US and ruminates on his time at IIT-D would appeal so much to some people and so little to others, one would have to understand that this book came out in the mid-2000s - almost 20 years ago, which doesn't seem like a long time, but it IS. The India that it came out in, as well as the India it portrayed, are no longer extant. In the world of cheap-n-fast internet, tiktok, social media, 'naagin' serials, reality TV, and Chetan Bhagat Bollywood adaptations, this slow, somewhat melancholy narrative of knowledge, love, loss, and growth would likely be quite alien to the average wannabe-IIT-ian (the inhabitants of the milieu the book describes in such loving, vivid detail).
As a bildungsroman, this book isn't without its flaws, and sometimes Bagchi milks a phrase or a plot point until it turns tart, but that is a very minor quibble. I think the overwhelming majority of negative reviews come from people who expect this to be a spiritual sequel to "five point someone" (or worse yet, the movie adaptation, 'Three Idiots' - never was a movie more aptly titled), and then find themselves amidst a slow, reflective narration of adolescent ambitions thwarted by tragedy, ennui, or just life itself.
What kind of a closing paragraph can one write for a novel that seems to trace the curves of one's own life with such deadly accuracy? As a fellow IIT-ian, as someone who is still standing on the periphery of academia looking in, and as a brown person who recognizes some of their own complexities mirrored in Bagchi's protagonist, I can only reiterate that the past is a different country. I should know, I used to live there.
February 9, 2024
Have to write this review only because this book does not deserve a 2 star rating. I read it much before my engineering the first time, and a re-read after just cemented this book's brilliance for me a lot more.
November 22, 2017
Won't suggest you to read this book.
The cover description inspired me to pick this book, but it turns out to be another IIT story, nothing new.
Skip this one!
The cover description inspired me to pick this book, but it turns out to be another IIT story, nothing new.
Skip this one!
April 30, 2021
A good and easy read.
September 19, 2022
It wasn't even average.
August 26, 2023
Homage to Delhi. Not high literature or anything but the words flow so freely that I finished it quite quickly.
February 16, 2025
Below average
August 18, 2012
It reads with the clarity of semi-autobiography, a young life honing its focus and determining a direction. Couched in terms of college years in a field difficult to relate to (CompSci) in a far removed locale from my own lived experience (Delhi), anecdotes from childhood and adolescence are woven in as needed to flesh out just how poignant certain moments are for the narrator, in ways that only seem possible as an early twentysomething. Navel-gazing, one-sided reminiscences well outside my usual reading choices, but an interesting change for all that.
August 20, 2007
just finished the book and i shall improve its rating from 3 star to a 4.5....i will not say it an outstanding book but hey i can relate to it totally. also the fact that the protaginist lives in the place my home is, it was like revisiting home all over again. nostalgia!! but otherwise also the story's good, nothing dramati, yet something nice!!
yup nice is the keyword!!
yup nice is the keyword!!
February 22, 2015
To be fair, Above Average was better written than Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone. Then again almost anything is.
The story develops far too slow for my taste, and although I really did appreciate his style, I simply could not stay awake through a single chapter. Also I seemed to have to force myself to pick it up and read it - like as if it was an assigned reading.
The story develops far too slow for my taste, and although I really did appreciate his style, I simply could not stay awake through a single chapter. Also I seemed to have to force myself to pick it up and read it - like as if it was an assigned reading.
April 5, 2016
Lost in a crowd of iit grad authors, this was actually one of the better books. Sadly it didn't become too popular as it was neither cheesy nor dealt with romance.
The prose is brilliant in parts. But the real letdown is the plot. It's as clueless as the young protagonist of this book. That probably is the biggest letdown of this book, which otherwise could have been decent.
The prose is brilliant in parts. But the real letdown is the plot. It's as clueless as the young protagonist of this book. That probably is the biggest letdown of this book, which otherwise could have been decent.
April 7, 2007
It's a touching story -- simply written, but with a good feel for its characters and their conversations -- about how easy it is to dream big when you're young and equally easy to start compromising as you grow older.
August 17, 2007
It's a touching coming-of-age story. I liked the book most when the protaganist describes delhi as he sees it. The downside of the book is perhaps the strange disconnected manner in which it is written.
October 24, 2011
It felt very natural reading it ... every character of story taken up and dealt with across past and present. On the surface, it feels like a tangled mess .. but I guess that's how life is ... tangled with various character, with their own stories ....
A very very nice read ...
A very very nice read ...
March 29, 2015
Bagchi is almost a simplified Ghosh... His earnest and intent shall impress and satisfy the reader. Characters we relate to and moments we've been through are delicately arranged to create a lovely piece of writing.
July 26, 2007
You may read this book only if u get it as a gift from someone......its ok story nothing great about it except rock fest in IIT and the vivid description of Mr Arindam
March 12, 2011
It's really..a ridiculous book.
It's honest , but ridiculous. Glorification of Cliche is an understatement.
It's honest , but ridiculous. Glorification of Cliche is an understatement.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews