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It is another one-of-those-IIT-setting novel, so don’t be surprised if you are reminded of Chetan Bhagat’s famous book - “Five Point Someone” and Tushar Raheja’s “Anything for you Ma’m“.

Before we go into any comparisons with Five Point Someone, let’s have a glimpse into the story. The protagonist of the book is Arindam Chaterjee who hails from a middle class family and puts up in Eastern region of Delhi. The book covers his journey to IIT and his 4 years stay at the prestigious institute. The essence of the book lies in how Arindam adapts to his new life, new found competitiveness within the institute, political ambitions, love for music, his passion for being a part of a rock band, dynamic changes in his relationships with his friends and professors over a period of time. All such kinds of issues are beautifully captured in the book.

The book is written as pieces of reminisces of Arindam Chaterjee so there is a lot of back and forth on time scale, which may prove difficult to keep pace with. But then it brings a lot of fun and excitement which binds the book and enraptures the readers. 

Remarkable point about the book is the detailed description of Delhi and its culture. For example, the description of bylanes of Old Delhi is extremely vivid in nature. Cultural aspects like possession of the longest fire-crackers string (ladi) in the colony during Diwali are beautifully captured in the book.

Since the story plot is IIT based, comparisons with Five Point Someone are but obvious. Whereas the book by Chetan Bhagat was a huge bestseller (a Bollywood movie is under production on the same script by the name 3 Idiots), Above average is not that famous a name. Five Point Someone was more of a story telling which engaged the readers much more whereas this one (Above Average) is a collection of reminisces of an individual.  

This book by Amitabha Bagchi has tried to capture too many things simultaneously and hence has lost that touch which Five Point Someone had, yet it is a good time pass read which should not take more than a day to finish.