Chetan Bhagat understands the Indian Youth. He is the author of five novels, all of which have gone on to become certified bestsellers. Not only an author, he is also an activist, using his work to make a profound statement against against injustice, misguided politics and inequality.
What makes Chetan’s work most compelling however is his characteristic sense of humour, which makes his work easily translate into cinematic media. His first book, Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT
was adapted into the Bollywood blockbuster 3 idiots, as was One Night @ the Call Center
which became the cinematic followup, Hello.
His recent work of fiction, The Three Mistakes of My Life
‘I am a Businessman. To me, people only do things out of self-interest.
What’s in it for you? And why should I waste my time telling you anything?’ ‘
I stared at the soft-skinned face that hid such hardness inside. ‘Because I would want to tell others.’ Chetan Bhagat said.
And why would anyone care? My story is not trendy or sexy like the IITs or calls centres.’
-extract from Three Mistakes of My Life.
In Chetan Bhagat’s most recent non-fiction work, entitled What Young India Wants
,he takes the readers through his early life and upbringing in Hong Kong, the place where he realised that he wanted to bring about change in his nation. He has mainly focused on corruption, education and secularism.
Chetan has covered a wide range of essays dealing with society politics and youth as complex, intertwined issues. He states that politicians only reflect what society thinks. He is aware of the risk of social disitentigration in India if traditional morals decline and the youth of the nation are left adrift.
In Don’t Worry be Happy, he questions the relationships between Indian men and women, which often result in female abuse. In second half of his book he laid stress on the education system of India. He also includes two short stories at the end of the work. One of these, Of Ducks and Crocodiles, is an allegory of two-faced government. The other, The Cut Off, demonstrates the stress caused to students by ever increasing university cuts. Many of us do want to bring a change in the society but do not know how to do it. These collections of these essays are Chetan’s dream of a perfect India.
By Amrita Tejpal
