{"id":7452,"date":"2016-03-20T17:18:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T11:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7452"},"modified":"2016-03-20T17:18:17","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T11:48:17","slug":"chetan-bhagat-books-author-3-idiots-revolution-2020-400-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=7452","title":{"rendered":"In Defence of Chetan Bhagat\u2019s \u2018Books\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A<\/span> few years ago, hiding from Delhi\u2019s heat we sat inside the drawing room of a friend who was professionally engaged with literature \u2013 someone us outsiders called the DU-JNU type. At some point we joked about the fact that, to make his mess of a house look any worse all he needed to do was replace some books from his stack \u2013 the only clean part of the room \u2013 with Chetan Bhagat\u2019s. The country\u2019s most-read English language author has regularly been on the end of many such barbs, at times vitriolic and personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not that any of us wrote anything better, but it was, I believed for the longest time \u2018woke\u2019 to dismiss Bhagat\u2019s books as cheap imitations of what affecting literature might look like.\u00a0 The equivalent of a vada pav, if you like which sells, not because it\u2019s good for anything but because it\u2019s affordable and accessible. It took me years of writing and reading \u2013 everything but Bhagat mind you \u2013 to appreciate that that in fact is Bhagat\u2019s redeeming quality, that he can read as easily, as widely and by a more diverse readership than the \u2018more\u2019 venerated authors of his time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Indians are miserly readers, the culture of reading has still improved drastically over the last couple of decades. As wary as I have been of admitting it, my first novel as a school kid was Chetan Bhagat\u2019s Five Point Someone. The book was a sensation at the time, and even though my family hadn\u2019t inherited a culture of reading \u2013 it was in fact frowned upon \u2013 I got my hand on the book perchance as a gift from someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I swallowed it within days and haven\u2019t read any of his other books since. My reading capacity gradually evolved to a point where I could absorb complicated works like that of Joyce and Keats, both prose and poetry, at which point Bhagat became too simplistic to consume and too plain to comment upon. Like any other art form, as your palate evolves so does your curiosity and desire to engage the lesser said or told. Naturally, you seek what\u2019s elusive.

As wary as I have been of admitting it, my first novel as a school kid was Chetan Bhagat\u2019s Five Point Someone.<\/blockquote>
Based on the solitary book I have read of Bhagat I can say he is easily one of the most relatable authors writing in India at the moment. Five Point Someone may be desecrated today on the scales of literary merit, but back then it was urgent and timely. The Engineering degree was hot, and you \u2013 like me – need not have gone to an IIT to find yourself echoed in this rare book. Compared to Bhagat most other writers concerned themselves either with the margins or an end of the spectrum that most middle-class families couldn\u2019t relate to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me this relevance hit a peak when I picked up the camera in the third year of college \u2013 even published photos in a bunch of places. People started calling me \u2018Farhan\u2019 even though my hobby predated the release of 3 Idiots. I never took up photography professionally but that, I believe, has nothing to do with just how clich\u00e9d the film had made engineers picking up art look. But again, Bhagat saw a near-universal cultural trope that would soon become the story of many-a-engineer, including myself, who have made the incomparable shift to doing what they like. It\u2019s of course a route the author took himself.

Based on the solitary book I have read of Bhagat I can say he is easily one of the most relatable authors writing in India at the moment.<\/blockquote>
My induction \u2013 borderline I would say – into the elite literary circles of India meant I subconsciously absorbed their critique of Bhagat\u2019s work as my own. The fact is, the literary elite despise him because he is successful, probably the only English language writer who has \u2018created\u2019 his privilege and not inherited it. Even his latest book \u2013 400 days-\u00a0 part of a trilogy, was released on Friday, like a film. He now has the soft muscle to lead his own PR pushes \u2013 something the publishing industry simply doesn\u2019t have the budget for (trust me I know).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is everything an aspiring writer is regularly told or made to realise books can\u2019t become \u2013 a source of livelihood. If you listen to his interviews, he actually talks a lot of sense. And yet he writes simply and unpretentiously. To a country where the language English is a sign of linguistic privilege, and owning a book a sign of economic privilege, Bhagat introduced millions to the benefits, if functional, of reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even people who couldn\u2019t afford or lay claim to vast reading heritages could at least pick something up and not feel alienated or dumb. Away from the elitist jungle of the city\u2019s well-read and bred, Bhagat has managed to pull even the incredulous towards a book. That I believe is a bigger accomplishment than any of the literary awards a chosen few decide to give to a chosen few.

The fact is, the literary elite despise him because he is successful, probably the only English language writer who has \u2018created\u2019 his privilege and not inherited it.<\/blockquote>
A small group of people, especially the academia and my friends in media, deride Bhagat for his lack of a literary thumb. Every which way he points, he can\u2019t seem to write something critically satisfying. These critics, who no one has heard of except people in the business of writing themselves, are probably grated by the consummate ease with which Bhagat\u2019s work seems to be brought to life. There is also, as he often admits himself during interviews neither a sob story of \u2018the kurta wearing struggling writer\u2019 nor pretence \u2013 and believe me everyone tries to play this one \u2013 of being the recluse, tropes that are now massive clich\u00e9s in literary circles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this is to say better writers \u2013 and there are many who are better depending on what metric you apply – don\u2019t have merit if they fail to produce numbers like him, but the inverse is never true for the man who has defied pretty much every structural hurdle the elite have built around the altar of culture. I don\u2019t read his books, and I\u2019m sure I never will again, but for me Bhagat, academic critique notwithstanding, is one of the most important authors of his time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years I followed the dictum that rejecting Bhagat\u2019s work was some sort of qualifier for a better, more intellectual palate. It is perhaps \u2018woke\u2019 to trash his books. But it took me years to realise that he may have done more for reading in this country, than any other author writing in his time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11183],"tags":[3607,11423,688,11424,1671,8608,11425],"class_list":["post-7452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-3-idiots","tag-400-days","tag-chetan-bhagat","tag-five-point-someone","tag-literature","tag-reading","tag-revolution-2020"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Defence of Chetan Bhagat\u2019s \u2018Books\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For years I followed the dictum that rejecting Bhagat\u2019s work was some sort of qualifier for a better, more intellectual palate. It is perhaps \u2018woke\u2019 to trash his books. 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