Literature and literary enthusiasts have always inspired all age groups from the ancient
times, be it folklore to contemporary writing, Biographies inspiring the
directors to make biopic, art forms to poetic writings; all forms of writing
have been greatly awarded and accepted. One such occasion I was fortunate to
witness, the Bangalore Literature Festival. I am being honest and visited the
event exclusively to hear Chetan Bhagat speak.
Born
in a middle-class Punjabi family, a dream of pursuing his academics from an IIT
had turned reality and then he also made it to the top-notch Management school,
the IIM –A. An investment banker by
profession, little had he expected that he would turn to be such a sought
after, youth-inspiring author, a youth icon. He made it!
In
his conversation with Shiny Antony, the editor of his novels, he had a million
thoughts to share and took this opportunity to express himself out loud to the
youth of India. From an investment banker- turning into a best-selling author
to co-producing his novel based movie “The half-girlfriend”, Chetan has worn
several hats and he has justified those roles amply. His book “The
half-girlfriend” expected to release in a week’s time, had his views on why
women had such important roles to play in his life?
He
says, the young boy in him and the women he had had an opportunity to share his
life with have a remarkable role for being what he is today and for inspiring
the young readers of our country. Here is what he had to say when asked why is
his life so women-driven?
"Ask
the IIT’ians how women-starved the colleges were back in those days when women
were not encouraged to take up engineering” smiles and then continues to
explain how the woman in his life, his wife Anusha motivates him every single
day. “My fellow IIT’ians have gone up
and started billion dollar companies in the silicon valley, all they have is
money, but today when I show them the selfie that I clicked with Alia Bhat and
say ‘AB bol beta’ the feeling is different!J Such is the
love you receive if you appreciate the beautiful souls in your life, when they
appreciate you so effortlessly, just respect them and reciprocate the love.”
When
asked what was his opinion when the TOI, for whom he writes had made such
objectified statements about the actress Dipika Padukone, “I am in a situation
where I am expected to be politically correct here, since I write for TOI and
there is the soft target the woman celebrity, but I will go ahead and say it
was wrong and shameful of TOI to have made such statements on a woman’s body
parts. It is offensive, the media simply exaggerated things and should have
come back and apologised for what it wrote.
Would a news paper editor dare do the same with a woman politician at a
cost of losing its political and global presence? No, then why the softer
target always, it did offend the actress, enough discussed on this, the editor
could simply have made an apology and respected her privacy on this front.”
Finally
coming to all the female characters he made a mention of in all his books so
far, were they all true and existed or just the fictional characters?
“All
the women who have had a mention in my books are real and have influenced my
living in a big way, Neha in ‘Five pint someone’, was the girl I first dated in
my IIT days and then came in Anusha my wife, or Ananya in the book and the
movie ‘2 states’, the entire illustration being my own story of marriage and
coming in terms with the conservative Tamil Brahmin in-laws who had least
expected to have a ‘punjabi-damaad’. It all began in a small way of acceptance
and appreciation of my honesty from a woman in my life and that fueled the
motivation to make it this big today.”
'Your message to the youngsters
today'.
“I
urge each one of you to respect and understand the women in and outside of your
lives, I am not expecting you all to act a feminist here but be sensitive to
the expectations of a feminine being and pay heed to the betterment of your
counterparts, be there when they need you and I’m sure their prayers will do
good to you in a million ways.”
“The
reason that I picked up to write about a non-English speaking character
‘Madhav’ in my new novel ‘The half-girlfriend’, please understand there exists
a soul behind every such being who cannot express what he feels, every young
mind has ideas and the language should not act as a barrier to those beautiful
thoughts and go unexpressed. The rural India can overcome the language-barrier
and make it to greater platforms if they start reading, the intention is to get
the young rural India to read, and the slums should be able relate to my social
message.”
