Hindustan Times Brunch
July 26, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/thecutoff
Everyone will give you an opinion on how to live your life. No one, no one will give you good advice on how to end it. Worse, they will tell you to continue living, without any respect for individual choice. Yes, hi, I’m Gautam Arora, and after eighteen wonderful years in Delhi, I’ve decided to end my life.
I sat with my best friend Neeraj and his girlfriend Anjali at Costa Coffee, DLF Metropolitan Mall in Saket. The coffee is way overpriced, but considering I had a day to live, I didn’t mind getting ripped off.
“The joke isn’t that funny,” Neeraj said, tearing open the second sachet of brown sugar and mixing it for his girlfriend. If this girl can’t mix sugar in her coffee, I wonder what she will be like after marriage.
“Do I look like I am joking? You are in medical college, and as a friend and someone two years elder to me, I am asking your advice on what is the most painless, graceful way to go. And ideally, it should be available at the friendly neighbourhood chemist,” I said. I ordered a chocolate fudge cake. What are a few extra calories on your last day?
Anjali kept quiet, her iPod plugged in her ears. She had come to the mall to shop with her boyfriend rather than meet me. Neeraj said he only dated Anjali as her father had given her a car and driver, which made it easy to go around. Besides, she looked ok. She was pretty enough to invite a second stare from men, though that’s hardly an achievement in Delhi where men’s standards can be quite modest.
“Dude, you topped your school. How much did you score in your class XII boards again?” Neeraj said.
“Ninety two per cent,” I said.
“Ninety what?” Neeraj said as he ripped out Anjali’s earphones, “Anjali, the dude scored ninety two per cent in commerce! Do you know of anyone who has scored that much?”
Anjali shook her head.
“Wow, you must have studied a lot,” she said.
I nodded. I had done nothing but study in the last two years.
“No time for hobbies?” she said.
I shook my head. My only hobbies were eating three meals and sleeping five hours a day. The rest of the time was with my books.
“With ninety two, you should be fine,” Neeraj said.
“Not according to SRCC, not according to Stephen’s and not according to Hindu, oh what the heck,” I said as I opened my rucksack.
I gave him the special admissions supplement from the newspaper. I had snucked it out early morning so mom and dad wouldn’t see it.
“Wow, check out Lady Sri Ram. B.Com Honours is at 95.5 per cent!” Neeraj said.
“That’s a girl’s college,” Anjali said.
“I know,” I said.
“Don’t worry, he wouldn’t have made it anyway. Anjali, why don’t you go spend some of your father’s money,” Neeraj said and winked at me.
Anjali and I both gave Neeraj a dirty look. Neeraj air-kissed Anjali and gestured to her to leave.
Seriously, don’t kill yourself. To us, you are still the school topper,” Neeraj said after Anjali left.
“So what do I do?” I said, my voice loud, “stay back in school? This topper tag makes things worse. My parents already threw a party for our friends and relatives like I have made it big time in life. I cut a cake with the icing ‘family superstar’.”
“Nice,” Neeraj said.
“Not nice at all. All relatives congratulated my mother. They see me as the next hotshot investment banker on Wall Street. The least they expect me to do is get into a good college in DU.”
“There are still some colleges that you will get,” Neeraj said as I cut him off.
“But none with the same brand value. Thus, you can’t get a decent job after them. You can’t get into the top MBA school.”
Neeraj pushed my coffee cup towards me. I hadn’t touched it. I picked it up and brought it close to my mouth but couldn’t drink it.
“I made one tiny calculation error in my math paper,” I said, “read one stupid unit conversion wrong. That’s it. If only...”
“If only you could chill out. You are going to college, dude! Branded or not, it is always fun.”
“Screw fun,” I said. “What kind of kids are they taking in anyway?” Neeraj said, “you have to be a bean-counter stickler to get ninety seven per cent. Like someone who never takes chances and revises the paper twenty times.”
“I don’t know, I revised it five times. That stupid calculation...”
“Gautam, relax. That paper is done. And sticklers don’t do well in life. Innovative and imaginative people do.”
“That’s not what DU thinks. You don’t understand, my father has proclaimed in his office I will join SRCC. I can’t go to him with a second rung college admission. It’s like his whole life image will alter. Hell, I won’t be able to deal with it myself.”
An SMS from Anjali on Neeraj’s phone interrupted our conversation. At Kimaya, tried fab dress. Come urgently, want your opinion. Neeraj typed the reply back. Honey, it looks great. Buy it.
Neeraj grinned as he showed me his response. “I think you should go,” I said. Rich dads’ daughters can throw pretty nasty tantrums. Neeraj took out the money for coffee. I stopped him. “My treat,” I said. Leave people happy on your last day, I thought. “Of course, I take this as your treat for cracking your boards,” Neeraj said and smiled. He ruffled my hair and left. I came out of the mall and took an auto home.
I met my parents at the dinner table. “So when will the university announce the cut-offs?” my father said.
“In a few days,” I said. I looked up at the dining table fan. No, I couldn’t hang myself. I can’t bear suffocation.
My mother cut mangoes after dinner. The knife made me think of slitting my wrists. Too painful, I thought and dropped the idea.
“So now, my office people are asking me, ‘when is our party?’,” my father said as he took a slice.
“I told you to call them to the party we did for neighbours and relatives,” my mother said.
“How will they fit with your brothers and sisters? My office people are very sophisticated,” my father said.
“My brothers are no less sophisticated. They went to Singapore last year on vacation. At least they are better than your family,” she said.
My father laughed at my mother’s sullen expression. His happiness levels had not receded since the day I received my result.
“My office people want drinks, not food. Don’t worry, I’ll do another one for them when he gets into SRCC or Stephen’s.”
My father worked in the sales division of Tata Tea. We had supplied our entire set of neighbours with free tea for the last five years. As a result, we had more well-wishers than I’d have liked.
“Even my country head called to congratulate me for Gautam. He said – nothing like Stephen’s for your brilliant son,” my father said.
“Gupta aunty came from next door. She wanted to see if you can help her daughter who is in class XI,” my mother said.
Is she pretty, I wanted to ask, but didn’t. It didn’t matter. I came to my room post dinner. I hadn’t quite zeroed down on the exact method, but thought I should start working on the suicide letter anyway. I didn’t want it to be one of the clichéd ones – I love you all and it is no one’s fault, and I’m sorry mom and dad. Yuck, just like first impressions, last impressions are important too. In fact, I didn’t want to do any silly suicide letter. When it is your last, you’d better make it important. I decided to write it to the education minister. I switched on my computer and went to the Education Department website. Half the site links were broken. There was a link called “What after class XII?” I clicked on it, it took me to a blank page with an under construction sign. I sighed as I closed the site. I opened Microsoft Word to type.
Dear Education Minister,
I hope you are doing fine and the large staff of your massive bungalow is treating you well. I won’t take much of your time.
I’ve passed out of class XII and I’ve decided to end my life. I scored ninety-two per cent in my boards, and I have a one foot high trophy from my school for scoring the highest. However, there are so many trophy holding students in this country and so few college seats, that I didn’t get into a college that will train me to the next level or open up good opportunities.
I know I have screwed up. I should have worked harder to get another three per cent. However, I do want to point out a few things to you. When my parents were young, certain colleges were considered prestigious. Now, forty years later, the same colleges are considered prestigious. What’s interesting is that no new colleges have come up with the same brand or reputation level. Neither have the seats expanded in existing colleges fast enough to accommodate the rising number of students.
I’ll give you an example. Just doing some meaningless surfing, I saw that 3.8 lakh candidates took the CBSE class XII exam in 1999, a number that has grown to 8.9 lakh in 2009. This is just one board, and if you take ICSE and all other state boards, the all India total number is over ten times that of CBSE. We probably had one crore students taking the class XII exam this year.
While not everyone can get a good college seat, I just want to talk about the so-called good students. The top 10 per cent alone of these one crore students is ten lakh children. Yes, these ten lakh students are their class toppers. In a class of fifty, they will have the top-5 ranks.
One could argue that these bright kids deserve a good college to realise their full potential. Come to think of it, it would be good for our country too if we train our bright children well to be part of the new, shining, gleaming, glistening or whatever you like to call the globalised India.
But then, it looks like you have stopped making universities. Are there ten lakh top college seats in the country? Are there even one lakh? Ever wondered what happens to the rest of us, year after year? Do we join a second rung college? A deemed university? A distance learning programme? A degree in an expensive, racist country?
Your government runs a lot of things. You run an airline that never makes money. You run hotels. You want to be involved in making basic stuff like steel and aluminum, which can easily be made by more efficient players. However, in something as important as
shaping the young generation, you have stepped back. You have stopped making new universities. Why?
You have all the land you want, teachers love to get a government job, education funds are never questioned. Still, why? Why don’t we have new, A-grade universities in every state capital for instance?
Oh well, sorry. I am over reacting. If only I had not done that calculation error in my math paper, I’d be fine. In fact, I am one of the lucky ones. In four years, the number of candidates will double. So then we will have a college that only has 99 per cent scorers.
My parents were a bit deluded about my abilities, and I do feel bad for them. I didn’t have a girlfriend or too many friends, as people who want to get into a good college are not supposed to have a life. If only I knew that slogging for twelve years would not amount to much, I’d have had more fun.
Apart from that, do well, and say hello to the PM, who as I understand, used to teach in college.
Yours truly,
Gautam
(Poor student)
I took a printout of the letter and kept it in my pocket. I decided to do the act the next morning. I woke up as the maid switched off the fan to sweep the room. She came inside and brought a box of sweets. A fifty-year-old woman, she had served us for over ten years. “What?” I said as she gave me the box. It had kaju-barfi, from one of the more expensive shops in the city. The maid had spent a week’s salary distributing sweets to anyone known to her. “My son passed class XII,” she said as she started her work. “How much did he score?” I said, still rubbing my eyes. “Forty two per cent. He passed English too,” she said as her face beamed with pride. “What will he do now?” I said. “I don’t know. Maybe his own business, he can repair mobile phones,” she said. I went to the bathroom for a shower. I realised the newspaper would have come outside. I ran out of the bathroom. I picked up the newspaper from the entrance floor. I took out the admissions supplement, crumpled it and threw it in the dustbin kept outside the house. I came back inside the house and went back into the shower.
I left the house mid-day. I took the metro to Chandni Chowk and asked my way to the industrial chemicals market. Even though I had left science after class X, I knew that certain chemicals like Copper Sulphate or Ammonium Nitrate could kill you. I bought a pack of both compounds. As I passed through the lanes of Chandni Chowk, I passed a tiny hundred square feet jalebi shop. It did brisk business. I thought my last meal had to be delicious. I went to the counter and took a quarter kilo of jalebis.
I took my plate and sat on one of the two rickety benches placed outside the shop.
A Muslim couple with a four-year-old boy came and sat on the next bench. The mother fed the boy jalebi and kissed him after each bite. It reminded me of my childhood and my parents, when they used to love me unconditionally and marks didn’t exist. I saw the box of Ammonium Nitrate and tears welled up in my eyes. I couldn’t eat the jalebis. I came back home. I wondered if I should use my chemicals before or after dinner. Maybe it is better after everyone has slept, I thought.
We sat at the dinner table. Dad had told mom not to cook as he’d brought Chinese takeaway for us. Mom brought the soya sauce, chilli oil and the vinegar with cut green chillies in little katoris. We ate American chopsuey on stainless steel plates. I looked at my watch, it was 8 pm. Three more hours, I thought as I let out a sigh.
“One thing Kalpana,” my father said to my mother, “job candidates aren’t what they used to be these days. I interviewed for new trainees today, disappointing.”
“Why, what happened?” my mother said.
“Like this boy from Stephen’s, very bright kid. But only when it came to his subjects.”
“Really?” my mother said.
“Yeah, but I asked him a different question. I said how would you go about having a tea-shop chain like the coffee shop chains, and he went blank,” my father said, an inch of noodle hanging outside his mouth. My mother removed it from his face.
“And then some kid from SRCC. He topped his college. But you should have seen his arrogance. Even before the interview starts, he says ‘I hope at the end of our meeting, you will be able to tell me why I should join Tata Tea and not another company’. Can you imagine? I am twice his age.”
I could tell my father was upset from his serious tone.
“If you ask me,” my father continued, “the best candidate was a boy from Bhopal. Sure, he didn’t get into a top college. But he was an eighty per cent student. And he said ‘I want to learn. And I want to show that you don’t need a branded college to do well in life. Good people do well anywhere.’ What a kid. Thank God we shortlisted him in the first place.”
“Did he get the job?” I said.
“Yes, companies need good workers, not posh certificates. And we are having a meeting to discuss our short listing criteria again. The top colleges are so hard to get in, only tunnel vision people are being selected.” “Then why are you asking him to join Stephen’s or SRCC?” my mother said.
My father kept quiet. He spoke after a pause. “Actually, after today, I’d say don’t just go by the name. Study the college, figure out their dedication, and make sure they don’t create arrogant nerds. Then whatever the brand, you will be fine. The world needs good people.”
I looked at my parents as they continued to talk. Excuse me, but I have a plan to execute here. And now you are confusing me, I thought. “So should I study some more colleges and make a decision after that?” I said. “Yes, of course. No need for herd-mentality. Kalpana you should have seen this boy from Bhopal.”
Post-dinner, my parents watched TV in the living room while eating fruits. I retracted to my room. I sat on my desk wondering what to do next. The landline phone rang in my parent’s room. I went inside and picked it up.
“Hello Gautam?” the voice on the other side said.
It was my father’s colleague from work. “Hello, Yash uncle,” I said. “Hi,” he said, “congratulations on your boards.” “Thanks uncle,” I said, “dad is in the living room finishing dinner, should I call him?” “Dinner? Oh, don’t disturb him. Just tell him his mobile is with me. It is safe. We were on a field trip today. He left it in my car.” “Field trip? For interviews?” I said. “What interviews? No, we just went to the Chandigarh office,” he said.
I wished him good night and hung up the phone. I switched on the bedside lamp in my parents’ room. Confused, I sat down on my father’s bed, wondering what to do next. To make space, I moved his pillow. Under the pillow lay a crumpled newspaper. I picked it up. It was the same admissions supplement I had tossed in the bin this morning. My father had circled the cut-offs table.
I left the newspaper there and came to the living room. My father was arguing with my mother over the choice of channels. I looked at my father. He smiled at me and offered me watermelon. I declined.
I came back to my room. I picked up the chemical boxes and took them to the toilet. I opened both boxes and poured the contents in the toilet commode. One press, and everything, everything flushed out.
“Gautam,” my mother knocked on the door, “I forgot to tell you. Gupta aunty came again. Can you teach her daughter?”
“Maybe,” I said as I came out of the toilet, “by the way, is she pretty?”
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tropical treats
Keep going strong with Navneet Mange’s fruity cocktails to help you keep the heat at bayCOCKTAIL CORNER
Navneet Mange whisks cocktails at a restaurant that has been dubbed one of the most romantic in the world. For that’s how The Dome, the rooftop restaurant at InterContinental Marine Drive, has been tagged ever since it was listed among the world’s top 20 sky bars by The Telegraph, UK and Times Online, UK. He also mans the hotel’s equally exclusive watering hole — the Czar Bar.
Head bartender and mixologist, Mange believes that he’s learning on the job all the time by regularly exchanging notes with his guests. “They share a whole lot of information about places they have travelled to and the drinks they have knocked back,” he says.
Now that summer’s here with a vengeance, he says that it’s time for cocktails high on tropical fruit and juices. We recommend his Mango Batida that’s made with Cachaça, a Brazilian spirit and fresh mango.
On his list of favourites, however, are tipples with bases of vodka and champagne. He says: “They allow one to play with the taste and flavour, while retaining the strength of the drink.”
Long Island Iced Tea
Glass: tall Glass
Ingredients 15ml rum 15ml vodka 15ml tequila 15ml Grand Marnier 15ml gin Lime juice (a dash) Coke (to top up) 2 half slices Mandarin orange 2 Maraschino cherries
Method Shake the five spirits — rum, vodka, tequila, Grand Marnier and gin — with lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Pour into a large 550ml, 12-inch tall glass with lots of ice and top up with Coke. Garnish with slices of Mandarin Orange and Maraschino cherries.
Marine Drive Malibu Breeze
Glass: Margarita
Ingredients 60ml coconut rum (Malibu) 60ml pineapple juice 60ml cranberry juice Lime juice (a dash) 1 cherry 1 slice pineapple
Method Shake the rum and the juices with a dash of lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Strain and pour into a margarita glass. Garnish with a slice of pineapple and a cherry.
Chocotini
Glass: martini
Ingredients 45ml vodka 15ml Baileys Irish Cream 15ml Crème de cacao
Method Shake the ingredients well in a cocktail shaker over ice. Then strain and pour into a white and dark chocolate rimmed martini glass.
Navneet Mange whisks cocktails at a restaurant that has been dubbed one of the most romantic in the world. For that’s how The Dome, the rooftop restaurant at InterContinental Marine Drive, has been tagged ever since it was listed among the world’s top 20 sky bars by The Telegraph, UK and Times Online, UK. He also mans the hotel’s equally exclusive watering hole — the Czar Bar.
Head bartender and mixologist, Mange believes that he’s learning on the job all the time by regularly exchanging notes with his guests. “They share a whole lot of information about places they have travelled to and the drinks they have knocked back,” he says.
Now that summer’s here with a vengeance, he says that it’s time for cocktails high on tropical fruit and juices. We recommend his Mango Batida that’s made with Cachaça, a Brazilian spirit and fresh mango.
On his list of favourites, however, are tipples with bases of vodka and champagne. He says: “They allow one to play with the taste and flavour, while retaining the strength of the drink.”
Long Island Iced Tea
Glass: tall Glass
Ingredients 15ml rum 15ml vodka 15ml tequila 15ml Grand Marnier 15ml gin Lime juice (a dash) Coke (to top up) 2 half slices Mandarin orange 2 Maraschino cherries
Method Shake the five spirits — rum, vodka, tequila, Grand Marnier and gin — with lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Pour into a large 550ml, 12-inch tall glass with lots of ice and top up with Coke. Garnish with slices of Mandarin Orange and Maraschino cherries.
Marine Drive Malibu Breeze
Glass: Margarita
Ingredients 60ml coconut rum (Malibu) 60ml pineapple juice 60ml cranberry juice Lime juice (a dash) 1 cherry 1 slice pineapple
Method Shake the rum and the juices with a dash of lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Strain and pour into a margarita glass. Garnish with a slice of pineapple and a cherry.
Chocotini
Glass: martini
Ingredients 45ml vodka 15ml Baileys Irish Cream 15ml Crème de cacao
Method Shake the ingredients well in a cocktail shaker over ice. Then strain and pour into a white and dark chocolate rimmed martini glass.
Top Indian novelist tells youngsters it's OK to fail
4 days ago
JAIPUR, India (AFP) — By day he's an investment banker, by night he's India's biggest-selling English-language novelist -- even though most people outside the country have never heard of him.
Chetan Bhagat's witty "Five Point Someone" about three academically flailing students; "One Night @ the Call Centre," about the love lives of youngsters in the call centre industry; and "The 3 Mistakes of My Life," a story about suicide, business and friendship, have sold more than two million copies in India.
Bhagat, 35, is the first to admit he's no Arundhati Roy, the Indian Booker Prize-winning author, and says he knows critics feel his books are shallow.
But Bhagat, who enjoys a rock star-like popularity among his readers, aged mainly 13 to 30, said he has the ultimate riposte -- "my books sell".
Bhaghat says he writes for "ordinary young people" who feel suffocated by their parents' desire for them to become doctors, lawyers or engineers.
"Indian youngsters live under pressure-cooker conditions to succeed," Bhagat, clad in jeans and a T-shirt and looking as young as many of the characters in his novels, told AFP in an interview.
There's cut-throat competition to win places in India's elite universities with youngsters compelled to score highly from primary to high school. Entrance to top universities often require 90 percent-plus averages and most children have after-school tutoring to attain such marks.
"Every cousin of mine is becoming a doctor or engineer," remarks the hero of his novel "One Night @ The Call Centre," who answers phone calls from clueless Americans about their cooking appliances.
"You can say I am the black sheep of my family," he said.
Bhagat believes India needs to have an academic and social revolution to prevent young people simply regurgitating what they learn without thinking.
"I tell them even if they don't get stratospheric marks, they're still entitled to a happy life -- and it's not the end of the world if they fail," he said at the recent Jaipur Literature Festival in northern India.
"I talk about youngsters' worries, their anxieties -- all the things that preoccupy them," he said.
Those subjects include parental academic pressure along with pre-marital sex, drinking and other topics taboo in socially conservative India.
At any public appearance, he's mobbed by young people seeking his autograph.
"He's talking to my generation, we connect to him," said college student Poorvi Mathur, 18, who lined up for his signature at the festival.
Bhagat, who attended one of India's elite management schools, began writing in his spare time while an investment banker for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong.
He is now employed in Mumbai by Deutsche Bank where he deals in "distressed assets" -- a growth area with the global economic downturn -- and said he tries to keep the two parts of his life separate.
"It's a different me," he said, referring to his button-down banker role.
At night and on weekends, he honed his first manuscript about the academically stress-filled life on campus to get the breezy, fast-paced tone right. The tale, published when he was 29, was an instant hit.
"The secret to his success is he writes in ordinary English -- and it's reassuring for young people to know someone knows what they're going through," said Rashmi Menon, senior editor at Bhagat's publisher Rupa.
"If you want to know what many young people in India are thinking about, read Chetan Bhagat," she said.
Part of his success may lie in the cost. His books retail for 95 rupees or two dollars, a pocket-friendly price that he calls a marketing "master-stroke" because it was cheap enough to allow youngsters to buy them.
With his third book published last October, Bhagat says he could now afford to live on his writing but likes his day job and has no plans to quit.
The book has been selling at the unheard of rate of one copy every 17 seconds in India, according to his publishers.
"Chetan's sales are enormous -- God has been good to both of us," said Rupa publisher and owner R.K. Mehra, who added that an English-language book that sold 10,000 copies would be considered a success in India.
Initially Bhagat feared he might be a one- or two-book wonder and fretted about how he would support his family: He has a wife and twin boys.
The financial payback is the bonus to the personal feedback he gets from his many fans who email him regularly with ideas and tales about their own lives.
"Only I know how much of a feeling of reward I get from my readers," he said.
JAIPUR, India (AFP) — By day he's an investment banker, by night he's India's biggest-selling English-language novelist -- even though most people outside the country have never heard of him.
Chetan Bhagat's witty "Five Point Someone" about three academically flailing students; "One Night @ the Call Centre," about the love lives of youngsters in the call centre industry; and "The 3 Mistakes of My Life," a story about suicide, business and friendship, have sold more than two million copies in India.
Bhagat, 35, is the first to admit he's no Arundhati Roy, the Indian Booker Prize-winning author, and says he knows critics feel his books are shallow.
But Bhagat, who enjoys a rock star-like popularity among his readers, aged mainly 13 to 30, said he has the ultimate riposte -- "my books sell".
Bhaghat says he writes for "ordinary young people" who feel suffocated by their parents' desire for them to become doctors, lawyers or engineers.
"Indian youngsters live under pressure-cooker conditions to succeed," Bhagat, clad in jeans and a T-shirt and looking as young as many of the characters in his novels, told AFP in an interview.
There's cut-throat competition to win places in India's elite universities with youngsters compelled to score highly from primary to high school. Entrance to top universities often require 90 percent-plus averages and most children have after-school tutoring to attain such marks.
"Every cousin of mine is becoming a doctor or engineer," remarks the hero of his novel "One Night @ The Call Centre," who answers phone calls from clueless Americans about their cooking appliances.
"You can say I am the black sheep of my family," he said.
Bhagat believes India needs to have an academic and social revolution to prevent young people simply regurgitating what they learn without thinking.
"I tell them even if they don't get stratospheric marks, they're still entitled to a happy life -- and it's not the end of the world if they fail," he said at the recent Jaipur Literature Festival in northern India.
"I talk about youngsters' worries, their anxieties -- all the things that preoccupy them," he said.
Those subjects include parental academic pressure along with pre-marital sex, drinking and other topics taboo in socially conservative India.
At any public appearance, he's mobbed by young people seeking his autograph.
"He's talking to my generation, we connect to him," said college student Poorvi Mathur, 18, who lined up for his signature at the festival.
Bhagat, who attended one of India's elite management schools, began writing in his spare time while an investment banker for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong.
He is now employed in Mumbai by Deutsche Bank where he deals in "distressed assets" -- a growth area with the global economic downturn -- and said he tries to keep the two parts of his life separate.
"It's a different me," he said, referring to his button-down banker role.
At night and on weekends, he honed his first manuscript about the academically stress-filled life on campus to get the breezy, fast-paced tone right. The tale, published when he was 29, was an instant hit.
"The secret to his success is he writes in ordinary English -- and it's reassuring for young people to know someone knows what they're going through," said Rashmi Menon, senior editor at Bhagat's publisher Rupa.
"If you want to know what many young people in India are thinking about, read Chetan Bhagat," she said.
Part of his success may lie in the cost. His books retail for 95 rupees or two dollars, a pocket-friendly price that he calls a marketing "master-stroke" because it was cheap enough to allow youngsters to buy them.
With his third book published last October, Bhagat says he could now afford to live on his writing but likes his day job and has no plans to quit.
The book has been selling at the unheard of rate of one copy every 17 seconds in India, according to his publishers.
"Chetan's sales are enormous -- God has been good to both of us," said Rupa publisher and owner R.K. Mehra, who added that an English-language book that sold 10,000 copies would be considered a success in India.
Initially Bhagat feared he might be a one- or two-book wonder and fretted about how he would support his family: He has a wife and twin boys.
The financial payback is the bonus to the personal feedback he gets from his many fans who email him regularly with ideas and tales about their own lives.
"Only I know how much of a feeling of reward I get from my readers," he said.
Toffee toast
Talk about doing it the old school way. In an age when dark chocolate and truffle cake are standard accompaniments when it comes to breaking the good news, publisher Rupa & Co. still prefers to stick to traditions we left behind a good couple of decades ago. Last week, when the sales figure of their latest Chetan Bhagat book The 3 Mistakes of My Life hit the five-lakh mark, the publisher steered past new-age formalities to send out tiffin boxes full of Mango Bites, and Melodies — do those names ring a bell? — in classic schoolboy fashion to its list of well-wishers. Needless to say, the gesture evoked fond memories and was greatly appreciated. Nothing like saying it with toffees.
So many stories
So many stories - Chetan Bhagat, banker and best-selling author, came to town.
POULOMI BANERJEE
On Sunday evening, the entrance to Big Bazaar at Hiland Park was teaming with people. On the floors above, every inch of railing space was taken by people, some of whom had been waiting for over an hour. No, they weren’t waiting for Shah Rukh Khan or Sourav Ganguly. The wait was for an investment banker, whose storytelling has struck a chord with the youth.
Chetan Bhagat had come calling on Calcutta to launch his third book, The Three Mistakes of My Life. The author of best-selling novels Five Point Someoneand One Night At The Call Centre was touched by the response. “My readers are the ones who love me. And it is their love that has made me what I am. I have a long way to go as a writer, but as they say, when you love someone you don’t see the scars,” laughed Bhagat, as he interacted with the audience, took questions, read an excerpt from his new release and signed copies for his audience. The venue, Depot at Big Bazaar, is a place not many writers would like to see their work released, but for the country’s top-selling writer, it seemed just right.
There was also a treat in store for the “city of his in-laws”, a preview of the film Hello, based on One Night At The Call Centre starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif…
t2 in conversation with the author…
The Three Mistakes of My Life starts with an email, a suicide note from an unknown reader. Did you really receive such an email?
No, not this one. But I do receive many emails from my readers and sometimes they do share their problems with me. Often I get freaked. I don’t know what to do or say. At times I try to give general replies.
From where do you draw your subjects?
Initially, they were my stories. Now they are stories of my readers and people around me. Five Point Someone is my story. Hari is Chetan Bhagat. The idea of One Night At The Call Centre was born as I heard stories of BPO workers, from my cousins and sister-in-law. Many of my cousins work at call centres.
Plus, as I said, many people write to me. That also helps me to write.
The language you use is the anguage the youth speaks today. Was that a conscious decision?
I don’t know whether it is conscious, but then everyone has a style and that is my style. I do believe that books should be written in the language of the people.
I can write something that the English teachers appreciate very much, but if it fails to connect with the masses, the purpose is defeated.
I want literature to be taken out of the hands of a few people in the metros and reach everyone. I don’t mind critics. Of course one has to improve.
But why change what is my strength? The sale of my books has shown that my readers appreciate this style. I am making many people happy.
Your books have had Bollywood-style endings, with a big climax and everything falling in place...
I agree. I grew up on Hindi films. I love my big, grand ends, with some things working out and falling in place. I have
done it in The Three Mistakes of My Life too.
Your stories are all very ‘now’ — be it in the choice of subject or language. Do you think they will continue to appeal some years from now?
I frankly don’t know. But I think I have to connect with the times.
Five Point Someone is based in the 1990s. There are no cellphones in that book. But it is still selling. I hope the others too will continue to appeal.
Maybe time would have changed, but people would still like it for nostalgic reasons, like a Dil Chahta Hai.
And you don’t want to address a wider readership with more global subjects?
No. There are so many stories to tell here. In India stories have not been told for so many years. I have to make up for lost time.
Would you say you have given voice to contemporary India?
I think, like films that are made for the film festival audience, books were being written for a niche market. I have taken it out and delivered a potboiler.
Your style and subjects were very fresh when you started. Do you think it might be losing some of its novelty?
I am always ready to try something new. Maybe in the next book…. But I haven’t thought of it yet and, as of now, have no themes or ideas in mind.
All your books are very male-centric. Why?
Yes, I have been told that and I must do something about it. Fifty per cent of my readership consists of women. I now want to write a book with a woman protagonist.
Would you say that you have been the male alternative to chick lit?
My books are not chick lit or its male alternative. Yes, it is not awesome writing, there is scope for improvement. But it does address social issues. You have to give it that.
Finally, how involved have you been with Hello? Did you worry about how the director would interpret your book?
Well, I am the scriptwriter of the film, so I knew exactly what was happening. But I don’t mind the director adding his touch. I’m not possessive about my book.
***
Bestseller (Fiction)
1. The Three Mistakes Of My Life — Chetan Bhagat, Rupa & Co, Rs 95
2. Unaccustomed Earth — Jhumpa Lahiri, Random House India, Rs 495
3. A Prisoner of Birth — Jeffrey Archer Pan Books, Rs 260
4. The Enchantress of Florence — Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Cape, Rs 595
5. The Palace of Illusions — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Picador India, Rs 495
Bestseller (Non- Fiction)
1. Cold Steel — Tim Bouquet, Little Brown, Rs 650
2. The Last Lecture — Randy Pausch, Hodder and Stoughton, Rs 295
3. The Age Of Innovation — C. K. Prahalad, Tata McGraw Hill, Rs. 695
4. Foreign Correspondent: Fifty Years of Reporting South Asia — Edited by John Elliott, Bernard Imhasly and Simon Denyer, Penguin, Rs 695
5. Superstar India: From Incredible to Unstoppable — Shobhaa De, (picture above) Penguin India, Rs 395 Courtesy: Crossword
POULOMI BANERJEE
On Sunday evening, the entrance to Big Bazaar at Hiland Park was teaming with people. On the floors above, every inch of railing space was taken by people, some of whom had been waiting for over an hour. No, they weren’t waiting for Shah Rukh Khan or Sourav Ganguly. The wait was for an investment banker, whose storytelling has struck a chord with the youth.
Chetan Bhagat had come calling on Calcutta to launch his third book, The Three Mistakes of My Life. The author of best-selling novels Five Point Someoneand One Night At The Call Centre was touched by the response. “My readers are the ones who love me. And it is their love that has made me what I am. I have a long way to go as a writer, but as they say, when you love someone you don’t see the scars,” laughed Bhagat, as he interacted with the audience, took questions, read an excerpt from his new release and signed copies for his audience. The venue, Depot at Big Bazaar, is a place not many writers would like to see their work released, but for the country’s top-selling writer, it seemed just right.
There was also a treat in store for the “city of his in-laws”, a preview of the film Hello, based on One Night At The Call Centre starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif…
t2 in conversation with the author…
The Three Mistakes of My Life starts with an email, a suicide note from an unknown reader. Did you really receive such an email?
No, not this one. But I do receive many emails from my readers and sometimes they do share their problems with me. Often I get freaked. I don’t know what to do or say. At times I try to give general replies.
From where do you draw your subjects?
Initially, they were my stories. Now they are stories of my readers and people around me. Five Point Someone is my story. Hari is Chetan Bhagat. The idea of One Night At The Call Centre was born as I heard stories of BPO workers, from my cousins and sister-in-law. Many of my cousins work at call centres.
Plus, as I said, many people write to me. That also helps me to write.
The language you use is the anguage the youth speaks today. Was that a conscious decision?
I don’t know whether it is conscious, but then everyone has a style and that is my style. I do believe that books should be written in the language of the people.
I can write something that the English teachers appreciate very much, but if it fails to connect with the masses, the purpose is defeated.
I want literature to be taken out of the hands of a few people in the metros and reach everyone. I don’t mind critics. Of course one has to improve.
But why change what is my strength? The sale of my books has shown that my readers appreciate this style. I am making many people happy.
Your books have had Bollywood-style endings, with a big climax and everything falling in place...
I agree. I grew up on Hindi films. I love my big, grand ends, with some things working out and falling in place. I have
done it in The Three Mistakes of My Life too.
Your stories are all very ‘now’ — be it in the choice of subject or language. Do you think they will continue to appeal some years from now?
I frankly don’t know. But I think I have to connect with the times.
Five Point Someone is based in the 1990s. There are no cellphones in that book. But it is still selling. I hope the others too will continue to appeal.
Maybe time would have changed, but people would still like it for nostalgic reasons, like a Dil Chahta Hai.
And you don’t want to address a wider readership with more global subjects?
No. There are so many stories to tell here. In India stories have not been told for so many years. I have to make up for lost time.
Would you say you have given voice to contemporary India?
I think, like films that are made for the film festival audience, books were being written for a niche market. I have taken it out and delivered a potboiler.
Your style and subjects were very fresh when you started. Do you think it might be losing some of its novelty?
I am always ready to try something new. Maybe in the next book…. But I haven’t thought of it yet and, as of now, have no themes or ideas in mind.
All your books are very male-centric. Why?
Yes, I have been told that and I must do something about it. Fifty per cent of my readership consists of women. I now want to write a book with a woman protagonist.
Would you say that you have been the male alternative to chick lit?
My books are not chick lit or its male alternative. Yes, it is not awesome writing, there is scope for improvement. But it does address social issues. You have to give it that.
Finally, how involved have you been with Hello? Did you worry about how the director would interpret your book?
Well, I am the scriptwriter of the film, so I knew exactly what was happening. But I don’t mind the director adding his touch. I’m not possessive about my book.
***
Bestseller (Fiction)
1. The Three Mistakes Of My Life — Chetan Bhagat, Rupa & Co, Rs 95
2. Unaccustomed Earth — Jhumpa Lahiri, Random House India, Rs 495
3. A Prisoner of Birth — Jeffrey Archer Pan Books, Rs 260
4. The Enchantress of Florence — Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Cape, Rs 595
5. The Palace of Illusions — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Picador India, Rs 495
Bestseller (Non- Fiction)
1. Cold Steel — Tim Bouquet, Little Brown, Rs 650
2. The Last Lecture — Randy Pausch, Hodder and Stoughton, Rs 295
3. The Age Of Innovation — C. K. Prahalad, Tata McGraw Hill, Rs. 695
4. Foreign Correspondent: Fifty Years of Reporting South Asia — Edited by John Elliott, Bernard Imhasly and Simon Denyer, Penguin, Rs 695
5. Superstar India: From Incredible to Unstoppable — Shobhaa De, (picture above) Penguin India, Rs 395 Courtesy: Crossword
Priceless @ 95
Chetan Bhagat has become the biggest-selling English author in India, outselling Shobhaa Dé and Vikram Seth to register sales of over a million copies of his first two books combined. Anirban Das Mahapatra meets Bhagat — and discovers that being billed a celebrity makes him blush
At Rs 95, a business plan can hardly ever go wrong. But that isn‟t merely what Chetan Bhagat is harping on — as an Indian Institute of Management alumnus he‟d know that price alone cannot sell a product. “I don‟t want to be India‟s most admired writer,” he writes in the “acknowledgement” section of his new book. “I just want to be India‟s most loved writer. Admiration passes. Love endures.”
Bhagat knows best. Love has endured to the extent of making him the biggest-selling English author in India. And that‟s not even counting his third book, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, which hit the bookshelves over the weekend.
In four years, Bhagat has outsold Shobhaa Dé and Vikram Seth to register sales of over a million copies of his first two books combined. The first, Five Point Someone, has sold over 700,000 copies. One Night @ the Call Centre, his second literary venture, sold at the rate of one copy every three seconds in the first week after its launch. His annual royalty, according to a publishing insider, exceeds Rs 1 crore.
The 34-year-old investment banker has touched gold — and he thinks it‟s all because of love. “You see, admiration demands perfection. Love accepts you with all your flaws,” he says. “It‟s amazing how my readers have taken me as I am.”
Penguin, Dé‟s publisher, does not divulge sale figures, but the story at the micro level is stark. Her latest book, Superstar India, was released across India two weeks ago. Until Friday, Om Book Shop — one of South Delhi‟s biggest retailers — reported a sale of 250 copies. That very evening, Bhagat‟s novel was released, and sold 300 copies. “Till date, we‟ve sold 20,000 copies of his books, compared to 4,000 by Vikram Seth, and about 2,000 copies of Arundhati Roy‟s The God of Small Things,” says proprietor Amit Vig.
TOP SELLER Total copies of Bhagat‟s books sold till date in India: Over 10 lakh Five point Someone: Over seven lakh copies in the domestic market and counting One Night @ the Call Centre: Sold at the rate of one every three seconds at its peak hour. Now around the 5 lakh mark The 3 Mistakes of My Life: First print order of 2 lakh copies Courtesy: Rupa & Co -------------------------------------
Even as he speaks, Bhagat‟s publisher Kapish Mehra furiously tries to meet the escalating demand pouring into his Daryaganj office from distributors across India. Confident that Bhagat‟s new book will do well, the Rupa boss had placed an ambitious print order of 200,000 copies, in a country where print runs for a paperback seldom exceed 5,000. Even before the launch, he managed to pre-sell nearly three-quarters of it. “I‟m already thinking of a reprint,” he says.
But Bhagat, who has just been given as royalty a jumbo cheque of Rs 10 lakh, similar to those handed out after cricket matches, refuses to be carried away by all the jazz. Yet to grow out of his IIT-Delhi mould, he talks in Hinglish, the lingo of young India. Eleven years in Hong Kong haven‟t affected his accent. And being billed a celebrity makes him blush with embarrassment.
“Writing is only for fun. It has nothing to do with selling. I‟d write even if I made nothing from it,” says Bhagat, now with Deutsche Bank in Mumbai.
In 2004, when Bhagat wrote Five Point Someone, he was no different from other authors on Rupa‟s catalogue. He was paid a nominal advance, and the book was released with modest expectations. But as a publisher-cum-distributor, Rupa could penetrate the Indian market to push his books in every small town. And aware that it would be read by youngsters living on parental dole, Mehra priced it at an affordable Rs 95. The rest was history.
Bhagat has a nice way of putting it. “I always had a problem with how writing that paraded as „Indian‟ literature was only read by a few thousand people in big cities. The rest of the country never got a chance to flip through it. My biggest achievement is that at Rs 95, I have managed to make India read again.”
But Mehra‟s strategy of underpricing Bhagat has its share of detractors. “Underpricing could potentially be counter productive, as a section of dedicated readers who associate price with quality might steer clear of a book offered at such a low price,” says P.M. Sukumar, CEO of HarperCollins India. “We‟d love to have Bhagat on our catalogue, but not if we had to sell his books at Rs 95.”
Shobhaa Dé, while congratulating Bhagat, raises precisely that question. “There is a difference between selling a book at Rs 95 and claiming big numbers, as compared to selling other paperbacks, mine included, at Rs 300. Can one compare the Nano story with a Mercedes?”
Perhaps not. But Bhagat‟s fans couldn‟t care less. Critics have slammed his writing, using phrases such as “juvenile trash” and “classic Bollywood farce.” But the bad press never told on his sales.
Renuka Chatterjee, head of Osian‟s literary agency, explains why. “In the mass market, it is the reader and not the reviewer who matters. As long as books strike a chord with the masses, it doesn‟t matter how much they are panned in the review pages.
“That‟s exactly where Bhagat‟s strength lies. And his popularity can be best vouched for by his readers. “He is easy to read, he uses the language of our generation, and he knows how to connect with us by stepping into our shoes,” says 24-year-old Tanushree Upadhyay. “Within my circle of friends, any new book written by him is hot.”
Upadhyay‟s words only corroborate academic and critic Alok Rai‟s hunch. “In his own ground-breaking way, Bhagat has perhaps allowed his readers to live the „now‟ experience, and that‟s what has worked in his favour,” he says. Bookseller and agent Anuj Bahri is more direct. “If other writers have tried to click by churning out arthouse stuff, he‟s doing it Rang De Basanti style,” laughs Bahri.
There are, however, other cogs in the well-oiled wheel that spins out the mega bucks. Like a tie up with Big Bazaar — the quintessential people‟s retail outlet — for the launch of his new book in Mumbai and Gurgaon. “They‟re super aggressive, man, they know how to sell,” says Bhagat. “During the Mumbai launch, they were throwing in a free copy with every five copies bought, like dal chawal. And people were actually falling for it.” Om Book Shop, Delhi, says, Shobhaa Dé‟s latest book Superstar India, released nearly two weeks ago, has sold 250 copies so far. Bhagat‟s new book sold 300 copies on the launch day The store has so far sold 20,000 copies of Bhagat‟s works, compared to 4,000 of all Vikram Seth‟s books combined, and just about 2,000 copies of Roy‟s 1996 classic The God of Small Things The figures pertain to only one book shop and are indicative ------------------------------------- Current annual royalty: In excess of Rs 1 crore
Bhagat has now decided to take a year off from writing to muse over his life and vocation, but fans could look forward to Hello, a film based on his second book starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, due for release this year.
Meanwhile, Rupa is making the most of the time to give those who‟ve never read Bhagat a chance to catch up on his works. A premium boxset, featuring all three books, is now out for sale. The price? Elementary mathematics — Rs 285.
Pic: Ramakant Kushwaha
At Rs 95, a business plan can hardly ever go wrong. But that isn‟t merely what Chetan Bhagat is harping on — as an Indian Institute of Management alumnus he‟d know that price alone cannot sell a product. “I don‟t want to be India‟s most admired writer,” he writes in the “acknowledgement” section of his new book. “I just want to be India‟s most loved writer. Admiration passes. Love endures.”
Bhagat knows best. Love has endured to the extent of making him the biggest-selling English author in India. And that‟s not even counting his third book, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, which hit the bookshelves over the weekend.
In four years, Bhagat has outsold Shobhaa Dé and Vikram Seth to register sales of over a million copies of his first two books combined. The first, Five Point Someone, has sold over 700,000 copies. One Night @ the Call Centre, his second literary venture, sold at the rate of one copy every three seconds in the first week after its launch. His annual royalty, according to a publishing insider, exceeds Rs 1 crore.
The 34-year-old investment banker has touched gold — and he thinks it‟s all because of love. “You see, admiration demands perfection. Love accepts you with all your flaws,” he says. “It‟s amazing how my readers have taken me as I am.”
Penguin, Dé‟s publisher, does not divulge sale figures, but the story at the micro level is stark. Her latest book, Superstar India, was released across India two weeks ago. Until Friday, Om Book Shop — one of South Delhi‟s biggest retailers — reported a sale of 250 copies. That very evening, Bhagat‟s novel was released, and sold 300 copies. “Till date, we‟ve sold 20,000 copies of his books, compared to 4,000 by Vikram Seth, and about 2,000 copies of Arundhati Roy‟s The God of Small Things,” says proprietor Amit Vig.
TOP SELLER Total copies of Bhagat‟s books sold till date in India: Over 10 lakh Five point Someone: Over seven lakh copies in the domestic market and counting One Night @ the Call Centre: Sold at the rate of one every three seconds at its peak hour. Now around the 5 lakh mark The 3 Mistakes of My Life: First print order of 2 lakh copies Courtesy: Rupa & Co -------------------------------------
Even as he speaks, Bhagat‟s publisher Kapish Mehra furiously tries to meet the escalating demand pouring into his Daryaganj office from distributors across India. Confident that Bhagat‟s new book will do well, the Rupa boss had placed an ambitious print order of 200,000 copies, in a country where print runs for a paperback seldom exceed 5,000. Even before the launch, he managed to pre-sell nearly three-quarters of it. “I‟m already thinking of a reprint,” he says.
But Bhagat, who has just been given as royalty a jumbo cheque of Rs 10 lakh, similar to those handed out after cricket matches, refuses to be carried away by all the jazz. Yet to grow out of his IIT-Delhi mould, he talks in Hinglish, the lingo of young India. Eleven years in Hong Kong haven‟t affected his accent. And being billed a celebrity makes him blush with embarrassment.
“Writing is only for fun. It has nothing to do with selling. I‟d write even if I made nothing from it,” says Bhagat, now with Deutsche Bank in Mumbai.
In 2004, when Bhagat wrote Five Point Someone, he was no different from other authors on Rupa‟s catalogue. He was paid a nominal advance, and the book was released with modest expectations. But as a publisher-cum-distributor, Rupa could penetrate the Indian market to push his books in every small town. And aware that it would be read by youngsters living on parental dole, Mehra priced it at an affordable Rs 95. The rest was history.
Bhagat has a nice way of putting it. “I always had a problem with how writing that paraded as „Indian‟ literature was only read by a few thousand people in big cities. The rest of the country never got a chance to flip through it. My biggest achievement is that at Rs 95, I have managed to make India read again.”
But Mehra‟s strategy of underpricing Bhagat has its share of detractors. “Underpricing could potentially be counter productive, as a section of dedicated readers who associate price with quality might steer clear of a book offered at such a low price,” says P.M. Sukumar, CEO of HarperCollins India. “We‟d love to have Bhagat on our catalogue, but not if we had to sell his books at Rs 95.”
Shobhaa Dé, while congratulating Bhagat, raises precisely that question. “There is a difference between selling a book at Rs 95 and claiming big numbers, as compared to selling other paperbacks, mine included, at Rs 300. Can one compare the Nano story with a Mercedes?”
Perhaps not. But Bhagat‟s fans couldn‟t care less. Critics have slammed his writing, using phrases such as “juvenile trash” and “classic Bollywood farce.” But the bad press never told on his sales.
Renuka Chatterjee, head of Osian‟s literary agency, explains why. “In the mass market, it is the reader and not the reviewer who matters. As long as books strike a chord with the masses, it doesn‟t matter how much they are panned in the review pages.
“That‟s exactly where Bhagat‟s strength lies. And his popularity can be best vouched for by his readers. “He is easy to read, he uses the language of our generation, and he knows how to connect with us by stepping into our shoes,” says 24-year-old Tanushree Upadhyay. “Within my circle of friends, any new book written by him is hot.”
Upadhyay‟s words only corroborate academic and critic Alok Rai‟s hunch. “In his own ground-breaking way, Bhagat has perhaps allowed his readers to live the „now‟ experience, and that‟s what has worked in his favour,” he says. Bookseller and agent Anuj Bahri is more direct. “If other writers have tried to click by churning out arthouse stuff, he‟s doing it Rang De Basanti style,” laughs Bahri.
There are, however, other cogs in the well-oiled wheel that spins out the mega bucks. Like a tie up with Big Bazaar — the quintessential people‟s retail outlet — for the launch of his new book in Mumbai and Gurgaon. “They‟re super aggressive, man, they know how to sell,” says Bhagat. “During the Mumbai launch, they were throwing in a free copy with every five copies bought, like dal chawal. And people were actually falling for it.” Om Book Shop, Delhi, says, Shobhaa Dé‟s latest book Superstar India, released nearly two weeks ago, has sold 250 copies so far. Bhagat‟s new book sold 300 copies on the launch day The store has so far sold 20,000 copies of Bhagat‟s works, compared to 4,000 of all Vikram Seth‟s books combined, and just about 2,000 copies of Roy‟s 1996 classic The God of Small Things The figures pertain to only one book shop and are indicative ------------------------------------- Current annual royalty: In excess of Rs 1 crore
Bhagat has now decided to take a year off from writing to muse over his life and vocation, but fans could look forward to Hello, a film based on his second book starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, due for release this year.
Meanwhile, Rupa is making the most of the time to give those who‟ve never read Bhagat a chance to catch up on his works. A premium boxset, featuring all three books, is now out for sale. The price? Elementary mathematics — Rs 285.
Pic: Ramakant Kushwaha
Pointers from an ex-IITian
A STAFF REPORTER
Chetan Bhagat hardly looks the kind to write a novel — even a 250-odd pager. But the proof of the investment banker’s efforts is in the form of his debut novel Five Point Someone: what not to do at IIT!
It’s about three friends who have “messed up their grades at IIT (the title refers to the grading system at the engineering college where a five point something out of 10 would indicate student at the bottom rung of the class).
“At something or the other, each of us are always five point something, so we should stop judging ourselves so much,” feels Bhagat, who launched the book at Crossword on Wednesday.
But apart from these somewhat sombre musings, “the book is actually a lot of fun”, through which Bhagat has tried to relive his days at IIT, Delhi.
“The characters are based on real-life people and much of the book is semi-autobiographical,” explains the man whose wife hails from Calcutta.
Initial response and sales have been “great” according to Bhagat. But the next book may be sometime away yet. “I plan to read 20 more books at least till I start on my second novel,” he promises.
Chetan Bhagat hardly looks the kind to write a novel — even a 250-odd pager. But the proof of the investment banker’s efforts is in the form of his debut novel Five Point Someone: what not to do at IIT!
It’s about three friends who have “messed up their grades at IIT (the title refers to the grading system at the engineering college where a five point something out of 10 would indicate student at the bottom rung of the class).
“At something or the other, each of us are always five point something, so we should stop judging ourselves so much,” feels Bhagat, who launched the book at Crossword on Wednesday.
But apart from these somewhat sombre musings, “the book is actually a lot of fun”, through which Bhagat has tried to relive his days at IIT, Delhi.
“The characters are based on real-life people and much of the book is semi-autobiographical,” explains the man whose wife hails from Calcutta.
Initial response and sales have been “great” according to Bhagat. But the next book may be sometime away yet. “I plan to read 20 more books at least till I start on my second novel,” he promises.
Netherworld heat retreat
On a summer day, all the people going down the stairs of a Metro station do not end up taking a train. You will see so many standing in small huddles, chatting away unhurriedly while all round them the world is running pell mell in a bid to catch the next Dum Dum or Tollygunge-bound rake.
The ones who stand still are Calcuttans driven to the netherworld in search of succour from the heat above. They could be students shifting their rendezvous from the park, sales representatives hopping downstairs to catch their breath in between door-to-door knocks, or the glorious breed of idlers who find the para rok too hot for their derrieres this season.
And the best thing about the new-found meeting point is that it’s naturally air-conditioned, it’s free, and though it doesn’t offer you a seat, you can grab a cola or an iced tea to wash down the conversation, thanks to the stalls that have sprung up next to the ticket counters. And as long as they are on their best behaviour, they are not driven out by the cops, who choose to look the other way.
T20 vs IPL
Pakistan was playing one of the lesser teams in a T20 cricket match recently when a group of youngsters entered a restaurant at City Centre.
After the first burst of voices, there was a lull in conversation when
A woman braves the heat. A Telegraph picture
the eyes of one of the boys caught a particularly exciting turn in the match on the huge TV screen.
“IPL dekhchhis (Are you following IPL)?” he asked the others innocently. “No, I am not,” responded one. “Karon IPL shesh hoye gyachhey (Because IPL is over),” he added.
“This is the World Cup, stupid!” the only girl in the group laughed, crushing the boy who had raised the topic.
But if we can Xerox instead of photocopy and Google all Web searches, maybe one day we will call all T20 matches IPL?
Catch, prince
A Salt Lake neighbourhood witnessed an attempt to theft recently, but of an unusual kind.
A lady asleep in a ground-floor flat in a housing estate woke up around 3am when she felt the flash of a torchlight on her eyes. “Who is that?” she screamed, in English, for being from outside Bengal, she did not know Bengali.
The suspected thief scrammed, but not before retorting, in English: “I am prince!”
SUDESHNA BANERJEE
The ones who stand still are Calcuttans driven to the netherworld in search of succour from the heat above. They could be students shifting their rendezvous from the park, sales representatives hopping downstairs to catch their breath in between door-to-door knocks, or the glorious breed of idlers who find the para rok too hot for their derrieres this season.
And the best thing about the new-found meeting point is that it’s naturally air-conditioned, it’s free, and though it doesn’t offer you a seat, you can grab a cola or an iced tea to wash down the conversation, thanks to the stalls that have sprung up next to the ticket counters. And as long as they are on their best behaviour, they are not driven out by the cops, who choose to look the other way.
T20 vs IPL
Pakistan was playing one of the lesser teams in a T20 cricket match recently when a group of youngsters entered a restaurant at City Centre.
After the first burst of voices, there was a lull in conversation when
A woman braves the heat. A Telegraph picture
the eyes of one of the boys caught a particularly exciting turn in the match on the huge TV screen.
“IPL dekhchhis (Are you following IPL)?” he asked the others innocently. “No, I am not,” responded one. “Karon IPL shesh hoye gyachhey (Because IPL is over),” he added.
“This is the World Cup, stupid!” the only girl in the group laughed, crushing the boy who had raised the topic.
But if we can Xerox instead of photocopy and Google all Web searches, maybe one day we will call all T20 matches IPL?
Catch, prince
A Salt Lake neighbourhood witnessed an attempt to theft recently, but of an unusual kind.
A lady asleep in a ground-floor flat in a housing estate woke up around 3am when she felt the flash of a torchlight on her eyes. “Who is that?” she screamed, in English, for being from outside Bengal, she did not know Bengali.
The suspected thief scrammed, but not before retorting, in English: “I am prince!”
SUDESHNA BANERJEE
My next novel is a love story: Chetan Bhagat
Document
6/23/2009 11:39:51 AM Aditya Corp Inc
Page 1
My next novel is a love story: Chetan Bhagat
Shivangi Singh The best selling author in English, Chetan Bhagat has never pretended to being a literary giant with an authority over scholarly stuff, or a great man of letters with the right „international‟ accent. He just wants to be known as the common man‟s writer. Almost always dressed in casuals, with easy-going manners, the author has a keen interest in spirituality, screenplays and always appears genial and outgoing.
The celebrated author of „One Night @ the call centre‟ and „Five Point Someone,‟ was caught in one of his most candid moods by Shivangi Singh of Spicezee at Jaipur Literature Festival. Shivangi: As you said, you have visited a literary festival for the first time. What is your opinion of this literary festival? Chetan: I am feeling very comfortable. I thought it would be very formal with knowledgeable writers discussing heavy stuff, but the festival is very interesting. I never thought so many of my readers would come to this place. It‟s really good in the sense that even the common people are attending it. It is free and inclusive. It is the biggest in Asia and may soon become the biggest in the world. Shivangi: Please tell us about your childhood days. How was Chetan Bhagat as a child? Chetan: I was very naughty. We had a very strict upbringing because of my father‟s army background. And my brother and I were in the habit of telling stories to each other, which explains my inclination towards story-telling. I have done some naughty acts like signing my own report card and cooking up stories to escape scolding from my parents. Shivangi: How did you start writing? How did it all begin? Chetan. My first work was a joke – an original contribution to the school magazine. I was the youngest contributor in the magazine. In those days it was rare to see your name in print. Now it is everywhere - on railway tickets, bank account…but back then, it was thrilling. I have been a student of Delhi University and I used to write skits and dialogues. And believe me, you better be really good in college dramas or you get hooted. So, it all started like this. Shivangi: What is the most interesting aspect of your writing? Chetan: My writing skills are okay, but I always have a good story to tell that deals with reality – things that happen in our day-to-day existence. I am not judgemental, my characters in the book are not perfect, and they do falter. Pre-marital sex, tiff with the boss, job issues – all these things happen, I talked candidly about it when no one was speaking. Now, of course, many are writing on it. However, the best aspect of my writing is the mails I receive from
Document
6/23/2009 11:39:51 AM Aditya Corp Inc
Page 2
my fans. I get about 100 mails every day. I am not able to answer too many, but part of my stories come from there. I received a mail about a suicidal girl, the mail was shocking. I incorporated the shock value in my third novel „Three Mistake of My Life‟. Shivangi: The names of all your protagonists are based on Lord Krishna (Govind Patel, Hari Kumar and Shyam). Is this a deliberate act or just because these are common names that you have used them in your novel? Chetan: I am a devotee of Lord Krishna and want to portray a part of Him in my characters. He is the universal lover and I want to talk about love in my books. My characters are playful, naughty, and mischievous like Him. Shivangi: Is there a reason for this nearness to God? Was there some incident, which made you turn towards spirituality? Chetan: My success has brought me closer to God. My books have done that. My book came four and a half years ago, and it is still being bought and read. It is nothing short of a miracle that scripts are being made on my books and superstars like Salman („Hello‟) and Aamir (forthcoming film „Three Idiots‟) are acting in it. Scriptwriters wait for long years to get films made on their story. My books reached only a part of the audience, but films made on the books served my main intention of reaching the common people, reaching everyone. This divine rule is there in my main intention. I want to win hearts. Shivangi: Do you believe in destiny? Chetan: Yes, but I am not a slave to destiny. I also believe in Karma. Destiny is always there. You have to follow your path and work to the best of your ability. Shivangi: Do you think films made on books, dilutes the impact of the work? Chetan: It is true in the sense that even I can‟t create another „Five Point Someone‟, what is created once can‟t be created again in the same way. Shivangi: You have always maintained that to move upwards in life, Indians should learn English. Would that not mean the death of Hindi and its literature? How can Hindi be revived? Chetan: No, it s not like that. It is like I have always said – Hindi is my mother and English is my wife. It is possible to love both of them. But it is true that you cannot be successful professionally without knowing English. There was a boy in Kanpur, who bought Hindi as well as English version of my book. He used to read English version in public and Hindi in private. English is the need of the hour. But Hindi will not die. At present, there is this trend of making films on English books, soon, filmmakers will explore Hindi literature for good scripts. I also write for one of the Hindi newspapers to reach Hindi speaking crowd. Shivangi: Your take on elitism has often been very strong… Chetan: Yes, the problem with elitism is one starts living in a bubble. If we live in the bubble, we ignore the rest. Elitism is in India‟s culture. The moment one becomes successful, one becomes distant. And to be a part of the bubble, you have to act as if you have gone international with a fake accent and all that –
Document
6/23/2009 11:39:51 AM Aditya Corp Inc
Page 3
meaning cut off from the crowd. I don‟t want that, I want to be a people‟s writer. And yes, media is not covering India. It‟s a very obvious logic; all offices are in Delhi or Mumbai. But 90 percent of India is outside. Media organisations have a bunch of very smart people, but they are out-of-touch. So, they report on things which they like but miss the point. So, sometimes my book becomes more relevant than news. Shivangi: Please tell us about your upcoming book? Chetan: It‟s a love story and it‟s a secret. I am afraid I can‟t reveal more. Shivangi: What was meeting Salman and Aamir like? Chetan: Salman is a superstar in the true sense of the word. He doesn‟t care whether he is hit or flop, he just feels like a superstar. When he first met me during the shoot of „Hello‟, he asked “Am I going to play him”. And, I asked, “Are you going to play me?” Don‟t know, who was more embarrassed. Aamir is a combination of style and talent and he understands his work. Shivangi: Please name the people whom you admire? Chetan: In films, I admire Aamir for his work. Cool Farhan Akhtar for his versatility. I want to work with him. Dhoni in cricket, I believe he is better than Tendulkar as India‟s captain. Sheila Dixit and Advani in politics. Advani is actually trying to focus on today‟s generation. In literature, Gulzar is my favourite. Shivangi: What is your message to upcoming writers? Chetan: Talent and perseverance are the key to success. Talent is God‟s gift, you have to accept your limitations. Writing is not paying - you have to persevere and not lose hope. Shivangi: If you are given one chance to do something for the country, what would you do? Chetan: I would like to be in the same place as the PM. Not MP, not MLA, but the PM, so that I get the power to change the country for better. I will stop writing if I get the power. Shivangi: What is the real Chetan Bhagat like? Chetan: Chetan Bhagat is a dreamer, willing to work to achieve his dreams.
6/23/2009 11:39:51 AM Aditya Corp Inc
Page 1
My next novel is a love story: Chetan Bhagat
Shivangi Singh The best selling author in English, Chetan Bhagat has never pretended to being a literary giant with an authority over scholarly stuff, or a great man of letters with the right „international‟ accent. He just wants to be known as the common man‟s writer. Almost always dressed in casuals, with easy-going manners, the author has a keen interest in spirituality, screenplays and always appears genial and outgoing.
The celebrated author of „One Night @ the call centre‟ and „Five Point Someone,‟ was caught in one of his most candid moods by Shivangi Singh of Spicezee at Jaipur Literature Festival. Shivangi: As you said, you have visited a literary festival for the first time. What is your opinion of this literary festival? Chetan: I am feeling very comfortable. I thought it would be very formal with knowledgeable writers discussing heavy stuff, but the festival is very interesting. I never thought so many of my readers would come to this place. It‟s really good in the sense that even the common people are attending it. It is free and inclusive. It is the biggest in Asia and may soon become the biggest in the world. Shivangi: Please tell us about your childhood days. How was Chetan Bhagat as a child? Chetan: I was very naughty. We had a very strict upbringing because of my father‟s army background. And my brother and I were in the habit of telling stories to each other, which explains my inclination towards story-telling. I have done some naughty acts like signing my own report card and cooking up stories to escape scolding from my parents. Shivangi: How did you start writing? How did it all begin? Chetan. My first work was a joke – an original contribution to the school magazine. I was the youngest contributor in the magazine. In those days it was rare to see your name in print. Now it is everywhere - on railway tickets, bank account…but back then, it was thrilling. I have been a student of Delhi University and I used to write skits and dialogues. And believe me, you better be really good in college dramas or you get hooted. So, it all started like this. Shivangi: What is the most interesting aspect of your writing? Chetan: My writing skills are okay, but I always have a good story to tell that deals with reality – things that happen in our day-to-day existence. I am not judgemental, my characters in the book are not perfect, and they do falter. Pre-marital sex, tiff with the boss, job issues – all these things happen, I talked candidly about it when no one was speaking. Now, of course, many are writing on it. However, the best aspect of my writing is the mails I receive from
Document
6/23/2009 11:39:51 AM Aditya Corp Inc
Page 2
my fans. I get about 100 mails every day. I am not able to answer too many, but part of my stories come from there. I received a mail about a suicidal girl, the mail was shocking. I incorporated the shock value in my third novel „Three Mistake of My Life‟. Shivangi: The names of all your protagonists are based on Lord Krishna (Govind Patel, Hari Kumar and Shyam). Is this a deliberate act or just because these are common names that you have used them in your novel? Chetan: I am a devotee of Lord Krishna and want to portray a part of Him in my characters. He is the universal lover and I want to talk about love in my books. My characters are playful, naughty, and mischievous like Him. Shivangi: Is there a reason for this nearness to God? Was there some incident, which made you turn towards spirituality? Chetan: My success has brought me closer to God. My books have done that. My book came four and a half years ago, and it is still being bought and read. It is nothing short of a miracle that scripts are being made on my books and superstars like Salman („Hello‟) and Aamir (forthcoming film „Three Idiots‟) are acting in it. Scriptwriters wait for long years to get films made on their story. My books reached only a part of the audience, but films made on the books served my main intention of reaching the common people, reaching everyone. This divine rule is there in my main intention. I want to win hearts. Shivangi: Do you believe in destiny? Chetan: Yes, but I am not a slave to destiny. I also believe in Karma. Destiny is always there. You have to follow your path and work to the best of your ability. Shivangi: Do you think films made on books, dilutes the impact of the work? Chetan: It is true in the sense that even I can‟t create another „Five Point Someone‟, what is created once can‟t be created again in the same way. Shivangi: You have always maintained that to move upwards in life, Indians should learn English. Would that not mean the death of Hindi and its literature? How can Hindi be revived? Chetan: No, it s not like that. It is like I have always said – Hindi is my mother and English is my wife. It is possible to love both of them. But it is true that you cannot be successful professionally without knowing English. There was a boy in Kanpur, who bought Hindi as well as English version of my book. He used to read English version in public and Hindi in private. English is the need of the hour. But Hindi will not die. At present, there is this trend of making films on English books, soon, filmmakers will explore Hindi literature for good scripts. I also write for one of the Hindi newspapers to reach Hindi speaking crowd. Shivangi: Your take on elitism has often been very strong… Chetan: Yes, the problem with elitism is one starts living in a bubble. If we live in the bubble, we ignore the rest. Elitism is in India‟s culture. The moment one becomes successful, one becomes distant. And to be a part of the bubble, you have to act as if you have gone international with a fake accent and all that –
Document
6/23/2009 11:39:51 AM Aditya Corp Inc
Page 3
meaning cut off from the crowd. I don‟t want that, I want to be a people‟s writer. And yes, media is not covering India. It‟s a very obvious logic; all offices are in Delhi or Mumbai. But 90 percent of India is outside. Media organisations have a bunch of very smart people, but they are out-of-touch. So, they report on things which they like but miss the point. So, sometimes my book becomes more relevant than news. Shivangi: Please tell us about your upcoming book? Chetan: It‟s a love story and it‟s a secret. I am afraid I can‟t reveal more. Shivangi: What was meeting Salman and Aamir like? Chetan: Salman is a superstar in the true sense of the word. He doesn‟t care whether he is hit or flop, he just feels like a superstar. When he first met me during the shoot of „Hello‟, he asked “Am I going to play him”. And, I asked, “Are you going to play me?” Don‟t know, who was more embarrassed. Aamir is a combination of style and talent and he understands his work. Shivangi: Please name the people whom you admire? Chetan: In films, I admire Aamir for his work. Cool Farhan Akhtar for his versatility. I want to work with him. Dhoni in cricket, I believe he is better than Tendulkar as India‟s captain. Sheila Dixit and Advani in politics. Advani is actually trying to focus on today‟s generation. In literature, Gulzar is my favourite. Shivangi: What is your message to upcoming writers? Chetan: Talent and perseverance are the key to success. Talent is God‟s gift, you have to accept your limitations. Writing is not paying - you have to persevere and not lose hope. Shivangi: If you are given one chance to do something for the country, what would you do? Chetan: I would like to be in the same place as the PM. Not MP, not MLA, but the PM, so that I get the power to change the country for better. I will stop writing if I get the power. Shivangi: What is the real Chetan Bhagat like? Chetan: Chetan Bhagat is a dreamer, willing to work to achieve his dreams.
My Fundays
Chetan Bhagat his books, one night at a call centre and five point someone have been national bestsellers. His latest book is The 3 mistakes of my life
As a child, I lived in a middle-income group flat in Naraina in west Delhi, with my parents and my younger brother. For a long time, my father’s two brothers and their families shared the flat with us, so it meant a lot of cousins living together in a cramped space. My mother had a government job in Delhi, and my father was in the Indian Army — he was posted out most of the time.
School used to be a lot of fun and still holds a very special place in my heart. I remember we had to wear shorts to school until class VIII. Now, it gets awfully cold in Delhi in winter and we used to shiver in the army trucks that used to come and pick us up every morning. I went to Army Public School, which was famous for everything apart from studies! It produced several batches of brave soldiers for the Indian Army. It also had a record for producing celebrities — my batch alone had stars such as actor Shiney Ahuja, model Manpreet Brar, fashion designer Ranna Gill and author Abha Dawesar.
In school, I was always involved in some kind of naughty trick or the other. Me and my gang of friends strongly believed that if we didn’t do anything naughty all week, it was effectively a wasted week! I blew up the chemistry lab once. On another occasion, I locked in an entire classroom of school kids that included the girl I had a crush on. I thought that would somehow make me cool in her eyes, but it definitely didn't.
Another special childhood memory is that of visiting a sports shop near my house. It stored all kinds of sports equipment and lots of good stationery, toys and stickers, all of which happened to be my favourites. I used to spend almost all my pocket money in that shop. But little did I know then that this would become the inspiration for the ‘Team India Cricket Shop’ in my book The 3 Mistakes Of My Life.
Competition is very high when you are young, which is ironic since you, as a child, are at the most fun age of your life. But I think the only way to live happily through it is to balance it out. Have fun, work hard. Don’t be serious, just be sincere!
AS TOLD TO ANIRBAN DAS MAHAPATRA
As a child, I lived in a middle-income group flat in Naraina in west Delhi, with my parents and my younger brother. For a long time, my father’s two brothers and their families shared the flat with us, so it meant a lot of cousins living together in a cramped space. My mother had a government job in Delhi, and my father was in the Indian Army — he was posted out most of the time.
School used to be a lot of fun and still holds a very special place in my heart. I remember we had to wear shorts to school until class VIII. Now, it gets awfully cold in Delhi in winter and we used to shiver in the army trucks that used to come and pick us up every morning. I went to Army Public School, which was famous for everything apart from studies! It produced several batches of brave soldiers for the Indian Army. It also had a record for producing celebrities — my batch alone had stars such as actor Shiney Ahuja, model Manpreet Brar, fashion designer Ranna Gill and author Abha Dawesar.
In school, I was always involved in some kind of naughty trick or the other. Me and my gang of friends strongly believed that if we didn’t do anything naughty all week, it was effectively a wasted week! I blew up the chemistry lab once. On another occasion, I locked in an entire classroom of school kids that included the girl I had a crush on. I thought that would somehow make me cool in her eyes, but it definitely didn't.
Another special childhood memory is that of visiting a sports shop near my house. It stored all kinds of sports equipment and lots of good stationery, toys and stickers, all of which happened to be my favourites. I used to spend almost all my pocket money in that shop. But little did I know then that this would become the inspiration for the ‘Team India Cricket Shop’ in my book The 3 Mistakes Of My Life.
Competition is very high when you are young, which is ironic since you, as a child, are at the most fun age of your life. But I think the only way to live happily through it is to balance it out. Have fun, work hard. Don’t be serious, just be sincere!
AS TOLD TO ANIRBAN DAS MAHAPATRA
Marathon woman
INTERVIEW WITH GUL PANAG
How did you land your role in Hello?
I had read the book One Night @ The Call Center and I heard that Atul Agnihotri was making a film on it. So I went to meet him. He offered me Radhika’s part. In my usual impulsive manner I told him ‘Sorry, Radhika’s character doesn’t excite me. However, I can see myself as Priyanka.’ Atul took a split second and said, ‘Fine; if you are so convinced then I am convinced too’.
What was so interesting about this character?
Priyanka is a multi-dimensional character. She is very much a girl of today. She is very grey. She is faced by the dilemma of making a choice between love and a stable future. Priyanka is the most interesting and complex character I have done by far.
The film has a lovemaking scene between Sharman and you...
That’s not a first for me. I have had a lovemaking scene in every single film of mine. I am not one of those actresses who makes a noise about kissing on screen. If you are an actor, then such scenes are part of your job.
Would you sport a bikini on screen?
What do we swim in? If your scene demands you to be in the water, you wear a swimsuit.
Of late, you have been getting strong reactions for your glam makeover...
It’s frustrating when you are asked a question like ‘Oh Gul, we have been seeing you in a really glamorous avatar of late’. I demand to know, ‘When have you seen me in a salwar kameez? The other day I was Googling my images and there wasn’t a single picture of me in sari or salwar kameez. I am just the same.’
But would you like to do glamorous roles?
Why not! I can’t be glamorous for the sake of glamorous. I got the greatest compliment from Mr (Subhash) Ghai. He said ‘I can’t tell you how sexy you are looking in Hello Darling’. I play a very glamorous part inHello as well.
In Hello Darling you have to interact with lecherous men. How do you deal with them in real life?
Men know the sort of woman they can take liberties with. I am just not the sort of woman whom a man can approach. I don’t give anybody that vibe.
Both Hello and Hello Darling have three female stars. Is it easy to get along with female co-stars?
Competition is natural. It wasn’t difficult but I wouldn’t say it was a cakewalk either. One has to try and make an effort to maintain cordiality at times.
You have done very few films in all these years. Why?
I am happy to say that every single film that I have been associated with has belonged to the category of good cinema. They have been critically acclaimed.
You are looking forward to...
A long innings. I am not here to win a 100m race. I am here to be able to run the full marathon. I am not here for five-six years, to make a killing and become a society wife or a pseudo activist. If I wanted that, I would have chosen a different path, and tried every trick in the trade to grab eyeballs. I don’t want to be just a hero’s wife or girlfriend. Because that is not what’s going to help me 20 years down the road, it’s only the strength of my performance and talent that will sustain me. You can’t wake up after five years and decide that ‘Now I’m going to do good cinema and hope that people should forget the trash I have done this far’. People may think that I belong to serious cinema but cinema is a serious business at the end of the day. I’d love to do a fantasy film or a futuristic film.
So is there a special man in Gul’s life?
There may be or may not be. Why should we go into that?
But why would a liberated person like you want to hide?
This is one place I feel a line should be drawn. Because it can and sometimes does involve another person and violating somebody else’s privacy is not fair. Maybe some people like being known as actresses’ boyfriends but there are people who don’t.
MAULI SINGH (BNS)
How did you land your role in Hello?
I had read the book One Night @ The Call Center and I heard that Atul Agnihotri was making a film on it. So I went to meet him. He offered me Radhika’s part. In my usual impulsive manner I told him ‘Sorry, Radhika’s character doesn’t excite me. However, I can see myself as Priyanka.’ Atul took a split second and said, ‘Fine; if you are so convinced then I am convinced too’.
What was so interesting about this character?
Priyanka is a multi-dimensional character. She is very much a girl of today. She is very grey. She is faced by the dilemma of making a choice between love and a stable future. Priyanka is the most interesting and complex character I have done by far.
The film has a lovemaking scene between Sharman and you...
That’s not a first for me. I have had a lovemaking scene in every single film of mine. I am not one of those actresses who makes a noise about kissing on screen. If you are an actor, then such scenes are part of your job.
Would you sport a bikini on screen?
What do we swim in? If your scene demands you to be in the water, you wear a swimsuit.
Of late, you have been getting strong reactions for your glam makeover...
It’s frustrating when you are asked a question like ‘Oh Gul, we have been seeing you in a really glamorous avatar of late’. I demand to know, ‘When have you seen me in a salwar kameez? The other day I was Googling my images and there wasn’t a single picture of me in sari or salwar kameez. I am just the same.’
But would you like to do glamorous roles?
Why not! I can’t be glamorous for the sake of glamorous. I got the greatest compliment from Mr (Subhash) Ghai. He said ‘I can’t tell you how sexy you are looking in Hello Darling’. I play a very glamorous part inHello as well.
In Hello Darling you have to interact with lecherous men. How do you deal with them in real life?
Men know the sort of woman they can take liberties with. I am just not the sort of woman whom a man can approach. I don’t give anybody that vibe.
Both Hello and Hello Darling have three female stars. Is it easy to get along with female co-stars?
Competition is natural. It wasn’t difficult but I wouldn’t say it was a cakewalk either. One has to try and make an effort to maintain cordiality at times.
You have done very few films in all these years. Why?
I am happy to say that every single film that I have been associated with has belonged to the category of good cinema. They have been critically acclaimed.
You are looking forward to...
A long innings. I am not here to win a 100m race. I am here to be able to run the full marathon. I am not here for five-six years, to make a killing and become a society wife or a pseudo activist. If I wanted that, I would have chosen a different path, and tried every trick in the trade to grab eyeballs. I don’t want to be just a hero’s wife or girlfriend. Because that is not what’s going to help me 20 years down the road, it’s only the strength of my performance and talent that will sustain me. You can’t wake up after five years and decide that ‘Now I’m going to do good cinema and hope that people should forget the trash I have done this far’. People may think that I belong to serious cinema but cinema is a serious business at the end of the day. I’d love to do a fantasy film or a futuristic film.
So is there a special man in Gul’s life?
There may be or may not be. Why should we go into that?
But why would a liberated person like you want to hide?
This is one place I feel a line should be drawn. Because it can and sometimes does involve another person and violating somebody else’s privacy is not fair. Maybe some people like being known as actresses’ boyfriends but there are people who don’t.
MAULI SINGH (BNS)
Ice, called water
Sudeshna Banerjee on the wonders and dangers of learning to live the American way
A Calcuttan without guidance can cut an uneasy figure in America. First, she would lose her voice. Then, if she were non-Christian and a believer, she would be in peril of losing her faith at the meal table. Then of course would be the myriad stumbling blocks that the ways of a developed country can pose to one from a land of have-some-but-not-much.
Even after so much globalisation and familiarity, there is a lot that I faced, fought and gaped at during a two-month trip to dollardom. The journey was occasioned by my selection in a Rotary Foundation-sponsored cultural exchange programme between our local Rotary district 3291 and its counterpart on the Mississippi banks, district 6800.
Before leaving, we were put through numerous orientation sessions. But nobody told us about the piles of ice they put in their water. The first meal I had ordered was a soup at Thank God It’s Friday, a fine establishment that operated on the ground floor of the Memphis hotel we were put up in. The soup was scalding. So I asked for water. They gave me a huge glass of ice. “Excuse me,” I beckoned the big African-American hostess with her hair tied up in minuscule knots and partially dyed golden. “Can I have some water, please?” “That’s waatr on your taible, honey,” she pointed at the ice tub. “I mean, some water without ice?” Seconds of stunned incomprehension followed. “You waant your waatr without ayice?” She was looking at a specimen from Mars and I was ready to dig a hole deep enough to take me back home.
After a week or so, I got the hang of it. They pay for their drink, get a huge glass, walk up to the drinks fountain, press the switch that cascades ice cubes into the glass up to its neck, then the leftover they’d fill with Sprite or Dr Pepper or Coke (I forget the other options). I would go look for a mini glass for the dips so that I could have my lemonade neat and in a size I could stomach.
Wings of wisdom
But at the meal table, life was about tough choices as I was off what Americans call meat — beef and pork. Once having exhausted all chicken options on the menu, I sought help from the hostess. She suggested Buffalo Wings. “Buffalo meat?” I cringed. “Nah, it’s chicken.” I wasn’t sure. “She could be right. Buffaloes don’t have wings, chickens do,” a member of my team wondered. “But why should they call buffalo chicken?” I was adamant. It ended in me opting for just a broccoli cheese soup. It’s a different matter that later when I’d travel to Niagara Falls, I would pass through a town called Buffalo. The city, I gathered, claimed credit for the dish, hence the name for what is actually an American institution.
The most interesting part of the programme allowed us to stay with American families. Which meant learning how to switch from Indian standard time to clock time, rinsing our dishes and putting them in the dish-washer and learning how to say “yall”. That is Southern for “you all”. Despite severe attempts, I failed to pick up the drawl.
At Tupelo, our first stop was the house where Elvis Presley was born. The second stop was a nature park where the billed attraction was buffaloes. On a $10 ticket each, we were put in a bus that took us to an open-air enclosure around which fodder was placed. And soon the beasts gathered around us in hordes. “Wow, dad, isn’t he huge?” an American boy gushed to his father. Do Calcutta kids say that when buffaloes amble about on Chitpur-Burrabazar streets?
The park also had an old Royal Bengal Tiger. He was royalty as tiger is the mascot for the local basketball team, Memphis Tigers. Eyebrows were raised when I pointed out that the beast came from our land. Most of what they use is Made in China, so the Made in Bengal tag must have sounded very foreign.
First World opulence and opportunities also left us awe-struck. In a school that we visited in Amory, a little town of 7,000 (it would qualify as a village had it not had such superb facilities), a reading class was in progress. Kids were reading not from textbooks but from computers. The teacher explained that they were reading a news report. What popped our eyes was that the software was such that the student could adjust the language level on the basis of his comprehension ability. Even then if he got stuck at a word, the software explained the meaning at a mouse click. And all our student life, we had to lug that big fat dictionary to the table!
Sound of silence
At night, a round metallic device at the bedside caught our eye. “Is it a clock? Is it a mosquito repellent?” we wondered, till our hostess, hearing our debate, enlightened us with a smile: “No, it’s a noise-maker.”
Well, in the Mississippi, things are so quiet at night, some people find it difficult to sleep. So they spend dollars on this device which produces a droning sound to break the monotony of silence! “Will someone give us a silence-maker, please, to take home?” the Calcuttan in me groaned.
Minus the ice in the water, life is good over there. The next time I edit a burglary report for my paper, I’ll remember how my hostess in Amory Robin Christensen left the house key taped to the front door when she had to leave and I was to return early. I had even bargained for a handsome property on sale in recession-hit Memphis. “Did you say, $5,000? That’s not bad!” my eyes had lit up. “Err, $50,000,” my informer repeated. The extra zero made sure I flew back to Calcutta, double-quick.
P.S: After reading a report on the Bengal elections in The New York Times, one of my American hosts, freshly enthused about all things Bengal, has written asking if I am related to Mamata Banerjee since our surnames match. I have yet to send a reply.
A Calcuttan without guidance can cut an uneasy figure in America. First, she would lose her voice. Then, if she were non-Christian and a believer, she would be in peril of losing her faith at the meal table. Then of course would be the myriad stumbling blocks that the ways of a developed country can pose to one from a land of have-some-but-not-much.
Even after so much globalisation and familiarity, there is a lot that I faced, fought and gaped at during a two-month trip to dollardom. The journey was occasioned by my selection in a Rotary Foundation-sponsored cultural exchange programme between our local Rotary district 3291 and its counterpart on the Mississippi banks, district 6800.
Before leaving, we were put through numerous orientation sessions. But nobody told us about the piles of ice they put in their water. The first meal I had ordered was a soup at Thank God It’s Friday, a fine establishment that operated on the ground floor of the Memphis hotel we were put up in. The soup was scalding. So I asked for water. They gave me a huge glass of ice. “Excuse me,” I beckoned the big African-American hostess with her hair tied up in minuscule knots and partially dyed golden. “Can I have some water, please?” “That’s waatr on your taible, honey,” she pointed at the ice tub. “I mean, some water without ice?” Seconds of stunned incomprehension followed. “You waant your waatr without ayice?” She was looking at a specimen from Mars and I was ready to dig a hole deep enough to take me back home.
After a week or so, I got the hang of it. They pay for their drink, get a huge glass, walk up to the drinks fountain, press the switch that cascades ice cubes into the glass up to its neck, then the leftover they’d fill with Sprite or Dr Pepper or Coke (I forget the other options). I would go look for a mini glass for the dips so that I could have my lemonade neat and in a size I could stomach.
Wings of wisdom
But at the meal table, life was about tough choices as I was off what Americans call meat — beef and pork. Once having exhausted all chicken options on the menu, I sought help from the hostess. She suggested Buffalo Wings. “Buffalo meat?” I cringed. “Nah, it’s chicken.” I wasn’t sure. “She could be right. Buffaloes don’t have wings, chickens do,” a member of my team wondered. “But why should they call buffalo chicken?” I was adamant. It ended in me opting for just a broccoli cheese soup. It’s a different matter that later when I’d travel to Niagara Falls, I would pass through a town called Buffalo. The city, I gathered, claimed credit for the dish, hence the name for what is actually an American institution.
The most interesting part of the programme allowed us to stay with American families. Which meant learning how to switch from Indian standard time to clock time, rinsing our dishes and putting them in the dish-washer and learning how to say “yall”. That is Southern for “you all”. Despite severe attempts, I failed to pick up the drawl.
At Tupelo, our first stop was the house where Elvis Presley was born. The second stop was a nature park where the billed attraction was buffaloes. On a $10 ticket each, we were put in a bus that took us to an open-air enclosure around which fodder was placed. And soon the beasts gathered around us in hordes. “Wow, dad, isn’t he huge?” an American boy gushed to his father. Do Calcutta kids say that when buffaloes amble about on Chitpur-Burrabazar streets?
The park also had an old Royal Bengal Tiger. He was royalty as tiger is the mascot for the local basketball team, Memphis Tigers. Eyebrows were raised when I pointed out that the beast came from our land. Most of what they use is Made in China, so the Made in Bengal tag must have sounded very foreign.
First World opulence and opportunities also left us awe-struck. In a school that we visited in Amory, a little town of 7,000 (it would qualify as a village had it not had such superb facilities), a reading class was in progress. Kids were reading not from textbooks but from computers. The teacher explained that they were reading a news report. What popped our eyes was that the software was such that the student could adjust the language level on the basis of his comprehension ability. Even then if he got stuck at a word, the software explained the meaning at a mouse click. And all our student life, we had to lug that big fat dictionary to the table!
Sound of silence
At night, a round metallic device at the bedside caught our eye. “Is it a clock? Is it a mosquito repellent?” we wondered, till our hostess, hearing our debate, enlightened us with a smile: “No, it’s a noise-maker.”
Well, in the Mississippi, things are so quiet at night, some people find it difficult to sleep. So they spend dollars on this device which produces a droning sound to break the monotony of silence! “Will someone give us a silence-maker, please, to take home?” the Calcuttan in me groaned.
Minus the ice in the water, life is good over there. The next time I edit a burglary report for my paper, I’ll remember how my hostess in Amory Robin Christensen left the house key taped to the front door when she had to leave and I was to return early. I had even bargained for a handsome property on sale in recession-hit Memphis. “Did you say, $5,000? That’s not bad!” my eyes had lit up. “Err, $50,000,” my informer repeated. The extra zero made sure I flew back to Calcutta, double-quick.
P.S: After reading a report on the Bengal elections in The New York Times, one of my American hosts, freshly enthused about all things Bengal, has written asking if I am related to Mamata Banerjee since our surnames match. I have yet to send a reply.
Hello! goodbye!
Say Hello to Chetan Bhagat! The erstwhile IIT-IIM-ian, who has sold a lot of 100-rupee books, now wants to be Bollywood’s Stephen King and John Grisham rolled into one. Because Hello is not only an adaptation of Bha¬ gat’s “international bestseller” One Night @ The Call Center, but it also turns him into screen¬ play-and-dialogue writer.
No wonder, just like One Night..., his second book, the screen adaptation is lousy, over-simplified and melodramatic. Directed by the erstwhile actor Atul Agnihotri (remember Pooja Bhatt’s wooden lover in Sir?), who earlier made the weepy sleepy Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha, Hello has such a dragging narrative that it doesn’t even deserve to be a daily soap on TV. Bhagat being the screenplay writer, the film hardly makes any changes to the book. The plot points are ditto. Same for the flashback points. Only it starts off and ends differently, with the person listening to the story being Salman Khan, as the superstar. He promises the storyteller (Katrina Kaif, in the film’s other special appearance) that if she tells him the story he would make it into a film.
As if the story wasn’t lame enough, the way it’s told by Atul makes things worse. While building on the individual problems of the six call centre employees, he neglects the bigger picture completely. The underlying tension in the book, of call volumes from the US going down dramatically and the desperation for an incoming call, is just not there. So at the end, when six becomes 600 — not a single other call centre employee is shown prior to that! — the Rang De Basanti-like let’s-give-it-back-to-them rousing speech has very little effect.
What works to a large extent, primarily because of their performances, is the love story between Sharman Joshi and Gul Panag. She loves him but would rather marry the Lexus-driving NRI. He loves her but is seeing a chalti-firticartoon network to get over her. Also quite effective is the chemistry between Sharman and Sohail with their riotous one-liners. There’s a must- watch toilet scene, where they fall over each other at all the wrong places at the wrong times. But for those two pluses, there are millions of minuses. Ishaa Koppikar as the aspiring-model- gone-astray and Amrita Arora as the housewife- in-distress are terribly miscast. Dalip Tahil’s stage hangover continues as he plays the I-love- my-America boss way over the top. Add two noisy songs (Sajid-Wajid) in the middle somewhere. Even that could have been dealt with, but the telephone call from God — supposed to be the pièce de résistance — is so 80s Doordarshan, so frightfully old school, that there’s nothing left to savour or salvage.
For Salman fans, there’s good news and bad news. Yes, he takes off his shirt but he is there for just two songs and one scene, which is cut into three parts. Even that seems an overstay, given Salman’s drowsy indifference. But given the story, even if it’s Katrina narrating it to him, we can’t really blame the man. You would do well to follow suit and doze off.
As for Mr Bhagat, we hope God gives you a call and keeps you away from Rajkumar Hirani’s adaptation of that other marginally better book of yours. Otherwise you might just look like one of the 3 Idiots.
PRATIM D. GUPTA
No wonder, just like One Night..., his second book, the screen adaptation is lousy, over-simplified and melodramatic. Directed by the erstwhile actor Atul Agnihotri (remember Pooja Bhatt’s wooden lover in Sir?), who earlier made the weepy sleepy Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha, Hello has such a dragging narrative that it doesn’t even deserve to be a daily soap on TV. Bhagat being the screenplay writer, the film hardly makes any changes to the book. The plot points are ditto. Same for the flashback points. Only it starts off and ends differently, with the person listening to the story being Salman Khan, as the superstar. He promises the storyteller (Katrina Kaif, in the film’s other special appearance) that if she tells him the story he would make it into a film.
As if the story wasn’t lame enough, the way it’s told by Atul makes things worse. While building on the individual problems of the six call centre employees, he neglects the bigger picture completely. The underlying tension in the book, of call volumes from the US going down dramatically and the desperation for an incoming call, is just not there. So at the end, when six becomes 600 — not a single other call centre employee is shown prior to that! — the Rang De Basanti-like let’s-give-it-back-to-them rousing speech has very little effect.
What works to a large extent, primarily because of their performances, is the love story between Sharman Joshi and Gul Panag. She loves him but would rather marry the Lexus-driving NRI. He loves her but is seeing a chalti-firticartoon network to get over her. Also quite effective is the chemistry between Sharman and Sohail with their riotous one-liners. There’s a must- watch toilet scene, where they fall over each other at all the wrong places at the wrong times. But for those two pluses, there are millions of minuses. Ishaa Koppikar as the aspiring-model- gone-astray and Amrita Arora as the housewife- in-distress are terribly miscast. Dalip Tahil’s stage hangover continues as he plays the I-love- my-America boss way over the top. Add two noisy songs (Sajid-Wajid) in the middle somewhere. Even that could have been dealt with, but the telephone call from God — supposed to be the pièce de résistance — is so 80s Doordarshan, so frightfully old school, that there’s nothing left to savour or salvage.
For Salman fans, there’s good news and bad news. Yes, he takes off his shirt but he is there for just two songs and one scene, which is cut into three parts. Even that seems an overstay, given Salman’s drowsy indifference. But given the story, even if it’s Katrina narrating it to him, we can’t really blame the man. You would do well to follow suit and doze off.
As for Mr Bhagat, we hope God gives you a call and keeps you away from Rajkumar Hirani’s adaptation of that other marginally better book of yours. Otherwise you might just look like one of the 3 Idiots.
PRATIM D. GUPTA
Introducing the Google Chrome OS
7/07/2009 09:37:00 PM
It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be. Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work. Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform. Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google. We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet. We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer. Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director
It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be. Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work. Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform. Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google. We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet. We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer. Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director
Five Point Someone Review
Five Point Someone
Chetan Bhagat
Rupa & Co. 2004
This book illustrates how students waste their opportunities in college years if they don’t
think straight. Through the story of three friends, the book describes various facets of IIT
life – the academics, the professors, campus life and the rat race to get better grades.
Introduction
The author is more concerned about what to do after getting admission into an IIT than
the admission process itself. He points out that getting into IIT is not all that difficult as is
made out to be. As he puts it, “If you can lock yourself in a room with books for two
years and throw away the key, you can probably make it here.”
Sheer brilliance
The book brings out the sheer brilliance of IIT students in a very subtle way. One
professor mentions, “The definition of a machine is simple. It is anything that reduces
human effort. Anything. So, see the world around you and it is full of machines.” A
student, Ryan asks: “Sir, what about a gym machine, like a bench press or something?
That doesn’t reduce human effort. In fact, it increases it.” The professor does not know
how to respond. People who have studied in IITs know how students can pose fairly
challenging questions based on their common sense and without any prior knowledge and
unsettle teachers in the class.
Again, when a professor asks students to design a car jack to lift the chassis in case of flat
ties etc. Ryan draws a ‘modified screw-jack,’ in which one does not have to open
manually and raise the jack. A flat tire does not mean the engine has failed. Hence once
can attach a motor on the traditional jack and hook it up to the car battery. If one switches
on the car ignition, the motor car derives power. Ryan is very happy with the design.
But the professor finds it difficult to accept this original thinking. The conversation
proceeds as follows:
“What is this?”
“Sir, this modified screw-jack, It can be attached to the car’s battery…”
“Is this an electrical engineering class?”
“No sir but the end need is the same…”
“Is this an internal combustion engines class?”
“Sir but…”
“If you don’t want to be in my class or follow my course, you may leave.”
This example shows that many professors at the IITs are totally unequipped to handle the
brilliant students who study there.
The Gaps
The limitations of IITs are brought out vividly in a get-together involving students. Ryan
remarks, “You know guys, this whole IIT system is sick. Because, tell me, how many
great engineers or scientists have come out of IIT? I mean that is supposed to be the best
college in India, the best technology institute for a country of a billion. But has IIT ever
invented anything? Or made any technical contribution to India? Over thirty years of
IITs, yet, all it does is train some bring kids to work in multinationals. I mean look at
MIT in the USA… What is wrong in the system… This system of relative grading and
overburdening the students. I mean it kills the best fun years of your life. But it kills
something else. Where is the room for original though? Where is the time for creativity?
It is not fair.”
The mice race
Competition is intense in the IITs. The pressures which the IIT grading system puts on
students are captured in one professor’s remarks at the end of his class: “Best of luck
once again for your stay here. Remember, as your head of department Prof Cherian says,
the tough workload is by design, to keep you on your toes. And respect the grading
system. You get bad grades, and I assure you – you get no job, no school and no future.
If you do well, the world is your oyster. So, don’t slip, not even once, or there will be no
oyster, just slush.”
At the same time, there are some professors who are different and whom students adore.
The heroes of the book never miss the fluid mechanics class in the fourth semester and
the reason is Prof. Veera, who is completely different. He is twenty years younger than
other profs. No more than thirty, he comes dressed in jeans and T-shirts, which bears his
US university logos. He holds five degrees from top universities – MIT, Cornell,
Princeton etc. He carries his CD player with him, and after class, he plugs it into his ears
before he leaves the classroom. Prof. Veera makes it clear that he likes students who can
think creatively and put the principles taught in the class into practice. Ryan builds a
special relationship with this professor.
Ryan comes up with the Mice Theory to explain the problems in the IITs: “This IIT
system is nothing but a mice race. It is not a rat race, mind you, as rats sound somewhat
shrewd and clever. So it is not about that. It is about mindlessly running a race for four
years, in every class, every assignment and every test. It is about mindlessly running a
race for four years, in every class, every assignment and every test. It is a race where
profs judge you every ten steps, with a GPA stamped on you every semester.”
Ryan concludes that the IIT system is unfair because:
1. It suppresses talent and individual spirit.
2. It extracts the best years of one’s life from the country’s brightest minds.
3. It judges students with a draconian GPA system that destroys relationships.
4. The profs don’t care for the students.
5. IITs have hardly contributed to the country.
Real drama
It is in the last part, that the book really comes alive. The traumatic final year which
includes disciplinary action against the heroes of the book, Rayan, Hari and Alok for
trying to steal an examination paper. There is an attempted suicide by Alok. But all the
problems fortunately get sorted out. Finally, the time has come to graduate. In a dream
sequence, one professor accepts the limitations of the grading system while making his
convocation address:
“Once upon a time there was a student in IIT. He was very bright, and this is true, his
GPA was 10.00 after four years. He didn’t have a lot of friends, as to keep such a high
GPA, you only have so much time for friends.”
“This bright boy thought his classmates were less smart than him, were selfish and
wanted to make the most money or go to the USA with minimum effort. And many of
his classmates did go to work for multinationals and some went abroad. Some of them
opened their own companies in the USA – mostly in computers and software.”
The bright boy stayed behind. Because he had principles he did not want to use his
education for selfish personal gain. He wanted to help the country. He wanted to do
research and he stayed back at IIT. Of course, getting a research project approved in IIT
was not easy. The boy still kept trying but apart from being a professor, there was not
much he could achieve here. Ten years passed, when his friends from college visited
home. One of them had a GPA of seven point something, and he had his own software
company. The turnover had reached two hundred million dollars. Another friend was
heading a toothpaste MNC, and came in a BMW. But even this did not bother the
principled bright boy.
The professor mentioned: “As you guessed, that bright boy was me. And at that time I
thought it didn't matter if others had achieved more personally.” He was still the one with
the better GPA, the smarter one, the brighter one. Somehow, on that day, he decided my
son must get into IIT. He wanted his son to carry on his family's strong intellectual
tradition. But his son wanted to be a lawyer and hated maths. The professor hated him for
hating maths. He pushed him hard just as he pushed students. He failed to get in the first
time and the professor made life hell for him. His son failed a second time and the
professor made his life an even bigger hell. Then the son failed to get in the third time.
And this time, he killed himself.
The professor continues: "You all know that I have a daughter. But I also had a son, who
died in a rail track accident five years ago. At that time, we thought it was an accident.
But this is my son's letter I got only a few weeks ago. He wrote this to my daughter on
the day he died. He killed himself because he did not get into IIT. He killed himself
because of me."
"I am sorry everyone for bringing up this sad story on your special day. I told myself that
if I admit to my mistake publicly, perhaps my son will forgive me. And I wanted to thank the one student in this class because of who I found out the truth. It is my daughter's
boyfriend – Hari (the author). And he is here sitting right in the front row."
Then the prof. points at the central figures of the book, "Let me tell you something about
this boy Hari and his friends Alok and Ryan. They are the under-performers. That is what
I used to call students with low GPAs. And they do have a low GPA - five point
something is low, right?"
The professor’s daughter had found it easier to trust Hari with the letter. She had defied
the professor, lied to him and ignored him just to meet him. Somewhere down the line,
the professor had gone really wrong.
The professor adds, “And that is when I realized that GPAs make a good student, but not
a good person. We judge people here by their GPA. If you are a nine, you are the best. If
you are a five, you are useless. I used to despise the low GPAs so much that when Ryan
submitted a research proposal on lubricants, I judged it without even reading it. But these
boys have something really promising. I saw the proposal the second time. I can tell you,
any investor who invests in this will earn a rainbow."
Hari and Alok join software companies which ironically enough were underrated in the
early 1990s. Alok makes enough money in a few months to pull his family out of the
deep financial crisis they were going through. Ryan ends up becoming a businessman,
thanks to the encouragement of Prof. Veera. A happy ending to a well written book.
Conclusion
The message for IIT students is captured in the professor’s address: “One, believe in
yourself, and don't let a GPA, performance review or promotion in a job define you.
There is more to life than these things - your family, your friends, your internal desires
and goals. And the grades you get in dealing with each of these areas will define you as a
person.”
"Two, don't judge others too quickly. I thought my son was useless because he didn't get
into IIT. I tell you what, I was a useless father. It is great to get into IIT, but it is not the
end of the world if you don't. All of you should be proud to have the IIT tag, but never
ever judge anyone who is not from this institute - that alone can define the greatness of
this institute."
The style of this book is quite different from the book “The IITians” by Sandipen Deb.
But there is a common thread. IIT students should not be made after grades. They must
spend as much time in pursuing extra curriculum activities as on their course work.
Rayan, clearly, is the hero of this book.
Chetan Bhagat
Rupa & Co. 2004
This book illustrates how students waste their opportunities in college years if they don’t
think straight. Through the story of three friends, the book describes various facets of IIT
life – the academics, the professors, campus life and the rat race to get better grades.
Introduction
The author is more concerned about what to do after getting admission into an IIT than
the admission process itself. He points out that getting into IIT is not all that difficult as is
made out to be. As he puts it, “If you can lock yourself in a room with books for two
years and throw away the key, you can probably make it here.”
Sheer brilliance
The book brings out the sheer brilliance of IIT students in a very subtle way. One
professor mentions, “The definition of a machine is simple. It is anything that reduces
human effort. Anything. So, see the world around you and it is full of machines.” A
student, Ryan asks: “Sir, what about a gym machine, like a bench press or something?
That doesn’t reduce human effort. In fact, it increases it.” The professor does not know
how to respond. People who have studied in IITs know how students can pose fairly
challenging questions based on their common sense and without any prior knowledge and
unsettle teachers in the class.
Again, when a professor asks students to design a car jack to lift the chassis in case of flat
ties etc. Ryan draws a ‘modified screw-jack,’ in which one does not have to open
manually and raise the jack. A flat tire does not mean the engine has failed. Hence once
can attach a motor on the traditional jack and hook it up to the car battery. If one switches
on the car ignition, the motor car derives power. Ryan is very happy with the design.
But the professor finds it difficult to accept this original thinking. The conversation
proceeds as follows:
“What is this?”
“Sir, this modified screw-jack, It can be attached to the car’s battery…”
“Is this an electrical engineering class?”
“No sir but the end need is the same…”
“Is this an internal combustion engines class?”
“Sir but…”
“If you don’t want to be in my class or follow my course, you may leave.”
This example shows that many professors at the IITs are totally unequipped to handle the
brilliant students who study there.
The Gaps
The limitations of IITs are brought out vividly in a get-together involving students. Ryan
remarks, “You know guys, this whole IIT system is sick. Because, tell me, how many
great engineers or scientists have come out of IIT? I mean that is supposed to be the best
college in India, the best technology institute for a country of a billion. But has IIT ever
invented anything? Or made any technical contribution to India? Over thirty years of
IITs, yet, all it does is train some bring kids to work in multinationals. I mean look at
MIT in the USA… What is wrong in the system… This system of relative grading and
overburdening the students. I mean it kills the best fun years of your life. But it kills
something else. Where is the room for original though? Where is the time for creativity?
It is not fair.”
The mice race
Competition is intense in the IITs. The pressures which the IIT grading system puts on
students are captured in one professor’s remarks at the end of his class: “Best of luck
once again for your stay here. Remember, as your head of department Prof Cherian says,
the tough workload is by design, to keep you on your toes. And respect the grading
system. You get bad grades, and I assure you – you get no job, no school and no future.
If you do well, the world is your oyster. So, don’t slip, not even once, or there will be no
oyster, just slush.”
At the same time, there are some professors who are different and whom students adore.
The heroes of the book never miss the fluid mechanics class in the fourth semester and
the reason is Prof. Veera, who is completely different. He is twenty years younger than
other profs. No more than thirty, he comes dressed in jeans and T-shirts, which bears his
US university logos. He holds five degrees from top universities – MIT, Cornell,
Princeton etc. He carries his CD player with him, and after class, he plugs it into his ears
before he leaves the classroom. Prof. Veera makes it clear that he likes students who can
think creatively and put the principles taught in the class into practice. Ryan builds a
special relationship with this professor.
Ryan comes up with the Mice Theory to explain the problems in the IITs: “This IIT
system is nothing but a mice race. It is not a rat race, mind you, as rats sound somewhat
shrewd and clever. So it is not about that. It is about mindlessly running a race for four
years, in every class, every assignment and every test. It is about mindlessly running a
race for four years, in every class, every assignment and every test. It is a race where
profs judge you every ten steps, with a GPA stamped on you every semester.”
Ryan concludes that the IIT system is unfair because:
1. It suppresses talent and individual spirit.
2. It extracts the best years of one’s life from the country’s brightest minds.
3. It judges students with a draconian GPA system that destroys relationships.
4. The profs don’t care for the students.
5. IITs have hardly contributed to the country.
Real drama
It is in the last part, that the book really comes alive. The traumatic final year which
includes disciplinary action against the heroes of the book, Rayan, Hari and Alok for
trying to steal an examination paper. There is an attempted suicide by Alok. But all the
problems fortunately get sorted out. Finally, the time has come to graduate. In a dream
sequence, one professor accepts the limitations of the grading system while making his
convocation address:
“Once upon a time there was a student in IIT. He was very bright, and this is true, his
GPA was 10.00 after four years. He didn’t have a lot of friends, as to keep such a high
GPA, you only have so much time for friends.”
“This bright boy thought his classmates were less smart than him, were selfish and
wanted to make the most money or go to the USA with minimum effort. And many of
his classmates did go to work for multinationals and some went abroad. Some of them
opened their own companies in the USA – mostly in computers and software.”
The bright boy stayed behind. Because he had principles he did not want to use his
education for selfish personal gain. He wanted to help the country. He wanted to do
research and he stayed back at IIT. Of course, getting a research project approved in IIT
was not easy. The boy still kept trying but apart from being a professor, there was not
much he could achieve here. Ten years passed, when his friends from college visited
home. One of them had a GPA of seven point something, and he had his own software
company. The turnover had reached two hundred million dollars. Another friend was
heading a toothpaste MNC, and came in a BMW. But even this did not bother the
principled bright boy.
The professor mentioned: “As you guessed, that bright boy was me. And at that time I
thought it didn't matter if others had achieved more personally.” He was still the one with
the better GPA, the smarter one, the brighter one. Somehow, on that day, he decided my
son must get into IIT. He wanted his son to carry on his family's strong intellectual
tradition. But his son wanted to be a lawyer and hated maths. The professor hated him for
hating maths. He pushed him hard just as he pushed students. He failed to get in the first
time and the professor made life hell for him. His son failed a second time and the
professor made his life an even bigger hell. Then the son failed to get in the third time.
And this time, he killed himself.
The professor continues: "You all know that I have a daughter. But I also had a son, who
died in a rail track accident five years ago. At that time, we thought it was an accident.
But this is my son's letter I got only a few weeks ago. He wrote this to my daughter on
the day he died. He killed himself because he did not get into IIT. He killed himself
because of me."
"I am sorry everyone for bringing up this sad story on your special day. I told myself that
if I admit to my mistake publicly, perhaps my son will forgive me. And I wanted to thank the one student in this class because of who I found out the truth. It is my daughter's
boyfriend – Hari (the author). And he is here sitting right in the front row."
Then the prof. points at the central figures of the book, "Let me tell you something about
this boy Hari and his friends Alok and Ryan. They are the under-performers. That is what
I used to call students with low GPAs. And they do have a low GPA - five point
something is low, right?"
The professor’s daughter had found it easier to trust Hari with the letter. She had defied
the professor, lied to him and ignored him just to meet him. Somewhere down the line,
the professor had gone really wrong.
The professor adds, “And that is when I realized that GPAs make a good student, but not
a good person. We judge people here by their GPA. If you are a nine, you are the best. If
you are a five, you are useless. I used to despise the low GPAs so much that when Ryan
submitted a research proposal on lubricants, I judged it without even reading it. But these
boys have something really promising. I saw the proposal the second time. I can tell you,
any investor who invests in this will earn a rainbow."
Hari and Alok join software companies which ironically enough were underrated in the
early 1990s. Alok makes enough money in a few months to pull his family out of the
deep financial crisis they were going through. Ryan ends up becoming a businessman,
thanks to the encouragement of Prof. Veera. A happy ending to a well written book.
Conclusion
The message for IIT students is captured in the professor’s address: “One, believe in
yourself, and don't let a GPA, performance review or promotion in a job define you.
There is more to life than these things - your family, your friends, your internal desires
and goals. And the grades you get in dealing with each of these areas will define you as a
person.”
"Two, don't judge others too quickly. I thought my son was useless because he didn't get
into IIT. I tell you what, I was a useless father. It is great to get into IIT, but it is not the
end of the world if you don't. All of you should be proud to have the IIT tag, but never
ever judge anyone who is not from this institute - that alone can define the greatness of
this institute."
The style of this book is quite different from the book “The IITians” by Sandipen Deb.
But there is a common thread. IIT students should not be made after grades. They must
spend as much time in pursuing extra curriculum activities as on their course work.
Rayan, clearly, is the hero of this book.
Farhan, Abhishek to adapt Chetan Bhagat's The 3 Mistakes Of My Life onscreen
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, June 27, 2009 - 13:44 IST
Well-known author Chetan Bhagat surely seems to have found his foothold in Bollywood. First his book 'One Night @ The Call Centre' was adapted into the motion picture Hello starring Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Sharman Joshi etc and then Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani decided to make his '5 Point Someone' into 3 Idiots with Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sharman Joshi and Madhavan in lead roles. Now the latest is that Chetan's most recent novel 'The 3 Mistakes Of My Life' will also be adapted into a motion picture and this time the makers are none other than Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani of Excel Entertainment. The film will be directed by Abhishek Kapoor who earlier directed the super-hit Rock On for Excel. Bollywood Hungama spoke to Chetan to get some more information on how the deal happened. "I was looking for a potential filmmaker to whom I could entrust the job of adapting my third book 'The 3 Mistakes Of My Life' onto celluloid. I happened to meet Farhan a couple of times and spoke to him about working together. He just casually mentioned that even Abhishek Kapoor was looking for a suitable script and that's when things started rolling. Abhishek read the book and really liked the characters. He thought it does have potential to be adapted into a motion picture and that's how things fell into place" So will Chetan be involved with the screenplay too? "Yes the screenplay is being jointly written by Abhishek, Pubali Chaudhary and I. We are still in the first few drafts. There may be minor changes in the film as compared to the book but primarily it will capture the main spirit of the book" The film's title and cast is yet to be decided upon. The film is likely to go on floors towards the end of this year or early next year.
Well-known author Chetan Bhagat surely seems to have found his foothold in Bollywood. First his book 'One Night @ The Call Centre' was adapted into the motion picture Hello starring Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Sharman Joshi etc and then Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani decided to make his '5 Point Someone' into 3 Idiots with Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sharman Joshi and Madhavan in lead roles. Now the latest is that Chetan's most recent novel 'The 3 Mistakes Of My Life' will also be adapted into a motion picture and this time the makers are none other than Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani of Excel Entertainment. The film will be directed by Abhishek Kapoor who earlier directed the super-hit Rock On for Excel. Bollywood Hungama spoke to Chetan to get some more information on how the deal happened. "I was looking for a potential filmmaker to whom I could entrust the job of adapting my third book 'The 3 Mistakes Of My Life' onto celluloid. I happened to meet Farhan a couple of times and spoke to him about working together. He just casually mentioned that even Abhishek Kapoor was looking for a suitable script and that's when things started rolling. Abhishek read the book and really liked the characters. He thought it does have potential to be adapted into a motion picture and that's how things fell into place" So will Chetan be involved with the screenplay too? "Yes the screenplay is being jointly written by Abhishek, Pubali Chaudhary and I. We are still in the first few drafts. There may be minor changes in the film as compared to the book but primarily it will capture the main spirit of the book" The film's title and cast is yet to be decided upon. The film is likely to go on floors towards the end of this year or early next year.
Core subjects score over new-age tools
MITA MUKHERJEE
The downturn is pushing computer-related subjects down the priority list of budding engineers, who are now preferring more core subjects such as civil, electrical, mechanical and chemical. The counselling for JEE rank-holders, which began on July 5, has revealed a sharp drop in interest among students in information technology, computer science and engineering and electronics and telecommunication. Officials in the JEE board attributed the trend to a dearth of jobs in the IT sector because of the downturn and increased opportunities in the “safer” sectors of infrastructure and manufacturing. “Even till last year, those who ranked within 200 would opt for computer science or electronics. But the trend has reversed, with toppers showing a preference for civil, electrical, mechanical and chemical and construction engineering,” said Siddhartha Dutta, the chairman of the JEE board and pro vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University. At JU, the student who had been admitted to the last seat in computer science last year had ranked a little below 200. The corresponding rank this year is 424.The first student to opt for civil engineering in 2008 in JU had ranked close to 600. This year, a student who had ranked within 100 was admitted to the first seat in the department. The first seat in construction engineering had gone to a student who had ranked 1,400 in 2008. This year, the opening rank was 94. The trend is similar at Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur. Besu registrar Biman Bandopadhyay said: “We were surprised to see that the last seat in our computer science course has been taken by a student whose rank is more than 1,000 on the JEE merit list. Last year, the department was out of bounds for those who had ranked 600-plus.” The IT scene is “gloomy”, said a student who opted for construction engineering in JU. In contrast, a lot of attractive avenues are opening up in the civil and construction engineering sectors. “No wonder good students are flocking to traditional courses,” he said. JEE board chairman Dutta, however, fears the trend might affect private engineering colleges, since their subject bouquets comprise mostly computer and related subjects. The core subjects are mostly taught in state-run institutions like JU and the Shibpur varsity. All private institutes are not worried though. “We have appointed competent teachers and set up quality infrastructure to attract good students to computer and IT-related subjects,” said B.N. Biswas, the chairman of the education division of the Supreme Knowledge Foundation Group of Institutions, which has recently set up a technical college in Hooghly. There are nearly 25,000 engineering seats in Bengal, of which around 3,500 are in government institutes.Of the 60,000-odd students on the JEE merit list, the counselling of nearly 15,000 is complete. Around 6,500 seats, including 3,000 in state-run institutes, have been filled up.
The downturn is pushing computer-related subjects down the priority list of budding engineers, who are now preferring more core subjects such as civil, electrical, mechanical and chemical. The counselling for JEE rank-holders, which began on July 5, has revealed a sharp drop in interest among students in information technology, computer science and engineering and electronics and telecommunication. Officials in the JEE board attributed the trend to a dearth of jobs in the IT sector because of the downturn and increased opportunities in the “safer” sectors of infrastructure and manufacturing. “Even till last year, those who ranked within 200 would opt for computer science or electronics. But the trend has reversed, with toppers showing a preference for civil, electrical, mechanical and chemical and construction engineering,” said Siddhartha Dutta, the chairman of the JEE board and pro vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University. At JU, the student who had been admitted to the last seat in computer science last year had ranked a little below 200. The corresponding rank this year is 424.The first student to opt for civil engineering in 2008 in JU had ranked close to 600. This year, a student who had ranked within 100 was admitted to the first seat in the department. The first seat in construction engineering had gone to a student who had ranked 1,400 in 2008. This year, the opening rank was 94. The trend is similar at Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur. Besu registrar Biman Bandopadhyay said: “We were surprised to see that the last seat in our computer science course has been taken by a student whose rank is more than 1,000 on the JEE merit list. Last year, the department was out of bounds for those who had ranked 600-plus.” The IT scene is “gloomy”, said a student who opted for construction engineering in JU. In contrast, a lot of attractive avenues are opening up in the civil and construction engineering sectors. “No wonder good students are flocking to traditional courses,” he said. JEE board chairman Dutta, however, fears the trend might affect private engineering colleges, since their subject bouquets comprise mostly computer and related subjects. The core subjects are mostly taught in state-run institutions like JU and the Shibpur varsity. All private institutes are not worried though. “We have appointed competent teachers and set up quality infrastructure to attract good students to computer and IT-related subjects,” said B.N. Biswas, the chairman of the education division of the Supreme Knowledge Foundation Group of Institutions, which has recently set up a technical college in Hooghly. There are nearly 25,000 engineering seats in Bengal, of which around 3,500 are in government institutes.Of the 60,000-odd students on the JEE merit list, the counselling of nearly 15,000 is complete. Around 6,500 seats, including 3,000 in state-run institutes, have been filled up.
Chicken-egg puzzle solved
London, May 28: It’s a question that has baffled scientists, academics and the man on the street through the ages: what came first, the chicken or the egg?
Now a team made up of a geneticist, philosopher and chicken farmer claim to have found an answer.
It was the egg. Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal’s life. Therefore, the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.
Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, said the living organism inside the egg shell would have had the same DNA as the chicken it would develop into.
“Therefore, the first living thing which we could say unequivocally was a member of the species would be this first egg,” he said. “So, I would conclude that the egg came first.”
The same conclusion was reached by his fellow scientists Professor David Papineau, of King’s College, London, and poultry farmer Charles Bourns.
Papineau, an expert in the philosophy of science, agreed that the first chicken came from an egg and that proves there were chicken eggs before chickens. He said people were mistaken if they argued that the mutant egg belonged to the “non-chicken” bird parents.
“I would argue it is a chicken egg if it has a chicken in it,” he said. “If a kangaroo laid an egg from which an ostrich hatched, that would surely be an ostrich egg, not a kangaroo egg,” he said.
Bourns, chairman of trade body Great British Chicken, said he was also firmly in the pro-egg camp. He said: “Eggs were around long before the first chicken arrived. Of course, they may not have been chicken eggs as we see them today, but they were eggs.”
Who came first?
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Now a team made up of a geneticist, philosopher and chicken farmer claim to have found an answer.
It was the egg. Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal’s life. Therefore, the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.
Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, said the living organism inside the egg shell would have had the same DNA as the chicken it would develop into.
“Therefore, the first living thing which we could say unequivocally was a member of the species would be this first egg,” he said. “So, I would conclude that the egg came first.”
The same conclusion was reached by his fellow scientists Professor David Papineau, of King’s College, London, and poultry farmer Charles Bourns.
Papineau, an expert in the philosophy of science, agreed that the first chicken came from an egg and that proves there were chicken eggs before chickens. He said people were mistaken if they argued that the mutant egg belonged to the “non-chicken” bird parents.
“I would argue it is a chicken egg if it has a chicken in it,” he said. “If a kangaroo laid an egg from which an ostrich hatched, that would surely be an ostrich egg, not a kangaroo egg,” he said.
Bourns, chairman of trade body Great British Chicken, said he was also firmly in the pro-egg camp. He said: “Eggs were around long before the first chicken arrived. Of course, they may not have been chicken eggs as we see them today, but they were eggs.”
Who came first?
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Chetan Bhagat's one more 'not to do'!
Dayananda Meitei / DNA
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 9:06 IST
Ahmedabad: Among many imposters, Chetan Bhagat himself was a regular user of Facebook. However, the author of bestsellers like 'Five Point Someone' won't be responding to your mails or messages on Facebook as much as he used to earlier.
In his effort to become a full-fledged writer, the banker-turned-writer is currently trying to spend more time with himself and cut down on his corporate ways.
Bhagat said, "Having lived a corporate life, I used to stay constantly connected with mails and social sites. But now I have started to cut it down."
Advised by 'Rock On' director Abhishek Kapoor to refrain from heavy socialising habits, the author has started leaving behind his corporate ways of staying continuously connected through emails on blackberries and updates and scraps on social sites. Kapoor is currently directing another movie which is an adaptation of Bhagat's third book 'The 3 Mistakes Of My Life'. "I am finding it very helpful for my writing," he said.
Talking about how the young people today are getting more and more entangled with the social sites and uploading many personal matters, Bhagat said, "These social sites are passive entertainment and do not enhance your creativity and imagination." Pointing out that it depends on how much time they spend on it, Bhagat suggested that the social sites could be a distraction for youths and students if they become obsessed to it. He said, "It depends whether you use it for six minutes or six hours a day." Sharing details about his fourth book, which is expected to hit bookstalls by Diwali this year, he said, "It will be a love story and very much like my first book (Five Point Someone)."
The IIT graduate who pursued his post-graduation in IIM-A in 1995-97 batch, was present in the city at an event called 'PROTON Academic Conclave '09 at Proton School of Business on SG Highway.
Proton to start with 200 students Proton Business School will be launching its first batch of MBA students in the city. The business schools plans to start its first batch with 200 students. Talking about Proton as a chain of schools, director of Strategic Initiatives at Proton, Manas Fuloria said, "We are planning to set up around 30 campuses in the country in five years. Our aim is to become Indian School of Business (ISB) for the middle class section in the country." Proton Business School in the city is the second campus in the country after its campus in Indore.
Chetan Bhagat has become the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India's history. He is the author of three bestsellers:Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The Three Mistakes of My Life.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 9:06 IST
Ahmedabad: Among many imposters, Chetan Bhagat himself was a regular user of Facebook. However, the author of bestsellers like 'Five Point Someone' won't be responding to your mails or messages on Facebook as much as he used to earlier.
In his effort to become a full-fledged writer, the banker-turned-writer is currently trying to spend more time with himself and cut down on his corporate ways.
Bhagat said, "Having lived a corporate life, I used to stay constantly connected with mails and social sites. But now I have started to cut it down."
Advised by 'Rock On' director Abhishek Kapoor to refrain from heavy socialising habits, the author has started leaving behind his corporate ways of staying continuously connected through emails on blackberries and updates and scraps on social sites. Kapoor is currently directing another movie which is an adaptation of Bhagat's third book 'The 3 Mistakes Of My Life'. "I am finding it very helpful for my writing," he said.
Talking about how the young people today are getting more and more entangled with the social sites and uploading many personal matters, Bhagat said, "These social sites are passive entertainment and do not enhance your creativity and imagination." Pointing out that it depends on how much time they spend on it, Bhagat suggested that the social sites could be a distraction for youths and students if they become obsessed to it. He said, "It depends whether you use it for six minutes or six hours a day." Sharing details about his fourth book, which is expected to hit bookstalls by Diwali this year, he said, "It will be a love story and very much like my first book (Five Point Someone)."
The IIT graduate who pursued his post-graduation in IIM-A in 1995-97 batch, was present in the city at an event called 'PROTON Academic Conclave '09 at Proton School of Business on SG Highway.
Proton to start with 200 students Proton Business School will be launching its first batch of MBA students in the city. The business schools plans to start its first batch with 200 students. Talking about Proton as a chain of schools, director of Strategic Initiatives at Proton, Manas Fuloria said, "We are planning to set up around 30 campuses in the country in five years. Our aim is to become Indian School of Business (ISB) for the middle class section in the country." Proton Business School in the city is the second campus in the country after its campus in Indore.
Chetan Bhagat has become the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India's history. He is the author of three bestsellers:Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The Three Mistakes of My Life.
“Becoming One With the World”
Speech given at the HT Leadership Summit
Delhi, November 21, 2008
© Chetan Bhagat
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to speak at the leadership summit – the first of its kind for me. I am no leader. At best, I am a dreamer with perseverance to make dreams come true. As I have made my own dreams come true already, I am tempted to think we can make my country’s dreams come true. And that is why I am here. Before we become one with the world we have to become one with ourselves. If we get our own house in order we don’t have to make an effort to be one with the world. The world will want to be one with us. Everyone wants to be friends with happy, rich, thriving neighbors. Nobody wants a family festered with disputes. A lot is wrong in my country. There are too many differences. The question is not who we blame for this. The question is how do we fix it? Because to do anything great, you have to become one first. Two generations ago, our forefathers came together to win us Independence. It isn’t like we didn’t have disputes then. Religion, caste, community have existed for centuries. But Gandhi brought them all together for a greater cause – to get the country free. Today, we have another greater cause. To get India its rightful place in the world. To see India the way the younger generation wants to see it. To make India a prosperous, developed country, where not only the spirit of patriotism, but also the standard of living is high. Where anyone with the talent, drive and hard work alone has the ability to make it. Where people don’t ask where you come from, but where you are going. We all know that India, as we have all dreamt of that India. There is a lot required to be done for this, and it doesn’t just start and end by blaming politicians. For in a democracy, we elect the politicians. If our thinking changes, our voting will change and the politicians will change. And since I have made a nation that didn’t read, read, do I believe people’s thinking can be changed. To me there are 3 main areas where I think we need to change our thinking – leaders included. And I’m not just saying we need to do it because it is morally right/ ethically correct/ or because it sounds nice at a conference. We need to do it as it make sense from an incentives point of view. These three areas are changing the politics of differences to the politics of similarity, looking down on elitism and the role of English. The first mindset change required is to change the politics of differences to the politics of similarity. I’ve been studying young people in India, not just in big cities but across India for the last five years. They are the bulk of the population – the bulk of our voter bank. Yet, what they are looking for is not what politicians are pitching. It is not too different from the old school Bollywood where they think item numbers, big budgets and tested formulas work while the biggest hits of the year could be Rock On and Jaane Tu. Yes, times have changed. Here is what the politicians are pitching – old fashioned patriotism, defending traditions, being the torchbearer of communities, caste and religion. Here is what the youth wants – better colleges, better jobs, better role models. Compared to the talent pool, the number of good college seats are very limited. Same for good jobs. These wants are the biggest similarity that we all share. We all want the same things – progress. I see a huge disconnect in the political strategies of existing politicians vs. what could work for the new voters. I think broad based infrastructure and economic development will satisfy the young generation’s needs. It isn’t an easy goal to attain – but it is the great cause that can unite us. Today a dynamic politician who takes this cause can achieve a far greater success than any regional politician. And the slot is waiting to be taken. Another aspect required to convert the politics of differences to the politics of similarities is a strong moderate voice. When someone tries to divide us, people from the same community as the divider have to stand up against him. If person A is saying Non-Marathis should be attacked, then some Marathis need to stand up and say person A is talking nonsense. If a Muslim commits terrorist attack, other Muslims should stand up and condemn it, as Hindus are going to condemn it anyway. This moderate voice is sorely missing but is critical in keeping the country together. And the youth want to keep it together, as we want to be remembered as the generation who took India forward, not the one that cut India into two dozen pieces. I hate telling people what to do, but the media does have a role in this. I agree that media is a business and TRPs matter above anything else. However, there are ethics in every business. Doctors make money off sick people, but it doesn’t mean they keep people sick and not heal them. If you find a moderate voice, highlight it as soon as a divisive voice appears. And don’t take sides, argue or debate it. Don’t validate the ridiculous. Focus on the greater cause. The second mindset we need to change is that of elitism. From my early childhood days, to college, to professional and business life, and now in the publishing and entertainment circles, I have noticed a peculiar Indian habit of elitism. Maybe it is hard to achieve anything in India. But the moment any person becomes even moderately successful, educated, rich, famous, talented or even develops a fine taste, they consider themselves different from the rest. They begin to move in circles where the common people and their tastes are looked down upon. This means a large chunk of our most qualified, experienced, connected and influential people prefer to live air-conditioned lives in their bubble of like minded people. Naive people who elect stupid politicians – that is the bottomline for all Indian problems, and they want nothing to do with it. But tell me, if the thinking of the common people has to be changed, who is going to change it? What is the point of discussing solutions to Indian problems if there is no buy-in from the common man? Just because it feels good to be around like-minded, intelligent people? What is the use of this intelligence? If you switch on the TV, seventy percent of the time you will see Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The reason is the media is centered in these cities. However, ninety percent of India is not this. Unless we represent these people properly, how will these people ever come with us? Again, I am not making these points as a moral appeal. I think understanding India and being inclusive makes massive business sense. And trust me, it doesn’t take any coolness or trendiness away from you if you do it right. Look at me, I am the mass-iest English author ever invented in India. My books sell on railway stations and next to atta in Big Bazaar. I have an Indian publisher who operates from the bylanes of Darya Ganj. And yet, on orkut the most common words associated with my name are coolness and awesomeness – tags given by my wonderful readers. I think it is cooler to know how people think in the streets of Indore and Raipur than who’s walking the ramp in South Mumbai. You may have planned your next vacation abroad, but have you visited a small town lately? Have you shown your kids what the real India is like? Don’t you think they will need to know that as they grow up and enter the workforce. Yes, I want people to look down on elitism and develop a culture of inclusiveness. If you are educated, educate others. If you have good taste, improve others taste rather than calling theirs bad. The last aspect where we need to change our thinking is our attitude to English. We have to embrace English like never before. Not England, but English. This point may sound contradictory to my previous one, but I am not talking about confining English to the classes, but really taking it to the grassroot level. English and Hindi can co-exist. Hindi is the mother and English is the wife. It is possible to love them both. In small towns, districts and even villages – we need to spread English. India already has a headstart as so many Indians speak English and we don’t have to get expat teachers like China does. But we must not confuse patriotism with the skills one needs to compete in the real world. If you are making an effort to start a school where none existed, why not give the people what will help them most. I can teach a villager geometry and physics in Hindi, but frankly when he goes to look for a job he is going to find that education useless. English will get him a job. Yes, I know some may say what will happen to Hindi and our traditional cultures. I want to ask these people to pull their kids out of English medium schools and then talk. If you go to small towns, English teaching classes are the biggest draw. There is massive demand for something that will improve people’s lives. I have no special soft spot for this language, but the fact is it works in the world of today. And if more English helps spread prosperity evenly across the country, trust me we will preserve our culture a lot better than a nation that can barely feed its people. We are all passionate about making India better, so we can discuss this forever. But today I wanted to leave you with just three thoughts – politics of similarities, less elitism and more English that we need to build consensus on. If you agree with me, please do whatever you can in your capacity to make the consensus happen. It could be just a discussion with all your friends, or spreading these thoughts in a broader manner, if you have the means and power to do so. For the fact that we are sitting in this wonderful venue means our country has been kind to us. Let’s see what we can give back to our nation.
Delhi, November 21, 2008
© Chetan Bhagat
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to speak at the leadership summit – the first of its kind for me. I am no leader. At best, I am a dreamer with perseverance to make dreams come true. As I have made my own dreams come true already, I am tempted to think we can make my country’s dreams come true. And that is why I am here. Before we become one with the world we have to become one with ourselves. If we get our own house in order we don’t have to make an effort to be one with the world. The world will want to be one with us. Everyone wants to be friends with happy, rich, thriving neighbors. Nobody wants a family festered with disputes. A lot is wrong in my country. There are too many differences. The question is not who we blame for this. The question is how do we fix it? Because to do anything great, you have to become one first. Two generations ago, our forefathers came together to win us Independence. It isn’t like we didn’t have disputes then. Religion, caste, community have existed for centuries. But Gandhi brought them all together for a greater cause – to get the country free. Today, we have another greater cause. To get India its rightful place in the world. To see India the way the younger generation wants to see it. To make India a prosperous, developed country, where not only the spirit of patriotism, but also the standard of living is high. Where anyone with the talent, drive and hard work alone has the ability to make it. Where people don’t ask where you come from, but where you are going. We all know that India, as we have all dreamt of that India. There is a lot required to be done for this, and it doesn’t just start and end by blaming politicians. For in a democracy, we elect the politicians. If our thinking changes, our voting will change and the politicians will change. And since I have made a nation that didn’t read, read, do I believe people’s thinking can be changed. To me there are 3 main areas where I think we need to change our thinking – leaders included. And I’m not just saying we need to do it because it is morally right/ ethically correct/ or because it sounds nice at a conference. We need to do it as it make sense from an incentives point of view. These three areas are changing the politics of differences to the politics of similarity, looking down on elitism and the role of English. The first mindset change required is to change the politics of differences to the politics of similarity. I’ve been studying young people in India, not just in big cities but across India for the last five years. They are the bulk of the population – the bulk of our voter bank. Yet, what they are looking for is not what politicians are pitching. It is not too different from the old school Bollywood where they think item numbers, big budgets and tested formulas work while the biggest hits of the year could be Rock On and Jaane Tu. Yes, times have changed. Here is what the politicians are pitching – old fashioned patriotism, defending traditions, being the torchbearer of communities, caste and religion. Here is what the youth wants – better colleges, better jobs, better role models. Compared to the talent pool, the number of good college seats are very limited. Same for good jobs. These wants are the biggest similarity that we all share. We all want the same things – progress. I see a huge disconnect in the political strategies of existing politicians vs. what could work for the new voters. I think broad based infrastructure and economic development will satisfy the young generation’s needs. It isn’t an easy goal to attain – but it is the great cause that can unite us. Today a dynamic politician who takes this cause can achieve a far greater success than any regional politician. And the slot is waiting to be taken. Another aspect required to convert the politics of differences to the politics of similarities is a strong moderate voice. When someone tries to divide us, people from the same community as the divider have to stand up against him. If person A is saying Non-Marathis should be attacked, then some Marathis need to stand up and say person A is talking nonsense. If a Muslim commits terrorist attack, other Muslims should stand up and condemn it, as Hindus are going to condemn it anyway. This moderate voice is sorely missing but is critical in keeping the country together. And the youth want to keep it together, as we want to be remembered as the generation who took India forward, not the one that cut India into two dozen pieces. I hate telling people what to do, but the media does have a role in this. I agree that media is a business and TRPs matter above anything else. However, there are ethics in every business. Doctors make money off sick people, but it doesn’t mean they keep people sick and not heal them. If you find a moderate voice, highlight it as soon as a divisive voice appears. And don’t take sides, argue or debate it. Don’t validate the ridiculous. Focus on the greater cause. The second mindset we need to change is that of elitism. From my early childhood days, to college, to professional and business life, and now in the publishing and entertainment circles, I have noticed a peculiar Indian habit of elitism. Maybe it is hard to achieve anything in India. But the moment any person becomes even moderately successful, educated, rich, famous, talented or even develops a fine taste, they consider themselves different from the rest. They begin to move in circles where the common people and their tastes are looked down upon. This means a large chunk of our most qualified, experienced, connected and influential people prefer to live air-conditioned lives in their bubble of like minded people. Naive people who elect stupid politicians – that is the bottomline for all Indian problems, and they want nothing to do with it. But tell me, if the thinking of the common people has to be changed, who is going to change it? What is the point of discussing solutions to Indian problems if there is no buy-in from the common man? Just because it feels good to be around like-minded, intelligent people? What is the use of this intelligence? If you switch on the TV, seventy percent of the time you will see Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The reason is the media is centered in these cities. However, ninety percent of India is not this. Unless we represent these people properly, how will these people ever come with us? Again, I am not making these points as a moral appeal. I think understanding India and being inclusive makes massive business sense. And trust me, it doesn’t take any coolness or trendiness away from you if you do it right. Look at me, I am the mass-iest English author ever invented in India. My books sell on railway stations and next to atta in Big Bazaar. I have an Indian publisher who operates from the bylanes of Darya Ganj. And yet, on orkut the most common words associated with my name are coolness and awesomeness – tags given by my wonderful readers. I think it is cooler to know how people think in the streets of Indore and Raipur than who’s walking the ramp in South Mumbai. You may have planned your next vacation abroad, but have you visited a small town lately? Have you shown your kids what the real India is like? Don’t you think they will need to know that as they grow up and enter the workforce. Yes, I want people to look down on elitism and develop a culture of inclusiveness. If you are educated, educate others. If you have good taste, improve others taste rather than calling theirs bad. The last aspect where we need to change our thinking is our attitude to English. We have to embrace English like never before. Not England, but English. This point may sound contradictory to my previous one, but I am not talking about confining English to the classes, but really taking it to the grassroot level. English and Hindi can co-exist. Hindi is the mother and English is the wife. It is possible to love them both. In small towns, districts and even villages – we need to spread English. India already has a headstart as so many Indians speak English and we don’t have to get expat teachers like China does. But we must not confuse patriotism with the skills one needs to compete in the real world. If you are making an effort to start a school where none existed, why not give the people what will help them most. I can teach a villager geometry and physics in Hindi, but frankly when he goes to look for a job he is going to find that education useless. English will get him a job. Yes, I know some may say what will happen to Hindi and our traditional cultures. I want to ask these people to pull their kids out of English medium schools and then talk. If you go to small towns, English teaching classes are the biggest draw. There is massive demand for something that will improve people’s lives. I have no special soft spot for this language, but the fact is it works in the world of today. And if more English helps spread prosperity evenly across the country, trust me we will preserve our culture a lot better than a nation that can barely feed its people. We are all passionate about making India better, so we can discuss this forever. But today I wanted to leave you with just three thoughts – politics of similarities, less elitism and more English that we need to build consensus on. If you agree with me, please do whatever you can in your capacity to make the consensus happen. It could be just a discussion with all your friends, or spreading these thoughts in a broader manner, if you have the means and power to do so. For the fact that we are sitting in this wonderful venue means our country has been kind to us. Let’s see what we can give back to our nation.
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