Chetan Bhagat

Ra.One Arjun Rampal First Look

2011-10-12T03:03:00.001-07:00

Revolution 2020

2011-10-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

Revolution 2020

R2020 Mumbai Launch

R2020 Delhi Launch

Revolution 2020

Revolution 2020 is the latest offering from the man who has made a fortune selling Rs 95 books, Mr. Chetan Bhagat. To begin with the book, I would say that the first few pages of the book were quite impressive and very familiar CB-type but when the story ended I felt that the book was quite unlike other CB-novels. I would sum up the whole story as STRANGE.

Let me talk about what was strange about the book. The end of the book seemed to be quite abrupt and hurried-onto. I would not say that the story did not have an ending but CB has offered nothing fancy to the reader to prevent him or her not to say so.

Let me talk about the characters in the book so that I can validate my points with some concrete and substantial evidence. Early on while reading the book I kept on thinking why has CB written the story from Gopal's point of view when he could have written it from Raghav's point of view. In the end I felt he did the right thing. But how can Gopal let go of Aarti so easily in the end ? Why din’t his optimistic and pessimistic self fight with each other like it had been doing for the last 24 years ?

Aarti, the girl, was someone who was hated my me and prolly would be by most of CB fans simply because she was quite unclear about whom she ‘really’ loved more. It was also unclear what her real intentions were. Also if Gopal can spy on Aarti and Raghav then I believe Raghav could also have done the same. Moreover he could have used Aarti to spy on Gopal or do a sting operation on him.

Also I felt the climax act of self-penance by Gopal was something that Jesus Christ might have done or approved of and not something that Lord Krishna might have done.

Moreover how can CB go to inaugurate MBA education in such a corrupt college like GangaTech ?

Also how can Raghav steal Aarti from Gopal ? It is one of the top-ten morally wrong things that one can do to a best-friend. It was an act of a child and not a decent man and certainly not that of a friend.

I think if Raghav really wanted any revolution, he should have returned Aarti back to Gopal and asked for forgiveness from him since Revolution begins at home.

Curcuits for Formula 1 Challenge 99-02

2011-09-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

I have got all the NEW tracks for F1c 99-02. If you need them please send me an email.

Singapore Grand Prix 2011

Japanese Grand Prix 2011

Korean Grand Prix 2011

Indian Grand Prix 2011 (http://www.mediafire.com/?ttrkbbt5thqz2xz)

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2011

Chinese Grand Prix 2011

Turkish Grand Prix 2011

Malaysian Grand Prix 2011

3-idiots: miss takes

2010-02-20T01:25:00.003-08:00

So you've seen the movie, read my previous post about 3 idiots. Its a
fun movie, alas with many not-so-well-thought-of miss-takes and am not
talking about slip-ups. These are mistakes in the very story of the
movie.

1. Raging a senior: So Aamir knows conductivity. First of all that
prank isn't all that original. Its been used in many colleges
especially IITs, Jadavpur etc for years. They make you piss over the
heater. Try doing that. Don't worry you won't get electrocuted, cuz
you'll automatically stop peeing as soon as you get the first jolt.
That apart, he shocks a senior. That's a death sentence in most
colleges. You do not get away with that, esp in a college where they
can make you strip openly. They get back at you, gag you up and beat
the shit out of you. they might as well give you the same treatment as
you gave them (read electric shock). The only way you can escape that
is by tying up with the particular seniors rival, if there is any.
Again chances of that happening are low as it is. You cannot rag a
senior esp not on your first day in the college.

2. The Quad-Copter

The cute little versatile helicopter you see in the movie "designed"
by Joy. The design is called a quadrotor. It was invented way before
the movie's apparent timeline, around 1923. Check out Quad Rotor on
Wikipedia
Now I don't understand how it was an original idea. Its been there for
years, even in the robotics field for years. I also don't understand
what Aamir did, because apparently he did nothing. I hope he changed
the direction of rotation of 2 of the rotors to opposite that of the
other two. But again that's not so apparent.

3. Cellphones, guys, cellphones.

When they go to get the papers from the office, Aamir calls using the
principal's office phone. What the hell happened to cellphones. I mean
he's careful enough not to grab a paper later and run. He neatly opens
the seal, xeroxes the paper, replaces it and seals the package, but no
cellphones. Hell no cellphones. Why use a cellphone to call his
girlfriend when there's a perfectly suspicious and tracable landline
phone right ther. give me a break

4. No Generators, are yo kidding me?

So ICE is the top college in India, dragged from #28 to #1 by His
strict highness, Mr. Veeru Sahasrabuddhi, but I'll be damned, the
hostel doesn't have a generator. They have to use an inverter made
just to get the lights on. I mean, you got to be kidding me. No
generator in the top college of India. Even our college has a
generator.

Also add to that the fact, that when the city is knee deep in water,
eletricity out, ambulance services out, the internet connection works
just fine.

5. And ofcourse, forget Defibrillators and respirators, just say "Allizwell"

So you can revive a dead child just by saying Allizwell. You got to be
kidding me. ROFl. Go to a graveyard and say Allziwell 3 timesand
you'll have a nice army of zombies at your disposal.

Am I the only one, who thinks this is crazy?

3 Idiots Marketing

2010-02-20T01:25:00.001-08:00

When Aamir Khan, producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and director Rajkumar
Hirani, sat down and watched the first half of the first cut of 3
Idiots together, they knew they were watching something that had the
potential to go "big time". A boisterous drama about three friends
dealing with the pressures of engineering school, and one friend
teaching them how to dream, was a story they knew would stick. They
guessed multiplexes in cities would overflow. They figured they had a
fair chance at beating Ghajini, an Aamir Khan starrer and the biggest
grossing Hindi film of all time.

But something bothered them. In smaller towns, regional cinema was
still king and Hindi cinema just a joker. In Gujarat, a star like
Vikram Thakur at his peak, could bring in close to Rs 7 crore. A top
grossing Hindi film on the other hand could hope to rake in just Rs 3
crore.

"We felt we aren't connecting enough with our audience… There's a
business capacity of seven, but we are only doing three. So there's a
lot of business we aren't reaching out to," says Khan as he talks to
us from his Pali Hill apartment in Bandra, a Mumbai suburb. He's
wincing from a leg injury sustained earlier during the day, but is
intent we hear what he's saying.

"Do they want to be entertained? Yes. Do they like watching films?
Yes. But are they watching our films? No. They're watching regional
films." It could only mean two things, he reasoned. One, Hindi films
aren't marketed well. And two, film makers from Mumbai don't
understand small town India. Khan was determined to figure out both
answers. But how?

The ball begins to roll

A Breather For Gold
Thought Leader Interview: Philip Kotler
Sports Facility: Golfworx
When a team of 25 marketing people met in August 2009, led by Prabhat
Choudhary of Spice PR, who helped market four of the top five all time
hits of Hindi cinema, the team didn't know what the central idea to
market 3 Idiots could possibly be. Khan's brief though was clear.
Whatever they did, they had to get to the man in Bhopal, and the man
in Varanasi.

For a while, Khan had been toying with a rather vague idea. The movie
starts with Aamir Khan, who essays the role of the central
protagonist, having disappeared into oblivion. The rest of the flick
is about his friends looking for clues to find him. How, Khan
wondered, would people react if he disappeared in real life? Would
people wonder where he was? Would the media write speculative stories
on Khan's whereabouts? But more importantly, how could the whole thing
be orchestrated?

Through all of August last year, they debated on the plan. They tied
up with online gaming firm Zapak. And that was where they found the
answer: A-R-G, or Alternate Reality Gaming. Participants in these
games interact directly with characters in the game, work with other
participants to solve challenges, analyse the story and stay connected
on email, telephones, and the internet. The main narrative for this
form of gaming is usually based in the real world.

By September, ARG took over 60 percent of 3 Idiots' marketing efforts.
A Facebook profile "Amir the Pucca Idiot" was created, a page that
would be controlled and updated entirely by Khan. It became a talking
point because it was the first time an Indian celebrity had done this.
People wondered whether it really was Aamir Khan's page. His status
updates appeared in the papers. "Aamir the Pucca Idiot" would be an
instrumental part of Khan's disappearance to remote B towns, too.

By October, the 3 Idiots team had to activate the game. Before that,
teams needed to be dispatched to do a recce of all the places Khan
would visit during his disappearing act. They would be dispatched to
small towns in Gujarat, Punjab, Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh, among
others. It would be expensive and logistics would be a nightmare.
"We'd only marketed to 6-8 metros," Chaudhary told Khan. "But there
are 80 towns with at least one multiplex we had never even marketed
to."

Of doodles and bum chairs

By October, two months before the release of 3 Idiots, no one knew
much about the movie. There were no hoardings. No signs at theaters.
And to build the suspense, multiplexes were sent bum chairs (like the
ones the 3 Idiots sit on in the film); stickers that read "You are the
4th idiot". No one knew what it all meant.

But on October 30, the 3 Idiots team made their first break of
communication. They launched the film's trailer to a gathering of
trade people, multiplexes, and media. Ghajini was in the media for a
year and a half before it released. 3 Idiots would only be in the
media for two months.

In December, Khan was also busy designing T-shirts. "I said I can't
design, I'm not a designer, but I can give you my doodles," says Khan.
Pantaloon created a T-shirt line with the doodles, and 3 Idiots
Converse sneakers.

Featuring Khan's doodles instead of just replica merchandise worked.
Pantaloon sold more than 1000 pieces per day in its opening week, and
then sold out of the merchandise twice. The doodle T-shirt was also
created as a gift friends could send to one another on "Aamir the
Pucca Idiot" Facebook page, whose profile now had almost 2 lakh fans.

BusinessofCinema (BoC), who did the digital marketing, launched the
Pantaloon gifts on Facebook, plus ticketing applications, and 3 Idiots
videos and songs. Most of all, BoC readied themselves for the launch
of the ARG game. And then, on December 12, Aamir Khan disappeared.

Director Hirani and Producer Chopra claimed not to know where he was.
All that was left behind was a video on the film's website,
idiotsacademy.com. "I shot a video, and I said, 'If you want to be a
part of this of game, well... For two weeks, I will be traveling
around the country. I will appear seven places, will give you seven
clues to find me. For the first clue you need to get it from Sachin
Tendulkar.' And then I kiss my wife goodbye and walk out the door,"
says Khan.

I am not here

Khan first reappeared in Varanasi, disguised as an old man. "I
couldn't tell anyone who I was," he says. The 3I team shot footage of
what he was doing, but no TV stations could find him. Choudhary
worried, "How will media take it? Will they think it's a gimmick to
ignore?" And at every stage, someone on the team said this would not
work.

It didn't help that a lot of the 3I recce team's planning didn't work
out. Choudhary broke his collarbone in a rickshaw accident. Instead of
spending the night at Varanasi station as planned, Khan decided to
find his mother's home in Varanasi.

"I really went to Varanasi to make friends over there. It had to be a
genuine process. I didn't know who I would meet or how they would
react to me. It was happening organically," explains Khan. He talks
for more than an hour about Varanasi, recounting the story of a
rickshaw driver he calls "damn funny", and the four men who help him
find his mother's house.

After Khan left Varanasi, he let it be known he was there. 20,000
people trampled the tea shop where Khan had just been. The local media
went crazy. "They found the story fascinating because they saw how
unplanned the whole thing was. The English media picked it up only
four times in those two weeks, but Hindi news channels and local print
and TV media went ballistic. I was on the front page. They would
report every new clue we announced, and interview the people I had
met," says Khan.

Khan not only evaded the media, but also goaded them. "I had been
given the names of 15 editors in each city. So when I left their city,
I wrote each of them handwritten letters on my letterhead that said 'I
was passing through your city and felt like having sweets. So I bought
some mithai and got you some as well. Love, Aamir'. It was a like a
tease," Khan says and smiles.

Khan gave only four interviews to TV stations during the entire tour,
all to regional TV stations. Regional stars were selected to interview
Khan. On Mahua TV in UP, for example, Bhojpuri star Ravi Kishnan
interviewed Khan. "Other than those four, I thought TV stations
shouldn't get me. All they get is what I shoot and send to them. I
don't have a deal with them, so I don't know if they will bite. But I
had not been available, so I knew they were thirsty for me," says
Khan.

The strategy was deployed for the print media as well. He stayed clear
of mainstream English dailies and spoke very selectively to regional
newspapers. For the first time in recent history, B towns were
clamouring for an upcoming Hindi film.

Final notes

When they started, the ARG game was just a small part of Khan's
disappearance. It was more like a contact program, "something like
what Obama would have undertaken," explains Choudhary. But soon, many
fans found out about idiotsacademy.com. They learned to play the ARG
(a first ever for a Hindi film), competing against one another to find
out where Khan was. Fans played other games on the website, too,
racking up around 4.5 million plays, says Rohit Sharma of Zapak, which
designed the game.

And not once during Khan's journey was 3 Idiots mentioned. When he
went to a girls' school in Palanpur, Gujarat, to highlight the
importance of the girl child's education, Khan asked the girls to
shout their message to TV cameras. "The girls didn't say '3 Idiots
releases on December 25!" Khan laughs. Instead, they said girls need
as much a chance to go to school as boys do. "Now people will either
connect to that or say the guy is bullshitting. I think we made a
strong emotional connect."While Khan was in the middle of this
journey, and excitement was at a peak, "Aamir Khan the Pucca Idiot"
decided to hold a Facebook live chat with fans. Khan would be on
video, and fans could type in from Twitter, Facebook, and Youstream.

The BoC guys expected Khan's live chat to happen from Mumbai. At the
last minute, they were told to take their hi-tech equipment to Delhi
and then set it up in a small village outside.

On December 19th, without a single hitch in streaming, more than 1
lakh users chatted with Khan from Pakistan, Bangladesh, the US, and
cities and many B towns in India. It was the first time an Indian
celebrity had done something like this. Over 300,000 status updates
were shared that day, according to Facebook's international
communications team. On Twitter, #AamirKhanLive was the sixth most
buzzed keyword in the world.

Six days after the chat, 3 Idiots was finally released.

How much could all of this have worked? The biggest opening any film
had ever had was Ghajini, with a first day collection across India of
9 crore. 3 Idiots' collected Rs. 13 crore on the first day. Over that
weekend, the collections added up to Rs. 100 crore. The film was
watched in 40 countries. Nineteen days after release, the film set a
box office record for the industry, grossing Rs. 315 crore worldwide.
It is the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time, not adjusted
for inflation. As we go to print, 3 Idiots had grossed Rs. 365 crore.

Khan didn't forget Vikram Thakur and his magic number: Rs. 7 crore. 3
Idiots beat it by a mile at Rs. 9 crore. Choudhary says from Ghajini
to 3 Idiots there's been a 30 percent jump in collections in B towns
like Benares, Bhopal, and in Faridkot.

Last weekend, Chance pe Dance was released. Its net collections on the
first day release were 2.15 crore for all India. 3 Idiots got 2.75
crore that day, meaning it's still number one three weeks after
release.

Ask Vidhu only if you are an Idiot

2010-01-02T06:17:00.001-08:00

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100102/jsp/nation/story_11934421.jsp

Ask Vidhu only if you are an Idiot

Aamir Khan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra in Noida on Friday. (PTI)

Jan. 1 (PTI): The controversy over Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots escalated
today with the media caught in the crossfire between the filmmakers
and novelist Chetan Bhagat, from whose Five Point Someone the movie
has apparently been adapted.

At one point during a news conference in Noida, Aamir said Bhagat was
hungry for publicity and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra asked a
journalist to "shut up".

The author, at another media briefing, accused the star and the
filmmakers of denying him due credit.

Aamir alleged Bhagat was trying to take away credit from the film's
scriptwriter, Abhijat Joshi, who the actor said had worked on the
script for three years.

Bhagat called Aamir, Chopra and director Rajkumar Hirani "uncivilised
people" and denied he was hankering after publicity. "They are making
a fool of themselves," he said.

The filmmakers' news conference in Noida turned ugly when their
reaction was sought on Bhagat's allegations.

Chopra lost his cool when a journalist said the film was similar to
the book. The producer and Aamir asked the journalist if he had read
the book. When he said he hadn't, Chopra asked him to shut up.

When the media objected, Aamir asked Chopra to apologise but the
producer refused.

"Aamir had asked me to take the legal course before, but now after all
this furore I am really angry and I might take legal action," Chopra
said.

"We have signed a very defined contract with Chetan stating his name
would appear in the rolling credits of the film. We are going to
upload the agreement on (my) website."

Hirani, who has directed Munnabhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai, tried
to pacify the media. "I want you to recount each and every scene with
me from the beginning till the climax and tell me where is it similar
to the book," he said. "There are so many scenes which have nothing to
do with the book…. The film has only five per cent of the book and
Chetan read the script and approved of it."

Borrowing a line from Lage Raho, Chopra said: "We will send a 'get
well soon' card to Chetan. We will also send some flowers." Aamir said
Chopra and Hirani had told him not to comment, but he felt "hurt" that
"Hirani's credibility is being questioned".

"I have nothing to do with this issue. I am the non-interested party
but I know Hirani and Abhijat both very closely and I have seen them
slogging on the script for the last three years," Aamir said.

He said it was Bhagat who had approached Hirani to make a film on his
book. "Hirani read the book and decided to make a film. But when they
started writing the script, it became completely different. Chetan
read the script and he was completely satisfied with it. He even told
me that the script and the book are very different," Aamir said.

Bhagat has accused the filmmakers of "playing" with him and not giving
him adequate credit. "From the beginning the film has been promoted on
the lines that it is based on Five Point Someone but when I saw the
film, I found out that my name was nowhere to be seen in the opening
credits," he said.

"For the past two years I have trusted Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and
Aamir blindly and this is what I get in return. Now I am being
threatened with legal action but I am ready for it."

A book, a film and the truth

2009-12-31T03:51:00.001-08:00

December 31, 2009 by Chetan Bhagat

Dear All,

The 3 Idiots story credit issue has been making some noise now. The
news is coming out in bits and pieces, and I think it is important I
clarify a few things. Yes, clearly, the makers of the film have been
unfair and thousands of my readers have been saying so. I am aware of
this, and this is not an issue that has 'just come up'. I've been
grappling with it for two years, but kept silent about it.

The only reason it has surfaced after the movie's release is because
Five Point Someone has a few million readers, and when you copy a
popular story claiming it as 'original' and 'completely different',
people are going to find out. People did, and so did a lot of media
journalists.

The case is as simple as the makers claiming the story as their own,
and clearly it is not. Pre-release, the makers made press statements
like the movie is only 'very loosely', '2%-5% inspired by the book'.
After release, those who have read the book and seen the movie (and
frankly, I think those are the only people who have the right to
comment) find the film to be an adaptation of Five Point Someone. The
setting, characters, plotline, dramatic twists and turns, one-liners,
theme, message – almost all aspects that make up the story are from
FPS. Yes, there are some changes, any adaptation requires that – but
it is no way an original story. Leading movie critics have privately
admitted to me that the film is 70% the book. Still, don't take my
word for it – go read the book, watch the film.

I, frankly, was shocked to see this. This is because I was also fed
'this is an original movie' line a lot. I wanted to see the final
script – it was never shown to me. I wanted to see the film before
release – it was not shown to me (even though trials had been done for
people). What's more, the makers had called me to their office and
pressured me several times to withdraw my 'Based on a novel by'
credit, which was by contract. They told me they'd replace it with
something like 'initiated by' – a credit that doesn't exist anywhere
in the world. I still told them that if the film is indeed original,
I'll happily withdraw the credit, but somehow the promos don't tell me
so. I asked them to show me the film and they fell silent.

Soon, they started doing media promotions for the film, and kept me
completely out of it (you'll never find me in an interview with them).
Crores was poured into publicity on shutting me out and cementing the
fact that 3 Idiots is not based on Five Point Someone. However, the
book had been read by millions of people and the FPS buzz just did not
die down.

Ten days before the release, I was called into their office. They said
'we should be friends now'. I said I am always up for friendship, and
the success of the film is good for me as well. They also said, and I
quote verbatim 'even though this is an original film, we have given
you a great credit, right upfront. After all, we love writers and a
king should treat another king with respect. You are family'. I
believed them.

I called my family before release, and told them all not to expect
FPS. I even gave a few interviews where I said don't expect FPS.

Then I went for the premiere. My family sat in the theatre shocked, as
sequence after sequence came from the book. 2%-5% means 3-6 minutes,
and I had told my family to look for the few FPS moments and note
them. However, there were so many that it became impossible to keep
track. The plot line was same – people meet at ragging, the first
class with definition of machine, the friends separate, Alok (Raju)
moves with Venkat (Chatur), Ryan (Rancho) helps Alok's father, Alok
rejoins group etc etc. From Alok (Raju) jumping to stealing the
papers and calling out from Cherian (Virus') office – the book came
alive on screen. I was surprised and happy that FPS has made it in
such a grand way.

However, my family had not spotted my credit in the beginning (there
was none) and they were feeling let down. A screenplay associate
credit to VVC had a prominent upfront placement. The story credit was
not shared with me. And yes, all the office talk of a 'king treated
like king' was a white lie.

I knew they had played with me, and that 'based on a novel by' credit,
which they were legally bound to give would be hushed away at the end
– with the clear intention of making sure people miss it. And indeed,
it came after the junior artists and still photographer of the movie,
and zoomed away fast. My own mother missed seeing my name, and for
that she cried after seeing the film. I told her it doesn't matter, as
people know FPS. But yes, that hurt me a lot.

I went up to the makers after the premiere, and they said it is a hit
so chill and forget about it. I guess I could, but it is hard. Only a
writer or a creative person knows how this feels. I am one of the
lucky ones that people have read FPS. Imagine the fate of other
writers in Bollywood. Anyway, I came home and thanked God for making
my story reach so many people.

Upon the film's release – my mailbox and twitter account, literally
became flooded. Fans and readers wrote stunned mails. They had seen
the makers' interviews which had denied FPS links and they missed
seeing the credit on screen. I kept quiet, though I did send a message
to the makers telling them audience reactions. They did not respond.
Soon media journalists saw the film. They called me and said they have
to do a story on this as they are on my side. I tried my best to avoid
them. However, many have helped me in the past and I can't avoid their
call forever. One HT journalist from Delhi called, and asked me how I
felt about the credit. I used one word – I said 'strange'. And that's
when the news exploded.

This my friends, is the story. Meanwhile, the makers have accused me
of seeking fame – when clearly it is the other way round. They've
taken my story to make fame for themselves, and shut me out of it. I
know my readers will spot it immediately. However, the film also
reaches millions of other people who do not read books – and they
deserve to know who wrote the story. And that is why I am talking
about this issue (and I admit for people who've read the book, they
may wonder it's so obvious so why I am going on about it).

I hope my explanation helps. I do have a few additional points to make.
This has nothing to do with Mr. Aamir Khan – while the makers are
fronting him to talk about the issue (as he has the credibility), this
is not about him at all. I am a big fan of Aamir and he has made my
story reach people. However, he was told by the makers not to read the
book, and he hasn't. Thus, he cannot comment on the issue in a
meaningful manner. The media should stop questioning him. When I met
him, both of us were told that the movie is original and not the book.
He was asked not to read the book – and I wasn't shown the script. Go
figure.

I don't need this kind of fame – It doesn't do anything for me. Like I
said, I am lucky to have channels to express my opinion. Other writers
don't. I can't tell you how much it hurts when this happens. Imagine
someone takes your child, dresses him up and tells the world it is
theirs. I've felt the pain for two years on this issue but I kept
silent on it. I can't help it if millions have read the book and see
the movie upon release and spot the issue themselves.

I don't want anything from them – They've taken the story credit. Let
them keep it. All Bollywood award functions have an award for 'story',
apart from other categories. They'll collect it all year around and
feel good about it. I didn't write the story for awards. I wrote it as
I felt I had something to say about the education system and the race
for grades. I have my fans' love and I am more than happy with it.

The odds - They have an army of people to promote their side of the
story, crores of media budgets and are sparing no efforts to bring me
down. The only thing I have is my fans, and the truth. But then, the
truth is Krishna, and the Pandavas had only that while there was an
army on the other side. Remember who won that battle?

Some people have told me that I should keep silent. I did try to be
silent but didn't work. Also, people say this is how Bollywood works.
Sorry, I disagree. Not all Bollywood works like this. There are a lot
of good people too. And every event like this helps change things for
the better. And that is what I am all about anyway.

I urge you to not believe me at face value. Read the book, see the
movie – and like the movie says – think for yourself and decide.

I want to thank the media journalists who are supporting me. Yes, the
makers on the other side have a lot of stature – but truth comes above
stature – that's the first rule of journalism. I salute you for having
the courage to stick to that. Our country does have free press, and
thank God for that.

Like I said, I don't need anything. Even if I have no more movies made
on my stories or nobody wants to read my books and columns, I'll
happily join ISKCON and dedicate my life to Krishna.

But I will not shy away from the truth – ever.

Blessings,
Me

Bhagat upset over story credit for 3 Idiots

2009-12-31T03:47:00.001-08:00

Aditya Gupta
Mumbai, December 29, 2009

Writer Chetan Bhagat is upset with the makers of 3 Idiots, the film
based on his bestselling novel Five Point Someone. He says he has not
been given due credit for the story.

"I wasn't shown the film (before its release) or even the full script.
I was only told that a lot of changes had been made (in the story).
The film's makers have not even given me credit for the story. I don't
know why they have done this," says Bhagat.

"There was this news going around that the film is loosely inspired by
my book. But when we saw the film, we realised that it basically
followed the book. Some extra bits had been added, like in the climax.
But 75 per cent of the film was based on my book," he says.

Referring to a proper story credit being given to him in the film
Hello, Bhagat says: "Almost any film made worldwide on a book always
has proper acknowledgement to the writer."

Bhagat also refers to Slumdog Millionaire, which is based on Vikas
Swarup's novel Q&A, as an example. "The film was changed a lot. But
when (director) Danny Boyle took the Oscar, he thanked Vikas in his
speech," he says.

"The makers of 3 Idiots have legitimately taken the rights (of the
book) and made the payments, but somehow they wanted to project that
this is their story. But you can't do that with a book like Five Point
Someone, which is the highest selling book in the country," says
Bhagat.

2009-12-26T05:05:00.001-08:00

The Curious Case of Phunsuk Wangdu:

Prequel to Taare Zameen Par

SPOILERS GALORE THROUGHOUT

Really! Is this it? Even if one were to suggest that all the 5 stars ratings had hyped up the film a bit too much for me…still, is this it? I mean, seriously, is 3 Idiots really the best film of the year…the best since Lagaan as some people are calling it? I'm surely missing something here. Either that or, Akshay Kumar never quite realized that all he had to do to elevate his films from the 'low-brow & crude' humour tag that they were pinned with was to sprinkle them with some convenient pop-philosophy and a pretentious life-affirming feel-good message. Because, really, that is the feeling I got after spending 3 hours with the 3 idiots and the 3 hundred more in the auditorium. Of course, I'll be the first to admit that I am in the teensiest minority possible here since the whole crowd was laughing with the film, and everyone I know loves the film, like I don't remember in recent memory. So, being the biggest Idiot of them all, I request you to not read the following as my 'review' of the film. I surrender; I'm ill-equipped to review a film that I don't 'get'?

3 Idiots begins then with one of the idiots Farhan Quereshi (Madhavan) faking a heart attack to land a plane, and then con a cab driver at the airport into taking him to his friend's house, the second idiot, Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) who joins him in a hurry without any pants on! An emergency landing and a pant-less dash better be worth something…it is. For they've just found out the whereabouts of the third idiot of their triumvirate…Ranchoddas Chanchad (Aamir Khan) who'd just as mysteriously disappeared from their lives as he had entered. Ranchoddas aka Rancho impressed Farhan and Raju on his first day at the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) hostel when he gets even with his ragging seniors by proving that salt water is a good conductor of electricity! Wonderful, right? Yes! That he does so by electrocuting the penis of the senior in question who is about to piss on Rancho's door is another matter. We've all had a hearty laugh…and that should be it! You can't even call it crude, because hey…it's also very clever, you see. You're electrocuting a man's dick, but you're also learning about salt water! That is what Rancho's caboodle of education seems to be- to not merely learn by rote, but to understand stuff and employ it in your daily life. Noble indeed! That the manifestation of this comes by way of electrocuting dicks (repeated again in the climax of the film) and delivering babies on a ping-pong table with the help of a vacuum cleaner (I kid you not!) shouldn't be a bother!

Supposedly then, this film is about the education system and what's wrong with it. But save a scene where a professor insists on the 'definition' of machine instead of an explanation of it, what flaws of the system does it really address? Is it really a scathing remark on the education system when an examiner refuses to accept the answer-papers of students who turn up late for the exam? This when they've conveniently not bothered to inform the examiner of the truly justified reason for their being late! We hardly see the professors of the ICE. All we encounter over and over again is the Principal, Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani) aka ViruS and his encounters with Rancho & Co. When Rancho is not offering Virus free suicide statistics (the film chooses to see only the system as responsible for student-suicides, and not ragging…which actually has been proven to be the reason for more suicides than parental and peer pressure), he and his idiots are busy turning up at his daughter's engagement or pissing on his front door! Yes, for though it is unfair of a senior to piss on a junior's door (ragging that is met with penile electrocution)…it is supposedly just and funny for two students to piss on the front door of their Principal's house! Because Virus is evil, you see. The murderer, as he is dubbed, responsible for students committing suicides. And that is what the film eventually boils down to. Not a comment on the education system per se, but a personal one-upmanship between the 3 Idiots and Virus. Unlike Munna Bhai MBBS, where along with Boman's Dr. Asthana, the whole medical fraternity and the hospital staff and its patients alike were imparted valuable lessons in life; or Lage Raho Munna Bhai, where Gandhigiri wasn't used merely to reform Boman's sardar, but sold as a relevant catchphrase to the apathetic society in general…3 Idiots doesn't have a large-scale awakening.

What it does have is a catchphrase- All Izz Well…a catchphrase that it oversells, to the point of contriving an extremely far-fetched scene that is intended to make the term iconic. In the Munna Bhai films, Jadoo Ki Jhappi and Gandhigiri became part of our everyday lingo…but the films didn't aim for it. In 3 Idiots, even after hearing Aamir spell it out umpteen times, offering a Paul Coelho-esque placebo pill to our problems in life…the script actually engineers Virus' reversal by staging a childbirth so bizarre, the Farelly brothers might call a hit on Hirani for coming up with it first. On the day that the 3 Idiots are expelled from the institute, the city is very conveniently flooded in a deluge of biblical proportions. Virus' daughter (Mona Singh), again very conveniently, happens to go into labour at just the moment. His other daughter, Rancho's insipid love-interest Pia (Kareena Kapoor), conveniently happens to be away in a hospital they can't get to…and the 3 Idiots happen to cross their paths just as conveniently! So Rancho, inspired by the Deepika Padukone BSNL ad, proceeds to deliver the child via medical counseling by Pia over the webcam. Oh shoot…the lights are out and the mother's too weak to push! Fear not, Rancho, just like his brilliant salt water innovation, comes up with an idea to not only generate electricity with an inverter (duh!) but suck the baby out of the tired mother's womb with the help of a…vacuum cleaner! But that's not the clincher. This birth of an innovation tied in with that of an actual birth (I can already see people reading into the brilliance of this twinning!), is made all the more significant when the apparently stillborn baby responds and comes to life upon hearing the term All Izz Well! The whole setup of the catchphrase is finally given its iconicity-cementing payoff in this most excogitated of scenes I've ever seen! And yes, Virus finally learns that true brilliance lies not in education by rote, but in knowledge with illustration. Hear, hear!

But even if one were to overlook all these, can someone please help me justify the number of loopholes that this script has? Pray why is Pia getting married to the same loser that she'd rejected 9 years earlier? Why does Virus react the way he does when he sees Raju at Pia's wedding…especially after he'd made his peace with the 3 Idiots when they graduated? Why didn't Farhan and Raju never bother to ask Rancho's address, and even if they didn't why did they not bother enquiring with the college about it since it is made amply clear later that he didn't provide a wrong address? And why didn't Pia, being the Principal's daughter, get the address out of her father, especially since she so easily accesses the keys to his office? Why did Rancho keep his secret from his best buddies and Pia?

This brings me to the 'secret' in question. The film hinges at the intermission on a curveball so sharp, I felt the film had suddenly been hijacked by Stephen King. Thankfully, and unfortunately (!), that wasn't the case. Rancho was never Rancho we realize. The son of a gardener, he, like good Will Hunting, had a penchant for learning…solving grade 10 problems while old enough to be in the 6th! Upon learning this, his master decides to fund his education until he grows up and earns a degree in Engineering! All this because his own son, the real Rancho, is a duffer…and the old man is planning ahead, knowing that the degree will help in getting roadway contracts for his son in the future! Talk about long-term planning. The kid was in the 6th grade…you devised a plan right until his graduation in Engineering! Anyway, our loyal, un-ghostly but equally phantasmal, doppelganger disappears after securing his degree and hands it over to the real Rancho. He studied, we are told, not to get a job but for the sheer joy of learning!

So who was he? The answer is revealed in the Ladakh-set climax, where we finally realize why Ranchod baba gave such pop-sermons during his stay at ICE. Like the Lama, a hop and skip away in Dharamsala, our Rancho is actually a Tibetan chap called Phunsuk Wangdu! Yes, not only is Aamir Khan playing a 22 year old, he's also supposedly a Tibetan! Wangdu has set up a school that encourages innovation and education the way he believes it should be. Wangdu is what Ram Nikumbh of Taare Zameen Par was before he came down to Mumbai ! Noble, again…but shouldn't Wangdu be proud of what he's done…and get his friends in on it and as many people as possible. Instead, the only person he chooses to write a letter and invite to be a part of his noble scheme is a vertically challenged help from ICE…not his two best buddies or the girl he loved! Why? Cuz otherwise there wouldn't be the contrivance of the all-important, plane-landing, pants-forgetting and wedding-abandoning journey to attain enlightenment from the Tibetan baba literally at the top of the world!

It's not just the contrivances though. The laziness! I like Hirani quite a lot, but how many times is he going to have a free thinker (Munna, Rancho) teach a Boman-in-some-getup (and the audience by extension) to see the flaw in his tenets of living and adopt the more ideal fulfilling approach towards life. It's not just the concept of a funny social message giving film that is getting repetitive; it's also the situations and the characters. Boman in all three films has now personified the face of the ills of the society, clique, group, etc. that the film in question seeks to question. In both Munna Bhai MBBS and 3 Idiots, he plays the authoritative mean-spirited head of administration. Like the orientation scene in Munna Bhai MBBS where Sanjay Dutt raises his hand and asks a befuddling question to Boman, you have Aamir raising his hand here and asking Boman a similarly innocent yet foxing question at the orientation! In Lage Raho Munna Bhai you had Jimmy Shergill being coaxed to overcome his fear and come clean to his father, played by Parikshit Sahni, following which they bond and shed a few manly tears. Here too you have Madhavan being coaxed to overcome his fear and reveal his true aspirations to his father following which they shed a few manly tears. Who plays the father, you ask? Why of course, Parikshit Sahni! If Munna Bhai MBBS had a comatose patient and a jilted lover who'd attempted suicide and a young man fated to die early…all being revitalized by Munna with his practical musings and a zappy song, you have in 3 Idiots, an amalgamation of all the three cases of Munna Bhai MBBS in Sharman when he attempts a suicide, ends up comatose and is slated to die! And we have the winsome Munna in Rancho's avatar working his humour to get him out of it! But how am I supposed to feel any anxiety or any emotion when we know, right from the beginning, that Sharman is alive…since he's undertaking the journey with Madhavan! It's not so much about 'will he make it?', as much as it is about 'how will he make it?', then! It robs this development of any pathos that it could have had.

And that is something I am very curious about. For a director unashamed of displaying emotions, Hirani seems very intent on being un-melodramatic here…to the extent where he trivializes everything with a comic yield. His approach is very commendable, especially in an age where melodrama is a curse word, but what's the point of spoofing Raju's abject poverty as a 50s film? It offends as a comedy for someone who's lived very close to such an existence, and fails as a drama for someone who's never experienced it. Why would you have a paralyzed man flailing his limbs wildly sandwiched between two people atop a scooter on his way to the hospital? These are zany yes, but to what end?

It is the humour then, most of all, which I didn't get in the least bit all. 27 instances of pissing, farting and pants being dropped to offer a posterior salute…these are funny…but in a puerile, childish and slapstick way. This is surely not the comical genius evident in Munna Bhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Or for that matter is a rolling pin flattening dough after it has been used to scratch a grey-haired chest funny or simply gross? Is the substitution of the word chamatkar with balatkar and dhan with stan really the argument against rote learning that it pretends to be or merely an excuse to bring down the house with its innuendo? Would we have celebrated this comedy of confusion in an Akshay Kumar film where they wouldn't have been canny enough in disguising the cheap humour as an important lesson? And isn't that ultimately what 3 Idiots sadly is all about? Cheap humorous gags passed off in the guise of an important social film!

Rating- **

P.S.- I realize I haven't spoken about the performances. Aamir Khan adopts a fine body language and behaves every bit a 22 year old. Notice him especially in the scene where Boman hauls him to the classroom…Aamir lets his body loose so that he isn't walking with Boman, but being dragged. No matter how good a performance, I still can't fathom why we needed a 44 year old 'playing' a 22 year old…however believable he makes it by virtue of his talent. Sharman Joshi's is the performance you take home. His Raju, despite Hirani's efforts otherwise, emerges as the emotional voice of the film. His attempted suicide played to an Opera (a wonderful use of the setup earlier), his waking up drunk in classroom and his interview scene are the highlights. Sharman truly shines in this one. Madhavan has the least role of the three, but he is effective in his part oozing with an affecting sincerity. Kareena Kapoor unfortunately has become so used to her glam roles that for the first time she is having difficulty being herself even! Omi Vaidya, though a bit loud I felt, was nevertheless interesting. Boman Irani worked for me in a big way. In a script that didn't bother to look at the other side, of people who have invariably become a part of the system not by choice but because they didn't think there was any other way, Boman lends his character with a nice air of desperate authority. Watch him especially as he clings on to his being right when he accepts defeat to Rancho but insists that he was right about the gravity-defying pen. He is a man who did all that was told to him, followed it to the point without questioning it…but finally realizes that maybe, just maybe, he was cheated after all!

P.P.S. – The film borrows from Scent of a Woman, Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting, School Ties and Teaching Mrs. Tingle apart from others. It also borrows gags from chain-mails like the man clicking a picture of the 5 burqa-clad women, to name one.

It's Chetan Bhagat versus the rest on Twitter

2009-12-07T23:22:00.001-08:00

Until Monday, Chetan Bhagat was one of the most followed Indians on
Twitter. The bestselling author of Five Point Someone, One Night at
the Call Center, Three Mistakes of My Life and more recently, Two
States, had more than 27,000 followers and was possibly one of the
most accessible Indian celebrities on the popular microblogging site.

All that changed around 5 pm Monday evening when he blocked Saad
Akhtar, a Delhi-based writer and cartoonist who runs a web comic
called FlyYouFools, who poked fun at Bhagat's apparent bad mood by
saying, "In a bad mood today, aren't we? Let me guess: Royalty check
came in?" Akhtar retweeted that message, which otherwise would have
been regular reply on Bhagat's and Akhtar's Twitter timeline.

This act triggered an avalanche. In the next couple of hours, a large
part of the Indian Twitterati seemed to rise against the "block". So
much so that, the hashtag #Chetanblocks became a trending topic on
Twitter's home page.

A flurry of messages, accusations, counter-accusations, one-liners and
cartoon strips followed. Around 8 pm or so, a video spoof came up on
YouTube showing German dictator Adolf Hitler getting upset that Chetan
Bhagat has blocked him.

Akhtar, whose Twitter handle is also called "FlyyouFools", was
responding to Bhagat agonising over the piracy of his books in three
different tweets: 1) "Almost anyone who is reading my pirated books
can afford the original. It hurts me a lot personally. Just sharing."
2) "Piracy kills publishers, esp domestic literature. Gives incentive
writers to move westwards. Don't do it if you care for Indian
creativity." And 3) At a broader level, a society that doesn't respect
intellectual property never excels at innovation. See what kind of
India u want."

Bhagat, whose latest book Two States retails at Rs 95 - around the
same price as a pirated book - told Akhtar he would block him if he
continued to be smart alecky in his messages, and when the latter did
not stop, Bhagat blocked him.

Bhagat in Hong Kong
The author is currently in Hong Kong helping a friend set up a new
company, and did not respond to our phone calls or emails, but he did
put out a clarification on his Twitter account saying he stands by his
decision to block Akhtar.

"Today, someone who had done so many times, trivialised my commitment
to India," he wrote. "Few things can hurt me more. I still didn't
block him and told him to stop. He enjoyed the attention and ridiculed
that as well. I took a call and blocked him... I stand by my decision
to block him, and I think I have the right to. Am aware tweets can
still be accessed. Just don't want him in my timeline."

Mail Today asked Akhtar if he and Bhagat followers on Twitter went too
far. "The situation got out of hand," he said. "He was angry over his
books being pirated and I kind of made fun of the fact that he's
getting a little too righteous about it as he was bringing in Indian
culture and intellectual property rights into it. So anyway I made a
smartass comment on it, which is what I do - I run a web comic after
all. He didn't like that, warned me that he'll block me if I didn't
stop. So I retweeted that message and he blocked me. All well and
good, except that fact that he blocked me (and a couple of others) got
picked up by other Tweeple and started gaining momentum. Pretty soon
#chetanblocks was trending on Twitter's home page and it quickly
degenerated into an angry mob."

'Price of fame of celebrities'
Delhi-based communications professional and active Twitterer Surekha
Pillai said the entire exchange - which lasted around four hours - was
"the price of fame of celebrities had to pay on a democratic medium
like Twitter", but also felt it went too far. "I believe it went way
too far," Pillai said. "While it was amusing to begin with, it was not
when it spiralled out of control with a virtual mob ganging up against
Chetan."

Chetan Bhagat and Twitter

2009-12-07T23:18:00.001-08:00

Writer's 'block' for Chetan-baiters on Twitter

Chetan Bhagat's one night on Twitter

Author's threat to block tweeple, after his tweet on piracy leads to
argument, backfires

Author Chetan Bhagat rubbed his followers on Twitter the wrong way
last evening, after his tweet lamenting piracy of his books led to an
argument with two other tweeters, whom he later threatened to block.

A few hours after the argument, one Nikhil Narayanan started the
#chetanblocks hashtag group, which received an overwhelming response.

People started tweeting from 6 pm and this went on till the wee hours
of the morning, making it the trendiest topic for the day.

Most tweeters were anti-Bhagat with some ridiculing his comments to
block followers, but the author did find support in a few.

How it started...

@Chetan_Bhagat posted a tweet at 4 pm saying, 'Almost anyone who is
reading my pirated books can afford the original. It hurts me a lot
personally. Just sharing."

He added, "Piracy kills publishers, esp domestic literature. Gives
incentive writers to move westwards. Don't do it if you care for
Indian creativity.

At a broader level, a society that doesn't respect intellectual
property never excels at innovation. See what kind of India u want".

To this a tweeter @flyyoufools commented: "Tying everything to India's
progress today, aren't we?"
And the debate took an ugly turn. Bhagat tweeted, "Well it is tied to
progress. Close ur eyes to it if u want to."
Flyyoufools tweeted back, "In a bad mood today, aren't we? Let me
guess: Royalty check came in?

This enraged Bhagat who wrote, 'buddy, one more smart one and u r blocked. ok?

This didn't to go down well with other tweeters. Tweeter Jojo Philip
popped in with 'Don't blame the consumer. If he/she gets the product
at a fifth of its cost, they have every right to pick it up'.

Now, Bhagat was on the edge and he said, 'If i can access your bank
account, i have the right to steal from it?

Pat came the reply from Jojiphilip, 'Piracy happens only when there is
huge gap between d market cost & buying it otherwise. Greedy
publishers plz note

There is a nexus between cops, illegal printers & publishers who r
responsible for piracy. Attack d system, not the consumer."

Block no 2

And the argument continued with Bhagat tweeting, 'nobody is greedy. if
u cant afford it, dont buy it. do u steal cars if u cant afford them?

Jojiphilip was in no mood to accept defeat. He wrote, 'No, i don't
steal cars, but if someone was offering me one for Rs 1000, i wud buy
it.

Blame the guy who is offering me this. as a consumer i have done no
wrong. I have paid the guy on the street corner my hard earned Rs 100
& i did not steal it from him.'

Bhagat seemed to be losing his cool. And gave one more threat to block
the prompt tweeter. The author posted, 'U have. ask a lawyer. And one
more defense of illegal stuff and will block u. ok?

Following this, the portal was flooded with thousands of others with
the author finding no support. The debate was still raging when the
paper went to press.

#chetanblocks Rocks !

GenX works & plays all night

2009-11-25T23:20:00.001-08:00

Late to bed and early to rise is leaving schoolchildren in the city
unhealthy, inattentive and anything but wise.

"Nothing registers in my brain during the first three classes of the
day. I long to get back home and catch up on sleep for at least an
hour," admits Class XII student Taran Veer Singh, who stays awake till
well after midnight and wakes up to the alarm ringing at 6 in the
morning.

Sleep deprivation in children takes its toll in the form of lapses in
concentration, absenteeism in school and health problems ranging from
fatigue and indigestion to migraine and ulcers.

"My son feels lethargic all the time and needs regular medication for
indigestion," says Manmeet Kaur, the mother of a Class XII student who
studies till late every night.

Not every child sacrifices sleep for study, though.

"The nocturnal life of a student from Class VIII upwards is as much
about social networking over the phone or on the Net as about studies.
Those hours of privacy seem to matter to them more than sleep," says a
researcher studying student behaviour.

The parents of a Class VIII student of a reputable south Calcutta
school are spending lakhs to transfer their daughter to a strict
boarding school in Bangalore so that she is cured of her habit of
staying up all night to speak to friends over the phone or chat
online.

Meghna Mukherjee (name changed), a Class IX student, admits to feeling
"drowsy" in class but won't change her habit of staying up late
because that would mean sacrificing her nocturnal networking time.
"Night (call) rates are cheaper," giggles Meghna.

Nupur Ghosh, the mother of a Class X student at St Xavier's Collegiate
School, is worried that her son texts his friends even when he is
studying. "I can't even scold him. Lack of sleep has made him prone to
temper tantrums."

When schools report a drop in academic performance in children, the
culprit often turns out to be sleep deprivation. "I have seen children
dozing off while writing an exam. No matter how good a child is in
studies, performance suffers if he or she doesn't get enough sleep,"
explains Apeejay School principal Rita Chatterjee.

Nandita Pal Choudhury, whose daughters are in classes X and XII at La
Martiniere for Girls, tries to dissuade both from studying late into
the night but they don't listen. "On several occasions, my daughters
have come back from an exam upset that they couldn't recall everything
they had learnt," says Nandita.

Some schools have begun counselling students about the advantages of
following a healthy routine. "We have also been discussing possible
remedial measures at parent-teacher meetings. We suggest that parents
don't allow their children to use cellphones or computers after 11pm,"
says Fr Siby Joseph, the principal of Don Bosco School, Park Circus.

Communication between parents and children is the key to understanding
and solving sleep problems, stresses Malini Bhagat, the principal of
Mahadevi Birla Girls' Higher Secondary School. "Students pass out in
class for lack of sleep. It's that serious."

Doctors recommend eight to nine hours of sleep for children.
"Compromising on sleep leads to inconsistent performance, behavioural
disorders and also delayed response. In the long run, the heart
becomes weak," warns Apurba Ghosh, the director of the Institute of
Child Health.

Like One Of Us. Or Like None Other ?

2009-11-12T06:50:00.001-08:00

Chetan Bhagat is like one of us. He completed his engineering from IIT
Delhi and MBA from IIM – A and then worked in Deutsche Bank for eleven
years before delving into writing (Now there are so many of us who
maybe having the same educational qualifications as well as dreams of
working in the top banks and other companies of the world). But
somewhere down the line he realised that this was not giving him the
creative satisfaction he so badly wanted and becoming more of a dull
and dreary job.

His first book "Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT" was
rejected by nine publishers. As he once said at an orientation program
for MBA students at Symbiosis, Pune, this incident made him so
disappointed that he was ready to quit once and for all. But he
refused to buckle down. This simple story of three friends – Hari,
Ryan and Alok and their years in IIT Delhi and how they cope with the
pressures of studies, family pressure and love and friendship made the
nation read like never before (Probably at par with the Harry Potter
series). It catapulted him to instant stardom. This book was followed
by One Night @ the Call Center, Three Mistakes of my Life and 2 States
– The Story of my marriage.

The best thing about his books is the fact that all his characters are
ones which today's generation can associate with – whether its Hari in
Five point someone, Vroom in One night at the Call center or Krish and
Ananya in 2 States – The story of my marriage. Critics have always
lambasted him for "n" number of reasons like having no literary value
in his works, his characters being one dimensional and similar in all
his books as well as ridiculous things like encouraging sex before
marriage. CRITICS BE DAMNED!!!!. Personally I think all these critics
like crap stuff which the general public normally hates. They pass
such comments because none of them have it in them to even write few
lines of a novel.

Bhagat has never advocated the fact that he meant to be a literary
genius. His main aim was, has and I am sure will always be to
entertain all audiences alike. I feel that his greatest success lies
in the simplicity of all his characters though I think "Three Mistakes
of My Life" was much more serious than any of his works which is why
he recently said that after this book he was feeling very heavy and
wanted to get back to something "light-hearted" as that has always
been his forte. As far as promoting sex in his books is concerned, one
thing I would like to point out to the critics is that today's
generations isn't that dumb. They are exposed to Television, print
media (Newspapers, magazines etc) as well as Internet which are much
bigger promoters of sex and nudity than a plain simple novel. Don't
the novels of Sidney Sheldon, Nicholas Sparks and who all have a bit
of sex in them? This is what we call hypocrisy wherein such self –
proclaimed moralists of our country would be watching porn, nudity and
sex but would surely comment on others because they can't bear to see
their success.

Bhagat has become much more than a writer today. He's evolved into a
youth icon having been conferred the Society Young Achiever's Award –
2004 as well as the Publisher's Recognition Award 2005 and also been
called to present speeches at the HT Leadership Summit as well as
Symbiosis, Pune. His articles on politics, economics, social and a
host of other issues in Dainik Bhaskar, Times of India and Hindustan
Times which have created a flutter even in the Parliament also have a
dedicated base of followers.

I would like to end by quoting few lines from his speech at the HT
Leadership Summit in 2008

"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."

So guys what are you waiting for?? Chetan Bhagat has shown us that all
of us are capable of achieving what he has achieved. All we need is
the perseverance to make our dreams come true!!!

3 IDIOTS

2009-10-30T06:01:00.001-07:00

OFFICIAL 3 IDIOTS TRAILER IS OUT : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyQTiE7LJk

did you notice: 3 I d I o T s has IIT in it? :)

It’s the market, Idiot!

2009-10-19T04:45:00.001-07:00

It's the market, Idiot!

Aamir Khan is ready to rev up the promotions for his new film 3 Idiots
-- and his marketing skills can match the best in the industry, says S.
Ramachandran
If it"s December, it"s got to be Aamir Khan. The Christmas season is
fast approaching, and the actor is revving up for the promotion of his
new film 3 Idiots. Of late, the last month of the year, particularly
the last week, has become an "Aamir Khan special" in Bollywood. In
2007, he released his directorial debutTaare Zameen Par around
Christmas to a very warm response. In 2008, he repeated the feat with
the blockbuster Ghajini.
So in 2009, the actor is looking forward to a good year-end -- and
doing all that he can do right now to ensure that the film gathers
eyeballs.
His clever promotional strategies for TZP and Ghajinidemonstrated that
Shah Rukh is not the only marketing king in the industry. Aamir Khan --
who thought of innovative ways to promote his earlier films -- has now
stepped out of his den to endorse 3 Idiots, which is slated to roll
out by the end of December.
Khan plays an IIT student in Rajkumar Hirani"s film, which is said to
be loosely based on Chetan Bhagat"s bestseller Five Point Someone.
Kareena Kapoor will be seen opposite Khan for the very first time in
the film, which also stars two of his co-stars from Rang De Basanti --
R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi.
To catch the attention of the target audience, Khan is interacting
with college students in a film promotional spree. The actor, who
recently got back to India after holidaying in France, attends a
college function in Mumbai where he is the guest of honour. The talk
is all about schools and colleges, but the film crops up -- cleverly --
every now and then.
"I really miss going to college. Actually, I was never "in" college,"
he says. "As a student I used to be mostly out of college as my heart
was in cinema. So in the two years of my college, in the 11th and the
12th, I was mostly in the theatre, working with students of cinema,
going to FTII (the Film and Television Institute of India)."
By the time he was 18, he had started working as an assistant
director. Classes, by then, had been quietly buried. "So I miss those
college years when I see you all having a great time, with so much
excitement and positive energy," the actor says.
The reference to 3 Idiots is subtle. Khan adds that he did get a
chance to re-live his student days when he shot for Hirani"s film at
the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bangalore a few months
ago. "Since I was actually staying there in IIM, I had a good time
being with the students," he says, speaking at length about the right
kind of education and how it could bring about a change in society.
Khan, clearly, knows his marketing onions. Keeping the larger canvas
of TZP in mind -- the film was about a dyslexic child -- Khan had tried
to draw in kids with a painting competition for children. He had also
made an appearance on the Zee TV show Sa Re Ga Ma Lil Champs -- a music
contest for kids. But when it came to Ghajini, the reclusive actor
went all out to market his film with a flurry of smart campaigns.
Apart from walking the ramp for Van Heusen, the stylists of his film,
just days before the release of Ghajini, he also got the ushers of one
of the multiplex chains that was running Shah Rukh"s film Rab Ne Bana
Di Jodi to adopt his bold Ghajini hairstyle. It led to a bit of
badinage between the two superstars.
"He thinks he can ride off the brand that is Shah Rukh Khan," SRK said
when he heard about the stunt. Aamir responded with a nonchalant,
"Shah Rukh has been speaking about himself for the last 20 years, so
there is nothing new about it", before completing his bullish run to
the box office.
GOING ALL OUT: (Top) A poster of the film 3 Idiots. (Left) The star
gives a hair cut during a promo for Ghajini
If he spent a whole year in the gym to beef himself up to look the
revenge-seeking tycoon in Ghajini, the perfectionist actor did just
the opposite to gain a slim look for 3 Idiots. Not surprisingly, he
looks almost like the students when he mingles with them on college
campuses.
Khan"s played a student in films -- and he has played a teacher. In
TZP, he was a master who helped the troubled boy find his feet. "I
have done a lot of films which have been extremely successful. But I
have to say that the biggest high that I ever got in my career was
when I made TZP. I feel blessed that I got an opportunity to be a part
of a film like this and being part of the process of understanding
each other and trying to remove our differences," he says.
Khan prefers to let his teaching do the talking these days. "What
better contribution can teachers make to a society than helping
another human being and changing his life dramatically in a positive
and better way by making them happy?" he asks.
But Khan doesn"t miss his lighter moments. These days, the word
"idiot" seems to have become almost an integral part of his
vocabulary. He uses the word lavishly in any given conversation,
evoking considerable mirth. When he returned from France, a television
reporter asked him if was interrogated by the airport authorities the
way SRK was in the United States two months ago.
"No one checks me as I am an idiot," Aamir replied jovially. He went
on to add that SRK faced a problem because he was "very intelligent".
The implication, perhaps, was that SRK had marketed his airport
incident as a publicity stunt for his forthcoming film, My Name is
Khan. Aamir Khan, who knows the ways of the market too, is going the
same way. His name, after all, is also Khan.

Happy Diwali

2009-10-16T18:17:00.001-07:00

With gleam of Diyas

And the Echo of the Chants

May Happiness and Contentment Fill Your life

Wishing you a very happy and prosperous Diwali!!

Chetan Bhagat at MTV India Studios

2009-10-05T06:43:00.001-07:00

http://twitpic.com/kd27c - Here's @chetan_bhagat @MTVindia studios a
while back wit his new book 2 STATES! hilarious stuff catch him on
wassup before the weekend

Google Trends Now Has Hotness

2009-09-30T06:46:00.001-07:00

The experimental Google Trends site has added another measurement for
searches, highlighting the hottest trends for site visitors. Google
Trends shows how search terms have been queried over time. It plots
the number of searches on a graph, and can plot multiple search terms
to show how trendy they have been in comparison.
Barry Schwartz spotted something new on Google Trends. His Search
Engine Land post picked up on the new Hot Trends section, recently
added by Google's mad scientists to the service.

"I was told to think of it as Google noticing a "sudden rise" in a
query phrase, that is not in the norm for that query," Barry said in
his post. "The higher the rise, the hotter the query is. Google has a
"hotness level" score for these queries, the hottest is 'volcanic',
followed by 'on fire,' 'spicy,' 'medium' and 'mild.'"

It sounds more like the lineup at Buffalo Wild Wings than a technology
product, and who knows, maybe Google brainstormed this update over
wings and beer. There is more to Hot Trends than just some flavorful
names.

The top ten hot trends appear on the Trends home page. A link to more
hot trends shows the top 100 as currently determined by Google. At
press time, searches related to the final episode of 'The Bachelor'
dominated the top ten.

Links to each hot item lead to a profile for it. The hotness scale
appears there, along with a graph of its search volume, and a note as
to when searches peaked for the term. Related news articles, blog
posts, and web results will appear on the page, though right now only
the blog posts feature seems to be working.

It's fun to look at, and we expect Google to flesh it out more over
time; how about image links for starters?

World's shortest URL shortener

2009-09-30T02:48:00.001-07:00

World's shortest URL shortener - 縮.jp

‘If you want to give a tit-for-tat policy, call me to frisk Jolie’

2009-09-30T02:44:00.001-07:00

What Shah Rukh Khan said on his return to Mumbai from the US

US SECURITY CHECKS
I am scared of the authorities and rules so I try to follow the rules
of the country I travel to. Whenever I am in America, I have to report
at least two hours in advance while travelling within the country for
security reasons — they ask me to take off my clothes and shoes, and I
do that. But I never experienced this kind of treatment.

There are some routine security measures — they check your
fingerprints and scan your retina. But the routine security process
was not followed. Instead, the authorities asked me bizarre and
irrelevant questions. I am not trying to make a point here, but why
were security measures not followed?

The security of any country is important but caste, religion or race
shouldn't come in the way of security measures. You may call me a mega
star, a celebrity, but basically I'm just a normal guy. But I'm lucky
that I have access to friends in the (Indian) consulate whom I could
call up. But there are hundreds of others who don't have this
facility.

If you want to give a tit-for-tat policy to American actors, then call
me to frisk Angelina Jolie and Megan Fox whenever they are visiting
India.

DETENTION
It was in Newark where I was detained for questioning. It was because
they said my name was common to some name that popped up on the
computer. I told them I am a movie star and had recently visited the
country for the shooting for a film (My Name is Khan).
They kept on asking me silly questions like if I knew someone in the
US who could vouch for me, if I could give them numbers of people they
could get in touch with.
I had all the documents; they were asking me where I was going to be
staying. I gave the name of Fox people, with whom I had finalised a
deal a few days ago, as contacts. I kept on giving numbers. They
wanted to know why I came here… I felt bad, angry… I was harassed for
no reason.
I didn't say a word there because I have a sense of humour which might
lead to something… I don't want special treatment. I was not angry and
I was not disturbed.

PUBLICITY
I do not need any publicity. My film's (My Name is Khan) release is
seven-eight months away. Why should I do a publicity stunt now? When
the time comes, I will create such a hoopla for the film's publicity
that the entire world will sit up and watch. Karan (Johar) is
shivering because he has heard that the Americans and Fox studios to
whom we have sold the film, would like to see the rushes of the film
after all this.
I was asked bizarre questions by the airport officials. It wasn't a
drama. I don't want publicity. But I feel routine procedure was not
followed there. We should not be treated on the basis of our colour or
nationality.
I hate people who rake up religious issues for their personal gains.
I don't want to sound pompous here but I don't need publicity to
promote my movie. I am too big a star for that.
The film's issue is much larger than just being a stop at the
immigration. It's not ironic, maybe we made the film because one
thinks this is an issue that should be addressed.

RETURNING TO US
I will go to the US when work demands but I will limit my travels. I
have no complaints against the system but I wish it could be more
streamlined and less cumbersome.
I am not going to the US in the near future. I will never go there
with my family. I understand their security concerns but they must
stop their paranoia. There should not be any security check on the
basis of religion. I don't bother who says what. But I am a proud
Muslim and a proud Indian too.

APOLOGY
I don't want an apology.… They were doing their duty, and I had no
objection to it. But they must improve the system and make people
comfortable rather than making them feel embarrassed and insulted.
There were 20 other people in the same (detention) room. Was even
their baggage missing? I was clearly told that my name flashed on
their computer and therefore they had to question me.
When you have issued me a visa and imprints of my fingers and my
photograph are on it, I am sure it is there in your system. Why do I
have to go through the ordeal?

RAJIV SHUKLA
I managed to send SMSes to my family and friends from the detention
room — Rajiv Shukla was one among them. He used his influence to reach
the Indian embassy officials who came to vouch for me. But he also
owns a news channel so the news went out to the world. That was not my
intention.
They did not ask me not to use the mobile. It was written there on a
poster so I did not call anyone — just texted Mr Shukla and my other
contacts there, including Sant Chatwal (the hotelier).

AMAR SINGH
Amar Singh is unwell, and I pray that he recovers soon with a healthy
body and strong mind. (In response to Singh's comment that SRK was
making a big deal of the incident while people like Amitabh Bachchan
and many others, including former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who
have faced this have not created a mountain of a molehill).

MULAYAM SINGH
(On Mulayam Singh's accusation that SRK was doing all this for
publicity) "Yaar, yeh sab wahiyat batein hain (These are all idiotic
statements). Let us not turn this into a political issue."

SALMAN KHAN
(Reacting to fellow actor Salman Khan's comments that such routine
security check-up was okay) It is his experience and his point of view
but it was not comfortable for me. I am a respectable man and I found
all this offensive. This was a first for me. Maybe next time onwards,
I will not mind as well.

she and the circle of life

2009-09-29T22:34:00.001-07:00

Feast of happiness: Apropos the report "Where pandal-hopping is a way
of life for five days every year", dated September 28, I feel that it
is the very idea of togetherness that makes Calcutta hop from pandal
to pandal every year (Picture above of popular rendezvous point Maddox
Square on Ashtami, by Amit Datta). Dressed in new clothes, it is
during this time that Calcutta can take a break and enjoy happy
moments together. With relatives and friends turning up, Durga puja
gifts a key to happiness to Calcuttans. Innovative concepts and new
themes of puja pandals are further attractions that drag us out of our
homes. Decorative lighting is an added incentive. Armed with digital
cameras and camcorders, people love to capture the best pujas in town
and preserve them forever.

Subho Bijoyo
Aditya

My 1st Mail2Blog

2009-09-29T21:40:00.001-07:00

This is my 1st Mail2Blog

The cut off

2009-07-27T23:12:00.000-07:00

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?”

Tropical treats

2009-07-21T02:02:00.003-07:00

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.

Top Indian novelist tells youngsters it's OK to fail

2009-07-21T02:02:00.001-07:00

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.

Toffee toast

2009-07-21T02:01:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-21T02:00:00.002-07:00

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

Priceless @ 95

2009-07-21T02:00:00.001-07:00

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

Pointers from an ex-IITian

2009-07-21T01:58:00.002-07:00

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.

Netherworld heat retreat

2009-07-21T01:58:00.001-07:00

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

My next novel is a love story: Chetan Bhagat

2009-07-21T01:53:00.000-07:00

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6/23/2009 11:39:51 AM Aditya Corp Inc

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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

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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 –

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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

2009-07-21T01:51:00.001-07:00

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

Marathon woman

2009-07-21T01:48:00.000-07:00

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)

Ice, called water

2009-07-21T01:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Hello! goodbye!

2009-07-21T01:46:00.001-07:00

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

Introducing the Google Chrome OS

2009-07-21T01:44:00.000-07:00

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

Five Point Someone Review

2009-07-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Farhan, Abhishek to adapt Chetan Bhagat's The 3 Mistakes Of My Life onscreen

2009-07-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Core subjects score over new-age tools

2009-07-21T01:40:00.002-07:00

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.

Chicken-egg puzzle solved

2009-07-21T01:40:00.001-07:00

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

Chetan Bhagat's one more 'not to do'!

2009-07-21T01:38:00.000-07:00

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.

“Becoming One With the World”

2009-07-21T01:37:00.002-07:00

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.

2009-07-21T01:37:00.001-07:00

Dear All,
I've had an intense year. Due to the Board Exams and the Competitive Exams, I've been out there on display, focussing too much on the external world. It is time to look within, get in touch with myself again and create something new. As part of that, I have to stop the blog, media interactions and other events. I hope you will understand and will give me the space without which a superstar cannot exist.
My good wishes, caring and love are always with you.
Until the next story,
Aditya Gupta
01/02/2009

An Investment Banker Finds Fame Off the Books

2009-07-21T01:34:00.000-07:00

By DONALD GREENLEES
Published: March 26, 2008

HONG KONG — Until about four years ago, Chetan Bhagat was an investment banker distinguished from the suited phalanx in this city’s crowded financial district only by his secret hobby.
Samantha Sin/Agence France-Presse
Chetan Bhagat, an Indian investment banker who wrote two popular novels, “Five Point Someone” and “One Night @ the Call Center,” which already has international editions.
While others planned weekend excursions to the golf course, Mr. Bhagat, then employed by Goldman Sachs, indulged a passion for writing, laboring in his private time on a racy, comedic little novel about life on the campus of an elite college in his native India. In the early morning, before going to the office, he would work on draft after draft of the book, trying to get it right. He did 15 drafts in all.
Today Mr. Bhagat is still an investment banker, now with Deutsche Bank. But he has also become the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India’s history, according to his publisher, Rupa & Company, one of India’s oldest and best established publishers. His story of campus life, “Five Point Someone,” published in 2004, and a later novel, “One Night @ the Call Center,” sold a combined one million copies.
Less than three days after the release in 2005 of “One Night,” another slim comedy, about love and life in India’s ubiquitous call centers, the entire initial print run of 50,000 copies was snapped up, setting a record for the country’s fastest-selling book. And Ballantine has published a paperback edition of the novel in the United States.

Mr. Bhagat, who wrote his books while living here, has difficulty explaining why a 35-year-old investment banker writing in his spare time has had such phenomenal success reaching an audience of mainly middle-class Indians in their 20s. The novels, deliberately sentimental in the tradition of Bollywood filmmaking, are priced like an Indian movie ticket — just 100 rupees, or $2.46 — and have won little praise as literature.
“The book critics, they all hate me,” Mr. Bhagat said in an interview here.
But he has touched a nerve with young Indian readers. Mr. Bhagat might not be another Vikram Seth or Arundhati Roy, but he has authentic claims to being one of the voices of a generation of middle-class Indian youth facing the choices and frustrations that come with the prospect of growing wealth.
“I think people really took to the books mainly because there is a lot of social comment in there,” Mr. Bhagat said. “It’s garbed as comedy.”
Mr. Bhagat’s choice of subjects for his first two books — life at a highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology and at a call center — allowed him to explore some perennial themes: the pressures, many of them parental, to get into a top school, earn high grades, get a good job and find the right partner, while still taking time to enjoy one’s youth.
He described the members of the country’s current young generation as “more gutsy” than their parents, and as interesting as the generation that led India to independence in 1947.
But the competition among them is severe. Mr. Bhagat said that only 1 out of 700 applicants now gets into the Indian Institute of Management he attended in Ahmedabad, compared with 1 in 200 when he applied in 1995. That experience and his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi are the inspiration for “Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT,” the title a reference to the struggle his three main characters have with low grades.
The pressures to succeed are part of what is making India a vibrant, fast-changing economy and society, Mr. Bhagat said. But “competition has its limits,” he added.
Recently, after more than 10 years here, Mr. Bhagat moved with his wife, also a banker, and their 3-year-old twin sons back to India, where he is a director in Deutsche Bank’s distressed assets team in Mumbai. When he left India with an M.B.A. to start a banking career here, just before the 1997 Asian economic crisis, there were fewer opportunities at home, even for graduates of the best colleges.
Mr. Bhagat now wants to be a part of the historic changes taking place as India awakens to its potential.

Still, he sees a lot wrong with the model of economic success. His “One Night @ the Call Center,” destined to be a Bollywood film, is, beyond its story line about frustrated office romance, a critique of a nation climbing to prosperity by answering phone calls from American consumers.
With each new book Mr. Bhagat is trying to toughen his social criticism. He has just finished writing “Three Mistakes of My Life,” a pun of sorts, this being his third novel. But this time he is tackling a far more controversial theme.
Set in the western state of Gujarat soon after the bloody sectarian riots of 2002, it deals with issues of tolerance and the confusion Mr. Bhagat believes young Indians feel about religious values.
“India is a very religious country, and older people have extreme views on religion,” he said. “Young people are not able to relate to it.”
But true to his form, the story will have a “very modern twist, Bollywood comedy sort of format,” he said. “If you read my books, they are comedies, but very dark.”
The Web chatter and e-mail messages Mr. Bhagat receives about his books suggest that the dark social messages, wrapped in what he described as “quick reads” in the style of the humorous British writer Nick Hornby, have been getting through to his young audience.
But it is a balancing act, Mr. Bhagat said. His is an audience that grew up with Bollywood and wants a story that “tugs at the emotions” rather than moralizes or betrays serious literary ambitions. Mr. Bhagat said he developed his plots by using a computer spread sheet before he sat down to write.
Initially, he did get some literary praise, winning a Publisher’s Recognition Award and Society Young Achiever’s award in India in 2005 for “Five Point Someone.” But the first flush of critical success has worn off. Ravi Rao, a critic writing in The Times of India, said Mr. Bhagat had gone from “candor, easy wit and tight structure” in his first book to “a dud” with his second.
Mr. Bhagat and his publisher, Kapish Mehra, of Rupa & Company, have an easy retort to the critics: the books sell.
“He is not a literary writer,” Mr. Mehra said. “But, more importantly, he is a successful and popular writer.”

2009-07-21T01:22:00.000-07:00

Speech by Chetan Bhagat

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time. Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake. I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the spark? Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms. To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house. Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement.

But it isn't the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday? They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important. Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that. I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order. There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions. You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school. Where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die. One last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices. I've told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose. Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don't go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you. But it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to be. Disappointment's cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release. Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result – at least I was learning how to write scripts , having a side plan – I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously. Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you. In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty darn lucky by Indian standards. Let's be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don't. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don't get literary praise. It's ok. I don't look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let unfairness kill your spark. Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others. There you go. I've told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die. I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, your eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.

2009-07-21T01:17:00.000-07:00

10 Top TECH Schools

You’ve got through the West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam. Which college should you plump for?V. Kumara Swamy furnishes a list of Bengal’s top engineering colleges
Sujay Chakraborty has got through the West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam (WBJEE) but is ranked only in the high 2,000s (he refuses to disclose the exact figure). He has given up hope of securing admission to either Jadavpur University (JU) or Bengal Engineering Sciences University (Besu), Shibpur, Howrah, which undoubtedly top the list of institutes. But he wants to study electronics and telecom engineering at the best possible college.
“I am doing as much research as possible so that I can choose the best one,” says Chakraborty. He wants a list of top colleges in hand so that he knows which one to choose among the ones offered to him during counselling. All those who get through the WBJEE have to attend counselling where they are helped to choose the course and college most appropriate for them.
Among 1,10,000 candidates who appeared for WBJEE this year, nearly 40 per cent would qualify for the counselling, scheduled on July 5. At the time of counselling, students will be given the institute of their preference according to the merit list prepared by the state’s Central Engineering and Technology Selection Committee.
The top 300 rank holders in the WBJEE will probably get courses of their choice at JU or Besu — universally acknowledged as the top two engineering institutes in West Bengal. But how do students who have ranked lower decide which engineering college to choose?
“Students have to look for four things — the infrastructure, faculty, courses and the placement record — in that order,” says U.K. Shome, principal, Pathfinder Education Centre, a Calcutta-based coaching institute.

To lend students a helping hand, we try and list the top engineering colleges in the state. Rankings are based on a survey of top rankers in WBJEE, last year’s closing ranks for engineering and technological colleges of West Bengal indicated in the merit list, ranking by peers, the opinion of top coaching institutes, and details provided by engineering institutes on their placement and the mandatory disclosures as posted on their websites.
On these counts, JU is undoubtedly the topper because only students who managed to rank between 1 and 79 (the closing rank) last year were eligible for the coveted electronics and telecom engineering course. While JU’s electronics and telecom engineering, electrical engineering (closing rank 294) and computer science engineering courses (closing rank 167) get top billing, Besu follows close behind.
“I would have chosen JU’s computer science and engineering course, as I know that it has one of the best faculties in country. I also rate Besu fairly high, although I am put off by the politics on campus,” says Snehashis Chakraborty, the eight rank holder in WBJEE, who is eyeing a physics honours course at the Chennai Mathematical Institute.
“Our greatest strength is the faculty. Almost everybody has a PhD and their research papers are published in some of the best journals in the world. The teacher-student relationship is also very good,” says Anup Kumar Bandyopadhyay, professor and former head of the department of electrical engineering at JU.
Going by JU’s placement record, it is one of the best in the country with almost 100 per cent placement, with some students commanding salaries of around Rs 8 lakh per annum in their first job.
“After the IITs, top companies look to our university to recruit the right talent,” says Bandyopadhyay.
Besu also scores very high on the list of WBJEE rank holders. “We are a 164-year old institution, and that heritage in itself is something. But we have progressed with the changing times whether it is with the introduction of new courses or forging alliances with institutions around the world,” says Manas Kumar Sanyal, head of training and placement, Besu.
Sanyal points out that except in the computer science department, Besu had a 100 per cent placement record last year. “Unlike other universities, we don’t allow third-year students to sit for placement exams. We want them to concentrate on studies,” he says. Besu was a completely residential college but has thrown its doors open to day scholars in recent times.
JU and Besu have virtually remained untouched at the top for many decades now. But a few private institutions have built such a reputation in recent times that they can nurse dreams of dislodging these Goliaths, though maybe not in the near future.
One of them is the Institute of Engineering and Management (IEM), Calcutta. Established only a decade ago, it couldn’t accommodate students who ranked below 1,600 in WBJEE last year. “We had students who were ranked between 200 and 300, and who could have got admission to other top institutions,” says Rajiv Lal, manager, planning and development, IEM. The most coveted courses at IEM are electronics and computer engineering, and computer science and engineering. IEM also claims 100 per cent placement.
The field gets fluid as we move further down. The race to fourth position is a very close one between Kalyani Government Engineering College and Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College. Proximity to Calcutta may be one of the factors why students prefer Kalyani to Jalpaiguri, but if we look at infrastructure, placement record and even the faculty, the latter comes out a clear favourite. Highly rated courses include mechanical engineering, and electronics and communications engineering.
“Our placement record was 97 per cent last time, and we took in students ranked between 500 and 2,000 last year. Some of last year’s recruiters included Infosys, Convergys and Tata Consultancy Services,” says J. Jhampati, principal. The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) has also accredited two of the college’s courses. Kalyani has had none of its courses accredited by the NBA though the computer science and engineering, and electronics and communication engineering courses are rated highly by some academics.
One great advantage with government-run institutions, such as the two listed above, is the fees. “Students with a fairly good rank and who may not be in a position to bear the burden of fees in private colleges always opt for government colleges, not only because of the fees but also for the fairly good infrastructure,” says Shome.
The Heritage Institute of Technology (HIT), Calcutta, is another private college that has made rapid strides in recent years. “We have quite a few students who were ranked in the top 500 of last year’s WBJEE. Our greatest strength is our faculty and world-class infrastructure,” says D.C. Ray, deputy director, HIT. “Our students have earned gold medals for meritorious performance in the exams conducted by the West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT),” says Ray.
The Government College of Engineering and Ceramic Technology (GCECT), Calcutta, is also popular among recruiters, especially for its ceramic technology students. Some even get annual packages as high as Rs 6-8 lakh. The college also offers a course in computer science and information technology. But that still doesn’t qualify it for the seventh position.
Techno India in Salt Lake, Calcutta, offers a wider variety of courses with better infrastructure and faculty. Engineering courses in electronics and instrumentation, and food technology also make it a good fishing ground for recruiters. So GCECT has to settle for the eighth position.
The Asansol Engineering College, Asansol, with the reputation of providing a good grounding in core subjects like mechanical engineering, and a good computer science faculty and telecommunications courses, establishes itself in the ninth position. It is because of this that companies such as Wipro, Accenture, Tech Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys and Mphasis have recruited its students in recent times.
The race for tenth position has institutions such as the Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology, Calcutta, Dr B.C. Roy Engineering College, Durgapur, Government College of Engineering and Textile Technology, Serampore and Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Calcutta, but the one that comes out on top is the Academy of Technology, Adisaptagram, Hooghly, not only because of its infrastructure and placement record but also the steady rise in the opening and closing rankings in the matrix and a growing reputation among students.
Shome says that preparing a top 10 list for engineering colleges, that too limited to West Bengal, is not without its risks. Many of the private colleges have put all their effort into only a few popular courses. “Many government colleges offer basic courses like civil and mechanical engineering, and the facilities are comparable with the best. But since students do not prefer these courses, the colleges are low on popularity,” he says.
“Ultimately, a student has to decide where he or she has to study. But the one thing I would advise them to do is to do careful research. Go through the institution’s record for the last few years and then take a call based on their ranking,” says Sudipta Chaudhury of Aakash coaching institute, Calcutta.

CHART TOPPERS
1) Faculty of engineering and technology, Jadavpur University (www.jadavpur.edu)
2) Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, (www.becs.ac.in)
3) Institute of Engineering and Management, Calcutta (www.iemcal.com)
4) Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, Jalpaiguri (www.jgec.org)
5) Kalyani Government Engineering College, Kalyani (www.kgec.ac.in)
6) Heritage Institute of Technology, Calcutta, (www.heritageit.edu)
7) Techno India, Salt Lake, Calcutta, (www.ticollege.org)
8) Government College of Engineering & Ceramic Technology, Calcutta, (www.gcect.ac.in)
9) Asansol Engineering College, Asansol (www.aecwb.net)
10) Academy of Technology, Adisaptagram, Hooghly (www.aot.edu.in)