The Daulatram College Audi burst into loud applause as India’s highest selling author made his way onto the stage. He was welcomed with a bouquet (which he instantaneously hurled towards the audience). And then in a strange manner, he started examining the part of stage that had his photograph and name. He got talking with a witty one liner….”Just checking if all my credits are in place. I do nothing without getting my credit these days.” Chetan Bhagat at his very best. The talk was supposed to be some sort of a counseling session for the MBA aspirants ( Well, It was titled “MBA-An Insider’s Story”) But it was anything but that. He spoke about the pain he felt over the recent 3-idiots issue, that Aamir calling him a Liar on National television made his 5 year old son question his dad. One could feel his emotion of being denied something he so truly deserved. But hey, this is the Rakhi Sawant age and the saying “No publicity is bad publicity” does hold some merit and this controversy has probably earned Chetan Bhagat more fame than he ever would have, had there been what he considers “proper credit” given to him by Raju Hirani.
Anyhow Mr. Bhagat took each and every opportunity possible to imply that Five Point Someone was better than 3 Idiots. Be it “One cant always do what his heart says” pointing that the characters in his novel were real and did scrap through to their degrees(rather than switching to Wildlife Photography) or be it the sales figures of his novels with the bottomline as “100 times the success 3 idiots would ever achieve” And amongst all this, there was Mr. Blogger, me ofcorse, who was sitting next to a pretty girl (who by the way was with two of her more pretty friends) in the same Audi. “When will he give tips about MBA.Thats what we are here for.” said one of the nerds sitting in the row next to me. Yeah it was supposed to be something like that but I bet 90 percent of the audience( including me and the pretty girl next to me) was there just to meet India’s most loved Writer. Cut Chetan Bhagat from this seminar and add ten more MBA gurus, there wont be a tenth of the audience present.
Anyhow he carried on discussing about his novel “3 mistakes” being adapted into a movie soon(and obviously he’l be leaving no stone unturned to get his CREDIT this tym around.) The pretty girl next to me was busy gossiping with her friends. She hurriedly turned to me asking what she had missed. Well, I was more than happy to share that bit of “vital” info with her. Finally came some stuff that the 10 percent of the crowd, the CAT CATCHERS were there for. The tips for getting through the MBA entrances. He talked about the obstacles he faced to get his first novel published, the feeling at being rejected by 9 or 10 publishers, his first novel adaptation into a movie turning out to be a disaster “Hello”. He brought up the importance of believing in one’s own self ,even when the odds are stacked against you, in a manner so typical of Chetan Bhagat .The rest of things were simple enough. Focus on Basic maths , summarise the Editorials in newspaper and those sort of things.
Running short on time, he jumped onto the Q & A round. “Mr. Bhagat,how did u make it from the messed up vivas in IIT to cracking the GD n PI at IIM A.” I asked him as I somehow managed to get hold of the mic that the pretty girl next to me wanted so badly. “Well, even I have no clue.” he began in his usual way as the crowd burst into giggles.”But yes maybe after IIT, in IIM, I realized that this was my thing and I truly wanted to make it there. And of course, God was on my side too probably." I handed the mic gently over to the girl next to me. ”Hi Chetan, I would like to ask you the reason behind there being an erotic plot in each of your novels” she asked with a wicked smile that only girls can carry. Whistles blew in the audi as Mr. Bhagat made her repeat her question citing poor audibility. (Well that’s what makes the novels sell even more) would have been the plane answer but obviously he could not admit it there. Well he replied with something that no one could get properly. I think it was more of an attention seeking query on the pretty girl’s part as well. But it got the crowd going. So No complaints. There were some more MBA aspirants’ queries and some aspiring Writers were there too. Well I left for Kamla Nagar as the session started getting messy and the HCL in my stomach demanded some food. I somewhat knew the reason behind him being the most loved writer in this country.
Anyhow Mr. Bhagat took each and every opportunity possible to imply that Five Point Someone was better than 3 Idiots. Be it “One cant always do what his heart says” pointing that the characters in his novel were real and did scrap through to their degrees(rather than switching to Wildlife Photography) or be it the sales figures of his novels with the bottomline as “100 times the success 3 idiots would ever achieve” And amongst all this, there was Mr. Blogger, me ofcorse, who was sitting next to a pretty girl (who by the way was with two of her more pretty friends) in the same Audi. “When will he give tips about MBA.Thats what we are here for.” said one of the nerds sitting in the row next to me. Yeah it was supposed to be something like that but I bet 90 percent of the audience( including me and the pretty girl next to me) was there just to meet India’s most loved Writer. Cut Chetan Bhagat from this seminar and add ten more MBA gurus, there wont be a tenth of the audience present.
Anyhow he carried on discussing about his novel “3 mistakes” being adapted into a movie soon(and obviously he’l be leaving no stone unturned to get his CREDIT this tym around.) The pretty girl next to me was busy gossiping with her friends. She hurriedly turned to me asking what she had missed. Well, I was more than happy to share that bit of “vital” info with her. Finally came some stuff that the 10 percent of the crowd, the CAT CATCHERS were there for. The tips for getting through the MBA entrances. He talked about the obstacles he faced to get his first novel published, the feeling at being rejected by 9 or 10 publishers, his first novel adaptation into a movie turning out to be a disaster “Hello”. He brought up the importance of believing in one’s own self ,even when the odds are stacked against you, in a manner so typical of Chetan Bhagat .The rest of things were simple enough. Focus on Basic maths , summarise the Editorials in newspaper and those sort of things.
Running short on time, he jumped onto the Q & A round. “Mr. Bhagat,how did u make it from the messed up vivas in IIT to cracking the GD n PI at IIM A.” I asked him as I somehow managed to get hold of the mic that the pretty girl next to me wanted so badly. “Well, even I have no clue.” he began in his usual way as the crowd burst into giggles.”But yes maybe after IIT, in IIM, I realized that this was my thing and I truly wanted to make it there. And of course, God was on my side too probably." I handed the mic gently over to the girl next to me. ”Hi Chetan, I would like to ask you the reason behind there being an erotic plot in each of your novels” she asked with a wicked smile that only girls can carry. Whistles blew in the audi as Mr. Bhagat made her repeat her question citing poor audibility. (Well that’s what makes the novels sell even more) would have been the plane answer but obviously he could not admit it there. Well he replied with something that no one could get properly. I think it was more of an attention seeking query on the pretty girl’s part as well. But it got the crowd going. So No complaints. There were some more MBA aspirants’ queries and some aspiring Writers were there too. Well I left for Kamla Nagar as the session started getting messy and the HCL in my stomach demanded some food. I somewhat knew the reason behind him being the most loved writer in this country.
yeah buddy,CB rocks n so do u.....cheers!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete(Neha)
o it was amazing....AWESUM...da whle of it was sooo sooooo gud.... thumbs up to u....
ReplyDelete