Bhagat is boring, I didn't finish any of his books yet beside 2 states. You Sir, Ajit Balakrishnan, humiliated Chetan Bhagat by comparing him to Dickens.
This is ridiculous! Bhagat's writing is nowhere near to that of Dickens. His popularity is no marker of his quality, its more of a comment on the idiocy of the readership. Dickens had a critical consciousness, he critiqued contemporary issues like industrialization, What does Bhagat do? he picks up an issue like call center and mystifies it with religion! Moreover Dickens had seen poverty and experienced the underbelly of London, Bhagat with his privileged upper middle class status and clumsy grammar has no in depth understanding of contemporary India instead he just spouts popular middle class cliches about politics and gains his readers who are more than happy to stay in their illusory world. If you want to see the reality of call centres, watch Ashim Ahluwalia's brilliant documentary called "John and Jane"
Re: Ridiculous!
by Aishwarya on Dec 27, 2012 05:57 PM
thats very elitist view of things...I as a person enjoy reading a classic Joyce or Fitzgerald or kafka and marvel the brilliance of the writer.....I have great regards for Hemingway or salinger or Marquez. Love in the time of cholera is one of my fav books....but nevertheless i enjoyed reading chetan bhagat....to be frank with you. his novels may be filmy or sometimes too predictable and his language may be too plain for a Nobel, but i still regard him as a great writer........Shivani, try writing a book some day and get it published. you will know what it takes to become a writer of a bestseller.its too easy to be negetive.
Re: Re: Re: Ridiculous!
by Shivani Mutneja on Dec 27, 2012 07:20 PM
Mr/ Ms Blah Blah obviously you can't be me :) I have more words in my dictionary than "Blah Blah".
Re: Re: Ridiculous!
by Shivani Mutneja on Dec 27, 2012 07:16 PM
Dear aishwarya, Your grammar and language gives me an idea of your love for Marquez, Hemingway and Kafka! Your understanding of any complexity of language or literature is minimal, no wonder you consider Bhagat a "great writer". And as far as writing is concerned , even if I do write, I not aim at competing with the likes of Mr. Bhagat.
Re: Re: Re: Ridiculous!
by piri on Dec 27, 2012 10:15 PM
Your grammar and language GIVE me an idea of your love for Marquez, Hemingway and Kafka!
And as far as writing is concerned, even if I do write, I WOULD NOT BE AIMING at competing with the likes of Mr. Bhagat.
Nevertheless, I wholly agree with you that Bhagat is a prosaic writer and that his huge following in India is actually an indication of how uncritical the average Indian middle class reader is rather than one of his high standing as a writer.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Ridiculous!
by Shivani Mutneja on Dec 28, 2012 01:19 PM
Mr. Piri,
Thank you for pointing out the typos in capital letters :) Just a clarification , in the last part of the last sentence, I intended to write I "do" not aim at competing with the likes of Mr. Bhagat.
Re: Re: Re: Ridiculous!
by Rani on Dec 28, 2012 10:18 AM
miss, complexity of language hardly makes for great literature, and your idea of literature, predictably, is half baked.Grammar and right punctuations dont make great literature, a great writer always invents a new language....Eg Arundhati roy
Re: Re: Ridiculous!
by secret secret on Dec 27, 2012 07:20 PM
You miss the point, Aishwarya. Nobody is disputing anything you are saying, including that he is a good writer. it's just that calling his calibre the same as that of charles dickens is highly disputable. and do not tell people to write a book to understand how difficult it is - that is a facile argument. by that logic, i should make a car myself before i can call a car bad. your stand is that criticism should be restricted to creators of something else in the same genre, and not to users of the product.
Re: Ridiculous!
by Rani on Dec 28, 2012 10:21 AM
Ms. Shivani,reading you, i could figure your grasp of grammar and language....so dont get started on grammar.....
Re: Re: Ridiculous!
by Shivani Mutneja on Dec 28, 2012 01:11 PM
Dear Ms Rani, Thank you for attacking me for a typo. I am not saying that complexity of language makes great literature. I am saying that an understanding of the complexity of contemporary social and political situation is necessary for good writing, and this understanding can be expressed in simple language also. As far as the question of invention of a new language is concerned, a writer needs to be familiar with the rules to break them; somebody like Bhagat who is ignorant of basic grammatical structure is not inventing anything new, its sheer carelessness on his part to write the way he does.
This is just ridiculous! Bhagat's writing, his characters , his handling of the burning issues of contemporary india is nowhere near to Dickens, just because he is read by a large number is not a comment on his intelligence or work, it is more of a comment on the mindset of a large number of readers. Dickens had a critical consciousness, he picked up issues like industrialization and exposed their ills, what does Bhagat do ? He picks up on the space of the call center and mystifies it! If you want to see the reality of call centres, please watch this documentary called "John and Jane" by Ashim Ahluwalia. Moreover Dickens had seen poverty, the underbelly of London and the ills of society closely. Bhagat with his privileged upper middle class status and clumsy grammar has no in depth understanding of the moment.
The below comments speak of classic case of Indian hypocrisies....Take my word, the very people who comment negatively are the ones who wait fervently for chetan bhagat books and most often the first people to read his books.and as soon as done, they pretend to be all literatis reading only classic literature..... people, if you find his not worthy why do you read him, or less come here to comment? your comments show how important he is.
Re: Whats wrong with chetan bhagat
by ramen das on Dec 27, 2012 05:36 PM
Not really... I once tried to read and could not finish... the people who read are the ones who do not generally have a reading habit...
He's a popular fiction writer, that too a poor one... for instance, Sydney Sheldon may be popular but he is not considered a literary figure like Dickens... there is a reason why it is so... hope you get acquainted with real literature...
Re: Re: Re: Whats wrong with chetan bhagat
by Aishwarya on Dec 27, 2012 05:42 PM
its like saying only Satyajit rays or Vittorio De Sica's films are REAL films.And raju hirani films are all non real films?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Whats wrong with chetan bhagat
by ramen das on Dec 27, 2012 05:49 PM
Hirani is decent sis...
I am comparing Bhagat to Rohit Shetty if you need a film analogy... Like all these brainless Bolly entertainers are popular... but doesnt mean one can take them seriously...
Read Marquez, read Eco, at least read Amitabh Ghosh... much more erudite and entertaining that Bhagat who knows nothing beyond his student life, his hostel life, and his marriage...
Re: Re: Re: Re: Whats wrong with chetan bhagat
by ramen das on Dec 27, 2012 05:56 PM
He's professionally trained in the field of management... that where he is good at, in marketing...
I have no issues with him writing pul fiction and people reading them for whatever reason... but I do have a problem when he is undeservingly called a great literary figure...
I also have a problem because nowadays anyone who is famous is considered an expert on everything... Bhagat nowadays even writes about foreign policy (& he advocated outsourcing India's defense to USA)... he's a treat to the nation...
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whats wrong with chetan bhagat
by Aishwarya on Dec 27, 2012 06:09 PM
friend, read some more literature, a bit more than what you have mentioned, to know what humility means....there is place and space for for several genre of writings in a book store.... and some fun and entertaining read a welcome change...dont tell me you read only marquez or amitav ghosh.....gosh.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whats wrong with chetan bhagat
by ramen das on Dec 27, 2012 06:27 PM
I read a lot more... I even hard boiled fiction for entertainment but CB fails to entertain me...
Only I cannot read books that contain grammatical errors and shallow and tepid accounts of ones own boring life...
Besides if humility means acceptance of low quality trash, I'd rather be called arrogant... Kowtowing before popular taste if if I don't like it would be dishonest...
Value is going down in our society. People will do anything to get TRP or eyeballs. This piece certainly succeded in getting many eyeballs. Sesationalization is the name of game. Double meaning headlines, take the line out of context for heading is all going on. content is not important, the headline is...
A Master Chef is the one who Cooks tasty Food Presented nicely - But bottom Line is Taste else none will eat! The best Technological Inventions are the ones where the technology has transformed the life of the common Man! - A bi cycle is a better invention than an ultra modern space craft to transport tourist to Moon! A Good Musician is the one who can transform the state of his listener irrespective of their musical knowledge or lack of it! Finally a good writer is the one who can communicate with his writing to all those who read his book! To tell in IT Parlance - Only programmers can understand the coded language but what we all see & use the user Interface is simple & easy to use! Literati - the actual ones & the half baked ones don't say the grapes are Sour since you could not reach it. You can criticize Chetan if you have the following qualifications 1) Written at least one complete book ( fiction/Non fiction anything) which has been published 2) which has been read by at least 5 Lac readers 3) You make your livelihood by writing only irrespective of your past employment etc.
Re: literati - My Foot!
by prasath jayaraman on Dec 28, 2012 01:03 PM
Each one has unique taste/interest in Books,movies,music,cars etc depending on their depth of knowledge and IQ in that respective field. It’s very difficult to create an exemplary product which has an universal appeal. That’s why we have separate categories called children, adults, old age & so called A class, B class, C class depending on IQ level/economic status. So producers of these products should bear in mind the target audience category during the design/production of these products. For example,GM manufactures both Chevrolet(B&C centres) and Cadillac (luxury – A class category). Similarly for TATA nano and ARIA/JAGUAR cars. Now a millionaire by purchasing a NANO/Chevrolet car can’t accuse/claim that Tata’s & GM don’t have the capability to produce luxury cars. He selected the wrong product/choice.He can’t expect both luxury features and economical price in the same product. They have separate classes for each of the product.
Hence your argument that “A bi cycle is a better invention than an ultra-modern space craft to transport tourist to Moon!’ does not hold good as long as the creator has the capability to produce both types of products catering to common man and the priviledged. It’s just that he could not combine both the features in the same product due to socio-economical/technological constraints.
