People fall in and even out of love, make mistakes, repeat them, correct them, accomplish the goods in life, try to avoid negativity. These are the things which commonly are a part of human life, but when anything goes out of the way, or we experience something new, that’s what makes our life worth living.
One such totally different term was led in front by the Indian author Chetan Bhagat with his novel ‘Half Girlfriend’. As the title already is exciting, let’s see what the book holds in it.
Introduction
Book’s Name - Half Girlfriend
Author - Chetan Bhagat
Genre - Young adult romance
Language - Original: English, Adapted: Hindi, Gujarati
Author - Chetan Bhagat
Genre - Young adult romance
Language - Original: English, Adapted: Hindi, Gujarati
About the Author
Chetan Bhagat is an Indian author and columnist. He was also included in Time magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People in the year 2010. Bhagat originally graduated in mechanical engineering at IIT Delhi and completed an MBA at IIM Ahmedabad. Initially, he started his career as an investment banker but left it after a few years in order to pursue his passion for writing.
‘Five Point Someone’, his first novel, was published in 2004. He has written nine novels and three non-fiction books till date. His novels have always been listed as bestsellers since the beginning. Bhagat’s book, Half Girlfriend, is his sixth novel which was released on 1st October 2014 by Rupa Publications. The novel has also been published in Gujarati and Hindi. It also got adapted into a Bollywood movie, starring Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor.
About the Book
Half Girlfriend is an Indian young adult romance novel by author Chetan Bhagat. The novel is set in a rural area of Bihar, moving further with the change of destinations to New Delhi, Patna, and New York. It is a story of a Bihari boy who tries winning over the girl he loves.
Dedicated to all the "non English-types", as Bhagat wrote, the book promulgates the sentiments and semantic struggles of a backward rural Bhojpuri-laced, Hindi-speaking boy from Bihar whilst he enrolls himself at the prestigious St. Stephen’s College in Delhi.
There, he falls in love with a standard high class English-speaking rich Delhi girl schooled at Modern School in Delhi. The girl does not admit to a complete relationship, rather agrees to be his "half girlfriend".Chetan Bhagat once commented that the word ‘Half-Girlfriend’ was a very unique phenomenon, especially when it comes to use in a country like India.
This is because in a country where boys and girls aren’t clear about their relationship status; where a boy may always think he is more than friends with a certain girl, but she is still not his girlfriend, a more appropriate term was needed, hence, ‘'Half girlfriend'. “Because, in India, that is what most men get", Bhagat said.
Dedicated to all the "non English-types", as Bhagat wrote, the book promulgates the sentiments and semantic struggles of a backward rural Bhojpuri-laced, Hindi-speaking boy from Bihar whilst he enrolls himself at the prestigious St. Stephen’s College in Delhi.
There, he falls in love with a standard high class English-speaking rich Delhi girl schooled at Modern School in Delhi. The girl does not admit to a complete relationship, rather agrees to be his "half girlfriend".Chetan Bhagat once commented that the word ‘Half-Girlfriend’ was a very unique phenomenon, especially when it comes to use in a country like India.
This is because in a country where boys and girls aren’t clear about their relationship status; where a boy may always think he is more than friends with a certain girl, but she is still not his girlfriend, a more appropriate term was needed, hence, ‘'Half girlfriend'. “Because, in India, that is what most men get", Bhagat said.
The rich and amazingly beautiful Riya Somani is a girl from Delhi, who is selected through the sports quota, same as Madhav. They both become close friends due to their common association with basketball. Madhav wants to make her girlfriend, but she clearly refuses. He demands to get in a physical relation, due to which, offended by his crude ultimatum, Riya parts company with him and tells him not to talk to her anymore in any way.
A year later, Riya gets married to her childhood friend, Rohan and gets settled in London. Finding Delhi to be an unbearable ground of losing Riya, Madhav decides to settle in his hometown, Dumraon, Bihar and help his mother, Rani Sahiba, who runs a school. Seeing the condition of the school, where there are no proper classes or toilets, Madhav decides to meet the local MLA for financial help, but the MLA sort of refuses to help.
An opportunity comes when the MLA informs him about a campaign going on where Bill Gates was visiting some schools in Bihar to fund. Madhav tries his best to convince Gates in order to fund his school, but to do so, he has to prepare a speech, preferably in English. In due course of his struggle, he comes across Riya once again, who is now a divorcee.
Riya helps him prepare the speech for the fund. The two become successful in their fundraising, but, just after the speech, Riya leaves a letter for him which states that she is in the last stage of lung cancer and has only 3 months left to survive. Riya's letter confesses her love for Madhav but also says that she has only three months in life. When Madhav attempts to track her down, he finds that she has cut all her ties in India and has disappeared in thin air, leaving even her family clueless.
After three years of abrupt patience, it is revealed from Riya's journals that she has faked her cancer and is alive. Madhav goes to New York in order to search for her. After three months of extensive searching, he finds her at some random Cafe ‘Wha’, where the two resolve and finally accomplish their relationship.
The book ends with the author, Bhagat, visiting the rural school of Madhav’s mother in Dumraon, three and a half years later. What he sees is that both Riya and Madhav were there, running the school successfully, and now also have a son, Shyam. Madhav wanted a relationship with Riya, however, Riya only wanted them to be friends. In this east-west debate, they finally came to a resolving solution where Riya became Madhav's half-girlfriend.
A year later, Riya gets married to her childhood friend, Rohan and gets settled in London. Finding Delhi to be an unbearable ground of losing Riya, Madhav decides to settle in his hometown, Dumraon, Bihar and help his mother, Rani Sahiba, who runs a school. Seeing the condition of the school, where there are no proper classes or toilets, Madhav decides to meet the local MLA for financial help, but the MLA sort of refuses to help.
An opportunity comes when the MLA informs him about a campaign going on where Bill Gates was visiting some schools in Bihar to fund. Madhav tries his best to convince Gates in order to fund his school, but to do so, he has to prepare a speech, preferably in English. In due course of his struggle, he comes across Riya once again, who is now a divorcee.
Riya helps him prepare the speech for the fund. The two become successful in their fundraising, but, just after the speech, Riya leaves a letter for him which states that she is in the last stage of lung cancer and has only 3 months left to survive. Riya's letter confesses her love for Madhav but also says that she has only three months in life. When Madhav attempts to track her down, he finds that she has cut all her ties in India and has disappeared in thin air, leaving even her family clueless.
After three years of abrupt patience, it is revealed from Riya's journals that she has faked her cancer and is alive. Madhav goes to New York in order to search for her. After three months of extensive searching, he finds her at some random Cafe ‘Wha’, where the two resolve and finally accomplish their relationship.
The book ends with the author, Bhagat, visiting the rural school of Madhav’s mother in Dumraon, three and a half years later. What he sees is that both Riya and Madhav were there, running the school successfully, and now also have a son, Shyam. Madhav wanted a relationship with Riya, however, Riya only wanted them to be friends. In this east-west debate, they finally came to a resolving solution where Riya became Madhav's half-girlfriend.
Famous Quotes From the Book
- “Tiny bumps in time shape our lives, even though we spend hours trying to make long-term plans.”
- “Don’t fall in love with her again, a voice within me warned. You never fell out of love with her, another voice countered with an evil laugh.”
- “There are things some people can never understand. There’s no point telling them.”
The Bottom Line
The emotions of the characters involved in the book are extremely natural and could be understood real quick. The book has described the condition of India's rural areas as well, leaving us in a debatable subconscious of the problems people go through in life there, while we live in luxury. The book is a great combination of friendship, love, mistakes, poverty, and most of all, taught us how to believe in ourselves and how to behold our bonds and roots in life, no matter wherever we go.
Written By - Pavas Shrigyan
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