He asked Piyush to translate what I had said.īy making his hero a guy with the right questions and the 'wrong language', he uses him as a metaphor for the new Indian who must learn English to move ahead in life. However, he was what English-speaking people would call an 'uptight prick'. Why are our villages so backward? Why do we have so many differences based on caste and religion? I thought I could find some answers in this course.' I wanted to learn more about our society. 'My mother runs a school and works with the villagers. I took my chances and responded in my language.
'I am from a rural area,' Gupta said, emphasizing the 'a' as if omitting it was a criminal offence. I didn't know whether Gupta had something against me, was generally grumpy or suffered from constipation. Indian literature has been catering to a niche - that is very similar to the way English is spoken or written in the West - and I always wanted to do a book that would question that."Īnd he certainly hasn't pulled punches, if we go by the excerpts.
They don't own the language and my question to them is will you not give someone a voice just because you don't like their accent. When asked if he is poking some fun back at the people who are his most vocal critics, Bhagat said "I want to tell the 'English types' what India is all about. The hero of Half Girlfriend is a boy from Bihar who gets into St Stephen's (through the sports quota) - one of India's best colleges and the fount of a fair amount of criticism of Bhagat's works. Having gone from strength to strength with each successive novel, their film adaptations and a burgeoning following on social media as well as the real world, Bhagat's agenda this time was to take the fight to his critics.
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