Half Girlfriend is an Indian English coming aged , young
adult romance novel by Indian author Chetan Bhagat. The novel, set in rural
Bihar, New Delhi, Patna, and ny , is that the story of a Bihari boy in quest of
winning over the girl he loves. this is often Bhagat's sixth novel which was
released on 1 October 2014 by Rupa Publications. The novel has also been
published in Hindi and Gujarati versions also .
Dedicated to "non English-types", as Chetan Bhagat
wrote, the book divulges the emotions and linguistic struggles of a backward
rural Bhojpuri-laced Hindi-speaking boy from Bihar as he enrolls himself at the
distinguished English-medium St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, and falls crazy
with a "high class English-speaking rich Delhi girl" schooled at
Modern School, New Delhi.
The girl doesn't admit the connection but agrees to be his
"half girlfriend".Chetan Bhagat commented, "Half-Girlfriend, to
me, may be a unique Indian phenomenon, where boys and girls aren't clear about
their relationship status with one another . A boy might imagine he's quite
friends with the girl, but the girl remains not his girlfriend. Hence, i
assumed we would have liked a term like 'Half girlfriend'. Because, in India,
that's what most men get."
Main characters
Madhav Jha, a man from Bihar
Riya Somani, an upscale girl from Delhi
Rani Sahiba, Madhav's mother
Shailesh, Madhav's college friend
Rohan Chandak, Riya's ex-husband and childhood friend
Chetan Bhagat, as himself
MLA Ojha, from Bihar
Erica, a bar singer in ny
Samantha Myers, from the Gates Foundation
Shyam, Madhav's son
Ghanshyam Ashu, Madhav's friend from Darbhanga Bihar
Bill Gates, as himself (VFXed)
Half Girlfriend Short Summary
Madhav Jha, a rural boy from Dumraon, a village in Bihar,
involves meet the author, who is really Chetan Bhagat, and leaves behind a
couple of journals from his half-girlfriend, who he believes has died. Chetan
Bhagat calls him up subsequent morning to listen to his story. He starts by
describing his trouble entering St. Stephens, as his English wasn't ok . Being
an honest basketeer , Madhav gets finally through sports quota.
The rich and delightful Riya Somani may be a girl from Delhi,
who is additionally selected through the sports quota. Madhav and Riya become
close 'friends' thanks to their association with basketball. Madhav wants to
form her his girlfriend, but she refuses. He demands that they get physical.
Offended by his obscene ultimatum, Riya parts company with him and tells him to
not ask her anymore.
A year later, Riya marries her childhood friend Rohan and
settles in London, where Rohan features a business . Finding Delhi unbearable
on grounds of losing Riya, Madhav decides to settle in his hometown Dumraon and
helps his mother, Rani Sahiba, who runs her school. Seeing the condition of the
varsity – no proper classes or toilets – Madhav decides to satisfy local MLA
Ojha for financial help, but the MLA refuses to assist . a chance comes when
Ojha informs Madhav about Gates ' visit to some schools in Bihar. Madhav tries
his best to convince Gates to fund his school, but to try to to so he has got
to prepare a speech, preferably in English.
In the course of his struggle, he comes across Riya, who is
now a divorcee. Riya helps him prepare the speech. They two are successful in
their fundraising, but, after the speech, Riya leaves a letter for him which
states that she is within the last stage of carcinoma and has only 3 months
left to survive. Riya's letter confesses her love for Madhav but states she has
three months to measure . When Madhav attempts to trace her down, he finds that
she has cut all ties in India and has disappeared.
Half Girlfriend Summary
If Chetan Bhagat’s contribution towards making Indians read
has got to be depicted graphically, the graph will take the form of a bell
curve. I mean, yeah, he got an enormous population hooked on to some easy
literature, but if he’s getting to continue writing Bollywood screenplays in
guise of books, you would possibly just consider saving some effort and
skipping the 250 odd pages of text to travel for the large picture stuff
directly. And for the few who wouldn't look after the movie either, here’s
presenting an honest summary of his latest: Half-Girlfriend.
Half Girlfriend is extremely cleverly marketed as a story of
Madhav, a Hindi speaking Bihari who falls crazy with Riya, an elite Delhi girl
at the distinguished St. Stephen’s College. It deceives you into believing that
the story would revolve round the travails of an individual who cannot speak
English. However, it's a story about being horny for somebody way above your
league then giving it the name of true love. Considering the amount of men who
masturbate to pictures of Deepika Padukone a day , the plot seems relatable. as
long as it were as easy as whacking the weasel.
The leading pair makes it to the esteemed college through the
sports quota. It’s a incontrovertible fact that needn't are so explicitly
mentioned during this Dummy’s Guide to Indian Stereotypes. Because, how do I
put it mildly? They’re both dumb as fuck. the 2 bond over basketball and
shortly enough, the Bihari suggests games involving her basket and his balls.
Riya, who isn't up for such shenanigans, forces on him an appointment of
half-girlfriendship, which is known to be a relation quite friendship but
excludes the physical-whisical. (Super shit deal, I tell you.)
The Bihari male hormones soon get the higher of Madhav, who
professes his love with a: “Deti hai toh de, warna kat le.” Riya chooses the
latter and kattofies, telling Madhav to never contact her again. Months pass
before the Bihari boy can gather the courage to talk together with her again,
and when he does, Riya hands him her shaadi ka card complete with chocolates
and stuff.
Heartbroken, our man throws away the cardboard and cries his
eyes out while pocketing the chocolates. Why? Because free food trumps true
love, that’s why.
With Riya married off to a hotel-mogul in London, Madhav
realizes that there's not much to seem forward to in Delhi. He therefore
decides to travel back to his village Dumraon to assist his mother in running
her rural school. But before he leaves, he sits for placements for HSBC and
makes the panel realize that the interviewers themselves face a mid-life crisis
and wish to STFU. they provide him employment because all it requires to land
employment is to travel all mean girl. (I do not know what a casting couch is,
but a casting grouch is that this one. Totally!)
Madhav declines the work offer and leaves for Bihar because
it makes an honest scene for a Bollywood movie- idealistic and shit. Except,
not really.
Madhav, or Mr. Jha, as we'll now call him, starts helping his
mother at her school, where they have funds to create toilets. because the
officialdom are unable to assist in any way, subsequent obvious step is to
attend for Gates to go to their school and provides them some money. Who
considered making some moolah by getting employment at HSBC instead? nobody ,
because we’ll get the founding father of Microsoft to create our toilets, FTW!
As luck would have it, Gates decides to go to Bihar together
with his team from the Gates Foundation. to urge Bill to pay their bills, Mr.
Jha has got to organize a touch song and dance performance for the delegation
and deliver a speech in English. (And this is often once you realize why he
being poor at English is that the central theme of the story. And this is often
also once you fail to know what he was doing at St. Stephen’s for 3 years. Oh
wait, he was trying to urge into some girl pants.) #Prioritiezzzz
Jha-Man soon enrolls himself for a few English classes at
Patna, the town where he also runs into Riya. ZOMG, how did this happen again!
Totally didn't see it coming! (Totally, did.) Riya is now a divorcee and is
functioning with Nestle. Madhav, with renewed hope of affection , now helps her
with fixing her little apartment, and reciprocally , our lady helps him
together with his speech, telling him to read Chetan Bhagat to enhance his
English #LOLZZZZZZ
Very on the brink of the day of the large speech, Madhav
takes Riya home to his mother, who gives our pretty lady the stares. The newly-in-love
do some jumma chumma de de on the terrace, after which Mr. Jha delivers his
speech and gets tons of cash from Mr. Bill Gates.
Immediately after the grand event, Riya memsa'ab goes
missing. When Jha sa'ab goes around trying to find his lady love, he receives a
letter from Riya during which she tells him about her terminal carcinoma and
the way she has decided to travel underground and die alone because she doesn't
want him to require care of her in her last days. More like: enough of your
nonsense, gavaar. Except, the letter ends with an “I love you”. (Girls, I tell
you.)
Jha-Boy looks for Riya-Babe
everywhere Dilli-Bihar, but to no avail.
Three years later, Riya’s landlord from Patna finds a number
of her journals from the apartment and hands them over to Madhav Babu, who
thinks it'll be torturous for him to travel through them because her painful
memories will come rushing back. So, what must he do with the journals? Keep
them safe within the attic? Throw them away? Burn them? Hell, no! Take them to
Chetan Bhagat, he says.
(At now , you’re all like: Dude, this
makes absolutely no sense! I mean, what has C-Bag need to do with this?)
Apparently, Mr. Bhagat is additionally confused to ascertain
the journals. he's told that Riya had asked Madhav to read Chetan Bhagat’s
books to enhance his English, so that’s how he thought it might be best to
require the journals to the author. #LogicDividedByZero
Because if there's one symbolic memory that you simply have
of your half-ex, it's of her being a supporter of Chetan Bhagat's literature.
*slow clap*
Let’s just say that we’re glad she
didn’t ask him to read Wren & Martin.
Moving on… Madhav, who we'll now call Dr. Logic, tells Chetan
to eliminate the books the way he pleases. Mr. Bhagat bids Dr. sa'ab goodbye
and dumps the journals into the rubbish bin before he decides to travel to bed.
Except, with such a lot literature lying in his book rack aka the koode daan,
his conscience is all like: Bro, utth ja. Dekh shayad koi story mil jaaye
picture banane ke liye.
Chetan then reads the journals through the night and phones
Dr. Logic early morning. Dr. sa'ab reaches C-Bag’s room in time and is asked to
read a number of Riya’s diary entries. “Picture Abhi Baaki Hai Mere Dost”
Through the journal, Madhav learns about the violence his
lady had to travel through in her marriage, about how she was sexually abused
as a toddler and about how Madhav’s mother had told her to remain faraway from
him due to which she had to form up the cancer story and leave Mr. Jha to his
own misery. (Wow, such a lot plot twist. *yawn*)
Dr. Logic remembers that Riya always spoke about wanting to
be a singer at a bar in New York and therefore, she must be in New York. (Here,
we accord him the title of Sherlock.) Mr. Holmes requests a few of his friends
at the Gates Foundation to get him a three month internship in Manhattan. They
oblige and Sherlock travels to the Big Apple in search of cray-cray. On his
last night in America, he finds out where the crazy woman could be singing,
runs seven miles in the snow to reach her and stands in front of her while she
sings with her eyes closed. #CreepyFeelzzz.
Riya opens her eyes at the end of the song and both cry like
do kilo pyaaz katwa diye. Then the couple heads over to Riya’s place to do what
bunnies do because poori book mein nahi kiya.
(So much naatak for just one moment of action! I mean,
college mein hi settlement ho jaati toh all of this drama wouldn't have
happened. Too much moral of the story, this.)
The story (umm?) ends with Mr. Chetan Bhagat being shown
around the rural school by Madhav and Riya, who are now married and have a son
(awww?). Also, this Chetan is very vella, visiting schools and all!
Given how the storyline has so much depth, it is worth mentioning that through the course of the book, the author touches upon all possible social evils that he can spell out, including but not limited to illiteracy, domestic violence, corruption, casteism and sexual abuse. There’s also a hint of cancer and hygiene. But most importantly, the book is about the two biggest social evils of all: an author’s attempt to star in the movie adaptation of his book, and stupidity. Both, not necessarily mutually exclusive.
0 comments:
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.