I am back after my short hiatus (of writing!). I wasn't able to write anything, coz i was bogged down with work..! Professional, personal and social. I was cribbing about my increase in work load this week, when my F-I-L contradicted me, that money should be my motivating factor and all aches and pains should disappear with it ???
mmmm...well I guess this would be applicable if i truly loved my job...but the truth is although I LIKE IT...I DON"T LOVE IT! I am luckily financially sound, but money has never been a motivating factor for me, in comparison to FAME..! I have been working for 11 years now and i haven't achieved fame in any manner..! It's too late for me to switch my profession (am a doctor...and believe me I don't feel like I have descended from heaven as I ain't that great!) and try my hand at stuff that feels more interesting...like professional Fashion Photography, Fashion designing, Ad designing or anything remotely related to the media...which helps you meet the "HI" society! I know age should be no barrier, but when you are married and have a kid and loads of loans for investments, then taking a LOOOONG break to try out new stuff is very dicey, specially in this country!!!.
That's probably the reason behind my idolizing Chetan Bhagat..and possibly every Indian author who makes it big..! An article in the Education times of this week (TOI, Delhi) where the top 5 authors of India were discussed, mentioned Chetan Bhagat was at the top with 41% of popularity, next in line was Arvind Adiga at 19%, Jhumpa Lahiri at 17%, Shobhaa De at 16% and Kiran Desai at 7%.
These are the people who put forth their thoughts into words, weave a story and publish it,...mind you without leaving their respective jobs..! Thus if their book clicks, then their lucky, if not, they have nothing much to lose.
A 20 yr old someone, called Swapnil Khetan has written words which describe Chetan Bhagat, the way i wanted to..." Redefined writing. No Jargon, Simple English introduced "Hinglish" to the urban folklore. He gave readers a chance to comprehend each word besides feeding them with stuff stuff they wanted and could easily digest. As I believe, writing is less about how you want to portray it, but more about how you can help the reader to comprehend it"-
What i like about his style of writing is that he uses day to day language...His motive is to convey a story, a thought and not teach English..! I know of all those I hate chetan Bhagat websites coz they don't find him gramatically correct or too fictitious and his stories are "too simple to be famous".....but what they don't realise is that he has a connection with the crowd. He is like Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan. Their acting is "JUST BEARABLE" but they connect with the masses of all classes. He has instigated many, who never picked up a novel for the fear of not being able to understand the Queen's English to start reading for the love of the story, the character or the thought. The feeling of understanding the protaganist's pain, joy, agony coz of a similar situation in our life has given him that kind of a FAN FOLLOWING or a YOUTH ICON. Believe me, Shobaa De does not have that big a FAN BASE (Yet i don't mind being in her shoes either coz she is definitely more famous than the clones of Chetan Bhagat who have emerged as authors, in the last 3-4 years cause they too were IIM, IIT pass outs!)
In the end, if I analyse my situation, Chetan Bhagat has inspired me to write. I have so many stories lingering in my head and hope to pour all that on paper someday. Whether I attain fame is no assurity, but if I do, then I won't have to leave my job, I would still continue serving my patients, and may be have more luck with more patients, reach out to the "HI" society and definitely not get contradicted by my F-I-L!
Interesting. Some writers write for themselves. Some write for their readers. Each genre of writing is unique indeed and Chetan Bhagat certainly deserves his place in the sun.
ReplyDeleteYours is a noble profession and you are famous in your own way - just think of the number of patients to whom you are God. Writing is another route to fame, but just as in every other field, I suppose this requires as much hard work and luck as in any other field.
Having said that, I would place a higher degree of fame on say Dr Devi Shetty, than say a Chetan Bhagat !!