[…] I know most writers want to be published in the US and UK after becoming famous in India, but for me, it’s very important that even the smallest part of my own country experiences my writings and feels like a part of it. […]
Do you think part of your popularity is also connected with who you are, and how you are?
It’s important for the author to be easy to relate to, as well as the book. I have to travel a lot for my books. And I always wonder to myself, who are the people reading Chetan Bhagat there. In Bastar, I learned that my books were used to teach English to the tribal children. At the same time, I’ve gone to pan-IIT conferences and been invited to New York to address a financial company. Of course, I write my books in English because yes, I am most comfortable writing in that language, but I’m almost equally comfortable with Hindi too. So it becomes possible for me to relate to a diverse readership. […]
I’m not saying enjoy just my books, but I think it’s unfair to judge my readers or my books based on the fact that it isn’t highbrow literature. It’s a form of entertainment, and it should be available to anyone. It’s a consolation though that my critics haven’t been able to stop me. My books are still selling. And my readers are loyal to me. That’s all that really matters, isn’t it?
Source: “A sense of belonging”, Chetan Bhagat interviewed by Swati Daftuar, The Hindu, November 19, 2011
Address : https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/article2641941.ece
Date Visited: 3 January 2020
“If a man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? … I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and … toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader worship.” – George Orwell quoted in Two Cheers for Democracy (London: Penguin Books 1976), p. 76 | Learn more about Childhood | Ecology and environment | Misconceptions | Modernity | Seasons and festivals | Social conventions >>
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“In Bastar, I learned that my books were used to teach English to the tribal children”: Chetan Bhagat on his sense of belonging and literature as entertainment
and international organisations >>
Source: “A sense of belonging”, Chetan Bhagat interviewed by Swati Daftuar, The Hindu, November 19, 2011
Address : https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/article2641941.ece
Date Visited: 3 January 2020
“If a man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? … I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and … toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader worship.” – George Orwell quoted in Two Cheers for Democracy (London: Penguin Books 1976), p. 76 | Learn more about Childhood | Ecology and environment | Misconceptions | Modernity | Seasons and festivals | Social conventions >>
Find up-to-date information provided by, for and about Indian authors, researchers, officials, and educators | More search options >>
Search tips: in the search field seen below, combine the name of any particular state, language or region with that of any tribal (Adivasi) community; add keywords of special interest (health, nutrition endangered language, illegal mining, sacred grove); learn about the rights of Scheduled Tribes such as the Forest Rights Act (FRA); and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, women’s rights, and children’s right to education; specify any other issue or news item you want to learn more about (biodiversity, climate change, ecology, economic development, ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, global warming, effective measures to prevent rural poverty, bonded labour, and human trafficking).
For a list of websites included in a single search, click here. To search Indian periodicals, magazines, web portals and other sources safely, click here. To find an Indian PhD thesis on a particular tribal community, region and related issues, click here >>
Find publications on these issues by reputed authors including Open Access (free download): Worldcat.org >>
Related posts
About website administrator
Secretary, Tribal Cultural Heritage in India Foundation (2010-2022)