Half Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat
A book that was with me for almost 2 years and yet I never cared to read it, perhaps I forgot that I even had it at the first place. This is the first novel that i read, so it was a great experience. Visualizing characters in your mind and reading it gave me a cinematic feel indeed. Not more on intro, but about the novel. Well, i thought it was based on true events but not. I was told few days later after I read the book that it is just fictional. Well, good job Mr. Bhagat, it was just clinical, you got me throughout.
It started on a curious note, where one of the main character; Madhav Jha met Mr. Bhagat in a hotel and gave him few journals of Riya Somani; Madhav Jha's half girlfriend. Bhagat was running out of time as he have to reach his home. He said no when Madhav Jha asked him to read her journals and asked him to leave and as we know, he read it once he left. The very old cinematic style and yet it was nice. He read it, cancelled his flight ticket and called him to narrate what happened. And there it starts: Three Acts (Delhi, Patna, New York), 6 significant places (Boys hostel, Riya's home, Madhav's home, Patna elementary school, Sailesh's home and Upper West, 70th and 6th) and many characters including Bill Gates lol. Uh oh, I'm spoiling.
The story didn't have non-linearities or so called any subplots. It was straight, simple and neat. Well a good one for the first read. The introduction of Riya, the first meet up, how they hung out together, everything was just linear that you'd forgot you're reading a book than watching a film. Actually, a movie had already been released from this book and that was horrible. Why did they make it like that, why did they spoil my first novel!
The one-liner is simple, Madhav Jha, a descendant from a royal family of Dumraon, Bihar. Over generations, having lost their family wealth led a not so very sophisticated life with his mother. On the other hand, sophisticated english speaking Riya, from a wealthy family from Delhi got to study together in St. Stephens College, Delhi. Riya saw him as friend, but he didn't. He wanted more than a friend, so she settled on being his half-girlfriend! Well if you are wondering what is a half-girlfriend, spend time together, have affectionate hugs but nothing more. Hmm. hmm. *clears throat* What happened next? Did she became her full-girlfriend? That's the story all about.
The character arc of both the protagonist was just very subtle and well developed. The dialogues, very rare breaking the fourth wall-ish jokes, though predictable and cliched at times, it gave both of them a solid outline. I was also later told that Bhagat somehow has his own reference in his novels and he was one of the not so very important but an impacting character portraying himself.
The romantic, or the upbeat ending is something easily adaptable to Bollywood script, and you know now why. On the whole it talked about the journey of Madhav from a remote place who comes to urban India for studies and his love journey with his half-girlfriend, what happened after Delhi act and finally did she become her full-girlfriend was a perfect, fun read. I started reading it thinking I'll finish it within 20 days but the story was simple that I had to complete it ASAP. 5 days. It's a good read over a break of 4-5 hours max, I'd say. I don't know whether novels like these are meant to be finished faster or not!? Well, if you haven't read Half Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat I'd suggest you to read it and I'd not suggest you to watch the film. Signing off here and catch you guys on the next one.
With love
ΛV
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