Chetan Bhagat vs Vikas Swarup

            After reading the title, most of you may get surprised and would be thinking …..what the hell is it….why this stupid fellow comparing them….what’s the point of comparison but I can’t help it…it just comes in devil’s mind when I finished my last book Six Suspects (Here I don’t think, I have to mention that before writing this post I have read all the creations of both the geniuses).

          Let me start first with Vikas Swarup, the diplomat and the novelist. One Year ago, if u had asked an average Indian reader (like me) about him then I don’t think that it was ur lucky day….but after the phenomenal success of Slumdog every one want to know abt him, want to read that inspirational bestselling book….me too :) and I read the original title Q&A (now renamed on movie title). It’s awesome if u haven’t seen the movie before…but I was not so lucky…so I just finished it slowly slowly….and in the flow I finished the other one too (lots of pages n no comments for that book)….. And that was the moment I thought about Mr. Chetan Bhagat.

             And here comes the legend itself. Here I want to mention a fact which I came thru recently that Five Point Someone has continued to stay on the India Today bestseller list ever since its publication (190 weeks in January 2008) (ref- mother of all knowledge, Wikipedia). U know when I ask my friends about their favorite books they used to say big names and in the last “also Chetan Bhagat is not bad for free time.” Why man…he brought a revolution in Indian Publication houses from his first one….n I accept that the later ones were not so good but who created the benchmark for that.

          Now I think I got one more author for free time…they both are same in many ways….they give stories for movies….stay in the best selling chart for weeks and most of all they make us to dream…either one Billion or IIT degree….in the end they both are same…then why we treat Chetan as a secondary author in comparison of the other one. Just because of the list of awards but I think that awards don’t matter if no one knows about you. Literature wise Q&A is not too much ahead from FPS, but in the end it doesn’t matter. If you want to be famous in International market, just write about the poverty and slums of India and they will fill ur pocket with lots of medals.(What a rubbish but it’s a fact)

           In the end, I am waiting for the movie 3 Idiots and m sure that after the release, my point will get some more attention. I hope that after reading this crap (there are lot of more but I am not able to connect my ideas, so don’t be worry) …u would think about it at least once or try to check the books if already not read.

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