Well since his first book in 2004 I always wished to meet this great personality who made India read like never before. He has been successful in doing what authors like Shobbha De and Deepak Chopra couldn’t. Well in that case nobody except him could.
When I heard he was coming to Rajkot I couldn’t believe my ears. Soon I made arrangements to attend his seminar at Maniyar Hall where I got an opportunity to meet the person whom I admire a lot.
Though I had prepared myself to interrogate him, but one look at him made me speechless. All I could manage was a photograph and an autograph my reaction was expected. Who wouldn’t be mesmerized to meet their favorite celebrity in person? After all he is my favorite author not mentioning Jeffery Archer and Nicholas Sparks.
In the seminar Mr. Bhagat talked about how he wrote his books, his days at IIM- A, the obstacles he faced in his life and the controversy over the credit in 3 idiots. He requested the youngsters to keep a positive attitude by illustrating his own example.
“I was rejected by 8 publishers between 2002 and 2004 for Five point someone yet I went to the 9th publisher. It was then that Rupa accepted my draft on a condition that 1000 copies should be sold. I sat down to make a list of my friends and relatives who would buy my book which came down to 200. I was falling short by 800 people. But I wanted it to be possible. I visualized it being printed and that positive attitude has brought me here. One lakh copies of my book were sold. Hundred times more than what is needed to be a bestseller.”
He also added saying “I am the only Indian author whose books are being adopted by bollywood. Those 8 publishers didn’t understand the meaning of the title ‘Five point someone’ but today the movie 3 idiots has earned 240 crores in 10 days, more than any other movie in Indian history.”
He showed a presentation titled ‘Why Gujarati girls are better than Punjabi girls’
-A study for my mother.
Printed on 2nd July 2010
Presently he is working on the screenplay of his third book ‘The three mistakes of my life’ which would be shortly shot in Ahmedabad by the crew of ‘Rock On’.Clad in dark blue jeans and black and white stripped
kurta, he looked more like a Gujarati. When questioned about the same he said he is a
Punjabi but loves Gujarati food like thepla and dhokla.
In the late evening I messaged and called all my friends and cousins to inform them about the event. Most of them were happy and jealous to learn about it. And that excited me more.
- By A CHETAN BHAGAT FAN
Yesha Bhatt
St. Xaviers College
nice.. not too many ppl can meet their icons... ur writing is very well.. But there is only one point i would like to say that; when u write articles; it shouldn't have ur point of view..!!
ReplyDeletethnx fr ur valuable comment. Well it was a kind of feature story. and if i m not wrong feature writing can have our point of view. anyways u cn alwys tell me whervr i m wrng. :)
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