Half Girlfriend - Chetan Bhagat

So this is one of the popular ones and also one of my favourites. Though Chetan Bhagat did not put much of a lasting impression on me from his previous books but this one raised a lot of questions in my mind related to our Indian society, our thinking, our habits, our perceptions , our stereotypes and how we treat people who don’t know English like they should be born with the language already wired in their minds even if it is not their native language. It shows how much the colonial rule has affected us from generations and still persists in our minds. How English speaking people hold the superiority on us than hindi speaking ones and how English still rules us not physically, but mentally.

The story starts off with a Bihar boy who is the prince of Dumraon ,a small village in Buxar . Being a good basketball player he gets admission into St.Stephen's(Delhi University) through sports quota. He meets , actually sees a girl at the trials for admission named Riya Somani and instantly falls for her and the love story hence continues . It is a young adult romance novel and it grips you to your seats through its twists, originality, connection to indianism , romance, heartbreak and its aftermath. Well I read the almost 200 page novel in like two days so hope u get the idea of the “gripping factor”.

The characters :

Madhav Jha: The innocent boy from Bihar with his great basketball skills and charming dedication to the love of his life is a catch throughout the book. He is sweet, smart but insecured of his ‘english speaking skills’ . He is madly in love with Riya and would do anything for her but if only Riya could understand. I kind of feel sorry for him after like half of the book is over but an exciting ending awaits!

Riya Somani: The rich Delhi girl with all the expensive cars and clothes is portrayed as a rather shy , introvert and has a lot of intimacy issues . She remains confused about her feelings for Madhav throughout the book. Though she had her reasons which are revealed in the book later but at many instances she does seem really cruel to him, but as everyone has heard ‘ you hurt the person most whom you love’. So the writer, I think tries to justify this quote all through the book.

The book also throws light on how women don’t get freedom to take important life decisions for themselves, the patriarchal hold in our society which forces women to sacrifice their wishes and choices, state stereotypes, how peer pressure can result in wrong doings, and many other thought provoking instances throughout the book give you a glimpse to a whole new side of everything.
Well , the content of the last 30-40 pages seemed a little superficial to me because that kind of stuff is a little difficult to be true in a country with a population of 318.9 million. Well, to ofcourse understand what I am talking about, you need to grab a copy and read. This is the only flaw I could find in the story. It is a must read ( I have read it twice :P), the romance , the genuinity , will definitely give you a new perspective towards love with a tincture of humour, sarcasm and all the stereotype jokes. I will give it a 4/5.