:: Mumbai Age

From banker to full-time writer

Jane Borges

The Asian Age

Over a year ago, when Chetan Bhagat shifted base to Mumbai from Hong Kong, he was a hardcore investment banker with over 11 years of professional experience and the tag of a best-selling author who wrote "just for fun."

Today, it’s a different story. Incidentally, the writing bug stung him so hard that the IIT and IIM alumnus not only gave up his banking job, but also came out with his fourth book in less than 15 months since his third bestseller hit the stands.

Today he is one of India’s most sought-after authors, whose simplistic yet youthful genre of writing has created waves in Indian literary circles.

"I shifted to Mumbai with the intention of working with a bank, but the response to my third book The Three Mistakes of My Life was phenomenal, and people’s expectations just soared all of a sudden," says Chetan, adding, "Before I could even realise it, I was handling two jobs. I would work at the bank during the weekdays and spend time writing on the weekends. But in the process I was neglecting my family, especially my two sons, and all this was making me really unhappy."

This is when Chetan decided to temporarily move out of banking and become a full-time writer. The product being 2 States: The Story of my Marriage, Chetan’s fourth book that will hit the stands on October 8.

The book is the story of a couple that has to fight the battle of the families before translating its love story into a love marriage. Ask Chetan about his inspiration and he says, "Indian marriages."

"Interestingly, in India when a couple fall in love, the families are equally involved. In fact the families from both sides need to have a love affair before they approve the marriage," he says.

The issue of inter-community marriages is at the core of Chetan’s fourth book. "Some of the characters have been inspired from real life, more because I am a Punjabi and my wife is a Tamilian. The story is fiction," he says.

However, novels are not the only thing keeping the author busy on his writing desk. Chetan is also dabbling with scriptwriting and newspaper columns. Two of his script projects include Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots on the lines of Five Point Someone and Farhan Akthar’s untitled film based on Three Mistakes of My Life. "Writing scripts is challenging, but I am learning and growing with time," the author says.

On his critics calling his writing "fluff", Chetan says, "I get disappointed with the way the critics treat my book. I won’t deny that I could have some shortcomings, but my genre is very different. I respect feedback, but my books need to be measured with a different yardstick."

From banking to writing, Chetan is surely all geared up.