Half Girlfriend is an
Indian English
Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. E ...
coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...
,
young adult romance novel by Indian author
Chetan Bhagat
Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist and YouTuber. He was included in Time (magazine), Time magazine's list of Time 100, World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Five of his novels have been adapted into films ...
. The novel, set in rural
Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
,
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
,
Patna
Patna (
), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...
, and
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, is the story of a
Bihari boy in quest of winning over the girl he loves. This is Bhagat's sixth novel, which was released on 1 October 2014 by
Rupa Publications
Rupa Publications is an Indian publishing company based in New Delhi, with sales centres in Kolkata, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Kathmandu.
Genesis
Rupa Publications was founded in 1936 by D. Mehra and R. K. Me ...
. The novel has also been published in
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
and
Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
.
Dedicated to "non English-types", as Chetan Bhagat wrote, the book divulges the sentiments and linguistic struggles of a backward ,rural
Bhojpuri
Bhojpuri (;[Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries](_blank)
, Oxford U ...
-laced Hindi-speaking boy from Bihar as he enrolls himself at the prestigious English-medium
St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, and falls in love with a "high class English-speaking rich Delhi girl" schooled at
Modern School, New Delhi. The girl does not admit the relationship but agrees to be his "half girlfriend".
Chetan Bhagat commented, "''Half-Girlfriend'', to me, is a unique Indian phenomenon where boys and girls are not clear about their relationship status with each other. A boy may think he is more than friends with the girl, but the girl is still not his girlfriend. Hence, I thought we needed a term like "half girlfriend". Because, in India, that is what most men get."
[
]
Plot
Madhav Jha, a rural boy from Dumraon, a village in Bihar, comes to meet the author, who is actually Chetan Bhagat, and leaves behind a few journals from his half-girlfriend, who he believes has died. Chetan Bhagat calls him up the next morning to hear his story. He starts by describing his trouble entering St. Stephens, as his English wasn't good enough. Being a good basketball player, Madhav gets finally through sports quota.
The rich and beautiful Riya Somani is a girl from Delhi, who is also selected through the sports quota. Madhav and Riya become close 'friends' due to their association with basketball. Madhav wants to make her his girlfriend, but she refuses. He demands that they get physical. Offended by his obscene ultimatum, Riya parts company with him and tells him not to talk to her anymore.
A year later, Riya marries her childhood friend Rohan and settles in London, where Rohan has a big business. Finding Delhi unbearable on grounds of losing Riya, Madhav decides to settle in his hometown Dumraon and helps his mother, Rani Sahiba, who runs her school. Seeing the condition of the school – no proper classes or toilets – Madhav decides to meet local MLA Ojha for financial help, but the MLA refuses to help. An opportunity comes when Ojha informs Madhav about Bill Gates' visit to some schools in Bihar. Madhav tries his best to convince Gates to fund his school, but to do so he has to prepare a speech, preferably in English.
In the course of his struggle, he comes across Riya, who is now a divorcee. Riya helps him prepare the speech. They two are successful in their fundraising, but, after the speech, Riya leaves a letter for him which states that she is in the last stage of lung cancer and has only 3 months left to survive. Riya's letter confesses her love for Madhav but states she has three months to live. When Madhav attempts to track her down, he finds that she has cut all ties in India and has disappeared.
After three years, it is revealed from Riya's journals that she is alive and that she had faked her cancer. Madhav goes in search of her in New York. After three months of extensively searching, he finds her at Cafe Wha, and the two reconcile and finally consummate their relationship.
The book ends with the author visiting the rural school in Dumraon, three and a half years later, and seeing that both Madhav and Riya are successfully running the school, and have a son, Shyam.
Main characters
* Madhav Jha, a guy from Bihar
* Riya Somani, a rich girl from Delhi
* Rani Sahiba, Madhav's mother
* Shailesh, Madhav's college friend
* Rohan Chandak, Riya's ex-husband and childhood friend
* Chetan Bhagat
Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist and YouTuber. He was included in Time (magazine), Time magazine's list of Time 100, World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Five of his novels have been adapted into films ...
, as himself
* MLA Ojha, from Bihar
* Erica, a bar singer in New York
* Samantha Myers, from the Bill Gates Foundation
* Shyam, Madhav's son
* Ghanshyam Ashu, Madhav's friend from Darbhanga Bihar
*Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
, as himself
Reception
Rituparna Chatterjee of CNN-IBN
CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internationa ...
called it a "massively disappointing book written exclusively for another Bollywood sobfest". Pranav Joshi of ''Daily News and Analysis
Publications established in 2005
Newspapers published in Mumbai
English-language newspapers published in India
Daily newspapers published in India
Essel Group
2005 establishments in Maharashtra ...
'' called it "old wine in new glass" with a rehashed storyline that promotes negative stereotypes.
Adaptation
The film rights to the novel were sold before it was published. A Bollywood film adaptation directed by Mohit Suri
Mohit Suri is an Indian film director. Born into the Bhatt family, he is well known for directing the films '' Murder 2 '' (2011), the musical romance ''Aashiqui 2'' (2013) and the romantic thrillers ''Awarapan'' (2007), ''Ek Villain'' (2014) a ...
and produced by Ekta Kapoor
Ekta Kapoor (born 7 June 1975) is an Indian television producer, film producer and director who works in Hindi cinema and soap opera. She is the joint managing director and creative head of Balaji Telefilms Limited, which was founded in 1994. ...
and Bhagat. It stars Arjun Kapoor
Arjun Kapoor (born 26 June 1985) is an Indian actor working in Hindi films. Born to the Surinder Kapoor family, he is the son of film producer Boney Kapoor and Mona Shourie. Kapoor made his acting debut in 2012 with romance ''Ishaqzaade'' which ...
and Shraddha Kapoor
Shraddha Kapoor (born 3 March 1987 or 1989[Kriti Sanon
Kriti Sanon (born 27 July 1990) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi and Telugu-language films. After pursuing a degree in engineering from the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, she briefly worked as a fashion model. Sanon began h ...](_blank)
who inaugurated the book, but was replaced by Shraddha Kapoor. The film released on 19 May 2017.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2014 Indian novels
Indian English-language novels
Indian romance novels
Rupa Publications books
Novels set in Delhi
Novels set in Patna
Novels set in Bihar
Novels set in India
Indian novels adapted into films
Novels by Chetan Bhagat