‘Youth needs a sense of identity’

HONG KONG: As the author of two thumping best-sellers that hold immense appeal among India’s growing army of youngsters and are now being made into Bollywood films, writer and investment banker Chetan Bhagat feels a strong sense of affinity — and responsibility — towards Gen Y. 

“I get the sense that the kids in India kind of look up to me and that my books speak to them at one level,” Bhagat said during an interaction in Hong Kong. “I get loads of e-mails from many youngsters saying ‘You have infused confidence in us.’”

One student, he recalls, wrote to say he had been about to commit suicide owing to his poor grades at IIT; but after reading Bhagat’s Five Point Someone, a critique of the winner-takes-all approach of premier Indian academic institutes, the student felt healed.

As a country, India has immense self-confidence; sometimes, even a swagger, notes Bhagat. “But our kids don’t have that same self-assured quality; that’s because they are being brought up with a premium on obedience.” And the obverse side of this “confidence deficit”, says Bhagat, is that whenever some Indians are recognised in an international space, “we go crazy.” 

Much of what we do is defined by what people around us think, says Bhagat. “I struggle with my kids too. I want them to have an independent concept of ‘self’ — of their own identity. The individuality that says, ‘This is what I am.’” And just as important, he says, children must be taught that while it’s good to be a winner, it isn’t important to win at all costs — and that it’s okay to fail once in a while. 

Bhagat recalls that his own initial experience in the investment banking industry systematically undermined his risk-taking ability and, then, his self-confidence. “During my performance appraisal, my (previous) boss convinced me that because I was an Indian and had grown up in India, I was lacking in leadership qualities. It affected me very profoundly.” 

It was as a diversion to the “depressing worklife,” says Bhagat, that he gave expression to his passion for writing. And when he took to it, it was a childhood ability to spin yarns that came to his aid.

Bhagat says that as a child, he and his brother had not been allowed to watch TV at home by their father, who enforced military discipline even at home. Uniquely for a writer, Bhagat admits to writing his plotlines and characterisations on Excel spreadsheets (which are typically used for numerical analysis).

“When I show these to other writers, they flip,” he says. “But as a banker who uses spreadsheets a lot, I find Excel very useful. I can use separate sheets for characters, use arrows to link thinks up… It’s quite efficient, really.”