Wednesday, October 05, 2011

How Chetan Bhagat got from "kicked on ass" to "kick-ass": A take on Indianness

India is a vast nation, indeed like the universe. Negligible substance and substantial emptiness! Just so friendly that any sound made will be echoed. And we the Indian? Aah.. we have vitiated ourselves to such a stance that if a sound is made potentially it is presented as noise then considered chaos and it plays havoc! Our heroes are different than the rest of the world. We believes in miracles, we trust in word more than actions (unless it is on silver screen), we are the only channel where sound travels faster than light! Really trust me. Lets do a case study of it by taking the Chetan bhag example. You all know him, don't you?
                               Chetan bhagat writes a "crap" book called five point someone (come one count how many times he has used 'crap' in it then call me wrong) and it rides on the middle class dream of IITs and IIMs to hit the best seller stand. Now we the middle class are actually literally middle class. Like middle finger, middle body part, middle of the road (the divider), middle of no where and middle of a gay island, we the middle class are here just to symbolize "fucked up" things. So how could we ever miss out on some thing like one night at call center and three mistakes of my life which are so fucked up already! We made them an instant hit. So now this guy Mr. Bhagat was considered the best writer ever in his own right or rather rite. He being a investment banker earlier how could he miss on such an opportunity to ride the tide. He made controversies when ever possible and where ever possible. Whats most frustrating is the recent fiasco on NRN's comment. He is a man who gave Indian software industry a new definition,  he made a comment on IITs, a personal opinion. The guy equipped with the sensing capabilities of a dog, pokes his nose and makes an outrageous comment. Then comes the indian media. They have the capabilities of a diarrhea-ed buffalo herd to make the whole place shitty. And they did exactly that! Look at the home page of CNN-IBN

NRN essentially made a sound, a personal sound. Mr. Bhagat made it a loud noise and the media now makes it a chaos! So indigenous an art we have!  Bhagat's argument is NRN should understand it might hurt people even if you speak the truth! Now what the heck that means on earth? And where is that "sense-of-restraint-for-not-hurting" when he calls a 1.5 Lakh populous company a 'body shop'. May be body shop means the same as consulting outsourcing but had they been really same we would not call pussy as vagina. I don't want to take a communication course for Mr. writer. NRN said what he felt and he told in a polite and formal manner. Even myself before making a statement like Mr. Bhagat would think twice what my parents taught me "bolne se pehle kuch nahin to umra ka lihaaz kiya karo". But my real frustration is not with Mr. Bhagat actually. Its with the media. Yaar kya hogaya tumko? I mean, how can that be a headline for a day "Bhagat not sorry for calling infy a bodyshop". Now who cares if he is sorry or not. Who cares really? He being sorry wont make Infy a 100 billion dollar company neither that will make India shining in reality, but yes it can certainly make his next to be published "crap" an instant hit. He got what he wanted. The media got what it wanted. Murthy takes home frustration and we take home a more foolish us!

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