“Autobiographical elements in Chetan Bhagat’s fiction Two States”.
(A paper presented at the Dept of English, Kuvempu University)
DEEPAK DONGRE G.
Lecturer in English. GRWPT SHIMOGA.
RESEARCH SCHOLAR. VSKU BALLARI.
10.04.2018
Keywords: Autobiographical elements, popular fiction, Chetan Bhagat.
Life writing is a form of autobiographical writing, considered non-fiction and includes autobiography, biography, memoirs, personal essay, and travelogue. Personal experiences and personal life plays an important role in this form. According to Susan Green[1], the term “Life writing”, violates the traditional borders of different forms such as autobiography, biography, and fiction. “It enables the writer and reader to better understand themselves and their relationship to the world”. (Green, 50)
Novelists often bring their personal experiences to their novel. They do it by sharing their experiences as a narrator. The story may not be necessarily the entire personal story of the novelist but some of the personal experiences are embedded. The story can also be exaggerated, garnished and tailored well according to the theme and plot of the story. The reader is interested to go beyond the limits of the novel and explore the possibility of embedded personal experiences of the author in the novel. The reader tries to figure out the factors of personal life that influence the novel and its writing. However, there’s a danger that rather fictitious characters and narration can be mistaken to be the personal experience of the novelist.
Whenever we read novels, we try to relate the facts of the novel to real life. The same can be true to an author who relates the facts, experiences, and situations of his real life to the characters in his/her novel. This makes the novel realistic and makes the reader find the story very interesting. The way Chetan Bhagat presents his story is not by fantasizing it from isolation; he does it from the experiences, learning, and society, by doing this he relates well with the readers. According to the author Two States is the story of his own marriage, he requests the readers to consider it as fiction though.
In travelogues, autobiographies, memoirs, and other such non-fiction writings, we are sure that the narrator is the writer. In novels it is not so, there are two kinds of presenting the self, according to Mridula Garg[2], the ‘self’ can be presented in two ways. One, it can be narrated as the author himself has experienced something and reciting it to the readers. Second, it can be presented in a fictitious, exaggerated fashion garnishing it with a vivid explanation. (Garg, 92)
In this presentation, I would like to bring autobiographical elements in his novel
2 States. This approach; by allowing us to consider the implied meanings, may help understand his novel from a different perspective. The analyses of biographical elements of the author Chetan Bhagat may allow us to understand why the characters in this novel behave in a particular way and analyze the author’s point of view. We go beyond the novel and try to find interesting facts about that novel, novelist and personal life. We do this to get more understanding of the influences, real-life situations that helped the author in storytelling. This broadens our perspective and helps understand the text better.
Chetan Bhagat is a popular writer, he has written seven novels, which are Five Point Someone (2004), One Night at the Call Center (2005), The Three Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States: The Story of My Marriage (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), Half Girlfriend (2014) and One Indian Girl (2016). He has in his credit two non-fiction books What Young India Wants (2012) and Making India Awesome (2015). His novels are considered very popular among the youth. In 2 States, he narrates to us the story of his marriage. The story is based on his real-life experience of his marriage with Anusha, but in the novel, the characters are named differently. The story is embroidered, garnished and polished well to suit the tastes of his readers. The characters are also pictured according to the need of the plot. He is known to draw inspiration not only from his life but also from history, society and everyday life. In his first novel Five Point Someone, Bhagat made use of his experiences of studying in IIT Delhi. (Thayalamoorthy). He makes use of the Gujarat riots, the earthquake in Bhuj and other issues like corruption in society as the background or canvas to narrate his other novels. These elements look imaginary in those novels but it is drawn from society and real-life experiences.
The word ‘novel’ means new form and the novelist tries to break the barriers of tradition to attempt a new way of storytelling. Bhagat makes use of his personal experiences and merges it with fiction techniques. Name of the characters and places are often changed but they are usually explained in great detail, sometimes exaggerated. His plots are simple, language is easy, conversational and filled with humor and satire. The changes done in the characterization is for artistic purposes (Thalayamoorthy).
Mridula Garg raises two main questions when it comes to writing the self. First one is the definition of ‘self’ and second, why does one write? According to her, ‘self’ is something that has to be discovered by each individual. (Garg, 95). Bhagat admits that he writes not just for entertaining his readers but to bring about a change in society. When we consider Five Point Someone and 2 States, we can consider it as a form of self-discovery. The work of fiction is a tool of self-discovery for Bhagat, where he remembers and rewrites his memories of studying at IIT Delhi and about his love story at IIM Ahmedabad. The second question raised here is, why one writes? Disillusionment with oneself, with the system and the world, may sometimes allow the novelist to critique their self. This may allow the fiction writer to come up with his work. Garg continues her idea of why one writes.
One writes because one is not ready to accept the world impinging on the self, or the self-formed by the environment and the accepted value system at their face value. One has a vision of an alternate world, which is substantially different from the given world and in which, the self to take on a different form. (Garg, 97)
According to Garg, one writes to create his/her meanings which are different from what the world has an impression on the self. By doing this, a novelist could bring out a different world. She continues that fiction is the best form to write the self and considers a fiction writer as a psychologist:
Almost all fiction writers are amateur psychologists. The probe into the psyche of their protagonists, put them in unusual, demanding situations and try to chart their behavior. Practicing psychiatrists may well balk at their attempts but writers can hit back by asserting, that while the former may be technically trained they had common sense. (Garg, 98)
According to the psychoanalytical approach of Freud and Erikson[3], the texts; like dreams express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author. A literary work is the manifestation of the author’s own neurosis. (Kroeber and Kluckhohn). There is a possibility that we could analyze the novels of Bhagat as a manifestation of the anxieties and unconscious desires. His life story might have an effect on his writings.
The novel Two States: The Story of My Marriage is inspired by and based on the real-life story of the author Chetan Bhagat. The novel is about Krish Malhotra and Ananya Swaminathan; classmates during their study in IIM Ahmedabad. They become friends, fall in love and after their graduation, they decide to get married to each other. They decide to do it with the approval of their parents. They are from a different cultural, geographical background, therefore getting consent from their parents for their marriage becomes a Herculean task. They both try to win over the hearts of their in-laws and try to get their approval. Finally, after they are through all the hurdles, they get married. The story ends when the couple becomes parents with their newborn twins.
There are a lot of similarities between the real-life story of Bhagat and the novel 2 States. The sub-title Story of My Marriage hints the inspiration drawn from the author’s own life. Chetan Bhagat is from Punjab and his wife Anusha is from Tamilnadu. The protagonists Krish and Ananya in the novel are from Punjab and Tamilnadu as well. As it happened in their real life Krish and Ananya met each other when they were studying in IIM Ahmedabad. They fall in love and decided to get married to each other. The pattern in the story has an exact match with the real-life story. The places too are drawn from the real-life story, Delhi and Chennai.
Another personal element in the novel is about the father-son relationship that is also reflected in framing the father role in his other novels. Bhagat speaks about his relationship with his father and admits he did not have a very good relationship with him but over the days he is trying to make it up to it. In 2 States, Krish fights with his father, his father is very strict. In Bhagat’s first novel Five Point Someone, father roles are either weak, harsh or dull. Hari doesn’t like his father, Alok’s father is paralyzed and Ryan’s father is very strict. According to Bhagat his unusual relationship with his father may have resulted in making him write that way (about father-son relationships). This is how he shows his rebellious nature and his true relationship with his father as brought to light by bringing father-son issues in his novels. (Gupta)
Baghat said that writing the story of his marriage gave him satisfaction. He states that in his real life, his father did not attend their marriage. The story allowed him to transform it a little bit to get a sense of happiness and contentment. In the novel, Krish’s father finally makes it to the marriage function. Another personal element in the story is that the author finds some sort of relief by considering forgiving himself and his father. (Bhagat, 240). In the novel, the protagonist Krish seeks advice from a Guruji in Pondicherry. He does this to find a solution to his sleeplessness and stress. Guruji suggests him to leave the burden of the past behind and to forgive. Forgiving his father, forgiving himself brings relief to Krish, this makes him relieved of his suffering.
In an interview, Bhagat shares his views about his novel 2 States. Bhagat considers that the book to him is all about father-son relationship. In his personal life, he has seen the authoritarian way of his father and thinks that he was not fair enough to his mother. Realizing and resenting this nature of his father, Bhagat wrote 2 states to forgive his father. (Gupta).
Works cited:
Bhagat, Chetan. 2 States: The Story of My Marriage. Rupa,2009.
Garg, Mridula. “Writing the self.” India International Centre Quarterly. Vol. 37, No. 1 (SUMMER 2010), pp. 92-100. JSTOR,<www.jstor.org/stable/23006458>
Green, Susan. “Genre: Life writing.” mETAphor, issue 2, 2008,pp.50-55. English Teachers Association of NSW, <www.englishteacher.com.au/resources/command/...file/id/.../82LifeWriting.pdf>
Kroeber, A. L., and Clyde Kluckhohn. Culture: a Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. The Museum, 1952.
Priya Gupta. “Writing 2 states helped me forgive my father”. Bombay times. April 12,2014. Indiatimes.com <www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Chetan-Bhagat-2-States-Arjun-Kapoor-Alia-Bhatt/articleshow/33610155.cms>
Thayalamoorthy. “Autobiographical Elements in the Novel Five Point Someone.” Ratchagar, M. Vol. 16 Issue 8. Aug2016, p263-269. Language in India. <www.languageinindia.com/aug2016/thayalafivepointsomeone.pdf>
[1] Susan Green is from Central Victoria, who is a teacher, a youth worker, and a critic.
[2] Mridula Garg writes novels, short story, plays, and essays. She worked as a lecturer at Delhi University. In this essay, she explores the idea of autobiographical writing through fiction.
[3] Freud’s theory emphasizes the needs of biological forces and Erikson’s theory is based on social and environmental factors.
Comments
Post a Comment