I have been observing a very strange phenomenon for the past few months. Wherever I go, whether it’s the Metro , a mall, a park, or any public place for that matter, I find people carrying a copy of The 3 Mistakes of My Life, the latest from the best selling yuppie Indian author Chetan Bhagat. You may wonder why do I call it strange? After all reading books is by and large a healthy habit. It is, agreed, but one also has to acknowledge the fact that in a country like ours the only kind of books people (especially students) are encouraged to read are the academic kinds. Therefore you could call it a welcome change too.

Now if you have been following the critical response to the three books he’s written you would’ve observed that its largely been unfavourable. The literary critics have lambasted him left, right and center. They’ve called his writing unbelievably amateurish, his grammar elementary and his subject matter pedestrian, to say the least.

Well leaving that aside for a moment lets looks at some hard facts. He is by far India's best selling author in English. His book, Five Point Someone has achieved an unparalleled cult status among the youth. The second one, One Night@ The Call Centre is all set to be major motion picture and the third one is on the top of the popularity charts (yet again).

Seems like a paradox, doesn't it? What secret code has this IIT-D and IIM-A alumnus cracked that has changed the face of Indian writng in English forever? Although i don't claim to have THE answer, I do have some of my own reasons which might justify this trend.

The unique thing about Chetan Bhagat is that all those points on which he has been criticized have turned out to be the very reason his runaway success. From the almost prose like elementary English which everyone can understand, to the affordability of his books (each at a flat rate of Rs. 95) have contributed immensely to his success. In him the youth see an Icon who writes for them and in the kind of language they understand and not as a pretentious snot focusing on a non-descript minority. That's why they back him to the hilt.

See I am nowhere close to being a fan of his style, but then that, like the critics opinion of him, is irrelevant. He may never be as accomplished a writer as Frederick Forsyth, Jeffrey Archer,Mario Puzo,Paulo Coelho and other international favourites. Hell, his style of writing not even be as suave as many of the accomplished Indian authors in English like Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Vikram Chandra,V.S. Naipaul etc. but then he doesn't really have to worry about these comparisons because at the end public opinion is not swayed by literary snob value. Its all about what they can identify with....

Happy Reading !