Indian Readers discussion

i dont mean the classic indian writers just the newbies all thoose who came up with masala stories like chetan bhagat

amal wrote: "Maya wrote: "Ritu wrote: "Ravinder Singh , chetan bhagat but to be honest all the new too young Indian writers write bullshit hinglish novels ruining the sanctity of literature
I don't like Rhon..."

i fail to realise why they use such tacky language people that people use in social networking site . i hate the idea of ruining the beauty of any language

Smitha wrote: "Maya wrote: "Ritu wrote: "Ravinder Singh , chetan bhagat but to be honest all the new too young Indian writers write bullshit hinglish novels ruining the sanctity of literature
I don't like Rhon..."

Im going to take your word on that. I've got sea of poppies. fingers crossed!!

Well it is not just the language you see.. I've read 3 mistakes..Like I said, I'm not a book snob and I don't have anything against Indian writers. I like Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, R.K Narayanan, and tamil writers like Sujatha, Kalki and many more they belong to a different category altogether.

Kunal wrote: ""I dont have anything against Indian authors but I stopped buying after one night at a call center. trying too hard only makes it worse."

That's quite a generalization. The best Indian authors are..."

you are missing the point here.. Rushdie, Anita Desai dont belong with the likes of Ravinder Singh, Chetan Bhagat etc. may be I havent elucidated enough. but i share the same sentiments as Ritu does. Its the "hinglish" writers that I don't like and never bother buying.

Maya wrote: "Well it is not just the language you see.. I've read 3 mistakes..Like I said, I'm not a book snob and I don't have anything against Indian writers. I like Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, R.K Naray..."

Hi Maya.. True.. we can't compare the likes of RKN, Rushdie, Sujatha or Kalki with Chetan bhagat et al. It is actually a big insult to those people. :)

The main problem is the publishers I guess.. They want Chetan Bhagat type books more than any genuine literature stuff as former are mass market prints.

I too am fed up to the core with such books. Let me be frank and tell that I did like One night at the call centre and tolerated five point someone, and the book about marriage (forgot the title), but then I felt sort of satiated and found almost all similar books I've read very insipid and nauseating sort of.

Smitha wrote: "I too am fed up to the core with such books. Let me be frank and tell that I did like One night at the call centre and tolerated five point someone, and the book about marriage (forgot the title), ..."

Hello pulp fiction!

Anbu wrote: "Maya wrote: "Well it is not just the language you see.. I've read 3 mistakes..Like I said, I'm not a book snob and I don't have anything against Indian writers. I like Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushd..."

Right, in simple terms they need commercial hits!

Agree,One night at call centre had way too much 'masala' in it.I saw a classmate reading Shobha De,and it invoked the same feelings of repulsion.

Another problem was The White Tiger.But for different reasons altogether.

Apart from that i never really faced any problems with Indian authors,though The Hungry Tide did feel a lil slow at times.

some of Shobha De books are quite okay - like Speedpost and a novel called Second thoughts.

DURJOY DATTA.HIS BOOKS CONTAINS ONLY CRAP THING.NO PERFRECT STORY.LOT OF GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES

I hate Chetan Bhagat & Arindram Mukherjee

Haven't been well read so really can;t comment here..

But from whatever books I gave a little try.. I couldt stand Vikram Seth.. to boring, slow. His books are like Sanjay leela bhansali movies. defntly not my types.

Apart from that I had started with Hard Times by Charles Dickens.. again left it in between..


Chetan Bhagat ended up being a real bad writer.. Same style of writing, ordinary masala, no drama, no literature..he has been a turn off. I didnt dare to read after 2 states.

I don't understand why chetan uses such language in his novels , when he is capable of writing well enough for times of India editorials

Soo much negative comments on him, I have wanted to read him but now no idea what to do...

Shriya wrote: "Soo much negative comments on him, I have wanted to read him but now no idea what to do..."

you should read 5 point someone by chetan bhagat, irrespective of the reviews.

Umang wrote: "Shriya wrote: "Soo much negative comments on him, I have wanted to read him but now no idea what to do..."

you should read 5 point someone by chetan bhagat, irrespective of the reviews."

Ok, we dont get most of these books in UK and Amazon is kinda lame at times, most of my to read books are not found on Amazon or UK stores, you see my city is small, we have only 2 book stores, the largest one went bust!

Shriya wrote: "Umang wrote: "Shriya wrote: "Soo much negative comments on him, I have wanted to read him but now no idea what to do..."

you should read 5 point someone by chetan bhagat, irrespective of the revie..."

hmmm.. probably u shud grab whenever u get a chance to visit a major town out there, or if u ever come to India. But yeah I get your point, can be really discouraging.

Umang wrote: "Shriya wrote: "Umang wrote: "Shriya wrote: "Soo much negative comments on him, I have wanted to read him but now no idea what to do..."

you should read 5 point someone by chetan bhagat, irrespecti..."

Not too sure when I will come India, last time was 6 years ago! My city is literally like mini India, twinned with Rajkot and more languages spoken then any other place in UK still no good books related to Indian authors!

can't stand Bhagat after One night @ call centre...it was painful

I am stuck now, soo many views, will have to try and find a book store which has him and read few pages for myself :/

ON@CC was the worst of all. Disaster! Read 3 mistakes, was kinda fine. Had to read 2 states as it had a story from 5pt some1. After that never again.
Nwz lets not makes this post another chetan bhagat discussion as well..

Umang wrote: "ON@CC was the worst of all. Disaster! Read 3 mistakes, was kinda fine. Had to read 2 states as it had a story from 5pt some1. After that never again.
Nwz lets not makes this post another chetan bh..."

ON@CC was , one of those first books, which I left midway. I couldnt find anything special in that book, but could never say that in public, in the fear of getting mobbed :P
I guess what Bhagat did, was to target the non-book-reading portion of the population of India, rather than the portion which actually read books.No, wonder his books were best sellers.
But, I still credit him as the path-finder, who laid the foundation for other crappy writers, hell bent upon making Indian writing a HELL. :D

Shriya wrote: "Soo much negative comments on him, I have wanted to read him but now no idea what to do..."

I liked his first three books, though there are many in this group who really hate those too (five point someone, one night at the call centre, two states of my marriage). I positively hated three mistakes, and couldnot complete even first 50 pages of revolution 2020. So I am OFF CB now.

Thanks Smitha for your reviews, that is why I enjoy reading reviews made by you, honest and easy to understand!

@Neena I want to read all of Manju Kapoors books, though reviewers state only Custody and The Immigrant is good. I guess I will drop The Immigrant.

@Umang/Ritu/Nikunj I second that on Chetan. Indescribable how low his writing goes sometimes. Don't know how I could ever spend money on it.

If one wants to read indian fiction,he/she should start with genuine writers.Although i'm not very 'well read',i have had the chance to read works of Jhumpa Lahiri,Arundhati Roy,Amitav Ghosh,Kiran Desai,Aravind Adiga to name a few.Of course i didn;t like all of it.Some were easy fluent reads,some were too tedious.But there was a class.

Bhagat is more of a mainstream writer.I wouldn't call his writing bad as his books are targetted for the masses.Plus,he's not a humanities grad.So,of course,getting a literary sophistication is not expected.

I like his columns.Maybe when he writes an offbeat book sans the masala,things would be different.Its almost like Akshay Kumar's case.Just cause he does mindless like Rowdy Rathore doesn't mean he doesn't have th capability to pull off more roles like in Sangharsh.

Srishti wrote: "If one wants to read indian fiction,he/she should start with genuine writers.Although i'm not very 'well read',i have had the chance to read works of Jhumpa Lahiri,Arundhati Roy,Amitav Ghosh,Kiran ..."

Hell dare not compare Akshay Kumar with CB :p !!!!.. no way.. CB is gets as good as Tushar Kapoor.Period.

Thanks for the tips Neena

i think all have read cb well....most of the cb books are just a crap for a literary person but they have created a boom in india his books encouraged indian young guns to read and i think i am one of them.
after reading chetan i have taken a shot on many books even on shantaram thickest book i ever seen and i am thankful to cb.

Can't believe there are people in this thread who consider Ravinder Singh as an author..LOL!!!

I dont hate ANYONE in this world, let alone authors.
But there are plenty I don't like - Ayn Rand tops d list,closely followed by Arvind Adiga and Sangeeta Banerjee.There are plenty of other lousy writers who are over hyped for no reason..like Jeffrey Archer & Susan Collins..the list is never ending.

BTW,putting CB in the same category as of Ravinder Singh is just unfair.However far-fetched and depthless CB's books might be for the literary snobs...the guy does have wit...surely more than his critics.

I thought White Tiger begun brilliantly! Not a great book overall, but not too bad either. I would urge you to read his next one, Last Man in Tower. This one is definitely above average, which is probably a very harsh review of it. It's in fact a 'good read' :)


Srishti wrote: "Agree,One night at call centre had way too much 'masala' in it.I saw a classmate reading Shobha De,and it invoked the same feelings of repulsion.

Another problem was The White Tiger.But for differ..."

Totally agree with Saikat. It's also a little puzzling when people give one star (out of five) to all CB books or two stars. They are definitely not equally bad (or good). I thought the wit in Two States was commendable! Five Point Someone was an excellent plot (come to think of it, no one told us a campus story before this, not so well anyway). The other three books were disappointing.


Saikat wrote: "BTW,putting CB in the same category as of Ravinder Singh is just unfair.However far-fetched and depthless CB's books might be for the literary snobs...the guy does have wit...surely more than his c..."

Can't agree more...these two..five point,2 states(definitely not the others).. these were not literary milestones..casual reads.but I just sooo want his critics to name an international book,in this genre only, that they have enjoyed more than CB's. I have tried a few international best sellers.They are average..never close.

Makes me want to give Adiga another try...it's been long I read White Tiger.

Rohit wrote: "I thought White Tiger begun brilliantly! Not a great book overall, but not too bad either. I would urge you to read his next one, Last Man in Tower. This one is definitely above average, which is p..."

Saikat wrote: "Makes me want to give Adiga another try...it's been long I read White Tiger.

Rohit wrote: "I thought White Tiger begun brilliantly! Not a great book overall, but not too bad either. I would urge y..."

Yea, Last Man in Tower is an excellent read and to me seemed a better read than White Tiger as well.

Read 'Custody' by her instead. Its quite well written

Neena wrote: "@Samitha I've read Manju Kapoor's The Immigrant.....I did not like it....life here in canada is so different rather than the way she depicted in her novel, seriously!......I saw more of her books i..."

Rohit, I also wanted to read Custody, actually I was planing to read The Immigrant also.

You should definitely read 'Custody', Shriya! Its heart wrenching - some parts of it are so hard to get through without feeling a lump in your throat!

I havn't read 'The Immigrant' - however, an excellent book on those lines is 'The Imaginary Homelands' by Salman Rushdie

I dont like Chetan Bhagat's writing, No offense CB's fans.

Ritu wrote: "I don't understand why chetan uses such language in his novels , when he is capable of writing well enough for times of India editorials"

Ritu I am sorry but his so called guest editorials on the national papers is a sham! Really, he has no idea what he wants to say. Shallow, biased and very immature. I would pick to read an article by Shobha De over him!

Wow quite a few CB haters here.Well if an IITDelhi and IIM-A grad who has spent 11 years in investment banking is being called shallow,biased and immature,we really need to do something about our education system!

Anyways,I happened to read his article called 'How to to turn the tide' recently.It was on PM's decision to re-examine the GAAR tax provisions.It was to the point and without the use of any masaledaar language.Also,it wasn't too heavy so it was an easy read for the average reader.He was supporting PM's decision and built his case pretty well.Nowhere did his writing look aimless or like he had no idea what he wanted to say.

Shriya wrote: "Soo much negative comments on him, I have wanted to read him but now no idea what to do..."

I agree that Revolution 2020 from CB was a disaster. But you should read 5 point someone and 2 States. They are very light read and you will definitely like them.

Chetan Bhagat!

@Rohit:surely will read Last Man In Tower if you say its better than White Tiger :D I didn't have any problem with White Tiger as such..as in it was an ok read.maybe all the hype around it had raised the expectations a lot.

Srishti wrote: "Wow quite a few CB haters here.Well if an IITDelhi and IIM-A grad who has spent 11 years in investment banking is being called shallow,biased and immature,we really need to do something about our e..."

True... I have been sort of following him. "Hating" someone is no easy task you see :D Anyways, the articles he put up on poverty and Rahul Gandhi (and his family) et al are not related to his field (or his degrees). Even when he writes on national economy, his ideas are very whimsical. I mean there is swaminathan aiyar and then there is him. Economists would take offence if I were to compare the two and yet he can do better than this- given his academic background! He is a pulp fiction writer and is good when he writes pulp fiction. When he starts commenting on issues of "national concern", it becomes a concern. I have seen his interviews too. Really the guy has very few substantial inputs to offer.

Hate is bit strong word but there are few aurthors whom I don't like...Jodi Picoult is one of them......she is one of the bestsellers, her books are made into movies....she knows how to write but her books are so depressing.....they make me so mad at times, the way the characters behave.....another one is Mitchard jacquelyn in my list....same as Jodi Picoult.......there are so many authors I don't like but I mentioned these two because they know how to write, their books are interesting, storyline is always good but somehow I hate their outlook on life situations in their books.....just my opinion!

@rosun:before you start thinking i'm a CB fan,lemme tell you i'm just voicing my opinion.one night @ call centre was a painful read.I needn't say more.

However,coming to columns,well poverty and Rahul Gandhi aren't restricted to people in politics or some 'related field'.Politicians as well as social topics such as poverty are very much a concern for an average Indian.
Secondly,i'm not an expert on economics but i know this much that comparing CB and Swaminathan Aiyar is not right.Aiyar is an expert whereas CB puts forth his points as an average Indian would.Agreed,when speaking on topics of national concern,one has to be careful,but then again India is a free country.Let people enjoy their freedom of speech.When one doesn't like a newspaper,there are 10 other papers to choose from.Besides,TOI isn't considered the intellectual paper,as it is.
Another thing,people often confuse newspapers and editorials.While its the moral obligation of newspapers to print the truth in the main paper,editorials are places where columnists voice their personal opinion.An average Indian will prefer CB over other experts who give detailed analysis.And yes,editorials can hence be biased.

Anyways you like his novels?I mean you said he's good at pulp fiction..which one's ur fave?..heh i stopped reading his books after one night@cc :D