Today we heard the second guest speaker for Writer’s Fortnight, Chetan Bhagat. From the moment he walked onto the stage till the time he left, the audience was fully engaged. Chetan initially started off with a little information about himself and his previous professions and then later went on to talk about his goal and how it is demonstrated in his writing, and ultimately, in his life. His goal is to change, and to make change happen in India and to influence a progressive society. Chetan wanted to be able to connect with Indians, and he did it the best way he could, through entertainment. This is how he captivated the audience from the start, with humour, then with passion and inspiration. Chetan connected to Indians through his books and movies, and his strategy was to reinvent; he wanted to change the game. He started writing in newspapers, however it was all in English, and he knew he would not be able to create a connection, so he started writing in a local newspaper, in Hindi. In 2004, Chetan wrote his first book whilst working in banking, called, “Five Point Someone”. Since then, all his books have had an aspect of a social issue, with the means to educate his readers but also to entertain. He was writing stories for them.

I found this segment of the speech very insightful and interesting. I got an idea of what it is like to be a writer, which was fascinating. Chetan writes books because he has a goal he wants to achieve and he wants to use his expertise to achieve them. Stories have a purpose, much more than just to entertain, but to educate, and to show meaning and to bring out empathy, and he used entertainment for get his reader’s to be able to be interested and to think deeply about the issues presented in the story.

Chetan later went on to talk about success and what actually is it. Personally, I believe that success is when you are content with yourself and where you are in life. He believes that success is when you have reached “true accomplishment”, which is kind of the umbrella to all sorts of personal definitions of what success is. Chetan believes that motivation is what pushes you to achieve long-effort goals. He also believes that winners are the ones who “change the game.” Chetan quoted Charles Darwin to represent what is means to change the game, “It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most adaptive.” Winners are people who can adapt and change to fit comfortably in their current situation.

Overall, I really enjoyed listening to Chetan Bhagat, and I found it extremely meaningful and engaging and my ears were wide open the whole time. I got an insight into the minds of writers and how they captivate their readers to acknowledge their work and most importantly, to understand it and to be interested and invested in it. Not only did I got the writer’s perspective, but I also got a great picture of his story and why he does what he does.