“Biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history”

Born on 22 April 1974, Chetan Bhagat is a renowned Indian author and columnist. He is known for writing fictional comic drama novels on the lives and struggles of Indian youth. He also writes columns and online blogs for The Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar. Recently, Bhagat has also been involved with the Bollywood industry as a screenwriter for movie adaptations of his books. Having sold more than seven million copies worldwide, Chetan Bhagat is probably India’s best-selling English language novelist.

Chetan Bhagat was born to a Punjabi family in Delhi, on 22nd April 1974. He was an excellent student in school and was noticed to have an insatiable drive to succeed in life. Because of his hard work and determination, he eventually got admission into one of India’s premier educational institutes – Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). After completing his degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Delhi, Bhagat went on to IIM, Ahmedabad to get a management degree. During his time at IIM Ahmedabad, Bhagat met his wife, AnushaSuryanarayanan. They got married in 1998 and have two children – Shyam and Ishaan Bhagat. After graduating from IIM, Bhagat got a job as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, Hong Kong. He worked there for more than a decade and during his time there, he slowly came to realize his passion for writing. He wrote his first novel, Five Point Someone, while he was in Hong Kong. Bhagat took the decision to leave his job and a luxurious life at Hong Kong and shift to Mumbai in order to pursue his dreams of writing. In numerous interviews and online blogs, he has said that this was the most difficult decision of his life.

Chetan Bhagat’s first book, Five Point Someone, was a commercial success and sold over a million copies worldwide. It narrated the story of three IITians as they try to beat the monotonous education system of the country. It also inspired the 2009 Bollywood movie 3 Idiots directed by Rajkumar Hirani. After the success of Five Point Someone, Bhagat went on to write commercially successful novels like One Night @ the Call Center, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, 2 States, and Half Girlfriend – all of which were adapted into popular Bollywood movies. Most of the rental libraries across the country have all the books written by Bhagat. His books are also available on online rental libraries like ememozin.com where readers can choose to download them in multiple languages for as low as Rs. 150. After having established himself as a novelist, Bhagat appeared as a judge in TV shows like Star Anchor Hunt and Nach Baliye. He also started inspiring the countries’ young talents by giving motivational speeches in educational institutes and corporations. He was even included in Time magazines’ list of World’s 100 Most Influential People 2010. Today, Chetan Bhagat is widely regarded as a youth icon of the nation.

Chetan Bhagat’s success story imparts an important lesson – always follow your dreams and passion. It takes a lot of courage to give away the comfort of a salaried job in order to chase after your dreams. However, that courage and effort are never wasted. The satisfaction of fulfilling your dream is worth every waking hour you spent working towards it.  All of Bhagat’s books try to teach this lesson to his readers through different characters and plot lines. Rent books online on ememozin