Post Half Girlfriend, Chetan Bhagat deliberately gave himself a year to do other things before his next fiction project as he felt it won’t be that interesting if writes all the time.
But in the meantime, he has come out with a new book of essays, his second such work, titled Making India Awesome.
In this book, published by Rupa, he analyses and suggests solutions to the country’s most intractable problems — poverty, unemployment, corruption, violence against women, communal violence, religious fundamentalism, illiteracy and more. He dubs Making India Awesome as a story with no romance or page-turning and thrilling moments but a book about a dream — to make India a better place.
Bhagat says he gave himself breaks “so finally when I write, I am itching to write”.
Besides penning several best-selling novels, he has been an activist, a motivational speaker, a reality show judge and a prominent face in TV debates. Asked if he has too many things on his plate, Bhagat told a media p[erson, “Lately, it might have been the case. My work in the entertainment space helps me connect to millions, who in turn are drawn to my writings about the country. It is a conscious strategy that has worked well. However, for now I feel the need to reconnect to writing and do something creative.” He says awesome is something that inspires respect, considered cool and aspirational and to do that one needs to work on the nation at many levels. Bhagat wanted to do a collection of essays and columns “so people can read several of my ideas about the nation as one place,” he said.