Half Girlfriend

Half Girlfriend

Relationships they say completes yourself. As we born god bestowed us with several relations from mother, father, sister, brother to so and so from the extended family. We can’t change them but to live with them. We have certain commitments & duties in them but then there are relationships we make ourselves in the form of friends, boyfriends or girlfriends in which we take easy liberties as we are not supposed to perform some duties or to show some commitments we can enjoy Half Relationships i.e. Association without any Commitment but in reality these are the relationships which shape our lives for good or for bad. 

Rahul (name changed) caught in Love at first sight at the moment when Aditi (name changed) asked him the way to her class at the first day of college. Fortunately they both were in same class and call it divine intervention or just coincidence they shared the same bench. It didn’t take much time for these mere strangers to become best friends. Other students in college now have discussions about their friendship. Rahul’s friend wanted him to step ahead in this relationship by sharing bed with her. ‘Yaar! Sex is the next step of every relationship. Cement your boyfriend-girlfriend bond with a night together.’ Rahul thought he could get success in this as Aditi didn’t mind going out with him alone and he has noticed her blushing when he touched or hugged her. 

One day Rahul decided to put forth this idea when they were sitting in a corner seat of a Cafe after the college. He was on the verge of saying something when suddenly Aditi stretched her hands to hold his, ‘Rahul more than a year has passed in our friendship and I have never told you this.’ Rahul was smiling inside thinking she was going to utter those three magical words which propel his plan further. He was quiet as she spoke, ‘Rahul thank you for being my friend. I am from a small UP town and it would be difficult for me to adjust here in Delhi if I haven’t get a friend like you who was not like other boys thinking about sex while meeting a prone girl like me or forcing to commit love. I never hesitated from your company because I feel comfortable in it more than my female friends who often talk of their sexual relationships while sitting together. Thank You Rahul! Be a friend like this for me always.’ 

He was holding them but he knew he has tears in his eyes for his lecherous thinking. This #HalfRelationship was more than anything for him and he promised to maintain this for lifetime. He is maintaining it even today after four years of this incident. Trust in each other is equal to commitments utter through words. People can say that she was his #HalfGirlfriend as in Chetan Bhagat's novel of the same name but he considered her a #FullFriend.

Here is the trailer of the film inspired from this novel.

“I am sharing a Half relationship story at BlogAdda in association with #HalfGirlfriend”

Book Review - One Indian Girl

Book Review - One Indian Girl

One Indian Girl is written by the most famous English Indian writer of India Chetan Bhagat. It is published by Rupa Publications. He has written this book from a girl's perspective and give us an inside into the Indian society's psyche. 

Cover: Girl in wedding attire on the cover gives the hint of the setting of the book i.e Radhika's (protagonist) wedding. The city landscape at the cover edge and beach setting with couples holding hands gives us the glimpse of her life moments as told in this book. It is a simple nice cover. 

Plot: Radhika is present with her family in Goa for her destination wedding waiting for groom's family to come. Brijesh Gulati is the groom whom she has met through a matrimonial site. During her wedding preparations she received call from Debu her ex-boyfriend from New York days who wanted to come to Goa to rectify his mistakes and marry her. Neel whom she dated in Hong Kong also called her with the similar intentions. Both of them arrived at her wedding and request to leave the marriage and marry her. She remembers her life in last four years in flashbacks and what happened to these relations. Meanwhile she is also bonding with Brijesh. She was confused about her decision. Her life is puzzled between these three men in her life. What has happened to her relations? Whom she marry? What she finally decides? All these questions are answered in this book filled with Indian masalas. 

Hits: The theme to tell a tale through a girl's perspective by a male writer is interesting and I must say he has done a good job as far as presentation is concerned. He writes in easy and familiar language which always make his books easy to read. The characters are like-able many of whom you can recognize from your surroundings. It's an easy to appeal to the audience book.

Misses: Predictability makes this book uninteresting to me. From the start it was easy to guess what coming up next and the climax is also dull. Since his book is turning into movies his writing is becoming film friendly or easy to adept in a film. I noticed influence of many Hindi movies like Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya, Wedding Pulao, etc. His characters also looked like coming out from Imtiaz Ali movies. Interesting but not exciting. 

Verdict: It's a one time read you can use to pass your time. 

Rating: I would give it 2/5. 

Book Review - Half Girlfriend

Book Review - Half Girlfriend

Half Girlfriend is the latest presentation of India's blockbuster novelist Chetan Bhagat. He is the most famous Indian English writer in India,the reason being his most novels have turned into super hit Bollywood movies like 3 idiots which is inspired from his Five Point Someone, Hello screen adaptation of One Night @ The Call Center, Kai Po Che from Three Mistakes Of My Life and 2 States from the novel of the same name. His another book Revolution 2020 is also in discussions in Bollywood. You can also see him on news channels in various debates and in newspapers writing columns related to youth of India. Now lets come back to the Half Girlfriend. Half Girlfriend is released on 1st October and is published by Rupa Publications.

Cover: The cover didn't reveal much about the plot but still you get an idea that a boy wants a girl but girl was looking disinterested. We can also come on a conclusion that it will be a love story where a boy loves a girl but girl doesn't , Hindi alphabet's on cover are confusing but you will know while reading that they are important factor in the movement of story.

Plot : This is a story of a Bihari boy Madhav Jha who was a prince of Dumraon an erstwhile princely state of British India. He didn't have much money and property now and his mother took care of his expenses by running a school in Dumraon. He came to St. Stephens College in Delhi and get admission there through sports quota as he was a state level basketball champion. He met Riya Somani a high society Delhi girl on the basketball court during trials as she was also from sports quota. Their love of basketball brought them closer and they became good friends. Madhav wanted a relationship and not only friendship but Riya remained reserved and agreed to be his Half Girlfriend. Turn of events followed by Riya 's marriage with Rohan Chandok her family friend after which she moved to London leaving her studies in between. Madhav on the other hand was heart broken after completing his graduation he moved to Dumraon and started teaching in his mother's school . But fate has some other plans for him. He met divorcee Riya. Why she was divorced? Where and when they met again? Why Riya again leaved Madhav ? Will they become one again?All these questions ends in New York.

Boiler : The story deals with the characters we see in real lives. One can easily identify with Madhav Jha and Riya Somani's characters they are from us. Chetan Bhagat writes in a very simple language easily understandable by most people. Within the story line he has beautifully highlighted some of the social problems like the class disparity of Indian society, regional differences, false pride of high society by mentioning abusing husband and a child abuser father, a corrupt politician in MLA Ojha, etc. Inclusion of Gates foundation and Chetan Bhagat himself in the narrative made it closer to reality.

Spoiler : The bad thing about this book is that it is more of a film script than a novel. I found elements and inspirations from the movies like Rockstar, Highway, Anjana Anjaani  and other such recent modern movies. I also think that the end is delayed even when the reader knew what's going to be its end yes it is predictable at every turning point.

Rating : Keeping in mind the good and the bad , my rating is 2.5/5 . You will know a story of soon to be made Bollywood movie by reading this.