Chetan Bhagat - the man whom social media loves to hate, with a lot of passion. I may not be the first or the last person composing a blog post to talk about this. But, since his latest book is out, why would I not want to encash the opportunity to talk about the man who has probably learnt to incite hate so effortlessly in the online world? And that is where, his genius lies. And I have two arguments to defend that.
My first explanation is based on social media itself. Twitter - probably the most powerful social network today - thrives a lot on the concept of hashtags, which can stimulate the nervous system of millions without the need to pump a drop of chemicals in the body. One of these hashtags a couple of years ago went by the name of ChetanBlocks - where Mr Bhagat, or CBag, as he is affectionately known to the online world - went about blocking anyone or everyone who showered any kind of reverse compliment on him on Twitter. The hashtag was in vogue for quite some time and has been brought back to life in various avatars since. But this is just one of the instances where he had to take the brickbats, which go to the extent of questioning his IIT credentials. More recent instances included his comments on childbirth and arguments with a technology tycoon. And of course, who can forget the 3 Idiots incident. In all this, what we may or may not have missed is that this was a very sophisticated ploy of going viral on the internet. Ladies and gentlemen, not for a moment am I saying here that the only way to gain someone's attention is to utter garbage all the time. But, take a look at the Twitter conversations around you - locally or globally - isn't it the negative that catches your attention most of the time? From a Poonam Pandey and KRK to a Charlie Sheen and a Sarah Palin. We love to heap scorn on the numerous reality shows on television that are an assault on our senses (and our rightly so). But, the TRP meters of the channels also go in hyperactive mode, mostly northwards. You may say that debate/talk/argument on such issues on social media is the world's way of cleaning up the system. But, look again - how many talking about such entities are actually more interested in reforming rather than finding some entertainment online? Alright, teaching celebrities how to talk may not be a subject of national importance, but pardon me, I was just having fun :)
And this is apart from the fact that an entire Twitter account based on Mr Bhagat's parody has a huge following (since I have met the person concerned in real life, nothing personal against you mate!). In short, there's no publicity like negative publicity - as the likes of KRK, Taslima Nasreen and Poonam Pandey have successfully learnt from Mr Bhagat.
My second argument tends to be more academic. In my professional capacity once, I had attended a talk given by Mr Bhagat once - where he recounted his experience of marketing one of his books as a commodity like rice or sugar at the neighbourhood kirana store. Right, so these are surely not the kind of books which are launched whilst the glitterati swirl the wine in their glasses. These are the kind of books whose success is celebrated by the publisher sending boxes of local candies to people who may contributed to the glory. These are not the kind of books on which you may want to write academic papers, but which originate from places you and I still can't ignore, like office cubicles. This may bring us to an entirely different debate - what defines a book? For safety sake let us assume that it is an aggregation amounting to anything above 5,000 words of one or many people's thoughts - even if it is not able to stand up to a Steinbeck or a Kundera. Why do I say so? Well, there comes social media again - people rarely want to click on link that contains more than 140 characters in a tweet. Or even look at mass media and popular culture - the rise of Twenty20 cricket or Maggi noodles. In such a scenario, when Mr Bhagat manages to catch peoples' attention with his racy reads - by writing a book - is it not something to think about? If people have low attention spans, it also means that they have lower composition spans. Hence, writing anything even above a thousand or two thousand words needs a lot of concentration - something that is hard to come by in the age of instant gratification. As an aside, I may add that those of you familiar with the concept of NaNoWriMo may be able to relate to what I'm talking about.
Hence, I do think that Chetan Bhagat is a genius (in a negative as well as a positive way), because, he has the words, he has the money and most importantly - he has your attention.
(this blogpost may not have been possible unless four people on Twitter - @69fubar, @storyelvis, @oneblackcoffee and @SomeBirdie - had not inspired me with their thoughts. Thank you!)
And this is apart from the fact that an entire Twitter account based on Mr Bhagat's parody has a huge following (since I have met the person concerned in real life, nothing personal against you mate!). In short, there's no publicity like negative publicity - as the likes of KRK, Taslima Nasreen and Poonam Pandey have successfully learnt from Mr Bhagat.
My second argument tends to be more academic. In my professional capacity once, I had attended a talk given by Mr Bhagat once - where he recounted his experience of marketing one of his books as a commodity like rice or sugar at the neighbourhood kirana store. Right, so these are surely not the kind of books which are launched whilst the glitterati swirl the wine in their glasses. These are the kind of books whose success is celebrated by the publisher sending boxes of local candies to people who may contributed to the glory. These are not the kind of books on which you may want to write academic papers, but which originate from places you and I still can't ignore, like office cubicles. This may bring us to an entirely different debate - what defines a book? For safety sake let us assume that it is an aggregation amounting to anything above 5,000 words of one or many people's thoughts - even if it is not able to stand up to a Steinbeck or a Kundera. Why do I say so? Well, there comes social media again - people rarely want to click on link that contains more than 140 characters in a tweet. Or even look at mass media and popular culture - the rise of Twenty20 cricket or Maggi noodles. In such a scenario, when Mr Bhagat manages to catch peoples' attention with his racy reads - by writing a book - is it not something to think about? If people have low attention spans, it also means that they have lower composition spans. Hence, writing anything even above a thousand or two thousand words needs a lot of concentration - something that is hard to come by in the age of instant gratification. As an aside, I may add that those of you familiar with the concept of NaNoWriMo may be able to relate to what I'm talking about.
Hence, I do think that Chetan Bhagat is a genius (in a negative as well as a positive way), because, he has the words, he has the money and most importantly - he has your attention.
(this blogpost may not have been possible unless four people on Twitter - @69fubar, @storyelvis, @oneblackcoffee and @SomeBirdie - had not inspired me with their thoughts. Thank you!)
