Painting of Youth's Belief, Value and Behaviour in Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone
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Painting of Youth’s Belief, Value and Behaviour in Chetan
Bhagat’s Five Point Someone
AMRITA DEVI
M.A. M.Phil. (English)
Jammu & Kashmir
India
Abstract
Chetan Bhagat a celebrated writer, columnist and an influential orator, is the well- known
author of the five famous novels; Five Point someone (2004), One Night @ the call center
(2005), The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States (2009), and Revolution 2020: Love,
Corruption, Ambition (2011). Chetan Bhagat achieved milestone when his debut novel Five
Point Someone- What not to do at IIt! falls into the category of highest selling English novels
in India and maintained its decorum until today since its release in 2004. Bhagat’s novel has a
special place for youth and influences them to get rid off from obsolete dogmatism. Bhagat in
the very beginning of the novel, adopts a very distinct approach in declaring that the novel is
not meant to help people who wishes to get into the IIT, rather it portrays a very distinct picture
of the difficulties of the youth today- Why the young generation at elite institutes put their
youth at stake for the sake of a successful career. This paper is an attempt to throw light on the
mental make up of the three budding technocrat who clearly boycott the traditional education
of recognising the potential of a student on the basis of GPA.
Key words: GPA, dogmatism.
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OUT LINE
Chetan Bhagat is such a name today among the contemporary writers who has made a
significant and permanent place in the hearts of the million youth. He is a prolific writer who
keeps an eye on each and every aspect of the society and note down the challenges confronted
by the youth today. His writings are full of facts and when he writes readers get attached to it
as if it is their own story. His popularity predominantly lies on the fact that he initiated the
culture of campus novels which dates back to the Americans. The popularity of Chetan
Bhagat’s first debut writing “Five Point Someone” revives the fashion of reading among youth.
English Literature has witnessed a new era of writing dominated by campus- based novels.
Highly elite institutes like IITs, IIMs, became the central features of these novels. Chetan
Bhagat’s works mainly focus on youth and college students and their life which involves love-
affairs, drug addiction, fear of exams, boring classes etc. His popularity also lies in the fact that
he always writes in simple English and assures the youth that he understands and stands with
them during all the up and downs to which they are going through.
PERSONAL SKETCH OF CHETAN BHAGAT
Chetan Bhagat born on 22nd April, 1974, is a celebrated writer, columnist, and an influential
orator who won fame by writing five famous novels; Five Point Someone- What not to do at
IIT, One Night @ the Call Center, The 3 Mistakes of my Life, 2 States and Revolution 2020:
Love, Corruption, Ambition respectively. His grooming takes place in Delhi in a Punjabi family
where the family environment was not cordial as his parents used to fight a lot. His father being
very strict put all the possible restrictions which make his life miserable. He joined Army
Public school, Daula Khan, New Delhi since 1978 to 1991. He then joined IIT Delhi as a
student of Mechanical engineering and afterwards joined IIM in Ahemdabad which adds very
charming experiences in his life. During his IIM days, he found his life partner in the same
college named Anusha and finally both they got married which was best penned down in 2
States- the story of my marriage.
Chetan Bhagat’s first writing ‘Five Point Someone- what not to do at IIT’ falls into the
category of highest selling English novels in India which is the biggest achievement of him.
Chetan Bhagat, in the opening of the novel, adopts a very casual approach in declaring that the
novel is not meant to help people who wishes to get into IIT, rather it portrays a very distinct
picture of the complexities which faces the youth today. The novel much focuses on the after
life of the youth after getting into the IITs. He asserts that,
“If you can lock yourself in a room with books for two years and throw away the key, you
can probably make it here.”
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The novel adopts a satirical tone to expose the attitude of students who believes in cramming
to make into the IIT, Delhi and then humorously protested against the system which check the
ability of the students on the basis of academic excellence. Internet revolution has broadens the
scope of knowledge from its traditional boundary. In this age of globalisation, competition to
success is also increasing with the increasing pace of knowledge transmitted by the internet.
Success is tailored who are embedded with knowledge in the present era. One who wants to
excel in life must possess the multi-dimensional potentialities particularly exploration,
technology, adventurous spirits, passion etc. The trail to success is traversed through education.
Education brings out the desirable modification in behaviour and gives a perfect shape to the
budding talents. Chetan Bhagat though humorously in his debut novel ‘Five Point Someone’
alarmed the highly famed institutes to change the pedantic approach of learning and embrace
student friendly teaching style which helps the youngster to enrich their abilities and enhance
creativity. ‘Five Point Someone’ in a disguised tone highlights that our professional institutes
need a change to replace a life less system.
The novel is about the experiences of the mechanical engineering students, Hari Kumar, Ryan
Oberoi, and Alok Gupta who started their career in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi,
during the year 1991 to 1995, in which they fail to acclimatise with the grading system of the
IITs. Of the three, Ryan is clever and candid, whereas Alok and Hari are the mute spectators
of the degrading atmosphere of the IIT.
In the beginning, Chetan Bhagat highlights the glaring effects of ragging which is a
common practice among the elite institutes. The freshers of the IITs including the three main
characters were harassed by the seniors in the midnight. The juniors were supposed to be
obedient to each and every instruction given by the seniors. One of the seniors named Baku
ordered them “Off with your clothes” on the balcony in the midnight. This embarrassing
practice in the name of ragging creates a psychological trauma among the freshers. Ryan, very
smarty protested against the ragging and defies all the discrimination between seniors and
juniors. Ryan helped Hari and Alok in many tough situations and became best buddies for the
rest of the years.
The most interesting part of the novel is the exposure of the helplessness on the part of the
professors to treat the efficient students who every now and then raise challenging queries on
their common sense. For instance, Prof Dubey, Mechanical Engineering Department illustrates,
“The definition of machine is simple. It is anything that reduces human effort anything.”(P,
9)
But, Ryan enquired:
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“Sir, what about a gym machine, like a bench press or something? That doesn’t reduce human
effort. In fact, it increases it.”
These sorts of challenges compel the teaching fraternity to arm themselves to handle the
brilliant students of institutions like IITs and boast the students to ponder beyond the
boundaries of textbooks.
The novel “Five Point Someone” concentrates the friendship of three prominent characters:
Hari, Ryan and Alok. In the youth hood especially in the college days, falling in love is the
essential step of each and every tender hearts. The aroma of love spreads in the novel with the
love- affair of Hari and Neha, the daughter of Prof. Cherian is fascinating. Hari is very much
involved with his lady love and ready to do anything for her. Hostel life is dominated by friends,
alcoholism, smoking cigarettes, and listening to Pink Floyd.
Ryan Oberoi always gives importance to his friends more than his family. Alok, a resident
of Delhi is a dedicated student but he too gets involved with Ryan and Hari in doing
mischievous acts to overcome the shackles of poverty.
Outwardly, high professional institutes are known for centres of excellence but inwardly
these institutes could not succeed in making significant technical contributions. The traditional
grading system in assessing the forte of the students is the most targeted point in the novel. It
not only lowers the originality of the students but also overburdened them with fear. This
particular flaw of the IIT system was explicitly exposed by the remark of Ryan Oberoi in a get
together party,
“You know guys, this whole IIT system is sick. Because, tell me, how many great engineers
or scientists have come out of IIT? I mean that is supposed to be the best college in India, the
best technology institute for a country of a billion. But has IIT ever invented anything? Or
made any technical contribution to India? Over thirty years of IITs, yet, all it does is train some
bring kids to work in multinationals. I mean look at MIT in the USA… What is wrong in the
system…This system of relative grading and overburdening the students. I mean it kills the
best fun years of your life. But it kills something else. Where is the room for original though?
Where is the time for creativity? It is not fair.”(P 34-35)
The pressure of getting good grades in the exams is so intense and painful. One of the
professors’s made a satirical remark at the end of the class:
“Best of luck once again for your stay here. Remember, as your head of department Prof.
Cherian says, the tough workload is by design, to keep you on your toes. And respect the
grading system. You get bad grades, and I assure you- you get no job, no school and no future.
If you do well, the world is your oyster. So don’t slip, not even once, or there will be no oyster,
just slush.”(p 11)
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The trio Hari Kumar, Alok Gupta and Ryan Oberoi are underachievers as they paid attention
to fun and friendship instead of concentrating on college assignments. Their Grade Point
Average falls to the bottom line. Finally, the three underachievers (Ryan, Alok and Hari)
invented a formula known as C2D (cooperate to dominate) in order to save time and decided
to share the assignments for the sake of fun and amusement. Ryan, Hari and Alok, all of them
openly criticised the grading system and blame IIT system as sick and for it is not improving
the nation’s talent and exploiting the most intellectuals of the country. To protest against the
popular norm, they take a very illegal step of paper theft of Majors from Prof. Cherian’s room
and unfortunately were caught red- handed. They received the punishment of termination for
one semester. Alok couldn’t bear up the punishment and jumped from Insti-roof but was
fortunately saved with many fractures. This incident changed their life and afterwards worked
hard more than fourteen hours a day, got good grades and degrees in time.
The theme of the novel lies in the concluding part during the convocation ceremony when
Prof. Cherian, Head of the Engineering Department addresses and congratulates the students.
On this occasion, he becomes the quite sentimental and shares one of his experiences:
“Once upon a time there was a student in IIT. He was very bright, and this is true, his GPA was
10.00 after four years. He didn’t have a lot of friends, as to keep such a high GPA, you only
have so much for friends.”
“This bright boy thought his classmates were less smart than him, were selfish and wanted to
make the most money or go to the USA with minimum effort. And many of his classmates did
go to work for multinationals and some went abroad. Some of them opened their companies in
the USA- mostly in computers and software.”(p 258)
He admits that this genius student was Prof. Cherian. He topped the list with 10.00 GPA
score. He also confessed that he wanted his son to get into IIT but his son Sameer had different
aim of becoming lawyer. Sameer puts an end to his life for not fulfilling his father’s
expectations of cracking an IIT exam. He also confessed that he hated the three underachievers
Hari, Ryan and Alok as students with low GPAs. Neha, his daughter proved him wrong and
showed her faith in Hari Kumar and disclosed Sameer’s letter to him. He stated:
“And that is when I realised that GPAs make a good student, but not a good person. We judge
people here by their GPA. If you are a nine, you are the best. If you are a five, you are useless.
I used to despise the low GPAs so much that when Ryan submitted a research proposal on
lubricants, I judged it without even reading it. But these boys have something really promising.
I saw the proposal the second time. I can tell you, any investor who invests in this will earn a
rainbow.”(p 261)
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This novel clearly conveys the message that GPAs are not the only parameter of judging
student’s potentialities and creativity. There is something more than getting 10.00 GPA in the
exams. There are much important commitments towards family, friends and our internal
aspirations and aims. The trio Hari, Ryan and Alok get admission into IIT but they are not
satisfied with the grading system. This dissatisfaction put them into many sedation and troubles
and they had to remain satisfied with the support and encouragement of some angelic teachers
like Prof. Verma.
Chetan Bhagat, through this novel alarmed the teacher fraternity to leave the traditional text-
book theories and confront the challenges posed by the creative students. Every student is
bestowed with unique talent and GPA should not be the only parameter to confirm their
intelligence. One who is a five pointer in college may rise to a higher level in his career and
leave an example for the sufferers. The trio discards the patriarchal system of education though
suffered a lot both from the hands of teachers and classmates. The students are advised to
swallow the subjects in order to get good grades. They detested the teaching method, and cry
for the change. Chetan Bhagat put emphasis on the modern style of teaching which is
observational teaching and hints at the incorporation of ‘learning by doing’ methods. This
method can relieve the students from rotting. The observation method let the students to think
in a natural way. This technique enables the students to observe thoroughly and find out
solution in the objects. If they find a problem in reaching a logical conclusion, they are
supposed to discuss the same with teachers and friends. In this way, a learner can satisfy his
query. Chetan Bhagat through this novel clearly exposes the sterile dogmatism of the reputed
technical institutes. He asserts that the highly qualified professor even does not allow the
change. Bhagat believes that one should be the listener to one’s soul which always shows the
right path. A man always emerges as victorious who listens to his inner voice. This philosophy
is well followed by the three friends in the novel. Although, they suffered a lot in the beginning
and were underperformers. But unlike others, they are the free thinkers, passionate for life, love
creative ideas, symbol of liberty and love practical life. All these qualities lend them big success
at the last and their project was approved.
To conclude, the novel is really a great inspiration for the learners as well as for the teachers to
adopt a new technique which will suit the psyche of the new generation. The time has come
when the professional institutes has to shun the traditional style of learning. This will stale the
students growing ability and creativity. The institutes must develop the technical skills;
enhance the potentiality of the student, and apply the practicality of the knowledge. Teacher
should take the students outside the boundaries of the text and motivate for self-learning.
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References
Bhagat, Chetan. Five Points Someone. New Delhi: Rupa & Co. 2004. Print.
Tukaram, Jadhav Arvind. “Representing Metropolitan Youth Culture: An assessment of
Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone and One Night @ the Call Center”. The criterion: An
International Journal in English Vol.3.2 (2012): (1-5).
http://www.the criterion.com/V3/n2/Arvind.pdf
“Indian Readers and a Penchant for Campus novels”
http://www.Zimbio.com/Chetan+Bhagat/articles/csVjAfBfsQ/Indian+Readers+Penchant+Ca
mpus+Novels Web.3 March.2013.
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