Having a story to tell, or being a literary enthusiast, are both routes to successful writing…
T he question that baffles writers and readers alike is what distinguishes literary fiction from popular or genre fiction. Various notions are built around the two to give each a set of distinctive characteristics. But they fall short of being worthy frameworks around which we can peg an absolute understanding. There is one which says the fiction of ideas is literary fiction and the fiction of emotions is popular fiction. One evokes thoughts and the other feelings. There are others who say it is pretentious to describe any contemporary writing as literary. Only history can be a judge of that. No one can be a student of English Literature in India without having to study at least one Shakespearean text. Shakespeare or for that matter Charles Dickens were considered popular writers during their times and there is some evidence to suggest they didn't have literary respect, although their popularity was never in question. And yet, we use the adjectives literary and popular as almost exact opposites when it comes to writing fiction.
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No other Indian writer, writing in English symbolises this dichotomy more than Chetan Bhagat. Thanks to the immense popularity the four books he has penned to date have enjoyed, Bhagat has become a cultural phenomenon. His books get adapted into plays and screenplays. For millions of his fans, he has turned into some kind of a motivational speaker without necessarily having to work for that label. A friend who went for a panel discussion around Bhagat's latest work on Indian marriages came back with stories of how the audience wanted answers to some of the dilemmas life was posing for them from the author.
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