“My stories begin where Chetan’s stories end,” says Ketan Bhagat, MNC executive, author and the brother of India’s most prolific author, Chetan Bhagat.
His second novel, Child-God is a tale of a 35 year old man learning the meaning of life from his new born son. He says, “Many stories exist about how motherhood changes a woman. I wanted to explore this from a man’s perspective and that provided the material for this book. I think that this is a book any father would be able to identify with at some level.”
Ketan says, “Every newborn is unique, perfect, happy and light. His parents are usually the opposite. Yet, parents try to teach the child. Believing every child to be God’s manifestation, I have tried to learn from my child. The book is based on this particular philosophy.”
The book was in the making for over a year and Ketan had to balance his writing with his business commitments. “I used to write whenever I got the time. The story and characters took shape as the book progressed. I did not have a plot ready when I started to write. It developed as the story went along.”
As far as similarities with his brother goes, Ketan quips, “Chetan writes about the youth, life in college, relationships etc. I write about what happens post the marriage and about middle aged people trying to find meaning in their lives. I feel that our writing styles and the stories we narrate are very different. I write in third person while most of Chetan’s novels are written in first person.”
He feels that the key to writing a good novel is to have a good story. “Writing style does not matter much, as long as your story keeps the audience hooked. I am here to tell a story, with inspirations from real-life experiences and hope that it touches a chord with the readers.”
Ketan is not an avid reader, though he does read the occasional Salman Rushdie novel and enjoyed Arundhati Roy’s God Of Small Things.
“As a kid, I was keen on reading comic books. I am a very light reader. I have not read some of Chetan’s novels also. I am very scared that the styles would end up becoming similar and people would try and point out similarities.”
