Half Girlfriend - Book Review

This book is for the 2016 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge  @ My Soul Called Life. There are 6 keywords to choose from each month which should be in the title of the book.

For January, the key words were - Crowd, Girl, The, Bad, Soul, Soft

The chose 'Girl' and read Chetan Bhagat's Half Girlfriend.





For the past couple of days, I have been down with a bad cough and sniffles. I took advantage of this time to relax and read a book for the challenges I signed up.

It was a very quick read and I finished it within a few hours...

The back of the book says-

Once upon a time there was a Bihari Boy called Madhav.He fell in love with a girl called Riya from Delhi.Madhav didn't speak English well. Riya did.Madhav wanted a relationship.Riya didn't.Riya just wanted friendship.Madhav didn't.Riya suggested is a compromise.She agreed to be half girlfriend.

These lines were what prompted me to buy this book!

It starts with a typical boy meets girl and it was love at first sight for the boy. Being a little shy Madhav tries to be content with the friendship but his residence mates on campus urge him to have a relationship. Riya refuses and cuts off the friendship,well,almost.

She quits college and agrees to marry the son of their family friend. Madhav finishes college, refuses a job at HDFC and returns to his hometown to work with his mother in their family school.

A few years later he meets Riya in Patna and learns that she is now a divorcee and since she is still his half girlfriend, he wants to renew the friendship.

What happens in the end is where the real twist lies!!

The story starts with Madhav meeting the author Chetan Bhagat and asking him to read his girlfriends journal .He says the memories are too painful as his half girl frind is dead. The author refuses at first but is intrigued so he starts reading. The pages are old, yellow and crumpling.He asks Madhav to narrate their love story or why Riya was his half girlfriend.

So Madhav starts narrating the story which is Act 1 which takes place in Delhi.MAdhav and Riya joining the college on sports quota,the college fun, the duo practicing basketball ,his inability to mingle due to the lack of spoken English.Falling in love with the most beautiful girl on earth aka Riya and then the breakup ,the lonely years Madhav spent in college after Riya left the college to get married and travel.

Act 2 takes place in Bihar where Madhav works @ his family school after finishing his dies and takes care of the administrative side as well as helps with the classes.It is in this part that he meets Riya again in Patna and also takes her to his hometown, Bill Gates visiting his school and Madhav preparing a speech with Riya's help and getting a huge grant money for the school.Once the function is over a student hands over a letter from Riya which states that dying from lung cancer and she does not want him to see her suffer.

After Madhav's narration ends,Chetan Bhagat hands him her journal.Madhav is asked to read a few legible paragraphs from Riya's journal that Chetan Bhagat has marked .He is surprised to read that Riya is still alive and has left him since his mother did not approve their friendship and she did not want her son to get hurt again.

Act 3 is in New York. Madhav recollects her passion to perform at a New York music bar and goes there searching across 1000's of music bars.

Does he find her? Well, that is for you to read and find out!!!

This 260 paged book published in 2014 costs INR 176.

Happy Browsing....

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