Half Girlfriend

Half Girlfriend

Novel's Cover
Author	Chetan Bhagat
Country	India
Language	English
Genre	Romance
Publisher	Rupa & Co.
Publication date	October 2014
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	260 (without cover page)
ISBN

Half Girlfriend is an Indian English coming of age, young adult romance novel by Indian author Chetan Bhagat. The novel, set in rural Bihar, New Delhi, Patna, and New York, is the story of a Bihari boy in quest of winning over the girl he loves. This is Bhagat's sixth novel which was released on 1 October 2014 by Rupa Publications. The novel has also been published in Hindi and Gujarati versions as well. A Hindi film adaptation released on 19 May 2017.

Dedicated to "non English-types", as Chetan Bhagat wrote, the book divulges the sentiments and linguistic struggles of a backward rural Bhojpuri-laced Hindi-speaking boy from Bihar as he enrolls himself at the prestigious English-medium St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, and falls in love with a "high class English-speaking rich Delhi girl" schooled at Modern School, New Delhi. The girl does not admit the relationship but agrees to be his "half girlfriend". Chetan Bhagat commented, "Half-Girlfriend, to me, is a unique Indian phenomenon, where boys and girls are not clear about their relationship status with each other. A boy may think he is more than friends with the girl, but the girl is still not his girlfriend. Hence, I thought we needed a term like 'Half girlfriend'. Because, in India, that is what most men get."

The story begins with Madhav Jha, a rural boy from Dumraon, a village in (an imaginary name) Buxar, Bihar, as he comes to meet the author who is actually Chetan Bhagat and leaves behind a few journals from his half-girlfriend who he believes has died. Chetan Bhagat calls him up the next morning to hear his story. He starts by describing his trouble entering St. Stephens, as his English wasn't good enough. Being a good basketball player, Madhav gets finnaly through sports quota.