In many ways, Chetan Bhagat’s latest book, 12 Years: My Messed Up Love Story, is true to its title: it’s a tale as old as time — boy meets girl, they fall in love, the girl’s family objects, causing a long, painful separation. Eventually, there is vindication and love conquers all. Only, there are some key differences: the girl, Payal Jain, is a 21-year-old virgin, fresh out of college, who has never been kissed and knows nothing about dating. The boy is not a boy at all — he is a 33-year-old man, Saket Khurana, in the middle of a messy divorce, bitter and mad at womankind (because of a “greedy b*tch” of a soon-to-be ex-wife, of course), with two full careers behind him. The girl’s family objects to the match because of all the usual reasons — he is not Jain, he drinks, eats meat and is someone the girl actually chose. But they also object because he is much older than their much-too-young daughter and separated by a world of experience.
This flattening of nuance is the central issue with Bhagat’s book. In an interview with this paper, Bhagat said, “To say that she is still not able to make her own decisions… is infantilising women… Should we remove voting rights and the right to work?” The irony is that it is apparent from the outset that Saket is attracted to Payal — as opposed to his “shrewd” ex-wife — in large part because of her “pure”, innocent character. The man literally coaches her on all things love and sex (and finds an in to do so by offering to guide her as a newbie in an industry he was in for a decade). During their first meeting, Saket tells Payal, “Compared to [me], you’re a little kid.” About three paragraphs of clumsy, uncomfortable flirting later, he thinks to himself, “Here was my chance [to hit on her]. And I was going to take it.”
Calling the story “messy” up top and pitting the romance against traditional forms of patriarchal control seem to be weak attempts at absolving both the man in the story and the man behind it from answering some tougher questions. To use feminism-adjacent arguments (women’s infantilisation and moral policing) to deflect attention from or justify the inappropriate nature of this dynamic reeks of doublespeak — and is rather insidious. The question here — and with a lot of other age-gap relationships between barely legal girls and much older men — is not whether Payal has the right to choose for herself or even if attraction can or should be policed. It is whether a man, who is over a decade older, should be acting on said attraction.
Beyond the “messy”, the book is overwritten and misses the mark. For a stand-up comedian, Saket is painfully unfunny. Saket “falls in love” with Payal by their third casual meeting — hardly a connection readers can buy as a matter of love over lust. He is also not a man who holds himself accountable: his response to any distress is to play victim, wallow and make everything worse. His attitude, more than his age, makes him an ill-fitting partner. That he is an unlikeable and immoral protagonist, though, is not the issue — his portrayal by Bhagat as the ultimate romantic hero, wronged by society, is. The book gives little to the reader — beyond monologues of saccha pyaar — to root for this couple.
Given their prevalence in society, age-gap relationships need to and should be explored more. But Bhagat is not the man for the job. 12 Years is a poor, flat reading of the dynamic. The book is rooted in nothing more than wannabe edgelord, out-of-touch writing.
Sukhmani Malik is a journalist and sub-editor at The Indian Express, working at the National Editorial and Opinion section. Her work largely focuses on queer rights, gender identity, digital culture, technology, healthcare and literary criticism.
Professional Focus
Sukhmani often explores how personal identity intersects with larger political and digital landscapes. Her reporting beats include:
Transgender and Queer Rights: She frequently reports on legal battles, workplace discrimination, and the socio-economic status of India’s queer community.
Digital Culture, Fandom and Technology: She analyses the psychological impact of the internet, Gen Z slang, and the evolution of global fandoms. She also closely watches developments in tech and space.
Books and Pop Culture: She provides sharp reviews of contemporary fiction and analyses the political undercurrents of global media icons.
Politics and Conflict: She writes about and analyses global politics and trends in the space, with a focus on conflict zones.
Recent Notable Articles (Late 2024-2025)
Her recent work highlights a blend of social advocacy and sharp cultural commentary:
1. Gender & Rights Advocacy
“If I hadn’t been forced to quit, I would have earned lakhs by now” (November 12, 2025): A profile of Jane Kaushik, a trans woman school teacher who took her fight against workplace discrimination to the Supreme Court.
“Harry Potter reboot: How J.K. Rowling’s continued anti-trans activism spurred boycott call” (October 17, 2025).
“From J.K. Rowling to Congress Manifesto: Where is India’s queer voter?” (April 6, 2024).
2. Digital Trends & Internet Culture
“‘Brain rot’ is how Gen Z deals with the chaotic world it inherited” (December 3, 2024): An analysis of the Oxford Word of the Year and its reflection of a generation's surreal disengagement.
“Why Liam Payne’s death is also an occasion to mourn the end of a heady era of online fandom” (October 19, 2024).
“Why Taylor Swift is the perfect PR progressive for the Kamala Harris campaign” (September 18, 2024).
“The City and I: Sleepless in cyberspace” (October 11, 2024): A personal reflection on the paradox of feeling disconnected despite being constantly online.
“Reading Elon Musk’s tweets: A ‘cool’ billionaire can’t fix free speech” (November 4, 2022)
3. Literary Reviews & Culture
“Chetan Bhagat’s 12 Years review: Tone-deaf take on love and age-gap relationships” (October 25, 2025).
“‘Weapons’, ‘Sinners’, and the rise of absurdist horror in a broken world” (September 15, 2025)
“At World Book Fair, a clash of ideologies and a celebration of the republic” (February 7, 2025): A report on the regional language sections and the dominance of religious literature.
“Alina Gufran’s No Place to Call My Own churns the stomach, but it’s impossible to look away” (March 8, 2025).
4. Politics & Democracy
“Trump’s inauguration was a spectacle of Pure White America – brace up for more” (January 22, 2025): A critical perspective on the 2025 US inauguration and its implications for democratic values.
“Charlie Kirk assassination: How Trump’s free speech politics deepens America’s democratic crisis” (September 26, 2025).
“Reading Joe Sacco’s ‘Palestine’ in 2023: What happens to the war when you look away?” (December 26, 2023) ... Read More
