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Journalism of Courage
Chetan Bhagat is back with a love story. And true to form, it is not a neat one. Nearly 20 years after Five Point Someone turned him into one of India’s most widely read authors, Bhagat has returned to romance with 12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story. At its heart lies an unlikely pairing. A 33-year-old divorced man and a 21-year-old woman who has never been in a relationship before. He is Punjabi, she is Jain. For Bhagat, the age gap and the clashing expectations between the two are exactly what make the story worth telling.
“Romance is always a boy-meets-girl story, so you can get repetitive,” he says. “Until you have something fresh to offer, you will kind of tend to give more of the same. I didn’t want that until I got a central conflict which was truly different. A guy who’s 33, divorced, and a girl who’s 21 who’s never had a boyfriend. So it is messed up. And literally that’s the name of the book.”
“Who wants to read a perfect love story? Nobody. A messed-up love story is always more interesting,” he said. “And here you have a relationship with 12 years between them, different experiences, different expectations. It’s bound to be complicated.”
The emotional terrain, he stressed, is fragile. “He is more experienced, he is carrying baggage, he is divorced. She has never had a boyfriend. She is discovering love for the first time. It’s a clash of worlds. That’s where the drama comes from.”
Even before release, 12 Years stirred debate. Some questioned the ethics of portraying a romance with such an age gap. Bhagat pushed back hard. “This is a 21-year-old girl who went to Stanford, who was a topper, who joined a private equity job. To say that she is still not able to make her own decisions …. is infantilising women.”
“What age is okay then? 22 is okay, 24 is okay? Should we remove property rights and voting rights and right to work?” he asks.
For him, the uproar reflects a misunderstanding of what fiction is meant to do. “Author should be allowed to write whatever they want to write. A reader has the choice to pick it up or not. These are real things that happen in society. And I have always done books which mirror Indian society and something that has an intense conflict.”
By pairing an older man with a younger woman, Bhagat also set up a generational clash. Beyond age, the book explores how technology shapes romance today. “Today a lot of the relationship dynamics happen on WhatsApp,” he says. “She’s ghosting him and he doesn’t even know the term. He’s older, confused. For Gen Z, it’s normal to not reply, to disengage. These dynamics are all new.”
The heroine represents that Gen Z attitude, sharp, ambitious, comfortable with digital communication. The hero, by contrast, struggles with it.
“If you are 21 today, you are growing up in the world of Instagram reels and dating apps,” Bhagat said. “If you are 33, you come from a different time. That mismatch makes for drama.”
Asked about how young people have changed since he wrote Five Point Someone in 2004, Bhagat’s answer was blunt.
“Honestly, I feel the ambition levels have gone down,” he said. “The phone is an excellent source of entertainment… it has had the effect of numbing the youth a little bit. You can call it that they’re content, or you can call it that they don’t have as much aspiration.”
He contrasted his own generation’s hunger with today’s instant gratification. “In my time, if you wanted excitement you had to achieve something. Get a good job, crack an exam, move to a big city. Today, you can open your phone and get dopamine. That hunger is less.”
For Bhagat, the core of the novel lies not only in the age gap but in the million-dollar question what makes love real?
“Honestly, you don’t really know,” he admitted. “But it has something to do with longevity, emotional connection, and how you feel in their presence.”
In 12 Years, the physical chemistry between the two characters adds another layer of confusion. “That confuses you—is this just lust? Or is it really love? That’s why you have to read the book.”
Bhagat has long been criticised for writing “light” books, but he refuses to apologise for accessibility. “It is light. Should there be no light reading?” he asked. “Light doesn’t mean it doesn’t have impact. Books can be entertaining, believe it or not.”
He sees himself as a gateway author. “We try to simplify the language. If you’ve never read books, please pick up this book, you’ll be fine,” he said. “That gateway into literature is Chetan Bhagat. And that I think is a good thing. It’s not gateway into cocaine, it is a gateway into books.”
Asked to compare himself with the man who wrote Five Point Someone at 29, Bhagat, now 51, says, “I think I’m more mellow and mature. Earlier I wanted to be number one, to be recognised. Now the internal reward is much better. I really enjoyed doing this story. That is enough.”
If Bhagat’s career has shown anything, it’s that his books rarely pass quietly. Whether they are loved, criticised, or adapted into Bollywood blockbusters, they spark conversation. With 12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story, that pattern continues.”
