Last summer, Delhi University was abuzz with activity as the film adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's book Half Girlfriend was being shot on North Campus.
This summer, the campus is abuzz with the proposal by the English Department to include his book Five Point Someone for students choosing an elective offered by the department.
The proposed modified syllabus has been sent to all colleges by the head of the English Department for feedback. Recommendations will then be submitted to the Academic Council and Executive Council for approval. If approved, by July students could be studying his novel along with J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and Louisa M Alcott’s Little Women as a part of the Popular Fiction paper in the General Elective.
English elective
The book will be offered to second-year undergraduate students pursuing honours and programme courses under the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS).
Students from any stream who want to take up the English elective will study the novel. However, students of BA(Hons.) English will not be offered to study it.
Reacting to the proposed inclusion, Mr. Bhagat took to Twitter: “Am honoured DU added my books to their course. Literature is about being open minded, reading the classics as well as the contemporary.”
In a second tweet, he added: “Elitistaan theories trying to diss me and literary value of my books have failed miserably with DU adding my books to their course. Sorry.”
“To me good literature is writing that actually touches people, whether in the past or now. It isn't something an elitist club decides,” he further tweeted.
