Chetan Bhagat

Born On: 22nd April, 1974

Born In: New Delhi, India
Career: Novelist, columnist, script writer, motivational speaker
Chetan Bhagat is a famous Indian author who penned down novels that hit the market with great success. All of
them were bestsellers since their release and have been filmed by famous Bollywood directors. Chetan Bhagat is
considered a youth icon rather than as just an author. With his vivid and humorous way of depicting stories, he
has inspired reading habits in many young Indians. He is also a good columnist and writes columns for many
leading newspapers. According to him, novels are entertainment tools through which he expresses his views and
opinion about society and the youth. Development issues and national issues are addressed through columns.
Chetan's columns are written in a way that directly points out the issues within our country and in many times it
has even triggered discussions in the parliament. He is not only a good writer but also a motivational speaker and
has given many motivational speeches at many colleges, organizations and companies.
Personal Life
Chetan Bhagat was born in New Delhi in a middle class Punjabi Family on the 22nd day of April, 1974. His father
was an Army man and his mother, a government employee. The major part of his education was done at Delhi.
He studied in the Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi during the years 1978 to 199 after which he
chose to do Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. After pursuing engineering
he took up a management program offered at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. Being an
outstanding student, it was no wonder when he was recognized as the "Best Outgoing Student" of his batch by
IIM Ahmadabad. He later got married to Anusha Suryanarayanan in 1998; she was his fellow student at IIM-A.
Chetan then went to Hong Kong along with his family and worked as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs.
He worked in Hong Kong for eleven years and then shifted to Mumbai and started writing. It was his passion. He
has four novels against his name: Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ The Call Center (2005), The Three
Mistakes Of My Life (2008) & Two States (2009). By chance or by choice, titles of all his novels had numbers
associated with them. He now leads a happy life with his wife and twin sons Ishaan and Shyam. Chetan loves to
live a simple life watching cartoons with his children who wish to become super heroes. He is a health conscious
person and practices yoga regularly.
Career
Chetan Bhagat published his first novel first novel 'Five Point Someone' in 2004 and this very first venture took
him to the peaks of fame and popularity. The book depicted the story of an IIT student who considers himself to
be below average than all the other students in IIT. This book won the Society Young Achiever's Award and
Publisher's Recognition Award. The story was adopted into a film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and starred
famous Bollywood stars like Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Kareena Kapoor. His second book was
'One Night At A Call Center' and this too was a great success. This book was made into a movie and was named
'Hello' and Chetan himself wrote the script. The movie was noted by the special appearance of Bollywood star
Salman Khan and was an average hit. His next novel has cricket as the major theme. It is named 'Three Mistakes
of My Life'. His fourth book is named 'Two States'.
Contribution
Chetan Bhagat's contribution to the field of entertainment is noticeable. He never confined his literary talents to
just writing novels. As a responsible social person, he also writes columns in newspapers, citing and dwelling on
various social and national issues. Many of his columns were noticed by parliamentarians and triggered serious
discussions in the Indian Parliament. He has addressed issues like corruption by sending an opening letter to
Sonia Gandhi and also has spoken about the political issues that revolved around Baba Ramdev.
Awards and Accolades
He won the Society Young Achiever's Award in 2000 and the Publisher's Recognition Award in 2005. Chetan
Bhagat also a found himself place in the Time magazine's list of "World's 100 Most Influential People" in the year
2010.

Premchand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Premchand (disambiguation).

Premchand (pronounced [mni prem ttndd ] ( listen)) (31 July 1880 8 October 1936), better
known as Munshi Premchand, Munshibeing an honorary prefix, was an Indian writer famous for
his modern Hindustani literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian
subcontinent,[1] and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindustani writers of the early twentieth

century.[2] BornDhanpat Rai Srivastav, he began writing under the pen name "Nawab Rai", but
subsequently switched to "Premchand". A novel writer, story writer and dramatist, he has been
referred to as the "Upanyas Samrat" ("Emperor among Novelists") by some Hindi writers. His
works include more than a dozen novels, around 250 short stories, several essays and
translations of a number of foreign literary works into Hindi.
Contents

Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Premchand was born on 31 July 1880 in Lamahi, a village located near Varanasi (Banaras). His
ancestors came from a large family, which owned six bighas of land.[3] His grandfather Gur Sahai
Rai was a patwari (village accountant), and his father Ajaib Rai was a post office clerk. His
mother was Anandi Devi of Karauni village, who could have been the inspiration for the character
Anandi in his Bade Ghar Ki Beti.[4] Premchand was the fourth child of Ajaib Lal and Anandi; the
first two were girls who died as infants, and the third one was a girl named Suggi. [5] His parents
named him Dhanpat Rai ("the master of wealth"), while his uncle, Mahabir, a rich landowner,
nicknamed him "Nawab" ("Prince"). "Nawab Rai" was the first pen name chosen by Premchand. [6]
When he was 7 years old, Premchand began his education at a madarsa in Lalpur, located near
Lamahi.[5] Premchand learnt Urdu and Persian from a maulvi in the madarsa. When he was 8, his
mother died after a long illness. His grandmother, who took the responsibility of raising him, died
soon after.[7] Premchand felt isolated, as his elder sister had already been married, and his father
was always busy with work. His father, who was now posted at Gorakhpur, remarried, but
Premchand received little affection from his step-mother. The step-mother later became a
recurring theme in Premchand's works.[8]
After his mother's death, Premchand sought solace in fiction, and developed a fascination for
books. He heard the stories from the Persian-language fantasy epic Tilism-e-Hoshruba at
a tobacconist's shop. He took the job of selling books for a book wholesaler, thus getting the
opportunity to read a lot of books.[9] He learnt English at a missionary school, and studied several
works of fiction including George W. M. Reynolds's eight-volume The Mysteries of the Court of
London.[8] He composed his first literary work atGorakhpur, which was never published and is
now lost. It was a farce on a bachelor, who falls in love with a low-caste woman. The character
was based on Premchand's uncle, who used to scold him for being obsessed with reading fiction;
the farce was probably written as a revenge for this. [8]
After his father was posted to Jamniya in the mid-1890s, Premchand enrolled at the Queen's
College at Benaras as a day scholar.[10][11] In 1895, he was married at the age of 15, while still
studying in the 9th grade. The match was arranged by his maternal step-grandfather. The girl
was from a rich landlord family and was older than Premchand, who found her quarrelsome and
not good-looking.[10][11]
Premchand's father died in 1897 after a long illness. He managed to pass the matriculation
exam with second division(below 60% marks). However, only the students with first division were
given fee concession at the Queen's College. Premchand then sought admission at the Central
Hindu College, but was unsuccessful because of his poor arithmetic skills.[12] Thus, he had to
discontinue his studies.
Premchand then obtained an assignment to coach an advocate's son in Benares at a monthly
salary of five rupees. He used to live reside in a mud-cell over the advocate's stables, and used
to send 60% of his salary back home.[12] Premchand read a lot during these days. After racking up

several debts, in 1899, he once went to a book shop to sell one of his collected books. There, he
met the headmaster of a missionary school at Chunar, who offered him a job as a teacher, at a
monthly salary of 18.[12] He also took up the job of tutoring a student at a monthly fees of 5.
In 1900, Premchand secured a job as an assistant teacher at the Government District
School, Bahraich, at a monthly salary of 20. Three months later, he was transferred to the
District School in Pratapgarh, where he stayed in an administrator's bungalow and tutored his
son.[13]
Dhanpat Rai first wrote under the pseudonym "Nawab Rai". His first short novel was Asrar e
Ma'abid (Devasthan Rahasya in Hindi, "The Secrets of God's Abode"), which explores corruption
among the temple priests and their sexual exploitation of poor women. The novel was published
in a series in the Benares-based Urdu weekly Awaz-e-Khalkfrom 8 October 1903 to February
1905.[14] Siegfried Schulz states that "his inexperience is quite evident in his first novel", which is
not well-organized, lacks a good plot and features stereotyped characters. [15] Prakash Chandra
Gupta calls it an "immature work", which shows a tendency to "see life only white or black". [14]

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the former President of India. For the Indian freedom fighter, see Abul Kalam
Azad.
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen "A. P. J." Abdul Kalam ( /bdl klm/; 15 October 1931 27
July 2015) was the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. A career scientist turned politician,
Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, and studied physics and aerospace
engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at
the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space program and
military missile development efforts.[2] He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for
his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.[3][4][5] He also
played a pivotal organizational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in
1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.[6]
i

Kalam was elected as the 11th President of India in 2002 with the support of both the
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the then-opposition Indian National Congress. Widely referred
to as the "People's President,"[7] he returned to his civilian life of education, writing and public
service after a single term. He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat
Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
While delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Kalam collapsed and
died from an apparent cardiac arrest on 27 July 2015, aged 83.[8] Thousands including nationallevel dignitaries attended the funeral ceremony held in his hometown of Rameshwaram, where
he was buried with full state honours.[9]

Early life and education

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 to a Tamil Muslim family in
the pilgrimage centre ofRameswaram on Pamban Island, then in the Madras Presidency and

now in the State of Tamil Nadu. His father Jainulabudeen was a boat owner and imam of a local
mosque;[10] his mother Ashiamma was a housewife.[11][12][13][14] His father owned a ferry that
tookHindu pilgrims back and forth between Rameswaram and the now uninhabited Dhanushkodi.
[15][16]
Kalam was the youngest of four brothers and one sister in his family.[17][18][19] His ancestors had
been wealthy traders and landowners, with numerous properties and large tracts of land. Their
business had involved trading groceries between the mainland and the island and to and from Sri
Lanka, as well as ferrying pilgrims between the mainland and Pamban. As a result, the family
acquired the title of "Mara Kalam iyakkivar" (wooden boat steerers), which over the years
became shortened to "Marakier." With the opening of the Pamban Bridge to the mainland in
1914, however, the businesses failed and the family fortune and properties were lost over time,
apart from the ancestral home.[20] By his early childhood, Kalam's family had become poor; at an
early age, he sold newspapers to supplement his family's income. [21][21][22]
In his school years, Kalam had average grades but was described as a bright and hardworking
student who had a strong desire to learn. He spent hours on his studies, especially mathematics.
[22]
After completing his education at the Schwartz Higher Secondary School, Ramanathapuram,
Kalam went on to attend Saint Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, then affiliated with the University
of Madras, from where he graduated in physics in 1954.[23] He moved to Madras in 1955 to study
aerospace engineering in Madras Institute of Technology.[14] While Kalam was working on a
senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with his lack of progress and threatened to revoke
his scholarship unless the project was finished within the next three days. Kalam met the
deadline, impressing the Dean, who later said to him, "I was putting you under stress and asking
you to meet a difficult deadline".[24] He narrowly missed achieving his dream of becoming a fighter
pilot, as he placed ninth in qualifiers, and only eight positions were available in the IAF.[25]

Mahadevi Varma
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mahadevi Varma (Hindi: ) best known as an outstanding Hindi poet, and was a freedom
fighter, woman's activist and educationist from India. She is widely regarded as the
"modern Meera".[1] She was a major poet of the Chhayavaad generation, a period of romanticism
in Modern Hindi poetry ranging from 19141938. With passage of time, her limited but
outstanding prose has been recognised as unique in Hindi Literature. She was a prominent poet
in Hindi Kavi sammelans (Gatherings of poets).
She was the Principal, and then the Vice-Chancellor of Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth, a woman's
residential college in Allahabad. She was awarded India's highest literary award, for lifetime
achievement, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1979, followed by theJnanpith Award in 1982.
[2]
She was the recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 1956[3] and the Padma Vibhushan in 1988,
India's third and second highest civilian awards respectively.[4]

Life[edit]
Mahadevi was born in Farukhabad in a family of lawyers. She was educated at JabalpurMadhya Pradesh. She was the eldest child of Govinda Prasad Varma and Hemaa rani and had
two brothers, Jagmohan and Manmohan, and a sister, Shyaama. She got married to Dr Swarup
Narain Varma in Indore when she was in her childhood. She stayed with her parents while her
husband studied in Lucknow to complete his education, during which time, she received her

higher education at the Allahabad University and passed her B.A.examination in 1929 and
completed her master's degree-M.A. in Sanskrit in 1933.
After the death of her husband in 1966, she moved permanently to Allahabad and lived there
until her death.
Mahadevi was appointed as the first headmistress of Allahabad (Prayag) Mahila Vidyapeeth,
which was started with a view to imparting cultural and literary education to girls through Hindi
medium. Later, she became the chancellor of the institute.

Early life[edit]
In her childhood biography Mere Bachpan Ke Din (My Childhood Days), Mahadevi Varma has
written that at a time when a girl child was considered a burden upon the family, she was very
fortunate to be born into a liberal family. Her grandfather had the ambition of making her a
scholar; her mother was fluent in Sanskrit and Hindi, and very religious. Mahadevi credits her
mother for inspiring her to write poems, and to take an interest in literature.
Mahadevi was originally admitted to a Convent school, but upon protests and an unwilling
attitude, she took admission in Crosthwaite Girls College in Allahabad. According to Mahadevi,
she learnt the strength of unity in the hostel at Crosthwaite, where students of different religions
lived together and the mess was also according to the religious requirement. Mahadevi started to
write poems secretly; but upon discovery of her hidden stash of poems by her room-mate and
senior Subhadra Kumari Chauhan (known in the school for writing poems), her hidden talent was
exposed. Mahadevi and Subhrada now started to write poems together in their free time.
While others used to play outside, me and Subhrada used to sit on a tree, and let our creative
thoughts flow together...She used to write in Khariboli, and soon I also started to write in
Khadiboli...this way, we used to write one or two poems a day...
Mahadevi Varma, Mere Bachpan Ke Din

She and Subhrada also used to send poems to publications such as weekly magazines, and
managed to get some of their poems published. Both poets also attended poetry seminars,
where they met eminent Hindi poets, and read out their poems to the audience. This partnership
continued till Subhrada graduated from Crosthwaite.

Works[edit]
Mahadevi is considered to be one of the four major poets of the Chhayavaadi school of the Hindi
literature, others being Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Jaishankar Prasad andSumitranandan Pant.
She was also a noted painter. She drew a number of illustrations for her poetic works like Hindi
and Yama. Her other works include short stories such as Gillu () which talks about her
experience with a squirrel and 'Neelkanth' which talks about her experience with a
peacock,which is also included as a chapter into the syllabus of Central Board of Secondary
Education for the 7th graders. She has also written Gaura which is based on her real life, in this
story she wrote about a beautiful cow. Mahadevi Varma is also known for her childhood
memoir, Mere Bachpan Ke Din and Gillu ()", which was inducted into the syllabus of
India's Central Board of Secondary Education for the 9th grade.
Stories written by her on her pets are also famous.

R. K. Narayan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with K. R. Narayanan.

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer
Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian
town of Malgudi. He is one of three leading figures of early Indian literature in
English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao), and is credited with bringing the genre to the
rest of the world.
Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was
instrumental in getting publishers for Narayans first four books, including the semiautobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher.
Narayans works also include The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of
1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for film and for
Broadway.
The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced
in Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters
through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional
town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed
compassionatehumanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared to
that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without losing
out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple in his
prose and diction.
In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours.
These include the AC Benson Medalfrom the Royal Society of Literature, the Padma
Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan, India's third and second highest civilian awards.[1] He was
also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament.

Life and career[edit]

Early days[edit]
R. K. Narayan was born in Madras (now Chennai), British India.[2] His father was a school
headmaster, and Narayan did some of his studies at his father's school. As his father's job
entailed frequent transfers, Narayan spent part of his childhood under the care of his maternal
grandmother, Parvati.[3] During this time his best friends and playmates were a peacock and a
mischievous monkey.[4][5][6]
His grandmother gave him the nickname of Kunjappa, a name that stuck to him in family circles.
[7]
She taught him arithmetic, mythology, classical Indian music and Sanskrit.[8]According to his
youngest brother R. K. Laxman, the family mostly conversed in English, and grammatical errors
on the part of Narayan and his siblings were frowned upon.[9]While living with his grandmother,
Narayan studied at a succession of schools in Madras, including the Lutheran Mission School
in Purasawalkam,[10] C.R.C. High School, and theChristian College High School.[11] Narayan was
an avid reader, and his early literary diet included Dickens, Wodehouse, Arthur Conan
Doyle and Thomas Hardy.[12] When he was twelve years old, Narayan participated in a proindependence march, for which he was reprimanded by his uncle; the family was apolitical and
considered all governments wicked.[13]

Narayan moved to Mysore to live with his family when his father was transferred to the
Maharajah's College High School. The well-stocked library at the school, as well as his father's
own, fed his reading habit, and he started writing as well. After completing high school, Narayan
failed the university entrance examination and spent a year at home reading and writing; he
subsequently passed the examination in 1926 and joined Maharaja College of Mysore. It took
Narayan four years to obtain his bachelor's degree, a year longer than usual. After being
persuaded by a friend that taking a master's degree (M.A.) would kill his interest in literature, he
briefly held a job as a school teacher; however, he quit in protest when the headmaster of the
school asked him to substitute for the physical training master.[10] The experience made Narayan
realise that the only career for him was in writing, and he decided to stay at home and write
novels.[14][15] His first published work was a book review of Development of Maritime Laws of 17thCentury England.[16]Subsequently, he started writing the occasional local interest story for English
newspapers and magazines. Although the writing did not pay much (his income for the first year
was nine rupees and twelve annas), he had a regular life and few needs, and his family and
friends respected and supported his unorthodox choice of career.[17] In 1930, Narayan wrote his
first novel, Swami and Friends,[16] an effort ridiculed by his uncle[18] and rejected by a string of
publishers.[9] With this book, Narayan created Malgudi, a town that creatively reproduced the
social sphere of the country; while it ignored the limits imposed by colonial rule, it also grew with
the various socio-political changes of British and post-independence India. [19]

Turning point[edit]
While vacationing at his sister's house in Coimbatore, in 1933, Narayan met and fell in love with
Rajam, a 15-year-old girl who lived nearby. Despite many astrological and financial obstacles,
Narayan managed to gain permission from the girl's father and married her.[20] Following his
marriage, Narayan became a reporter for a Madras-based paper called The Justice, dedicated to
the rights of non-Brahmins. The publishers were thrilled to have a Brahmin Iyer in Narayan
espousing their cause. The job brought him in contact with a wide variety of people and issues.
[21]
Earlier, Narayan had sent the manuscript of Swami and Friends to a friend at Oxford, and
about this time, the friend showed the manuscript to Graham Greene. Greene recommended the
book to his publisher, and it was finally published in 1935.[4] Greene also counseled Narayan on
shortening his name to become more familiar to the English-speaking audience. [22] The book was
semi-autobiographical and built upon many incidents from his own childhood. [23] Reviews were
favourable but sales were few. Narayan's next novel The Bachelor of Arts (1937), was inspired in
part by his experiences at college,[24] and dealt with the theme of a rebellious adolescent
transitioning to a rather well-adjusted adult;[25] it was published by a different publisher, again at
the recommendation of Greene. His third novel, The Dark Room(1938) was about domestic
disharmony,[26] showcasing the man as the oppressor and the woman as the victim within a
marriage, and was published by yet another publisher; this book also received good reviews. In
1937, Narayan's father died, and Narayan was forced to accept a commission from the
government of Mysore as he was not making any money.[27]