India's Gig Economy, Education & The Future of Work | Chetan Bhagat | Tomorrow Today

Chetan Bhagat (0:00)

If you have a rat whose tail's on fire, he's gonna run the fastest. But at the end of the day, I was still a rat with a tail on fire.

Shekhar Natarajan (0:10)

My origin story should not be the destination story. That was in my head.

Chetan Bhagat (0:19)

I was very lucky to be in somewhat boring times, because creativity only comes from boredom.

Shekhar Natarajan (0:30)

Colonization is algorithmic expansion. So whatever I think is right and however I think is right, is what I'll enforce on you.

Do you want a happy life?

Chetan Bhagat (0:42)

Make some money, make some muscles, and make time for people you love.

Shekhar Natarajan (1:14)

Welcome to yet another show of Tomorrow, Today with Shekhar Natarajan. It's my incredible honor to have my next guest. This is our 43rd episode that we are shooting. Chetan Bhagat. He's like a phenomenal writer, someone who's changed the landscape in India when it comes to literacy and how people consume books and fiction and storytelling. Chetan, I've been super excited and I wanted to talk to you for almost like six months now. I'm trying to chase down these guys like how do I talk to Chetan? Because I think this conversation I feel is going to be the most intellectual and most inspiring. Because one, you're a creative guy. Two, I think you see the world in a very different way and you see it from different lenses.

And you also are the father of two kids who basically like, they are living in a different world than the world you inherited. And so it's going to be a fun conversation and I want to unpack a lot of things with you.

Chetan Bhagat (2:18)

Thank you Shekhar for having me. And I've been seeing some of the work you guys are hearing about the work you guys have been doing. And it's really an inspiration to see Indians doing so well. They are like at the cutting edge of AI and to angelic AI and like looking at AI with good intentions and stuff like that. It's really good. So yeah, I flew down from Dubai for this and I'm very excited to be here.

Shekhar Natarajan (2:40)

Yeah, thank you so much. Like, you know, and thanks for making the time because and I got a lot of like interesting thoughts that I want to unpack with you. So let's think like you. I'm thinking like you for a second. So instead of like starting early days, the day you were born and other things, let's basically like, you know, fast forward like 12 years when you were a 12 year old kid. And you're dining with your parents, you know, father being a colonel, my mother like a researcher.

Like, and were you writing a story at the time? Were you writing a joke at the time at the dinner table? Or like, tell me more about like Chetan Bhagat, 12 year old.

Chetan Bhagat (3:19)

Okay, so grade 12, sorry, 12 year old, I must have been in grade, I don't know, seven or eight.

I think I was an average, above average, like in class. So there was no signs of that I'll do anything major in life.

It was all mainly thinking about my first crush at that time. And it's that age when you first start noticing girls.

Before that, it's like, you know, boys are boys and boys are cool and girls are a key. And, you know, like, and that is like, you're like, no, this is where the interesting thing is. So I think it's that.

I don't think the career thing had kicked in yet. One thing, though, like storytelling itself wasn't there, but there was this first interest in writing. We were forced to write articles for our school magazine, like for junior kids. And I remember I was also forced. But when I wrote it and saw my name in print, it was a very big deal then, because you never saw your name printed anywhere. Today, of course, everywhere, but that printed font, you only saw your name handwritten. So to see it in a magazine was amazing. So that gave the writing bug to me. So I think there were early signs of that. Also, Shekhar, at that time, there was no internet. Even TV and all wasn't much in India at that time. Entertainment was very limited, books and stuff like that. So we would read. And also, I remember occasionally we would see movies. Pre-internet era, pre-proper cable television era. So we would occasionally see movies. Me and my younger brother in a theater.

Maybe VHS had just come. And then I remember, there would be these boring afternoons, where we would just make up film stories and tell each other. Amit Abhachan used to be big. So you'd say like, he'll come and he'll hit this guy. I did not know this then. But those were the seeds for me being able to create stories. That's why I always tell people, I was very lucky to be in somewhat boring times because creativity only comes from boredom. It's like the mud and a beautiful lotus comes from there. You have to create that boredom, which these days is not there. If I was 12 now and I had an iPad, I don't think I would have done. So, while there was no grand plans being made of becoming a writer or anything, I think some of the foundational stuff, whereas an imagination that leads to stories, because in the boring Delhi often, it's really hot, you can't even go out and play, you would just make up stories. What if Amitavachan did this in that movie? Now, these were all imaginary things, but we were creating stories and started writing articles in my school magazine that was seeing my name in print. So, I think some of the desire to write one day was created around this 12 year time.