Study on Postmodern Social Realism and Problems of Society

In 21st century Educational, social, and cultural part of nation has changed tremendously. Today's Indian novels are the reflection of society. The novels reflect the society as it is. Indian society, Indian culture is changing fast step by step. The novel Five Point Someone is the criticism on contemporary society. This is youth based novel. Sacrifice of youth running behind the success, sacrifice of their emotions, happiness is seen in this novel. There are insecurities getting passing marks among students. Fear of completing assignments. Youth related environment has depicted in the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. Youth: Youth is the time of life when one is youthful, some adjectives for youth are used mostly for example freshness, energy, and enthusiastic. Youth age is most dynamic, enthusiastic age that is the reason it is important part of any country's population. They have most innovative ideas about the development of the country. Youth have strong passion and motivation which foster any country towards the financial, educational and cultural development of the country. Youth represent the present of the nation.

Culture is not meant to be preserved, but shared, learned and created. This youthful generation is not really oblivious to our culture, but it is paving way for certain changes by breaking down the taboos. Youth consider themselves liberated from all burdens. They want to partake in their life doing some adventures things. In the novel Five Point Someone we get to see that the three friends go to adventures wandering, they play squash; roam the city, making parties and smoking and savoring the parties, their love life.

Today's youth are a lot of aware about their career that's the reason they want to take better education from renowned institutions. Skillful education is favored today by most of the youth. There is a need of legitimate employment after completing education. Migration of welleducated and skillful youths to abroad is also one major issue in today's reality. Means better education, employment, migration of intelligence these are some issues about youth. These issues are brilliantly depicted in the novel Five

Chetan Bhagat is renowned name in Indian English fiction writing. Especially he has written campus novels, and today his novels are bestselling novels. He is an Indian author, columnist, screenwriter, television personality and motivational speaker. He is known for his Indian-English novels about youngsters. He writes columns on youth and he is youth oriented writer. He has touched each aspect of youth's life in the present novel, for example campus life, education system, community issues. He focuses on cultural and educational issues in India through the point of perspective on youth. His writing style is informal as he has used campus slang Indian English in his works. Five Point Someone focuses on the dark side of India's education system with its excessive emphasis on the grades, marks and scores and not on innovation and creativity. It is system that humiliates students and crushes original thinking. At the same time, the novel gives the story of three IIT students-Hari Kumar, Ryan Oberoi and Alok Gupta-how intelligent students can waste their once in a lifetime kinds of chances in school life in the event that they don't think straight and make most of the available system. The novel begins in an extraordinary way. Bhagat inaugurates his book with a mysterious preface wherein the narrator (Hari) and Ryan are in ambulance with Alok who got thirteen fractures. The narrator informs the readers that his (Alok) limbs were motionless, just like his father's right side. The readers are not introduced about the narrator, Alok or Ryan. Such technique arises many queries in the minds of the readers like who is the narrator; who is Alok and Ryan; what is narrator's relation with Alok; what happened to Alok that he is harmed heavily and what has happened to Alok's father that his right side is motionless. These questions whet readers' appetite to read more. This is the means by which Chetan Bhagat uses the technique of flash back to make the storyline holding. The underneath lines from the novel ignites the curiosity to read further among the readers.

Five Point Someone focuses on the dark side of India's education system with its excessive emphasis on the grades, marks and scores and not on innovation and creativity. It is system that humiliates students and crushes original thinking. At the same time, the novel gives the story of three IIT students-Hari Kumar, Ryan Oberoi and Alok Gupta-how intelligent students can waste their unique kinds of chances in school life if they don't think straight and make most of the available system. The novel begins in an extraordinary way. Bhagat inaugurates his book with a mysterious preface wherein the narrator (Hari) and Ryan are in ambulance with Alok who got thirteen fractures. The narrator informs the readers that his (Alok) limbs were motionless, just like his father's right side. The readers are not introduced about the narrator, Alok or Ryan. Such technique arises many queries in the minds of the readers like who is the narrator; who is Alok and Ryan; what is narrator's relation with Alok; what happened to Alok that he is harmed heavily and what has happened to Alok's father that his right side is motionless. These questions whet readers' appetite to read more. This is the means by which Chetan Bhagat uses the technique of flash back to make the storyline holding. The underneath lines from the novel ignites the curiosity to read further among the readers. There are many memorable characters in the novel that represent the contemporary society to the fullest. Their study will definitely give a sound understanding of recent generation, their trouble and happiness and most importantly the youngsters themselves. Hari is the person who relates the entire story. Hari is basically a timid and passive person. He is madly in love the daughter of the head of the department Neha where he studies which make the entire story extremely interesting. Hari knows his limits and does not hesitate talking about them. He knows he wants to be someone like his friend-Ryan. All Chetan Bhagat's heroes are vulnerable and unheroic in nature. Hari Kumar considers himself and his friends extremely average students and ―the last people on earth you want to ask about getting into IIT.‖(2) Hari the hero of the novel doesn't show any heroism at time when they were being ragged appallingly at midnight on the first day of their school. When Prof Dubey chooses Hari for answering his question, he becomes idiotic. His tongue cleaves unto dental roof, body freezes, veins rupture and sweat bursts out in buckets.‖ On important occasions, he becomes totally idiotic, his dreaded the viva as it strikes me whenever someone looks me in the eye and asks me a question. My body freezes, sweat beads cover me forehead to crotch and I lose my sense of voice.‖ . He makes mess while facing viva. In spite of knowing all the answers, he remains imbecilic. He writes, I tried articulating, but thoughts didn't cash into words. He is a fat person feels ashamed of it. He himself says, I realize I am fat and assuming I were a young lady, I'd probably not talk to me either‖ He is not a stud like Ryan. He gets easily impacted by Ryan. He imitates Ryan in many matters. He has all the praise for Ryan's perfect body looks and dressing sense. He appreciates all Ryan's novel ideas. He is so much impressed with Ryan that even he confesses that he wants to be like Ryan. On Ryan's suggestion of decreasing weight, his understanding thoughts show his inferiority complex, I thought about losing ten kilos. All my life people had called me Fat-Man, to the point where plumpness was a part of my identity now. Of course, I hated that part of my identity and Ryan appeared to know what he was doing, and his own body was great. Heck I thought, it was worth a try.‖ (26) Even Alok puts his observations in his letter, ―Ryan is infectious and Hari is a perfect example of this infection. Ryan is smart, stylish, sporty and spoilt brat. He is the person who looks at things in a different perspective. He comes up with innovative ideas like how to make exhausting classes interesting, what to gift Hari's girlfriend, how to sneak out the question paper right in front of HOD etc. He is carefree, confident, outspoken, athletic and smart. He is the leader of his group of three. He is creative and brimming with novel ideas, ranked 91st in the entrance test and loves designing but hates the system. He believes that the system does not encourage original ideas, rather makes engineers who have robbed up theoretical aspects and rates students not on the basis of how they think but on the basis of their grades. Ryan is a heroic character though he is not the hero of the novel. As would be natural for Hari, Ryan is a person you don't see often in IIT too often; tall, with spare height, purposefully lean and unfairly handsome. A loose gray T-shirt proclaimed GAP' in large blue letters on his chest and shiny black shorts reached his knees.‖ He further writes, Ryan's body was flawless, man, he was a hunk; muscles that cut at the right places and a body frame that for once resembled the human body shown in science books. Even Alok writes in his letter to Hari:

1. To study on Different problems of Society 2. To study on youth issues and Student oriented Teaching

The position of Chetan Bhagat in Indian English Literature is still a debatable issue. Many critics and advocates of serious literature don't consider him as a serious novelist. By many critics he is placed in the group of popular literature or mash literature writers whose literature is mostly sold at the railway stations, bus-stops and on streets at cheap rates. Chetan Bhagat is exceptionally successful as a writer of realistic fiction in the advanced time. He writes for the common community of readers. His characters are from the working-class community of contemporary India. The stories of his fictions are based on the life and issues of the working-class people of contemporary India. Because of that, he is more popular among the readers of working-class population of India. He receives favor from large readership especially from the youthful readers. Chetan Bhagat himself accepts many a times that he writes for the purpose of entertainment. Entertainment is always at a top priority in all his fictions. His style of presenting the content is so easy and straightforward that one can hardly track down formal linguistic beauty and subtleness of content in any of his fictions. All these indicators can easily lead one to put him in the category of writers of popular or raw fiction writers in Indian English literature. An understanding of the concept and characteristics of popular literature may definitely help one, for positioning Chetan Bhagat in Modern Indian English Literature. The main objective of the present research paper is to figure out the realistic element in Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone. Employment: Employment is the major issue in front of today's youths. There should be such type of education which focuses on employability. At the end of the present novel the three friends are happy because they thought that they will get work after getting such education in a reputed institution. Alok thinks about his parents, and sister's marriage. Ryan thinks about his parents and Hari thinks about his love Neha. It shows how everybody has specific sort of needs on this earth. Alok is financially poor and he wants a steady employment, so that he can take care of his family. He accepts his responsibility towards his family. That's the reason Alok says, I have to do well to support my family. Half my mother's salary goes for my father's medication. She has not bought want to get the degree and land a decent job‖

Chetan Bhagat tires to present that how migration of the intellect is problematic for the nation. Assuming the intellectual brains of the country will serve abroad, it is loss of that country. There is one reference of migration in Five Point Someone. Surdi wants to reach USA with his GPA. He says, I just want to reach the US. With my GPA, it's impossible, but just somehow, someplace, somewhere I don't be aware, I just want to be in US of A‖ (Bhagat, 2004, p. 99). This is also one of the major issues from youth point of view that they want to travel to another country for appropriate work and significant compensation.

Five Point Someone shows the overburdening situation of the students. Students are taking over-pressure of the continuous assignments, continuous robbing and there is always pressure about getting high grade points. Prof. Cherian's son and Neha's brother Samir wanted to choose some other field instead of IIT, but because of the force of Prof. Cherian he was trying for IIT and continuously he faced failure in it. After that he commits suicide because of the stress. In another incident Alok also made an attempt to commit suicide in overstress of thinking five-points-something grade points and the poverty in his home, for example his father's illness, his sister's marriage issue. Suicide is not the answer to all questions but it spoils the career as well lives of pupils. The three friends smoke and drink also experiencing the same thing. Stress brings the habit of smoking and drinking in youths. Therefore Hari says, smoke is beautiful; weightless and shapeless, it almost appears as deceptively powerless as the person releasing it‖ (Bhagat, 2004, p. 77).

Those days have been passed that main teacher would speak in the class and students would listen everything passively. It was teacher oriented teaching learning system. But today it has been changing step by step and specifically it has become student centered teaching and learning process. So in Five Point Someone Chetan Bhagat tries to express the views of youth in the present scenario. He has also suggested that today's education system should be completely focused student oriented system. Student should have the option to ask any question during lecture. This novel warns the teachers to leave the traditional bookish theories and know about the challenges posed by creative students in the class. Students always like those professors who don't discriminate the students. In Five Point Someone Prof. Veera is loved by everybody. Hari speaks about Prof. push you to think more‖ (Bhagat, 2004, p. 89). Different problems of Society: Chetan Bhagat depicts different aspects of contemporary society through his Five Point Someone. The novel presents various aspects related to the youth of the present time like innovative ideas, friendship, poverty among the youth, working class family, competition among students, competition about getting higher grades, flaws of grading system, love, life, etc. Students are oppressed for continuous robbing, testing and assignments. So Alok asks Where is the time to try out new ideas?‖ (Bhagat, 2004, p. 25). It suggests that the students are not allowed to use their imagination at various institutions. They were forced to study just the bookish things.

The study of the previous chapters proves the first hypothesis where it has been assumed that Bhagat‗s success is based on the stories which he writes for casual Indians and he completely writes for a contemporary average Indian reader. Though Bhagat discusses most of his subjects which are omni-present yet they first connect to Indians. Bhagat has been criticized for his simplicity of narration by many critics. But if one considers India as a whole set of unit, one will realize that Indians do read but they mostly read in their vernacular. They know English but most of them have their primary education in their local language. Even in most English medium schools, the standard of English is questionable. In such situation, they prefer to read a book with the comfortable language. The common readers who already encountour infinite troubles and stress in their routine life do not want to stretch their stress in reading a language that they are not much comfortable with. They might have tried to read the serious and grave writing in English. Even students of English literature finds some books of their syllabus belong to a world that has no connection with their own world. Moreover, the new learners of English wish to read but cannot actually enjoy literature. And the major functions of literature are to delight and to instruct. The traditional literature doesn‗t reach to the average Indian readers with the two functions mentioned. Bhagat has actually done a commendable job by inducing both the functions of literature in English for common Indian learners who have earlier read a few things in life. Sometimes except syllabus, reading is never the part of their routine.

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Research Scholar, Sardar Patel University,

Balaghat (M.P)