Campus novels set in some of India’s elite colleges are all the rage with a young reading public. The latest is from Brajesh Rajak, a student of NLSIU. Titled Join the Bar, it is all set for an August release.
After Chetan Bhagat set the ball rolling with the best-selling Five Point Someone set in IIT Delhi, ‘insti-lit’, as publishers like to call campus novels, has become a hit with the young reading public, say publishing industry insiders.
Following Bhagat’s success, several authors such as Amitabha Bagchi (Above Average), Abhijit Bhaduri (MBA: Mediocre But Arrogant) and Bhagat himself with his latest novel 2 States, have explored the Indian campus as fertile ground for novels about growing up, frustrated love, and ambition.
It was, therefore, only a matter of time before India’s best-known law college became the backdrop of an insti-lit novel. Brajesh Rajak, a third-year student of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, who is already calling himself NLS’s answer to Chetan Bhagat, has penned a novel about life on the NLS campus. Rajak’s novel Join the Bar is being published by the Universal Law Publishing, New Delhi.
“Most of the chapters in this novel are inspired by real events that took place within the NLS campus and have been modified to fit into a story full of humour, suspense and romance. The novel is also a critique of the existing legal education system, teaching methods, course curriculum and marking patterns. It also tries to highlight the contribution of the Legal Service Clinic, a student-run committee,” says Rajak, 21.
According to the student, his synopsis of the novel was accepted by the publisher in four days. The fact that some of his writings have been published in international journals and his presenting a paper at an international symposium could have something to do with the good response his proposal got, Rajak feels.
Interestingly, though the book is in English, Rajak did his schooling from a vernacular medium school and claims he “learnt” English only after joining NLSIU.
Even though his peers call him the Chetan Bhagat of the institute, the student says he has not read Five Point Someone. Rajak is aware of the fact that campus novels set in specific colleges often get a mixed response from alumni, and he is a tad wary of the response the book will get from his peers and teachers. “I don’t know whether the release of this novel will lead to my Law School mates hating me or avoiding me. I have no idea about the faculty’s reaction as well, but I’m going ahead anyway,” says the author.
NLSIU alumni who have heard about the forthcoming book are eager to see what Rajak has made of their institute. “Using NLS as a backdrop for a similar novel seems like a good idea but might need careful handling,” says Lahar Appaiah, a corporate lawyer who graduated from the institute in 2001. “Such books tend to be critical. But if it has meaningful insights, it can be useful to students,” says R Venkata Rao, vice-chancellor, NLSIU.
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