There’s something special about room no NB 24 at IIT Delhi’s Kumaon Hostel. After author Chetan Bhagat, who used to live in that room shot to limelight with his series of bestsellers, it’s now the turn of SV Divvaakar, who too stayed in the same room, way before Bhagat did. Divvaakar has penned — The Winner’s Price — Life Beyond the Campus, a book based on IIT graduates that releases today. He is believed to be the third published author who stayed in the same room .
“People say there is a ghost of a writer in that room. If there were a ghost in that room, then it has to be mine,” says Divvaakar, a 1982 graduate of Mechanical Engineering. “When I went back to IIT campus to do research for my book, students asked me why I was standing outside Bhagat’s room and that’s when I found out that he, too, lived in the same room in 1994. It’s a coincidence that we both stayed in the same room in different years and went on to write fiction,” he says, adding, “But, I don’t want to ride on Mr Bhagat’s popularity.” The hostel’s warden PM Pandey, says, “It’s like any other room for me, but students call it lucky.”
Divvaakar’s book is based on the lives of five IITians who meet at a reunion after 25 years. “While my book is based on life after college, Mr Bhagat’s book was about life on the campus,” says Divvaakar, a business strategist. Interestingly, he has also composed a song for the cinematic adaptation of Bhagat’s book, Two States, and sent it to filmmaker Karan Johar. “The song, on the love story of a Punjabi boy and a Tamil girl, has references to Chetan and Anusha (Bhagat’s wife),” he says.
{{/usCountry}}Divvaakar’s book is based on the lives of five IITians who meet at a reunion after 25 years. “While my book is based on life after college, Mr Bhagat’s book was about life on the campus,” says Divvaakar, a business strategist. Interestingly, he has also composed a song for the cinematic adaptation of Bhagat’s book, Two States, and sent it to filmmaker Karan Johar. “The song, on the love story of a Punjabi boy and a Tamil girl, has references to Chetan and Anusha (Bhagat’s wife),” he says.
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