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Upward 11 RULES FOR LIFE: fitness. Himself a chubby
and bullied kid in school,
mobility SECRETS TO LEVEL UP Bhagat accords top prior-
Chetan Bhagat
ity to good physical and
prescription HarperCollins mental health. In this
Rs.250 chapter of 33 pages, he
explains why maintaining
Pages 226
HETAN BHAGAT good health is of utmost
has all the qualifica- importance and that main-
Ctions of a heavy- taining fitness is within
weight public intellectual. with a Masters in history By way of advice to an every individual’s grasp —
An alum of IIT-Delhi and who has been abandoned over-educated under- “it will help you build the
IIM-Ahmedabad, a former by his girl-friend for failing employed youth, ability to endure pain and
banker with Goldman to get a better job. The the author provides give up pleasure, which is
Sachs, and Deutsche Bank, prescription is delivered by a useful upward a phenomenal power in
he is also the author of five way of advice to follow the mobility prescription life”. The “three pillars of
best-selling novels some of 11 Rules prescribed by the to 'level up' and fitness” are adequate sleep,
which have been adapted author for the vast major- succeed controlled diet and exer-
into hit Bollywood movies. ity of educated under-em- cise. Multipoint prescrip-
Besides, he writes intel- ployed youth like Viraj (a tion under each pillar.
ligent op-ed page essays in prototype of Bhagat’s core prising the lower middle 2. Master your Emo-
the Times of India. readers) to learn to “level and working classes. tions. In this chapter of
Yet to an above-average up” and succeed. In the author’s percep- 16 pages, after examining
intelligence reader, Bha- Quite pragmatically, tive analysis, each class the various types of brains
gat’s novels are embarrass- Bhagat advises readers to has erected “iron gates” we are heir to ranging from
ingly naïve and gauche. disregard fanciful propa- — rules, regulations and 100 percent rational to 100
This is not a criticism of ganda about our wonderful social norms and cultural percent emotional, Bhagat
Bhagat from a failed novel- world suffused with demo- mores — to make upward advises developing a ratio-
ist (Succession Derby, cratic and egalitarian ide- mobility from one class to nal dominant brain. “The
1991). Bhagat is a widely als in which governments the next near-impossible. small percentage of people
read public intellectual and people are ever ready “You are expected to who can control their emo-
with — as his essays on to lend youth such as Viraj, remain in the area of tions end up (sic) ruling
current events and social a leg up. According to the your class mountain. Try the world,” he says.
mores testify — socio- author, society, as shaped to climb up and you will 3. Put yourself First.
economic reform on his by post-independence stumble against the iron “Live for yourself, not for
mind. On the contrary, it India’s faux socialist-secu- gates,” says Bhagat, who others or to show others,”
is criticism of India’s obso- larists, is pyramid shaped. as he often reminds us advises the author. But this
lete, and failing education At the apex of the has successfully stormed isn’t advice to become self-
system that churns out pyramid, there’s Class I, the iron gate and made it ish and greedy, writes Bha-
millions of under-educated the elite 1 percent who own into Class I with the New gat, providing an anecdote
youth and adults who 90 percent of the country’s York Times proclaiming of how he “stopped being a
need simpleton novels wealth. No matter what him as the “the biggest people-pleaser”.
and matching Bollywood they say, they are content selling English language 4. Master Simple
cinema. Bhagat can’t be with the status quo and novelist in India’s history” English. Bhagat provides
blamed for the multipli- want to retain it. The and Time (USA) magazine forthright advice to Class
cation of the unthinking next segment comprises listing him among the “100 III slaves and drones to
classes who love talk-down 9 percent “elite protec- most influential people in disregard the faux na-
novels. tors, and slave minders” the world”. Hence his suc- tionalism of ‘vernacs’ and
In 11 Rules for Life, typically doctors, lawyers, cess prescription, essen- learn to speak and write
Bhagat ventures into a new engineers, bankers, the tially for Class III drones this language of business
genre, combining his el- bourgeoisie struggling to and slaves, shouldn’t be and commerce — and link
ementary story-telling skill make it into Class I. The taken lightly. The prescrip- language of the country
with a life skills prescrip- wide base of the pyramid tion in the order presented — well. Or forget about
tion for a Zomato delivery is inhabited by “drones, by the author: jumping the Iron Gate into
boy — an educated youth workers and slaves” com- 1. Never ignore your Class II. Even the poorest

JUNE 2024 EDUCATIONWORLD 71