Hours of scribbling away furiously for those terrible term papers. Some endearing moments — playing guitar in starlit nights, lazy sessions for rum and debate at the local dhaba, singing Bob Dylan numbers, eyeing pretty girls….

The typical setting for India’s new-age fiction is the college campus. And all elements of college life — hostel humour, bad food, nicknames — are woven into the story. “Readers write to me saying they can completely relate to my book,” says Abhijit Bhaduri, whose book Mediocre But Arrogant — is set in a B-school campus. Bhaduri is clear that he is no Dickens in the making. “My book is written in class notes style. I write like I speak,” he says.Readers, for one, are not complaining. Bhaduri claims his debut novel sold 40,000 copies in one year — which qualifies the book to be a bestseller. He is already working on the second part of a planned trilogy. “In part two, my protagonist works in the corporate sector,” says Bhaduri, human resource director at Pepsico.

The Boys Hostel in the neighbouring block reminded me of the army barracks built to keep everyone alert and on their toes. “If you do not feel comfortable and relaxed you will learn to be a fighter. Luxury will dull your desire to excel.” That was what my father said every time I desired but was denied something that was even remotely classified as a luxury. MIJ operated on the same philosophy.

Q. What inspired the storyline of your book ‘Mediocre But Arrogant’?

A. Mediocre But Arrogant is story about love and life in a Business School. It is a story about college life, about good times with friends, about falling in love and about growing up. The protagonist Abbey is an unambitious and directionless person who lands up in the highly competitive and fictitious Management Institute of Jamshedpur. The story is about how the two years there change him and his relationships. The story is not autobiographical. The characters are fictional. But they are real and will prompt every reader to say, “I knew someone EXACTLY like this character.”