About The Book

• Title : The Girl In Room 105
• Author : Chetan Bhagat
• Genre : Mystery, Thriller
• Year of publication : 2018
• Number of pages : 304

About the Author

Chetan Bhagat is the author of nine bestselling novels which have sold over twelve million copied and have been translated into more than twenty languages worldwide.

The New York Times has called him ” the biggest selling author in India’s history”. Time magazine named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Fast Company USA named him as one of the 100 most creative people on business worldwide.

Chetan went to college at IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, after which he worked in investment banking for a decade before quitting his job to become a full-time writer.

Analysis of the book

The Girl In Room 105 is the eighth novel and the tenth book overall written by the Indian author Chetan Bhagat. The book became a bestseller based on the prearranged sales alone.

It tells about a IIT coaching class tutor who goes to wishes ex-girlfriend in her birthday and finds her murdered. The rest of the story is his journey after her death to find justice.

The book also addresses the stereotypes and political issues we face in India.

“When people say ‘I quote’ and pause, they come across as scary-level intellectuals. Let’s face it, nobody wants to mess with the ‘I quote’ types.”

The novel opens up with a conversation of the author of the book, Chetan Bhagat with a fellow passenger on a midnight IndiGo flight from Hyderabad to Delhi. After an initial conversation, Chetan agrees to listen to the story of the fellow passenger.

Summary of the story

Keshav, a former IITian, works in a coaching centre for the JEE. He is a part of an orthodox family. His mother is a homemaker and his father is a part of the RSS. He had a love story with a Kashmiri Muslim girl named Zara, during his college days but their relationship was not accepted by their families because of the religious feuds.

But he never stopped loving her. He got to know Zara was going to marry Raghu, their classmate. Saurabh is Keshav’s best friend. One day around 3a.m., on Zara’s birthday, Keshav received a message from her asking him why he didn’t wish her and asked him to meet her in her hostel room.

“When you lose something, don’t think of it as a loss. Accept it as a gift that gets you on the path you were meant to travel on.”

When Keshav arrived there, he got to know that Zara was lying dead on her bed. He called Saurabh and then decided that he won’t run away he informed the police and Zara’s parents. Soon the investigation started and Keshav along with Saurabh continues investigation by digging deeper, with the help of the inspector Vikas Rana.

“The ‘let life not hold you back’ kinds, statements that sound profound but actually mean nothing.”

First the Watchman of the hotel was arrested for the missing CCTV footage. Then Prof. Saxena was arrested because he used to harass Zara. But both of them were later found innocent. After seeking information from Zara’s brother, Keshav and Saurabh went to meet Sikander, Zara’s stepbrother who used to work in a terrorist group in Kashmir.

Keshav suspects him but Sikander tells him that he wasn’t the murderer but Keshav forced him and because of which Sikander commited suicide because he said that if he lives then this will become a problem for his terrorist group. After a little more digging, Keshav got to know that Zara got expensive jewelleries by Captain Faiz Khan,as a gift. He was Zara’s childhood friend.

He finds out gun powder and pregnancy kits in Zara’s drawers and the same things in Faiz’s house too. So he decided to reveal the murderer infront of everyone on Zara’s 100th day of her death.

Conclusion

Before revealing the murderer,Keshav went to Hyderabad for a short trip alone. Finally it was revealed that the murderer was Raghu with whom Zara was going to get married because he got to know that Zara and Faiz were having an affair and probably Zara was pregnant with Faiz’s baby. Thus,Raghu was arrested by the cops.

But Keshav finally realised that Zara never really loved Keshav. Though Keshav became happy initially when he got the messages from her, but he realised that it was not from her actually. Those were sent by Raghu.

“Thank you. For showing me what love is all about. And thank you for also teaching me to never love someone too much.”

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/64978767-the-girl-in-room-105