Author Chetan Bhagat has issued an apology to his wife, children and the victim whom he tried to woo years ago.
Bhagat was left with no option after one Twitter user posted screenshots of his attempts to flirt with a young woman even after she asked him to desist. It is presumed that the victim had sent the screenshots of the chat to this user.
As seen from the above, the tag for the sender of the message reads 'Chetan Bhagat'. Evidently, the victim was familiar to Bhagat, who was married at the time. The young woman even pointed out the fact to Bhagat, asking him 'to not be like all married men'.
Shortly after this screenshot started to go viral, Bhagat put out a long post, apologizing to his victim, his wife Anusha, and his kids. The author claimed that he had shown the apology to his wife before publishing the post.
“I am really sorry to the person concerned. The screenshots are, of course, real and I am sorry if you felt they were wrong. I hope you will accept my apology,” Bhagat wrote.
Bhagat went on to add that the conversation happened years ago and he knew the person well and felt a strong connection with her.
The Half Girlfriend author stated that he wasn’t looking for any '[intimate] action'.
“As I also say in the screenshots, I realized I was married and this was not about looking for any action. I just had not felt that kind of connection in a while. Maybe I was going through a phase, maybe these things just happen, or maybe I felt the person felt the same too based on our conversations (which I don’t need to repeat here). However, it was stupid of me, to feel that way and to even share that with her,” he wrote. ‘I just told Anusha about it as well, and apologized to her for doing the same. I should have had better judgment, but I guess I erred a bit there.”
Bhagat pointed to the context in which this conversation took place. “I am not completely sure because it was long ago, but the ‘wooing’ bit may have come from a conversation we had about how nobody woos anyone anymore and how sometimes one misses being wooed. My new book then was also about women (One Indian Girl) and we also discussed wooing and relationships in that context,” Bhagat claimed.
Further explaining his behaviour, he wrote, “We do feel certain things sometimes, and I did too. I found this person special, and different from all others I had met. I shouldn’t have, and maybe I shouldn’t have shared it with that person in a private conversation either.
"Once again, I am sorry to the person concerned, and of course most of all to Anusha. I hope you can forgive me.”
Read Bhagat's complete post below.