Half Girlfriend is an Indian English coming of age, young adult romance novel by Indian author Chetan Bhagat.
The novel has also been published in Hindi and Gujarati versions as well. A Bollywood film adaptation is planned.
Dedicated to "non English-types", the book divulges the sentiments and linguistic struggles of a backward rural Bhojpuri-laced Hindi speaking boy from Bihar as he enrolls himself at the prestigious English-medium St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, and falls in love with a "high class English speaking rich Delhi girl". The girl does not admit the relationship but agrees to be his "half girlfriend".
Chetan Bhagat commented, "Half-Girlfriend, to me, is a unique Indian phenomenon, where boys and girls are not clear about their relationship status with each other. A boy may think he is more than friends with the girl, but the girl is still not his girlfriend. Hence, I thought we needed a term like’Half girlfriend’. Because, in India, that is what most men get."