INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

 

INDIAN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE

HISTORY OF INDIAN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE

(Indian  English  literature refers to the works written in English  by Indian  Writers)

● First book written by an Indian  in English  is by Sake Dean Mahomet’s  “Travels of dean Mahomet(1793)”, a travel narrative, in England

●First pamphet by an Indian  in English  appeared in 1806.

●The Report of SoobRow(17th Aug 1820) is a Letter to Secretary, Madras School by an Vennelakanty SoobRow(3 years before RamMohan Roy’s Letter)

● first auto bio- Vennelakanty SoobRow’s- published by his son in 1873.

●First authentic piece of Indian  English  prose by RajaRamMohan’s “ Letter on English  Education(1823)”.

 ( Published several pamphlets in independence movement and He is also the First political Writer)

●play by an Indian  in English  is Krishna Mohan Benarjee’s “ the persecuted(1831).

●Macaualy Minute on 2^nd Feb 1835.

●First novel by an Indian  in English  is Bankim Chandra Chatarjee’s “Rajmohan’s Wife(1864)”.

●First Indian  author to win Literary award in USA is- Dhan Gopal Mukharjee.

● P.Lal , a publisher, translator and essayist, founded a press for Indian  English  writings and  “WRITERS WORKSHOP” in 1950’s. He is the pioneer of the Modren English  Poetry.  The Anthology of Modern Indo Anglican Poetry(1959).

● First two great writers are: Bankim Chandra Chatarjee and Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

● Trilogy of writers who laid foundations of Novel: Rajarao, Mulkraj Anand and RK Narayan.

● Three musketeers of Bengal Literature: Tagore, RC Dutt, Bankim Chandra Chatarjee

 

AMRITA PRITAM(1919-2005)

Amrita Pritam, born on 31st August 1919, in Punjab( Present Pakistan) is considered as the first renowned poet, essayist and novelist of Punjabi literature. She is married to Pritam Singh in childhood, Left her husband and lived in relationships with Sahir Ludhianvi, Imroz(an artist) and Osho. Amrita Pritam began her career as a romantic poet. Feminism and humanism are the main themes used by Amrita Pritam in her write-ups. Through her work she always tried to portray the realism of society.

Awards:

● First to receive Panjab Ratan award.

● first woman in Punjabi literature to win the Sahitya Akademi  for her composition 'Sunehray(messages)'.

● In  1982, she also received the Jnanpith Award for `Kagaz Te Canvas` (The Paper and the Canvas).

● In 1969, she was awarded  the Padma Shri Award, and Padma Vibhushan in 2004

Works:

Amrit Lehran(Immortal Waves)(1936): Her first collection of poems

Aj aakhaan Waris Shah Nu( Ode to Waris Shah)

 She is widely remembered for her emotional poem `Aj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu' (Today I invoke Waris Shah –'Ode to Waris Shah). It was an expression of her agony over the violent massacres that took place during the partition of former British India.

Pinjar(skeleton)-1950: famous novel

One of the most noted works of Amrita Pritam was 'Pinjar' (The Skeleton). This novel portrays the violence against women and loss of humanity and massacres during partition. Memorable character is “Puro”. Chandra Prakash Dwivedi made a Hindi film in 2003.

Autobiographies:

Her various works including her autobiography `Black Rose” and ‘Revenue Stamp` have been translated into other languages like English , Japanese, Danish, French, Urdu and many more. Amrita Pritam also published several autobiographies namely `Kala Gulab` (Black Rose), `Rasidi Ticket` (The Revenue Stamp), love story with Sahir Ludhianvi , “Amritha Imroz”, love story with Imroz and "Aksharon kay Saayee" (Shadows of Words).

Short stories:

The most popular short stories written by Amrita Pritam are "Kahaniyan jo Kahaniyan Nahi", "Stench of Kerosene" and "Kahaniyon ke Angan mein".

Her other works are: LokPeed( People’s Anguish) 1944 , Kore Kagaz, Unchas Din,  Doctor Dev , Rang ka Patta ,  Darthi sagar te sippiyan: filmed as Radamber (1965), Unah di Kahani: Filmed as Daaku(1976),  Sagar aur Seepian ,  Terahwan Suraj ,  Dilli ki Galiyan ,  Yaatri

AMITAV GHOSH (1956--)

Amitav Ghosh was born in 1956. He is a Bengali author as well as a literary critic in the field of English  language. Ghosh was born in Kolkata and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This influenced his books, most of which are set around the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian  Ocean. He was educated at The Doon School, St. Stephen`s College, Delhi Delhi University; and the University of Oxford as well. He has acknowledged the lasting influence of Rabindranath Tagore and the Bengali literary tradition in his own writing.

Ghosh refused the Commonwealth Writers Prize for this novel in 2001 in protest against being classified as a "commonwealth" writer. Accepting the award, he said in his letter to the Commonwealth Foundation, would have placed "contemporary writing not within the realities of the present day...but rather within a disputed aspect of the past." His works reflect the elements of universal humanity. The cross-cultural references he

Awards:

Prix Medicis Etranger for The Circle of Reason (1986),

 the Sahitya Akademi Award for The Shadow Lines(1988),

 the Arthur C. Clarke Prize for science fiction for The Calcutta Chromosome (1996),

the Pushcart Prize for his essay, "The March of the Novel through History: My Father's Bookcase".

Padma Shri in 2007.

 

Works:

The Circle of Reason (1986): His first novel

● The book is divided into three sections namely 'Satwa', which means Reason, 'Rajas', which means Passion, and 'Tamas', which means Death.

● This novel chronicles the adventures of  the central character Alu,an eight-year-old boy, a young master weaver who is wrongly suspected of being a terrorist. He was chased from Bengal to Bombay and on through the Persian Gulf to North Africa by a bird-watching police inspector.

The Shadow Lines(1988): His second novel, post 1947, non British India novel

The novel is superb in the psychoanalytic element and shows a careful and neat workmanship in this regard.  much of the plot of Shadow Lines hinges on the question of national identity. The main character suffers from a sudden identity crisis after he is thrown into a situation where he must decide which country (India or Bangladesh) is his, which culture defines him, and which place he can ultimately call his own. This novel won Ghosh India's prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990.

 An Antique Land (1993)- comes out of his research in 1980 while living in a small village in Egypt. Most of his novels have been the result of his years spent in different countries while conducting field research for his college degrees.

The Glass Palace(2000)- tells the story of an orphaned Indian  boy, developed alongside the story of the royal family's exile in India after the British invasion of the kingdom of Mandalay (Burma) in 1885.

 Other works: Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke

 

AMISH TRIPATHI

India's literary pop star, Amish Tripathi is one of the most sold authors in India today. His books have collectively sold more than 4 million copies, with gross sales of Rs. 120 crores. Forbes India has ranked Amish among the top 100 celebrities in India.

WORKS:

The Immortals of Meluha

The Secret of the Nagas

The Oath of the Vayuputras

 

ANAND NEELAKANTAN

He carved out a totally new genre - the counter-telling of mythology. His debut mythological fictionAsura: Tale of the Vanquished broke into all the top seller charts within a week of its launch in 2012.

WORKS:

Asura: Tale of the Vanquished

Ajaya: Roll of the Dice

Ajaya: Rise of Kali

 

AMIT CHAUDHARY:

Amit Chaudhuri was born in Calcutta in the year of 1962. He brought up in Bombay.

Works:

A Strange and Sublime Address(1991): first book

a novella and a number of short stories, won the Commonwealth Writers and was short listed for the Guardian Fiction Prize.This book contains nine stories featuring an Indian  boy who spends his school holidays at his uncle`s home in Calcutta. Heatwaves, thunderstorms, mealtimes, prayer-sessions, shopping expeditions and family visits create a shifting background to the shaping of people`s lives. This book is mainly a colourful portrayal of life in Calcutta seen through the eyes of ten years old boy Abhi.

Afternoon Raag(1993): second book

● This is a first-person narration by a student about his days at Oxford., deals with the experiences and impressions of a young Indian  student of English  Literature at the University of Oxford.

● Chaudhari recreates the state of mind of a young man coming to terms with loneliness, nostalgia and alienation in a unique way. A “raag” is a piece of classical Indian  music, which plays around a set of specific intervals to create a particular mood.

● Afternoon Raag adopts the metaphor of Indian  classical music, the Raag, to evoke the complex emotions displayed by the narrator, a young Indian  student at Oxford.

Freedom Song (1998)

● It describes the life history of two interrelated middle-class Calcutta families.

● The central characters of the story Khuku and Mini usually spend their time talking about family, friends, health, and occasionally, Muslims and the Babri Masjid too. `Freedom Song` is totally about the two person`s perspective about the Hindu and Muslims. The story starts with the loud music of Muslim Prayer i.e. Azaan. They are totally disgusted and feel that the country is looking like a Muslim country. They discuss about the fact that in earlier days many temples were demolished so this is not a big deal done by Hindu nationalist party BJP. Khuku decides to vote for BJP as she supports the action of the party.

 New World(2000):

●It is the story of Jayojit Chatterjee, a divorced writer living in America and the visit he makes with his son Vikram to his elderly parents` home in Calcutta.

Real Time (2002)

ANANTHA MURTHY U R

U R Ananthamurty is a renowned Kannada writer who won the Jnanpith award in 1995.

 

Samskara(1965):

Samakara is his first novel and is considered as a classic in Indian  literature.

Samskara, originally written in Kannada was published in 1965.

 It was translated by the renowned poet A.K.Ramanujan in 1976.

The novel was made into a feature film which was initially banned by the censor board for portraying sensitive caste issues. But later the film won the president's gold medal for the best lndian feature film of 1971.

 

ANEES JUNG(1944--)

Born in Hyderabad, Started her career as a journalist, worked as an editor in Times of India.

Works:

The Unveiling India(1987): Her first work

Beyond the Courtyard: About the female foeticide in Punjab.

Breaking the Silence(1997)

Lost spring: Stories of childhood(2005)

ANITA DESAI (1937-):

Anita Desai is an Indian  novelist born on 24 June 1937. Her father was a Bengali and Mother was a German. She is popularly known as a novelist, short story writer, screenwriter as well as a children`s writer. She was born on 24th June 1937 at Mussoorie. She considers Clear Light of Day (1980) her most autobiographical work. Desai published her first novel, Cry, the Peacock, in 1963. she wrote 10 novels ad Many short stories. Started writing Prose at the age of 7.

Awards:

● She received a Sahitya Academy Award in 1978 for her novel Fire on the Mountain.

● Three books of Anita Desai have been short listed for the Booker Prize: Clear Light of Day (1980), In Custody (1984) and Fasting, Feasting (1999).

● She won the British Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize in 1983 for “The Village by the Sea”.

● Neil gunn Prize in 1993.

●Benson medal of Royal society of Literature in 2003

● Padma Bhushan - 2014

Works:

Stories: Circus cat and Alley cot(first story),How Gently’s the Mist( second story), Games at Twilight – 1978:is a fiction collection

Children’s stories:The Peacock Garden(1974) , Cat on a House boat(1976), The village by the Sea(1982).

The Village by the Sea(1982): an Indian  family story –

● It is based on the poverty, hardships and sorrow faced by a small rural, community in India.

● Set in a small village called Thul in Western India.

● The main protagonists are Lila, the eldest child who is 13 years old, and her 12-year-old brother Hari. Bela and Kamal are younger sisters.

● Hari and Lila have managed the family as their father was a drunkard and their mother was ill. Although their father was earning money, he used to spend it to buy alcoholic materials. Lila is left alone to take care of her family, and struggles to do so. Next to their hut there is a large country house called Mon Repos which is owned by the de Silvas from Bombay and whenever they come on holiday to Thul, Lila and Hari can earn some extra money by helping with the household or doing work in the garden. But there is a rumour in the village saying that a large fertilizer factory will replace the rice fields and the coconut groves very soon.The Government chose the location of Thul for its closeness to the port of Rewas. So new highways and railway lines are to be build and the

villagers are worried about their future.

● Hari leaves for Bombay to find work. Hari is new to the city and Jagu, pities him and gives him a job to work in his restaurant. There, Hari builds a strong friendship with Mr. Panwallah, the lovable watch repairer (Ding-Dong watch shop). He even gives Hari a vivid and inspiring future and teaches him watch mending. Hari realizes that he could actually make a career as a watchmaker. After some times, Hari returns to his village and shares his experiences with his sisters. They make a plan to start new business in their village with the money saved and brought by Hari. As the novel ends, the traveler highlights Hari and his sisters' resolve to adapt and change in this growing and ever developing world.

Cry, The peacock – 1963 : first Novel

 Anita Desai`s Cry, the peacock has been considered as "the first step in the direction of psychological fiction in Indian  writing in English ". Maya, daughter of a rich Brahmin is the protagonist and Gautama, an advocate is her husband. When she was child, An Astrologer told that after 4yeras of marriage she or her husband would die.Maya was grown up with love and care of her parents and soon married to Gautama. Due to the fear , she losses her balance of Mind, and kills her husband. The marriage was not fruitful and she turned into be an insane. This novel depicts the inner psychological dilemma of Maya.

Voices of the City – 1965: 2^nd novel: This is a story of three siblings Amla, Nirode and Monisha and their miserable conditions of life in Kolkata.

Bye-bye Blackbird – 1971: 3^rd novel( Blackbird= Immigrant)

● Set in England.,explores the feelings and sufferings of the Indian s at that place.

● The book is divided into three parts: Arrival, Discovery and Recognition, and Departure.

● 'Blackbird` used in the title is none other than the immigrant, whom London says goodbye.

Desai highlights the physical and psychological problems of Indian  immigrants and explores the adjustment difficulties that they face in England.

● Bye-Bye Black Bird explores the lives of the outsiders seeking to forge a new identity in an alien society.

● Adit and Dev are main characters. Dev arrives in England for higher studies. He stays with Adit Sen and his English  wife, Sarah. Dev gives up the idea of studying and starts looking for a job. Unable to find any, he thinks of returning to India. But it is well settled Adit who decides to leave London. Meanwhile, Dev manages to find a job and stays back. In this novel the common problem of England `Racism` has shown widely.

● He hates being called a `Wog`, as Indian s are humiliated in public and private places. England is said to be full of Asians, but Dev`s visit to countryside changes his attitude towards England.

 

Where Shall We Go This Summer- 1975: 4^th novel

● Sita, the female protagonist of the story. Sita, now pregnant for the 5^th time, feels the frustration of the suffocation of four walls, is seen taking refuge from her marriage at the utopian land of a magic island. Being escaped Pregnant with her fifth child to the Island, Sita therefore desperately takes refuge from the mundane realities of her marriage to the island, which happens to be the homestead of her deceased father. The catastrophe of the story lies where Sita is seen perturbed with the very idea of bringing another child, as it is indeed something more than what she can handle. She physically escapes to the island and hopes to remain pregnant forever with the baby.

Fire on the Mountain – 1977: 5^th novel

● The story sets at the backdrop of the Simla hills.

● Nanda Kaul, an elderly lady, decides to live a secluded life in Carignano in Kausali. She spends all her life in the care of others, her three daughters and her husband. She never gets time to feel for herself.

Her own choice, her own world was gone somewhere. One day Nanda receives a letter from her daughter Asha asking her to take care of her great-granddaughter Raka, a feeling of anger, disappointment and loathing arises in her. She is just not bothered about the worldly matters.

Raka comes in Nanda`s life and things starts changing in different way.

Clear Light of Day(1980):  

● Desai considers Clear Light of Day her most autobiographical work

● The novel is split into four sections.

● The story centers on the Das family.

● It starts with Tara, the wife of Bakul, India's ambassador to America, greeting her sister Bimla (Bim), who is a history teacher living in Old Delhi. Their conversation eventually comes to Raja, their brother who lives in Hyderabad.

● In part two of the novel, the setting switches to partition era India, when the characters are adolescents in what is now Bim's house. Raja is severely ill with tuberculosis and is left to Bim's

ministrations. Aunt Mira (Mira masi), their supposed caretaker after the death of the children's often absent parents, becomes alcoholic and dies of alcoholism. Earlier Raja's fascination with Urdu attracts the attention of the family's Muslim landlord, Hyder Ali, whom Raja Idolizes. When he

heals, Raja follows Hyder Ali to Hyderabad. Tara escapes from the situation through marriage to Bakul.

● In part three Bim, Raja and Tara are depicted in pre-partition India awaiting the birth of their brother Baba.

● Raja is fascinated with poetry. He shares a close bond with Bim, the head girl at school, although they often exclude Tara. Tara wants to be a mother although this fact brings ridicule from Raja and Bim, who want to be a hero and a heroine, respectively.

● The final section returns to modern India and showcases Tara confronting Bim over the Raja's

daughter's wedding and Bim's broken relationship with Raja. This climaxes when Bim explodes at Baba. After her anger fades she comes to the conclusion that the love of family is irreplaceable and can cover all wrongs. After Tara leaves, she decides to go to her neighbors the Misras for a concert and she is touched by the unbreakable relationship they seem to have. She tells Tara to come back from the wedding with Raja and forgives him.

● The novel tells not just the story of the separation of a family, but also of a nation.

 

In Custody - 1984:

●Adopted as a film by the same name, focus is on the decline of Urdu language.

● It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984.

● Deven Sharma- he is a Hindi professor in Mirpore.

● Murad- a friend of Deven who owns a publishing house in Delhi.

● Nur ShajahanBadi- a famous Urdu poet who laments the loss of a beautiful language (Urdu), and thereby a culture.

● Jain is a shop owner who gives Deven a second-hand tape recorder and sends his nephew Chintu with him to assist.

● Deven earns a living by teaching Hindi literature to uninterested college students. As his true interests lie in Urdu poetry, he jumps at the chance to meet the great Urdu poet, Nur. He buys a tape recorder to conduct an interview with Nur as suggested by his friend Murad.

● When he meets Nur, he refuses to give an interview by saying that Urdu is now at its last stage and soon this beautiful language will not exist.

● Deven not only has no recording but also has to bear the expenses like payment demanded by poet's wife, nephew of Jain etc. He is kicked of by Murad, Nur, Safia, Siddique…

Baugmarten`s Bombay – 1988:

● Baugmarten is a German Jewish boy who comes to see India. The story depicts that Bombay is seen through Baugmarten`s eye.

● Baugmarten’s Bombay opens with a lady called Lotte fleeing the scene of a murder. She`s just lost a close friend, Hugo Baumgartner. When she gets back home, all that is left of Baumgartner`s life are a few postcards sent by his mother during the Second World War. Consequently the story proceeds towards the life of Hugo Baumgartner. The story starts with his childhood in Berlin. At the age of about eight, his father, a Jewish furniture retailer loses his business, the Nazis ransack his store and he is taken to a concentration camp. Baumgartner and his mother are forced to leave their beautifully furnished apartment and hide in the former office of the shop. At school also Baumgartner`s situation becomes unbearable. His relation with friends becomes worst. Eventually, his survival in Germany becoming a matter of days, his mother agrees to Herr Pfuehl`s idea to send his son to India, since he has a few connections there in the furniture production business. He makes a living in India until his Indian  supporter dies. After that at an early age he plunges into poverty. He never gets over the death of his mother, who refused to emigrate. He is totally a passive personality whose one joy is caring for stray cats in his small apartment. Not only is he a dull protagonist, but also Desai withholds the few interesting parts of his life until toward the end. The author may be investigating bigger themes by looking at the world and Indian  society through the eyes of such a character. Baumgartner arouses some feelings of empathy in the whole story. The sights, sounds and smells of Calcutta and Bombay become prominent along with Hugo. These are the positive points of this story. And moving too, the life of this pathetic and insignificant man Baumgartner who does belong neither to Hitler`s Germany nor to India`s society. In India he is an eternal 'firanghi', foreigner or a wounded survivor.

 

 Fasting, Feasting: 1999

● It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for fiction in 1999.

● The novel is in two parts. ( part1 set in India, part2 set in America)

● The first part is set in India and is focused on the life of unmarried girl, Uma who is the overworked daughter of her parents. Finally she is made to leave school and serve her parents.

● The story focuses on the life of the unmarried and main character, Uma, a spinster, the family's older daughter with, Arun, the boy and baby of the family.

● Ramu-Bhai a travelling bon voyeur who tries to show Uma a good time. He is banished by her parents.

● Mira Masi tells Uma all the tales of Krishna and takes her to the ashram allowing her to escape her mother's domination for a time.

● Uma's parents attempt to marry her off on two occasions; on the first occasion the chosen man fell for Uma's younger sister, Aruna. On the second occasion a marriage took place but it turns out the Uma's new husband already has a wife.

● Anamika's (Uma's cousin), fails to please her husband by providing children. Eventually, she dies by burning.

● In Part 2, Arun is introduced in America and is unable to adjust to a culture different from his own. He

finds himself lost.

● Two cultures are explored in this text, the Indian  and the American.

Journey to Ithaka – 1995  She examined the nature of pilgrimage to India  in 1995.

The Zigzag Way: 2004 Set in 20^th century Mexico, The novel is about an American academic and writer who goes with his girlfriend to Mexico and rediscovers his passion for fiction writing.

The Artist of Disappearance – 2011 -Her latest collection of short stories.

ANITA NAIR

Anita Nair was born in Kerala. She is a famous poet, short story writer and journalist. In Ladies Coupe Anita Nair focuses on men and women relationship, marriage and divorce, social and cultural, and psychological issues. She was working as a creative director when she wrote her first book, a collection of short stories called Satyr of the Subway. The book won her a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Works:

Cut Like Wound

Chain of Custody

The Lilac House

Ladies Coupe

● This is her second novel.

● Akhilandeshwari or Akhila for short is a 45 year old single Indian  woman from a Tamil Brahmin family who works as an income tax clerk.

● In Ladies Coupé, the Brahmin heroine, Akhila, whose life has been taken out of her control, is a 45-year-old spinster, daughter, sister and the only provider of her family after the death of her father. Getting fed up with these multiple roles, she decides to go on a train journey away from her family and responsibilities, a journey that will ultimately make her a different woman.

● This is the story of Akhila, who happens to be the most subdued, rather crushed member of the family. Akhila is like a catalyst whose presence is never noticed, never appreciated and yet whose absence may make all the difference. Akhila is a woman lost in the jungle of her duties; sometimes to her mother, at other times to her brothers and still at other times to her sister. She is expected to be an obedient daughter, affectionate and motherly sister and everything but

an individual. As a woman Akhila has her dreams, her desires, but when her dreams come in conflict with the comforts of her family it is she who has to sacrifice. She lives a life designated by the society or family.

Mistress

The novel explores the depth of relationship between Shyam and Radha. Radha rejects her husband's oppressive environment and she rebels against the false materialism and vulgarity of society. She even virtually rejects her marriage. She distrusts love as a form of male possessiveness and does not want love to be an aspect of male domination. Radha who had a pre-marital affair with a married man, had an abortion, Later her post-affair with Christopher, she grapples for the true sense of love, completely divorced from the sense of guilt. As she travels back to her uncle life she confronts many harsh truths of her own past. To the agitated self of Radha who is fed up with ugly life, she has a strong desire to find out an order. She tries to explore the past of her uncle, as well as, Chrostopher who are so closely connect with her mysterious past. She wants to understand the secret behind Christopher's visit and her uncle's procrastination to narrate his own life story. She plunges to the past and many realizations occur to her. The shocking revelation that Christopher, with whom she had extramarital affair is her cousin leaves her devastated. In the process of knowing her past, she is transformed into a new being. This transformation gives her the inner strength to submit to Shaym's wish to take her back to home.

ARAVIND ADIGA

Aravind Adiga is an Indian -Australian writer and journalist. He was born in Madras and grew up in Mangalore. He began his career as a financial journalist at Financial Times. He currently lives in Mumbai.

Being a person with flawless language and great writing skill, it is no wonder that Aravind Adiga bagged Britain's most prestigious literary award - The Man Booker Award for his book The White Tiger in 2008 when he was 33. He is the fourth Indian -born author to win the prize, after SalmanRushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai. (V. S. Naipaul, another winner, is of Indian  origin, but was not born in India.)

Works:

● Between the Assassinations – 2008

● Last Man in Tower – 2011

● Selection Day

The White Tiger(2008): A Novel

● It represents a darkly witty perception of India's class struggle in a globalized world as recited through a retrospective voice- over from Balram Halwai, the protagonist.

● The White Tiger happens in India. The protagonist Balram Halwai is born in Laxmangarh, a rural village in "the Darkness". In Laxmangarh, Balram wa s brought up in a poor family from the Halwai caste, a caste that designates sweet￾makers. Balram's father is a besieged rickshaw driver and his mother died when he was young. Balram was initially referred to simply as "Munna," meaning "boy," since his family had not bothered to name him.

● The boy demonstrated himself intelligent and talented, and was praised one day as a rare "White Tiger" by a visiting school inspector. Regrettably, Balram had to leave his school to work in a tea shop with his brother, Kishan. There, he added his education by snooping on the discussions of shop customers. Balram believes that there are two Indias: the impoverished "Darkness" of the rural, inner continent, and the “Light” of urban coastal India.

ARUN BALAKRISHNA KOLATKAR(1932-2004)

Born in Kolhapur, Maharastra.

Works:

Jejuri:collection of poems(1976)- won Commonwealth poetry prize.

A Low Temple:  collection of poems

ARJUN DANGLE

Arjun Dangle's Poisoned Bread was the first ever attempt to anthologize Dalit writings in English .

ARUNDHATI ROY (1961-)

Arundhati Roy is a popular Malayalam writer, activist and novelist. She was born in Shillong, Meghalaya.

Calls herself as a “homeGrown” writer.

She rose to international prominence after winning the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1998 for her novel The God of Small Things. Roy began her career writing screenplays for television and movies and went on become one of the most recognised names in Indian  writing in English .

Awards:

● Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel The God of Small Things.

● Sahitya Akademi Award in 2006.

Works:

● The End of Imagination.

● The Greater Common Good.

● An Ordinary Person`s Guide To Empire.

● The Shape of the Beast:

● Conversations with Arundhati Roy.

● Walking with the Comrade

●  War is peace: in outlook 2001

● The Algebra of Infinite Justice in 2002.

● The Cost of Living. (2003)

 

The God of Small Things (1997)

● It centers around a tragedy that rends a family apart and its lasting effects on the twins who were at the heart of it.

● Filled with Physical land scape of Kerala

● In The God of Small Things , the predicament of Indian  women is studied in depth along with the plight of dalits (untouchables), lower class people, racial subalterns vis-à-vis global capitalism and neo-imperialism masquerading as globalization.

● Ammu is the most important female character in The God of Small Things. Baba is Estha and Rahel's father. Ammu divorces him when the children are very young.

● The story chiefly takes place in a town named Ayemenem now part of Kottayam in Kerala. The story enters in the 1990s as the young woman named Rahel returns to her village to be reunited with her twin brother Esthahappen whom she hasn`t seen in many years. Two of the lead characters are the fraternal twins Estha and Rahel. They are bonded unusually close. They used to called themselves as `Me`, and when separated as `We` or `Us`. The temporal setting shifts back and forth from 1969, when Rahel and Estha, a set of fraternal twins are 7 years old, to 1993, when the twins are reunited at age 31.

● The day before Margarget and Sophie arrive, the family visits a theater to see "The Sound of Music", where Estha is molested by the "Orangedrink Lemondrink man", a beverage vendor.

Velutha is an untouchable (the lowest caste in India), a dalit. His family has been working for the Ipe family for generations. Rahel and Estha form an unlikely bond with Velutha and come to love him, despite his untouchable status. When Ammu's relationship with Velutha is discovered, Ammu is locked in her room and Velutha is banished. In her rage, Ammu blames the twins for her misfortune and calls them the "millstones around her neck".

ARUN JOSHI (1939-199)

Arun Joshi was born in Varanasi in the year of 1939. He attended schools in India as well as in U.S.

Deviated his works from everyday attachment, still didn’t forget the real existence, this is a great contribution.

Works:

The Last Labyrinth : won Sahitya Academy  award.

It is the story of Som Bhaskar. He is a 25-year-old who inherits his father`s vast industrial wealth. Som is married to Geeta who a devotional woman. But he is attracted by Anuradha also who is an alluring and mysterious woman. She is also married to some Aftab, a businessman, but Som finds her so irresistible. In the whole novel the way of getting her is described in a vivid manner. Her conduct is beyond Som`s comprehension. She accepts, rejects, or flees from him without warning, and he even suspects that she has some agreement with Geeta. The situation drives Som to the brink of death from a heart attack, but he miraculously survives while Anuradha disappears without a trace. After his recovery, he is hell-bent upon finding Anuradha. His frantic pursuance to search Anuradha leads him through absurd situations. Som eventually learns that Anuradha had consecrated to sacrifice her love for him in order to save him from death at the time of his heart attack. Agnostic and proud, Som rejects this explanation and continues his vehement quest, which eventually leads him to Anuradha`s haveli. In a desperate effort to again flee from him, she disappears in the last labyrinth, leaving him in doubt whether she has committed suicide or has been killed. Alone and exhausted, Som goes on addressing his thoughts to her in the form of a prayer.

It is the Som’s inability to be peace with always “I want, I want…”

The Foreigner

● The central character of the story is Sindi Oberoi and the story revolves around his loneliness and feelings of anguish and anxiety born of his estrangement from his environment, tradition and his true self.

● In this story the young hero after experiencing life and love in America comes back in Delhi. And evantually persuaded by a humble office worker that sometimes detachment lies in actually getting involved. This Surinder Oberoi is detached, almost alienated man who sees himself as a stranger wherever he lives or goes. He feels the same in every place e.g. in Kenya where he is born, in England and USA where he is a student and in India where he finally settles.

“Getting Towards the Transcendental” is the technique he adopted

The Strange Case of Billy Biswas(1971)

An Ameriacan Educated boy of India, Billy Biswas(protagonist), exploring the Tribal life..  Meena Chatterjee, his wife is an associate of the modern phoney society, which is totally disliked by Billy.

Inspired from his father’s childhood. It is also a transcendental and away from everyday life.

The Apprentice - 1974:  a bildungsroman,

Protagonist, Ratham Rathor took bribes to clear defective weapons

The City and the River

 

ASHOK KUMAR BANKER:

Ashok Kumar Banker was born on February 7, 1964 in Mumbai. He wrote in different subjects like fiction, mythology, fantasy science fiction and cross-cultural subjects etc. His first three novels were crime thrillers. It is said, as the first written crime thriller novel by an Indian  novelist in English .

His Epic India Library aims to retell all the myths, legends and itihasa of the Indian  sub-continent with over 70 volumes.

WORKS:

Ramayana (8-Book Series)

Mahabharata (18-Book Series)

ASHWIN SANGHI

Ashwin's first book, The Rozabal Line, was rejected by 47 literary agents and publishers which he then self-published under the pseudonym Shawn Haigins, an anagram of his name. It was later picked up by Westland and since then he has been publishing one bestseller after another. His book Chanakya's Chant was on AC Nielsen's Top-10 for over two years.

WORKS:

The Rozabal Line, The Krishna Key, Chanakya's Chant

AUROBINDO:

Nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet.

“He is poet’s poet” called by SK Ghoshe

Worked with “KarmaYogin” weekly

He won Pulitzer prize when he was in England.

Works:

Savitri: a legend and a symbol:  a blank verse epic consists of 12 books(49cantoes) in 24000 lines based on theology from Mahabharata.

ADVAITA KALA

Famous for writing varied female characters in popular Bollywood movies, Advaita Kala is a hotelier by profession. Be it Vidya Bagchi from Kahaani or Kiara from Anjaana-Anjaani, she has a knack for creating strong, courageous and independent female characters.

NOTABLE WORKS:

Almost Single

Almost There!

AROON RAMAN

A self-described cubicle dweller by day and writer by night, Mainak is the author of over a dozen books, some of which have been bestsellers in India and abroad. These books have been translated into Turkish, Vietnamese, Japanese, French, German and Portuguese.

NOTABLE WORKS:

Zombiestan

Alice in Deadland

03:02

Chronicler of the Undead

 

BHASKAR CHATTOPADHYAY

Bhaskar Chattopadhyay has had a successful corporate career as a statistician and a management professional. Today he is a successful writer and translator.

NOTABLE WORKS:

Patang

Penumbra

Here Falls the Shadow

 

BADAL SIRCAR

Badal Sircar was born inCalcutta, on July 15, 1925. Sircar made an entry into theatre with different roles as an actor,director and also as a playwright. As a playwright, he started with comedies. Badal Sircar's career in drama started with quite light and humorous plays getting written from 1956 to 1960. These plays were titled as Solution X, Ram Shyam Jadu, Baropishimaand Shanibar. Sircar wrote more than fifty plays throughout his career and widely known for developing the theatre form of his own, the 'Third Theatre' and also for establishing his theatre group 'Satabdi'.

BAMA

Her novels Karukku (1992) and Sangati (1994) are autobiographical literary narratives. Her third novel Vanmam (2002) tells the story of the intra￾community conflicts, caste hatred and resulting violence among Dalit communities.

BANKIM CHANDRA CHATTERJEE (1838-1894)

Father of Bengali Fiction, started a Bengali literary magazine, BangaDarshan in1892Well known as a author of Vandematharam in Anandmath

Works:

DurgeshNandini(1865): novel, based on History

Kapalkundala (1866)

The rural milieu of 19th century, ingrained with tantricism presents Kapalkundala as a romantic novel of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhya. The romantic amorous relationship between Nabakumar and Kapalkundala is the heart of the novel. The zamindar Nabakumar once being shipwrecked took refuge in a forest caped island, where he met Kapalkundala, lived in the shelter of a Tantric saint. The passionate urge between each other ultimately finds expression in the marriage of Nabakumar and Kapalkundala.

Liberated from the shackles of the recluse, Kapalkundala, stated to survive in the normal world as Mrinmoyee, the wife of zamindar. But the Tantric rediscovered the true face of Mrinmoyee and bullied her to relinquish the family life. Finally to save her family and her beloved Nabakumar, she committed suicide, to desert her family as well as her own life.

 Kapalkundala, centers round the life and activities of the protagonist Kapalkundala, later known as Mrinmoyee. The title truly signifies the sacrifice and penalty; she has to give being a poor prey of religious extremism. Through a bold presentation of the heroine Kapalkundala, Bankim Chandra represents the predicament of the entire womenfolk, who became the victim of the socio-religious conventions.

Mrinalini(1869)- a patriotic novel

Anandmath(1884)- Patriotic novel on Bengali famine., National song of India, Vandemataram is in it. This novel is based on the Sanyasi revolt of North Bengal in 1773.

The Poison Tree(1884)-novel based on  Hindu life in Bengal in English  period.

The krishna Kant’s Will(1895)

Two Rings(1897)

BHABANI BHATTACHARYA (1906-1988)

Being a novelist with a social purpose, Bhattacharya has depicted the social, economic and political changes in India on the background of the contemporary historical events and social conditions.

won sahitya academy award for his novel, Shadow from Ladakh(1967)

Works:

So Many Hungers!(1947): first novel

●deals with poverty, hunger and exploitation of the peasants in the manmade famine of Bengal during the Second World War. The exclamatory mark with which the title ends denotes the writer's bewilderment at the multiplicity of hunger.

● The story moves around two families. The urban family of Samarendra Basu in Calcutta consists of his wife, two sons Rahoul and Kunal, Rahoul's wife Manju and father Devesh or Devata. The other, a peasant family from a small village Jharana, consisting of Mother, her husband, her daughter Kajoli, two sons and the son-in-law Kishore. These two families make the two strands of the plot. All the poor are depicted as the exploited ones but not all the rich are the exploiters. While only one member of the rich family is responsible for the exploitation of the poor, the other members on the contrary extend their helping hand to the poor.

● Devesh Basu, whom the villagers of Baruni call 'Devata', inspires them to participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement. The police arrest Devata and Kajoli's father. The villagers respond with anger and set the post office on fire. The government imposes a collective fine upon the entire village for the arson. The villagers set the rice grains to pay the fine. A number of villages at the coastal area are taken into possession by the British army. The disposed ones rush to Calcutta to earn their living.

He Who Rides a Tiger (1952)

● The title  is borrowed from the saying "He who rides the tiger cannot dismount". Kalo, the protagonist of the novel, rides the tiger of a lie to avenge himself on the society but he finds it difficult to dismount.

● Kalo, the blacksmith lives happily with his only daughter, Chandralekha, in a small town Jharana. He falls victim to the havoc wrought by the man-made famine in Bengal. Leaving his daughter at Jharana in charge of her aunt he leaves for Calcutta. While traveling in the train he is caught by the Police for stealing bananas and is sentenced to three months rigorous imprisonment. Biten, another prisoner, advises him to retaliate against the society.

● No sooner is he released than he rushes to Calcutta. He is forced to become a pimp in a brothel to earn his living. He decides to call his daughter only after establishing his own smithy. Atthis juncture there comes a turning point in his life. He finds his daughter in the harlothouse protecting herself from a sexual assault of one of the customers. He saves the honour of her daughter. The miseries of his own life and sexual exploitation of his daughter make him hostile towards the society. He decides to follow the way suggested by Biten. He makes Lord Shiva emerge from the earth with the technique taught by Biten. He builds a temple with the financial aid by a number of devotees. Lekha christians her father as Mangal Adhikari. A blacksmith turns into a Brahmin. Lekha is married to Biten.

The Goddess Named Gold(1960)

● is an allegory. Some critics call it a “modern fable of rural India”.

● The story opens with the meeting of the 'cow house five', a group consisting of five peasant women and the Seth's wife. They discuss the burning problem of their village Sonamitti. Being the only shopkeeper, Seth Shamsunder creates artificial scarcity of cloth. Women are compelled to wear rags and patched over clothes. The 'cow house five' take a procession of women to the shop, demanding the sale of saris on moderate rates. But the Sethdoes not pay any heed to their demands.

● Meera,the protagonist, belongs to a peasant class. She isshown rebellious by nature. She protests against the economic exploitation by the Seth, but behaves like a submissive, superstitious peasant girl before her grandfather's magic trick. Being an illiterate, rustic girl she easily believes in her grandpa's words and becomes an alchemist or Sonamai for the villagers. Due to her strong faith in her grandpa she feels she can bring happiness to the villagers with the help of the touchstone. To fulfill this dream she

is carried away by the words of the cunning Seth.

Shadow from Ladakh(1967): Latest novel, won the sahitya academy award.

Steel Hawk: collection of short stories.

BHARATI MUKHERJEE

Bharati Mukherjee was born on 27th July, 1940 in Calcutta. She began writing books along with her husband, writer Clark Blaise, whom she married in 1963.They together produced two books, Days and Nights in Calcutta in 1977 and The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy in 1987. She deals with the themes of the Asian immigrants in North America, and the change taking pace in South Asian Women in a new World.

Works:

● `Darkness1985` is a collection of twelve short stories about the difficulties that Indian  immigrants have in adjusting to life in Canada and the United States.

● The Middle man and other stories1988: collection of short stories

 

 

The Tiger’s Daughter – 1971: first novel

● An autobiographical story

● The central character of this fiction is Tara and the story revolves around her.

● The protagonist having an Indian  origin educated at Vassar College, New York.

 

Wife1975: 2^nd novel

● The novel centers on the character Dimple, who grows, matures, rebels, kills and finally dies in this novel.

● Dimple marries a person chose by her father and moves to New York.

● At the end, she becomes frustrated and out of fear and personal instability she ultimately murders her husband and eventually commits suicide.

● Mukherjee deals with the complications that come from being thrown between two worlds and the strength and courage it takes to survive and in the end live.

 

Jasmine1989:

● Jasmine is the central character of the novel.

● Set at the idea of mixing of the East and West with a story telling of a young Hindu woman who leaves India for the U.S. after her husband`s murder. In her path she faces many problems including rape and eventually returned to the position of a health professional through a series of jobs. Here in this context the unity between the First and Third world is shown to be in the treatment of women as subordinate in both countries. The story expanded as a story of a young widow suddenly widowed at seventeen. She uproots herself from her life in India and re-roots herself in search of a new life and the image of America as well. It is a story of dislocation and relocation as the protagonist continually sheds lives to move into other roles, moving further westward. The author in some parts of this novel shows some agony to the third world as she shows that Jasmine needs to travel to America to make something significant in her life.And in the third world she faced only despair and loss.

The Holder of the World1993 : a novel, retelling of Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter

Leave It to Me1997: uses the myth of hindu goddess , Durga.

It is the story of a child born in California. An unwanted female child is dropped like a hot brick at the nearest orphanage, where she is called Faustine. The child was later adopted by an Italian-American family, and christened as Debby DiMartino. Despite the love and affection of her foster family, Debby grows up with the awareness of being different, the feeling that she is an unwanted obstacle in a world that hurls on towards its mysterious destinations. The feeling is sometimes haunting when everyone is surrounded but someone is feeling alone. At the conclusion she comes to as she sets out in search of her past, her origins, and the unknown "bio-parents" who had callously abandoned her. As the story progresses with jerks and shocks in a picaresque fashion, bringing together a variety of characters who may or may not help the protagonist in her search for her "bio-mom." The story mainly revolves around that girl but at the same time takes some of the important aspect of life in a beautiful manner.

Desirable Daughters2002:  novel

The Tree Bride:  sequel to Desirable Daughters

 

BHARATI SUBRAHMANYA C

The Indian writer of the nationalist period who is regarded as the father of the modern Tamil style, Bharati Subrahmanya was a son of learned Brahman. He was killed by a temple elephant in Madras.

 

CHETAN BHAGAT

Chetan Bhagat is a famous Indian  author who penned down novels that hit the market with great success. All of them were bestsellers since their release and have been filmed by famous Bollywood directors. Chetan Bhagat is considered a youth icon rather than as just an author.

Works:

Half Girlfriend:

One Indian  Girl:

One Night @ The Call Center

The story revolves around six people, three men and three female to be precise working in the same group. They have six different lives altogether but all of them were interconnected.

Five point someone-what not to do at IIT

The story is very interesting in the way that three hostel mates namely Alok, Hari and Ryan get off to a bad start in IIT they messed up the first class grades. It`s sometimes hilarious to read how these 3 boys spend their 4 years inside the high walls of the Indian Institute of Technology. Alok is having his family problems, Hari is somewhat a looser and Ryan is a flamboyant personality. In spite of their varied personality they share a unique friendship and always spend their time in doing naughty things except studying. Hari has lot to share about the ragging period and many other incidents in the college. There are many happy and sad moments, which are narrated in an excellent ways. They are just amazing. Whatever they do ultimately they end up in the problem that is the actual comedy. Sometimes Alok wants to study but the other two don`t allow him to do so. Hari gets drunk before the viva and somehow manages to get caught by the professor. He also falls in love with the same professor`s daughter. All of a sudden they decide to improve their grades but as they were against to hard work in actual sense they decides to steal the papers for the exams. They eventually they were caught. To hide from the shame Alok decides to commit suicide but he can`t do so. Ultimate prof. Veera helps them and they end up in doing extra assignments and labour. At the end author add some sweetness to the story as he narrated that Alok and Hari gets employed and Ryan begins his research on his much loved subject Fluid Mechanism.

3 Mistakes of My Life

The 3 mistakes of my life is the saga of friendship. The tale of dreaming dreams, the story of chasing the dream. The story revolves round three friends, Ish, Govind and Omi. Ish, the cricket lover, Omi the son of a priest and Govind the protagonist. Govind is a Math lover and the dreamer. He dreams of floating his own business. He wants to forget all his worries, fear, tears and agony and just wants to start his own business to survive in the harsh world where dream shatters almost every now and then. The three friends start a sports shop and it works. Things seem to be a lot better. Govind experiences for the first time the taste of being the businessman. The story moves from one event to the other. Ish finds Ali, a young cricketer with lots of talent and decides to coach him. Govind besides being the businessman and math lover still falls for Ish`s sister and here on starts committing his famous

"three mistakes". The political turmoil, Ayodha issue, Gujarat earthquake all contours the background of the plot whilst turning the dream of Govind, Ish and Omi into nightmare. Yet to cherish the dream, to reach the goal, to attain everything that they desired they had to face it all - religious politics, earthquake, riots and most importantly forbidden love and above all, their own mistakes which life threw as if a challenge to them.

 

CHITRA BANNERJEE DIVAKARUNI

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning and bestselling author, poet, activist and teacher of writing. She deals with the immigrant experience, an important issue in the contemporary world. Arranged Marriage is a collection of short stories, about women from India caught between two worlds. The protagonist of The Mistress of Spices, Tilo, provides spices, not only for cooking, but also for the homesickness and alienation of the Indian  immigrant clients d frequenting her shop.

 Her work has been published in over 50 magazines and her writing has been included in over 50 anthologies. Several of her works have been made into films and plays.

WORKS:

The Palace of Illusions

The Mistress of Spices

Queen of Dreams

 

DAVID DAVIDAR(tamil nadu)

House of Bue Mangoes(2002):

Set in 1899, Story spans half a century and Three generations of  Dorai family, under the British Raj mostly in Madras Presidency, Tamil Nadu. About Soloman Dorai is the Thalaiwar(headman) of the village, Chevathar, in the South india.

 

DESANI G V

Born in Kenya, Practised Theeravada Budhism.

All About H. Hatterr (1948)- H.Hatter stands for Hindustanwallah Hatter.)

●it Indian ised Englsih, Became sensation along with Jame’s Joyce’s helped in shaing modren novel, Influenced SalmanRashdie.

● This novel is the comic record of the life of the protagonist who is constantly threatened, gulled, robbed and bullied in life.

● First of all, the thing that hits us as symbolic in this novel is the name of hero- H. Hatterr.  The despondent boy was adopted by the English  Missionary Society. The name 'Hatterr' is pinpointing of his hat that is very large for him which suggests his Anglo Indian  environment. The hat may be understood in the terms of Freudian signs. The hat can be a mark of both masculine and feminine values.' Hatterr', the surname is prefixed with other term 'Hindustaniwalla', that adds a new sense into it. Consequently, the long structure of his name 'Hindustaniwalla Hatterr' is ridiculously indicates the identity of cultural

hybridization. Hatterr's whole life occurs to be a great effort to harmonize the two actually contradictory societies. The name Hatterr is clearly a symbol of the fight between East and West that comes out to be a little comic and incongruous.

Hatterr has stolen three books from the Missionary Society may be interpreted like common symbols of knowledge or understanding which he is in sought of. Even if Hatterr has ran away from the Missionary Society, the books act as leftovers of his erstwhile evangelical living at a theoretical stage. Since Hatterr is not officially learned in school or college, he wants to attain his knowledge from the University of Life. Hatter's desire to meet up the 7saints of different regions of India may be interpreted as numerological symbolism.

Number 7 is considered as a holy number in Eastern and Western astrology and religion. "Seven is a holy number in various traditions. Because, according to Hippocrates of Chios,it is associated to the lunar stages seven affects each and every Sub Lunar things. Hepatic separation happens to be accepted the same as sacred and related with many astrological and cosmic phenomenon. For instance, seven tunes of music, seven gates, worlds, steps,spheres, seven pillars of wisdom are commonly famous. Number Seven is attached with the Hindus, fire God Agni. His encounter to the seven saints of India is pinpointing of his search for saintly knowledge, experience, perfection and godliness.

India Invites(    )- series of lectures on” india and Orient”

Hali is a Prose poem.

DEVDUTT PATTANAIK

An Indian  mythologist, he is famous for his work on ancient Indian  scriptures.

WORKS:

Myth = Mithya

My Hanuman Chalisa

Vishnu: An Introduction

The Pregnant King

Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana

Shikhandi: And Other Tales They Don't Tell You

 

DILIP CHITRE

Dilip Purushottam Chitre is often described in epitaphs with titles such as 'legendary', "the rarest of rare" and "all rounder", which had sat lightly on the unfazed shoulders of the man. And when one reads the ideas and thoughts described in words that had flown out of his pen, the experience can only be described as nothing short being impeccable.

DURJOY DUTTA

Durjoy Datta's first novel, Of Course I Love You! was released in 2008 while he was still in college. Today he’s the bestselling author of twelve blockbuster novels.

NOTABLE WORKS:

Of Course I Love You

Ohh Yes, I am Single

When Only Love Remains

 

GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK

● Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak was born on 24th February, 1942 in Kolkata. She is a popular Indian  literary theorist and critic.

● Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak came into prominence with her subsequent translation of `Derrida`s Of Grammatology`. Her major works also include the translations of renowned Bengali author Mahasweta Devi and critical analysis of American cultural studies.

● Her work titled "A Critique of Postcolonial Reason" that was published in the year 1999 explores the European metaphysics.

● She is widely known for her essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?"

Works:

● Myself, I Must Remake: The Life and Poetry of W.B. Yeats (1974)

● Of Grammatology (translation, with critical introduction, of Derrida`s text) (1976)

● The Post-Colonial Critic (1990) Outside in the Teaching Machine (1993)

● The Spivak Reader (1995)

● A Critique of Post-colonial Reason:

● Towards a History of the Vanishing Present (1999)

● Death of a Discipline (2003)

● Other Asias (2005)

● Imaginary Maps (translation of three stories by Mahasweta Devi) (1994)

● Old Women (translation of two stories by Mahasweta Devi) (1999)

● Chotti Munda and His Arrow (translation of the novel by Mahasweta Devi) (2002)

GITHA HARIHARAN (1954 ─)

Githa Hariharan is one of the most prolific woman writers of India. She was born in Coimbatore in 1954. She was brought up in Bombay and Manila and got her education in these two places besides the U.S.A. She is a journalist by profession and based in New Delhi. Her first book, The Thousand Faces of Night won the Commonwealth Prize for the best first novel. Her other works include The Art of Dying (a collection of stories), The Ghosts of Vasu Master, When Dreams Travel (both novels) A Southern Harvest and In Times of Siege.

Awards:

Commonwealth writer's prize The Thousand Faces of Night in 1993.

Works

 Besides novels, Githa hariharan has also authored a collection of short stories, The Art of Dying (1993), and books of short stories for children, The Winning Team which came out in 2004. A Southern Harvest (1993) is a collection of short stories from south India translated by Githa Hariharan.

The Thousand Faces of Night (1992): first novel

● The novel is woven around three generations of women Devi, Sita and Mayamma.

● The first novel The Thousand Faces of Night describes the setup of a central south Indian  Brahmin family. Devi, the central character returns to Madras from America to live with her mother, Sita. Initially, she is confronted by some difficulties in making adjustments with day-today realities.

● Devi being a young educated girl with her "american experience‟ struggles to cope with her husband Mahesh, who is busy with his business tours most of the time. This is when Devi feels alienated in "her own "home. She searches for an identity and tries to free herself from the bondage of marriage. Her emotional and mental incompatibility with Mahesh brings her close to Baba. In this second part of the novel, she comes closer to Baba and he takes up the role of Devi's grandmother with stories "less spectacular" and defining the limits. Through Devi, Hariharan shows how woman survives in male dominated society, facing all sorts of discrimination but surviving with her inner strength.

 

The Ghosts of Vasu Master – 1994

● The novel is told in short chapters, alternating between events in the present.

● Vasu Master feels quite uneasy after retirement. His farewell present from his students was a notebook, and the other things related to jotting down observations, memories, and thoughts about teaching. He also continues to teach a bit, becoming a tutor. He doesn`t have many students, however, and eventually he is only left with one that is the most complicated and intractable case, Mani. The boy is twelve when he comes to Vasu Master, but he was not up to the mark. He doesn`t speak, either, and has been through numerous schools and doctors, without anyone being able to draw him out. Vasu Master tries to change Mani and eventually finds at least one thing that seems to keep him entertained and interested. And this thing was stories. Vasu Master himself wasn`t brought up on proper stories but he tries a lot with his childhood experience and finds them useful for himself too. Vasu master also tries to live in present and bring the past back in his life. His wife who dies in earlier years, he brings back her in memory and thus tries to understand the present. The Ghosts of Vasu Master is concerned with well being on all levels i.e. the soul, the mind, and the body. Vasu Master`s physical ailments get some attention, while some want him to follow the path to enlightenment. there is one more character and he is Vasu Master`s father, a doctor of the very wise and understanding sort, who shows a variety of ways of healing. Vasu Master`s efforts to teach Mani take the broadest meaning of teach`. He tries to teach him in all aspect like as psychologist and also as educator.

When Dreams Travel (1999): 3^rd novel

● The novel is a retelling of the old story of Shahrzad and her sister Dunyasad. They are married to two brothers, the sultan Shaharyar and Shahzaman, both of whom were earlier cuckolded by their wives. To prevent this from happening again, the sultan marries a virgin each night, and then beheads her in the morning. This grisly practice continues until Shahrzad, the Wazir's daughter, manages to keep death at bay by telling him stories for a thousand and one nights. Early in the story Shahrzad dies mysteriously and much of the book concerns Dunyazad's efforts to find out how and why. The truth is revealed only in the last chapter's surprise ending. The deaths of Shahrzad and Shahzaman and the wazir by no means preclude their frequent reappearances, either in dream sequences or in incidents from the past.

In Times of Siege (2003)

Fugitive Histories(2009)- Her latest publication

 

GIRISH KARNAD(1938-):

Born at Macheran near Mumbai,in a konkan Family of Mangolore. Writes in Native language Kannada( though his mother tongue is Konkani), translates them into English . He himself tells us , “ I want to be a poet. But I realized, I would not be a poet, only be a dramatist.”He Worked as a director of “Central institute for film and television technology” at Pune. Won Gnanpith in 1998.

Works:

Yayathi(1961):his first play

Based on Hindu myth,story of  King Arnold, who wants to exchange his  with the youth of one of his sons. His two sons refused, and the third one agrees.

Hayawadana(1970): His second play

won the NATYASREE award for the best play in 1971.

Based on the Thomas Mann’s Play “Transposed Heads”.

 It is a 3 act play based on a Hindu myth. Bhagawatha (story teller) Begins with a Prayer to the Lord Ganesh, a boy with a Horse’s head (Hayawadana) enters, and asks Bhagawatha about “completeness”. Bhagawataha advices him to visit the Goddess Kali temple. When the boy leaves, he begins the Story of Two friends, Kapila (son of a black smith with a strong body) and devadatta (a brahmin and a poet,with a strong mind). Devadatta fell in love with padmini and married her. Padmini later attracted to Kapila’s body. Two friends sacrificed their heads before goddes Kali, Padmini prays to Kali and brings back life to them. She wanted a man with Kapila’s body and Devadatta’s Head, so she transposed their heads. Kapila and Devadatta argued for Padmini. A sage asserts the superiority of Head over body, hence Padmini belongs to a Man with Kapila’s body and Devadatta’s Body.  A man with Devadatta’s body and Kapila’s head leaves to forest downheartedly. After some days Padmini gives birth to a baby boy. Kapila and Devadatta regained their previous bodies( due to lack of hard work of Devadatta and hardwork of kapila in the forest). Meanwhile Padmini lost’s interest in Devadatta and visits kapila in the forest. Devadatta reaches there and in a duel, Kapila and Devadatta dies. Padmini sends the boy(who cant speak) to Bhagawatha and commits suicide. At the end of the Play Bhagawatha receives the boy and at the same  time a horse enters. However Bhagawatha recognizes it as the Hayawadana( instead of his horse body, he get rid off his Human head at Goddess Kali temple, but retained his human voice) who transformed into a complete horse. Play ends with Haywadana Singing National song of india, losts his human voice, boy getting his human voice

Thuglaq(1964):It is an Historical Play, based on Mohammad Bin Tuglaq. written in Kannada,Translated into English  on the suggestion of Alyqne Padamsee.(He is an Indian  theatre personolity, best known as Mohammed Ali Jinnah in the film “Gandhi”.)

Nagamandal(1972):Based on the folk tales of Karnataka

 

GITA MEHTA (1943 ─)

Gita Mehta was born in 1943 in Delhi. He came off a family of freedom fighters her father Biju Patnaik was an industrialist, flying ace and the most well-known political leader as well chief Minister of Orissa. She based her creative writing on the theme of the country's struggle for freedom. She started her career as journalist.

Works:

● In 1979 her first book Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East was published

● Her first novel-Raj (1989)

● Her famous work Snakes and Ladder (1997) is a collection of essays about India since independence.

The Raj -1989

● Published in 1991

● The protagonist of this novel is Jaya Singh, the only daughter of the Maharajah and Maharani of Balmer. Jaya Singh is the intelligent, beautiful, and compassionate daughter of the Maharajah and

Maharani of Balmer. She was raised in the thousand year-old tradition of purdah by her mother and was educated exactly like her royal brother i.e. Balmer`s heir. This happened according to her father`s decision. She learned to play polo, hunt tiger and wild boar, and how to govern and lead. Jaya marries the jaded, westernized Maharajah of Sipur and finds herself in a history￾making position. After the death of her husband she took the regime and very successfully holds the power.

● We witness Mahatma Gandhi march to the sea, with hundreds of thousands of his countrymen, to break British laws against making salt. India`s struggle for independence and partition

A River Sutra -1993 -third book by Gita Mehta.

● This novel is a series of short stories interconnected with Narmada River in India

● The river is the Narmada, one of the holiest in India; and, a sutra is both a thread, and a discourse that constantly unwinds.

● Theme is diversity within Indian  society, both present and past.

● Major themes are lust, religion, desire and love.

● There are six stories: The Monk's, The Teacher's, The Executive's, The Courtesan's The Musician's, and The Minstrel's.

● The novel begins with the words of a 14th-Century Indian  poet: "Listen, O brother. Man is the greatest truth. Nothing beyond."

● The story is told from the perspective of a retired government official.

● Mehta tells the story of a retired government official who resides on one of the largest and holiest rivers in India. In his working days the official was never a religious man, but now that he has a chance to relax and observe his surroundings, he is able to take in the diversity around him and start his own

questioning about the spiritual side of life. Using this frame, Mehta illustrates the official`s encounters with numerous characters who, each in turn, tell their stories to the retired official. As the story proceeds he encounters many characters as for example a Jain mendicant, a Muslim music teacher, a wandering ascetic, a courtesan seeking her kidnapped daughter, a genius sitar player, and a tea plantation official who has encountered Nagas. Mehta uses each character to explore different religious themes that are represented in India and weaves them all into a cohesive search for spiritual truth. India is always a country of unity in diversity and the author has successfully uses this trait.

● The Monk story begins with Ashok who is the first of many people to tell the narrator his story of love. The Jain monk is probably only thirty years old and he has already tired of a world that has offered him anything he has wanted: extreme wealth, a loving family, and the opportunity to better other people's lives through charity. The monk has decided himself to become a monk in a religion where, as other monks tell him, he will suffer almost constant pain. Ashok believes these sacrifices are worthwhile because in his renunciation, as the same monks tell him, he "will be free from doubt."

● In the Teacher’s Story the narrator meets a man who accuses himself of being a murderer. It tells about a man called Master Mohan who now gives music lessons. His wife has always taunted him continually for his weaknesses and inability to make money. She also accuses him of the fact that he is the reason she had lost her rich inheritance. Although he leads an unhappy life, his gentle nature always ushers him to small acts of kindness. Master Mohan's father developed a great love to listen his son sing in recording studios. One day Master Mohan gets the chance to listen to a group of travelling Quawali singers from Nizamuddin, who are famous for their Sufi traditional songs. He stood spellbound to the voice of a young blind Muslim boy, Imrat. The singers have prodded him and started two musical lines ") prostrate my head to the blade of Your Sword. O, the wonder of my submission. O, the wonder of your protection."(61)  Imrat's sister requests Mohan to take care of her brother for a while. Mohan's wife and children treat Imrat in a dreadful manner. He sings some beautiful devotional songs to the joy of all the people around. Mohan knows \that the singing of these songs will give him the endurance he needs to confront the indignities of his life. He grooms him in music and discovers that the boy to be a prodigy. He instructs Imrat to sing songs of Kabir, Mirabai, Khusrau, Tulasidas, Chisti and Chandidas. His singing becomes so popular and attracts the attention of a music records company. Unable to bear the rude behaviour of his wife, Master Mohan leaves the house for Imrat to continue his practice. It is Master Mohan's wife, who wants to make some money out of the Imrat, accepts the offer and receives five thousand rupees for a programme. The boy is forced to sing and his singing fills the hall with ecstasy and mystic raptures. Whenthe great Sahib rises, Master Mohan thinks the Sahib is going to dance to the music of the boy. The gruesome incidence the death of the boy drives the Master to the verge of madness. He comes to the banks of the Narmada in search of peace. He does not get peace because the story leaves him with many questions unanswered. Tariq Mia's explanation is that he does not know answer and it is a story about the human heart. The bureaucrat questions himself whether police catch him or not and why the Sahib kills the boy. Unable to come to a conclusion, Master Mohan commits suicide on his way back.

● The Executive’s story speaks about Nitin Bose, a young executive, works in a tea company in Calcutta. He is a well-educated orthodox and committed to duty. Though his companions have dreadful predictions, he opts for the tea estates as he could feel the monotonous of Calcutta and begins to live a self-disciplined life until a young tribal woman, Rima, arrives while he is asleep. He falls in love with her. Although he avoids women from him, he likes her and experiences her body. The relation between Nitin and Rima is immoral so that he is afraid of the regulations of the society because according to the society his act is a sin which is not excused by the people. Therefore he buried his immoral act in his mind and the effect of his suppression resulted in his utter madness. Afraid of society's regulations he cannot admit his immoral act to anybody else so he confesses it in his diary. Diary is one of the means of confession through which one can get mental relief. Nitin Bose after writing his diary gets mental relief and is cured from amnesia. The story reflects the Indian  psyche and tradition in which these kinds of acts are not allowed and if someone did it unconsciously then he is afraid to confess it. Nitin Bose as belongs to the same tradition suppresses his desire and wants to hide the truth from people. The writer, before telling the story, describes the myth of Kama, God of Love which is very helpful to create a suitable atmosphere.

● The Courtesan’s Story is a tale of the love of flesh recounted by the courtesan's mother and herself. The Courtesan represents the particular group of courtesans which is neglected by the society. The courtesans are not considered as human beings but they are used for entertainment only. The courtesan's daughter got a chance to perform at a large political gathering. Her tender voice soothed the crowd into silence. The happiness was shattered as her daughter was kidnapped by a bandit of Vindhyas, Rahul Singh, who has a notorious standing for robbing, kidnaps her because he thinks that she has been his wife in so many lives before that one and keeps her in captivity in a cave and forces her to yield, but she refuses to surrender to him. Rahul Singh tells her that she has been his wife in many births before this one, but she does not believe him. He endures her hatred and insults. But one night, when he touches her, she realizes that he is speaking truth. She spends with him happily for a few days. She too falls in love with him and became pregnant. He was so much in love with her that he became reformed but died trying to steal something for her from the bazaar.

● The Musician’s Story describes an ugly female musician, who learns to perfect her singing all her life.

 Tariq Mia tells The Minstrel’s Story to understand the bureaucrat about the Naga Babas. It is about the Naga Baba, who rescued a girl of eight years old from the clutches of a prostitute and who later became a minstrel.

GOURI DESHPANDE

Gauri Deshpande has an important position among the field of post-Feminist poets. Her poetry has proved to be a milestone in the history of Indian  women's poetry.

HARINDRANATH CHATOPADYAY(1898-1990)

Brother of Sarojini Naidu. He is a composer, actor, dramatist and poet. He was chiefly a scientist and Known as Walking Ecyclopedia.

Works:

Abuhasan(1918)

The saint: a force(1946)

Kamappan: the hunter of Kalahasti(1950)

Siddartha: a man of piece(1956)

HARI KUNZRU(1969-)

He is a young author of English  and Kashmiri descent, who shot into fame with his novels The Impressionist and Transmission.

 

HENRY LOUIS VIVIAN DEROZIO (1809-1831)

He was born in Calcutta. He was a teacher and a poet. He was a lecturer at Hindu college.

As a student he widely read French Revolution and Robert Burns.As a Lecturer he strongly questioned the irrational religious and cultural practices, hence had many followers named” Derozians”, which led to found a club named “ Academic Association” and a magazine named “ Parthenons”

Works:

The Fakeer of Juhangeera:  first long poem,with native Indian  stories. It is romantic and victorian in style, which was hailed as ”Competent narrative in verse with Byronic echoes”

The Harp of India : Is his famous poem

 

INDU SUNDARESAN

Indu Sundaresan was born and brought up in India, on Air Force bases around the country. She grew up on stories from Hindu mythology told by her father and grandfather. Her first novel, The Twentieth Wife, won the Washington State Book Award in 2003.

WORKS:

Twentieth Wife

The Feast of Roses

Shadow Princess

 

ISMAT CHUGTAI:

Lihaaf: is a short story

Lihaaf means quilt.

Teller of the story is a girl.

Begum Jan has homosexual relationship with Rabbo, a Maid in black.

She dared to write about lesbian sex.

INDRA DAS

Indra has written about books, comics, TV and film for publications including Slant Magazine, VOGUE India, Elle India, Strange Horizons and Vancouver Weekly. Indra’s debut novel The Devourers was the winner of the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBQT SF/F/Horror.

JAHNAVI BARUA

Indian  author  and doctor from Assam. Settled in Bangolore.

 

Works:

NextDoor: stories(2008) - is a critically acclaimed collection of 11 short stories.

Rebirth(      )-is a novel, portrays the story of a young woman, Kaberi,  her unfaithful husband, troubled relationships with her parents and death of her childhood friend.

JAYANTA MAHAPATRA

First ever Indian  Poet to win Sahitya academy award in 1981 for English  Poetry for his well known poem “ Relationship”

Won Padma Shri in 2009, but returned his padma shri to protest against rising tolerance in India.

He is a part of Indian  Poets Trio: A.K.Ramanujan, R.Parthasarathy and Jayanta Mahapatra.

 

Works:

Popular poems are: Relationship,  Indian  summer ,

Grandfather: about an old man’s starvation which forced him to Christianity.

Dawn at Puri ( describes Orissa’s Landscapes)  and Poori jagannath Temple

Hunger: about a fisherman sells his daughter’s body to richman

 

JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU(1889-1964)

Born in Allahabad, became the first prime minister of India.

Works:

Letter from a father to his daughter:(1929): wrote to 10year old Indira Gandhi who is in Mussorie.

The discovery of India(1946): is a honor paid to the history and cultural heritage of india, as seen through the eyes of a patriot fighting for the independence of his country.

Glimpses of World History(1934): series of200 letters to Indira on the history of world

An Autobiography:Toward Freedom(1936): written almost in prison.

JEET THAYIL (1959--)

Indian  poet, novelist, librettist and musician. Born in Kerala

First Indian  author to won the DSC Prize South Asian Literature, Worth $50,000

Works:

Narcopolis 2012: His 1^st novel,set in the Bombay of 1970s and 80s, won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and was also shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize and Hindu literary prize.

This novel draws on his own experiences as a drug addict and what he calls “ the Lost 20 years of my life”. It concerns opium and its influence. The narrator arrives in Bombay, where he becomes seduced into opium background. Dimple, the eunuch, Rashid, the opium house owner and Mr. Lee, a former chinese officer all of whom have stories to tell.

 

Collections of poetry:Gemini(1992), Apocalypso(1997), English (2004) and These Errors are Correct2008:

These Errors are Correct 2008:His collection of poems These Errors are Correct was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award for English .

The Book of Chocolate Saints(2017): set in Delhi and Mahattan. about an Unforgettable character Xavier and His hourney towards salvaton or danation or perhaps both. Shortlisted for Man Booker prize

 

JHUMPA LAHIRI

Jhumpa Lahiri is a famous Indian  American author of Bengali origin. She became the first Asian to win the Pulitzer Prize when she won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her book "Interpreter of Maladies". Jhumpa Lahiri belongs to the second generation of Indian  immigrant writers in United States. Lahiri concerns her writing with the consciousness of the need for regaining roots in the tradition of India.

Awards:

● Pulitzer Prize for Interpreter of Maladies in 2000.

● The Lowland was published, which was longlisted for the Man Booker prize.

Works:

Short Story Collections :

Interpreter of Maladies(1999): short story collection

● It is the collection of nine distinct stories revolves around the first and second-generation Indian  immigrants and the idea of otherness among the country.

● It is a multi-layered story about a second-generation Indian -American couple. In the story they come to India to visit different places along with their three children and hire a tour-guide to see the famous Sun Temple at Konarak. Their guide, Mr. Kapasi becomes curious about the couple who looks Indian , yet dress like American tourists and speak with an American accent that he had heard many times on American TV shows. The author illustrates the work of Mr. Kapasi elaborately as he works as a tour guide only on weekends, and has another job during the weekdays as an interpreter in a doctor`s office.

There he translates the Gujarati spoken by some of his patients. Mina Das, the wife proclaims his job as an interpreter of maladies as `romantic.` Energized by this comment Mr. Kapasi, whose own marriage is wavering, looks at her closely and begins to fantasize a romantic relationship with her. The whole story is told from Kapasi`s point of view. The couple invites him to be included in the photographs they take; Mina asks him for his address so they can send him copies from America. Again this comment enhances his fantasy. During their journey to different places mina confesses different facts of her life to Kapasi as her second child is fathered by her husband`s Punjabi Indian  friend. "The Third and Final Continent" is another one from this collection, which is a first-person story of an Indian  immigrant who looks back at his first few weeks in America, thirty years ago. As a whole all the nine of the stories are a showcase of elegant craft.

 

Unaccustomed Earth – 2008: short stories

● The eight sensitive stories of her second short stories collection Unaccustomed Earth (2008), evokes the anxiety, excitement and transformation felt by Bengali immigrants and their American Children.

● The story is about Ruma and Romi and their father, who retired from his pharmaceutical company after his wife's death. Ruma lives in Seattle with her workaholic white husband Adam and byracial son Akash. When the story starts we come to know that her single father is about to visit their home for the first time and Ruma is distressed by the possibility that he might decide to live with them permanently. But she also knows that her father needs no care and at the end of the story, she realizes that he is not accustomed to her world, he likes to live it on his own. Her father, who, like most of the book's male characters, is strikingly, multidimensional, has his own worries. Her father came to visit her and was affectionate to her son but he thinks that he does not belong here.

 

Novels:

The Namesake - 2003: novel

● The novel is a narrative about the assimilation of an Indian  Bengali Family from Calcutta, the Ganguli's, into America, over thirty years (from 1968-2000); the cultural dilemmas experienced by them and their American born children in different ways, the spatial, cultural and emotional dislocations suffered by them in their effort tosettle "home" in the new land.The book spans more than thirty years in the life of a fictional family, the Gangulis. The book is all about the generation and cultural gap as when the parents, each born in Calcutta immigrated to the United States as young adults. Their children, Gogol and Sonia, grow up in the United States. Both the parents were from calcutta and their children brought up in US so there are huge differences between the childen and their parents. One of the major themes of the book is Gogol`s persistent mixed feelings over his identity, by the fact that Gogol is the last name of a noted Russian author.

This is also a novel about exile and its discontents, a novel that is as affecting in its Chekhovian exploration of fathers and sons, parents and children, as it is resonant in its exploration of what is acquired and lost by immigrants and their children in pursuit of the American Dream.

● Towards the second–half of 'The Namesake' Gogol celebrates his twenty seventh birthday at his girlfriend Maxine's parents Lake house in New Hampshire without his parents.

 

The Lowland : novel

In this novel, the main female protagonist Gauri falls in love with and marries UdayanMitra. Udayan and his older brother Subhash are inseparable in childhood and generally regarded as "mirror images" of each other. When Udayan meets Gauri, Subhash is in America, pursuing higher studies. Udayan is caught up in the banned Naxalite movement and eventually is killed by the police in stark view of his parents and wife. This earthshattering event permanently scars each one of them, especially the two women, one the mother whose favourite son has been taken away from her and the other, his young pregnant wife. Subhash, the elder brother returns to mourn the younger brother's death. On seeing the discrimination meted out to Gauri and the police and the investigation agencies still harassing her with questions concerning her dead husband and his comrades in crime, he decides to give her a means to escape. Against his parent's wishes, he marries her and takes her to America. Gauri gives birth to a daughter Bela, but soon begins to feel suffocated in both the marriage as well as in her role as a mother. She continues to be haunted by the memories of her first husband, the real father of her daughter. When Bela turns five, Gauri is desperate to get out, finding time for her after years of almost continuously staying at home and looking after the baby. But, Subhash refuses, saying that on principle, he didn't want his daughter to be looked after by babysitters while Gauri joined classes at the university. Gauri begins to resent Subhash for this. She takes it as a betrayal of what he has said when he'd asked her to marry him. This resentment continues to grow with Subhash finally having to make peace and allowing Gauri the freedom to attend classes. Gauri begins to cherish the time spent away from her daughter and her husband. Gauri continues to feel alienated in her own home. On his father's death, Subhash visits Calcutta with his daughter Bela. On returning to America, they find that Gauri has finally broken free. She has accepted a job, teaching at a university. All she leaves behind is a letter in Bengali, leaving Bela to Subhash. On the face of it, the father and the daughter have succeeded in picking up the pieces and moving on, but the fissures run deep. Bela's grades suffer and she is seen wandering alone in different parts of the area. Although Subhash resists it at first, he is forced by the school Counselor to take Bela to visit a Psychologist. Gauri's sudden departure has left a permanent scar on the twelve year old Bela.Throughout the novel, we see Gauri haunted by the memories of her first love, her first husband. When Udayan is being rounded up by the police, before he is shot, he manages to look at her face. Gauri's final abandonment of her family comes as no surprise. She has herself seen abandonment both at the hands of her parents and then at the hands of her husband. Betrayed by the man she genuinely loved, betrayed into being a party to a policeman's murder she loses faith in ties and the bonds of love.

JIM CORBETT

Jim Corbett is a popular name in India and even today he is one of the widely read authors in the wildlife genre. Jim Corbett was born on 25th July 1875, in British India. The original name of Jim Corbett is Edward James. Jim Corbett is still remembered as one of the great wildlife conservationists of India. He played significant role to establish India`s first national park that is Corbett National Park

 

Works:

Tree Tops:

The story is about the forest and about the treetop that is situated there at the jungle. `Tree tops` is a story written by Jim Corbett, which is based on a real treetop. Now this is called as tree top hotel. The treetop was built to accommodate 100 visitors near to a big water body where the wild animals including tiger, buffaloes, and elephants come to quench their thrust. In this book the description of treetop is given in a nice way that anyone can feel it in front of his or her eyes. The balcony is at least 30 feet above the pool, and from here anyone can see the remains of the old Tree Tops on the other side. It was burned down by the mau mau in 1954. It was built on a giant ficus tree and accommodated five or six people one time. In this place in the month of February, 1952 princess Elizabeth arrived with her husband to spend the night, and Corbett was invited to join them.

Man-eaters of Kumaon – 1993

● Corbett gives the reason of why this particular tiger became a man￾eater, often remarking that it was a result of a gunshot wound that disabled the tiger to hunt it`s natural prey. It was Corbett who called tiger `a big-hearted gentleman`.

● Kumaon hills in the Himalayan foothills are clearly depicted in the story.

 

The Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag

● The story of man-eater of Rudraprayag tells the tale of a tiger which stays at the place called

Rudraprayag. Corbett ultimately kills the tiger. Here the tiger is the central character and the story revolves around the triumphant

killing of the tiger.

● This particular book is about one leopard, which terrorized a large region for many years and claimed about 420 lives as well.

● There is an unforgettable chapter in the book titled `Terror` which narrates very vividly about the village nightlife.

Jungle Lore

● Lore means traditionally transmitted stories and so jungle lore means the stories of the jungle.

● Jungle Lore by Jim Corbett is a sort of autobiography.

● The story concentrates on the minute information about jungles, animals, classification of species. It is also related to hunting story. The best thing about the novel apart from its length is that this book is informative as well as educational.

 

My India

 In `My India` Corbett talks about the people of the country in an excellent manner.

This book deals with the country as he said my India. He always felt India as his own country and he believes in that way only.

 

KRUPABAI SATHIANADHAN:

Saguna (1895): A novel and auto biography

Focus on Indian  life and Christianity,

Saguna’s family was punished by villager for breaking society rules, society alienates their family.

Harichandra(a converted) upper class, turns into rebel his excommunication.

Saguna Becomes untouchable after christianity.

Harischandra’s mother poisons herself for his son for excommunication/ alienation.

 

KAMALA DAS(1934-2009)

Kamala was born as Madhavi Kutty in Malabar, Kerala, Conveted to Islam  and changed her name to Kamala Surayya.

‘The mother of Modren Indian  English  poetry’-  called By Times Magazine.

 

Awards:

●Won Kerala Sahitya Academy Award For her Malayalam stories.

●Received Asian Pen Anthology for her poetry in 1964

 

Works:

“Summer in calcutta” is her first poetry collection

Grand mother’s House,  An Introduction, The old Play house  are her famous poem

Ente Katha 1973(My Story 1976)is her Autobiography, written in Malayalam, translated to English .

 

KAMALA MARKANDAYA (1924 ─ 2004)

Kamala Markandaya,a popular Indian  journalist and novelist. Kamala Purnaiya was born in a small town in Mysore in the year of 1924. Markandaya attended the University of Madras, beginning in 1940, where she studied history. From 1940 to 1947, she worked as a journalist and also published short stories in Indian  newspapers. The works of Kamala Markandaya feature the modern traditional and spiritual values of Indian  societies. The novels of Kamala Markandaya are popular for boldly depicting the cultural and traditional clashes of different societies.

 

Works:

Nectar in a Sieve - 1954

● The title "Nectar in a sieve" has an allusion to the famous poem by Coleridge "Work without hope". The 13-14 lines of the poem "work without hope" ("Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve, and hope without an object cannot live.")

● Hope stands as a very important attribute of the lives of the character thus aptly befitting the title.

● It is a touching account of the life of an Indian  peasant woman, Rukmani, her struggle for survival and her abiding love for her husband.

● This novel depicted the difficult life of an Indian  peasant. It was written in a narrative style and wonderfully depicted the clashes between the urban and rural societies of India.

● Rukmani married Nathan, a tenant farmer whom she had never met, as a child bride. Even though Rukmani was ignorant of the simplest of tasks, Nathan never uttered a single cross word or gave an impatient look. He looked at her as if nobody had discovered her beauty. He never asserted his rights to prohibit her from reading and writing. Though Nathan was illiterate he always shows respect towards her literate wife. Misfortune seemed to have a tight foothold in Rukmani and Nathan. The monsoon flooded the rice paddies where Rukmani worked side by side with Nathan to wrest a living for a household of eight. No sooner had the monsoon tapered off than a drought devastated the harvest. Hope and fear acted like twin forces that tugged at them in one direction and another. Poverty-stricken Rukmani saw her daughter Ira become a prostitute, her 4-year-old son Kuti died from hunger, her teenage son Raja caught stealing and beaten to death, her oldest sons Thambi and Arjun set off to Ceylon to work in a tea plantation.

● And yet, Rukmani survived. Ira, who exchanged her body for Kuti`s milk and food, had lost her reason and given up her sanity rather than faced the truth. Far beyond its political context, the novel is appealing to modern readers for its sensitive and moving portrayal of the strength of a woman struggling with forces beyond her control.

Some Inner Fury – 1955

● Some Inner Fury is a semi autobiographical story.

● This is the story of a young woman in love with an English man. The duration was the riotous time of 1940s when India was fighting for independence.

● In this creation she probed the east west conflict through the dilemma of Mira, who was in love with an English man.

Other works:

● A Silence of Desire (1960)

● "Possession" (1963)

● "A Handful of Rice" (1966)

● "The Coffer Dams" (1969)

● "The Nowhere Man" (1972)

● "Two Virgins" (1973)

● "The Golden Honeycomb" (1977)

● "Pleasure City" (1982)

KASHIPRASAD GHOSH(1809-1873):

First Indian  to publish a regular volume of English  verse.

First indo Anglo writers of prose and Verse along with RamMohanRoy,Madusudan Dutt.

Founded a English  weekly : Hindu Intellegence(1846)

 

Works:

Fakir of Jungheera:  considered equal  with Gurboduc(tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex)

 

KIRAN DESAI (3^rd Sep,1971---  )

 Kiran Desai was born in New Delhi, India, and lived there until she was 14.Then she went to England with her mother and finally she moved to the United States. She took her early education in Massachusetts. Then she studied creative writing at Bennington College, Hollins University and Columbia University. She is an Indian  author because she is a citizen of India and a Permanent Resident of the United States. Her mother is also a famous writer Anita Desai.

Works:

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard -1998: first novel

● It is set in the Indian  village of Shahkot in Punjab.

● Sampath Chawla is the protagonist.

● Kulfi is Sampath's mother.

● The story depicts the exploits of a young man, Sampath Chawla, trying to avoid the responsibilities of adult life. He gets fired from the post office for reading other peoples' mails. He goes to guava orchard after he feels fed up in life. He jumps up a tree and decides to stay there. The people including his family starts believing that he has extraordinary powers and he is termed as god`s messenger.

 

Inheritance of Loss: 2006: her 2^nd book,  Won 2006 Man Booker Prize in 2015

● Biju and Sai are the major characters

● Mutt, a dog appears in the novel

● The novel tells the story about the journey of Biju, an illegal immigrant in the US who is trying to make a new life and Sai, an Aglicised Indian  girl living with her grandfather in India.

● The Gorkhaland movement is used as a historic backdrop of the novel. ‘

Night claims the Godavari:  her report on sex workers, included in AIDS sutra.

KHUSHWANT SINGH (1915--)

Khushwant Singh is a senior prominent Indian  novelist, a lawyer, an information officer, a journalist, an editor and an MP. He was born on 2 February 1915 at Hadali in BritishIndia that is now a part of Punjab in Pakistan. A significant post-colonial writer in the English  language, Khushwant Singh is known for his clear-cut secularism, humor and a deep passion for poetry. He was a great storywriter, historian, political writer, essayist biographer, translator novelist and journalist. He has been founder-editor of Yojana, and editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, The National Herald and The Hindustan Times.

The Mark of Vishnu and Other Stories is the first book written in 1950 comprises mostly ironic tales about faith and religion. This selection includes ten of his best, bearing testimony to the author's remarkable range and his ability to create unforgettable characters out of everyday lives.

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974, which he returned in 1984 to protest against Operation Bluestar.

Works:

● Train to Pakistan, 1956

● The Voice of God and Other Stories, 1957

● I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, 1959

● Ghadar 1915: India`s first armed revolution, 1966

● Black Jasmine, 1971

● Tragedy of Punjab, 1984

● Delhi: A Novel, 1990

● We Indian s, 1993

● Women and Men in My Life, 1995

● Uncertain Liaisons; Sex, Strife and

● Togetherness in Urban India, 1995

● Declaring Love in Four Languages, by Khushwant Singh and Sharda Kaushik, 1997

● The Company of Women, 1999

● Truth, Love and a Little Malice (an autobiography), 2002

● With Malice towards One and All

● The End of India, 2003

● Burial at the Sea, 2004

● Paradise and Other Stories, 2004

● Death at My Doorstep, 2005

● Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and Profiles, 2009

● The Sunset Club, 2010

● The Portrait of a Lady ( Short Story )

 

Delhi: A Novel

● Khushwant Singh claims it took him almost twenty years to complete the novel Delhi and dedicated it to his son Rahul Singh and Niloufer Billimoria.

● It accounts the history of New Delhi from the eyes of an old Sikh guide

named Mr. Singh. His passionate romance with Bhagmati who is a hermaphrodite and a representation of Delhi is beautifully paralleled. The story progresses with chapters divided in narrations by poets, sultans, soldiers, white memsahibs, etc. The story is told from the viewpoints of various characters, with different styles.

● Delhi, the capital of India, was completely destructed and then reconstructed number of times as it turned to be a city of culture, calamity, conceit, capability, poets, saints and politicians. His protagonist is not any handsome rich dude but a bawdy, old, reprobate Sikh journalist.

● The narrator guides his acquaintances through the ruins of the past that lay strewn all over the historic city tombs, memorials, Durgahs and monuments. The story begins with one of the Mughal emperors, Ghias Uddin Balban and spans from six to seven hundred years and ends with the assassination of Indira Gandhi, leading to the massacre of Sikhs.

 

I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale - 1961

● It is a story of a Sikh family in the days before India`s independence.

● The story is set at the backdrop of 1942.

● Buta Singh is the father in the story. He is the head of the family and is a magistrate who works for the British, and after years of loyal service to the British Raj is expecting to be honored with a title in the King`s Birthday Honours List. The son, Sher Singh is a hot-blooded young revolutionary, but emotionally still a child. He has joined a band of terrorists and comrades and in order to acquire the leadership has hatched a plan to disrupt arms supplies traffic on road and rail through bombing, and all this rebellion is undetected by any member of the family. Hell breaks loose when a ghastly murder of the village headman is reported and Sher Singh is arrested. All this sends an earthquake through the foundations of Buta Singh`s house.

Train to Pakistan (Mano Majra) - 1956

● It is a partition novel and also a historical Novel , Its draft was completed in three months.

● There is an interesting fusion of sex, humour, pain, agony and violence in this novel.

● Mano Majra, the maiden name of the novel, was an imaginative peaceful abode of communal harmony that witnessed a dark history of hatred and religious segregation.

●It’s theme is violence on women’s body., Railways is Metaphor here.

● Train to Pakistan opens in the fictional village Mano Majra ( country side of Punjab) and describes how the entire village gets involved in the carnage during the partition.

● Khushwant Singh has divided the novel into four parts and it is in the fourth part named 'Karma', that he emphasizes the philosophy of 'Karma', that is, action, as described in The Bhagavad Gita. In this section, the story reaches its catastrophic dramatic end with Juggut Singh( a badmash) sacrificing his life to save the lives of his girlfriend Nooran and other Muslim refugees.

●Hukumsingh is a governer in it. He loves Haseena.

● The Partition of India in 1947 marked a season of bloodshed that stunned and horrified those living through the nightmare. Entire families were forced to abandon their land for resettlement to Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India.

● It was a horrible experience for all the human beings who were present there. Travelers clogged the roads on carts, on foot, but mostly on trains, where they rested precariously on the roofs, clung to the sides, wherever grasping fingers could find purchase. Muslim turned against Hindu, Hindu against Muslim, in their frantic effort to escape the encroaching massacre. But the violence followed the refugees. Almost ten million people were assigned for relocation and by the end of this bloody chapter nearly a million were murdered. Women were raped before the pained eyes of their husbands, entire families robbed,dismembered, murdered and thrown aside like garbage until the streets were cluttered with human massacre. The situation cannot be explained in words. The scenes from that era is so humiliating that till now it can bring tears to anyone`s eye. The trains kept running. Those trains were used to carry the passengers including Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and quasi￾Christian. There had been rumors of the arrival of the silent `ghost trains` that moved quietly along the tracks, grinding slowly to a halt at the end of the line, filled with slaughtered refugees. When the first ghost train came to Mano Majra the villagers were stunned. Abandoning chores, they gathered on rooftops to watch in silent fascination. With the second train, they were ordered to participate in burying the dead before the approaching monsoons made burial impossible. But reality struck fear into their simple hearts when all the Muslims of Mano Majra were ordered to evacuate immediately, deprived of property other than what they could carry. The remaining Hindus and Sikhs were ordered to prepare for an attack on the next train to Pakistan, with few weapons other than clubs and spears. The soldiers controlled the arms supply and would begin the attack with a volley of shots. When the people realized that this particular train would be carrying their own former friends and neighbors, they too were caught, helpless in the iron fist of history, save one disreputable dacoit whose wife sat among her fellow refugees. The dacoit was Hindu and his wife was Muslim. The story builds impressive steam as it staggers toward destiny, begging for the relief of action.

KRISHNA UDAYASANKAR

Govinda, Krishna’s bestselling debut novel and the first in the Aryavarta Chronicles series of mytho-historical novels, received critical acclaim.

WORKS:Govinda, Kaurava  and Kurukshetra

 

MADHUMITA BHATTACHARYA

Madhumita Bhattacharyya wrote for The Telegraph in Calcutta for a decade, followed by a stint in the nonprofit sector.

NOTABLE WORKS:

Dead in a Mumbai Minute

The Masala Murder

Goa Undercover

MAHASWETHA DEVI:

Mother of 1084:  a Play, written in Bengali as “Hazar Churair Ma” in 1973

It is about Revolt and Repression.

Brati, Central character, part of Naxals.

Sujatha of Mother of Brati

Brati’s family is worried to bring Brati’s body after he dies for people, they felt insulted.

Brati’s father represents a bad father and husband.

 

MAHADEVI VARMA

She is a well known Hindi poet of the Chhayavaad generation, the times when every poet used to incorporate romanticism in their poetry. She is more often called the Modern Meera. She won the Jnanpith award in the year 1982.

 

MANIL SURI

Manil Suri, the mathematician turned author become famous for his so far only novel, The Death of Vishnu (2002)

MANJULA PADMANABHAN (1953-)

She is an author, playwright and artist. Her books include "Hot Death, Cold Soup" (1996), a collection of short stories and "Getting There" (1999) a travel memoir. "Harvest", her fifth play, won first prize in the 1997 Onassis Prize (The foundation has its headquarters in Greece) for theatre. "Kleptomania" (2004), a collection of short stories, was published in 2004. She has illustrated 23 books for children including, most her own two novels for children, "Mouse Attack" and "Mouse Invaders".

MAHESH DATTANI

Mahesh Dattani, was born in Bangalore on November 1958, is a prolific playwright and is regarded as the first Indian  English  playwright to win the Sahitya Akademi Award for his play, Final Solutions and Other Plays in 1998. His very first play Where There’s a Will deals with money as the central theme of the play. Mahesh Dattani is a sensitive playwright who writes about issues like gender bias, social discrimination of the girl child, etc.

Works:

Where there’s a Will

Tara - 1990

Bravely Fought the Queen

On a Muggy Night in Mumbai

Dance like a Man

Thirty Days in September

Seven Steps around the Fire

Final Solutions -1993

Where There’s a Will

This is a play about Hasmukh Mehta, one of the business tycoons in the city. Having been an obedient son to his father all through his life, he expects the same from his son Ajit. He suspects his daughter

in law, Preeti. He is unhappy with his wife Sonal. His disbelief in his family members and his unhappy sex life makes him to find the "right person" outside the family. Kiran Jhaveri, a marketing executive in his company. He entrusts all his property to Hasmukh Mehta charitable trust and makes Kiran the trustee before he dies. This shocking news is unfolded when Kiran enters Mehta house with (asmukh's will. The family members are taken aback by the bitter decision of (asmukh Mehta. (asmukh's decision of managing the trust for 25 years by Kiran Jhaveri until Ajit turns 48 leaves the family to show the true colours about one another. But this plan of (asmukh‟s tries to bring the family members together.

 

Dance Like a Man

Patriarchal authority has been brought out effectively through this novel. The Bharatanatyam dance couple Jairaj and Ratna come under the pressure of patriarchy and Jairaj is worst hit by it. Jairaj could not become successful dancer because his father Amritlal Parekh didn't allow him to pursue dance as his career. Jairaj himself admits this fact while conversing with Vishwas. Jairaj sees himself as a failure partly because of Amritlal's autocracy and partly due to Ratna's ambition. Amritlal Parekh who is a representative of the society of nineteen thirties and forties. He is freedom fighter and a reformist, but he curtails the freedom of his son who wanted to become a Bharatanatyam dancer. Jairaj suffers both as a dancer and human being.

Tara: (1990)

● Major characters are Tara and Chandan

● Tara is the daughter of an educated higher middle class family in Banglore. The story of the play is about the twins who are born with three legs and blood supply to the third leg is from the baby girl's body. Only one of the twins could have two legs, and the other had to survive with only one leg. It is decided to fix the third leg on to the male baby's body so as to make male baby complete. This decision was not on the basis of medical ground but due to gender discrimination in our society.

● Tara is a story of Siamese twins—one male and the other female. The play dramatizes how a woman becomes perpetrator of the male chauvinistic ideas forgetting that her decision to prefer a male child to female one may ruin the latter's life. Having three legs, the Siamese twins, Tara and Chandan who were

conjoined at birth, had to go through a surgical operation to get separated. Against the doctor's

opinion that the third leg would survive on the girl child, Bharati, the mother, agrees to her father in

conniving with the doctor to give the third leg to the girl child. The doctor who is supposed to be the

god for the patient forgets his all moral duties just for the sake of a few acre land in the prime of the city and attaches the third leg to the girl child which goes rotten with the passage of time and both, the boy child and the girl child become freaks.The death of Tara has a more powerful impact than her existence. Just as the death of the Star gives way to the Black Hole.

● The handicap also symbolizes the predicament of girls in Indian  families who are made to forsake their chances of getting educated as the edification of the boy becomes a priority.

 

Bravely Fought the Queen:

 It throws light on the home confined identity and exploitation of women at the hands of not only men but also women and their resistance. The play also exposes issue of extramarital relationship and touches upon the issue of homosexuality. Set in the world of consumerism, the play depicts Alka, Dolly and Baa as women whose lives are defined within the four walls of the houses. Revolving around the Trivedi family which consists of Jiten and NitinTrivedi, Baa, Dolly and Alka, the play depicts the exploitation of women in the family. Indian  society considers women as uncivilized, rude, and ill-mannered needing to be polished. The process of the refinement of their actions and their behaviour horrifies our eyes violence is the tool which is used for the socialization of the women. Alka's present condition is the result of this civilizing process which also creates a rift between Dolly and Alka who are managed by their brother Praful. This play, like Tara, also depicts women as the perpetrator of patriarchy. Dolly suffers in the hands of her mother-in-law who provokes her son to beat her. Jiten and

Nitin gratify their sexual desires with market girls. The class-conflict also constitutes the theme of the play. Sridhar is humiliated by his masters Jiten and Nitin who forces him not only to follow their eccentric views about campaign which ignores women as consumer but also to work as a pimp just to manage a whore for Jiten. The issue of homosexuality has touched upon in the play. Nitin has homosexual relationship with Praful. Emotions and desires of women of the family have no significance for the male member of the family and they suffer due to their husband's degraded morality. In the end of the play Alka and Dolly both rebels against the male dominance and their husband's realize their mistakes. Bonsai in the play symbolizes the limited freedom of women.

On a Muggy Night in Mumbai

This discusses the plight of the sexually marginalized people—homosexuals and lesbians and the effects of homosexual relationship on human ties. In the play, Kamlesh loves Prakash who fails to face the social oddities as a homosexual and turns into a heterosexual. It breeds in Kamlesh a perennial anguish. In trying to suppress his feelings for Prakash, Kamlesh becomes miserable, week and helpless and, the only way to get rid of his obsession, is to be in Sharad's company. The play reveals double identity of men who live their private lives of homosexuality in the images of heterosexuals. Sharad challenges Ed who has the mask of heterosexuality and considers heterosexuals as a real man Bunny and Prakash/Ed enjoy homosexuality under mask of heterosexuality. Bunny, who is a bisexual, is a hypocrite. He claims to be a perfect husband because he loves his wife more than any heterosexual man does; his wife boasts of his work to the neighbours as she has no problem with him; and his children who love him are popular in school. But his confession about his homosexuality reveals dissatisfaction in his life. The play witnesses the power of society due to which homosexuals turned into heterosexuals. But the play also highlights

women as victim of males' hypocrisy. Kiran, Kamlesh's sister, after her bitter realization in her first marriage, finds some hope in Ed butthe revelation of his being a homosexual shatter her dream of future life and she is filled with anguish and pain.

Thirty Days in September

The story revolves around Mala and Shanta, the play reveals the betrayal in blood relationship in a country like India where even to think of such relationships is beyond imagination. Mala, sexually abused by her maternal uncle, at the age of six has to suffer continuous sexual molestation which leads her to the arms of any man whom she comes in contact with. She fails to marry Deepak because she always realizes her uncle presence with her. In spite of his all attempts Deepak fails to know the truth behind Mala's erratic behaviou but in fit of realization of Deepak's love, she reveals her past life to him. And with his help, she becomes successful to fight against her exploitation by refusing her maternal uncle's gift of house. She holds her mother responsible for her plight. But in end of the play Mala comes to know that her mother also has been the prey of the same fate. Shanta does not dare to reveal the truth because she was financially weak and society does not permit to hear such relationships.

Seven Steps around the Fire

● depicts the plight of the eunuchs in the Indian  society shedding light on the love and betrayal in human relationship.

● Throwing light on plight of eunuchs, Dattani depicts that their position is better than women as they are free to give vent to their desires in their domain. Uma, a research scholar in Sociology working on the plight of the eunuchs, has no identity of her own as she is always addressed as a wife of the Superintendent of Police and daughter-in-law of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, and the daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University. When she visits the cell where Anarkali is imprisoned for the case study she is overwhelmed perceiving the brutality the eunuchs are meted out in the prison. Munswamy, her bodyguard addressed Anarkali with pronouns like it, they which indicates that the eunuchs in the society are not treated as human beings instead as things. He suggests her to leave the case as there are lots of cases dealing with such issues as murder, rape etc. Suresh, her husband, also hates them and addresses them as castrated degenerated men. The eunuchs are discriminated and

hated in the society because of their inability to produce children. But Suresh is also infertile. He does not go to the doctor, who declares Uma medically fit for mothering a child, just for count sperm as it is against his male libido and will uncover his true self. At Subbu's wedding with the help of the eunuchs who during their singing and dancing show him the photograph consisting of Subbu and Kamala in wedding dress Uma becomes successful to get the real culprit behind Kamala's murder. She is revealed that it is the Minister who got Kamala burnt to death because of his false pride and prestige which was in danger as his son, Subbu had married a eunuch, Kamala. In an utter longing for Kamal's love, Subbu also shoots himself with Suresh's pistol. But Suresh for the sake of his promotion as a Commissioner of Police hushes up the story as an incident and does not report it in the register. And thus, the eunuchs' voices remain unheard.

 

Final Solutions

Issue of communal harmony is raised and what takes the play to a different level is that the playwright tries to cater a solution to the problem by bringing the followers of the two religions

MANJU KAPUR

 is a professor of English  at the prestigious Miranda House in Delhi. Her first novel, Difficult Daughters, received the Commonwealth Award. The book is set during India's independence struggle and is partially based on the life and experiences of the author's own mother. Her other novel A Married Womanis a seductive story of love, set at a time of political and religious upheaval within the country. Narrated with sympathy and intelligence, it is the story of an artist whose canvas challenges the constraints of middle-class existence.

Awards:

Difficult Daughters won the Common wealth writer prize for the best book.

Works:

Difficult Daughters - 1998

● Difficult Daughters is the story of a freedom struggle. While India fights for freedom from the British Raj, Virmati fights for the freedom to live life on her terms.

● Difficult Daughters is a story of a daughter's journey back into her mother's painful past.

● Difficult Daughters is a story of three generations of women: Ida, the narrator, who is a divorcee.

Virmati, her mother, who marries an already married professor for love, and Kasturi, her grandmother, who come to terms with a difficult daughter, Virmati.

● Difficult Daughters is set at the time of partition in Amritsar and Lahore.

● Difficult Daughters begins with a daughter going back to Amritsar carrying her mother's ashes to meet her maternal family. The narrative then alternates between the past and the present with the mother and daughter speaking to each other through places and events.

● Virmati is the protagonist of the novel. She is a young Punjabi girl from a very conservative family in Amritsar, falls in love with a married professor. Prof. Harish Chandra is a Professor at the Arya Sabha College. Virmati was deeply enlightened by the Professor and considered him noble for his concern towards woman's education. They both were in love with each other, but the path to love never runs smooth. The social barricades and moral hurdles label their relationship as 'illicit'.

Virmati's mother was adamant and would not allow her to have her ways. Talks of marriage filled the air and everybody in the house could think of nothing else but Virmati's impending marriage. Virmati remained passive and silent, and every word fell on a deaf ear. Things began to get out of control and Virmati contemplates suicide. She made a futile attempt at drowning. She was locked in the godown but still remained silent and stubborn. The next few months passed by in great pain and loneliness for both Virmati and Harish. They communicated through letters, exchanging every minute detail of things happening. Finally, it was decided, although reluctantly, that Virmati would go to Lahore for further studies. Virmati, as her name suggests was not only brave, but also stubborn. The two persons who greatly influenced Virmati were Shakuntala (her cousin) and Swarnalata (her room partner).

● Virmati's daughter Ida, who belongs to the post independence generation, is strong and clearheaded. She breaks up her marriage as she is denied maternity by her husband. The forced abortion is also the termination of her marriage. Ida by severing the marriage bond frees herself from male domination and power and also from conventional social structures which bind women. She has that strength which Virmati lacks. Ida wants liberty and doesn't want to compromise as did her mother.

● Ida utters angrily at the end of the novel :―"This book weaves a connection between my mother and me, each word-brick in a mansion I made with my head and my heart. Now live in it, Mama and leave me be. Do not haunt me anymore.‖".

A Married Woman – 2002: second novel.

● Astha is the protagonist in the novel.

● A Married Woman deals with women's issues in the present context. It is an honest and seductive story of love, passion and attachment set at the time of political and religious turmoil in India. Driven by a powerful physical relationship with a much younger woman, the main character of the novel risks losing the acquisitions of her conventional marriage and safe family. The novel raises the controversial issue of homosexual relationship in a challenging way.

Manju Kapur frankly depicts the love affair between two women, but less attention has been paid to the historical and political context in which that relationship develops.

Home - 2006

Nisha is the central character.

The Immigrant –2008

The Immigrant is story of two immigrants, Nina and Ananda. Nina teaches English  literature at Miranda House. She was not married till the age of 30. Ananda, who lives in Canada, wants to marry an Indian  girl, and marries Nina. Nina goes to Canada as an immigrant and her journey of life starts in a totally new environment. At the end of the novel, she becomes a new woman, totally different from what she was before her marriage in India. Nina said she loved  “The Second Sex”, but she couldn't identify with much of it.

MANMOHAN GHOSE(1869-1924)

One of the first Indian  poet to write poetry  in English . He was brother of Sri Aurobindo.

Primavera: Poems by four authors(189) - with Laurence Binyon, Arthur S.Cripps and Stephen Philips.

Songs of love and Death:

Love songs and Elegies:

 

MANOHAR MALGAONKAR (1913-2010)

Manohar Malagaonkar was born in 1913 in a royal family. He was educated at Bombay University. He served The Maratha Light infantry s an officer. He was a big game hunter, a civil servant as well as a mine owner and a farmer too. His novels have  the Indian  Independence Movement and it’s results which are historical and adventurous.

A contemporary of R.K. Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand, Manohar Malgonkar is largely ignored in spite of his stellar contribution to Indian  writing in English . At a time when mysteries and thrillers were not very well read in India, Manohar pioneered the genre and contributed immensely to it with books like Spy in Amber, A Bend in the Ganges, Bandicoot Run, Cactus Country, etc. If he were writing today, he would surely be an international name in the mystery and thriller genres, writing and competing with the likes of Jeffrey Archer, Clive Cussler, and James Patterson.

 

RK Narayan called him as “favourite Indian  novelist in English ”

Works:

"A Teller of Tales", "Distant Drum", "Combat of Shadows", "The Princes", "A Bend in the Ganges", "The Devil`s Wind"` "The Sea Hawk: Life and Battles of Kanhoji Angrey", "Chatrapatis of Kolhapur", "Spy in Amber", "Shalimar", "The Garland Keepers", "Bandicoot Run", "Cactus Country", "A Toast in Warm Wine", "In Uniform", "Bombay Beware", "Rumble-Tumble" and "Inside Goa.

●Bend in Ganges: partition novel

MEENAKSHI REDDY MADHAVAN

Daughter of the famous Malayalam writer and former IAS officer N. S. Madhavan, Meenakshi is a blogger an a writer.

NOTABLE WORKS:

Split

Before, And Then After

The Life & Times Of Layla The Ordinary

You Are Here

 

MICHAEL MADUSUDAN DUTT(1824-1873)

Bengali poet and Dramatist, converted to Christianity. Aurobindo said that “ God himself took up thy pen and wrote”

Works:

The Captive Lady:  love story of Pridviraj and Samyuktha

 

MUKUL KESAVAN

● His first book Looking Through Glass appeared in 1994. It became a best￾seller and received several critical literary acclaims.

● Kesavan`s cricket based Men in White - was published by Penguin India in 2007.

MULK RAJ ANAND (1905-2004)

Mulk Raj Anand(born in Peshwar) is popularly known as an Indian  novelist, short-story writer, and art critic. As he used to write in English  he was among the first writers to render Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English . Called as “the Zola or Balzac of India”  and ‘’the Charles Dickens of India”.. Anand drew a realistic and sympathetic portrait of the poor of his country. The author was also regarded as one the 'founding fathers` of the Indian  English  novel. Mulk Raj Anand's stories depicted a realistic and sympathetic portrait of the poor in India. He spent World War II working as a scriptwriter for the BBC in London, where he became a friend of George Orwell. He found a literary magazine called "Marg".

Works:

Untouchable – 1935: first main novel

● His friend, E. M. Forster( he met while working on T. S. Elliot`s  Criterion) wrote the  introduction.

● His first main novel, "Untouchable", published in 1935, was a chilling expose of the day-to-day life of a member of India`s untouchable caste.

●Used  Stream of Consciousness (cinematic technique), Brilliant Idioms( Local Language to English )

 ●It is the story of a single day in the life of Bakha, a toilet-cleaner, who accidentally bumps into a member of a higher caste. Bakha searches for comfort to the tragedy of the destiny into which he was born, talking first with a Christian missionary and then with a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, but by the end of the book he concludes that it is technology, in the form of the newly introduced flush toilet that will be his saviour. While the toilet may deprive him and his family of the traditional livelihood they have had for centuries, it may also liberate them in the end by eliminating the need for a caste of toilet cleaners.

● sohini is Bakha’s sister assaulted by temple priest. Sohini doent have voice in the novel.

● Rajarao’s Kanthapura, Unnava Lami Narayana’s Malapalli, Tagore’s Chandalika, Prem Chand’s Godan used Unctouchable as protagonist.

Coolie (1936)

Set in Bombay slums, Munoo, a 14 year old boy is the protagonist. It is about his plight due to poverty.

Two Leaves and a Bud – 1937

● The story is about a poor Punjabi labor, Gangu (is the protagonist of the novel. )

● He is brutally exploited in a tea plantation and killed by a British official, who tries to rape his daughter. This is mainly about the plight of the laborers in a tea plantation in Assam. The tea gardens in Assam become a symbol of his slavery. This novel explores the plight and sufferings of the tea laborers.

● The novel describes an exploited peasant, who is killed while trying to protect his daughter from being

raped by a British colonial official.

● The two leaves and the bud of the tea trees, the shade shrubs are the silent witnesses of this oppression and agony of the poor Punjabi laborer who represent the oppressed class.

● Reggie Hunt is the British Official who attempts to rape Gangu's daughter and kills Gangu when he tries to save his daughter.

The Village (1939): first in trilogy with Across the Black waters and The sword and the Sickle.

Across the Black Waters(1939) second in trilogy.

 Lalu is the protagonist. It describes the experience of Lalu, a sepoy in the Indian  Army fighting on behalf of Britain against the Germans in France during World War I.

The Sword and the Sickle (1942):   it is a satire on the rise of communism.

The Private Life of an Indian  Prince (1953):

The Road(1961): the main character is Bhikhu, had many similarities with Bhaka

Autobiography( in Seven parts): Seven summers(1951), Morning Face(1968)-won sahitya academy.

Conversations in Bloomsbury(1981)- is a memoir, about his life in London and relations with Bloomsbury group.

NAMITA GOKHALE

Namita Gokhale is a well renowned writer of Indian  literature. She was born in the year 1956 in Lucknow, India. Namita Gokhale has penned down a total of five novels in English . She has also done some non-fictional work in English  literature. She has established her reputation as one of India's greatest feminist writers. Her interest in Indian  mythology is well known. She felt indebted to the great poet Kalidasa.

Works:

● Paro: Dreams of Passion (1984)

● Gods, Graves and Grandmother (1994)

● Mountain Echoes: Reminiscence of Kumaoni Women (1994)

● The Book of Shiva (2000)

● Love Them, Loathe Them (2004)

● Present Tense, Living on the Edge (2004)

● A Himalayan Love Story (1996)

● The Puffin Mahabharata (2009)

The Book of Shadows 1999

● Rachita Tiwari, an English  lecturer is the protagonist.

● Rachita gets acid thrown at her face in this novel.

Shakuntala: The Play of Memory 2005

● This story is based on the story of the famous play Abhijnana Shakuntalam written by Kalidas.

● The novel opens with the picture of Kashi, the city of Shiva. The narrator is Shakuntala who remembers her first sight of Kashi. She begins to dream of her previous birth. In her dreams she sees many images and begins to think of the purpose of life. She remembers the story of Shakuntala. After sometime Shakuntala was married to Srijan. Srijan knew her since she was a child. Shakuntala was his third wife. His other wives were dead and had not given him any children. The married life of Shakuntala was very decent and Srijan was very courteous to her. But she was not satisfied and she had her own vision of freedom. She leads a happy life. Later, Shakuntala came to Kashi and there she surrenders to a world of pleasure, travelling in the complete freedom from rules and bonds that she has always desired. Now she was all alone, no one's wife or mistress or sister. She listened The Puranas from the mouth of a Brahmin. She saw different sights and great monks and worshippers there. At that time she remembers Bhikkuni's words and planned to go to a monastery, a Buddhist Sangha and to follow the path of Srijan's mother.

● Namita Gokhale raised the question of the equality of woman with man. Shakuntala has the longing to travel like man, but she is helpless. She wants to get religious knowledge like her brother. She keeps her opinions to herself because she knows that scriptures are forbidden to women. Namita Gokhale is indebted to Buddha's principles. She asserts the influence of Buddha upon Shakuntala.

● The book is mainly centered around Shakuntala who has her own vision of freedom. She is endowed with great courage and zeal. Since childhood she wants to know about Dharma and scriptures but she never told her opinions to her mother because the scriptures are forbidden to women. Her curiosity can be seen when she used to hear the religious texts narrated by the tutor of Guresvara. She used to discuss great philosophical facts with her brother but she never felt satisfied.

 

NARAYAN R K (1906-2001) , R=Rashipuram(village), K=Krishnaswamy(father)

Rashipuram Krishna swamy Narayan`s  born in Rashipuram village(Madras). His father name is Krishnaswamy. At first, he could not get the novel published. Eventually, a mutual friend, Purna, showed the draft to Graham Greene. Greene liked it so much that he arranged for its publication. Greene was to remain a close friend and admirer of his. After that, he published a continuous stream of novels, all set in Malgudi and each of it, dealt with different characters in that fictional place. Narayan's style of writing style is compared to William Faulkner. He created the fictional town Malgudi. R. K. Narayan passed away on 13th May 2001.

Awards:

● He won the National Prize of the Sahitya Akademi, the Indian  literary academy, for The Guide in 1958. He was the first Indian  English  writer to win the Sahitya Akademi Award.

● He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan,  for distinguished service to literature in 1964.

● In 1980, the Royal Society of Literature awarded the AC Benson Medal R. K. Narayan.

Works:

Swami and Friends:-1935: first novel, Semi autobiographical Novel,began his literary career with this.

● Swami and Friends is the first novel of a trilogy of novels written by R.K. Narayan. ( Other two in trilogy are The Bachelor of Arts and The English  Teacher )

● The book consists of 19 chapters in total.

● Rajam, Police Superintendent's son, who becomes close friend to Swami.

● Swami and Friends ideally depicts the growing pain of an adolescent mind, the tears after getting hurt and certainly the fears of losing a friend.

● Mani, Somu (Monitor), Sankar, Samuel ( The Pea) are the friends of Swami in the story.

● The story is about an adolescent boy of 10 years who was growing up at this time of pre independence era. The story is about this growing of the little boy; about his tears and fears, about his mischief and happiness and about his wonders and innocence.

● Swami is the student at the Albert Mission School. Albert Mission emphasizes on the magnitude of Christianity and stresses on the importance of English  literature.

● Rajam is the symbol of colonial power that drastically changes the Swami`s life.

● They form a team called MCC : Malgudi Cricket Club

The Bachelor of Arts - 1935

● It is the second book of a trilogy that began with `Swami and friends` and ended with `The English  Teacher`.

● The story is set in a make-believe south Indian  town called Malgudi.

● The time is pre-independence and it captures the spirit of Indian s in sufferings of the freedom struggle and also the east-west clash.

● Chandran is the main character.

● The Bachelor of Arts is the saga of a young mind gradually moving towards maturity. The story illustrates the need of possessing a Bachelor of Arts degree and also portrays the dilemmas associated with it.

● The teacher `Gajapathi` who teaches Shakespeare in accented English , struggles with time table, exams interpolated with secret cigarette smoking sessions and also watching films are described so colorfully that anyone can experience of being at that time.

● Chandran falls in love with Malti and after graduation when he tries to marry Malti; he got rejected by her parents because of his horoscope. It says that he is mangalik and if he marries any non mangalik girl she will die eventually. So this frustrates him a lot and he left in search of some peace in his life which ends in making him a sage. During his adventure he meets many people and gets enough respect by simple people. But after 8 months, he returns home and takes up a job as a news agent and decides to marry. The story ends with his falling in love afresh with Sushila.

 The Dark Room (1938)

● First published in Great Britain in 1938

● Feminist view of the contemporary South Indian  society.

● Savitri is the main character, married to Ramani.

● Ramani is an employee in Engladia Insurance Company.

● Kamala, Sumati and Babu are the three children of Ramani and Savitri.

● Savitri, being a submissive housewife gives birth to three children. Her husband always dominates her and whenever his tortures become unbearable to her she retires in a dark room in their house. As the story progressed in certain distance her husband got engaged with another woman and in order to set up her place he shifted many of their furniture from home. These include one of her favorite furniture also. While shocked by the news of his relation Savitri tries to win back her husband but cannot do so because of Ramani`s obstinate nature. During the course one day she fights back and leaves home without thinking anything.

● "Dark room" becomes symbolic element in the story.

● The story can be compared with " The Doll's house"

 

The English  Teacher (1945)-  It is an, autobiographical story, dedicated to his wife Rajam.

● It is the 3^rd of the trilogy that began with Swami and Friends, and The Bachelor of  Arts.

● The English  Teacher is the tale of love; the saga of ceaseless passion of loving someone so very dearly. The male protagonist at the beginning of the story is seen working as an English  teacher in the same school where he was once studying. The story deals with his life, love, happiness and sadness.

● The English  teacher as an eternal saga of ceaseless love.

● Krishnan is the central character.

● The story is a series of experiences in Krishnan`s life. These includes some joyful, and also some sorrowful. The hero in this story was in complete love with his wife and after her death he plunged into a period of `darkness` and was subsequently obsessed by the thought of communicating with her. Krishnan undertakes an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual journey during the course of the novel. At the beginning of the story he works as an English  teacher in the same school where he was once studying. While at the end he resigns from his post and begins work at a nursery school. His life becomes

unpredictable and it happens not as a result of any grand plan or ambition, but as a result of his response to a series of challenging circumstances.

● It narrates Narayan`s own happy days with his wife Rajam, who died because of typhoid just after five years of their happily married life.

 

Mr Sampath(1949) - The Printer of Malgudi - is a story of relationships.

● The novel portrays the journey of the central character "Mr Sampath(Printer of Malgudi) who was the printer of the newspaper "The Banner".

● The protagonist of this story is Srinivas(editor). He is a passionate editor of a newspaper that is run by only one person. The name of the newspaper is `The Banner` and Mr Sampath is the printer there who shoulders the financial burden of the newspaper. In this schedule he also makes uninvited editorial comments. This relationship appears to work well for Srinivas until the paper closes down and Sampath invites his friend to join him in the world of cinema or movie making. Eventually Sampath falls in love with the heroin of the movie and this step makes his life difficult as well. Srinivas has his problem of over responsibility. Due to some unavoidable circumstances Srinivas leaves the studio and revive `the banner` with another printer. Sampath was not bothered about it. But at the loss of the lady, money, fame, wealth, and peace he comes back to Srinivas. Sampath has learnt from his past mistakes and found his true niche (place, position) in life.

 

The Financial Expert - 1952

● This is a story in 5 parts

● Margayya is the protagonist in the story and a proud money lender.

● Balu is the son of Margayya and he marries Brinda.

● Theme of the novel is Lust for Money

● The rise and fall, the pain and agony of the main protagonist are aptly described in the novel. It is the story of a financial expert who was once a proud one but later in his life lost almost everything and had to start from scratch all over again.

● He usually spends his time under a banyan tree in front of the Central Co-Operative Land Mortgage Bank and distributes financial advice to those willing to pay for his knowledge.

● He becomes rich but darkness comes in his own life as his son becomes spoiled. When he lost all his money his son denies to sit under the banyan tree so at his old age he himself decides to sit under the tree and starts all over again.

● William Walsh hails Margayya as "probably Narayan's greatest single comic creation".

 

Waiting for the Mahatma (1955)

● set amid the final years of India`s freedom struggle where Mahatma Gandhi also appears in the novel.

● Sriram and Bharti are the major characters

● The central character of this story is Sriram. He is a high school graduate and lives with his grandmother in the said village. Sriram is attracted to a girl named Bharati who is active in Mahatma Gandhi`s Quit India movement. So consequently inclined by his love`s route he commits himself to Gandhi`s Quit India campaign. Sriram gets involved in some underground activities that take place in the countryside. He is new to the place and some misunderstandings takes place which turns the story in a comic style. He goes to jail and after returning from there Sriram reunites with Bharati. At the ending their engagement takes place with some of sour taste as this happens in the middle of India`s partition in 1947.

The Guide (1958) - won  Sahitya Academy Award

● The novel describes the transformation of the protagonist Raju, from a tour guide to a spiritual guide. 

● Raju (Railway Raju is his nick name )is the hero of the story who grows up near a railway station and eventually becomes a shopkeeper. Later he becomes a resourceful tourist guide.

● Raju falls in love with a beautiful dancer, Rosie, the neglected wife of archaeologist Marco. Marco does not approve of Rosie's passion for dancing. With the help of Raju's Marketing tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer.

● Raju is caught red handedly while forging Rosie`s signature to sell one of her necklaces. He stays in jail for two years. After returning from imprisonment he decides not to go to Malgudi. He goes to a village named Vellan where the people take him wrongly as a spiritual guide. They start offering him food and some comforts. The irony of the story is a drought that occurs in the village. Raju takes 12-day fast on people request. After many days of his fasting in one fine morning when he goes to the riverside for his daily rituals his legs sag down and he feels it is raining in the hillside. The ending of the novel is a bit confusing as it leaves an unfinished end of Raju`s death or end of drought.

● Open Ended

The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961)

● The Man-Eater of Malgudi`, describes about the good and evil forces of the central character.

● Narayan bases his story on the ancient Indian  myth of a boasting demon BHASMASURA who terrorizes the world and dies eventually.

● The novel is a kind of an allegory.

● It is a post-colonial tale.

● Nataraj, Vasu, are the main characters.

● Nataraj is owner of a small, friendly printing press in Malgudi. He is a very polite,peaceful person with no enemy as such. His life is tensionless till the day he meets Vasu. Vasu arrives at Nataraj's printing press demanding 500 visiting cards.

● Vasu is a taxidermist (animal stuffer). He depicted as a demonic one terrorizing the mankind. He starts living in the printer's stairs. Vasu was creating many problems to Nataraj`s life. Vasu never gives him money nor does he sign any rent slip. During story`s progression Vasu encroaches Nataraj`s life in all aspects. The story comes to an end when Nataraj decides to organize a function on the release of a book of his friend. But very soon someone informs that Vasu is going to kill the elephant at the procession. Nataraj decides to talk to Vasu for the last time but he finds him sleeping. But on the next day Vasu was dead. Nataraj was being arrested and later gets a clean chit from police. His friends start avoiding him. Shastri informs Nataraj that Vasu was not murdered but he had damaged his nerves with his powerful hands while smashing a fly and died instantly.

● Kumar is the name of the elephant.

● Rangi is a prostitute who had an affair with Vasu.

● Vasu is the Man eater of Malgudi.

The Vendor of Sweets (1967)

● The story illustrates the conflicts between two generations of father and son.

● Jagan, the vendor of sweets and the central character

● Mali, Jagan's son

● Narasimha, Jagan's cousin

● It is the story of a merchant, Jagan, who at the age of 60 still feels young at heart and makes good profit out of his sweet shop. Jagan is depicted as the vendor of sweets in this story. Some waves come to his life when his son, Mali, returns from America with his Korean wife. Jagan tries to cope with the situation even with his conventional thoughts but finally fails to do so because of his son`s nature.

● Jagan starts feeling irritated all the time because of his son`s activity. But subsequently Jagan develops affection for his foreigner daughterin-law. He notices that Mali, his son, is not paying full attention to his wife. Jagan gets scared as he did the same mistake with Mali`s mother because of his involvement in

freedom struggle movement. Jagan tries to talk to Mali but he denies. Mali needs some money for his

business but Jagan refused to lend him. As a result some friction takes place and Jagan starts living isolated in his own family. The story turns to an ending point when Jagan develops some urge to leave the worldly affairs and do some religious work. At that very moment he is informed that Mali is in police

custody and also has left his wife. Jagan gets shuttered. He refuses to help his son but instructs Narsimha to help Mali`s wife to return to her homeland.

My Days(1974): his auto biography

● `My Days` is an autobiography written by the famous writer R. K. Narayan.

● about the happenings of author R.K.Narayan`s life as well his ups and downs in his career.

The Painter of Signs(1976)

● Raman is a sign painter in Malgudi

● The Painter of Signs is the story of Raman and daisy. Raman is the painter and Daisy the female activist who employs Raman to paint the different signs and symbols in regard to family planning. Raman becomes infatuated with Daisy. Their relationship gets destroyed by some misunderstanding and creates a hopeless tension. Finally, he returns to his own business life as a minor artist that he was before, a painter of signs.

● The novel deals with the contradictory impulses of family planning.

Talkative Man (1986)

● Talkative Man is a local journalist in Narayan`s fictional town of Malgudi.

● The central character in this story is the talkative man. Another important character is Dr. Rann who comes to the village with some wicked thoughts. But he could not succeed in his plans as he was caught by the talkative man. The story flows in a logical manner, which aptly echoes the meaning of the title with the nature of the protagonist.

● He meets an intended doctor from the land Timbuktoo who has supposedly come to the town on a mission for the United Nations. The talkative man has no real job and no visible means of support, but is a dashing dresser and elegant man.

● As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that he is a womanizing predator who seduces young women and then abandons them without warning. The climax comes when Talkative Man attempts to prevent the doctor from seducing a young Malgudi woman whom Talkative Man has known since birth.

 

The World of Nagaraj (1990)

● Nagaraj is the protagonist

● Written in the form of dialogue.

● `The World of Nagaraj` is a portrait of Nagaraj and the people around him and through them of the town of Malgudi.

● The story revolves around Nagaraj. He is a rich aristocrat belonging to the wealthy Kabir Lane. He enjoys his time at home, lecturing his wife Sita or seated on the pyol watching people move around in the mystical town of Malgudi. In his free time he works for free doing the accounts for his friend Coomar`s sari shop, he eats in his favorite cafe, he gossips with his neighbour the Talkative Man, and he plans to write a book about the sage Narada. He is forever planning snappy responses or forceful actions he never finds the courage to carry out He is unable to stand up even to his wife Sita, his brother Gopu, or his nephew Tim. Not even when Tim`s wife Saroja`s harmonica playing destroys the peace of his home. His plans to write about Narada never come to much, between his own worthlessness and the uncooperativeness of the pundits he has to work with.

 

A Tiger of Malgudi - 1983

● 'A tiger of Malgudi' is mainly a story in a tiger`s version.

● Raja, the tiger, is the protagonist.

● a comic story that takes place by the narration of a tiger. It recounts its story of capturing by a circus owner from where he escaped successfully. But again caught by a monk with whom he spends the rest of his life in a hill and and realizes the inner meaning of life by spiritual knowledge.

 

Grandmother`s Tales (1992)

● Grandmother`s tale is a narrative story where the author narrates his grandmother`s stories with utmost tenderness. Naryan is writing his Grandmother`s story, a look into an India where child marriage was normal and annas were still the currency. This book allows a reader to journey through an old India, which is filled with ancient and family traditions. The life style at that time was bit difficult but however it is Narayan depicts it with full grace.

● Told by the narrator`s grandmother, the tale recounts the adventures of her mother, married at seven and then abandoned, who crosses the subcontinent to extract her husband from the hands of his new wife. Her courage is immense. But once her mission is completed, her independence vanishes.

Shortstories:

The Malgudi days(1941)- collection of short stories.

Dodu and Other stories(1943)

Cyclone and other stories(1944)

An astrologer and other stories.

Under the Banyan Tree -collection of 28 short stories.  The main character from the title story is `Nambi`.

An Astrologer’s Day (1947)-first published in the newspaper `The Hindu`, is collection of thirty short stories that purely describes life and different aspects of life. These stories are about characters from every walk of Indian  life and that includes merchants, beggars, herdsmen, rogues, all of them in one place i.e. Narayan's make-believe village Malgudi.

 

The Reluctant Guru:-

● An autobiographical essay.

● This is an effort of unveiling the true face of India to the people who thinks that India is only the land of snake charmers and black magic.

● The author himself becomes the Guru who visits and professes people.

NAYANTARA SAHGAL

Nayantara Sahgal was born in 1927 and is an Indian  writer in English . Her fiction deals with India's elite responding to the crises engendered by political change. She was the first female Indo-Asian writer to

receive wide recognition. Her novels try to highlight the independent existence of women and their efforts to thwart attempts to isolate them from the centre￾stage of human existence.

Awards:

Sahitya Akademi Award in 1986

Commonwealth Writers Award in 1987

Works:

● Her first book Prison and Chocolate Cake was published in 1954.

● A Time to Be Happy - 1963.

● This Time of Morning(1965)

● Storm in Chandigarh (1969)

● The Day in Shadow (1971)

● "Indira Gandhi: Her Road to Power" (1982) and "A Situation in New Delhi" (1989) were her two political writings.

● Her two novels were published in the US- Mistaken Identity in 1988 and Rich Like Us in 1985.

NIRAD. C. CHAUDHURI (1897-1999)

Born in Kishore Gunj of East Bengal. He devoted his life to study India's relationship with Britain. Chaudhuri gained critical acclaim and was one of the most successful writers of Indian  origin, in English . His remarkable Bengali prose pieces were "Atmoghaati Bangali" (Suicidal Bengali) and "Bangali Jivone Ramani" (Women in Bengali Life).

He is called as “Last British Imperialist” and  last of the “Brown Sahibs”

 His friend the editor, historian and novelist Khushwant Singh commented as "The wogs took the bait and having read only dedication sent up howls of protest".

Awards:

Sahitya Akademi award in 1975

Works:

● The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian  – 1951: his masterpiece ,Controversial book, dedicated to the memories of British Empire.The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian  was published which put him on the list of greatest Indian  writers. The same book, due to its controversial acknowledgement, ruined his life - he was terminated from Government service, deprived of his pension and blacklisted as an author.

● Thy Hand, Great Anarch! is an autobiographical sequel to The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian  

● A Passage to England (1959)

● The Continent of Circe (1965)

● The Intellectual in India (1967)

● To Live or Not to Live (1971)

● Scholar Extraordinary- Max Muller(1974) - won Sahitya Academy

● Culture in the Vanity Bag (1976)

● Clive of India (1975)

● Hinduism: A Religion to Live by (1979)

● Three Horsemen of the New Apocalypse (1997)

● Great Anarch! and Culture in the Vanity Bag.

 

 

 

NISSIM EZEKIEL(1924-2004)

-Born in Bombay,in a  Jewish background family, worked as professor of English  at Mumbai University.

-Known as “Barometer of Modern India’s Literary Atmosphere.”  and “ Father of Post independence Indian  English  verse”

-Foundational figure in post-colonial Indian  English  Literature.

-Co-founded lierary magazine -”Jumpo(1961)”, Critic of “The names of India(1964-66)” and edited “Poetry India(1966-77).

-His poetry is ironical , optimistic, discovers himself with poverty, anguish life of poor and sorrow.

-main themes are love, sex, Man-woman relationship, loneliness, lust and creativity.

 

His collection of poetry:

A time machine(1952), Sixty poems(1953), Discovery of India(1956)’ The third(1959), Unfinished Man(1960), The Exact Women(1965), snake skin and other poems(1974), Hymns in darkness(1976), Latter day Pslams(1982),collected poems(1969)

 

His famous poems:

Background Casually: describes himself as a “Poet Rascal Clown” in the very first line, about his alienation among Catholics(He is a Jew).

Night of the scorpion: It is about mothers love, on a rainy night a scorpion enters a house to take shelter. It  stings the poet’s mother and the mother saves the poet from scorpion.

Poet, Lover and Bird watcher: poets are compared to bird watchers, says best poet waits for words. The common thing in both of them are waiting and watching.

The visitor:  about a crow, reminds childhood story of crow.

Ganga: about servant maids, we in the name of generosity donates old sari, blouse and gives them a cup of yesterday’s tea.

Guru: About bogus(fake) guru.

Very Indian  poem in English : Uses Indian  English , repetition of word forms fighting, fighting, uses 100%,200% correct

Island: About the birth palce Bombay.

Jewish wedding in bombay:

Professor:

Naipaul’s India and Mine:  An essay

NOVONEEL CHAKRABORTY

His speciality lies in romantic thrillers that he writes along with philosophy mixed with it. His first book “A Thing beyond forever” released in 2008 and won the national bestseller tag in just a few months of its release. Today, he is a full-time writer and scriptwriter.

NOTABLE WORKS:

Marry Me, Stranger

All Yours, Stranger

Forever is a Lie

OMPRAKASH VALMIKI

He is a prominent figure among Hindi Dalit writers. He is a forerunner among the writers who laid the foundation for Dalit literature in Hindi. Among his many published works so far, Joothan: A Dalit's Life, his autobiography has been the focus of critical appreciation and debate. He was born on 30th June 1950 at Barla District, Muzaffarnagar, UP to a low class Dalit family. He was the only person of his family who had ever gone to school. The country had become independent, when in July 1956 his father put him in the village primary school. Those were the times when Dalit children were not allowed to study in schools. He could remember all those teachers of his school who never addressed him by name, but by his caste.

Joothan: A Dalit’s Life (1997)

● It is an autobiographical account of Omprakash Valmiki's life as a Dalit.

● Joothan: A Dalit's Life by Omprakash Valmiki is one such work of Dalit literature first published in Hindi in 1997 and translated into English  by Arun Prabha Mukherjee in 2003.

● It begins by a detailed description of the poor living surroundings of the Chuhra community, where poverty reigns supreme.

OM SWAMI

WORKS:

The Wellness Sense

If Truth Be Told

When All Is Not Well: Depression and Sadness

The Ancient Science of Mantras: Wisdom of the Sages

Also Read: 121 Best English  Books by Indian  Authors: The Definitive List (2018)

 

PREETI SHENOY

She has been consistently nominated for the Forbes List of the 100 most influential celebrities in India since 2013. India Today calls her 'the only woman in the highest-selling league'.

NOTABLE WORKS:

It's All in the Planets

The Secret Wish List

The One You Cannot Have

It Happens For A Reason

PRAKASH IYER

NOTABLE WORKS:

The Habit of Winning

The Secret of Leadership

You Too Can

PRATIBHA RAY

A professor by profession and a writer by choice, Pratibha Ray undoubtedly is a household name in Odisha and in most parts of India through her translated works.

WORKS:

Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi

Adibhoomi

Shilapadma

 

PRITISH NANDY BORH(1951---)

He is a poet, journalist, politician, animal activist, editor and film producer.

Worked with times of india and illustrated weekly of India, Published Indrajal( comics title).

Received Padma Shri in 1977, EM Foster  award in 1976.

Works:

Gods and Olives(1967): first collection of poems

 

RABINDRANATH TAGORE (7^th May,1861-1941)

Rabindranath Tagore was an icon of Indian  culture. He was a poet, philosopher, musician, writer, and educationist. Rabindranath Tagore became the first Asian to become Nobel laureate when he won Nobel Prize (1913) for his collection of poems, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912). He was popularly called as Gurudev by Gandhiji and “the bard of Bengal” Tagore wrote eight novels and four novellas.

He established VishwaBharathi University at (shantinikethan)in Westbengal. Gaveup his Knighthood in protest against Jalianwalabagh incident in 1919.

Works:

● Banphul, a narrative poem in 7000 lines , wrote it when he was a child

●Bhagna Hrudaya, about joys and sorrows

●”Ekla chalo Ekla chalo, Ekla chalo Re” is a famous song

● “Where the mind is without fear” is a famous poem from Geethanjali.

● author of National songs of India(Jana Gana Mana) and Bangladesh(Amar Sonar Bangla).

Novels:  Gora(fair faced), The broken Nest , the Home and the World

Plays: Chitra (a one act play), The genious valmiki, The sacrifice, Dak Ghar(The post office1912), Chandalika(untouchable girl), about Ananda, Buddha’s disciple asks a tribal girl for water,

Chitrangada,Chitrangada and Shyama wellknown for “Ravindra Nritya Natya”( dance adaptations)

Short stories: “Bhikharini”(the Beggar women, First short story) ,The homecoming, The Kabulliwalah,about  a fruit seller

Auto biography: My Reminiscences(1912)

Songs: wrote about 2230 songs which are well known as “Rabindrasangit”

The Home and the World (1916): partition novel

● Originally written as Ghore Baire

● The story The Home and the World is set at the background of the partition time of 1947.

Main Characters: Nikhil, Bimala, his wife, and Sandeep(a revolutionist)

● Nikhil lives a happy life with his wife Bimala till the time his friend Sandip appeared. Nikhil was

definitely devoted to his wife and he tried hard to educate her and enable her to discover herself not in

the confinements of the four walls of the house but in the big wide world outside. Nikhil`s friend Sandip is a revolutionist. He easily attracts the innocent and unsuspecting Bimala, creating a love triangle as a whole. Although Nikhil figures out what is happening, he doesn`t reveal this his wife. He is mature enough to do that and thus grants Bimala freedom to grow and choose what she wants in her life. They had an arranged marriage and a huge age difference between them. Meanwhile Bimala experiences the emotions of love for the first time in a manner which helps her understand that it is indeed her husband Nikhil who really loves her. The novel ends with Sandeep running away like a common thief after the communal seeds that he had sown in the once peaceful community results in a bloody riot. Bimala loses both her home and the world as Nikhil almost dies trying to quell the riot.

RAM NATH KAK (1917-1993)

He is a Kashmiri  pandit and Veterinarian( animal Doctor).

 

Works:

Autumn Leaves:Kashmiri Reminiscences ( )

Auto biography,  portrays life in 20^th century Kashmir.It was Partly set in Hawaii which boasts of “Green foliage and blue skies” and other paradise, Kashmir.

It reminds us the  Poetic words of Jahangir, the Mughal Emperor of india, who says “ If paradise is on earth, it is this Kashmir, It is this Kashmir, It is this Kashmir”

 

ROMESH CHANDER DUTT(1848-1909)

Born in Calcutta, Served as the First president of Bangiya Sahitya Parishad in 1894. Wellknown as Historical Novelist.

 

Works:

Translated Ramayana and Mahabharatha into English .

Translated Rigveda into Bengali Language.

The Slave girl of Agra

The Lake of Pslams.

 

RAJA RAO:

Raja Rao was born on November 8, 1908 in Hassan, in the state of Mysore in Karnataka in a orthodox Brahmin family. Prof.Dickinson at Alighar University inspired him to study French literature.

Works:

Kanthapura 1938

● Deals with Gandhian struggle of independence, Civil Disobedience Movement

● Achakka, an old lady narrates the whole story in the form of SthalaPurana.

● Kanthapura is a traditional Caste ridden Indian  Village(dominated by Brahmins). The village is believed to be protected by a local deity ' Kenchamma'.

● Moorthy is the main character in the story

● "Harikatha", a traditional form of storytelling was practiced in the village.

● Hari Katha man, Jayaramachar, narrated a Hari katha based on Gandhi and his ideals.

● Bade Khan, a police officer in the story beats Moorthy for preaching Gandhian Theory.

● Skeffingston Coffee Estate is in this story.

● Moorthy was arrested, kept in jail for three months and women of Kanthapura took charge of the struggle for freedom under the leadership of Rangamma and united people regardeless of caste.

● It is mentioned that people of the village were settled in Kashipur and Kanthapura was occupied by the people from Bombay.

The cow of Barricades and other stories(1947): written in French

The Serpent and the Rope 1960: Second Novel

● A semi auto-biographical story. (he is Brahmin, studied in France and Married to Actress Katherine)

● The story is about the relationship between Indian  and Western culture.

● Ramaswamy, a young Brahmin studying in France,inspired by Vedanthic Philosophy and Adhishankara’s Adhwaitha, is married to a French college teacher Madeleine.

● Madeleine becomes Buddist in her spiritual quest and renounces worldly desires after the death of their son Pierre. She leaves her husband to find his own true self and also metaphysics of death.

● Ramaswamy is described by his wife as "either a thousand years old or three" and "the wisdom of ages".

The Cat and Shakespeare 1965:

● It a Metaphysical Comedy

● The cat represents the Hindu concept of karma.

● Ramakrishna Pai is the protagonist and narrator.

● Govindan Nair and Ramakrishna Pai are the two major characters.

Comrade Kirilov

● The story depicts the Life and ideology of the protagonist Padmanabha Iyer.

● Shows Rao's interest in Marxism.

● An Indian  who ventured abroad when still young, Kirillov came to England in 1928 and settled there. He is a seeker, and taken from the first by Marxism. Kirillov can excuse and justify the show-trials, while at the same time denigrating Mahatma Gandhi and his efforts in India. The novella covers the 1930s and 1940s, to Indian  independence and beyond. As the narrator recognises, Kirillov is torn between the Indian  tradition that remains a part of him and the newfound ideology that he has embraced. Indeed, even as he claims to be what amounts to the Soviet ideal, he sounds like nothing so much as the ascetics of his homeland. Kirillov eventually returns to India. At the end the author offering a chunk of the diary of Kirillov`s wife, Irene, before the conclusion. It is the next generation, Kirillov`s son Kamal, that is then the focus at the end, the author giving up on Kirillov. Kamal, soon immersed in his past, offers hope for the future, while Kirillov is lost down this path he cannot escape from, obsessed like the religious fanatic.

The Police man  and The Rose and other stories(1978)

 

The Chessmaster and His Moves – 1988

● Contains three books

● used the metaphor of the chess game to animate philosophical and psychological ideas.

● The Chess master is the story of an impossible love between Sivarama Sastri, an Indian  mathematician working in Paris, and a married woman. The story is full of uncertainty with no ending and can only end in sorrow and desperation. To come to terms with its impossibility, the protagonists turn inward in their search for answer and meaning, transforming the book into a metaphysical exploration. Amidst this search they get involved in various search big or small. Sastri`s love for the French actress, Suzanne Chantereux, or her beguiling, effervescent compatriot Mireille, for instance, serves to underline the differences between the East and West; while the latter seeks happiness in the world, Sastri is looking for freedom from the world itself.

RAJ KAMAL JHA

Raj Kamal Jha was born in 1966 in Calcutta, India.

He won Commonwealth Writers` Prize for his The Blue Bedspread in 2000

Works:

● The Blue Bedspread – 2000

● If You Are Afraid of Heights - 2003

● Fireproof - 2006

RAMACHANDRA GUHA

Ramachandra Guha is a prominent Indian  writer who has written on different topics such as social, political, historical, and environmental, also on the history of cricket. Besides this, he is a well-known columnist who writes for The Telegraph, The Hindu and The Hindustan Times and is also an Indian  historian.

RAMA MEHTA

● Rama Mehta, one of the prominent Indian  women writers in English . She is well known for her novel Inside the Haveli.

● Rama Mehta won the Sahitya Academy Award for her novel Inside the Haveli.

Inside the Haveli - 1977

● Geeta is a female protagonist of the novel. She was born and brought up in Bombay.

● Ajay, Geeta's husband , supports her efforts

● Inside the Haveli depicts the story of Geeta caught in a conflict between tradition and momernity. At the beginning of the novel Geeta is not willing to accept the culture of the haveli. In the due course of

the time she gets attached with her family members but she cannot accept the purdah system. Her mind changes and she thinks about the proposal of Vir Singh. Though she cannot change the purdah system she gets success in bringing reformation in the haveli by educating Sita and maid servants in the haveli. Thus the novel focuses on the themes of Geeta's surrender and compromise.

● Haveli stands for tradition and convention. The winds of modernity blow into Haveli, when Geetha gets married to Ajay, the only heir of a tradition bound family. In the beginning, Geetha was tossed between the two opposing forces of tradition and modernity. She is fascinated by the grand and gorgeous life styles followed inside the haveli.

● Geetha finds the atmosphere of Haveli oppressive and suffocating not only because of the rigid enforcement of customs and conventions but also because of the overwhelming love and protective care and patronage of the patriarchs of Haveli. The concept of purdah was unknown to her before marriage. But after marriage, she is forced to wear purdah and keep her face covered always, even when there are no men in the vicinity of Haveli.

● Geetha, in spite of being educated, has no identity of her own in the world of veiled women. She is almost hidden and invisible within the purdah. Most of the time, she struggles hard to breathe inside the purdah and feels like lifting it.

● Education is the first strategic weapon that Geetha takes up for improving the plight of women n in the havelies.

● She takes over the voice of tradition by the end. Geeta changes tradition and her vision as well.

RAMANUJAN A K (1929-1993)

Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan, bilingual poet in Kannada and English  was born in 1929 in Mysore in the Indian  state of Karnataka. He was born to a Tamil family. He came to the U.S in 1959 where he remained until his death in July 13, 1993. He received his BA in English  Literature and MA in literature from University of Mysore. In his cultural essay "Is There an Indian  Way of Thinking?" he established the notion "context-sensitive" as opposed to "context-free". These are the terms from linguistics. To him "context-sensitive" is an appropriate term of other`s view and reaction towards inconsistency, hypocrisy, tolerance and mimicry of Indian  tendency. In the context he cites the example of Said`s Orientalism. "Context-free thinking" while gives rise to universal testaments of law such as in the Judeo-Christian tradition, `context-sensitive` thinking on the other hand gives rise to more complicated sets of standards such as the laws of `Manu`.

 

About his poetry:

His poetry is confessional, His poetry is an expression of Indian  sensibility, sharpened nourished by western education and environment. He was influenced by Walace Steavens, William Carlos William, Philip Larkin,Ted Hughes. He translated Many from Tamil and Kannada into English . His language is intense, creative, imaginative and sharp. His poetry is image oriented( Precise and Accurate)

 

Awards:

Padma sri in 1976, Mc.Arthur prize in 1983, Sahitya Academy in 1999(posthumously)

Works:

Translations:

●Fifteen Tamil poems(1965)

●The interior Landscape(1967): love poems from a classical Tamil Anthology-- won gold medal from Tamil writers Association.

●Speaking of Suka(1974)

●Samskara(1976):A right for dead man-- translated U.R.Anantamurthy’s novel into English . Pranshacharya is the leader of Durvasapura Agrahara,  and The second most important character is “Putta” from a low community, Malera.

●South Indian  Folk Tales(    )

 

Long poems from Classical Tamil Anthology:

● Speaking of Siva, 1973

● Hymns for the Drawing, 1981

● Folktales from India, Oral Tales from Twenty Indian  Languages, 1991

● A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India, 1997

 

Collection Of poems:

● The Striders – 1966

● Relations (1971)

● Second Thought(1986)

● Astronomer

● Poems of Love 1985

● "Is There an Indian  Way of Thinking 1990

Three hundred ramayanas: Five examples and Three thoughts on Translation( 1987)-essay, summarises the history of Ramayana

Where mirrors are Windows (     )- intertextuality of Indian  literature.

 

ROHINTON MISTRY

Rohinton Mistry is a famous Canadian writer with roots in India. He was born in Bombay. Rushdie puts in; Rohinton Mistry is a "writer from elsewhere". He always advocates for the independence of the women.

His works are regarded as “Indo-Nostalgic”

Won Neustadt international Prize for literature in 2012

 

Works:

Tales from Ferozshah Baag(1987): - His 11 short-story collection

The Tales from Faerozshah Baag is the story of the lifestyles of the inhabitants living in the apartment named Ferozshah Baag.

Such a Long Journey: 1991-Historical fiction

● won Commonwealth Writers Prize , Shortlisted for Booker Prize for Fiction in 1991

● Characters: The central character of the novel is very hard-working bank clerk named Gustad Noble

● He has Dilnavaz, his wife and three children in his family. His eldest son is Sohrab and the youngest daughter is Roshan.

● Dinshawji, Gustad's close friend and co-worker

● The novel is set in 1971 during the time of the Indian  Pakistan war. Gustad Noble is a bank clerk and a family man, a vulnerable figure whose world is still haunted by the war with China in 1962. The fate of Gustad`s family is closely bound up with that of the subcontinent during a time of crisis and turmoil. The clerk`s daughter`s illness and his son`s refusal to go to college, are events that we are encouraged to read symptomatically in Such a Long Journey. When Gustad receives a parcel and a request to launder money for an old friend, the event`s ramifications are at once personal and political. Throughout the novel, the wall outside Gustad`s apartment building symbolizes the larger world of Bombay and parallels some aspects of Gustad`s own life. At the outset, it is used as a latrine, breeding illness in the neighborhood. Gustad tries something to come out of this problem. He persuades a sidewalk artist to paint it, and consequently he depicts scenes from all the religions of India. In this way the wall becomes a holy place.Eventually the government decides to widen the road and tear it down.

A Fine Balance: 1996-Historical` fiction

● Shortlisted for Booker Prize for Fiction in 1996

● The novel tells the story of four characters (Maneck, Dina, Ishvar and Omprakash) and the impact of Indira Gandhi`s state of emergency on them.

Family Matters" (2002)

● Shortlisted for Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2002

● Tells the story of an elderly Parsi widower living in Bombay with his step-children.

● At the centre of the book is an old man, a Parsi with Parkinson`s Disease. Nariman Vakeel is a retired academic whose illness places renewed strains on family relations.

● Nariman, an English  professor, compares himself to King Lear at one point● `Chateau Felicity` (Nariman`s former residence)

● `Pleasant villa`(where he is forced to move by his scheming step daughter)

RUSKIN BOND (1934--)

Indian  author of  British descent, born in Kausali(Himachal Pradesh) and grew up in Shimla and Dehradun, but now lives in Mussorie. His life in the different hill stations of Himalayas has greatly influenced his stories and writing style. He loves to write for children. Won sahitya academy award for “our trees still grow in Dehra(1992). Padma shri in 1999, Padma Bhushan in 2014.

 

The Room on the Roof : his first novel, semi autobio, written by him when he was seventeen years old. It won John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.

Vagrants in the valley: sequel to the room on the roof

Rusty the boy from the hills, Rusty runs away and Rusty and the Magic Mountain  : short stories

My first love and other stories(1968)

A flight of pigeons: Historical Novel based on Indian  Rebellion of 1857.

Delhi is Not Far:

The Night Train at Deoli:

Angry river(1972): his 1^st  children book

The Blue Umbrella (1974): the 2^nd childrens book, adopted as hindi film in2005, by vishal bharadwaj

The cherry tree:  is a famous short story of Rakesh and His grand mother growing cherry tree.

RUTH PRAWER JHABVALA

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Born on 7th May, 1927, is a winner of the prestigious Booker prize. This Anglo-Indian  writer was born in Cologne, Germany. She enjoyed reading the works of Dickens. This writer is very popular for her insightful and witty portrayals of the lives of the people of contemporary Indian  societies. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala started writing novels during the 1950`s while she was staying in India.

Awards:

She won the Booker Prize for her novel Heat and Dust in the year 1975.

Works:

● To Whom She Will (1955)

● The Nature of Passion (1956)

● Esmond in India (1958)

● The Householder (1960),

● Get Ready for Battle (1962)

● Like Birds, Like Fishes (1963)

● A Backward Place (1965)

● A Stronger Climate (1968)

● A New Dominion (1972)

● Heat and Dust (1975)

● An Experience of India (1971)

● How I Became a Holy Mother and other stories (1976)

● In Search of Love and Beauty (1983)

● Out of India (1986)

● Three Continents (1987)

● Poet and Dancer (1993)

● Shards of Memory (1995)

● East into Upper East: Plain Tales from New York and New Delhi (1998)

● My Nine Lives (2004)

RAVI SUBRAMANIAN

A banker by profession and an author by choice, Ravi Subramanian has written popular thrillers on banking and bankers including The Banker Trilogy.

NOTABLE WORKS:

If God Was a Banker

The Incredible Banker

The Bankster

God is a Gamer

 

RAJASHREE

She studied direction at the Film and Television Institute of India and has assisted Mansoor Khan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Her critically-acclaimed debut, Trust Me, is the biggest-selling Indian  chick lit novel.

RADHAKRISHNAN PILLAI

NOTABLE WORKS:

Corporate Chanakya

Chanakya's 7 Secrets of Leadership

Chanakya in You

Corporate Chanakya on Leadership

 

RAVINDER SINGH

Ravinder Singh lost the love of his life in 2007, a few days before their engagement, which inspired him to take up writing. Today he is one of the foremost Romance writers in India.

NOTABLE WORKS:

I Too Had a Love Story

Can Love Happen Twice?

Like it Happened Yesterday

Your Dreams Are Mine Now

 

ROBIN SHARMA

NOTABLE WORKS:

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Who Will Cry When You Die?

The Leader Who Had No Title

The Saint, the Surfer, and the CEO

Megaliving!: 30 Days to a Perfect Life

 

SUDEEP NAGARKAR

He is the recipient of the 2013 Youth Achievers' Award for being one of the highest selling romance writers in India. His book 'She Swiped Right into My Heart' was on No. 1 in Nielsen bestselling charts for more than 10 consecutive weeks. He quit his management job in 2012 to devote his entire time to writing.

NOTABLE WORKS:

You're Trending in My Dreams

Our Story Needs No Filter

Sorry You're Not My Type

SAMIT BASU

The pioneer in Indian  sci-fi writing, Samit published his first sci-fi novel, The Simoqin Prophecies, when he was just 23. His novel Turbulence, published in 2012, introduced him to the West. Superheronovels.com called it a contender for best superhero novel of all time.

NOTABLE WORKS:

The Gameworld Trilogy

Turbulence

Resistance

 

SALIL DESAI

An alumnus of FTII, and a former journalist, Salil Desai is an Indian  novelist who writes murder mysteries. He has also produced films, held creative writing workshops and written a number of short stories.

NOTABLE WORKS:

The Murder of Sonia Raikkonen

3 And A Half Murders

Murder on a Side Street

 

 

SUKANYA VENKATRAGHAVAN

Sukanya Venkatraghavan is an Indian  writer, primarily writing fantasy novels. Her first brush with fantasy was as a film journalist in Mumbai, covering the glamorous yet daunting world of Bollywood with publications like Filmfare and Marie Claire. Her debut work Dark Things is a best-selling Fantasy novel. With just one book to her name, she is still a fantasy writer to look out for.

SHWETA TANEJA

Taneja's journalism career began with the magazines Femina and Men's Health (where she was the Assistant Editor of the India edition). She continues to write for several print and online publications including Mint, Discover India, Swarajya, Scroll and The Huffington Post (India).

NOTABLE WORKS:

The Matsya Curse

Cult of Chaos

The Skull Rosary

 

SHOBHA NIHALANI

Shobha Nihalani is the author of The Silent Monument. Her debut novel, Karmic Blues, was translated and published in Denmark. She has worked as a freelance journalist, copywriter, bookkeeper, English  teacher and salesperson.

NOTABLE WORKS:

Nine: Curse of the Kalingan

Nine: Vengeance of the Warrior

Nine: The Rise of the Kalingan

 

SWATI KAUSHAL

Kaushal was born and brought up in New Delhi and her stories are based on her personal experiences. An MBA from IIM Calcutta, she has worked with Nestle India Limited and Nokia Mobile Phones.

NOTABLE WORKS:

A Piece of Cake

A Girl Like Me

 

SHIV KHERA

NOTABLE WORKS:

You Can Win

You Can Sell

Freedom Is Not Free

Winning Strategies

Winner's Edge

 

SADHGURU

NOTABLE WORKS:

Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Body the Greatest Gadget

Inner Management

Three Truths of Well-Being

 

SAROJINI DEVI(1879-1949)

Sarojini Devi born in Hyderabad. Her father is Dr.Aghornath Chatopadhyay,professor at Nizam’s college.

participated in Salt satya Graha in1930, in round table meeting of 1931, in quit india movement of 1942

She was Elected as President of I.N.C in 1925, the first women governer in india(united Province,  present UP)

 

Works:

Her famous poems are Indian  Weavers, The Palanquin Bearers, The Gift of India, Bangle Sellers, the village, The Bazars of Hyderabad.

She wrote her first poem in 1890, at the age of 11

The lady of the lake(1892): wrote on 6 days,it is a 1300 lines poem

Golden Threshold(1905): first collection of poems, famous poems in it are Innovation to india, lord Budha seated on a Lotus

The Bard of Time(1912):  second collection of poems, with 46 lyrics with the theme of Indian  spirit.

The Broken Wing(1917): Third ollection with 61 lyrics on the theme of Indian  spirit

The second Flute(1953), The Feathers of dawn(1961) and The temple are collection of poems,posthumously published.

 

Dr.SARVEPALLY RADHAKRISHNAN( 1888-1975)

He was an impressive speaker, thinker and writer, worked as president of India(1962-67).

Works:

Indian  Philosophy,

The Hindu view of life,

 Eastern religions and Western Thought,

Philosophy of the Upanishads.

 

SALMAN RUSHDIE (1947--)

Salman Rushdie is one of the most famous Indian  origin authors. He is best known for the violent backlash his book The Satanic Verses (1988) provoked in the Muslim community.  He is associated with “Gabriel Garcia Marquez”( Father of  Magic Realism).

Awards:

● Won the Booker Prize for Fiction and in 1993; it won "Booker of Bookers" and “Best of  bookers” as the best novel for Fiction on 25th and 40^th anniversary of Booker.

 

Works:

Grimus - 1975: Science fiction, first novel

● set in Axona in India, a Flapping Eagle, a young Indian  who receives the gift of immortality after drinking a magic fluid.

● His mother died just after some seconds he was born and as a result he was out casted. He is not easily accepted, by the society. His sister "Bird Dog" protected him and presented him with the elixir of eternal life and after that she disappears mysteriously from the land of the Axona.

● Flapping Eagle is then exiled from his people, and wanders the world for centuries. Flapping Eagle wanders the earth for 777 years 7 months and 7 days, searching for his immortal sister, Bird Dog.

Flapping Eagle explores identities till he falls through the hole in the Mediterranean Sea. He arrives in a parallel dimension at the mystical Calf Island. Here he finds people lessed with immortality yet bore

with the sameness of life. However they are reluctant to give up their immortality and exist in a static community under a subtle and sinister authority. Flapping Eagle is tired with the mundane reality of immortality hence wants to get rid of the Grimus effect.

Midnight`s Children(1981)- second novel

● The novel narrates key events in the history of India from 15^th August 1947, through the story of pickle-factory worker Saleem Sinai, one of 1001 children born with Magical Powers. Made into film in 2012, directed by Deepa Mehta.

Shame(1983)- 3^rd novel, Shame (1983), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.

The Satanic Verses(1988) - 4^th novel, leads to accusations of blasphemy against Islam and demonstrations by Islamist groups in India and Pakistan. Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomenei issued a “fatwa” against Salman Rushdie, calling for his assassination, forcing Rushdie to go underground.

The Moor’s Last Sigh

Luka and the fire of lake

Fury

The Ground beneath her feet

Haroun and the sea of stories.

The Jauguar smile

Shalimar the clown

Imaginary Homelands:  a post colonial essay, concept of “common wealth literature does not exist”

 

SHASHI DESHPANDE

 She was born in Dharwad in Karnataka as the daughter of the renowned Kannada dramatist as well as a great Sanskrit scholar Sriranga. She pursued her education in Dharwad, Bombay and Bangalore. Her novels are mainly based on women lives and their problems particularly in the Indian  context. Her stories were published in magazines like "Femina", "Eve's Weekly", etc. She worked as a journalist in a Magazine “Onlooker”.

 

Awards:

She is a winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award for the novel, "That Long Silence."

She was awarded with Padma Shri in 2009.

 

Works:

Legacy(1978): her first collection of short stories.

 

The Dark Holds No Terrors(1980): Her first novel.

● The Dark Holds No Terror" has been translated into German and Russian languages.

● Shashi Deshpande narrates the story in the flash back technique sequence, narrated from Saritha’s introspective view.

● Sarita (Saru) is the central character, who is a two in one women, a successful doctor during the daytime; and at might a terrified and trapped animal in the hands of her husband, who hates her mother and traditional norms, married to Manohar who is an English  teacher in a small college.

● She wanted to come out of the patriarchical society. The darkness, the nothingness, the blackness therefore is no more a terror to the protagonist as she tries desperately to find herself.

● This is a story of a girl finding her inner self. Long time back, Sarita still remembers her mother`s bitter words uttered when as a little girl she was unable to save her younger brother from drowning. Now, her

mother is dead and Sarita returns to he family home after 25 years, seemingly to take care of her father. But as a matter of fact she wants to escape the nightmarish brutality her husband imposes on her every night. In the lull of her old father`s company, Sarita wants to forget all her grief.

● She explains how her husband turns cruel when he realizes his career is going nowhere and that his wife has overtaken him professionally. In his case a sort of male chauvinism worked out. As she struggles with her emotions and anxieties, Sarita gradually realizes that there is more to life than dependency on

marriage, parents and other such institutions. And subsequently she resolves to use her new found truths to make a better life for herself.

● This novel rejects the traditional concept that the sole purpose of a wife's existence is to please her husband. It reveals a woman's capacity to asset her own rights and individuality and become fully aware of her potential as a human being.

● Sarita, in this novel very boldly confronts reality and realizes that the dark no long holds any terror to her.

 

Come Up and Be Dead (1983)

The story deals with the suicide of a school girl in an exclusive school. The Head Mistress is unable to deal with the situation and specially when it is followed by rumors pointing at her brother. Two more deaths follow, making the school a place of fear and suspicion. After an attempted murder, Devayani, the Head Mistress cousin and housekeeper, glimpses a conspiracy behind it all. The story is full of suspense with lots of variety in thoughts.

 

Roots and shadows (1983)

● Roots and shadows has won the Thirumathi Rangamal prize for the best Indian  novel of 1982-83.

● Indu, the protagonist is caught up in a conflict between their family and professional roles, between individual aspiration and social demands. Indu, the journalist, is torn between self—expression and social stigmas

If I Die Today (1982)

● It is a detective fiction.

● The narrator is a young college lecturer who is married to a doctor.

They live on the campus of a big medical college and hospital. The story gets a twist on the arrival of Guru, a terminal cancer patient. After his coming the lives of the doctors and their families get disturbed. Old secrets are revealed, two people murdered, but the tensions in the families is resolved after the culprit is unmasked. One of the memorable characters is Mriga, a 14-year-old girl. Her father, Dr. Kulkarni, appears modern and westernized, yet he is seized by the Hindu desire for a son and heir, and never forgives Mriga for not being a son. Her mother being a weak person never lives according to her own wish. She is a sad, suppressed creature, too weak to give Mriga the support and love. And evantually Mriga grew up without a well balanced brought up. The story again concentrates on the patriarchical society in a very delicate way.

 

That Long Silence(1988): won sahitya academy award.

● story of  Jaya, who lives with her husband Mohan and two children Rahul and Rati. It is about her lonliness of a woman living in silently in a cage called marriage.

● It is the story of Jaya, the housewife who is seen always engaged in searching her own identity.

● The story entirely revolves around jaya her married life and her role as a dutiful wife. She plays the role of an affectionate mother, dutiful to her in-laws and her relatives. It gives a simple enchanting scenes solely expressed by the author. According to the author husbands don`t give attention to wives emotions, likes and dislikes. Throughout the story she is engaged in searching her identity as an individual.

The binding vine(1992)

Only novel in which author used poems. Focus on question of rape. Story of Urmila(Urmi), Mira and Shakatai. Mira is Binding vine between Urmi and Vanaa. Vanna is her best friend. There is a subplot of Shakutai’s older daughter, Kalpana, who was raped and lying in coma. Shakutai blames Kalpana for her dressed up, painted her lips and nails.

The Matter of time – 1996: The first work to be Published in USA.

Small Remedies(2000):

● Madhu is the protagonist

● Madhu was a writer. She lost her son in Ayodhya Babri Masjid bombing in 1992. To be out from this pain, she travels to a town to write about Savitribai, a woman who decided to live with her Muslim husband. While writing about Savitribai and living in Bhavanipur, she searches for the true meaning of her life.

Moving On-2004

In the Country of Deceit – 2008

Shadow Play – 2013

Children books: The Narayanpur Incident ( about the role of children in Quit India Movement)

A sum of Adventure, The only witness, The hidden Treasure.

 

SASTHIBRATA

He is well known for his My God Died Young, an autobiography.

SHASHI THAROOR

Shashi Tharoor, born on 9th March 1956, is a writer, journalist, columnist, United Nations Official, human rights advocate and Indian  politician(currently a loksabha Member,MP). Shashi Tharoor's books have been translated into French, German, Italian, Malayalam, Marathi, Polish,Romanian, Russian and Spanish.

His monthly column India Reawakening is published in 80 newspapers around the world. He began writing at the age of 6 and getting published at the age of 10. His books are an authority on British atrocities in India.

 

 

Awards:

The Great Indian  Novel won the Commonwealth Writers` Prize for the Best Book of the Year in 1991

Works: Fiction

● The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories (1990)

● Show Business (1992)

● Riot (2001) Non-fiction

●Kerala, God’s Own Country

● Shadows Across the Playing Field: Sixty Years of India-Pakistan Cricket [with Shaharyar Khan] (2009)

● The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century (2007)

● Book-less in Baghdad (2005)

● Nehru: The Invention of India (2003)

● India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997)

● Reasons of State (1982)

Reasons of State – 1982

● This is a Political Development and also India`s Foreign Policy Under Indira Ghandi.

● This book has the capability to bring tears in reader`s eyes when Nehru dies in the story.

The Great Indian  Novel – 1989: A Satirical novel

 ● Tharoor beautifully entwined the different characters of Mahabharata in the book by different name, which befits present day politics.

● The novel has 18 "books," just as the Mahabharata has 18 books

● Tharoor shows us that 'everything old is new again'.

● Ved Vyas is the narrator

● This novel is a re-interpretation of the Mahabharata (maha "great"; Bharata "India") framed in India`s struggle for independence, and the political consequence of colonization.

Show Business – 1992

● It is a postmodern satirical novel

● It is a fictional work that tells the story of Ashok Banjara, a Bollywood superstar. Ashok Banjara is

critically injured while shooting for a film and his entire life in Bollywood flashes in front of his eyes as he lies suspended between life and death in a hospital.

● A young Ashok Banjara leaves Delhi and comes to Bombay to make his fortune and find fame in Bollywood.He achieves the big league with his second film Godambo that establishes him as an action star. Soon Banjara is known for playing the role of an angry young man fighting for the poor and the helpless against the establishment his very own. A successful Ashok Banjara marries Maya, a talented co-star and convinces her to stay away from films for the sake of family. Banjara makes a film, Mechanic. This film is Banjara's first flop.

● Banjara agrees to work in a mythological film called Kalki. It is on the sets of Kalki that Banjara meets his accident.

 SHOBHA DE

Shobha De is a prolific writer born in Maharashtra and brought up in Mumbai, India. She is a columnist and novelist. She began her career as a journalist. She took psychology subject in her graduation course, which has helped her a lot when she started her career in writing. She is known as "Jackie Collins of India"

Works:

● Socialite Evenings -1989

● Starry Nights-1989

● Sisters – 1992

● Shooting from the Hip – 1994

● Small Betrayals – 1995

● Second Thoughts – 1996

● Surviving Men – 1998

● Speedpost – 1999

● Spouse- The Truth about Marriage : her autobiography

● Sandhya’s Secret – 2009

● Shetji – 2012

● Shobhaa : Never a Dull De – 2013

● Small Betrayals – 2014

Socialite Evenings(1989):

● The story is set at the backdrop of Mumbai high society.

● This is all about the lives of bored housewives of rich families whose husbands remain busy with their work and wives choose the option of extra marital affair. Their husbands are often seeing their wives as matter of respectability rather than their life partners.

● Karuna, the central character of this story is bored with her life with husband and now she want to get rid of her boredom by writing a memoir. Her memoirs become successful and she achieves a lot of fame and pride in her new venture. She become a socialite and uses this prominence to get a job of advertising copywriter or a creator of a television channel.

● Anjali is Karuna's friend

Starry nights(1991):

● The novel portrays the story of Aasha Rani and Akshay that is based on a real life love story of two pairs of film stars.

● This is the story of a high-class society.

● Portrays the dark corners of Hindi film Industry.

● The central character in starry nights is Asha rani.

● Akhshay Arora is Asha Rani's lover and abandons her after

● Sasha is the daughter of Asha Rani whom she brings back to India to from New Zealand make her a

prosperous film Star.

● Asha Rani is a dark sweet girl from Chennai. She tries hard to become a film star. Her mother (amma)

prompts her to be in the film world. When she was fifteen years she has to sleep with Kishen bhai, one film producer to get the chance in film. He sponsors one film for her and also helps her to get the appropriate persons to get the roles. In the process Kishenbhai falls in love with Asha Rani but it is too late as she already gets engaged with Akhshay Arora who is a famous bollywood star rather sex symbol. Asha Rani sends her mother back to Chennai. In later days Akshay gets bored with Asha and as he was married returns back to his wife. The worst part is the actor reveals in one of the leading magazine that Asha is a pornographic actress and he doesn`t want to do any role with her. Eventually she gets attached to Sheth Amirchand, a Member of Parliament and starts working under his control. After some days she goes to Chennai to do an art film. But her love for Akshay is still there so she tries to rekindle it. But gets frustrated after knowing that his love for her is only because of her high status. She attempts suicide but failed to do so. In the process she marries a New Zealander named Jay and has a child with him. Eventually Akshay gets AIDS because of his lifestyle. Asha returned to New Zealand and finally after many incidents decides to come back to India and make Sasha, Asha Rani`s daughter a prospering film star.

Sisters(1992):

● The story is about the two sisters Alisha and Mallika.

● They are the daughters of big time businessman Hiralal who dies at the beginning of the story. Out of the two sisters one is legitimate and the other one is illegitimate.

● The story revolves around the bad world of business in Bombay.

● The story is full of suspense in some parts.

Second Thoughts:

● Maya is the central character.

● Maya is eager to escape her dull, middle class home in Calcutta for Mumbai. ● She moves to Mumbai after marriage to Ranjan.

● Maya wanted to be an ideal wife but, she discovers that she has been trapped herself.

● She experiences loneliness in Mumbai.

● She strikes up a friendship with Nikhil, leading to love and betrayal.

 

SHREE KUMAR VARMA(Kerala)

 Lament of Mohini

SUKETHU MEHTA(    )

Indian  American Author,

Works:

The Maximum City(2004): Bombay Lost and Found- autobiographical,finalist in 2005 pulitzer.

SWAMY VIVEKANANDA(12th Jan,1863- 1902)

● Born in Calcutta as Visweswar Dutt, became sanyasi, changed his name to Swamy vivekananda.

●became the disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, Founded Ramakrishna mission.

● Well known for his speech at Parliament of Religions, Chicago in 1893.

Works:

KarmaYoga, Bhakthi Yoga, RajaYoga, Kali, Mother

TORU DUTT (1856-1877)

Toru Dutt was one of the greatest writers of English  Literature. She was a poet, novelist, translator and what not, Though she died at a very young age of twenty-one, she had left behind an immense collection of prose and poetry.

 Toru Dutt was born on 4 March 1856 in the prosperous and cultured Hindu family of the Dattas of Rambagan, Calcutta.Converted to Christianity. Toru translated some sonnets of deCramont and regarded him as one of the best of modern French poets.

Works:

A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields(1976): a volume of French poems.

Bianca or the Young Spanish Maid:  thought to be the first novel in English  by an Indian  Woman writer. Published posthumously, unfinished novel, written in English .

Le Journal De Mademoiselle d’Arvers(1879) ( the dairy of Mademoiselle D’Arvers): dairy mode novel written in French , unfinished.

Buttoo: story of Ekalavya.

The Lotus( sonnet): fighting of lily and rose fighting for the title,” Queen of Flower”

Our Casuarina Tree:  is a Keatsian Poem, autobiographical poem,  begins with “like a huge Python, winding round and round.”  about the importance of memories in human life.

Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindusthan: collection of Sanskrit Translations, Edmund Gosse wrote an introductory memoir for it. It begins with Savithri and ends with Sita

Savithri: ancient ballad in 5 parts, borrowed from Mahabaratha, about Satyaharischandra’s wife Savitri, who fought with Yama, the goddess of death over his husbands death.

Amon Pere - Her last poem, is praised worldwide and is considered "faultless".

● other poems are Baugmaree, France, The Tree of Life, Laxaman .

 

UPAMANYU CHATTERJEE

Upamanyu Chatterjee, best remembered for his debut novel 'English , August: An Indian  Story' is one of the powerful and emerging voices amongst India's post colonial literary stalwarts. His novels are written in a humorous style and areintended to go beyond the basic concept of comedy.

Works:

English , August: An Indian  story(1988)

● Upamanyu Chatterjee problematises Agastya Sen's alienation by making him an alienated hero. Agastya Sen considers himself as misfit and wasting his life on the whole, he remains forced by the unalterable realities of life and forces himself to stay in Madna. He hardly compromises but rather regrets and is never content on any matter concerning his stay, job, place, people, food etc.

● The protagonist Agastya Sen is a young civil servant. He is posted to Madna where he experiences kitsch in all its forms like relics of the British Empire, temples, monsoons,

Gandhi, savants and many more. In his confusion he staggers towards the Hindu belief in the virtues of

renunciation and an uncertain, traumatic, self-knowledge. He is a character who is self-sufficient and self-sustaining.

The Last Burden(1993)

● Jamun is the protagonist, a young man, who has no work. His father, Shyamanand, is old and his mother, Urmila, is on her deathbed. As the novel opens the families are gathering for the inevitable parting. This is an amazing book by the author unfolding different truth of life as the story proceeds and gets its pace.

Weight Loss(2006) - The novel portrays the life of Bhola, his youth and adulthood.

Way to Go (2010)

● The novel Way to Go is a sequel to The Last Burden.

● The novel is featured on the search of the nursing father Shymananda who is eighty five years old, half paralysed and had disappeared. At this instant, his long time solitary friend, Dr. Mukherjee has committed suicide and Jamun is trying very hard to tackle the situation. Jamun's brother Burfi, whohad long severed ties with his father, is only interested in investing money by the sale of his father's property. Jamun is entangled under the obsession of sexual relationship with the prostitute, Kasibai who serves as

a servant for him for many years. Jamun, is also the biological father of Kasturi's child, who had been his former lover. The novel focuses predominantly on the relationship between a father and son. It also deals with perils of old age, agonies, despairs, inevitability of degeneration and death.

 

The Mammaries of the Welfare State (2000) is a sequel to English , August: An Indian  Story

VIJAY TENDULKAR

Vijay Tendulkar made his place as a Marathi writer. Vijay Tendulkar is the most prolific and controversial dramatist among the Post-Independence Indian  playwrights. Vijay Tendulkar, one of India's most influential playwrights, was born on 1928. His prolific writing over a period of five decades includes thirty full-length plays, twenty-three one act plays, eleven children's dramas, four collections of short stories, two novels and five volumes of literary essays and social criticism. Tendulkar stated his dramatic career with his well-known play Silence! The Court is in Session (1967).

Arundhati Benerjee attributes, "Vijay Tendulkar has been in the vanguard of not just Marathi but Indian  theatre almost forty years".

Works:

The Vultures (1970)  

● focused on the unorganised family of Hari Pitale who cheats his own brother in business.

● His sons Ramakant and Umakant and daughter Manik are greedy, ego-centric, cruel and wayward. They have no morality of family and personal relationship. They even make conspiracy to kill each other. Hari Pitale realizes that his family is no better than the vultures.

● The play has the theme of sex, violence and sensationalism. The play depicts the avarice of Ramakant and Umakant, the gross sensuality of their sister Manik, and the devilish nature of her father. The intrinsic evil inherent in human nature is witnessed when the father is beaten up by his two sons for mere sake of material gain, in the forcible abortion of Manik's child, and in the repeated attempt in creating hatred in the family. Ramakant and Umakant are as cruel as vultures.

 

Silence! Court is in the Session (1967)

Tendulkar, who acquired the epithet of "the Angry Youngman" of the Marathi theatre, has expressed his annoyance with and raised his raucous voice against the established norms of the society in Silence! The Court is in Session by depicting Leela Benare, the protagonist, as a challenge to the executors or power in absentia, who aggressively transgresses the sexual norms of her community. In the play, which consists of the play within play portraying a cross-section of middle class society, Leela Benare, the protagonist, lives an independent life on her own will ignoring social taboos. In the mock-trial the co￾actors deftly reveals her illicit relationship with Professor Damle, a married man having five children, especially the fact that Miss Benare carries his child. Professor Damle remains absence during trial which

signifies his shrinking of responsibility. Ironically enough, the trial begins with the charges of infanticide laid on Miss Benare for society is not prepared to accept a child born out of wedlock. Consequently, this pregnancy has to be aborted. Tendulkar alludes to the existing hypocrisy when later Damle appears as a mere witness while Leela Benare delivers a long speech in self-defense. Sukhtme, a lawyer, underlines Benare's crime by proclaiming the sanctity of motherhood. Benare's speech of self-defense highlights that she, in her prime of youth, had fallen in love with her maternal uncle, but her love could not result in a marriage with him because it was against social norms. As a woman craving for love, she diverted her love on another man who taking the advantage of her emotional requirement abused her body and then deserted her. The ultimate verdict, which is very heart rendering as it upholds power of society against the of motherhood, presents Leela Benare pleading for the little bud within her to blossom, to have a mother, a father, and a good name, but the society thwarts motherhood for the sake of its control over human life.

Sakharam Binder – 1972

The dramatist sheds ample light on Physical lust and Violence in a human being. Sakharam born in a Brahmin family appears almost like ruffian who does not believe in refinement and sophistication of personal relationship. He neglects his parents. He is not a married man but gives shelter to helpless women who are either tortured by their husbands or turned out of their homes or simply deserted by their husbands. It is a contract marriage, the contract ended by mutual consent. When the play opens, he has already kept six women, Laxmi being the seventh one. As a male member of society exercising power over these women, he never failed to remind them that they were weaklings. It shows his straight forwardness. He has his own concept of morality which is against to the established social norms. Portrayed as an ideal woman, Laxmi is loyal, docile, hard￾working, religious self-effacing and tender￾hearted. At the same time, she fights tooth and nail for survival when she finds Champa securing her position in Sakharam's house, tactfully persuading Champa to accommodate her in the same house in spite of Sakharam's opposition to her presence. Being confident her physical charms, Champa least suspects that Laxmi will snatch Sakharam from her. Later, Sakharam exhibits his power over Champa by killing her when he learns that she has been unfaithful to him. Champa has secret associations with Dawood. This wounds the ego of Sakharam and so kills Champa. The play is admirablefor its realism as Tendulkar exposed the bare realities of backward lower strata of society.

Ghashiram Kotwal (1972)

● Ghasiram, the protagonist of the play is a Brahmin from Kanauj.

● Based on the themes of power and violence, Ghashiram Kotwal (1972),set in Poona of the Peshwas, uses history to highlight the perpetuation of the conflict between power and violence. The relationship between power and corruption, and power breeding oppression leading to the mocker of law constitute the crux of the play. He bitterly criticizes those people who use their power to achieve their selfish end. The representative of the Peshwa in Poona, Nana Phadnavis appoints Ghashiram as a Kotwal of the city not on merit but because he helps Nana to find out his young and beautiful daughter, Gauri, who manages to escape from her father trying to molest her. Reminding Ghashiram of his subordinate position, Nana instructs him to keep his voice silence about the death of his pregnant daughter. Finally, Nana orders Ghashiram's death warrant as well.

Kamala (1981)

● It was inspired by a real life incident-the Indian  Express expose by Ashwin Sarin, who actually bought a girl from the market of rural area and presented at a press conference.

● It depicts the theme of subaltern subjectivity and resistance throwing light on the plight of a woman as a slave in the family. The play delineates women as objects of commodity which can be purchased, bartered and sold. Jaisingh Jadhav, a young journalist working as an associate editor in English  language daily, buys a woman named Kamala for Rs 250 in Luhardagga Bazaar in Bihar in order to expose this racket. In spite of severe resistance from Sarita, his wife; Jain, his friend who mocks his idea of purchasing a woman dubbing marriage itself as an act of buying as it enslaves a woman; and Kaka Saheb, his uncle, Jai singh resolves that Kamala would stay in the house for destitute women. At a night, a brief conversation between Kamala and Sarita develops a better understanding between them and she becomes aware of her position in the family. Sarita arranges a press conference to tell everyone about the predicament of women in the contemporary Indian  society. She confesses Kamala's help to comprehend the master-slave relationship. A determination to live on her own comes to her and any

argument put forward by Kakasaheb fails to repress her fury against male domination. Sarita emerges a woman who fights against her exploitation though the right of equality is denied to her. The influence of state power also finds place in the play. When Jaisingh Jadav becomes famous for his write-up on the plight of Adivasi, he is intimatedthat the chief editor has dismissed him for the sake of the wishes of some state minister holding portfolio of significance. Thus, Tendulkar has shed light on the conflict between power and violence in different walks of life and also highlighted the exercise of power and violence on women.

Kanyadan (1983)

● It depicts the life of a Dalit boy who marries a girl from the higher section of society.

● Jyothi, a young woman, is the principal character in this play. She is the daughter of NathDevalkar and Seva. They belong to urban middle class Brahmin family. Nath is an MLA and Seva, who is a social

worker, is alwaysbusy in social service. Jyothi has one brother who is studying Msc. Jyothi takes a decision to marry ArunAthavale, a Dalith young man who writes poetry. She has met him in the socialists' study group.(e is poor but eloquent. Jyothi informs her parents and brother that she has decided to marry Arun. Her father agrees at once because his dream is casteless society and for that

he has been working. Seva is shocked. Seva speaks about possible consequences. Jyoti dismisses her mother's fears by saying that she can manage. Seva' character proves that inspite of modern thoughts she thinks like a traditional mother who takes caste, background, attitude, character, economical position of the bridegroom. Seva and her son oppose at first but they also agree for the marriage. Jyoti gets married to Arun. But later Arun comes home every night taking alcohol and beats Jyothi as illiterates do in the backward society. Unable to bear this torture Jyothi comes her maternal home from Arun not to return to him.

● It deals with the theme of social upliftment underlining the chaotic consequences of disturbing the existing social equations. Jyoti, a girl from upper section of society, decides to marry a dalit boy, Arun Jathawali in spite of Jaiprakash, her brother and her mother, Seva's resistances but he proves to be a violent husband. Jyoti's father, Devalikar is a man of progressive ideas as he has no grin against Jyoti's idea of marrying a dalit boy. When Jyoti being feeble to adjust with her husband, comes back to her maternal home, Seva is stunned but he considers it as an individual's choice. Jyoti's futile attempts to bridge the gap between two communities teaches her that the gap is natural and everlasting and attempts on the part of human beings to disturb nature results in great disaster. But after some times, Arun realizes his mistake and goes to Jyoti begging to come back to his home and chopped off his hand. Being asked by Seva the reason behind beating Jyoti, he tells that he has looked his father beating his mother since childhood. Jyoti knowing all those tries to act her free will failing to understand the consequences. These words change Jyoti and she goes back with Arun. Thus Arun misuses power to exhibit violence.

Kanyadan (1983)

Encounter in Umbugland (1974)It is a 'Political Allegory'

● The play opens with celebrations organised on the 60th anniversary of the coronation of King Vichitravirya. On the occasion the king delivers a speech expressing concern about his successor to the throne. The king prefers to become a hermit after surrendering power as he is old and has been advised rest. The king died. After the death of the king, there was a political crisis in the state because there was no consensus among the five ministers on the issue of the succession to the crown. Finally they made a resolution to give the responsibility of the state to the Princess Vijaya who was week, feeble and ignorant. They wanted to make her a puppet queen.

● Princess Vijaya is very fond of her attendant Prannarayan, an eunch. She appoints him as her chief advisor. From him, she has learnt the ways and tricks of politics. Instead of being a puppet in the hands of ministers, she made a direct interaction with people. This attempt of Vijaya created confusion and discontent among the ministers because it increased her reputation in the public. Cabinet ministers tried to arrange a rebellion against her but they have no guts. Eventually, the ministers comprehend that she is "a born dictator", thereby surrounding meekly to her authority. The play ends with the grand reception awaiting the queen due to the royal victory she scores over her cabinet ministers.

A Friend’s Story’ (1972)

● Mitra is the central character of the play. She is endowed with masculine personality. She is the victim of physical hormonal imbalance. As she grows, she realizes that she is different from others. It bringsstubbornness in her personality and she develops a rebellious attitude towards the conventions of society. She develops friendship with Bapu and it brings consolation in her life. Bapu is attracted by her boldness but he fails to stir her feminity. She becomes homosexual and develops infatuation for Nama, another girl. Nama's attraction becomes a passion in her life and in spite of all the warnings of Bapu, she fails to resist herself. Nama was frightened of the power of Mitra exerted over her and surrendered to her overtures easily. Bapu too, was forced to allow them to use his room. Nama tried her best to get out of this intricate affair.When Nama's marriage was arranged with somebody in Calcutta, Mitra's rage was beyond control. She travelled to Calcutta where shewas failing to meet Nama, she committed suicide.

His Fifth Woman (1972)

● This is the only play by the author that is written originally in English .

● It is a prequel to Tendulkar's play "Sakharam Binder" that was published in 1972.

● The man giving shelter to the destitute women is called Sakharam Binder, a man in his forties and these helpless women are projected as the live-in mistresses of Sakharam who is a bachelor. The title leaves sufficient scope of thought: four have preceded her and several may follow. The play portrays two friends Sakharam and Dawood in conversation with each other sitting near the mistress of one of them, fifth woman lying on her death bed, a destitute picked up from the streets. Sakharam provides food and exploits her physically. Dawood, Sakharam's friend has sympathetic attitude towards destitute women and so he wants the proper burial to the mistress of Sakharam. In this play Tendulkar tries to investigate the conditions that 'flourish the life after death'. The dramatist raises some relevant questions on the issue of morality and necessity of compassion through the play. The message conveyed focusses on the fact that those claiming to uphold the laws strictly are in reality the tyrannical hypocrites. Real justice results out of compassion and love and not from hypocrisy, autocracy and selfishness. Sakharam is conscious of his responsibility towards the patient and even towards the society. He becomes philosophical and expresses his faith that all the accounts of human action are to be settled in the other world. The idea of emotional modification and the justification of human existence after death make this play unique in its own way. Its metaphysical structure echoes the vision of Tagore's play "The King of Dark Chambers".

The Cyclist (2002): Last play

● The play analyses three journeys: an actual 'global journey' by the Protagonist, a 'historical journey' of the bicycle about its different phases of Manufacturer and a 'psychic journey' of the Cyclist submerging into his sub-consciousness. The central character, an enthusiastic youth, sets off on an itinerary around the world on his bicycle. Specific names of places and locations are kept hidden, the idea conveyed being that the young man endeavours escaping from his present location, liking forward to visiting distant lands, touring to exotic places enabling him to meet a large number and a different variety of people en route. (ere the 'Cycle' symbolizes progress in spite of the various obstacles encountered on the way.

● Similarly, the cyclist wades through several difficult situations while travelling ahead compulsively probing into human nature, discovering the extreme dehumanization that has set in. Hence the journey is not merely physical but equally metaphysical in nature. The play exhales a breath of existentialism with a positive inference that stoic stubbornness leads to success and that for a determined person, life has no misery.

VIKAS SWARUP

He became famous by his debut novel, Q and A. base for a famous movie” slum dog millionaire”

VIKRAM CHANDRA:

Vikram Chandra, a journalist author was born in 1961 in New Delhi. The prominent author completed most of his secondary education at Mayo College, a boarding school in Ajmer, Rajasthan.

Works:

Red Earth and Pouring Rain(1995) : first novel

● The autobiography of James Skinner, a legendary nineteenth century Anglo-Indian  soldier was the inspiration for this novel. Title of the novel was from “Kuruntokoi”, an anthology of classicl tamil poems.

● It won David Higham prize and Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book

● Sanjay is the main protagonist.

● The main story revolves around the time from early colonial India to modern America.

Love and Longing in Bombay(1997) : it won common wealth Writers Prize

It is a unique collection of five lengthy stories for which he won the Commonwealth Writers` Prize for Best Book. This novel is set against the backdrop of a smoky Bombay bar known as the Fisherman`s Rest. This contains five stories that are narrated by Subramaniam who is a retired Bombay civil servant.

The Srinagar Conspiracy(2000): set in backdrop of insurgency of Kashmir, about the rise of militancy

Sacred Games(2006) :  is a social novel with cops and Bhais(gangster in Mumbai) detective thriller,  won vodafone crossword award, set in Mumbai. Story of a police man, Sartaj Sing, who appeared earlier in Love and Longing In Bombay.

Mirror Mind/ Geek Sublime: My life in Letters and code, “ The Beauty of code and the code of Beauty”

V.S. NAIPAUL(1932-)

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul   popularly known as V. S. Naipaul was born on 17th august 1932. He is considered as the leading novelist of the English  speaking Caribbean, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 2001.

Awards:

● In 1971, he became the first Person of Indian  origin to win a Booker Prize for his book In a Free State.

● Nobel Prize for Literature - 2001

Works:

● A House for Mr Biswas (1961):  Mohun Biswas is the protagonist. HANUMAN House appears in this novel , Dediacated to his wife Patrica Anu Hale. Inspired from his childhood memories of his father. Title character changed many professions.

●The Mimic Men(1967): about an excelled Caribbean Politician

● A Bend in the River (1979)

● A Way in the World (1994)

● An Area of Darkness (1964).

● The Enigma of Arrival

● The Mystic Masseur (1957)- a comic novel, received Rhys Memorial Award

● Miguel Street (1960)

● In A Free State

● Guerrillas(1975)

● The Loss of El Dorado

● Among The Believers

●Land in 6 AB the river(1979)

● A turn in the South

● India: A Million Mutinies Now

● India: A wounded Civilization (1977)

● A congo Dairy(1980)

 

VIKRAM SETH (1952--)

Vikram Seth was born on June 20, 1952 at Kolkata. His father, Prem, was an employee of the Bata India Limited shoe company who migrated to post-Partition India from West Punjab in Pakistan. Vikram Seth is better known as an Indian  poet, novelist, travel writer, author, children`s writer, biographer and also memoirist. Being a polyglot he has learnt Welsh, German,French, English , Mandarin, Hindi and Urdu. He is often compared with Salman Rushdie and Amitabh Ghosh.

Awards:

● Sahitya Akademi Award for The Golden Gate in 1988

● Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book) for A Suitable BoyIn 1994

● Padma Shri in Literature & Education in 2007

● Pravasi Bharatiya Samman and WH Smith Literary Award.

Works:

● "Mappings" (1980) was Seth`s first volume of poetry

The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse – 1986

● A satirical romance

● a novel in verse composed of 590 Onegin stanzas

● It was inspired by Charles Johnston's translation of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin.

● John Brown is the protagonist.

● Set in San Francisco and is centred on the relationship of two professionals.

A Suitable Boy(1993):  a 1349 page long novel

●  a derivative of Jane Austen’s “Pride&Prejudice”( VikramSeth is a fan of Jane Austen)

● A Suitable Boy opens in 1952 with Mrs. Rupa Mehra's words to her younger daughter Lata, on her elder daughter's Savita's wedding day: "You too will marry a boy I choose."

● Seth portrays the world culture, distilled out of his eclectic reading and moulded by his own personality. A Suitable Boy (1993) created literary history with the book's mammoth size and the million copies sales – a story involving a widow's search for a 'suitable' (in the Indian  context) bridegroom for her daughter. It is a social novel, not an 'Indian ' novel in the sense that Seth does not try to force his ethnicity on the reader. It chronicles a saga of four inter generational and interrelated families: the Mehras, the Chatterjis, the Kapoors and the Khans. It is the wedding of Savita, the widowed Mrs.Rupa mehra's elder daughter to Pran, a University lecturer and the son of the State Revenue Minister, Mahesh Kapoor. The three other families are the members of the anglicized Chatterji clan, the Khan family of the Nawab of Baitar. The plot centres round the mothers search for a suitable boy for Lata. Rupa Mehra's younger daughter Lata falls in love with a handsome young Muslim student Kabir Duttani. Mrs. Rupa Mehra horrified by her daughter's rebellious art whisks her off to Calcutta to the home of her eldest born Arun Mehra who is married to the daughter of a Bengali Judge,

Meenakshi. Meenakshi's brother Amit Chaterji falls in love with Lata. Mrs. Rupa discovers Harish, a boy from Khan Caste working in a leather manufacturing industry. Which of these three suitors will be the most suitable boy?. For Lata, marriage entails stability and prosperity and she accepts Harish not at her mother's behest or her brother's but as an independent decision. The weddings of Lata and Savita are set in the Pul Mela, the raising of the Shiva-lingam. John Mee analyses A Suitable Boy as a historical novel concerned with the transition of India from feudalism to modernity.

● Khuswant Singh hailed the novel by commenting, "I lived through that period and I couldn't find a flaw. It really is an authentic picture of Nehru's India" (Qtd. in Wikipedia).

● The novel is quasipolitical and quasi-biographical portraying historical and political developments of the 1950s. The Mehras and the Kapoors represent the Hindu middle classes of North. The Nawab of Baitar stands for feudal Muslim aristocracy, his two sons, Firoz and Imitaz are lawyer and doctor respectively, their career marking the end of the feudal structure. Haresh, a worker in the leather industry, considers his work as his religion and disregards caste restrictions and he is the sign of modern ideas of economic progress.

● The longest novel in English  ever written having 1349 pages.

● A sequel, to be called A Suitable Girl, is due for publication in 2016.

● Set in Brahmpur, A Suitable Boy uses the taboo relationship between a boy and girl as a metonym through which to explore the post￾Independence conflict in India between Hindus and Muslims.

● Centres on four families: the Kapoors, Mehras and Chatterjis (Hindus) and the Khans (Muslim).

● RUDHIA JUNCTION: It is a name of train stop in this novel. When Maan travelled in the train with Rasheed to Rasheed's native village of Debaria it was as if one was seeing the sights from the train with one's own eyes.

An Equal Music – 1999

● Romantic novel, which revolves around London and Vienna.

● Michael Holmes is the protagonist in it and he is second violinist with the Maggiore Quartet.

● The novel is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice that has haunted music lovers through ages. Michael Holme, the narrator and main protagonist, is a violinist based in London. He is in his late thirties and earns his income as the second violinist in the groups by teaching a number of unwilling students. Ten years ago, as a student of the Swedish maestro Carl Kall at Musikhochschule in Vienna, he was in love with a young pianist, Julia, the daughter of an Oxford don and an Australian mother. It is well known that art and music are absorbed without effort or explanation. They become lovers and together with a cellist, Maria, they set up a trio and perform music. That time Michael is badly insulted by his professor's apparent impatience with his style of playing. Julia too supports the professor so betrayed by Julia, broken down physically, Michael flees Vienna and Julia. He flies to London and lives like a fugitive. After two months, he enrolls himself in music and manages to locate a recording of Beethoven: Opus 104 in a dusty drawer of a music shop in London. While returning home, he looks up to find Julia sitting five feet away in another bus. His impertinent cries do not reach Julia who is separated by twin sheets of window glass. Michael goes off the bus chasing her in crowded streets in a taxi only to find her gone and he has left the precious record in the cab. Once again, Julia makes her appearance at a concert by the Maggiore at Wigmore Hall.

● Towards the end, Michael learns to his immense shock that Julia has become deaf. She is acting from auto immune disease that has affected her hearing. A musician going deaf in a novel about music is a great idea. Seth weaves the novel in a realistic web of musicians, agents, critics, concert halls, rehearsals, details about music and musical instruments. Love and music are the two operating themes in the novel which run simultaneously and sometimes merge with each other, yielding a perfect equilibrium. It is remarkable to note that Seth's marvellous sense of place which entails the ability to conjure up visual spaces through aural cues. London is represented by the songs of robins in winter and blackbirds in summer. Vienna is conjured up by the sound of Vivaldi. The description of London parks, Venice and Vienna convey the mercurial moods of love and of music as is possible in words. The delicate love between Michael and Julia is bathed in the glow of musical reference to Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Bach virtually all great musicians of music because their love has their music which is a metaphor for their love. Seth reiterates his own philosophy of family through music like string trio, quartet etc.

● The book centres on two gifted musicians: Michael Holme and Julia McNicholl.

● The beauty of the novel lies when this novel manages to convey music through language.

● The plot concerns Michael, a professional violinist, who never forgot his love for Julia, a pianist he met as a student in Vienna. They meet again after a decade, and conduct a secret affair, though she is married and has one child. Their musical careers are affected by this affair and the knowledge that Julia is going deaf.

The Travel book From Heaven(1983)  longest novel in verse form, Written in English

A Suitable Girl ( Upcoming 2016)

Two Lives

 

VINEET BAJPAI

Basically, an author of self-help books and a motivational speaker, Vineet has been featured by CNBC TV18 in their popular program ‘Young Turks’, where he was featured as being among the most successful young entrepreneurs of India. With Harappa: Curse of the Blood River, he has proved himself to be a historical fiction writer to look forward to.

 

VIKRAM BALAGOPAL

Following his training at the New York Film Academy, New York, Vikram Balagopal has worked in India with various film-makers, and his screenplay was chosen for Mira Nair’s Maisha Screenwriter’s Lab. He is also a published poet, illustrator and cartoonist for several magazines.

NOTABLE WORKS:

Simian (Part-1&2)

Savage Blue

 

VAMSEE JULURI

Vamsee Juluri received his PhD in Communication from the University of Massachusetts in 1999. His research interest is in the globalization of media audiences with an emphasis on Indian  television and cinema, mythology, religion, violence and Gandhian philosophy.

 WORKS:

Saraswati's Intelligence

Rearming Hinduism

The Mythologist

 

VOLGA:

Ayoni: short story by Volga, popular song of Sita’s Chastity. Child protogonist asks to born without a yoni.

Ayonija=Pure-Sita, Here ayoni