Indian Writing in English

Important Facts

 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 pamphlet 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 Soob Row (3 years before
Raja Mohan Roy’s Letter).
 First autobiography- Vennelakanty SoobRow’s- published in
1873.
 First authentic piece of Indian English prose by Raja
RamMohan’s “Letter on English Education (1823)”.
 Play by an Indian in English is Krishna Mohan Benarjee’s “The
Persecuted” (1831).
 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

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 Authors (Alphabetically)

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 'Sunehendey’ (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

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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.

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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,

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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 fiction Asura: 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

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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.

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● 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.

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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 feticide 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 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

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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.

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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: 2nd novel: This is a story of three siblings
Amla, Nirode and Monisha and their miserable conditions of life in
Kolkata.

Bye-bye Blackbird – 1971: 3rd 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.

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● 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: 4th novel

● Sita, the female protagonist of the story. Sita, now pregnant for the
5th 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: 5th 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

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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.

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● 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

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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 (part 1 set in India, part 2 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

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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 20th 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

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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

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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 Salman Rushdie, 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

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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 writer, activist and novelist. She was born
in Shillong, Meghalaya. She calls herself as a “home-grown” 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 recognized 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

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● 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".

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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

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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 American 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)

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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!

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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
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 in Calcutta, 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'.

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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.

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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

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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

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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 fulfil 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

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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.

Wife (1975): 2nd 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.

Jasmine (1989):
● 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

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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 World (1993) : a novel, retelling of Hawthorne’s

Scarlet Letter

Leave It to Me (1997): 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

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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.

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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.

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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 Indianised English, became sensation along with Jame’s Joyce’s
helped in shaping modern novel, Influenced Salman Rashdie.
● 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

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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

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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)

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● 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.

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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

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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): 3rd 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

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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

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and at the same time a horse enters. However, Bhagawatha
recognizes it as the Hayawadana (instead of his horse body, he gets
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, lost 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 personality, 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 years 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

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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

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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,

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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

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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.

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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 Encyclopedia.

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 of 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

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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:
Next door: 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.

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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:

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Narcopolis 2012: His 1st 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

Manhattan. About an Unforgettable character Xavier and his journey
towards salvation or damnation 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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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:

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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.

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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.

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●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.

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● 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)

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● "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 Ram Mohan
Roy, Madusudan Dutt.

Founded a English weekly: Hindu Intelligence (1846)

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

KIRAN DESAI (3rd 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

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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 2nd 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.

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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,

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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.

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● 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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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 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

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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

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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

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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
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 Woman is 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.

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● 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

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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.

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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 - 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 “favorite 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

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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 and 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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 Krishnaswamy Narayan was 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

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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.

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● 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.

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● 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 3rd 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

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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.

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● 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

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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

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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

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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 autobiography

● `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.

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● 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.

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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.

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● 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”

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 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.

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-Co-founded literary 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 place Bombay.
Jewish wedding in Bombay:
Professor:
Naipaul’s India and Mine: An essay

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NOVONEEL CHAKRABORTY
His specialty 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.

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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

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

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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 (7th 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 Vishwa Bharathi University at (Shantinikethan)in West
Bengal. He gave up 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

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Plays: Chitra (a one act play), The Genius 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 well-known 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

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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 20th 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. Well known 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
Aligarh University inspired him to study French literature.

Works:
Kanthapura 1938
● Deals with Gandhian struggle of independence, Civil Disobedience
Movement

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● 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".

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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

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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

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● 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.

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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 Wallace Stevens, 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, McArthur prize in 1983, Sahitya Academy in 1999
(posthumously)

Works:

Translations:
●Fifteen Tamil poems (1965)

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●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, summarizes 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

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Works:

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

The Tales from Ferozshah 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

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● The novel tells the story of four characters (Maneck, Dina, Ishwar
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-autobiography, 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.

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Delhi is Not Far:
The Night Train at Deoli:
Angry river (1972): his 1st children book
The Blue Umbrella (1974): the 2nd childrens book, adopted as hindi
film in 2005, 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)

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● 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-flick
novel.

RADHAKRISHNAN PILLAI

NOTABLE WORKS:
Corporate Chanakya
Chanakya's 7 Secrets of Leadership
Chanakya in You
Corporate Chanakya on Leadership

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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

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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.

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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

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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 Satyagraha 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 Buddha 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 collection 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.

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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 40th 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.

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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
15th 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)- 3rd novel, Shame (1983), was shortlisted for the Booker
Prize for Fiction.
The Satanic Verses (1988) - 4th 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

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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 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.

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● 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 especially
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.

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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 loneliness 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.

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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)

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● 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

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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.

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● Karuna, the central character of this story is bored with her life with
husband and now she wants 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 becomes 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

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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)

Notable work-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.

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

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Savithri: ancient ballad in 5 parts, borrowed from Mahabaratha,
about Satyaharischandra’s wife Savitri, who fought with Yama, the
goddess of death over her husband’s 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 are intended to go beyond the basic concept
of comedy.

Works:
English August: An Indian story (1988)
● Upamanyu Chatterjee problematizes 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.

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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".

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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,

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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

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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

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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 Arun Athavale, a Dalith
young man who writes poetry. She has met him in the socialists' study
group. (he 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

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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

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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 brings stubbornness 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 femininity. 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
.

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● 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

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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

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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)

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● 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

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● 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 derivative of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”(Vikram Seth 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
mother’s 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

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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 quasi-political 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

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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

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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 (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

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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

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