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Shyamala A. Narayan The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 2007; 42; 79 DOI: 10.1177/0021989407085203 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jcl.sagepub.com
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India
compiled and introduced by Shyamala A. Narayan
Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India
Introduction
In Indian English literature, 2006 can be considered the year of poetry and drama, rather than ction, which usually predominates. Four interesting new playwrights were published. Established poets brought out new works, and new poets made their debut in book form. The new novels by established novelists have been somewhat disappointing. However, some interesting rst novels were published in 2006. Two rst novels received attention for the way they present the reality of contemporary India without exoticism or sentimentality, Altaf Tyrewalas No God in Sight (2005) and Rupa Bajwas The Sari Shop (2004) which won the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2006; this is the rst time this award has been conferred on a creative writers rst published book. Some interesting collections of short stories also appeared. E.V. Ramakrishnans third collection of poems Terms of Seeing has forty-one new poems and fteen poems reprinted from his earlier collections. The music of his verse never falters; his stanzas vary from two lines to ten or more in length, yet there is never a word or phrase out of place. His poems present memorable images, which can be interpreted at various symbolic levels. S.Murali, who teaches English at Pondicherry University, has published his third collection of verse. The seventeen poems in the section The Notebooks of a Naturalist celebrate creatures as varied as the elephant, the rat snake, and the rey, and Muralis charming illustrations complement the poetry very well. Shanta Acharyas fourth book of verse is titled Shringara (love, ornamentation in Sanskrit), although the poems are more about grief than love and eroticism. The book is dedicated to her late father and grandparents, and loss and family relations are recurring themes. If the poem Missing shows a daughter grieving for her father, the poem Silent Witness shows the rudeness of a daughter to her father on a London train. Death is The Master
Copyright 2007 SAGE Publications http://jcl.sagepub.com (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) Vol 42(4): 79107. DOI: 10.1177/0021989407085203
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Journal of Commonwealth Literature
of Ceremonies, and she mourns many deaths of those killed in the cyclone in Orissa in 1999, 9/11 in New York, and July 7 in London, of the poet Keki Daruwallas wife in an accident: A split second and the world changed when a van rammed into their car. A number of poets have brought out their first volumes. Brian Mendona obtained his Ph.D. from the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. His rst book of poems, Last Bus to Vasco, owes a lot to his travels through India. Goa is at the centre of the poets sensibility, even as the book faithfully captures the colourful variety of multicultural, multilingual India. Mendonas English is interspersed with words and phrases from seven languages, such as Konkani (the language of Goa), Portuguese (the language of its colonizers), and Hindi (the national language) in order to give an authentic feel of the moment. Listening to a reading of selected poems in Mendonas rich baritone (a CD comes with the book) is a rewarding experience. In his rst book of poetry Universal Beach, Vivek Narayanan experiments freely with stanza forms. Lust, A Cycle has seven poems for seven days, each fourteen lines in length, where the rst line of a poem grows from the last line of the previous poem. Many of the poems have a note of quiet desperation. Some poems (MGR Meets God in Person, for example) have a touch of satirical humour. Kaushik Bhattacharya sticks to three line poems in his rst collection The Third Eye, while R.K. Singhs eleventh volume The River Returns contains 144 tankas (ve-line poems) and 191 haikus, written over the past ten years. Three young women poets, Tishani Doshi, Meena Kandasamy and Anjum Hasan, have published their rst collections. All three live in India. Tishani Doshis Countries of the Body, which won the Forward Poetry Prize 2006 for the best rst collection, is dedicated to her dance teacher, the innovative dancer and choreographer Chandralekha. The aptly named volume of poetry pays particular attention to the body, failed innity/ Of body, bre, blood, marking climactic points in life: sex, death, and birth when body slither[s] out of body. Many poems are concerned with death and loss a brother losing his mind, the suicide of an aunt. Her poems are well crafted, and she takes pleasure in the physical reality of things. Meena Kandasamys poems in Touch have two main themes love and caste oppression. She challenges caste restrictions through her comment on the story of Eklavya drawn from the Mahabharata. Eklavya, an outcaste, taught himself the art of archery and became so skilled an archer that he rivalled the supremacy of the Kshatriya prince Arjuna. The princes guru, whom Eklavya considered a guru as well, then demanded and received Eklavyas right thumb as gurudakshina (fee for the teacher), thus ensuring he could not rival Arjuna. Kandasamy writes: You dont need your right thumb/ To pull a trigger or hurl a bomb. Anjum Hasan
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was born and brought up in Shillong, a beautiful hill station located in the north-east of India, and now works in Bangalore. Street on the Hill effectively captures the sights, sounds and smells of contemporary India and the loneliness of living away from home. Many established novelists, such as Vikram Chandra, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Anita Rau Badami, Raj Kamal Jha, Manju Kapur, Shiv K. Kumar, Kiran Nagarkar, and I. Allan Sealy brought out new novels. Kiran Desais The Inheritance of Loss which won the Man Booker Prize skilfully intertwines two strands of narrative, two stories of voluntary exile. A retired judge lives in penury in a decrepit old house in Kalimpong, with his old cook, and his orphaned granddaughter Sai. The only object of his affection is his aging dog, Mutt. The other story is of the cooks son Biju, an illegal immigrant in New York. Desai handles the shifts in time with great expertise. Events of the past, such as the judges early life and marriage, details of Sais parents and her childhood, occur as ashbacks. We get a feel of Bijus life in New York through minor characters. However, the details of life in India do not always ring true. We are not told why the judge is so poor members of the I.C.S. draw a substantial pension. The novelist admits that the work was subjected to a lot of editing, I cut 1500 pages down to about 300. Perhaps the connecting links in Sais story and the judges were lost in editing. Vikram Chandra, author of Red Earth and Pouring Rain (1995) and Love and Longing in Bombay (1997), has written a 900-page blockbuster. Sacred Games, which won the Crossword Award for Best Indian English ction, deals with the rise and destruction of an underworld don of Mumbai, Ganesh Gaitonde. The central character is Sartaj Singh, a police ofcer, who was the protagonist of one of the ve stories in Love and Longing in Bombay. We gain interesting new perspectives into police work all the money gathered through bribes is not siphoned off to top ofcers and politicians; some of it is being utilized for actual police work like paying informers. Vikram Chandra also works into his novel some facts publicized by newspapers about the Indian governments intelligence agencies they utilize the services of gangsters to deal with arms smuggling, terrorism etc. A powerful Swamiji who is Gaitondes guru has an international following, but is complicit in international arms smuggling. The threads of the love life of Sartaj, the trauma of Partition, prostitution and call girl rackets, cinema production, the travails of an honest police ofcer who is by-passed for promotion are also brought in, along with a host of side-stories. The novel conveys the complexities and confusions of modern Indian. Sacred Games is very readable, in spite of the tapori language (Mumbais street dialect) used throughout the book.
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Sealy uses his full name, Irwin Allan Sealy, for the rst time on the cover of his fth novel Red. In an interview, he explained This is who I am, its also my fathers name, its also a tribute to him. This novel revolves around the work of Henri Matisse, and the use of the colour red in his paintings. It begins with a young Anglo-Indian musician, Zaccheus, noticing a young woman in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg studying a painting by Matisse. The next day when he goes to the Museum hoping to meet the girl, he meets her mother, Aline, the wife of a rich American. They have an affair and she follows him to Dehra Dun. We get a vivid representation of the life of the Anglo-Indians in Dehra Dun, a sleepy Himalayan hill station hurtling into the cyber age. The novel is in two parts; the rst eighteen pages are devoted to three paintings, the second part of the novel is The Abecedary A-Z, with entries like C is for cybercafe varying in length from one page to a whole chapter. Each novel by Sealy is different from its predecessors, and Red is no exception. It shows his love of nature and also his understanding of modern art. Upamanyu Chatterjees Weight Loss has a subtitle which sums up the long and boring novel: A Comedy of Sexual and Spiritual Degradation. The protagonist, Bhola, from an upper middle class family, seems to have only one obsession, sex. The novel traces his career from the age of eleven to his mysterious death at the age of thirty-seven in a Gurus ashram which seems to be littered with the bodies of drug-addicts. Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? is Anita Rau Badamis third novel, and her most ambitious. She attempts to present six decades of Indias history through the lives of three women. Set in Canada and India, it begins in 1928, and takes in events like the Partition of India in 1947, the agitation for Khalistan (a separate Sikh state) in the 1970s and 1980s, the Indian armys storming of the Golden temple to ush out militants in 1984, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the anti-Sikh riots which followed, and the Air India plane crash in 1985. But one always gets the uncomfortable feeling that the novelist is pandering to the western reader with her stereotypical representations of India. Home, Manju Kapurs third novel, is a soap opera type story about a rich cloth merchants family. Banwari Lal has set up a successful business after coming to Delhi as a refugee in 1947. He has two sons; the elder falls in love with Sona, a very beautiful girl he meets at a family wedding. They get married, even though she cannot bring a big dowry. Sona has a beautiful daughter Nisha after ten years of marriage. The rest of the novel is a rich girl meets poor boy story, when Nisha meets Suresh on the way to college. Manju Kapur presents a credible picture of the power struggles in a joint family, and the inherent gender bias. Meena Arora Nayak is the author of two novels, In the Aftermath (1992) and About Daddy (2000). Her third novel, Endless Rain, is an attempt
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to give the people of the Valley a voice. The rst part of the novel is written in the third person. It begins with the birth of a son after three daughters to an expert weaver in Kashmir; Ali is born in December 1971, just as an Indo-Pakistan cease-re has been declared. The last section is a rst person account by Ali, now a young man, describing how and why he became a terrorist. The inept handling of the Kashmir problem by the Indian government, and the rampant corruption in the state, are well portrayed. Gods Little Soldier, Kiran Nagarkars new novel, also has a terrorist as hero, but the novel is such a mish-mash of themes that we get no insight into the psychology of an extremist. Zia (light), the younger of the two sons of Zafar Khan, a brilliant architect, hates his brother Amanat; Zias mother is not only promiscuous, but she wastes money in gambling, while Zias aunt Zubeida Khaala is a bigoted Muslim. Other characters include their family doctors daughter Sagari who is a child star; Antonia, an aristocratic Englishwoman; and her daughter Vivian who supports Zias plan to murder Salman Rushdie. Zia becomes a mathematical and nancial wizard, a terrorist, a Trappist monk, Lucens devoted to the spread of Christian values in US, and nally Tejas Nirantar an international arms smuggler. Thrity Umrigars second novel The Space Between Us is set in Bombay. It is the story of two women: Sera Dubash, an upper middle class Parsi housewife trapped in an abusive marriage, and Bhima, the illiterate domestic servant who has worked for her for more than twenty years. In spite of the social and economic disparity, they have a lot in common emotionally. While Sera is devoted to her daughter Dinaz, Bhimas only goal in life is to provide for her beautiful grand-daughter Maya, whom she sends to college with Seras money. Sunny Singhs rst novel Nanis Book of Suicides (2000) was dominated by the narrators Nani (maternal grandmother), tormenting her with stories of times gone by, emphasizing the Rajput sense of honour. In Singhs second novel With Krishnas Eyes the protagonist, Krishna, loves her Dadiji (paternal grandmother), who has her own concept of honour. In a society where female infanticide and foeticide is rampant, the old woman prays and conducts sacrices for the birth of a daughter to her eldest son. She believes that a girl should have the same educational opportunities as a boy; when Krishna wants to go to New York for lm studies, she encourages her. When she dies, she leaves detailed instructions for Krishna: she is to make a documentary of the last days of Damayanti, a lawyer, who is planning to commit sati. Krishna has to go back to her feudal roots, yet full her aspirations as a modern woman. The novelist presents a vivid picture of rural India, and the villagers faith in their feudal master.
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Raj Kamal Jhas third novel Fireproof deals with the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002, when more than a thousand people were killed. The worst aspect of this violence was the complicity of the police and the administration. The narrators wife is in labour, admitted to hospital the very day the violence breaks out. Jha employs the trope of a deformed baby; the gures of those who were killed in the riots doctors, nurses, traders, common people help the narrator take care of it-him, as he names his baby. Horric images of violence are piled on (Jha even includes three photographs) but the effect is one of overkill. Jhas expos of the bias against Muslims is melodramatic; another novel, presents this discrimination in an understated, and much more effective way. Most of the characters in Altaf Tyrewalas No God in Sight are Muslims, like the author himself. The novel is a tour de force in terms of narrative strategy; it is structured as a series of short rst person narratives, each anecdote linked to the next by the interaction between the characters. After introducing Mr Khwaja, Mrs Khwaja and their son Obaid, the story begins with their twenty-ve year old daughter, Minaz, and the startling lines: I wont be pregnant for too long now. She goes with her boyfriend Kasim to a seedy clinic in Colaba for an abortion. Different areas of Bombay come to life in the novel there is a great variety of protagonists such as the unsuccessful medical student setting up as an abortionist; his father, a salesman in a shoe store; the owner of the store, who has taken the major decision to leave India; a butcher in a chicken shop; a bar dancer; a beggar; an insurance agent; a drunken police constable; and a top executive, Rahul Adhikari, whose Bombay is a cold, dry city because he never steps out of his air-conditioned room except to get into his air-conditioned car. The narrative comes full circle, and we are back at the abortion clinic when Rahul Adhikari is linked to Minaz by a telephone call with the wrong number. Muslims, whether poor or rich, face discrimination. Sohail Tambawala, 20 wants to become a barrister; he seriously considers changing his name to a Hindu name like Jayesh or Jiten, so that he will not see eyebrows rising (at police stations) or lips pursing (at railway counters) at the mention of his name. In this years Sahitya Akademi Award winner, The Sari Shop (rst published in 2004) the discrimination is based not on religion but on class; the poor are condemned to a life of misery. Rupa Bajwa captures the essence of the Indian town (in this case Amritsar) with its narrow alleys, its slums, its busy bazaars, its dhabas (eateries), and the well planned afuent areas. The story revolves around Ramchand, a shop assistant at Sevak Sari House. Ramchand was a good student, but he has to drop out of school when his parents die in an accident. When he goes to deliver saris for the trousseau of Rina Kapoor, the daughter of a very rich man, he gets a glimpse into the world of the English-speaking afuent people.
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He decides to learn English through a dictionary and a book of letters, but his attempts are doomed to failure. Bajwa also gives a clear picture of the world of women; on one side, there are rich and bored women, on the other there is Kamla, Ramchands co-worker Chanders wife. The salesmen in the sari shop think that she is a slut and a drunkard, and feel sorry for Chander; but in fact she is a simple, hardworking village girl whose life was destroyed when her husband lost his job, took to drink, and started beating her. Srividya Natarajan lives in Canada and teaches English at the University of Western Ontario. Her rst novel, No Onions, Nor Garlic is the most entertaining work of 2006. She writes about the caste politics of the campus of Chennai University (the setting is obviously modelled on Madras University, while the politics is based on her own experiences at the University of Hyderabad). We also have a wickedly funny picture of the culture of a Tamil Brahmin family, when we witness the home life of the young research scholar Sundar. The novel begins with a Prologue introducing the main characters Mr Seshadri of Seshadri Realties and Construction who has built innumerable blocks of substandard apartments; Professor Pattabhiraman (or Professor Ram, to give him the elegant diminutive he prefers); his Dalit student Jiva with whom Sundar falls in love; Caroline Bailey from Canada, an ethnographer who belonged strictly to the e.coli school of international travel; her native informant Akilan (whom she calls Ack-eelan) and Mrs Ram. The title is from A Midsummer Nights Dream, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, but it sums up the Tamil Brahmin Rams dietary restrictions. Srividya Natarajans comedy has a lot of exaggeration; most characters, including Ram, tend to be caricatures. The plight of the Dalits in contemporary India is taken up in another rst novel, Hitchhiker, dealing with issues of religious conversion, reservation and caste. The author, Vinod George Joseph is a solicitor working in London, after obtaining a degree from the National Law School in Bangalore. Hitchhiker is the story of an untouchable whose father converts to Christianity in the hope of a better life. But Ebenezer gets the worst of both worlds people in his village continue to treat him as an untouchable, while he cannot benet from state policy of afrmative action under which of Scheduled Caste reservation (the Indian governments policy of afrmative action under which fteen per cent of seats in institutions of higher education and jobs are earmarked for Dalits) because he is a Christian. Another debut novelist living in Britain is Gautam Malkani, who joined The Financial Times after a degree in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge. His novel Londonstani is about a gang of four young boys, Hardjit (thats what Harjit calls himself), Amit, Ravi and the narrator
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Jas, in the Hounslow district of London, and gives a credible picture of the lives of second generation immigrants. The rudeboys roam the streets, picking up ghts with other immigrants (Pakis), especially Muslims, goras (whites) or coconuts (someone with brown skin who behaves like the whites). The language used by Jas, a mixture of Punjabi abuses, London street slang and sms jargon, may raise problems of comprehension for many: Hear wat my bredren b sayin, sala kutta? Come out wid dat shit again n Ima knock u so hard ull b shitting out yo mouth 4 real, innit. goes Hardjit, with an eloquence an conviction that made me green with envy. Sarnath Banerjees Corridor (2004) was Indias rst graphic novel; now, along with Anindya Roy, he has set up a publishing house, Phantomville, to bring out graphic novels. Their rst publication, The Believers, written by Abdul Sultan P.P., with illustrations by Partha Sengupta, tells the story of two brothers in the Munnar region of Kerala; Hamid, the younger, settled in Scotland, returns to India for his mothers funeral, and nds that his elder brother Rashid has turned a religious fanatic. C.P. Surendran is the author of three volumes of poetry, Gemini II (1994), Posthumous Poems (1999), and Canaries on the Moon (2002). His rst novel Iron Harvest is also set in Kerala. It is based on a real life incident which occurred during the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi; a young engineering college student Rajan disappeared, and it was later established that he had been arrested as a suspected Naxalite, and tortured to death. The author recreates the sights, sounds, smells and food habits of Kerala in a very authentic manner. Abraham Eralys rst novel, Night of the Dark Trees is about a family of Syrian Christians in Kerala; the protagonist is called Zerubbabel, a preposterous Old Testament name chosen by his great-grandfather. Mamang Dais The Legends of Pensam, another rst novel, set in the opposite corner of India, the north-east, is a mixture of lyrical descriptions, character sketches, folklore, and historic incidents woven around the remote Adi tribe of the valley of Siang in Arunachal Pradesh. Dhruba Hazarikas A Bowstring Winter is set in Shillong, capital of the adjacent state of Meghalaya. This novel of love, friendship and revenge is distinguished by its fast pace and the lyrical descriptions of the backdrop. The Suragi Tree by Prabhakar Acharya presents six decades in the life of its protagonist Sudhakar Rao who teaches English in a college. The protagonists conict with his father, a doctor who feels that his son should study biology, not literature, memories of his childhood in a village in Karnataka, and his bond with his uncle, are all presented vividly. Letters for Paul by Anu Kumar is not an epistolary novel but a bildungsroman, about the childhood and adolescence of a young girl. The protagonist, Aditi Chatterjee, is the daughter of a police ofcer; the novel
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begins with her fathers posting to the town of Cuttack in the state of Orissa in 1981. We get a vivid picture of life in small town India, as seen through the eyes of an imaginative adolescent girl. Suroopa Mukherjee teaches English at Delhi University; her rst novel, Across the Mystic Shore, has lyrical descriptions of Benares, Indias oldest city. The story revolves around the Senguptas, living in an old mansion in Benares, and the complex emotional ties between family members. Characters include Vandana, who marries the eldest son, Sameer; Abha, her friend who convinces her about the impossibility of marrying the Englishman David (this is in the nineteen-seventies); Uma, a young relative who joins an ashram; and Romola, the spirited young widow in the ashram who becomes her best friend. Two leading journalists of India published their rst novels. At last, a new and brilliantly original novel from India said V.S.Naipaul about The Alchemy of Desire (2005) by Tarun J. Tejpal, an investigative journalist, known for his expos of an arms deal. The hero is a journalist who is writing a novel. M.J. Akbar is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Asian Age and author of several books of political commentary. His rst novel, Blood Brothers, tells the story of three generations of a Muslim family in a small jute mill town near Calcutta. There is an autobiographical element in the novel. Some rst novels stand out for their humour. Manreet Sodhi Someswars rst novel, Earning the Laundry Stripes A Womans Adventures in Hindustan Levers All-Boys Sales Club, looks at the funny side of a woman sales representative in India, travelling atop detergent bags and selling soap in 45-degree heat. Clueless & Co by Pratik Basu looks at the corporate world through the eyes of a young man who realises that, in spite of his business school degree and work experience, he is clueless when setting up his own business. Pratik Basu himself is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and has rst hand experience of the corporate world. The phenomenal success of Chetan Bhagats rst novel, Five Point Someone (2004) marks a trend in Indian English literature. What were seeing, says Neelesh Misra, is the end of pretension for the publishing industry. Misra, a Delhi-based journalist, was referring to the growing number of writers who are reaching out to the casual reader. His rst novel Once Upon a Timezone takes a light-hearted look at the aspirations of the Indian middle-class. Neel Pandey, just out of college, dreams of going to America, while his father dreams of arranging his marriage to a suitable girl. Neel starts working in a call centre, where he takes on the pronunciation and identity of an American. Meanwhile, in faraway New York, Angela Cruz, a journalist calls in to complain about her malfunctioning computer. Her call is attended by Neil Patterson
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and thus begins an international love story with a difference. Abhijit Bhaduris Mediocre but Arrogant is about two years in business school. The author has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur. Some of the young graduates who wish to be get an MBA end up as Mediocre but Arrogant. The narrative makes good use of the protagonist Abbeys class notes. Tuhin A. Sinhas debut novel The Thing Called Love is set in Bombay, and has three characters in search of love and marriage; the irony is that Mayank, Anil and Vishal are all employed by a matrimonial website, that modern innovation to facilitate arranged marriages. Saros Cowasjees Strange Meeting and Other Stories contains both new and previously published work. Suniti Namjoshis Sycorax: New Fables and Poems are on the same lines as her earlier work like Feminist Fables (1981) and Saint Suniti and the Dragon (1993), giving a feminist twist to old fables; some characters, like Suniti and the one-eyed monkey, re-appear in the new work. The short story is a popular form with Indian English writers and the variety in form, style and theme is impressive. A number of rst collections have appeared. Amarendra Kumars Passionate Pilgrim is a collection of short stories with a difference. The thirty short stories and ve poems (which the writer calls verse shorts) focus on life in rural India. The stories do not have strong plots; they tend to be vignettes in a post-modern style revealing the deep divisions in Indian society on the basis of caste, class and gender. Kumar presents a graphic picture of the suffering and helplessness of women, old people, Dalits and the poor. Neera Singhs stories in The Night Halt and Other Stories are entirely different they tend to be autobiographical, and are centred around an upper middle class family. The Night Halt and The Prank read like ghost stories, but they actually have a rational explanation for the ghostly phenomena. The Holy Men is anecdotal and reminiscential, revealing the narrators fathers ill-placed faith in holy men. Life Comes Full Circle is a tale of poetic justice, with a woman who neglected her mother-in-law being sent to an old age home by her own son. Neera Singhs language is lucid, with no attempt at verbal pyrotechnics or experimentation in narrative strategy. Rama S. Mani has worked for thirty-ve years in a battery rm in Bombay; over sixty of his short stories were published in the journal Free Press Bulletin in the period 19511954. Most of the stories in Vaidya and Other Stories feature Vaidya (Vaidyanathan) and his dealings with his friend Rama (the author-narrator). Like the stories in Manis other collection, Fiction of the Forties, they deal in simple language with day-today life in urban India, which is also the setting of stories by Ramani
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Muthanna (Three Faces of Eve and Other Stories) and Sita Bhaskar (Shielding Her Modesty and Other Stories). Of the thirteen short stories in Asim Majumdars Felix Ajays Homecoming and Other Stories from Far and Near, eight are set in Britain and ve in India. Temsula Aos These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone are set in the northeastern region of India; they reveal the beauty of the place, as also the tensions of the separatist movement, spawned by the insensitivity of the Indian government and mainstream culture towards the people of the region. Some of the stories in Anirban Basus The Big Bang and Other Stories belong to the Science Fiction genre, and are set in the future. Kripa Nidhi is an engineer, living in Houston. Eight of the ten stories collected in his rst volume, The Silence of Time and Other Stories, are set in India. Man-woman relationships, and the persistence of memory, are recurring themes. Vithal Rajan has published three collections of short stories and two of plays. After a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, he worked for many years in Montreal, and felt impelled to return to India following the proclamation of the Emergency by Indira Gandhi. Holmes of the Raj has Sherlock Holmes and Watson coming to India in 1888 to investigate six cases. Rajan takes some liberties with chronology to introduce historical personages like Annie Besant and the cricketer Palwankar Baloo. He attains a good measure of success in echoing the style of Arthur Conan Doyle, but the book is not as enjoyable as Jamyang Norbus The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes (1999) which described the adventures of Holmes in Tibet. Vithal Rajans forte is creating characters like Vedavyas Sharma and Varadachary. His novel Sharmaji, Padmashree is structured as a collection of short stories centred on Shri Vedavyas Sharma, M.A. (London), the director of an NGO he founded. The book has enjoyable satire directed against self-serving social workers and corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. The eleven plays in Varadacharys Annotated Chess Masterpieces are ostensibly based on the collected papers of the late Varadachary, the Centenarian Spiritual Revolutionary Freedom Fighter. The plays express Rajans love of chess. Vedavyas Sharma, Varadachary, great chess players, great historical gure such as Gandhi, Napoleon, Marx, and Tolstoy, are the dramatis personae. The Anarkali Diary is another experimental play that combines drama with history. Varadachary claims to have recovered the diaries of Varadachary Iyengar, his sixteenth century ancestor. The locale moves from the garden of Shankar Melkote (a theatre director) in contemporary Hyderabad to Wilton House, Pembroke, England. In a strange twist of events, Saleems legendary beloved Anarkali is moved from his father Akbars court to Wilton House in England. The history of two completely different countries is put together in a fascinating
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manner. Anarkali known as the Persian Lady is pregnant and delivers a boy who goes on to become the King of England, Charles I. The Sahitya Akademi, Indias national academy of letters, has launched a series of Contemporary Indian Plays in English edited by Alok Bhalla and Anju Makhija. There are a number of young playwrights whose work has been staged in India and abroad, but who are unable to nd a publisher. This series will go a long way in giving these playwrights the critical attention they deserve. They have also published two earlier plays: Cyrus Mistrys Doongaji House (1991) and Partap Sharmas A Touch of Brightness (1968). Vikram Kapadias Black with Equal, a naturalistic play in two acts, was rst staged in 2002. The title refers to the coffee that members prefer to drink in the meetings of the Jagruti Housing Society, a typical upper middle class residents association some like it black, while others want it with Equal, a sugar substitute. People from different communities live in this apartment complex, and the meetings reveal the religious biases, hypocrisies and the self-centeredness of the upper middle class that is unmoved even as one of its members is murdered. Ramu Ramanathan, a young and prolic playwright is associated with Prithvi Theatres in Bombay. Collaborators (rst staged in 2003) is divided into sixteen scenes. There are four characters the Husband, the Wife, the Man and the Woman who meet over a game of bridge every evening. There are frequent references to the Husbands stay in prison. The play shows how the different sections of the middle class are constantly collaborating with those in power. Another play, Mahadevbhai (18921942) is about Mahadev H. Desai, who was Mahatma Gandhis secretary from 1917 till his death. He maintained a diary in which he meticulously recorded Gandhis correspondence as well as conversations. Ramu Ramanathan makes full use of these diaries to present the history of Indias freedom struggle from a fresh perspective. Fragments of dialogue from other Indian languages like Gujarati and Hindi are employed in the play which has just one actor, a meek and humble, subservient and lowly actor whose claim to fame is that his great-uncle stands next to Mahadevbhai with Mahatma Gandhi in an old photograph. First staged in 2002, it has had more than 100 performances, with Jaimini Pathak winning praise for his acting. Ninaz Khodaiji has an MA in Theatre Directing from Middlesex University and has spent two decades as an actor, director and writer. She has written three plays. The Sahitya Akademi has published Insomnia which was rst performed at Oval House Theatre, London, in 2005. The play begins in January 1993 in Bombay, where Hindu-Muslim riots have broken out, and is structured as four monologues by the four main characters.
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Gautam Raja is a free lance journalist and photographer based in Bangalore. Almost all his protagonists are women. The three plays in Damini the Damager and Other Plays examine the position of people of different generations in urban India. He uses the naturalistic stage space but perceives the environment as absurd. In Shards (rst staged in 1997), two old women discuss the number of people who commit suicide from the neighbouring buildings. Pub Crawl (rst staged in 1999) deals with the inability of He and She in relating to their immediate circle and their coming together in a strange manner. Damini the Damager (rst performed in 2005) is the most powerful play in this collection. It expresses the complete disjunction of women with their social situation. Keki N. Daruwalla is a distinguished poet and short story writer; Riding the Himalayas, a travelogue, shows that he is equally good in this genre too. It is an account of a road journey through the Himalayas; the team started from Pragpur in Himachal Pradesh in September 2003, and reached Tibitha in Arunachal Pradesh, the easternmost point of the Himalayas, in November, covering a distance of 14,000 kilometres, through Kashmir, Ladakh, Garhwal, Kumaon, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Bengal. Daruwalla describes not only the natural beauty and wild life of the regions they drove through, but also tells us about the people, customs, legends and brief political history of the places. The ninety-eight photographs by award winning photographer Ashok Dilwali capture the beauty and majesty of the Himalayas, and complement the text perfectly. Another book about the Himalayas is Bulbul Sharmas Shaya Tales, an autobiographical account of one year spent in a Himalayan village, enlivened by anecdotes about the people who live there. Sharma, who is a painter and a naturalist, describes the changing seasons, with a beautiful line drawing for each season. In the quiet appreciation of nature and the sympathetic relationship that she has with the local people, one is reminded of the work of Ruskin Bond, a writer who lives in Mussoorie, another hill station. With the passing away of Raja Rao on July 8, 2006, the era of the Big Three of Indian English ction came to an end. Any discussion of Indian ction is incomplete without these three novelists (Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.Narayan and Rao) who published their rst works in the 1930s.
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Poetry Acharya, Shanta Shringara 61pp Shoestring Press (Nottingham) 8.95. Agarwal, Deepa Do Not Weep, Lonely Mirror 55pp Frog Books (Mumbai) Pb Rs60 [2005]. Amyth Colours of the Sky 93pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs180 Pb Rs100. Arora, Sudhir K. A Thirsty Cloud Cries 54pp Prakash Book Depot (Bareilly) Pb Rs50. Asha, K. Summer Night 50pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs80. Banerjee, Ipsito Kaleidoscope 73pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs180 Pb Rs100. Banga, Kamini I Promise to Be a Good Girl, God 104pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs150. Bashir, Saba Mahmood Memory Past 49pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs80. Bhattacharya, Kaushik The Third Eye illus Makarand Kulkarni 72pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Bijapure, A.A. Desert Caves and Other Poems 67pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Choudhuri, Arjun In the House Next Door 53pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs80. Daruwalla, Keki N. Collected Poems 19702005 355pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs350. Das, Shomshukla I Have Seen That Face Before 72pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs195. Doshi, Tishani Countries of the Body 64pp Aark Arts (London) Pb 9.99. Gopal, Revathy Last Possibilities of Light 83pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Hasan, Anjum Street on the Hill 64pp Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi) Pb Rs40. Hoskot, Ranjit Vanishing Acts: New and Selected Poems, 19852005 236pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250. Jayakumar, K. In the Interlude of Remembered Rains 88pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195. Kandasamy, Meena Touch Foreword Kamala Das 143pp Peacock Books (Mumbai) Rs145. Kar, Basanta Kumar The Silent Monsoon 100pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Kaul, H.K. In the Islands of Grace: Poems 19792005 116pp Virgo Publications (New Delhi) Rs250. Khatri, C.L. Ripples in the Lake 72pp Prakash Book Depot (Bareilly) Pb Rs60.
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Khiwani, Deepankar Entracte 83pp Harbour Line (Mumbai) Pb Rs150. Kinshuk, Rudra Marginal Tales of the Galloping Horses 2nd ed 100pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs80. Portrait of a Dog as Buddha 38pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs80 Pb Rs60. Kore, Sachchitananda My Heart is an Urn 55pp The Home of Letters (Bhubaneshwar) Rs100 [2005]. Kottoor, Gopi Krishnan Buchenwald Diary 47pp Poetry Chain Imprint (Trivandrum) Rs80. Majumdar, Bhaskar Dancing with the Flow of Time 125pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs200 Pb Rs100. Majumdar, Pronab Kumar Where Time is Dead 88pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Mendona, Brian Last Bus to Vasco: Poems from Goa 68pp self-pub Rs150 [audio CD of the poet reading his poems included]. Merchant, Hoshang Alif/Alpha: Poems for Ashfaque 37pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs80 Pb Rs60. Bombay, My Bombay19552005 38pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs60. Homage to Jibanananda Das 20pp Aark Arts (London) 3.99 [Contemporary World Poetry Series, 2005]. Juvenilia 67pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs80. Mohapatra, Manorama The Time of Return 39pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs80. Moses, Achala Moulik Once Upon A Time 86pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Nag, Sabyasachi Blood Lines 50pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs80. Namjoshi, Suniti Sycorax: New Fables and Poems 141pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195. Narayanan, Vivek Universal Beach 76pp Harbour Line (Mumbai) Pb Rs150. Naval, Deepti Black Wind and Other Poems 115pp MapinLit (Ahmedabad) Rs250. Parhi, Priyaranjan Speaking into Night 56pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs80. Putatunda, Nileen Sakshis Payel 69pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs80. Raghupathi, K.V. Samarpana 51pp Reliance Publishing House (New Delhi) Rs95. Ramagopal, S. Pausing Moves 111pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs200 Pb Rs100.
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Ramakrishnan, E.V. Terms of Seeing: New and Selected Poems Foreword Keki N. Daruwalla xi+80pp Konark Publishers (New Delhi) Rs200. Reddy, T.Vasudeva Pensive Moments 63pp Poets Press India (Madras) Rs65 [2005]. Shankar, Lara Midway Station 99pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs150. Sharma, Jagdish Chandra Poetic Musings 64pp Concept Publishing Company (New Delhi) Rs100 [2005]. Shukla, Satish Kumar Weltschmerz 179pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs250 Pb Rs200. Singh, Charu Sheel Scripture on Stone viii+108pp Adhyayan Publishers (New Delhi) Pb Rs95. Singh, R.K. The River Returns: A Collection of Tanka and Haiku 102pp Prakash Book Depot (Bareilly) Pb Rs80. Singh, V.P. Every Time I Wake Up: Poems 96pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs250. Sivaram, Sushil Book of Crumbs 100pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs180 Pb Rs120 [poems and two short stories]. Sivaramakrishnan, Murali Earth Signs 71pp Creative People (Pondicherry) Pb Rs60. Subramaniam, Arundhati Where I Live 77pp Allied Publishers (Mumbai) Rs150 [2005]. Sukrita Without Margins 118pp Promilla & Co (New Delhi) Rs150 [2005]. Syiem, Esther Oral Scriptings 77pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Thomas, Anjaly For You 60pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs100. Venkat, Vidya Voice of an Anonymous Poet 63pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs160 Pb Rs80. Williams, Mukesh K. Nakasendo and Other Poems 84pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Yuyutsu (R.D.Sharma) The Lake Fewa and a Horse foreword David Ray viii+79pp Nirala Publications (Delhi) Rs250. Drama Dattani, Mahesh Bravely Faught the Queen 100pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs99 [rst pub 1994]. Dance Like a Man: A Stage Play in Two Acts 74pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs99 [rst pub 1994]. Kapadia, Vikram Black with Equal pp170 in Black with Equal and Collaborators Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi) Pb Rs65.
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Khodaiji, Ninaz Insomnia pp5584 in Mahadevbhai and Insomnia Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi) Pb Rs50. Mistry, Cyrus Doongaji House pp11182 in A Touch of Brightness and Doongaji House Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi) Pb Rs80. Raja, Gautam Damini the Damager and Other Plays 96pp Unisun Publications (Bangalore) Rs125. Rajan, Vithal The Anarkali Diary 53pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs80. Varadacharys Annotated Chess Masterpieces 184pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs250 Pb Rs200. Ramanathan, Ramu Collaborators pp71130 in Black with Equal and Collaborators Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi) Pb Rs65. Mahadevbhai (18921942) pp153 in Mahadevbhai and Insomnia Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi) Pb Rs50. Sekhon, Sant Singh Eve at Bay in Sant Singh Sekhon: Selected Writings ed Tejwant Singh Gill 578pp Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi) Rs300. Sharma, Partap A Touch of Brightness pp1109 in A Touch of Brightness and Doongaji House Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi) Pb Rs80. Fiction Acharya, Prabhakar The Suragi Tree 452pp MapinLit (Ahmedabad) Rs395. Akbar, M.J. Blood Brothers: A Family Saga 346pp Roli (New Delhi) Rs395. Anand, Mulk Raj Man Whose Name Did Not Appear in the Census and Other Stories 109pp Orient Paperbacks (New Delhi) Rs110. Selected Short Stories ed and introd Saros Cowasjee 262pp Penguin Books India (New Delhi) Rs250. Ao, Temsula These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone 147pp Zuban and Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195. Badami, Anita Rau Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? 404pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs495. Basu, Anirban The Big Bang and Other Stories 102pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs175 Pb Rs100. Basu, Kunal Racists 214pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250. Basu, Pratik Clueless & Co 268pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs195. Bhaduri, Abhijit Mediocre but Arrogant 264pp Indialog (New Delhi) Pb Rs195 [2005]. Bhaskar, Sita Shielding Her Modesty and Other Stories 136pp Frog Books (Mumbai) Rs200. Bond, Ruskin Tales of the Open Road 202pp Puffin (New Delhi) Rs200.
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The Ruskin Bond Minibus 310pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs95 [for children]. Brata, Sasthi Confessions of an Indian Woman Eater 368pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs295 [rst pub 1971]. Chakraborti, Rajorshi Or the Day Seizes You 212pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250. Chandra, Vikram Sacred Games 900pp Viking Penguin (New Delhi) Rs650. Chatterjee, Upamanyu Weight Loss: A Comedy of Sexual and Spiritual Degradation 416pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs495. Chenni, Rajendra Mud Town 142pp Dronequill Publishers (Bangalore) Pb Rs195. Chowdhury, Siddharth Patna Roughcut 186pp Picador India (New Delhi) Rs350. Cowasjee, Saros Strange Meeting and Other Stories 152pp Vision Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs190. Da Cunha, Nandita The Magic of Maya 260pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs295 [for children]. Dai, Mamang The Legends of Pensam 192pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs200. Dasgupta, Amit In the Land of the Blue Jasmine 116pp Star Publications (New Delhi) Rs195. David, Esther Book of Rachel 197pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs295. Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss 324pp Penguin (New Delhi) Hb Rs495 Pb Rs395. Deshpande, Shashi Three Novels: A Summer Adventure, The Hidden Treasure, The Only Witness 379pp Pufn (New Delhi) Rs295 [A Summer Adventure rst pub 1978, The Hidden Treasure and The Only Witness in 1980]. Devadoss, Manohar Green Well Years 275pp East-West Books (Chennai) Pb Rs195 [rst pub 1997]. Dhar, Payal A Shadow in Eternity 342pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs295. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee The Lives of Strangers 288pp Abacus (London) 7.99 [short stories, 2005]. The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming 336pp Roaring Brook Press (New Milford, CT) $16.95. Eraly, Abraham Night of the Dark Trees 337pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs325. Faleiro, Sonia The Girl 124pp Viking Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250. Futehally, Shama Frontiers: Collected Stories 203pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250. Ghose, Sagarika Blind Faith 273pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs295.
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Goswami, Rothindranath Kingkinis Story 60pp Sanbun Pub (New Delhi) Rs55 [for children]. Gulab, Rupa Chip of the Old Blockhead 159pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs95. Gupta, Shubham Conict and Other Stories 198pp Frog Books (Mumbai) Rs250. Hazarika, Dhruba A Bowstring Winter 343pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs295. Humnabadkar, Rucha Dance of the Fireies 244pp Frog Books (Mumbai) Rs250. Jha, Raj Kamal Fireproof 388pp Picador (London) 12.99 Picador (New Delhi) Rs495. Joseph, Vinod George Hitchhiker 395pp Books for Change (Bangalore) Rs350. Kameshwar, G. Bend in the Sarayu: A Soota Chronicle 262pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs295. Kapur, Manju Home 337pp Random House India (New Delhi) Rs395. Khanna, Deeptha The Year I Turned Sixteen 164pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs175. Khare, Randhir Over the Edge 280pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs295. Kumar, Amarendra Passionate Pilgrim 180pp Literary Research Centre (Patna) Pb Rs110 [stories]. Kumar, Anu Letters for Paul 202pp MapinLit (Ahmedabad) Rs295. Kumar, Shiv K. Two Mirrors at the Ashram 223pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250. Lal, Ranjit The Small Tigers of Shergarh 343pp IndiaInk (New Delhi) Rs395. Majumdar, Asim Felix Ajays Homecoming and Other Stories from Far and Near 278pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs300 Pb Rs200. Malkani, Gautam Londonstani 342pp Fourth Estate (London) Pb 11.99 special Indian price 7.99. Malladi, Amulya Song of the Cuckoo Bird 400pp Ballantine Books (New York) $13.95 Mani, Rama S. Fiction of the Forties: Short Stories 124pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Vaidya and Other Stories 105pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Misra, Neelesh Once Upon a Timezone 248pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs195. Mukherjee, Suroopa Across the Mystic Shore 312pp Macmillan (Basingstoke) Hb 12.95 Pb 9.99 special Indian Price Rs265. Mukherji, Ananda And Where, My Friend, Lay You Hiding? 263pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs295.
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Murari, Timeri N. Four Steps from Paradise 664pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs325 [rst pub as Steps from Paradise, 1995]. Murthy, Sudha Wise and Otherwise: A Salute to Life revised ed 220pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs110. Muthanna, Ramani Three Faces of Eve and Other Stories 80pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Nagarkar, Kiran Gods Little Soldier 556pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs595. Nair, Anita Living Next Door to Alise 112pp Pufn (New Delhi) Rs135. Namjoshi, Suniti Sycorax: New Fables and Poems 141pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195. Nanda, Neeru If: A Collection of Short Stories 201pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs195. Narayan, R.K. An Omnibus Edition of R.K.Narayan introd Alexander McCall Smith vol I xxxviii+ 619pp vol II xxxviii+578pp Everymans Library, Alfred Knopf (New York) each vol $25. Malgudi Days introd Jhumpa Lahiri xx+264pp Penguin (New York) $12.99 [includes map]. Natarajan, Srividya No Onions, Nor Garlic 326pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs295. Nayak, Meena Arora Endless Rain 324pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs295. Nidhi, Kripa The Silence of Time and Other Stories 189pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs195 [2005]. Phillipos, George The Distant Shore Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195. Prabhu, Gayatri Birdswim Fishy 208pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195. Puri, Neel Kamal The Patiala Quartet 184pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs225. Rajan, Vithal Holmes of the Raj 217pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs300 Pb Rs200. Not So! Stories for Older Children 116pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs200 Pb Rs100. Sharmaji, Padmashree 288pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs350 Pb Rs200. Rajshree Trust Me 245pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs95. Rao, Malathi Disorderly Women 277pp Dronequill Publishers (Bangalore) Pb Rs250 [2005]. Ratna, Kalpish Nyagrodha: The Ficus Chronicles 287pp Puffin (New Delhi) Rs375. Sahoo, Neelamani The Uprooted 162pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs200 Pb Rs100. Sankaran, Lavanya The Red Carpet 215pp Headline Book Publishing (London) Pb 10.99 special Indian price Rs295 [2005]. Sealy, Irwin Allan Red 343pp Picador India (New Delhi) Rs495.
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Sengupta, Kamalini The Top of the Raintree 293pp IndiaInk (New Delhi) Rs295. Singh, Neera The Night Halt and Other Stories 73pp Sporting Links (Gurgaon, India) Pb Rs100. Singh, Shivani The Raja is Dead 256pp HarperCollins India (New Delhi) Pb Rs295. Singh, Sunny With Krishnas Eyes 293pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs295. Sinha, Tuhin A. That Thing Called Love 238pp Srishti (New Delhi) Pb Rs100. Someswar, Manreet Sodhi Earning the Laundry Stripes A Womans Adventures in Hindustan Levers All-Boys Sales Club 300pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs195. Sriram, C. The Long Reverie of Partha Sarma 231pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250. Sultan P.P., Abdul The Believers illus Partha Sengupta 98pp Phantomville (New Delhi) Rs150. Surendran, C.P. Iron Harvest 326pp IndiaInk (New Delhi) Pb Rs350. Suri, Sanjay Brideless in Wembley 381pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs495. Swaminathan, Kalpana The Page 3 Murders 289pp IndiaInk (New Delhi) Pb Rs295. Swarup, Vikas Q&A 361pp Black Swan (London) special Indian price Pb Rs195 [2005]. Tyrewala, Altaf No God in Sight 174pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195 [2005]. Umrigar, Thrity The Space Between Us 321pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Pb Rs295. Varma, Shreekumar Devils Garden: Tales of Pappudom 216pp Pufn (New Delhi) Rs175. Verma, Anoop A Thread of Life 329pp Srishti (New Delhi) Pb Rs195 [2005]. Verma, Jaideep Local 357pp Indialog (New Delhi) Rs250 [2005]. Viswanathan, Kaavya How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life 320pp Time Warner Paperbacks 6.99 Random House India (New Delhi) Rs245. Letters, Autobiography and Biography Anand, Mulk Raj Seven Summers: A Memoir introd Saros Cowasjee 240pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250. Basu, Shrabani Spy Princess: The Life of Nur Inayat Khan 234pp Roli (Delhi) Rs395. Bond, Ruskin The India I Love 144pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs95 [2004]. Brata, Sasthi My God Died Young 304pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250 [1968].
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Gandhi, Rajmohan, Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People and an Empire 745pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs650. Shah, Amrita Vikram Sarabhai: A Life 248pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs425. Sharma, Bulbul Shaya Tales: Stories from a Himalayan Village 168pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs200. Singh, Jaswant A Call to Honour: In Service of Emergent India 426pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs495. Anthologies Beantown Boomtown: Bangalore in the World of Words ed Jayanth Kodkani and R.Edwin Sudhir 320pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs295 [essays, ction and biographical sketches]. Give the Sea Change and It Shall Change: An Anthology of Indian Poetry in English (19512005) ed Jeet Thayil 300pp Fulcrum (Cambridge, MA) [56 Indian poets writing in English from Fiji, Hong Kong, Australia, US, UK and India]. The HarperCollins Book of New Indian Fiction Contemporary Writing in English ed Khushwant Singh 208pp HarperCollins (New Delhi) Rs295 [2005]. India Smiles: Winning Entries from the Sulekha.com Humour Contest 164pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195. The Indispensable Vivekananda: An Anthology for Our Times ed Amiya P.Sen xi+242pp Permanent Black (Delhi) Rs595. Ninety-Nine Words: A Collection of Contemporary English Poems ed Manu Dash 188pp Panchabati Publications (Rayagada, Orissa). No Womans Land: Women from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh Write on the Partition of India ed Ritu Menon 202pp Women Unlimited (New Delhi) Rs300. Re ected in Water: Writings on Goa ed Jerry Pinto 312pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs395 [non-ction, ction and poetry]. Criticism general studies Children and Literature ed Shubha Tiwari 160pp Atlantic Rs350. Divided Time: India and the End of Diaspora Jeet Thayil Journal of Postcolonial Writing 42(2) pp12528. The Exercise of an Unshared Culture: The Case of English in India Probal Dasgupta New Quest 163 pp6069.
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Figuring the Female: Womens Discourse, Art and Literature ed V.T.Usha and S.Murali 139pp Women Press (Delhi) Rs350 [essays on Raja Rao, R. Prawer Jhabvala, and others]. Hybridity and Postcolonialism: Twentieth Century Indian Literature ed Monika Fludernik 293pp Rawat (Jaipur) Rs595 [1998]. Indian English Poetry from the Beginnings upto 2000 M.K.Naik 180pp Pencraft (New Delhi) Rs300. Indian Writings in English ed Binod Mishra and Sanjay Kumar 240pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs450. Indlish: The Book for Every English-Speaking Indian Jyoti Sanyal ed Martin Cutts illus Sarbjit Sen 394pp Viva Books (New Delhi) Rs295. The Literature of Diaspora: A Synoptic View T.M.J. Indramohan The Atlantic Critical Review 5(4) pp5054. Narratives of (Dis)Content: Critical Essays on Commonwealth Literature ed M.Dasan vi+230pp Emerald Publishers (Chennai) Pb Rs300. Narrative of the Village ed Jasbir Jain x+302pp Rawat (Jaipur) Rs595. New Poetry? Pramod K. Nayar Chandrabhaga 13 pp8399. Poetics, Plays and Performances: The Politics of Modern Indian Theatre Vasudha Dalmia xiv+366pp Oxford Univ Press (New Delhi) Rs675. The Postcolonial Encounter: India in the British Imagination Rita Nath Keshari xii+223pp Busy Bee Books (Pondicherry) Pb Rs250. The Rains and the Roots: The Indian English Novel Then and Now A.S.Dasan 156pp Sahrdayata Global Fellowship Academy (Mysore) Rs280. Reading Partition/ Living Partition ed Jasbir Jain xiv+338pp Rawat (Jaipur) Rs750. Representing Partition: History, Violence and Narration Anup Beniwal 208pp Shakti Book House (Delhi) Rs450 [2005]. Rethinking the Nation Satish C.Aikant Indian Literature 235 pp16978. The Story of English in India N.Krishnaswamy and Lalitha Krishnaswamy 225pp Foundation Books (New Delhi) Rs150. Studies in Contemporary Indian English Prose ed A.N.Dwivedi vi+218pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs495. Studies in Women Writers in English vol 5 ed Mohit K. Ray and Rama Kundu 272pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs550. To Be Or Not to Be Diasporic Bruce King Journal of Postcolonial Writing 42.2 pp13954. studies on individual writers Acharya, Shanta An Interview Ambika Ananth Kavya Bharati 18 pp97104.
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Anand, Mulk Raj Connecting the Postcolonial: Ngugi and Anand Lingaraja Gandhi 200pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs450. Inhabiting the Boundaries of the Nation-State: Locating Indianness in Mulk Raj Anand and R.K.Narayan Rumina Sethi The Literary Criterion 61(1) pp5568. The Dickensian in Mulk Raj Anand Anisha Ali The Atlantic Critical Review 5(4) pp5562. The Wounds of Suffering Ramchandra Prasad Yadav and Navanit Kumar 96pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100. Aurobindo, Sri The Souls Journey: A Note on Some Short Poems of Sri Aurobindo A.Ramakrishna Rao and Prabhavati Y. The Literary Criterion 61(2) pp1624. Baldwin, Shauna Singh Allegorising the Body: Resistance in Shauna Singh Baldwin Ashok K.Mohapatra Haritham 18 pp6472. Bhattacharya, Bhabani Kalos Grand Joke and Bhattacharyas Shrewd Humour in He Who Rides A Tiger Ramesh K. Srivastava The Critical Endeavour XII pp4357. Chambial, D.C. The Theme of Afrmation and Sanguinity in the Poetry of D.C.Chambial Anita Myles Points of View 13(1) pp11318. Chaudhuri, Nirad C. Between Autobiography and History: Objectivity and Personalization in The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian Rumina Sethi New Quest 124 pp6877. Image of India: Nirad C Chaudhuris The Continent of Circe and Naipauls An Area of Darkness Vijaya Guttal The Critical Endeavour XII pp200208. Das, Kamala Kamala Das and Her Poetry A.N. Dwivedi 176pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs350. Das, Manoj Manoj Das My Little India: A Belated Response C.N.Srinath The Literary Criterion 61(2) pp6671. Dasgupta, Rana India Seems a Greater Attraction to Me than Europe : A Conversation with Rana Dasgupta Shakti Bhatt Journal of Postcolonial Writing 42(2) pp20611. Deb, Siddhartha Against Forgetting: A Conversation with Siddhartha Deb Shakti Bhatt Journal of Postcolonial Writing 42(2) pp201205. Desai, Anita A Study of Anita Desais Cry, the Peacock in the Light of the Doctrine of Aucitya of Indian Poetics Archana Tyagi Points of View 13(2) pp4653. Exemplary Female Aliens in Anita Desais Fire on the Mountain B.N.Singh The Critical Endeavour XII pp1134. Refractions of Desire: Feminist Perspectives in the Novels of Toni Morrison, Michle Roberts and Anita Desai Jayita Sengupta 272pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs595.
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Writers and Their Work: Anita Desai Elaine Yee Lin Ho 118pp Northcote House (Tavistock) Pb 12.99. Desai, Kiran Kiran Desais The Inheritance of Loss: A Study in Humanism Sonali Das The Critical Endeavour XII pp3542. Deshpande, Shashi Parents in the Mirrors of Children in the Novels of Shashi Deshpande A.K.Tyagi and R.K.Singh Points of View 13(1) pp8590. Resurrecting the Literary Foremother: A Study of Shashi Deshpandes The Binding Vine Jaydeep Rishi The Atlantic Critical Review 5(4) pp6373. Taming the Body to Harness the Soul; A Study of Shashi Deshpandes Moving On Binod Mishra Points of View 13(2) pp5459. The Binding Vine : A Feminist Approach G.Rai The Critical Endeavour XII pp7382 Writers and Their Work: Shashi Deshpande Amrita Bhalla 111pp Northcote House (Tavistock) Pb 12.99. Ezekiel, Nissim Ezekiel and Ramanujan: The Ironic Mode of Perception in Their Poetry A.N.Dwivedi Points of View 13(1) pp6371. Home in Exile: Hybridity in A.K.Ramanujan and Nissim Ezekiel Sabitha T.P. Indian Literature 236 pp194203. The Use of Images and Symbols in Nissim Ezekiels poetry O.P.Dwivedi Points of View 13(2) pp4045. Ghosh, Amitav Colonising the Mind: Civilisational Imperialism in The Glass Palace Jagroop S.Biring The Critical Endeavour XII pp5872. Cosmopolitanism at Home: Amitav Ghoshs The Shadow Lines Shameem Black Journal of Commonwealth Literature 41(3) pp4556. Home and Homelessness in The Hungry Tide: A Discourse Unmade Saswat S.Das Indian Literature 235 pp17985. Myth-History Interface in Fiction and Nation: A Reading of Amitav Ghoshs The Hungry Tide Nishat Zaidi The Atlantic Critical Review 5(4) pp7487. Of Cultural Constructs and Human Dilemmas; Amitav Ghoshs The Hungry Tide Banibrata Mahanta Points of View 13(2) pp6067. Representations of the Oil Encounter in Amitav Ghoshs The Circle of Reason Claire Chambers Journal of Commonwealth Literature 43(1) pp3350. Hossain, Rokeya Sakhawat Two Dystopian Fantasies Nilanjana Bhattacharya Indian Literature 231 pp17277. Jhabvala, R. Prawer Ruth Prawer Jhabvalas Heat and Dust I.H.Shihan 160pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs350.
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Joshi, Arun The Strangeness of Billy Biswas: An Analysis Rajesh Ranjan Verma Points of View 13(1) pp7279. Kapur, Manju Difcult Daughters: A Feministic Approach to the Partition of India D.R.More The Critical Endeavour XII pp8397. Karnad, Girish Girish Karnads Plays: Performance and Critical Perspectives ed Tutun Mukherjee 376pp Pencraft (New Delhi) Rs695. Girish Karnads Tal-Danda: A Subaltern Discourse Krishna Singh The Critical Endeavour XII pp10612. Myth as Aesthetic Experience in Girish Karnads Bali: The Sacrice O.P.Budholia Points of View 13(1) pp97104. The Projection of Evil, Deception and Violence in Girish Karnads Tughlaq S.T.Kharat Points of View 13(2) pp7885. Lahiri, Jhumpa Alienation and Assimilation in Jhumpa Lahiris The Namesake: A Diasporic Study Dipika Sahai Re-Markings 5(1) pp4650. Mahapatra, Jayanta The Indian Imagination of Jayanta Mahapatra ed Jaydeep Sarangi and Gauri Shankar Jha xii+193pp Sarup (New Delhi) Rs450. Markandaya, Kamala A Study of Kamala Markandayas Women Sudhir Kumar Arora viii+149pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs350. Text and Context: A Post-Colonial Approach to Three Indian English Novels The Nowhere Man, Midnights Children and The God of Small Things Om Prakash Dwivedi Points of View 13(1) pp8084. Mistry, Rohinton A Fine Balance: Rohinton Mistrys Patchwork Quilt of Life Vijay Prakash Singh The Critical Endeavour XII pp19099. Fusion of Horizons in Rohinton Mistrys Such a Long Journey Surekha Dangwal Points of View 13(1) pp9196. Mohanty, Niranjan An Interview Jaydeep Sarangi Points of View 13(2) pp6877. Naidu, Sarojini Sarojini Naidu: A Voice Before Her Time Usha Kishore Kavya Bharati 18 pp15984. Narayan, R.K. Inhabiting the Boundaries of the Nation-State: Locating Indianness in Mulk Raj Anand and R.K.Narayan Rumina Sethi The Literary Criterion 61(1) pp5568. R.K.Narayans Comedy Ranga Rao Biblio XI 9&10 pp1011. R.K.Narayans Grandmothers Tale: The Epitome of Indian Culture C.P.Sharma Points of View 13(1) pp5762. Reluctant Centenarian N.Ram The Hindu Sunday Oct 8, 2006 [http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2006/10/08] Nehru, Jawaharlal Jawaharlal Nehru as an Author Partap Singh 180pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs250 Pb Rs200. Ramanujan, A.K. Home in Exile: Hybridity in A.K.Ramanujan and Nissim Ezekiel Sabitha T.P. Indian Literature 236 pp194203.
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Rao, Raja On the Ganga Ghat: A Beautiful Blending of Religious Impulse and Metaphysical Way of Living Meenakshi Choube The Critical Endeavour XII pp98105. Over the Barricades of Indian Nationalism in Raja Raos Short Stories Stefano Mercanti Wasafari 21(1) pp1621. Raja Rao: The Twice-Born Novelist Harish Trivedi Indian Literature 235 pp812. The Semantic Universe of Raja Rao: Mind and Art of Raja Rao as a Storyteller I.D. Sharma xvii+153pp Indian Publishers and Distributors (New Delhi) Rs350. Rau, Santha Rama The Ugly Americans: Gender, Geopolitics and the Career of Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism in the Novels of Santha Rama Rau Antoinette Burton Journal of Commonwealth Literature 41(2) pp519. Roy, Arundhati Arundhati Roy: Critical Perspectives ed Murari Prasad 211pp Pencraft (New Delhi) Rs450. Text and Context: A Post-Colonial Approach to Three Indian English Novels The Nowhere Man, Midnights Children and The God of Small Things Om Prakash Dwivedi Points of View 13(1) pp8084. Rushdie, Salman Censorship and the Totemisation of Language: The Case of Salman Rushdie B.Hariharan Haritham 18 pp7380. Naipaul, Rushdie, Seth Siddhartha Deb Journal of Postcolonial Writing 42(2) pp23850. Salman Rushdie: Critical Essays ed Mohit K. Ray and Rama Kundu vol I 192pp vol II 232pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs450 each. Text and Context: A Post-Colonial Approach to Three Indian English Novels The Nowhere Man, Midnights Children and The God of Small Things Om Prakash Dwivedi Points of View 13(1) pp8084. The Fulcrum of Instability: Salman Rushdies The Ground Beneath Her Feet and the Postcolonial Traveller Sara Upstone Wasafari 21(1) pp3438. Sahgal, Nayantara Ahimsa as the Soul Force in Nayantara Sahgals Lesser Breeds S.S.Kanade Re-Markings 5(1) pp7578. Nayantara Sahgal in Conversation Shirley Chew Wasafari 21(1) pp2449. Seth, Vikram Naipaul, Rushdie, Seth Siddhartha Deb Journal of Postcolonial Writing 42(2) pp23850. Vikram Seths Two Lives: A Curious Amalgamation of History and Novel Santwana Haldar The Atlantic Critical Review 5(4) pp89107 Singh, Khushwant Facts through Fiction: Bhisham Sahnis Tamas and Khushwant Singhs Train to Pakistan Poonam Yadav Re-Markings 5(2) pp9194.
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Fiction, History and Fictionalised History: A Postcolonial Reading of Khushwant Singhs Delhi Nishat Zaidi Journal of Indian Writing in English 34(2) pp3748. Non-ction Bhattacharya, Pradip Panch-Kanya: The Five Virgins of Indian Epics 131pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs200 Pb Rs100. Bhimani, Gautam Reverse Sweep: Confessions of a Cricket Junkie 176pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs295. Chatterjee, Rimi B. Empires of the Mind: A History of the Oxford University Press in India under the Raj 450pp Oxford Univ Press (New Delhi) Rs795. Daruwalla, Keki N. Riding the Himalayas photo Ashok Dilwali 248pp Niyogi Books (New Delhi) Pb Rs795. Futehally, Shama Slivers of a Mirror: Glimpses of the Ghazal 143pp MapinLit (Ahmedabad) Rs295. The Right Words: Selected Essays19672004 303pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs275 [essays and reminiscences]. Krishnan, M. Eye in the Jungle comp Shanthi and Ashish Chandola with T.N.A.Perumal 128pp (Commemorative Limited Edition) Universities Press (Delhi) Rs1500 [with photographs]. Malabari, B.M. A Love-Hate Affair with the British in Other Routes: 1,500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing ed Tabish Khair et al [see Anthologies]. Naidu, M. Kamal Tigress of Nallamalai 309pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs400 Pb Rs300. Raja, P. Love Teaches Even Asses to Dance 210pp Busy Bee Books (Pondicherry) Pb Rs250. Ramachandra, Ragini The Seeing Eye 51pp Dhvanyaloka Publication (Mysore). Sivaraman Mythili Fragments of a Life: A Family Archive xxi+207pp Zuban (New Delhi) Rs395. Journals The Critical Endeavour ed M.Q. Khan and B.K. Das, Researchers Association, D/ 221, Sector 7, C.D.A., Cuttack 753014. Rs180; annual. Haritham ed P.P.Raveendran, School of Letters, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 686560, Kerala State. Single copy Rs50 for individuals, Rs75 for institutions.
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Indian Literature ed Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee, Sahitya Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, 35 Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi 110001. Annual sub Rs125; six issues a year. Points of View ed K.K. Sharma, KH/ 127, New Kavi Nagar, Ghaziabad 201002. e-mail: profkks01@sify.com. Annual sub Rs300 for individuals Rs500 for institutions; twice a year. Re-Markings Chief ed Nibir K. Ghosh. 68 New Idgah Colony, Agra 282001. e-mail: remarkings@hotmail.com. Annual sub Rs200 for individuals, Rs300 for institutions; twice a year. Journals: Special Issue Journal of Postcolonial Writing 42(2) special issue Divided Time: India and the End of Diaspora ed Jeet Thayil.

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