A Bibliophile’s Guide to Indian Literature

Indian writers have flooded book stores in the last few years, but is everyone worth reading? Aparna Sundaresan curates a list of the more palatable literature populating the shelves

The number 1 fiction bestseller on Flipkart, as of this writing, is Amish Tripathi’s The Oath of the Vayuputras. Not too long ago Sidney Sheldon and Jeffrey Archer’s books dominated the bestsellers’ list. Then came J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown. Later Chetan Bhagat. And that is when everything changed. Bhagat opened the floodgates to Indian writers who emerged in swarms to take over shelf space from international writers.
Today’s fiction writers are IIT and IIM graduates, PR professionals, IT managers, banking professionals and so on – in short, writers without a literature education who are flooding the market.

Tripathi and Bhagat might be bestselling authors, but when it comes to literary value, their works scrape the bottom of the barrel. Their colloquial language may find favour with the general populace, but for the ardent bibliophiles, their awkward sentence constructions and poor choice of words arejust needless butchering of the English language. Mediocre writers give Indian literature as a whole a bad name, which is why many readers are turning away from Indian writers. But there are good Indian writers – writers who understand there is much beauty in language and words, and a perfectly constructed sentence. Writers who have the skill to deliver thrills in an expertly crafted story without compromising on syntax. Writers for readers who know how to appreciate that kind of talent.

General fiction
Books that are well-written, and have a story worth reading and characters worth knowing.

Arzee the Dwarf by Chandrahas Choudhury
The trials and tribulations of Arzee, the would-be head projectionist of a cinema in Bombay. The cinema shuts before he is promoted, taking with it Arzee’s dream of getting married.

The Last Labyrinth by Arun Joshi
Millionaire Som Bhaskar’s life is seemingly perfect with a beautiful wife and two children, but Bhaskar wants more and more and more. That hunger in him leads him from Bombay to Benaras on a quest.

The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth
The life of a group yuppies in 1980s California told in verse. That’s right – verse. Sonnets convey the funny but tragic lives of the youngsters. Witty, well fleshed out and beautiful.

Classics
Books from the pre-independence (i.e. colonial) era. On first glance, they might seem dated, but once you sink your teeth into them, you will know they are enduring for a reason.

Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings by Ismat Chughtai
At a time when it was frowned upon for women to have a voice, Chughtai, a Muslim woman, hit out against the injustices in society with brutally honest and scandalous short stories.

Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
Bakha, a sweeper and a toilet cleaner, is an untouchable. But he dares to question the system, which leads him on a political odyssey. Untouchable was controversial for the time it was written in.

Chokher Bali by Rabindranath Tagore
An illicit relationship blossoms within the confines of a joint family in Bengal. A very much married Mahendra is taken by the young, lively widow Binodini who comes to live with his family.

 

Historical Fiction
Writers cast an eye to the past and create fiction that is surrounded by real events.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
In 1975 when Emergency has just been declared in India, four strangers come together to share a cramped flat and their uncertain futures.

The Miniaturist by Kunal Basu
Child prodigy Bihzad is being groomed to join Mughal Emperor Akbar’s atelier of artists, but his paintings are too imaginative for the court. His art creates enemies who then set out to ruin him.

Come, Before Evening Falls by Manjul Bajaj
In 1909, sixteen-year-old Jugni’s life takes a turn. Her cousin is charged with sedition, her uncle begins building a school, and her grandmother begins looking for a bridegroom for her. But Jugni falls for Raakha, a school teacher with explosive ideas on social change.

Romance

Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. They fall in love and try to live happily ever after? No. These books are not that kind of romance. This is the romance of language, emotions and sensuous words.

Afternoon Raag by Amit Chaudhuri
An Indian student at Oxford University tries to come to terms with his sense of isolation,loneliness and nostalgia.

An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy
Three stories in one novel that explore its characters’ longing for love, respect, revenge, attention, material prosperity, comfort and more.

Detective/crime/thriller

Sherlock Holmes might be the undisputed king of this genre, but a couple of Indian writers have come close to creating a super sleuth. As to why there are two foreign writers here, it’s because only a couple of Indian writers have come close to creating a super sleuth.

The Complete Adventures of Feluda, Vol. 1 by Satyajit Ray
Pradosh C. Mitter aka Feluda is a private detective who is accosted with murder, mystery, adventure and strange crimes in the course of his job.

Vish Puri series by Tarquin Hall
Vish Puri believes he is India’s most consummate detective and prides himself on his Holmesian approach to solving crimes. But modern day India is perhaps too modern for his methods.

Mr Majestic: The Tout of Bengaluru by Zac O’Yeah
Mr Majestic aka Hari is a tout in Bangalore, but after one of his schemes leads to a tourist going AWOL, he turns detective to locate her. High on both humour and thrills.

Picture Imperfect and Other Byomkesh Bakshi Mysteries by Saradindu Bandopadhyay
Yet another Bengali detective shows his sleuthing chops in a collection of crime stories. Bakshi was adapted as a television show for Doordharshan in the early 1990s and was quite popular.

Mythology/fantasy
Stories based on Indian myths and stories reimagining Indian myths are a huge deal right now. If you’ve exhausted the current favourites and want some more tales of myth and magic, these books should keep you occupied.

GameWorld Trilogy: The Simoqin Prophecies, The Manticore’s Secret, The Unwaba Revelations by Samit Basu
This series is a deliberate hodgepodge of several fantasy tropes. There is a hero, a quest and a villain, but none of it is what it seems.

The Thousand Faces of Night by Githa Hariharan
Three mythological fables – that of Devi, Sita and Mayamma – are interwoven in the story of a young woman as she searches for meaning in her life.

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
This book-list favourite is a tome of magical realism. Salim Sinai is born at midnight, August 15 1947, and realises early in his life that he and a number of other children born at that time have magical powers.

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Mahabharata retold from a different perspective, from that of a woman – Draupadi.

 

 

 

 

 

Volume 3 Issue 10