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The Journal of Commonwealth

Literature
http://jcl.sagepub.com/

India
Shyamala A. Narayan
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 2008 43: 89
DOI: 10.1177/0021989408099565
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://jcl.sagepub.com/content/43/4/89

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India
compiled and introduced by Shyamala A. Narayan
Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India

Introduction
A number of interesting first novels have appeared on a variety of
subjects. Kausalya Saptharishis The TamBrahm Bride is a satirical portrait
of marriage in present-day India; Sushil Guptas The Fourth Monkey
portrays a college lecturer in Delhi, while Anjum Hasans Lunatic in
My Head is about life in Shillong. Sucharit Rajadhyakshas The Circle
for Vice is a thriller set in Pune. Suri and Bals A Certain Ambiguity is
A Mathematical Novel, while Ambarish Satwiks Perineum: The Nether
Parts of the Empire employs medical terminology. First books of fiction
dealing with diasporic life include Rishi Reddis Karma and Other Stories
and Monicaradhans The Hindi-Bindi Club. Established novelists like
Tabish Khair and Timeri Murari have published new novels. A number
of novels are based on factual events: Nikita Lalwanis Gifted, Anuradha
Marwahs Dirty Picture, and Indra Sinhas Animals People. Poets, old
and new, have brought out volumes of poetry. However, the outstanding
book of the year 2007 is non-fiction: Multiple Facets of My Madurai by
Manohar Devadoss.
Multiple Facets of My Madurai contains sixty-six meticulously executed
drawings. Of these, twenty-six have appeared in his first novel, Green
Well Years (1997), which recreated life in the temple town of Madurai
in the 1940s50s. The portfolio contains detailed drawings of the important buildings of Madurai like the Meenakshi Amman Temple, and
its ornamented gopurams (towers), Regal Talkies (the cinema house),
the Collectorate, Thirumalai Nayaks Mahal (palace), the American
College (which houses SCILET the Study Centre for Indian Literature
in English and Translation), and St Marys Cathedral. There are also
beautiful rural scenes. The text provides a comprehensive introduction
to Madurais history and cultural ethos. It is also an autobiographical
record of the writers visual and artistic journey, and the reader cannot
Copyright 2008 SAGE Publications http://jcl.sagepub.com
(Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC)
Vol 43(4): 89121. DOI: 10.1177/0021989408099565

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help admiring the courage and determination of Devadoss who continues


to draw in spite of deteriorating eyesight.
M. Sridhar is a critic and a translator who teaches at the Department
of English at the University of Hyderabad. His first book of poems,
In-creasing Folds, has fifty poems, twenty-five written originally in
English, followed by another twenty-five translated from Telugu. The
twin collection brought out also has Telugu poems followed by Telugu
translations of his English poems. This raises interesting questions about
creativity. As he points out in his prefatory comments, In the context of
bilingual creativity, which of the two languages shapes thought? Or does
the shape of the thought come after a language is chosen? Perhaps the
most prominent feature of these well-crafted poems is their accessibility.
The English and the Telugu poems are similar in thought and imagery.
Concrete images are employed to express complex thoughts. The poem
Rooted Freedom observes, rootless or otherwise/ is a state of the mind. /
Look at that tree, / how it swings this way and that/ delightfully free.
Samuel Dani teaches English at a college in Orissa; his first collection
of poems, Autograph on Fire captures the pain of the exploited. Born
in Kalahandi, the famine prone district of Orissa, Dani writes about the
pathetic condition of the adivasis there: Like sheep / they are herded
into the train/ where they hardly distinguish/ between seats and floor. / ...
and Kalahandi is exported/ to brick-kiln of Hyderabad. Many poems
show that it is women who suffer the most, ill-treated not only by society
but also by their own husbands.
Vilas Sarang is a literary critic who writes fiction and poetry both in
Marathi and English. He too is a teacher of English, but in metropolitan
Bombay. His second collection, Another Life, reveals his first-hand
experience of life in the Middle East (he was in Iraq from 1974 to 1979,
teaching English at the University of Basra; from 1991 to 2002 he taught
in Kuwait). In Times of Terror: A Sequence is not just about terrorism,
but also about the deprivation and imperial exploitation which give rise
to it. There has been no significant improvement in the fate of the poor.
The poem Death begins:
In 1967 I wrote a poem
In which I spoke of denials of starvation deaths;
Now, in 2002, I hear in the TV news
Of denials of starvation deaths in Rajasthan.

Sarangs academic experience is evident in poems like Embed which


begins, Orwell, you shouldve been kicking around at this hour!
Imtiaz Dharker, poet, artist and documentary film-maker, is a Muslim
brought up in Glasgow, who now lives in Bombay. An Indian edition of her
fourth book of poetry, The Terrorist at My Table (2006) appeared in 2007.

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Like her other books, Terrorist at My Table contains a few illustrations by


the author. The poems here focus on a very contemporary concern how
people carry on their everyday lives in spite of the political turmoil. The
attack on the World Trade Centre (9/11) is the event that looms large
over many of the poems. The poem The Right Word has different terms
for a terrorist in the last line of every stanza: a terrorist; a freedomfighter; a hostile militant; a guerrilla warrior; a child who looks like
mine; a boy who looks like your son, too. No one thinks about the
future; immediate survival is what engages them: But today / Today let
me just/ live through this rickshaw ride (Tomorrow).
C.P. Surendran is a journalist and columnist, at present with The Times
of India. He is the author of three volumes of poetry, Gemini II (1994),
Posthumous Poems (1999), and Canaries on the Moon (2002), as well as
of a novel, Iron Harvest (2006). Portraits of the Space We Occupy: New
and Selected Poems was published in 2007. In addition to individual
poems, there are three cycles: Bombay, Ruhnama and Catafalque. As
in earlier collections, there is a sense of violence and hostility, but there
is also something new, a touch of sadness, especially in the thirty poems
in Catafalque, written during the last years of his fathers life, when he
was suffering from Alzheimers disease. The title poem ruminates on the
photographs, which carry little meaning now, since you turned your own
pale ghost / Weve carried them all up to the attic under our breath.
M.K. Ajay, born in Kerala in 1973, has postgraduate degrees in
Psychology and Human Resources Management, and now lives in
Malaysia with his wife and daughter. Sweetness of Salt is his second
collection of poems, after Facsimile of Beliefs (2005). His poems feature
various geographical locations: An Indian in Manhattan, At Malibu Pub,
Kuantan Beach, Onset, At Kozhikode, Malacca or Changing Colours
at Dawn, Frasers Hill, for example. He has a keen eye, and ordinary
things take on new meanings: A bicycle left under a banyan tree / is a
distraction, a black skeleton thinking / of its cooling metal soul and the
hamlets isolation.
Mukesh Kumar Williams was born in an Indian Christian family in
Allahabad, and studied at Allahabad University. He taught English at St
Stephens College, Delhi, for about two decades before moving to Japan.
Nakasendo and Other Poems (published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta
in 2006) recreated his experiences in India and abroad.
Tabish Khair, poet, novelist and literary critic, has published his
third novel, Filming: A Love Story. Films occupy an important place in
the Indian psyche; the seven sections of the novel are Reels named
after seven of the nine rasas of Sanskrit poetics. The characters are
introduced as if they are actors in a film: Starring Saadat Hasan Manto
as Himself. Filming mixes straight-forward story-telling with flashbacks
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and dream sequences. It begins in 1929, in the early days of the Indian
film industry, with Harihar, a bioscope-wallah who makes a living by
travelling from village to village exhibiting silent black-and-white films.
Harihar fulfils his dream of owning a film studio by giving up son Ashok
to a rich landowner for adoption. The novel touches upon the communal
tensions in India; each reel is prefaced by the nightmarish rambling of
a young Hindu bigot, in January 1948, who hopes to get glory by setting
fire to the film studio. Filming repays re-reading; there are so many clues
and references we can pick up only on a second reading (Harihar and
Durga for example, are names of characters in Rays Pather Panchali,
while Amar Akbar Anthony is the title of a popular film with Hindu,
Muslim and Christian heroes). The novel presents climactic moments
of Indian history through the lives of characters based on real people
(like the writer Saadat Hasan Manto) and fictional characters related
to the film industry.
Many novels published this year describe life in contemporary India.
Kausalya Saptharishis debut novel The TamBrahm Bride examines
the institution of arranged marriage through the experiences of Shalini
(Shalu), the daughter of an upper middle class Tamil Brahmin living
in Delhi (like the author herself). It starts with matching horoscopes,
and goes on to innumerable Bride-Viewing ceremonies. The boy
(that is how he is referred to, even if he is in his forties) and his relatives
consider themselves a superior class of human beings, who have to be
placated at all costs. The narrative is in the comic mode, but includes a
critical portrait of Tamil Brahmin society. Other Indian English novelists
freely use words and phrases from Hindi; Kausalya transliterates Tamil
words (manga sundal; neighbourhood mamis in their pattu saris and
mallipoo-bedecked hair). The TamBrahm Bride is a good read, and one
looks forward to more fiction from this young writer.
Sudha Murty writes both in Kannada and English. Dollar Bahu, a
novel based on her own original in Kannada, is a poignant story of a
middle-class family in Bangalore, and the consequences of the elder son
migrating to America. Chandru, a civil engineer, dreams of going abroad.
When he is sent to the USA on deputation for one and a half years, he
joins the skippers, people who take employment with an American
company without informing their original company. Gouramma, his
mother, shares his dreams of the Dollar, that magic green currency.
She admires Jamuna, the rich girl he marries, and ill-treats Vinuta, the
caring but poor girl her younger son Girish has married.
A Girl and a River, K.R. Ushas third novel after Sojourn (1998) and
The Chosen (2003), which covers fifty years (1937 to 1987) in south India,
won the Vodafone Crossword Book Award. The narrator, a young woman,
has always been conscious that there is some deep tension at home. Setu,
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her father, and mother hardly talk to each other. The narrative goes back
and forth in time. The story begins in 1937; Kaveri and Setu are growing up
in a small town in Mysore. Their father Mylariah venerates the British, and
is dismissive of Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom struggle. The narrator
pieces together the story of her aunt Kaveri, who wanted to participate
in the Quit India movement against the wishes of her father.
Brinda Charry is a professor of English at Keene State College in
New Hampshire, yet her second novel, Naked in the Wind, is set entirely
in India, just like her first novel The Hottest Day of the Year (2001). Life
in middle-class Bangalore is recreated faithfully, with an Anglo-Indian
family living next door to an old Brahmin family. A news report about the
rape of some Roman Catholic nuns disturbs the outwardly even tenor of
their lives. Charry employs eight narrators, including Kathy; her mother
Marie; Shanthi; her daughter Priya; her mother-in-law Jamuna; and their
maid Rani. Kathy and Marie are presented with an inwardness which
reveals the problems faced by the Anglo-Indians. The tensions within
Shanthis family remind one of the Brahmin family in Disorderly Women
(2005) by Malathi Rao, which won the Sahitya Akademi Award this year.
This is Raos second novel; she had earlier published The Bridge: A Novel
(1990), short stories, and a volume of verse. Disorderly Women gives us a
vivid picture of the circumscribed lives of women in the second quarter
of the twentieth century. The autocracy of the patriarch, Seshagiri Rao,
ruins their lives he treats his self-sacrificing wife Venku Bai cruelly, and
does not let his daughter Kamala marry the young man of her choice.
Society is changing; we can also see the changes in the city of Bangalore,
where gracious old houses are being replaced by multi-storeyed flats.
Timeri Muraris twelfth novel The Small House examines modern
marriage in Chennai (Madras). Women are choosing not to accept old
strictures, now that they have the economic independence to defy them.
It has been an accepted practice for men of means to maintain a mistress
in a separate establishment the Tamil term for this was china veedu,
literally, small house. Roopmati, a historian and sole surviving heir of
a defunct kingdom, discovers that her husband, a business tycoon, has a
mistress. Her close friend Tazneem, a Muslim girl, has married a high caste
Hindu boy, and later discovers that her husband is bi-sexual. Murari
also author of Taj (1985), a historical novel makes an interesting use
of history here. The protagonist Roopmati attempts to come to terms
with the situation and is helped along by the imaginary dialogues she
has with a historical figure, Rani Rupmati of Mandu, in sixteenth century
India, who became a legend for her constancy in love.
Raji Narasimhan, author of five novels, has brought out a collection
of short stories, The Illusion of Home. Like her novels, the short
fiction presents an unvarnished picture of life in India, focusing on the
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problems of women. Susan Visvanathan, author of Something Barely


Remembered (short stories) and two novels, has published two novels
in 2007. Phosphorus and Stone, unlike The Seine at Noon, is set entirely
in India. The narrator is a young girl Magdalene, growing up in a fishing
village on the Arabian Sea coast in Kerala. She has an eccentric father,
her mother is dead, so she grows up wild, wandering on the beach. She
marries Jesu, her childhood playmate, the son of a rich fishing boat
owner. The second part of the slim novel is devoted to Magdas married
life in present day Bangalore. An interesting technical innovation is the
use of a diary, which recreates the thoughts and feelings of Magdas
mother in the form of letters addressed to her daughter; we later learn
that it has been fabricated by the narrator herself. The book presents a
new perspective on biblical events like the resurrection of Jesus and the
character of Mary Magdalene.
Set in rural Andhra Pradesh, The Legend of Ramulamma by Vithal
Rajan contains 16 tales about an old Dalit woman, the best known
midwife for forty villages around. Rajan is the founder chair of the
Deccan Development Society, which promotes rural development in
the semi-arid poverty-stricken Deccan plateau, and knows village life at
first hand. The stories present an authentic picture of the discrimination
against Dalits. Ramulamma is a large-hearted, wise woman who can tackle
cases where the police detectives and the doctors have failed. Her low
position in the social hierarchy cannot prevent her from getting justice.
The last story pokes fun at the writer himself: Ramulamma comes to the
aid of a social evaluator called Vithal, who is frustrated because no one
wants to read his stories.
Popular fiction dealing with young women (chick-lit) proliferates. The bestselling Almost Single by Advaita Kala and novels by
Kavita Daswani (For Matrimonial Purposes, 2003; Everything Happens
for a Reason, 2004; Salaam Paris, 2007) and Anjali Banerjee (Imaginary
Men, 2005; Invisible Lives, 2006) fall into this category. The Hindi-Bindi
Club goes beyond chick-lit to present a complex picture of two generations
of Indian immigrants in the USA. Monica Pradhans parents moved to
the U.S.A. in the 1960s, and she was born in Pittsburgh. Her debut novel,
The Hindi-Bindi Club, is about three young women, the daughters of
Indian professionals who emigrated in the 1960s. The mothers, Meenal
Deshpande (from Maharashtra, like Monica herself), Saroj Chawla
from the Punjab and the Bengali Uma Basu share a close bond, and
have not completely given up wearing the bindi, the vermilion dot on
their forehead. Sometimes they talk in Hindi, the only Indian language
they have in common, leading their young daughters to label them the
Hindi-Bindi Club. The American-born children are highly educated,
achievers in their public life, but not equally happy in their emotional
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life. Kiran, a physician, is disowned by her father when she marries a


rock star. She divorces him and starts thinking of an arranged marriage;
the Hindi-Bindi Club enthusiastically plunges into match-making, with
the help of the Internet.
Another first book, Rishi Reddis Karma and Other Stories has seven
stories of varying length. Her depiction of diasporic life is more nuanced
than Jhumpa Lahiris (Interpreter of Maladies); she presents not a generic
India, but a specific community, with due attention to the differences
between the first and second generations of these Hindus from Andhra
Pradesh settled in New England. The characters are sketched with loving
sympathy, each reacting in his or her own way to the dislocation that
migration involves. Justice Shiva Ram Murthy recreates the Indianized
English the seventy-year-old protagonist would use. He still clings to
the prestige he enjoyed in India, though he has moved to Boston after
the death of his wife, to live with his only daughter. Another story,
Lord Krishna, reveals the pain of a young boy when he has to move
from Boston to Wichita, Kansas, where there were only twenty-six Indian
families in all, and only one, other than his own, that spoke Telugu. He
feels that he and Linus Wong were weird in some way in this all-White
school. Lakshmi and the Librarian is about a forty-seven-year-old
homemaker, while Devadasi describes the experiences of Americaborn Uma, who is sixteen-years old when she comes on a family visit
to Hyderabad, and realises how different life is for women in India.
The title story is about a history professor, who realises that there is no
space for him in his brothers house or heart, and finds meaning in life
through rescuing injured birds. Bangles centres around a widow who
cannot adjust to life in America.
Arunabha Senguptas second novel Big Apple Two Bites shows the
varied responses of Indian software professionals on deputation in
New York. Some grumble about the food and culture, others direct all
their efforts towards saving money. His first novel The Labyrinth (2004)
presented young software engineers on their first job in Chennai. Here
a more experienced professional is sent to New York as a consultant
on a project, once before and once after 9/11. Sens time in New York
revolves around the Japanese martial art form Aikido, and an attractive
colleague, Allison Palmer. The novelist deals with great sensitivity with
the issues of 9/11, the loss of jobs in the software sector, and disillusion
with the corporate environment. There is a lot of enjoyable humour. The
entire book is written in the second person, adding a touch of freshness
to the narrative.
Many novelists have dealt with historical events. Ambarish Satwiks
Perineum: The Nether Parts of the Empire, is divided into thirteen chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a historical incident of Indian history,
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beginning with Robert Clives circumcision in 1742 and ending with


the death of Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, in 1948. The fictional
construction is based on the body as a trope, substantiated by diagrams.
The diagrams of the organs of the perineum, and sleazy incidents from
the Raj, cannot sustain the readers interest for long. Sarnath Banerjees
The Barn Owls Wondrous Capers, his second graphic novel, also presents
the seamy side of the Raj. The narrator, a young man in contemporary
Calcutta, is on a quest to find a book which his grandfather had bought
in Montmartre in the 1950s. A Jewish merchant called Abravanel Ben
Obadiah Ben Aharon Kabariti who lived in Calcutta in the eighteenth
century had recorded the scandalous incidents from the life of the British
administrators (such as Warren Hastings) in this book which had the title
The Barn Owls Wondrous Capers.
Rani by Jaishree Misra is a conventional historical novel. Novelists and
poets in Indian languages have written extensively about Lakshmibai,
the Rani of Jhansi, who died fighting the British in 1857. Misra adds
one more perspective to these writings. The military details of the
first Indian war of independence have only been cursorily dealt with;
the novel dwells more on the early childhood years of Lakshmibai
(ne Manikarnika), and her marriage to the older king of Jhansi. This
very readable novel is woven around a sympathetic British Agent posted
to the court of Jhansi and the supposedly romantic involvement of the
widowed Rani with him.
Rimi B. Chatterjee teaches at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. Unlike
her first novel, Signal Red (2005), a thriller set in contemporary times,
her second novel, The City of Love is set in the 16th century. Most of the
action takes place around the port city of Chittagong (now in Bangladesh).
There are four strands of narrative, which keep intertwining. The most
important character is Ferdinando Almanara, a young trader from
Castile, forced to flee Spain because of the Inquisition. He comes to
India to try his fortune, and meets up with Daud Suleiman al-basri, a
charismatic Moorish pirate driven by a desire for power and knowledge.
Other important characters are Bhairavdas, a Brahman priest given to
Tantric practices, his son Chandu, and the forest dwelling tribal girl Bajja,
whom Chandu loves.
Indu Sundaresans first novel, The Twentieth Wife (2002) and its sequel
The Feast of Roses (2003) centred around the seventeenth century Mughal
Empress Nurjehan. Her third novel, The Splendour of Silence does
not have any historical personages, though it is set in the past, in 1942.
She presents a vivid picture of Indo-British relations in a small princely
state; one can discern the influence of both E.M. Forster and M.M. Kaye
(The Far Pavilions).
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Detective fiction includes debut novels like Inviting Murder by


Priyanka Nath, and The Circle for Vice, a fast-paced thriller by Sucharit
Rajadhyaksha which reminds us of Sidney Sheldon or Frederick
Forsythe. Kalpana Swaminathans The Gardeners Song is her third
book with Lalli, a retired policewoman, as the detective. Both the title
and the structure of the novel owe a lot to Lewis Carrolls The Mad
Gardeners Song: the nine chapters are based on the nine stanzas of
Carrolls nonsense poem.
A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel by Gaurav Suri and
Hartosh Bal revolves around Ravi Kapoor who joins Stanford University
for undergraduate studies in mathematics. He accidentally discovers that
his maternal grandfather Vijay Sahni, himself a mathematician, was in
the US in 1919 and had been in prison in New Jersey. Ravis research
through the archives of the small town newspaper recreates the past.
Sahni was jailed under the Blasphemy Laws, because he had declared
himself an atheist. John Taylor, the trial judge, is a conscientious legal
luminary, so he meets Vijay Sahni to probe his motives in criticising
Christian beliefs. They have long philosophical discussions. We are
given an insight into Euclids Elements (complete with diagrams and
geometrical constructions) and the evolution of logical thinking. We
also learn about Gauss, Bolyai and Lobachevskii, who formulated nonEuclidean mathematics, and Riemans space. Ultimately, both Sahni and
Judge Taylor realize that absolute certainty does not exist. The novel is
absorbing, but it may have a limited readership because those who are
not comfortable with mathematics cannot enjoy it.
Chetan Bhagats campus novel, Five Point Someone (2004), a bestseller,
seems to have inaugurated a trend of novels about young men who join
institutes like IIT or IIM for the high salaries offered to their graduates.
Abhijit Bhaduris Mediocre but Arrogant (2005) was about two years in
a business school (XLRI, Jamshedpur, called MIJ in the novel). Tushar
Raheja was a fourth-year student at IIT when he published Anything for
You Maam: An IITians Love Story (2006). Ritesh Sharma and Neeraj
Pahlajanis Joker in the Pack has the hero, Shekhar Verma, passing out of
the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Shekhar finds that he has
to work hard at business school, unlike his three years at Delhi University,
where he could get away with studying just a couple of months before
the annual examination. The novel describes the cut-throat competition
sparked off by the system of relative grading, where a student is judged
in relation to the performance of his classmates. The summer job as a
salesman in the dusty small towns of north India is a real eye-opener
for Shekhar. The authors use too many Hindi words perhaps they had
only a North Indian readership in mind. Another debut novel, IIM
Ganjundwara by Rohithari Rajan (himself an IIM graduate) is about
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the culture shock experienced by two young IIM Ahmedabad graduates


who are sent to live in a village as part of the sales training programme
of Hindustan Lever Limited. If God Was a Banker by Ravi Subramanian
is a straightforward story of the opposite directions (moral and immoral)
taken by two young men to further their respective careers. They are
graduates from the Indian Institute of Management, who come to Bombay
to join the New York International Bank on the same day.
Above Average, Amitabha Bagchis first novel, is the story of a young
man who joins IIT. We are given a good picture of the extra-curricular
activities, but also of the importance given to grades: Just four months
into IIT we had learnt that those two numbers, your CG [cumulative
grade point average] and DR [departmental rank] defined who you were
(p179). The novel is not just about the years at IIT, it captures the grind of
attending special coaching classes, and the excitement of being selected,
and later follows up the fate of Arindam, the narrator, and his close friends
at IIT who come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
Jet City Woman by Ankush Saikia, another first novel, presents life in
Delhi from the perspective of a young man from the state of Meghalaya,
in north-eastern India. Like many other young people, the narrator
comes to Delhi after doing his B.A. from North Eastern Hill University
at Shillong; he plans to do his MBA from one of the IIMs. In his five
years in Delhi (1997 to 2002), he leads the same life at Delhi University
that is described in Joker in the Pack. Three things dominate the mind of
the young men booze, cigarettes, and sex. The only difference here is
that he moves around with others from the North East of India, and we
find descriptions of their food (pork with bamboo shoots is a favourite).
A beautiful young woman who hides her past adds to the complexity
of the narrative.
Sushil Gupta taught English at a Delhi University college from 1962 to
2005. His debut novel The Fourth Monkey takes its title from Mahatma
Gandhis three monkeys, covering their eyes, ears and mouth, to give
the message of See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The narratorprotagonist, a college teacher like the author himself, feels that there
should be a fourth monkey, who can be pictured covering his genitals,
to declare, Do no evil. The novel presents a vivid picture of life in a
middle class family in Delhi. Young Madan Swaroops days in college
closely resemble the experiences of the protagonists of Jet City Woman
and Joker in the Pack, hanging out with other young men. They fantasize
about falling in love, but most of them settle for a bride chosen by their
parents. The first part of the novel describes all the fuss of an arranged
marriage. Later, Madan goes to teach in Sherubtse College in Bhutan;
we get to know the large-hearted people of this tiny Himalayan kingdom.
The funniest part of the novel is the use of cricketing terminology for
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the narrators sex life. Cricket, Indias national obsession, is the theme of
novelist Mukul Kesavans book of non-fiction, Men in White. The book
discusses various aspects of cricket, from match-fixing to unfair umpiring
decisions. His reminiscences of the street cricket he played as a child in
New Delhi reveal a less known facet of the city.
Anjum Hasans first book of poems, Street on the Hill, was published
in 2006. Now she has brought out a novel, Lunatic in My Head. Shillong
is seen through the eyes of three characters: middle-aged Firdaus Ansari,
a teacher of English literature; Aman Moondy, an I.A.S. aspirant; and
Sophie Das, an eight-year-old girl. All three are Dkhar the Khasi word
for non-tribal, though they were born in Shillong and have lived there
all their life. Hasans love for Shillong is prominent, and the poet in her is
revealed in the lyrical descriptions. Another first novel set in this region
is A Terrible Matriarchy by Easterine Iralu, about the Angami tribals
of Nagaland. She deals with sensitivity with the question of identity.
Caught between the militants demand for freedom and the repression
of the Indian state, many young people have lost hope and turned to
alcohol and drugs.
Two other novelists have concentrated on a particular city: Amber
Dusk by Rajat Chaudhuri has been praised for its evocation of Calcutta
and Paris, while Munmun Ghoshs Hushed Voices attempts to let the
suppressed of Bombay speak.
Some novels published this year are based on real life incidents. The
case of a young British girl with a gift for mathematics running away
from her domineering father and seeking police protection was reported
in the newspapers. In Nikita Lalwanis Gifted, Mahesh Vasi, an Indian
immigrant settled at Cardiff, dominates his young daughter Rumika,
a gifted mathematician, and makes her pass her A levels at the age of
fifteen and get into Oxford University. The child is denied a normal life;
her parents are paranoid about the permissive social life in Britain,
Rumika is punished if she even talks to boys. The novel ends with her
running away from the university examination hall to find shelter in a
foster home. Gifted was on the Booker Prize long list, so was Animals
People. Indra Sinhas Animals People which won the Commonwealth
Writers Prize for the best book from Europe and South Asia, is based on
the Bhopal Gas tragedy, when poison gas leaked from Union Carbides
factory in December 1984 and killed and maimed thousands.
The postcolonial critic Amitav Kumar has written five books of
non-fiction, the most recent being The Husband of a Fanatic (2005).
His first novel, Home Products starts with the protagonist, a journalist,
investigating the Amarmani Tripathi case. In 2003, Amarmani Tripathi,
a former minister in Uttar Pradesh (Bihar in the novel) was suspected
of killing Madhumita, a young poetess who was pregnant with his child.
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Madhumitas sister Nidhi accused the ministers wife, Madhumani, of


instigating the murder. The novel offers a portrait of contemporary Bihar
society; though, at times, it degenerates into a series of unconnected
episodes from Binods life, without a central plot. There are references
to Bombay films, the Partition and the trains from Pakistan, and the 1984
anti-Sikh riots in Delhi.
Anuradha Marwahs third novel, Dirty Picture, is based on the Ajmer
Sex Scandal. In 1992, a Hindi paper in this small town in Rajasthan broke
the story of influential politicians coercing schoolgirls into having sex.
They had taken photographs and made video films of the act, which were
used to blackmail the girls, two of whom committed suicide. Marwah
writes about two beautiful sisters in Ajmer who want to get away from
the confines of the small town; the younger girl, still at school, dreams of
making it big in politics, but ends up enmeshed in sexual exploitation.
Vijay, the protagonist of David Davidars second novel, The Solitude
of Emperors, also wants to get away from the confines of small town
life. He moves from K, a small town in south India where he is born
and brought up, to Bombay and later, to Canada. Davidar has taken the
cases of the 1993 Bombay blasts and the demolition of the Babri Masjid
in December 1992 to show that mindless violence does not have any
relationship with particular religions or beliefs. An enlightened small
newspaper editor Rustom Sorabjee sends Vijay to a remote area in the
mountainous Nilgiris near Ooty to report on a place of pilgrimage, a
church frequented by people of all religions. But Vijay finds that the
poison of religious intolerance has reached even this village. The antiSikh riots which gripped Delhi in 1984, following the assassination of
Indira Gandhi, form the climax of Selina Sens first novel, A Mirror
Greens in Spring. The novel examines how displacement affects people
by contrasting two families, from Bengal and Punjab, who have settled
in Delhi after Indias partition in 1947.
Hari Kunzrus new novel, My Revolutions, has hardly any link with India
other than the ethnic origin of its author. Chris, one of the revolutionary
flower children of the 1970s in Britain, has taken on a new identity
as Michael; but the past catches up with him in 2000, when he is
fifty years old. Another novel which is set entirely in Britain is Niven
Govindens Graffiti My Soul. The protagonist-narrator is Veerapen, a
fifteen-year-old growing up in a Surrey suburb, the son of a Tamil father
(from Sri Lanka) and a Jewish mother. He faces discrimination, both as
a coloured person and as a Jew. The novel reveals his troubled psyche
in his own sexually explicit language.
Esther Davids fourth novel, Shalom India Housing Society, like her
earlier work, deals with the life of Jews. It consists of the interconnected
stories of individuals living in a Jewish apartment complex in Ahmedabad
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as they go about their daily business in the aftermath of the Hindu-Muslim


riots which broke out in Gujarat in March 2002. The older generation is
attempting to foster their Jewish culture; the prophet Elijah is central to
their religious beliefs. An outstanding book of non-fiction covers the same
ground: City of Fear by Robin David, Esther Davids son, who works in
Ahmedabad as Assistant Editor for a national daily, The Times of India.
On 26 January 2001 an earthquake struck Gujarat, leaving huge cracks in
Davids ancestral home. But it was the riots of 2002 which forced them to
move out of their home, located on the dividing line between a Muslim
locality and a predominantly Hindu one. He left out of fear for his life,
for a rampaging mob could murder him because he was circumcised.
Autobiography of Lutfullah, the first full-length Indian English autobiography (first published in 1857) has been made accessible by a leading
Indian historian, Mushirul Hasan. Seamless Boundaries: Lutfullahs
Narratives beyond East and West reprints the autobiography, with a
twenty-two-page introduction, detailed biographical notes, notes on
historical events and places, a glossary of Persian and Urdu terms and
an index. Lutfullah was born in the small town of Dharanagar in Malwa
(Central India) in 1802. Because of his facility with languages, he was
offered a job with the East India Company, teaching Persian, Hindustani,
Arabic and Marathi to newcomers from England. James Erskine, the
Political Agent in Kathiawar, felt he had a knowledge of the idiom,
structure, and details of the English language that very few Orientals have
attained to. In 1844, he accompanied Mir Jafar Ali Khan, son-in-law of
the Nawab of Surat, to England. Lutfullah has a keen eye, and records
his observations in fluent English. There are good descriptions of the
various places he visited. He talks of British justice and good governance,
but he was not an uncritical Anglophile. He criticises superstition and
evil social practices, whether they are in Islam or Hinduism. Another
interesting non-fiction book by Mushirul Hasan is Wit and Humour in
Colonial North India. It analyses cartoons which appeared in the Urdu
weekly Avadh Punch, published from Lucknow (1877 to 1936). It gives
us a new perspective on resistance to the Raj and also shows that Islam
is not against humour.
Some interesting anthologies of critical essays have appeared. Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature, The Indian Family in Transition: Reading Literary and Cultural Texts, Reading Partition/ Living Partition
and Growing up as a Woman Writer do not confine themselves to texts in
English; they examine works in other Indian languages. Translation and
Multilingualism: Postcolonial Contexts, edited by Shantha Ramakrishna,
and Translation/ Representation, edited by Anisur Rahman and Ameena
K. Ansari, are devoted to an area which is of great importance in the
Indian context, for any study of Indian literature across regions is impossible without translation.
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Bibliography
research aids
The Indian Family in Transition: Reading Literary and Cultural Texts
eds Sanjukta Dasgupta and Malashri Lal 384pp Sage Publications
(New Delhi) Rs650.
Poetics, Plays, and Performances: The Politics of Modern Indian Theatre
Vasudha Dalmia xiii +366p OUP (New Delhi) Rs675 [2006].
Poetry
Ajay, M.K. Sweetness of Thought 85pp Plain View Press (Austin, TX)
$14.95.
Asha, K Summer Night 49pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100
Pb Rs80.
Batra, Vibha Tongue-in-Cheek 46pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb
Rs120 Pb Rs100.
Bhattacharjee, Rathin Broken Rainbow 150pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta)
Hb Rs200 Pb Rs150.
Bond, Ruskin Ruskin Bonds Book of Verse 152pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs160 [includes childrens verse].
Boparai, Mohineet Kaur Poems That Never Were 60pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs100.
Chaitanya, Bodha Wanderings, Windows and White Paper 174pp Writers
Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs200 Pb Rs160.
Chakravorty, Meera Gandhari and Other Poems 59pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs80.
Chattarji, Sampurna Sight May Strike You Blind xvii+94pp Sahitya
Akademi (New Delhi) Rs50.
Chatterji, Lahiri One Hundred Poems 117pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta)
Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100.
Chawla, Nishi Confluences Indian Women, Indian Goddesses 112pp
Indialog Publications (New Delhi) Rs 195.
Chitre, Dilip As Is, Where Is: Selected English Poems (19642007) 345pp
Poetrywala (Mumbai) Rs700 [an English Imprint of Abhidhanantar
Prakashan].
Dani, Samuel Autograph on Fire 61pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb
Rs120 Pb Rs80.
Dash, Manoj Kumar Frames of Life 73pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta)
Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100.
Dharker, Imtiaz The Terrorist at My Table 160pp illus Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs200 [first pub 2006].
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Guha, Mahatra The Necklace: Poems 19711976 183pp Writers Workshop


(Calcutta) Hb Rs250 Pb Rs200.
Jain, Sunita American Desi and Other Poems 72pp Read Books (New Delhi)
Rs225.
Kaur, Manjit The Strawberry Sun and Other Poems 57pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs80.
Kinshuk, Rudra Marginal Tales of the Galloping Horses 74pp Writers
Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs80 [first pub 2002].
Majumder, Pronab Kumar Time Never Returns to Console 109pp Writers
Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100.
Merchant, Hoshang Goa! 40pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs120
Pb Rs80.
Mohankumar, M. The Diwans Discomfiture and Other Poems 61pp
Konark Publishers (Delhi) Rs175.
Pal, K.S. Descending Dark Stairs 54pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb
Rs120 Pb Rs80.
Parhi, Priyaranjan A Morsel of Livelihood 69pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100.
Paul, Subhadeep Finite Sketches, Infinite Reaches 83pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100.
Peeran, S.L. In Rare Moments 75pp Bizz Buzz (Bangalore).
Puri, Rakshat Pursuit of Meaning: Collected Later Poems 188pp Sterling
(New Delhi) Rs300.
Putatunda, Mileen North of Tara is a River 53pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs80.
Sanjoy 30pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs80.
Raju, Alexander Magic Chasm: A Collection of Domestic Poems 82pp
Dragon Publications (Kottayam) Pb Rs100.
Ray, Bishnupada A Place in the Sun 64pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta)
Hb Rs120 Pb Rs100.
Dark Age 64pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs100.
Possibilities 64pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb
Rs80.
Rizvi, I.H. The Valley Still Blossoms 55pp Prakash Book Depot (Bareilly)
Rs100.
Sarang, Vilas Another Life: Poems 79pp Poetrywala, an English Imprint
of Abhidhanantar Prakashan (Mumbai) Pb Rs150.
Satyawadi, Veena Asthana Once upon a Rhyme 49pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs80.
Singh, Charu Sheel Etching on the Edge x+68pp Adhyayan Publishers
(New Delhi) Pb Rs85.
Kashi: A Mandala Poem xii+92pp Adhyayan Publishers (New Delhi)
Rs150.
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Scripture on Stone viii+108pp Adhyayan Publishers (New Delhi) Pb


Rs95 [pub 2007, wrongly listed in the 2006 bibliography].
Singh, Preeti Simantani: Boundless 121pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta)
Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100.
Sodhi, Navkirat Un 51pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb
Rs80.
Sridhar, M. In-creasing Folds 80pp Allied Publishers (Mumbai) Pb
Rs80.
Subramanyam, K.G. Poems 165pp Seagull (Calcutta) Rs325.
Surendran, C.P. Portraits of the Space We Occupy: New and Selected
Poems 125pp HarperCollins India (New Delhi) Rs250.
Swami, Sridala A Reluctant Survivor 83pp Sahitya Akademi Pb Rs50.
Uniyal, Ranu Across the Divide 79pp Yeti Books (Calicut) Rs100.
Unmesh, Deveriya The Burden of Second Coming: Poems 49pp Holistic
Foundation (Mumbai) Pb Rs80 [2006].
Watts, Minakshi Crystal Clear and Other Poems 56pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs120 Pb Rs100.
Williams, Mukesh Moving Spaces, Changing Places 133pp Lulu.com Pb
7.14. Download 2.73.
Drama
Bedre, R.T. Thirumal Naicker 48pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb
Rs100 Pb Rs80.
Fiction
Adhar, Neelima Dalmia Merchants of Death 372pp Har-Anand Publications
(New Delhi) Pb. Rs395.
Ajmera, Kavita Padgaonkar For as Long as the Sky Exists 190pp Writers
Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs250 Pb Rs150.
Ali, Ahmed Twilight in Delhi: A Novel 275pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb
Rs295 [first pub 1940].
Anand, C.N. Tarbela Damned Pakistan Tamed 198pp Indialog Publications
(New Delhi) Pb Rs195.
Arora, O.P. A Bite of Paradise: A Novel vi+104pp Mahamaya Publications
(New Delhi) Rs195.
Bagchi, Amitabha Above Average 305pp HarperCollins Publishers India
(New Delhi) Pb Rs195.
Bajaj, Rahul Bollywood Roulette 288pp Indialog Publications (New
Delhi) Rs195.
Banerjee, Anjali Bringing Back Grandfather 166pp Puffin (New Delhi)
Rs165 [for children].
Invisible Lives 282pp Pocket Books (New York) Pb $13.00 [2006].
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Banerjee, Sarnath The Barn Owls Wondrous Capers 280pp Penguin


(New Delhi) Rs395.
Basu, Kunal The Japanese Wife 202pp HarperCollins Publishers India
(New Delhi) Rs395 [short stories]
Basu, Samit The Unwaba Revelations: Part Three of the Game World
Trilogy 520pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs295.
Behera, Subhakanta The Mahanadi Dream 242pp Indialog Publications
(New Delhi) Rs225.
Bhatty, Margaret Chicken Mama and Other Stories 136pp Penguin (New
Delhi) Rs175 [for children].
Brinda, Charry Naked in the Wind 272pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250
Chanda, Swati Switcheroos! Topsy-Turvy Mysteries of Markiposa 144pp
Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195 [for children].
Chandra, Vikram Sacred Games 920pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs495
[first pub 2006]
Chandrachud, Sonja The Potion of Eternity: A Hilarious Hauntings
Adventure 192pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195 [for children].
Chatterjee, Rimi B. The City of Love iv+321pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs295.
Chatterjee, Sudipta The Drumstick Tree and Other Stories 271pp Writers
Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs350 Pb Rs200.
Chatterjee, Upamanyu Weight Loss 432pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs350
[first pub 2006].
The Mammaries of the Welfare State 448pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs395 [first pub 2000]
Chaudhuri, Rajat Amber Dusk 352pp Indialog (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.
Dalal, Nergis The Nude: Collected Stories 224pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs200.
Das, Soma Something of a Mocktale 206pp Srishti (New Delhi) Pb,
Rs100.
Daswani, Kavita Salaam, Paris 258pp Penguin (New York) 224pp Pb.
$14; Penguin (New Delhi) Rs225.
A Girl Named Indie 200pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs200 [for young
adults].
David, Esther My Fathers Zoo 128pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs95 [for
children].
Shalom India Housing Society x+230pp illus Women Unlimited
(New Delhi) Pb Rs250.
Davidar, David The Solitude of Emperors 256pp Penguin Viking (New
Delhi) Rs495; Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London) 12.99; McClelland
& Stewart (Toronto) $32.99.
Ghosh, Munmun Hushed Voices 296pp Indialog (New Delhi) Rs195.
Govinden, Niven Graffiti My Soul 224pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs275.
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Gupta, Subhadra Sen A Flag, a Song and a Pinch of Salt: Freedom Fighters
of India 216pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195 [for children].
Gupta, Sushil The Fourth Monkey (a comic, erotic and sophic tale) 309pp
Indialog (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.
Hasan, Anjum Lunatic in My Head 344pp Zubaan (New Delhi) Pb
Rs295.
Iralu, Easterine A Terrible Matriarchy 320pp Zubaan (New Delhi)
Rs295.
Jones, Nalini What You Call Winter 233pp HarperCollins (New Delhi)
Rs295.
Kacker, Loveleen The Sugar Barons Daughter 286pp Rupa (New Delhi)
Rs250.
Kala, Advaita Almost Single HarperCollins Publishers India (New Delhi)
284pp Pb Rs195.
Khair, Tabish Filming: A Love Story 399pp Picador (London) 16.99;
Special Indian Price Rs495.
Kumar, Amitav Home Products 328pp Picador (London) Special Indian
price Rs495.
Kunzru, Hari My Revolutions: A Novel 290pp Hamish Hamilton (London)
11.99 special Indian price 4.50.
Lal, Ranjit The Battle for No.19 200pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195 [for
children].
Lalwani, Nikita Gifted 288pp Viking Penguin (New Delhi) Rs395; 272pp
Random House (New York) $23.95.
Markandaya, Kamala Nectar in a Sieve: A Novel 200pp Penguin
(New Delhi) Rs295 [first pub 1955].
Marwah, Anuradha Dirty Picture 286pp Indialog (New Delhi) Pb
Rs195.
Mehta, Anupa The Waiting Room 168pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195.
Misra, Jaishree Rani Penguin (New Delhi) 432pp Rs395.
Murali, C.V. Dreams Die Young 89pp Frog Books (Mumbai) Rs145.
Murari, Timeri N. The Small House 328pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs325.
Murty, Sudha Dollar Bahu 142pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs150.
Mahashweta 160pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs150.
Naikar, Basavaraj Light in the House 152pp CVG Books (Bangalore)
Rs200 [biographical novel] [2006].
Nair, Vijay Master of Life Skills 216pp HarperCollins Publishers (New
Delhi) Pb Rs250.
Narasimhan, Raji The Illusion of Home: Stories 184pp Promilla & Co.
Publishers (New Delhi) Pb Rs200.
Nath, Priyanka Inviting Murder 192pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.
Nimbalkar, C.M. Pretty Boy 164pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb
Rs300 Pb Rs200 [short stories].
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Paruvu, Harimohan The Men Within: A Cricketing Tale 272pp Indialog


Publications (New Delhi) Rs225.
Pradhan, Monica The Hindi-Bindi Club 448 pp Bantam books (New York)
Pb $12; Bloomsbury (London) Pb 7.99; special Indian price
Rs395.
Raheja, Tushar Anything for You Maam 230pp Srishti (New Delhi) Pb
Rs100.
Rajadhyaksha, Sucharit The Circle of Vice 416pp Rupa (New Delhi)
Pb Rs295.
Rajan, Rohithari IIM Ganjdundwara 272pp Indialog Publications
(New Delhi) Rs195.
Rajan, Vithal The Legend of Ramulamma 237pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs300 Pb Rs200.
Rao, Malathi Disorderly Women 273pp Dronequill (Bangalore) Pb Rs250
[first pub 2005].
Rao, K. Raghavendra The Cockroach Man 251pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs350 Pb Rs200.
Reddi, Rishi Karma and Other Stories 213pp HarperCollins Publishers
India (New Delhi) Pb Rs250.
Saidullah, Jawahara The Burden of Foreknowledge 178pp IndiaInk
(New Delhi) Pb Rs295 [2006].
Saikia, Ankush Jet City Woman 191pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.
Saptharishi, Kausalya TamBrahm Bride 248pp Indian Writing (Chennai)
Pb Rs200.
Saraf, Sujit The Peacock Throne: An Epic Tale of Modern India 754pp
Sceptre (London) 11.99.
Satwik, Ambarish Perineum: Nether Parts of the Empire 176pp Penguin
(New Delhi) Rs200.
Sawkar, Indrayani Stories of Sages 267pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta)
Hb Rs3000 Pb Rs200.
Sen, Selina A Mirror Greens in Spring 305pp IndiaInk (New Delhi) Pb
Rs295.
Sengupta, Arunabha Big Apple Two Bites 275pp Frog Books (Mumbai)
Pb Rs275.
Sengupta, Poile Vikramadityas Throne 152pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs175 [for children].
Shah, Kishore D. Shelter in the City 107pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta)
Hb Rs200 Pb Rs150.
Sharma, Ritesh and Neeraj Pahlajani Joker in the Pack: An Irreverent View
of Life at IIMs 196pp Orient Paperbacks (New Delhi) Rs195.
Sidhu, Mona Jaanika: The Book 94pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb
Rs150 Pb Rs100.
Singh, Khushwant Collected Stories 480pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi)
Rs495.
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Train to Pakistan 200pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs295


[first pub 1956].
Singh, Prashant Ballay Sheras Quest for Kohinoor vi+138pp Srishti
(New Delhi) Rs100 [for children].
Singh, Sonia Ghost, Interrupted 264pp Avon Trade (New York) Pb
$13.95.
Sinha, Indra Animals People 374pp Simon and Schuster (New York)
$25; special Indian price Rs595.
Srivastava, Rahul Murder on Kaandoha Hill: Conspiracy of the Warriors
200pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs195 [for children].
Subramanian, Ravi If God Was a Banker 260pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb
Rs195.
I Bought the Monks Ferrari 163pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb Rs195.
Sundaresan, Indu The Splendor of Silence 408pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs350; Washington Square Press (New York) $14.
Suri, Gaurav and Hartosh Singh Bal A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical
Novel 292pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs450; Princeton Univ
Press (Princeton, N.J.) Hb $27.95.
Swaminathan, Kalpana The Gardeners Song 219pp Roli (New Delhi)
Rs295.
Talwar, Rajesh Inglistan: A Novel 208pp Kalpaz Publications (Delhi)
Rs180.
Simran: A Novel 257pp Kalpaz Publications (Delhi) Rs230.
Tankha, Upendra A Bachelor Boy 294pp Stellar (New Delhi) Rs250.
Tariang, Bikika Lalloo Dad and the Salesman 100pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100 [short stories].
Thapa, Manjushree Tilled Earth: Stories 185pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs195.
Umrigar, Thrity If Today Be Sweet 296pp William Morrow/ HarperCollins
(New York) $24.95.
Usha, K.R. A Girl and a River 360pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs295.
Viegas, Savia Tales from the Attic 130pp Saxtti Foundation (Panjim, Goa)
Rs200.
Visvanathan, Susan Phosphorus and Stone 139pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs195.
The Seine at Noon 133pp IndiaInk/ Roli Books (New Delhi)
Rs275.
Translations
All for the Dark God: Selections from Medieval Marathi Saint Poetry
trans M.K.Naik 255pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs350 Pb
Rs200.

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The Mahabharata of Vyasa: Book 7 The Complete Drona Parva transcreated


from Sanskrit P.Lal 1522pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta) Hb Rs1200
Pb Rs800.
The Mahabharata of Vyasa: Book 15 The Complete Asramavasika Parva
transcreated from Sanskrit P.Lal 158pp Writers Workshop (Calcutta)
Hb Rs150 Pb Rs100.
Namdeo Dhasal: Poet of the Underworld, Poems 19722006 trans from
Marathi Dilip Chitre 180pp Navayana (Chennai) Rs350.
Twenty-four Stories by Premchand trans from Hindi P.Lal and Nandini
Nopani 201pp Hb Rs250 PB Rs150 [first pub 1980].
Letters, Biography and Autobiography
Anand, Dev Romancing with Life: An Autobiography 448pp Viking
Penguin (New Delhi) Rs695.
Dhar, Syamal Kumar Days with Kubera 235pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs300 Pb Rs200.
Gandhi, Rajmohan Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, his People and an
Empire 760pp Viking Penguin (New Delhi) Rs650.
Lutfullah Seamless Boundaries: Lutfullahs Narratives beyond East and
West ed. Mushirul Hasan 22+260pp OUP (New Delhi) Rs425.
Nandan, Leela and Jiwesh Nandan How to Placate an Angry Naga: Finding
Ones Feet in the IAS 171pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs 195.
Sattanathan, A.N. Plain Speaking: A Sudras Story, Memoirs and Lectures
of A.N. Sattanathan (1905-1990) ed Uttara Natarajan x+238pp
Permanent Black (New Delhi) Rs495.
Seth, Vikram Two Lives 512pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs395 [first pub
2005].
Shah, Amrita Vikram Sarabhai: A Life 264pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs425.
Shrinagesh, Jayavant Mallanah Between Two Stools: My Life in the ICS
before and after Independence 189pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs495.
Sinha, Yashwant Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer: My Years as Finance
Minister 288pp Viking Penguin (New Delhi) Rs450.
Tharoor, Shashi Nehru: The Invention of India 272pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs250 [first pub 2003].
Anthologies
21 Under 40: New Stories for a New Generation ed Anita Roy 239pp
Zubaan (New Delhi) Rs295 [21 stories by South Asian women under
the age of 40].
A Bond of Nature: Ruskin Bonds Nature Omnibus Ruskin Bond 224pp
Ratna Sagar (Delhi) Rs175.
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Bodymaps: Stories by South Asian Women ed Radha Chakravarty 186pp


Zubaan (New Delhi) Rs295.
Dadi Nani: Memories of Our Grandmothers eds Subhash Mathur and
Subodh Mathur 196pp Spenta Multimedia and the Dadi Nani Foundation Charitable Trust (Pune) Rs495 [short life stories of 25 Indian
grandmothers who were born around 1900, by their grandchildren,
from different regions of India].
The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore 8 vols. Intro Mohit K. Ray
Atlantic Publishers (New Delhi) Rs650 each volume [plays, poems,
essays, lectures and miscellaneous writings].
Favourite Fiction II: More Stories from South Asia ed Antara Deb Sen 328pp
The Little Magazine (Delhi) Rs250 [25 stories from India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, first pub in The Little Magazine].
First Proof 3: The Penguin Book of New Writing from India 248pp Penguin
(New Delhi) Rs295 [diverse genres: poetry, graphic novellas, short
stories, and non-fiction].
Inner Line: The Zubaan Anthology of Stories by Indian Women ed Urvashi
Butalia 246pp Zubaan (New Delhi) Rs295.
The Khushwant Singh Treasury: Favourite Prayers, Poems, Proverbs and
Profanities for Every Day of the Year ed Khushwant Singh 208pp
Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs299
The Last Bungalow: Writings on Allahabad ed Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
329pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs395.
Once Upon a Time in the Doon: Writings from the Green Valley ed Ruskin
Bond 237pp Rupa (New Delhi) Rs295.
The Penguin 1857 Reader ed Pramod K. Nayar 352pp Penguin (New
Delhi) Rs295.
The Puffin Book of Magical Indian Myths Anita Nair illus Atanu Roy
192pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs499.
Scar Tissue: 8 Lives, 8 Young Women ed Nikhat Grewal 113pp Women
Unlimited (New Delhi) Pb Rs150 [first-person accounts].
Shaam-e-Awadh: Writings on Lucknow ed Veena Talwar Oldenburg
304pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs395.
Shockwave! and Other Cyber Stories 168pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs175.
The Table is Laid: The Oxford Anthology of South Asian Food Writing eds
John Thieme and Ira Raja lvi+384pp OUP (New Delhi) Rs595.
The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense eds Michael Heyman
with Sumanyu Satpathy and Anushka Ravishankar 284pp Penguin
(New Delhi) Rs295.
Wit and Humour in Colonial North India Mushirul Hasan 188pp Niyogi
Books (Delhi) Rs795 [contains reproductions of cartoons from the
Avadh Punch, an Urdu weekly published from Lucknow, 1877 to
1936].
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Criticism
general studies
Approaching Culture: Whose English is it anyway? Arnab Baul The Quest
21 (1) pp6772.
Between Orality and Translation: Translating Folk Narratives of Karnataka
Vijay Sheshadri The Quest 21 (1) pp98107.
British and Indian English Literature: A Critical Study Amar Nath Prasad
x+338pp Sarup and Sons (New Delhi) Rs695.
Contemporary Diasporic Literature: Writing History, Culture, Self ed
Manjit Inder Singh 198pp Pencraft International (Delhi) Rs400.
Contemporary Indian Dramatists ed Shubha Tiwari x+130pp Atlantic
(New Delhi) Rs495.
Contemporary Indian English Short Story: Ruskin Bond, Anita Desai and
Shashi Deshpande Nripendra Singh 154pp Creative Books (New Delhi)
Rs300.
Contemporary Indian Writing in English: Trends, Concepts and Techniques
ed Nigamananda Das xvi+190pp Adhyayan (New Delhi) Rs495.
Contemporary Poets in English Surya Nath Pandey 213pp Rawat
Publications (Jaipur) Rs550.
Cultural Anxiety vs Spiritualism: A Study in the Context of Indian and
Canadian Poetry Sudhir K. Arora Cyber Literature 19&20 (1&2)
pp4452.
Ecology, Myth, and Mystery: Contemporary Poetry in English from
Northeast India N.D.R. Chandra and Nigamananda Das vii+133pp
Sarup and Sons (New Delhi) Rs375 [Temsula Ao, Robin Ngangom,
Kynpham S. Norgkynrih, Mamang Dai, Lakshahira Das, Bhupati Das,
Dayananda Pathak, R.K. Madhubir, Desmond L. Kharmawphlang
and Bhaskar Roy Barman].
English Studies in India with Emphasis on Indian English Literature
G.S.Balarama Gupta Journal of Indian Writing in English 35(2)
pp19.
Entry from Backside Only: Hazaar Fundas of Indian-English Binoo K.
John 224pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs95.
Evolving Masculinities in Recent Stories by South Asian American
Women Bonnie Zare Journal of Commonwealth Literature 42(3)
pp99111.
Feminist Writing and the Question of Readership Jasbirt Jain Growing
up as a Woman Writer pp50419.
Focus India: Postcolonial Narratives of the Nation eds T. Vijay Kumar,
Meenakshi Mukherjee, Harish Trivedi and C. Vijayasree 248pp
Pencraft International (New Delhi) Rs600.

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Frozen Relations: Incest in Indian English Fiction Paul Sharrad Littcrit


64 pp2535.
Gandhijis Presence in the Indian English Novel Anju Bala Agrawal
The Quest 21(1) pp9097.
Growing up as a Woman Writer ed Jasbir Jain 528pp Sahitya Akademi
(New Delhi) Rs220 [papers from the conference on Women Writing
in India at the Turn of the Century held in 2001, and All India
Women Writers Conference in 2005].
Home and the Construction of New English Fiction Pradyumna S.
Chauhan Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature pp209220.
In Search of a Canon? Niranjan Mohanty Kavya Bharati 19 pp191
200.
Indian Drama in English: An Update S. Ramaswamy The Literary
Criterion 42(3/4) pp711.
Indian English Literary Criticism: Canon and Critique Charu Sheel Singh
Journal of Indian Writing in English 35(1) pp4959.
Indian English Literature Vol.6 ed Basavaraj Naikar 256pp Atlantic
Publishers (New Delhi) Rs450.
Indian English Literature Vol.7 ed Basavaraj Naikar 240pp Atlantic
Publishers (New Delhi) Rs450.
The Indian English Short Story Shyamala A. Narayan Journal of Literature and Aesthetics 6 (1) pp1021.
Indian English Womens Fiction: A Study of Marriage, Career and Divorce
D. Murali Manohar 272pp Atlantic Publishers (New Delhi) Rs550.
The Indian ImagiNation: Colonial and Postcolonial Literature and Culture
Somdatta Mandal 296pp Creative Books (New Delhi) Rs500.
Indian Literary Criticism in English and the Questions of Nationhood
Raj Nath Littcrit 63 pp2631.
Indian Literary Criticism Today: The Challenge and the Response
K. Satchidandan Littcrit 63 pp625.
Indian Poetry Today R. Parthasarathy Poetry CXC (5) pp407418.
Indian Spiritual Autobiography in English D. Padma The Quest 21 (2)
pp8190.
Indian Women Novelists: A Feminist Psychoanalytical Study Jyoti Singh
192pp Rawat Publications (Jaipur) Rs475.
Indian Womens Short Fiction eds Rajeshwar Mittapalli and Joel Kuortti
249pp Atlantic Publishers (New Delhi) Rs495.
Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature eds Malashri Lal and Sukrita
Paul Kumar xvii+279pp Pearson Longman (New Delhi) Rs495.
In(ter)ventions: Literary and Critical Discourses Avadhesh Kumar Singh
228pp Creative Books (New Delhi) Rs500.
Locating Home in a Liminal Space: Longing and Belonging in the
Fiction of Bengali American Women Writers Sanjukta Dasgupta
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Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature pp7595 [Bharati


Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni].
Mouthwork: Food and Language as the Corporeal Home for the
Unhoused Diasporic Body in South Asian Womens Writing
Sneja Gunew Interpreting Homes pp99109.
New Explorations in Indian English Poetry ed Jaydeep Sarangi xiv+242pp
Authorspress (New Delhi) Rs550.
New Perspectives on Indian English Writing Malti Agrawal 352pp Atlantic
Publishers (New Delhi) Rs695.
Partition and Indian English Women Novelists Seema Malik 192pp
Prestige Books (New Delhi) Rs400.
Perspectives and Challenges in Indian English Drama ed Neeru Tandon
188pp Atlantic (New Delhi) Rs450 [2006].
Presentations of Postcolonialism in English: New Orientations ed Jaydeep
Sarangi xii+282pp Authorspress (New Delhi) Rs650.
Reading Partition / Living Partition ed Jasbir Jain 352pp Rawat Publications
(Jaipur) Rs750.
Questing for Truth: History-Fiction Interface in Recent Indian English
Fiction A.S. Dasan Littcrit 64 pp524.
Self and Society: The Dalit Subject and the Discourse of Autobiography
E.V.Ramakrishnan Littcrit 63 pp96109.
Society, Family and Self in Indian Fiction Jayita Sengupta The Indian
Family in Transition pp125144.
Studies in Comparative Literature: Space, Theory and Culture eds Jancy
James, Chandra Mohan et al 298pp Creative Books (New Delhi)
Rs600.
Theatre of Roots Movement Suresh Kumar C. Littcrit 63 pp8389.
Theory as Variation eds R.Radhakrishnan et al 335pp Pencraft International
(Delhi) Rs630.
Thoughts on Present Discontents Concerning Recent Indian Fiction
in English M.K.Naik Journal of Indian Writing in English 35(2)
pp1119.
Totalitarianism in Indian English Poetry V.M.Madige Journal of Indian
Writing in English 35(2) pp438.
Translation and Multilingualism: Postcolonial Contexts ed Shantha
Ramakrishna 264pp Pencraft International (Delhi) Rs500.
Translation/Representation ed Anisur Rahman and Ameena K. Ansari
223pp Creative Books (New Delhi) Rs500.
Two Poets from Orissa Joseph Dorairaj Kavya Bharati 19 pp201213
[Ramakant Rath and J.P.Das].
Unsettling Partition: Literature, Gender, Memory Jill Didur x+201pp University of Toronto (Toronto, Buffalo and London) $50, 32.

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The Voyage Within: Women in the Works of Indian Women Novelists in


English Prajna Paramita Panigrahi 158pp Gyanajuga Publication
(Bhubaneswar) Rs360.
Writing Silence: Towards a Theory of the Partition Novel Alok Kumar
Critical Practice 14 pp6375.
Writing the Diaspora: Essays on Culture and Identity Uma Parameswaran
xii+380pp Rawat (Jaipur) Rs875.
studies on individual writers
Acharya, Shanta The Poetry of Shanta Acharya Lance Lee Kavya Bharati
19 pp12243.
Ali, Agha Shahid Karbala as Metaphor in the Poetry of Agha Shahid
Ali Nishat Zaidi Indian Literature 237 pp15467.
Anand, Mulk Raj Dialectics of Humanism in Mulk Raj Anands
Untouchable and Coolie S. Sujatha Littcrit 64 pp5862.
Mulk Raj Anands Gauri: Voyage of Discovery and Recovery
J. Elizabeth Lucy The Quest 21 (1) pp8389.
Aurobindo, Sri Sri Aurobindos Future Man Sujatha Vijayaraghavan
The Quest 21(2) pp110.
Banerjee, Lakshmisree Lost in the Labyrinth Shyamala A. Narayan
Kavya Bharati 19 pp16167 [essay review of I Am the Woman: I Am
the World].
Bhatnagar, O.P. The Critic with a Big Heart, O.P. Bhatnagar I.K. Sharma
xviii+164pp Rachana Prakashan (Jaipur) Rs325 [2006].
Bhatt, Sujata Home in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra and Sujata
Bhatt: Childhood, Family, Ancestors and Personal History Syamala
Kallury and Anjana Neira Dev Interpreting Homes in South Asian
Literature pp193208.
Mapping Multicultural Identities in Sujata Bhatts Poetry Aarati
R Mujumder The Quest 21 (2) pp 3244.
Bond, Ruskin Platform 9 : The Magic of Ruskin Bond and J.K.Rowling
Prabha Pant Littcrit 64 pp165168.
Chabria, Priya Sarukkai The Centrality of Wander Growing up as a Woman
Writer ed Jasbir Jain pp398407.
Chatterjee, Bankimchandra The Englished Imagination in Rajmohans
Wife Lakshmi Sukumar Littcrit 64 pp5057.
Chattarji, Sampurna Ocular Noise: Poetizing the SemeleZeus Syndrome
Nirmal Selvamony Kavya Bharati 19 pp179190 [essay review of
Site May Strike You Blind].
Currimbhoy, Asif The Best Plays of Asif Currimbhoy: A Critical Study
Krishna Avtar Agrawal vi+274pp Book Enclave (Jaipur) Rs795.
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Daruwalla, Keki N. Lifes Questions, Randomness and Meaning: Daruwallas Poetry Deborah Cordonnier Kavya Bharati 19
pp15560.
Das, Kamala Kamala Das: A Critical Spectrum eds Rajeshwar Mittapalli
and Pier Paolo Piciucco 180pp Atlantic Publishers (New Delhi)
Rs395.
Dattani, Mahesh Hypocrisy and Hollowness in the Indian Joint Family
System: A Study of Mahesh Dattanis Plays Arpa Ghosh The Indian
Family in Transition pp188202.
Mahesh Dattanis Plays: Critical Perspectives ed Angelie Multani
176pp Pencraft International (Delhi) Rs450.
Reading Dattani: A Viewpoint Rachel Bari and M. Ibrahim
Khalilullah The Literary Criterion 42 (3/4) pp5664.
Unsafe Nests: Dina Mehtas Getting Away with Murder and Mahesh
Dattanis Thirty Days in September as Narratives of Disclosure
Seema Malik Points of View 14 (1) pp112118.
Desai, Anita The Theme of Suffering in the Select Fictions of Anita
Desai A. Namasivayam Littcrit 63 pp7482.
Desai, Kiran India and the U.S.A. in Kiran Desais The Inheritance of Loss
Shyamala A. Narayan Journal of Indian Writing in English 35(2)
pp2942.
Of Human Breadth and Wisdom: Kiran Desais The Inheritance of
Loss Sushil Kumar Sindhedkar The Quest 21 (1) pp5966.
Postcolonial India in Kiran Desais The Inheritance of Loss Manoj
S. Littcrit 64 pp15964.
Post-Colonial Intervention of Cultural Hybridity of the Diaspora
as Portrayed in Kiran Desais The Inheritance of Loss A. Shameem
Journal of Indian Writing in English 35(2) pp4954.
Deshpande, Shashi Feminist Vision in Shashi Deshpandes Roots and
Shadows Bhavana Dwivedi The Quest 21(1) pp112118.
Ezekiel, Nissim Nissim Ezekiels Homeward Pilgrimage S. Bharadwaj
Points of View 14 (2) pp97104.
Gandhi, M.K. Art in Action: A Note on Gandhis Writings from Yerawada
Mandir D.A. Shankar Journal of Indian Writing in English 35(1)
pp2634.
Ghosh, Amitav Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Study Sarika P. Auradkar 132pp
Creative Books (New Delhi) Rs250.
Amitav Ghoshs The Shadow Lines: A Critical Companion ed Murari
Prasad 225pp Pencraft International (Delhi) Rs550.
Myth-History Interface in Fiction and Nation: A Study of Amitav
Ghoshs The Hungry Tide Nishat Zaidi Littcrit 64 pp10520.
Woman as Initiator: Women in Amitabh Ghoshs The Glass Palace
Shobha Ramaswamy The Quest 21 (2) pp9598.
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Journal of Commonwealth Literature

Gokhale, Namita Namita Gokhale interviewed by Swapan K Banerjee


The Quest 21(1) pp18.
Gour, Neelum Saran Grandfather, Are You Listening? Neelum Saran
Gour Growing up as a Woman Writer ed Jasbir Jain pp99110.
Hasan, Anjum Poetry from Shillong Mala Renganathan Kavya Bharati
19 pp16875 [review of Street on the Hill].
Jhabvala, R. Prawer Identity and Sexual Politics in the American Novels
of Jhabvala Rishi Pal Singh The Quest 21(1) pp7382.
Joshi, Arun The Fiction of Arun Joshi Abdul Saleem 171pp Creative
Books (New Delhi) Rs400.
Kannan, Lakshmi The Rangoli Woman Lakshmi Kannan Growing up
as a Woman Writer ed Jasbir Jain pp38897.
Karnad, Girish A Socio-Political Reading of Girish Karnads Tale-Danda
R.T. Bedre The Literary Criterion 42(3/4) pp2025.
Seeing and Believing in the Selected Plays of Vijay Tendulkar
and Girish Karnad V. Anbarasi The Literary Criterion 42(3/4)
pp3543.
The New Woman in Girish Karnads Naga Mandala Swati Chandorkar
The Quest 21(1) pp11925.
Kumar, Shiv K. Shiv K. Kumar interviewed by Swapan K. Banerjee
The Quest 21(2) pp2331.
Lahiri, Jhumpa Jhumpa Lahiri: Critical Perspectives ed Nigamananda
Das 184pp Pencraft International (Delhi) Rs450.
No Nation Woman: The Diasporic Womans Quest for Home
Bidisha Banerjee Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature
pp168179.
The Politics of Home and Food in Jhumpa Lahiris Interpreter of
Maladies Irma Maini The Indian Family in Transition pp157163.
Mahapatra, Jayanta The Creative Mind as a Transparent Crucible
P. Radhika Kavya Bharati 19 pp14754 [review of Door of Paper].
Home in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra and Sujata Bhatt: Childhood, Family, Ancestors and Personal History Syamala Kallury and
Anjana Neira Dev Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature
pp193208.
Maini, Darshan Singh A Tribute Kavya Bharati 19 p221.
Markandaya, Kamala Aesthetics of Nature: Fictional Representation of
Nature in Nectar in a Sieve K. Venugopal Reddy Journal of the School
of Language, Literature and Culture Studies 7 pp5061.
Mehta, Ved In the Light of Words: An Interview Suresh Menon The
Hindu Literary Review 5Aug 2007 p1.
Mistry, Rohinton Problems of Selfhood: A Study of Rohinton Mistrys
Tales from FerozshaBaag V. Bharathi Harishankar Littcrit 64
pp12136.
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Rohinton Mistry: An Anthology of Recent Criticism eds Anjali


Gera Roy and Meena T. Pillai 256pp Pencraft International (Delhi)
Rs600.
Mohanty, Niranjan A Wholly Human Krishna Shanthi Premkumar Kavya
Bharati 19 pp21419.
Postcolonial Consciousness in the Poetry of Niranjan Mohanty
Points of View 14 (2) pp104112.
Mukherjee, Bharati From Displacement to Assimilation: Redefining
Bharati Mukherjees Narratives of Diaspora Critical Practice 14
pp7693.
Three Women Novelists: Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood and
Bharati Mukherjee: A Feminist Comparative Study Antum Amin
Panjwani 174pp Creative Books (New Delhi) Rs400.
Nair, Anita Journey of Self-Discovery: The Growth of Akhila in Anita
Nairs Ladies Coupe Mohini Khot Journal of Indian Writing in
English 35(1) pp607.
Nair, Preethi The Trajectory of Memory: Food as Backdrop in
Preethi Nairs One Hundred Shades of White Mini Babu Littcrit 64
pp15458.
Narayan, R.K. Colonial Ambivalence in R.K.Narayans Waiting for the
Mahatma Satish C. Aikant Journal of Commonwealth Literature
42(2) pp89100.
The Cultural Geography of Malgudi John Thieme Journal of
Commonwealth Literature 42(2) pp113126.
The Novels of R.K.Narayan C.P.Sharma 231pp Prasangik Publishers
(New Delhi) Rs600.
R. K. Narayan John Thieme 249pp Manchester Univ P (Manchester)
Contemporary World Writers Series.
R.K. Narayan at 100 Harish Trivedi Journal of Commonwealth
Literature 42(2) pp17.
R.K. Narayan: A Personal View Shashi Deshpande Journal of
Commonwealth Literature 42(2) pp6572.
R.K. Narayan: Reflections and Re-evaluation ed Chhote Lal Khatri
xiv+216pp Sarup & Sons (New Delhi) Rs575 [2006].
Translation Translated? The Dark Room in Tamil Lakshmi
Holmstrom Journal of Commonwealth Literature 42(2) pp7388.
Veranda as the Space of Postcolonial Transformation in
R.K. Narayan P.V. Jayaraj The Quest 21 (2) pp99106.
The World of Nagaraj: A Postmodern Malgudi? Nandini Saha
Journal of Commonwealth Literature 42(2) pp101112.
Nimbkar, Jai An Interview with Jai Nimbkar Journal of Indian Writing
in English 35(1) pp1524.

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118

Journal of Commonwealth Literature

Raju, Alexander Alexander Rajus The Haunted Man: The Emergency


in a Palanquin of Dreams O.P. Mathur Journal of Indian Writing
in English 35(1) pp438.
Ramanujan, A.K. A.K. Ramanujans Mythologies Poems R. Deepta
Points of View 14 (1) pp7481.
Is She Her Own Woman: A Critique of Ramanujans A Flowering
Tree Jyoti Mishra Critical Practice 14 pp102108.
Subsuming the Nation within Home: A Study of A.K. Ramanujans
Poetry Niranjan Mohanty Interpreting Homes in South Asian
Literature pp6174.
Rao, Raja A Homage to Raja Rao S. Ramaswamy Journal of Indian
Writing in English 35(1) pp613.
Raja Rao: A Personal Reminiscence Ragini Ramachandra Journal
of Indian Writing in English 35(1) pp15.
Raja Rao: The Master and His Moves ed Jaydeep Sarangi 218pp
Authorspress (New Delhi) Rs500.
Raja Raos Kanthapura: A Critical Study eds Suman Bala and Ranu
Uniyal 255pp Asia Book Club (New Delhi) Rs600.
Roy, Arundhati The Discourse of Postcolonial Resistance: A Study of
Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things Jaydeep Sarangi Littcrit
64 pp144153.
Ayemenem: A Decade Downstream Abraham Joseph Littcrit 64
pp137143.
The God of Small Things: A Saga of Lost Dreams K.V. Surendran
264pp Atlantic Publishers (New Delhi) Rs450.
Rushdie, Salman From Forked Tongue to Forked Tongue: Rushdie and
Milton in the Postcolonial Conversation Dirk Wiemann Journal of
Commonwealth Literature 42(2) pp4763.
Hybridization of Ethos in Salman Rushdies Fury Devasee
Chakravarti and G.A. Ghanshyam Littcrit 64 pp6369.
Playing with Myths: Salman Rushdies Fury Liji Varghese Littcrit
64 pp7078.
Salman Rushdies Early Fiction Uma Parameswaran xii+188pp
Rawat (Jaipur) Rs450.
Salman Rushdies Shalimar the Clown: The Enigma of Terrorism
O.P. Mathur Points of View 14(1) pp9096.
Turn Your Watch Upside Down in Bombay and You See the Time
in London: Catoptric Urban Configurations in Salman Rushdies
The Satanic Verses Vassilena Parashkevova Journal of Commonwealth
Literature 42(3) pp524.
You Have to Go into Every Door That Opens:An Interview Mita Kapur
Atlas 02 pp1623.

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Seth, Vikram A Critical Analysis of Vikram Seths Poetry and Fiction


Seemita Mohanty xi+272pp Atlantic Publishers (New Delhi)
Rs595.
Orchestration in Nature: An Ecocritical Reading of Vikram Seths
An Equal Music Vincent B. Netto Littcrit 64 pp98104.
Vikram Seth, A Suitable Writer: A Critical Response Prerana Sinha
259pp Creative Books (New Delhi) Rs550.
Singh, Amar The Construction of Home in the Amar Singh Diary:
Liminality, Hybridity and Reflexivity Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne
Hoeber Rudolph Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature
pp183192.
Singh, Charu Sheel The Triple Path: Re-inventing Poetic Genre, A Study of
the Poetry of Charu Sheel Singh ed Krishna Banerjee Vol I xxx+168pp;
Vol II xxix+225pp Adhyayan Publishers (New Delhi) Rs1200 set.
Singh, Khushwant Khushwant Singh in Conversation with Shujaat
Hussain The Quest 21(1) pp1924.
Sorabji, Cornelia Cornelia Sorabji: Indias Pioneer Woman Lawyer, A
Biography Suparna Gooptu xxv+241pp OUP (New Delhi) Rs495
[2006].
Srinivas, Krishna A Tribute to Dr. Krishna Srinivas R.K. Singh Cyber
Literature 19/20(1/2) pp12.
Tharoor, Shashi Privileges and Perils of Paralleling Antiquity and
Modernity: A Study of Shashi Tharoors The Great Indian Novel
M.K. Naik Points of View 14 (1) pp8289.
Shashi Tharoor: His Vision and Art Geeta M. Patil 232pp Creative
Books (New Delhi) Rs500.
Non-fiction
Bond, Ruskin All Roads Lead to Ganga 128pp Rupa (New Delhi) Pb
Rs95.
David, Robin City of Fear 264pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs275.
Devadoss, Manohar Multiple Facets of My Madurai 140pp East-West
Books (Madras) Rs395.
Kalam, A.P.J. Abdul Indomitable Spirit 254pp Rajpal & Sons (New Delhi)
Rs350.
Kesavan, Mukul Men in White: A Book of Cricket 278pp Penguin Viking
(New Delhi) Rs395.
Lal, P. The Concept of an Indian Literature 70pp Writers Workshop
(Calcutta) Hb Rs100 Pb Rs80 [first pub 1968].
Mahapatra, Jayanta Door of Paper: Essays and Memoirs x+224pp Authorspresss (New Delhi) Rs375.

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120

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Malgonkar, Manohar The Men Who Killed Gandhi Concept, research


and ed Pramod Kapoor 354pp Roli Books (New Delhi) Rs395 [text
first pub 1975, with unpublished documents and photographs].
Mukherjee, Rudrangshu Spectre of Violence: The 1857 Kanpur Massacres
232pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs250 [first pub 1998].
Nayar, Pramod K. The Great Uprising: 1857 296pp Penguin (New Delhi)
Rs225.
Sharma, Jyotirmaya Terrifying Vision: M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS and India
184pp Penguin Viking (New Delhi) Rs295.
Singh, Bhagat The Jail Notebook and Other Writings ed Chaman Lal
192pp Leftword Books (New Delhi) Rs350.
Tharoor, Shashi India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond
420pp Penguin (New Delhi) Rs395 [revised edition].
The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone: Reflections on India in
the Twenty-First Century 404pp Viking Penguin (New Delhi) Rs495
[70 essays previously published in newspapers].
Journals
Atlas: New Writing/ Art/ Image ed Sudeep Sen. Aark Arts, J 1889, Chittaranjan
Park, New Delhi 110019. e-mail: <atlasaarkarts@gmail.com>.
Critical Practice: A Journal of Critical and Literay Studies 14 ed Anisur
Rahman. Creative Books, Shanti, CB24 New Delhi 110028. Annual
sub Rs100. annual.
Cyber Literature: A Bi-Annual Journal of English Studies ed Chhote Lal
Khatri, Mishradeep, Saketpuri, Road No.1, Hanuman Nagar, Patna
800026. e-mail: <drclkhatri@rediffmail.com> Annual sub Rs100 for
individuals Rs200 for institutions.
Journal of Indian Writing in English ed G.S.Balarama Gupta, NIRIEL,
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Journal of Literature and Aesthetics: An International Journal Devoted to
Critical and Creative Writing in English ed S.Sreenivasan Reshmi,
Pattathanam, Kollam 691021. Annual sub Rs75 for individuals, Rs100
for institutions; bi-annual.
Journal of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies ed
G.J.V.Prasad. Centre of Linguistics and English, School of Language,
Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi 110067. E-mail: <gjvprasad@mail.jnu.ac.in> Annual sub
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Kavya Bharati The Study Centre for Indian Literature in English and
Translation, American College, Post Box 63, Madurai 625002
e-mail: <scilet@gmail.com>. Annual sub Rs200; annual.

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Littcrit: An Indian Response to Literature ed P.P. Ajayakumar. Samanuaya


TRA-A63, Thuruvikkal P.O. Ulloor Thiruvananthapuram 695031.
e-mail: <Littcrit@gmail.com> Annual sub Rs100; bi-annual.
The Literary Criterion ed C.N. Srinath, Dhvanyaloka Mysore 570006.
e-mail: srinathcn@rediffmail.com. Annual sub Rs200 for individuals,
Rs300 for institutions; quarterly.
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; bi-annual.
The Quest ed Ravi Nandan Sinha. D-3, Rajnigandha Tower, Kanke Road,
Ranchi 834008. e-mail: <questranchi@rediffmail.com>. Annual sub
Rs400; bi-annual.
Journals: Special Issues
Journal of Literature and Aesthetics Special Number on Contemporary
Indian Short Story. Jan-Dec 2006. Kollam 691021.
Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing (University of Hawaii,
Honolulu) 19 (1) [devoted to Crossing Over: Partition Literature, from
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh].
Poetry (Founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe) CXC (5) Sep 2007 [has a
32p Indian Portfolio].

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