Across genres, Indian writers have been busy this year. Be it in fiction or non-fiction, desi English literature has surely left an impression, notes Shinie Antony
Bookworms survived the last 12 months with their reading glasses perched firmly on the nose. Too many bestsellers, a big shake-up in the publishing industry with editors going crisscross, book launches, lit fests north and south, much cooing from Kindle and tons of crackling subjects — 2011 sure turned a new page. Biggies like Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke, the second of his historical trio, David Davidar’s Ithaca, in which Zachary Thomas walks the publishing corridors, and Chetan Bhagat’s Revolution 2020 were but breathlessly awaited. Filmmakers have predictably snapped up the rights for Bhagat’s latest bestseller, an exposé on the sordid underbelly of the education industry.
There was Rahul Bhattacharya’s jack-in-the-box The Sly Company of People Who Care, which won the Hindu Literary Award this year and takes us all to Guyana. Amish Tripathi retained his Midas touch with The Secret of the Nagas. Says Tripathi when asked the secret of his success: “Some people say that my books have succeeded because of fast-paced storytelling, some say they’ve succeeded due to the philosophies in them and others say that good marketing ensured their success. I would say that the primary factor behind the success of my books is the blessing of Lord Shiva.”
Desi chick-lit broke into the big league with Ruchita Misra’s The (In)eligible Bachelors, which at last count had sold 10,000 copies. Madhuri Banerjee wrote Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas and Preeti Shenoy, Life is What you Make it. The fairer sex flocked for Women and the Weight Loss Tamasha by Rujuta Diwekar. Jaishree Misra whetted reader appetites by deliciously pssting A Scandalous Secret, which brings a mother and her daughter together in a piquant way. And Sarah Joseph got protective about the environment in Gift in Green, which came out simultaneously in English and Malayalam — a rare feat.
Suhel Seth’s Get To the Top, Anupam Kher’s The Best Thing about you is you!, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s The Art of Stress-free Living, Devdutt Pattanaik’s 7 Secrets of Shiva and 7 Secrets of Vishnu, Rashmi Bansal’s I Have a Dream and Ashwin Sanghi’s Chanakya’s Chant were all lapped up by readers. Sporty spice came from Abhinav Bindra’s A Shot At History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold and Harsha Bhogle’s The Winning Way, which he co-wrote with his wife Anita.
Journalists Vinod Mehta and Jug Suraiya went autobiographical on us with Lucknow Boy and JS and The Times of my Life, respectively, while Arun Shourie asked, Does He Know a Mother’s Heart? Bad boys told mean tales. Ajay Khullar’s Baru met us snidely in The Nothing Man and Chetan Bhagat’s Gopal just about managed to let the girl go in the end, in Revolution 2020. Lad-lit had a field day with Ravinder Singh’s I too had a love story, Durjoy Dutta’s You Were My Crush!... Till you said you love me! (co-authored by Orvana Ghai), Siddin Vadakut’s God Save the Dork and S Das’s Mom Says No Girlfriends. Debutant writer Rikin Khamar chose to transport readers to a bygone era with his The Lotus Queen, which throws up many tender moments in Padmini’s tragic life. And Ravi Subramanian brought out The Incredible Banker, the fourth in the
banking series by him.
S Ramadorai told The TCS Story…and Beyond and Whatever the Odds: The incredible story behind DLF was penned by K P Singh along with Ramesh Menon and Raman Swamy.
Translations too had their say this year. Bharathipura, a fresh translation of U R Ananthamurthy’s Kannada original, has made it to the DSC Asian prize shortlist. Devaki Nilayamgode’s Antharjanam is the first volume of memoirs by a Namboodiri woman. The Oxford India Anthology of Malayalam Dalit Writing, published by Oxford University Press, brings together poems, short fiction, novel and plays by 37 writers. There are also Narayan’s Kocharethi, termed the first tribal novel of India, the Bhakti anthology and the second edition of Bama Faustina’s Karukku (from Tamil) with a brand new PS from the author.
Storytellers who came to Bangalore with their releases were met with utmost punctuality by their readers; to be on time, if one knows Bangalore roads, is the biggest compliment this city can pay anyone. Amitav Ghosh evoked open adulation. Jug Suraiya and his wife Bunny brought their books in back-to-back launches. And when Deepti Naval read out softly and sanely from her debut short-story collection The Mad Tibetan, the page 3 crowd maintained an awed silence. Bangalore writers too were in the news all year through. Even as Usha K R’s Monkey-Man climbed up to the DSC shortlist this year, Jahnavi Barua’s Rebirth, a novel that came out in the beginning of the year, walked straight into the Man Asian Award long-list. Says Barua: “I wanted to write about the interior world of a woman, a place often solitary and intensely private and where the woman fights her battles alone. Yet, while the story is about the struggle of a modern woman in today’s changing world, it is also an account of strength and resilience; of coming through those difficulties to a better place.” Vikram Sampath’s biography on late singer Gauhar Jaan — My name is Gauhar Jaan — won the US-based ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) International Award 2011 for Excellence in Historical Research. Says Sampath: “This is the first time ever that an Indian book has made it there or that even Indian classical music finds a mention there. More than a personal honour, I feel it is high time the world woke up to the greatness of Indian classical music. The award is also a tribute to the fascinating woman Gauhar Jaan, whom everyone had sadly forgotten.”
As far as our writers are concerned, the plot only thickens. Anita Nair, whose bestselling Ladies Coupe celebrated its tenth birthday this year and whose Lessons in Forgetting has been made into a movie,, translated Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s magnum opus Chemmeen from Malayalam into English. Samhita Arni’s Sita’s Ramayana is replete with patua art graphics, very pleasing to the eye. And a young girl slowly but steadily falls in love while pursuing a course in filmmaking in Blinkers Off by Andaleeb Wajid. Vijay Nair’s non-fiction offering, The Boss is Not your Friend, is among the top selling 20 titles from Hachette India, including imported titles. Says Nair: “Because the book did so well, I have now written a novel set against a corporate background. It will come out next year.”
So, that’s how the year ends, not with a whimper but a bang, with the promise of more paperbacks around the corner. And as for e-books and what-not, sshh! On a quiet night, if you sit real still, you can hear a page rustle.