Book Wise : Mera Bharat Mahan
I love fiction…reading it I mean!
Some time back, I explored fiction books from relatively unknown but talented young INDIAN authors. And the ones which got me started were:
- The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan
- Keep Off The Grass by Karan Bajaj
- Chetan Bhagat’s trilogy (Very popular now!)
- Of Course I Love You…Till I Find Someone Better…by Durjoy Datta and Maanvi Ahuja
- That Thing Called Love by Tuhin A Sinha
- Anything For You, Ma’am by Tushar Raheja
And I was hooked! What attracted me to these Indian works? Relationships in contemporary and urban set-up, unassuming, and down-to-earth language, large dollops of humor and fun, some are pretty hilarious and eclectic too and all are modestly priced!
So last week, when I got an opportunity to visit the Crossword in the pink city, I felt it was an opportune moment to conquer the Indian authors. So at one go, I bought seven books written by our Indian brethren. What caught my fancy this time…
- Almost Single by Advaita Kala
- Dollar Bahu by Sudha Murty
- A Thing Beyond Forever by Novoneel Chakraborty
- Those Small Lil Things In Life and Love by Rahul Saini
- Nothing For You My Dear Still I Love You…! by Arpit Dugar
- 34 Bubblegums And Candies by Preeti Shenoy
- I Too Had A Love Story.. by Ravinder Singh
Currently, the New Moon by Stephenie Meyer is lying on my bedside table. Once I absorb the 594 odd pages of this book, I’d be able to lose myself in the world created by our Indian authors! Can’t wait for that!
PS: Which is Your favorite Indian book and author??
July 7, 2009 10:53 am|
hmmmm..
the humor and ” getting the masses to read ” language is one of the biggest appeal and the stories sure are interesting but i do feel that the distinct style is missing….it feels as if it could be just one author penning different books….though i do agree that all of them are unputdownable…. and not to miss the fact that finally we are reading stories of our own settings….
Am yet to decide which one is my fav though….
July 7, 2009 11:04 am|
Hmmmm…that’s true. Another thing is that we can identify ourselves very much with the characters, plots, places etc. Thus these books strike a chord with us!
July 7, 2009 12:04 pm|
I have only read Chetan Bhagat’s trilogy and I liked “Five point someone” but “One Night@ Call center” didn’t make any sense at all to me, still was able to read through it and “Three Mistakes of My Life” I liked but it was a “Pulp Fiction” more like a movie script and no doubt 2 of his 3 have been converted to a movie…U know Bollywood mainstream masala movie type novels…The Best thing I like about CB’s books is that they slimmer that means I can complete them in stretch of 3-4 hrs flat ….and incidentally I read all three while traveling and picked the books from station book stalls 😀
But heard a lot about other Indian Writers who write modern, urbane Indian stories in English sitting in India…I think this is what makes them more popular…you get familiar characters, situations, plots…
And certainly I would start reading these sometime soon…
Any suggestion like which one’s better to begin with
July 7, 2009 1:26 pm|
Well, If you ask me, I would name the pioneer of story writing in English in India R.K.Narayan. His books right from his Swami and Friends to his Autobiography ‘My Days” remind you of the little things long lost. His writings also reflect a childish innocence in them, which is a rarity itself!
Well, you can’t deny it can you?
July 7, 2009 2:55 pm|
i can’t stand chetan bhagat … yuck … he is a living insult to the English Language ;/< ... the other's ... i'm not really familiar with ... but my favourite indiwriter's got to be R K Narayan and the great Bond ...
July 7, 2009 3:03 pm|
except chetan bhagath all the authors are new to me… let me try reading these books…
July 7, 2009 7:01 pm|
Wow…what an amazing co-incidence. I recently picked up every single book you mentioned and enjoyed reading them a lot.
The Zoya Factor was real good.
Keep off the grass was okay types. It was way too vague.
I really liked “Of Course I Love You…Till I Find Someone Better”. It was a good time pass read.
Try reading the following…you may like them:
Mediocre But Arrogant (Abhijit Bhaduri)
You Are Here (Meenakshi Reddy)
Krishna Konfession (Smita Jain)
Married But Available (Abhijit Bhaduri)
The list is endless…
Happy Reading.
July 8, 2009 4:55 am|
still you could have mentioned rk narayan the all time image of Indian writing and please strike off ‘those li’l things in luv and life’ of that list… it is a boring book and the author thinks he does very cool things which if true i am living a roller-coaster ride(wjhich I know i am not living).. ur blog does not deserve this book please
July 8, 2009 5:48 am|
@ Dhiman: Yeah, CB’s books are “timepass”, the characters are immediately identifiable and the story is fast-paced and undemanding and thus has massive fan following!
You MUST read The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan, to start with. It is hilarious and simply unputdownable. I would read it again soon! 🙂
July 8, 2009 5:58 am|
@ Pawan: Hey, we have loads of amazing authors…RK Narayan, Ruskin Bond, Vikram Seth, VS Naipaul, Arundhati Roy, Shobha De, Khushwant Singh to name a few!
Here, I just mentioned the new breed of Indian authors! 🙂
July 8, 2009 6:02 am|
@ Subhayan: They are great no doubt about it!
@ Shankar: You must read these authors. I would recommend The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan! 🙂
July 8, 2009 6:11 am|
@ Amrit! Wow! Good to note your review of these books! 😀
I will surely take the 5 books that you have mentioned! Thank you 🙂
@ Debi : 🙂 I have not read,’Those Small Lil Things In Life and Love’ still.
July 8, 2009 7:27 am|
I agree with Subhayan. Chetan Bhagat just got lucky. He doesnt really deserve the fame he has got!!!
Am reading Catch22 the second time.. Not because I didnt understand previously…. But coz I just loved reading it soo much…
Do read this one if you havent!!
July 8, 2009 7:38 am|
@ Whats In A Name: Hmmm… you are right, CB was just lucky to be at the right time, right place and with right pricing too! 🙂
Will definitely check out Catch 22! Thanks!
July 8, 2009 9:26 am|
catch 22 is the bible of 20th century alongwith ‘catcher in the rye’ by j.d salinger .’ salingers other half a dozen books coupled with his short story one is a must read and have. catch 22 is a day to day occurence in our daily lives – its just that we fail to see it. like when i was in school i used to wonder looking at the rickshaw walla and say that if this guy had a good diet, just think of the physique he would be having and then immediatly it would strike me that if he had a good diet, he would not be driving a rickshaw.at a tender age then , there was nobody to tell me that this is what catch 22 is and its only when we read it in college did we get the idea. at a basic level catch 22 is a situation where you get screwed either way . as to my favorite author – its the timeless mind and body boggling treatise ‘ kamasutra ‘ by vatsyayana. would put baba ramdev to shame and redefine yoga all over…
July 9, 2009 12:30 pm|
i love indian fiction as said by amrit the bools he mentioned are a good bye ..
ut would say yu would love reading Shopaholic series by sophie kinsella..
July 9, 2009 12:31 pm|
a good buy…lolssssss
July 9, 2009 1:17 pm|
@ Sweet Nothings: Thanks…I guess Shopaholic will be THE book for me, coz I am one!! Will check it out soon!