Oracle Book Club

Indian Authors

1. Ashok K. Banker
2. Amitava Ghosh
3. Vikram Seth
4. Satyajit Ray
5. Sunil Gangopadhya
6. etc

I recently bought Ashok's 3rd book in the Ramayana series, "Demons of Chitrakoot". Am saving it for the train later this month (I have a 22 hr train journey to my home town). Has anybody else read any of Ashok's stuff ? What about other Indian Authors (those who write in English, that is) ?

I loved Satyajit Ray's Feluda. The best part of Feluda was being able to follow his adventures in different parts of Calcutta and elsewhere in the country from a first person perspective. I know where Park Circus is! I have been there!!! Very different from Paddington or Surrey in Sherlock Holmes for example.

Amitava Ghosh does not need any introduction. He is great! Try some of his stuff (The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, The Calcutta Chromosome to name a few).

I have not read much of Sunil Gangopadhya. Only his translations from Bengali. The one I liked best was "First Light" which was about Rabindranath Tagore's life. A good tale and well written.

Vikram Seth is another author I love to read. I remember buying a paper back edition of his "Suitable Boy" for Rs. 400/- from a small shop in Chowrangee, Calcutta. Those days my book budget was rather restricted and 400 was a princely sum for a single book :-) My TCS colleagues and flat mates of that time were aghast at this purchase of mine and rather put off with my disappearance behind the book every evening for about a week.

Any other authors? Mistry of course. And a few others...

What about you guys? Have you read and enjoyed any other Indian (English) authors? Do write about your favorites.

posted by Gautam Satpathy @ 12:15 PM