India and Books: Reading India

My knowledge of Indian literature to my shame is restricted to the few kilometres of the city I reside in. Delhi is not even the state of my birth or my origin. English is not even my native language. And yet, I am not even acutely aware of the various authors and literature beyond these two realms.

I stumbled upon Ann Morgan’s blog ‘A Year of Reading the World’. She said that our selective reading limits our potential to know many cultures, peoples, and myriad other social milieus that exist. I am unaware of the writers from the South of India. I didn’t know there is a Khasi community in the North East. There is so much I just don’t know. I think anyone who is a reader would agree that the reason one reads is to know the world and what exists beyond ourselves. At the onset of this year, I planned to diversify my reading while exploring Indian writers at the same time.

I asked friends and acquaintances to suggest stories, poems, translation works, anthologies, novels, and anything from different states of India. I will keep editing this list as and when I receive more suggestions. Meanwhile, if you have any recommendations, do let me know.

On a side note, as I was searching for states from where I could get no suggestions from friends and acquaintances, I started looking for recommendations from The Bookstore, Jorbagh and coincidentally they have their list curated in the same name! Some books overlapped with the shop’s suggestions so I am going to mark them with an asterisk for easy identification.

Do visit the shop, if you ever get time. It is the prettiest!

I will keep striking the books as I read them. I must warn you, I get diverted by different books and movies and beauty and will take definitely more than a year.

PS: If you have any recommendations, you are more than welcome to share them in the comment box :)

Andhra Pradesh

• That Man on the Road: Contemporary Telugu Short Fiction

• T̶h̶e̶ ̶U̶n̶t̶o̶u̶c̶h̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶S̶p̶r̶i̶n̶g̶

• Doll’s Wedding and Other Stories by Chaso*

• The Hussaini Alam House by Huma R Kidwai*

Arunachal Pradesh

• M̶a̶m̶a̶n̶g̶ ̶D̶a̶i̶’̶s̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶g̶e̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶P̶e̶n̶s̶a̶m̶*̶

• Land of the Dawn-Lit Mountains by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

Assam

• The Man from Chinnamasta by Mamoni Roisam Goswami (have been suggested this by many so I went and googled her and one thing I just love is writers having pen names. Her original name is Indira Goswami and she is a Sahitya Akademi Award winner for her writings, so I guess a must-read then!)

• U̶n̶d̶e̶r̶t̶o̶w̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶J̶a̶h̶a̶n̶a̶v̶i̶ ̶B̶a̶r̶u̶a̶

• His Share of Sky by Rashmi Narzary

• Forest Beneath the Mountains, Ankush Saikia*

• His Father’s Disease, Aruni Kashyap*

• Mitra Phukan

Bihar

• Maila Anchal by Fanishvar Nath Renu ( I read that he is one of the most influential and successful authors post-Premchand era and his work is considered to be one of the best in Hindi literature after Premchand’s Godan)

• Kurukshetra by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar

• Curse of Yesterday by Anumita Sharma

• Bihar Is In The Eye Of The Beholder, Vijay Nambisan

• Phoolsunghi, Pandey Kapil

Chhattisgarh

• Vinod Kumar Shukla’s Naukar ki Kameez

• The burning forest by Nandini

Goa

• A̶̶̶g̶̶̶e̶̶̶ ̶̶̶o̶̶̶f̶̶̶ ̶̶̶F̶̶̶r̶̶̶e̶̶̶n̶̶̶z̶̶̶y̶̶̶ ̶̶̶b̶̶̶y̶̶̶ ̶̶̶M̶̶̶a̶̶̶h̶̶̶a̶̶̶b̶̶̶a̶̶̶l̶̶̶e̶̶̶s̶̶̶h̶̶̶w̶̶̶a̶̶̶r̶̶̶ ̶̶̶S̶̶̶a̶̶̶i̶̶̶l̶̶̶

• Goa, a Daughter’s Story by Maria Aurora Couto*

• Skin by Margaret Mascarenhas

• Just Matata by Braz Menezes

• Full Disclosure by Manohar Shetty

• Ferry Crossing: Short stories from Goa

Gujarat

• By the Sabarmati by Esther David (intense! incredible! never read anything like this ever before. A must-read for everyone for sure! JUST WOW! Keeps you on the edge till the end in every story right from the beginning)

• The Burden of Refuge by Rita Kothari

• Karan Ghelo by Nandshankar Mehta

• Ratno Dholi: The Best Stories of Dhumketu*

• Saraswatichandra by Govardhanram Madhavaram Tripathi (considered one of the best in Gujarati Literature but I could not find any English translations if you want a Gujarati copy, drop a message in the comment)

Haryana

(I am looking for recommendations from here)

• Alhad Bikaneri

• Dada Lakhmi Chand (Kalidas of Haryana)

Himachal Pradesh

• The Red Tin Roof, Nirmal Verma

• Simla: The Summer Capital of British India

Jharkhand

• Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s My Father’s Garden*

• The Adivasi Will Not Dance and Other Stories, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar*

Karnataka

• G̶h̶a̶c̶h̶a̶r̶ ̶G̶h̶o̶c̶h̶a̶r̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶V̶i̶v̶e̶k̶ ̶S̶h̶a̶n̶b̶a̶g̶h̶

• The Scent of Pepper by Kavery Nambisan

• Suragi, U R Ananthamurthy*

Kerala

• Kamala Das (I read that the author was one of the fiercest women in Kerala and is famous for writing about female sexuality unapologetically)

• Goat Days by Benyamin

• Aarachaar (English translation: Hangwoman) by KR Meera

• The Cock is the Culprit, Unni R*

Madhya Pradesh

• Harishankar Parsai

• Baramasi by Gyan Chaturvedi

• A Dying Banyan by Manzoor

• Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People*

Maharashtra

• Rochelle Potkar (author)

• Baluta by Daya Pawar

• Breathless in Bombay by Murzban (I didn’t like it so I left it in between. I do not mind leaving books in between if they do not engage me or if I feel ‘eh’ while reading them. Books are like people; interesting, unique, and individualistic, outcomes of various chapters, but they need not necessarily be something that you wanna put up with. A lot of people have given good reviews on Goodreads and The Guardian which I think is one of the best media outlets out there has also praised the book, so maybe I’ll come back to it in a few years when I am less biased or maybe not.)

• Smritichitre, Lakshmibai Tilak*

• Shala, Milind Bokil*

• Kiran Nagarkar’s Seven Sixes are Forty-three

• The Prisons We Broke, Baby Kamble

Manipur

• Mothers of Manipur by Teresa Rehman

• The Maharaja’s Household by M.K. Binodini Devi

• Mother, Where’s My Country, Anubha Bhonsle*

• The Princess and the Political Agent, Binodini* (won the Sahitya Akademi Award)

• Linthoi Chanu

Meghalaya

• Neti, Neti by Anjum Hasan

• Janice Pariat books ( I loved Nine Chambered Hearts)

• High Wind, Tilottoma Misra*

Mizoram

• Zorami — A Redemption Song by Malsawmi Jacob

• The Blaft Book of Mizo Myths, Cherrie Lalnunziri Chaangte*

• Despite the State, M Rajshekhar*

• Is That Even a Country, Sir!, Anil Yadav*

Nagaland

• Easterine Kire’s Son of the Thundercloud

• Laburnum for My Head by Temsula Ao ( have seen this suggestion on multiple forums)

• The Many That I Am: Writings from Nagaland, ED: Anungla Zoe Longkumer*

• The Last Night of Glory Days, Avinuo Kire*

Odisha

• Six Acres and a Third by Fakir Mohan Senapati*

• Bheda, Akhila Naik*

• Paraja by Gopinath Mohanty

• Citadel of Love by Pratibha Ray

Punjab

• Tamas by Bhisham Sahni (written from the experiences witnessed at Rawalpindi, a part of undivided Punjab at the time of Partition)

• Amrita Pritam’s Raseedi Ticket

• Zindaginama by Krishna Sobti*

Rajasthan

• Harilal and Sons, Sujit Saraf*

• Cuckold, Kiran Nagarkar*

Sikkim

• The Land Where I Flee by Prajwal*

• The Light of His Clan by Chetan Raj*

• Legend of the Lepchas: Folktales from Sikkim, Yeshey Doma

Tamil Nadu

• Estuary by Perumal Murugan (I decided to not read Perumal for now because I have read a lot about him and his style and I want to give it some time so that I can forget the critical articles I have read. I want to form my own understanding of his work, independent of any influence)

• Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki

• Along With The Sun: Stories from Tamil Nadu’s Black Soil Region, ED: Ki Rajanarayanan*

• JJ: Some Jottings, Sundara Ramaswamy*

• Why Women Were Enslaved, Periyar

Telangana

• A Shift in the Wind by Aminuddin

• Ant Among Elephants

Tripura

• The Monk-King, Rabindranath Tagore

Uttarakhand

I absolutely adore Ruskin Bond (I personally recommend him. He is one that should be and must be read)

• Mountain Echoes by Namita Gokhale

• In the Shadow of Devi Kumaon by Manju Kak

• The Good Girls, Sonia Faleiro*

• Looking Through Glass, Mukul Kesavan*

Uttar Pradesh

• Munshi Premchand’s Godan

• Raag Darbari by Shirlal Shukla

• Kitney Pakistan by Kamleshwar

• Aag ka Dariya by Qurratulain Hyder

• Diddi, Ira Pandey*

• The Chipko Movement, Shekhar Pathak*

West Bengal

• Saikat Majumdar

• Sunil Gangopadhyay

• Dozakhnama (Conversations in Hell) by Rabisankar (I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I read it in Hindi and would recommend to anyone who can read Hindi and have it as their preferred language over English to read it in Hindi. The wittiness would be more enjoyable)

• Feluda by Satyajit Ray

• G̶o̶r̶a̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶R̶a̶b̶i̶n̶d̶r̶a̶n̶a̶t̶h̶ ̶T̶a̶g̶o̶r̶e̶

• Daughter of Jorasanko by Aruna Chakravarti

• Draupadi by Mahasweta Devi (most of her work is tribal narrative and I have been suggested this by many)

• Moom, Bani Basu*

• Hooghly: The Global History of a River, Robert Ivermee*

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

• Islands in Flux: The Andaman and Nicobar Story by Pankaj Sekhsaria

Chandigarh

• Storm in Chandigarh by Nayantara Sahgal

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu(Daman)

Delhi

• Khushwant Sinha’s Train to Pakistan

• Mohan Rakesh (a pioneer of the Nai Kahaani movement. I would suggest one to read more about this literary movement in the Hindi literature. It was only while curating this list did I come across this knowledge)

Jammu & Kashmir

• The Country Without a Post Office by Agha Shahid Ali

• The Book of Gold Leaves

Ladakh(Leh)

Lakshadweep

Puducherry

• Auroville: A City for the Future by Anuradha Majumdar

• The Pondicherry Kitchen by Lourdes Tirouvanziam-Louis