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The story of Listening Now takes place before the events of Appachana’s 2023 critically acclaimed novel, Fear and Lovely. Mallika, a child given to weaving, is convinced that the lives of the mothers around her are dull and devoid of passion and fantasizes romantic love. The truth, which lies at the heart of this story, is completely different. Her mother, Padma, her mother’s sister, Shanta, her mother’s two friends, Madhu and Anu, and her grandmother, Rukmini, all hold wrenching secrets; their complex lives and longings are beyond the child Mallika’s comprehension. Set in 1950s and 1960s, this story encompasses the lives of two generations of women in a small, New Delhi neighbourhoo...
The Stories In This Collection Are Set In The Early Eighties, And Anjana Appachana Wonderfully Captures The Raw, Vibrant Energy And Optimism Of A Time When We Drank Chai For Thirty Paise, And Twenty Thousand Rupees Spent On &Lsquo;Gifts&Rsquo; For The Boy&Rsquo;S Side Was An Enormous Amount Of Money For Middle-Class Indians. Her Characters Strain For A Place Beyond The Boundaries Of A Prescribed Way Of Life In Urban Middle India: A Hapless College Student Gets Gated A Few Days Before Her Appointment For An Abortion; A Disgruntled Clerk Philosophises Gloomily About His Place In The Scheme Of Things; A Young Girl, Against All Odds, Decides To Keep Her Sister&Rsquo;S Deep, Dark Secret. By Turns Warm, Gullible, Arrogant And Bigoted, Appachana&Rsquo;S Characters Live Their Lives Amid Contradictions And Double Standards, Superstitions And Impossible Dreams, But Ultimately Usurp Their Familiar Landscape And Imbue It With An Idiosyncratic Vision.
With the publication of Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize winning novel, ^IMidnight's Children^R in 1981, followed by the unprecedented popularity of his subsequent works, the cinematic adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's ^IThe English Patient,^R many other best-sellers written by South Asian novelists writing in English have gained a tremendous following. This reference is a guide to their lives and writings. The volume focuses on novelists born in South Asia who have written and continue to write about issues concerning that region. Some of the novelists have published widely, while others are only beginning their literary careers. The volume includes alphabetically arranged entries on more than 50 South Asian novelists. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, a summary of the novelist's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies. Since many of the contributors are personally acquainted with the novelists, they are able to offer significant insights. The volume closes with a selected bibliography of studies of the South Asian novel in English, along with a list of anthologies and periodicals.
This anthology is a voluminous compendium of 37 unique and meticulously crafted chapters, each analysing a separate text by a pioneering Indian diaspora writer, with no repetition of authors or texts. This enhances the analytical depth and diversity of this unique anthology. Within these chapters, a carefully curated and evocative array of diverse themes and concerns addressed by these writers unfolds, offering a comprehensive exploration of the diasporic literary terrain. Assimilation and acculturation in the host country, as well as repatriation in the native country, can be challenging issues for the immigrants who have lived abroad for many years. These chapters attempt to elucidate the ...
This book offers an in-depth look at the ways in which technology, travel, and globalization have altered traditional patterns of immigration for South Asians who live and work in the United States, and explains how their popular cultural practices and aesthetic desires are fulfilled. They are presented as the twenty-first century’s “new cosmopolitans”: flexible enough to adjust to globalization’s economic, political, and cultural imperatives. They are thus uniquely adaptable to the mainstream cultures of the United States, but also vulnerable in a period when nationalism and security have become tools to maintain traditional power relations in a changing world.
A delectable collection of writing on food and its place in our lives that brings together some of the most significant Indian voices over the last century. From lavish meals, modern diets and cooking lessons that serve as a rite of passage to fake fasts and real ones, fish, feni, and fiery meals that smack of revenge, this book has something to satisfy every palate. Gandhi's guilt-ridden account of his failed flirtation with eating meat starkly complements Ruchir Joshi's toast to the senses as he describes his characters discovering a truly alternative use for some perfectly innocent shrikhand. In unique gastronomic takes on history, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and Saadat Hasan Manto ensure that we will never look at chutney, a Tibetan momo or jelly in quite the same way again.
Mallika is a painfully shy young woman growing up in the heart of a close-knit, sometimes stifling New Delhi colony. Though she is surrounded by love, her life is complicated by secrets that she, her mother and her aunt work hard to keep. After suffering a trauma aged nineteen, Mallika loses three days of her memory and slowly spirals into a deep depression. She must find a way out of this abyss, back to herself and those she cares about. But she must also hide her mental illness from her community. In a narrative that unfolds elliptically from the perspectives of Mallika and the seven people closest to her, the astonishing story of these characters' lives emerges. For Mallika's family, childhood friends and the two men she loves are also hiding truths. As each gives voice to contending with their own struggles, secrets and silences shatter.